Late-Yuán literatus and official of Línhǎi 臨海 (Tāizhōu, Zhèjiāng). Style-name Jìngchū 敬初; self-styled Yíbáizhāi 夷白齋. He was the principal disciple of Huáng Jìn 黃溍 — one of the four mid-Yuán literary masters (Yú Jí, Jiē Xīsī, Liǔ Guàn, Huáng Jìn). He travelled widely — through the southeast (Wú), then by canal to the north reaching YānZhào (Hébĕi), residing for a time in the capital under the Yuán emperor’s heel. After the late-Yuán warfare he was retained by the Wúwáng (Zhāng Shìchéng’s Tàiwèi government at Sūzhōu) as shūmìyuàn dūshì; rose by repeated reposts to chángshěng mùyuán; subsequently transferred to Tàiwèifǔ cānjūn, then to nèishǐ. He had a major commissioning role in the Wúwáng court documents. CBDB id 28459 gives him as 1314–1370.
His Yíbáizhāi gǎo 夷白齋稿 (KR4d0590) — 35 juǎn, 454 pieces — was compiled by his fellow disciple Dài Liáng 戴良 (KR4d0569) in Zhìzhèng 24 jiǎchén (1364) summer. Dài Liáng’s preface is one of the most ambitious mid-Yuán literary-historical statements, tracing the wényùn (fortune of writing) from Zhōu through HànTángSòngYuán and naming the four great mid-Yuán prose masters: Yú Jí 虞集 (Shǔjùn), Jiē Xīsī 揭傒斯 (Yùzhāng), Liǔ Guàn 柳貫 (Jīnhuá), Huáng Jìn 黃溍 (Jīnhuá) — Chén Jī’s teacher; and identifying Wēi Sù 危素 as the surviving last of the next generation.