Chen Youliang

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Chén Yǒuliàng (traditional Chinese: 陳友諒; pinyin: Chén Yǒuliàng; Wade-Giles: Ch'en Yu-liang) (1320 – August 23, 1363) was the founder of the rebel Dahan (大漢 Great Han) regime in late Yuan Dynasty in China.

Chen was born with the surname Xie (謝) to a fishermen family in Mianyang (沔陽, now in Hubei). He once worked as a district official. As a general in the Red Turbans he worked under Ni Wenjun (倪文俊). Chen later killed Ni with the excuse that Ni intended to assassinate Xu Shouhui, their leader. He later also killed Xu.

In 1357, he proclaimed himself the King of Han in Jiangzhou (江州, today Jiujiang, Jiangxi), and emperor the next year after Xu died. His era name, as well as empire's name, was Dahan. His military strength soon weakened because of dissatisfaction among his soldiers. In 1361, Jiangzhou was conquered by Zhu Yuanzhang, so he retreated to Wuchang.

At the age of forty-three, he died from an arrow wound to the head during the Battle of Lake Poyang (鄱陽湖). He was succeeded by his son, Chen Li (陳理), who also lost to Zhu. Zhu later founded the Ming Dynasty.

[edit] In Fiction

Chen Youliang appeared as a character in Jinyong's Wuxia novel The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber. In the novel, Chen appeared as a treacherous and evil character, who was in league with the main villain of the novel, Cheng Kun. Later, he defected to the Ming Cult but later betrayed the cult and became a minor warlord.