Chén Shūbǎo 陳叔寶 (553–604 CE)
Chén Shūbǎo 陳叔寶 (553–604 CE), posthumously styled Chén Hòuzhǔ 陳後主 (Last Ruler of Chen) and enfeoffed by the Sui as Chángchéng gōng 長城公, was the last emperor of the Chén 陳 dynasty (r. 582–589 CE). His biography is in Chénshū 陳書 juǎn 6–7 and Nán shǐ 南史 juǎn 10.
Born the eldest son of Emperor Xuān 宣帝 of Chen, he acceded to the throne in 582 CE. His reign was marked by a flowering of court poetry and music in the palace style (gōngtǐ 宮體), centered on his favorite concubines Zhāng Lìhuá 張麗華 and Kǒng Guìpín 孔貴嬪 and a circle of literary officials that included Jiāng Zǒng 江總 and others. The song 〈玉樹後庭花〉 (Jade-Tree Blossoms in the Back Garden), associated with him, became proverbial as the “music of dynastic ruin” (wánggúo zhī yīn 亡國之音) in Tang poetry. In 589 CE the Sui forces under Yáng Guǎng 楊廣 (later Emperor Yáng of Sui) crossed the Yangtze and took Jiànkāng 建康; Chén Shūbǎo was captured — found hiding in a well with his two favorite concubines — and taken north. He lived out his days as a prisoner of the Sui court and died in 604 CE, the same year as Sui Emperor Wen.
His collected works (jíyìběn reconstruction) are at KR4b0108.