Chen Ji (Chen Shi's son)

Chen Ji (陳紀: ?-?) is an official of the Later Han Dynasty of Chinese history. His style name is Yuanfang(元方).

He is a son of Chen Shi (陳寔: 104-186) and brother of Chen Chen (陳諶), and the father of Chen Qun.

He appears at the biographies of Chen Qun and Xu Jing of Records of Three Kingdoms. Chen Ji appears also in the novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, however he is different Chen Ji.

Life

By the effects of Disasters of Partisan Prohibitions of the later Han Dynasty, he was prevented from holding government positions. Therefore he diligently wrote a book at home, and the book would be called by the name of Chenzi (陳子) later.

As the Yellow Turban Rebellion broke out in 184, Emperor Ling (reign 169-189) granted amnesty for "partisans" (黨人, dangren). Chen Ji was appointed to a position from the government, however he declined it.

In 189, Dong Zhuo came to the capital Luoyang and seized the supreme power. Dong Zhuo assigned Zhou Bi (周毖:?-190) and Xu Jing (許靖:?-222) to the positions of personnel departments and made them choose competent people and assign them to the positions of government officials and local ministers. Zhou Bi and Xu Jing selected Xun Shuang (荀爽), Han Rong (韓融), Han Fu (?-191), Kong Zhou (?-190), Zhang Miao (?-195), Liu Dai (?-192) and Chen Ji. Chen Ji went to the capital and became Palace Attendant (侍中).

In 190, when he was about to leave capital to become the minister of Pingyuan (平原相), he met Dong Zhuo in person. At that time Dong Zhuo had a plan to move capital from Luoyang to Changan, therefore he questioned Chen Ji on his opinion. Chen Ji opposed Dong Zhuo's idea.

In 196, Emperor Xian made Yuan Shao as a Grand Commandant (太尉), meaning that Yuan Shao was positioned under Cao Cao, General-in-Chief (大將軍). Therefore Yuan Shao did not accept the position of Grand Commandant (太尉) and transferred it to Chen Ji. Chen Ji also did not accept it.

Later Chen Ji joined Cao Cao camp.

He died at 71 age.

See also