Chen Chang

Chen Chang (陳昌) (537–560), courtesy name Jingye (敬業), formally Prince Xian of Hengyang (衡陽獻王), was an imperial prince of the Chinese dynasty Chen Dynasty. He was the sixth and only surviving son of the founding emperor Emperor Wu (Chen Baxian), but as he was detained as a hostage by Western Wei and Western Wei's successor state Northern Zhou, was unable to succeed to the throne when Emperor Wu died in 559. Rather, his cousin Chen Qian took the throne as Emperor Wen. Northern Zhou finally allowed him to return to Chen in 560, but as he wrote impolite letters to Emperor Wen, Emperor Wen felt threatened (as he viewed the letters as implied demands for the throne), and he sent his trusted general Hou Andu to escort Chen Chang. Hou subsequently drowned Chen Chang in the Yangtze River.

Early life

Chen Chang was born in 537, as the son of Chen Baxian and his second wife, Zhang Yao'er, during the reign of Emperor Wu of Liang. When Chen Baxian was invited by Xiao Ying (蕭映) the Marquess of Xinyu, who was also the governor of Guang Province (廣州, modern Guangdong), to serve on Xiao Ying's staff, around 540, it appeared that both Lady Zhang and Chen Chang accompanied him to Guang Province, but when he was subsequently commissioned in 544 to campaign against the rebel Li Ben in modern northern Vietnam, he sent them back to his home commandery of Wuxing (吳興, roughly modern Huzhou, Zhejiang). When the general Hou Jing rebelled in 548 and subsequently captured the Liang capital Jiankang in 549, both Lady Zhang and Chen Chang were taken captive by Hou, but despite Chen Baxian's subsequent major participation in the campaign against Hou, Hou did not kill Lady Zhang or Chen Chang.