Ch'en Yu-ch'eng
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Ch'en Yu-ch'eng (c. 1836-May 1862) was a Chinese general during the Taiping Rebellion and later served as the Ying Prince of the Taiping monarchy in the later stages of the rebellion.
Born to a peasant family around 1836, Ch'en Yu-ch'eng joined Taiping forces during the March to the Yangtze in 1851. Although around 15 at the time of his enlistment, Ch'en would quickly rise through his bravery and demonstrated tactical skill and by 1856, in the aftermath of an internal straggle within the Taiping leadership, Ch'en was promoted to general.
Commanding a series of successful operations west of Nanking (Nanjing) between 1856 and 1858, Ch'en was awarded the title of Ying Prince of the Taiping Kings the following year. Cooperating with General Li Hsiu-ch'eng, Ch'en organized a second siege of Nanking in 1860, he later advanced northwest leading one half of a pincer movement in an offensive against Imperial forces in 1861, however, due to the poor coordination of Taiping forces, Ch'en was thrown on the defensive and eventually forced to withdraw. Following this defeat, Ch'en was later betrayed and executed by Imperial forces in May 1862.
References
- Hummel, Arthur W., ed., Eminent Chinese of the Ch'en Period (1644-1912), Washington, D.C., 1944.
- Michael, Franz. The Taiping Rebellion: History and Documents (Vol. II/III), Seattle, 1971.
- Michael, Franz and Chang Chung-li, The Taiping Rebellion: History and Documents (Vol. I), Seattle, 1966.
- Teng, Ssu-yu. New Light on the Taiping Rebellion, Cambridge, Mass., 1950.
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