Chen Zhizhong

Life

During Emperor Zhenzong’s reign, he entered service through his father’s hereditary privilege, receiving appointment as Corrector in the Palace Library (秘書省正字) and later promotion to Right Remonstrator (右正言). The following year he was demoted to supervise the Yuezhou wine service, then assigned to administer Fuzhou; he rose to Vice Commissioner of the Household Section of the Three Offices. During the Mingdao era he served as prefect of Yingtian, Jiangning, Yangzhou, and Yongxing, and as Associate Director of the Privy Council.

In the first year of Baoyuan (1038), he served as Associate Director of the Privy Council. At the beginning of Qingli, he served as Vice Minister of Works and prefect of Qingzhou, where he suppressed Wang Lun, and was later transferred to Yongxing. In the fourth year of Qingli (1044) he was summoned as Counsellor of State; the next year he became a Grand Councillor with concurrent authority as Commissioner of the Privy Council, and later rose to Grand Academician of the Zhaowen Academy.

While serving in the Central Secretariat, he memorialized for the dismissal of all men whom powerful figures had sponsored for administrative posts in the Three Offices or for posts supervising government establishments. He spent eight years in the Central Secretariat, and no one dared approach him with private requests. Sun Bian impeached him, and the censor Yang Cha repeatedly opposed him.

During the first year of Huangyou (1049), he was sent out as prefect of Chenzhou. In Huangyou he was made Minister of War and Minister of Personnel and sent to administer Daming; in the fifth year (1053), he returned to the council. Accounts differ about his assignment to Bozhou: one says that he was impeached over an affair and sent to administer Bozhou, while another dates his appointment as military commissioner of Zhenhai and concurrent prefect of Bozhou to the second year of Zhihe (1055); he resigned the commission the following year and retired with the civil title Situ and the peerage of Duke of Qi. He died in the fourth year of Jiayou (1059), in the sixth month, at the age of seventy. His posthumous title is given as Gong; other forms are Gongxiang and Rongling.

Works

Chen Zhizhong presented the three-juan Yanyao (演要) to Zhenzong and urged the establishment of a crown prince.

Family and associations

His father was Chen Shu and his father-in-law was Xie Mi. His wife was Li; his son was Chen Shiru, and he also had an adopted heir, Chen Shinuo. His younger brother was Chen Zhigu; his nephew Chen Taichu is described as a congzi or nephew; his grandson was Chen Bing; and his sons-in-law were Li Zhang and Song Junguo.

In 1056 he recommended Li Zhongshi, and he also recommended Zhang Jingsheng. Zhang Fangping wrote his epitaph and spirit-way stele, while Han Wei was involved in the posthumous-title deliberation. He also memorialized 180 pieces by Wang Zhi for preservation in the Secret Library.