Chen Baochen (; 1848–1935) was a Chinese official during late Qing era, hailing from

Fuzhou Fuzhou is the capital of Fujian, China. The city lies between the Min River (Fujian), Min River estuary to the south and the city of Ningde to the north. Together, Fuzhou and Ningde make up the Eastern Min, Mindong linguistic and cultural regi ...

Fujian Fujian is a provinces of China, province in East China, southeastern China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capital is Fuzhou and its largest prefe ...

province in southeast/coastal China. During the last years of the

Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

, he served as sub-chancellor in the

Grand Secretariat The Grand Secretariat, or the Cabinet (), was nominally a coordinating agency but ''de facto'' the highest institution in the imperial government of the Chinese Ming dynasty. It first took shape after the Hongwu Emperor abolished the office of Ch ...

and as vice minister of Rites (禮部侍郎). Following the collapse of the imperial order and the establishment of the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

in 1912, he remained loyal to the Qing dynasty and served as tutor and adviser of the former emperor,

Puyi Puyi (7 February 190617 October 1967) was the final emperor of China, reigning as the eleventh monarch of the Qing dynasty from 1908 to 1912. When the Guangxu Emperor died without an heir, Empress Dowager Cixi picked his nephew Puyi, aged tw ...

, who was allowed to stay in the

Forbidden City The Forbidden City () is the Chinese Empire, imperial Chinese palace, palace complex in the center of the Imperial City, Beijing, Imperial City in Beijing, China. It was the residence of 24 Ming dynasty, Ming and Qing dynasty, Qing dynasty L ...

for more than thirteen years under the " Articles of Favorable Treatment". In 1917, Chen supported the

Manchu Restoration The Manchu Restoration or Dingsi Restoration (), also known as Zhang Xun Restoration (), or Xuantong Restoration (), was an attempt to restore the Chinese monarchy by General Zhang Xun, whose army seized Beijing and briefly reinstalled the las ...

, the loyalist general Zhang Xun's abortive attempt to restore the Qing dynasty. Chen Baochen continued to serve Puyi after he was finally expelled from the Forbidden City in 1924, but unlike his rival Zheng Xiaoxu, he refused to collaborate in the establishment of

Manchukuo Manchukuo, officially known as the State of Manchuria prior to 1934 and the Empire of Great Manchuria thereafter, was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in Northeast China that existed from 1932 until its dissolution in 1945. It was ostens ...

. Victor Wong portrayed Chen in the 1987 feature film '' The Last Emperor''.

External links

Calligraphy by Chen BaochenBaoChen Chen's calligraphic couplet
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chen, Baochen Politicians from Fuzhou Writers from Fuzhou Poets from Fujian Imperial tutors in Qing dynasty 1848 births 1935 deaths

Further reading

External links