Chen Ru (；d. 885) was a warlord late in the Chinese

Tang dynasty The Tang dynasty (, ; zh, c=唐朝), or the Tang Empire, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 618 to 907, with an Wu Zhou, interregnum between 690 and 705. It was preceded by the Sui dynasty and followed ...

, who ruled Jingnan Circuit (荊南 modern

Jingzhou Jingzhou ( zh, s=, c=荆州, t=, p=Jīngzhōu) is a prefecture-level city in southern Hubei province, China, located on the banks of the Yangtze River. Its total residential population was 5,231,180 based on the Seventh National Population Censu ...

Hubei Hubei is a province of China, province in Central China. It has the List of Chinese provincial-level divisions by GDP, seventh-largest economy among Chinese provinces, the second-largest within Central China, and the third-largest among inland ...

) from 882 to 885, most of that time as its military governor (''

jiedushi The ''jiedushi'' (, Old Turkic: Tarduş) or jiedu, was a regional military governor in China; the title was established in the Tang dynasty and abolished in the Yuan dynasty. The post of ''jiedushi'' has been translated as "military commissi ...

'').

Background

It is not known when Chen Ru was born, but it is known that he was from Jingnan Circuit's capital Jiangling Municipality and that his ancestors had served for generations as army officers.''

New Book of Tang The ''New Book of Tang'', generally translated as the "New History of the Tang" or "New Tang History", is a work of official history covering the Tang dynasty in ten volumes and 225 chapters. The work was compiled by a team of scholars of the So ...

'', vol. 186. As of 882, the military governor of Jingnan, Duan Yanmo, had an adversarial relationship with the

eunuch A eunuch ( , ) is a male who has been castration, castrated. Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function. The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 2 ...

monitor of the Jingnan army, Zhu Jingmei. Zhu selected 3,000 elite soldiers and called them the Zhongyong Army, putting it under his own command. Duan, in anger, decided that he wanted to kill Zhu. However, Zhu took preemptive action in summer 882 and attacked Duan, killing him. Zhu initially made the deputy mayor of Jiangling, Li Sui (), acting military governor. Then-reigning Emperor Xizong commissioned a former military governor of Jingnan, Zheng Shaoye (), as military governor, but Zheng, in fear of Zhu hesitated to report to Jingnan. Zhu then made Chen acting military governor. In 883, Emperor Xizong confirmed Chen as acting military governor and removed Zheng officially, and later in the year made Chen full military governor.''

Zizhi Tongjian The ''Zizhi Tongjian'' (1084) is a chronicle published during the Northern Song dynasty (960–1127) that provides a record of Chinese history from 403 BC to 959 AD, covering 16 dynasties and spanning almost 1400 years. The main text is ...

'', vol. 255.

As military governor

In 885, Chen Ru, while having been commissioned by Zhu, became weary of the lack of discipline the Zhongyong Army showed, and decided to take action. Previously, when Zheng Shaoye was military governor, he had put the officer Shentu Cong () in command of a group of soldiers to serve in the campaign against Huang Chao. When Shentu and his soldiers returned to Jingnan in 885, Chen informed Shentu of the situation and ordered him to destroy the Zhongyong Army. When the Zhongyong officer Cheng Junzhi () found out, he tried to take his soldiers and flee to Lang Prefecture (朗州, in modern

Changde Changde (; Traditional Chinese characters, traditional Chinese: 常德區 ) is a prefecture-level city in the northwest of Hunan province, People's Republic of China. Changde, known as "Wuling" in ancient times, is located on the west side of Do ...

Hunan Hunan is an inland Provinces of China, province in Central China. Located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze watershed, it borders the Administrative divisions of China, province-level divisions of Hubei to the north, Jiangxi to the east, Gu ...

). Shentu pursued and attacked him, killing more than 100 Zhongyong soldiers on the way and causing the rest to scatter. Shentu thereafter became briefly dominant in the Jingnan Circuit government, although Chen remained military governor.''Zizhi Tongjian'', vol. 256. Meanwhile, Jingnan also faced the continuous raids from Lei Man, who had seized Lang Prefecture (朗州, in modern

). Chen decided that he could invite

Zhang Gui Zhang Gui (, 255–314) was the governor of Liang province and first Duke of Xiping under the Western Jin. He was the seventeenth generation descendant of King of Changshan Zhang Er from the Chu–Han Contention The Chu–Han Contention () ...

and Han Shide (), two army officers who had rebelled against

Gao Pian Gao Pian (; 821? – 24 September 887Academia Sinicabr>Chinese-Western Calendar Converter.''Zizhi Tongjian'', vol. 257.), courtesy name Qianli (), formally the Prince of Bohai (), was a Chinese military general, poet, and politician of the Tang ...

the military governor of Huainan Circuit (淮南, headquartered in modern

Yangzhou Yangzhou is a prefecture-level city in central Jiangsu Province, East China. Sitting on the north bank of the Yangtze, it borders the provincial capital Nanjing to the southwest, Huai'an to the north, Yancheng to the northeast, Taizhou, Jiangsu, ...

