| Chen Lin | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Traditional Chinese | 陳琳 | ||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 陈琳 | ||||||||
|
|||||||||
Chen Lin (died 217), style name Kongzhang (孔璋), was a minister during the late Han Dynasty period of Chinese history. Chen was one of the "Seven Scholars of Jian'an" and originally served under General-in-Chief He Jin in the imperial court.
According to Chen Shou's Records of Three Kingdoms, Chen attempted to dissuade He Jin from amassing an army outside the capital city of Luoyang to intimidate the Ten Attendants, a group of eunuchs who controlled the imperial court. He said: "To act in this manner is no difference from lighting a furnace to burn a strand of hair" (以此行事，无异于鼓洪炉以燎毛发). However, He Jin did not heed his advice and Chen was obliged to flee to Ji Province, where he worked as a secretary under the warlord Yuan Shao.
Chen rose to fame when he wrote a declaration of war for Yuan Shao to Cao Cao, listing the rationale for the subsequent campaign against Cao, which eventually culminated in the Battle of Guandu. In Luo Guanzhong's historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Cao was having a headache while the declaration was being read but his headache was gone after hearing it. After Yuan's defeat, Chen was captured by Cao, who reprimanded Chen for insulting his elders and ancestors in the declaration he wrote earlier. However, Cao spared Chen's life and instructed him to read the declaration again before Yuan's grave.
Chen was later appointed as an official to serve Cao Cao, as Cao admired his literary talent. Cao once said: "Reading Chen Lin's scripts heals my headaches much better than others." Nothing about Chen from then on was recorded in history.