Jiangsu Jiangsu is a coastal Provinces of the People's Republic of China, province in East China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its capital in Nanjing. Jiangsu is the List of Chinese administra ...

) and who had seized Fu (復州, in modern

Tianmen Tianmen () is a sub-prefecture-level city (sometimes considered a county-level city) in central Hubei Province, China. It is on the Jianghan Plain, on the west side of Wuhan (the biggest city of Central China, as well as the capital of Hubei) a ...

) and Yue (岳州, in modern

Yueyang Yueyang, formerly known as Yuezhou or Yochow, is a prefecture-level city on the eastern shores of Dongting Lake and the Yangtze river in the northeastern corner of Hunan Province in the People's Republic of China. Yueyang has an administrative ...

) Prefectures respectively, to help him fight Lei. He gave Zhang the title of acting army commander of Jingnan and Han the title of acting deputy military governor, asking them to attack Lei. Instead, Han initially advanced to the

Three Gorges The Three Gorges () are three adjacent and sequential gorges along the middle reaches of the Yangtze River path, in the hinterland of the People's Republic of China. With a subtropical monsoon climate, they are known for their scenery. The T ...

region and then returned to Yue Prefecture after pillaging the region, while Zhang instead attacked Jiangling and forced Chen to flee. Chen tried to head for Emperor Xizong's then-location at

Chengdu Chengdu; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ; Chinese postal romanization, previously Romanization of Chinese, romanized as Chengtu. is the capital city of the Chinese province of Sichuan. With a ...

(as Emperor Xizong had to flee there after the major agrarian rebel Huang Chao captured the imperial capital

Chang'an Chang'an (; zh, t=長安, s=长安, p=Cháng'ān, first=t) is the traditional name of the city now named Xi'an and was the capital of several Chinese dynasties, ranging from 202 BCE to 907 CE. The site has been inhabited since Neolithic time ...

in 881 and had not yet returned to Chang'an). Zhang sent soldiers to pursue Chen and intercepted him, seizing him and taking him back to Jiangling, to be put under arrest. Later in 885, when Chen Ru was still under arrest,

Qin Zongquan Qin Zongquan (; died April 1, 889) was a Chinese military general, monarch, politician, rebel, and warlord during the Tang dynasty. He was later a claimant to the imperial throne, in competition with Emperor Xizong of Tang and, later, Emperor Xiz ...

, who was formerly a Tang-commissioned military governor of Fengguo Circuit (奉國, headquartered in modern

Zhumadian Zhumadian ( zh, s= , t= , p=Zhùmǎdiàn; Postal romanization, postal: Chumatien) is a prefecture-level city in southern Henan province of China, province, China. It borders Xinyang to the south, Nanyang, Henan, Nanyang to the west, Pingdingshan to ...

Henan Henan; alternatively Honan is a province in Central China. Henan is home to many heritage sites, including Yinxu, the ruins of the final capital of the Shang dynasty () and the Shaolin Temple. Four of the historical capitals of China, Lu ...

) but who had turned against the Tang court and declared himself emperor, sent an army commanded by his brother Qin Zongyan () to attack Jingnan. With Jiangling under siege by Qin's army, the Jingnan officer Zhao Kuang () plotted to rescue Chen and restore him. The plot was discovered by Zhang Gui. Zhang executed Zhao and cut off food supplies to Chen, who died after seven days.

Notes

References

* ''

'', vol. 186. * ''

'', vols. 255,

256 Year 256 ( CCLVI) was a leap year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Claudius and Glabrio (or, less frequently, year 1009 ''Ab urbe condita''). The denomination 256 for this y ...

. {{DEFAULTSORT:Chen, Ru 9th-century births 885 deaths Politicians from Jingzhou Tang dynasty jiedushi of Jingnan Circuit People executed by the Tang dynasty 9th-century executions by the Tang dynasty Executed people from Hubei Tang dynasty generals from Hubei People executed by starvation