Chén Jīng 陳桱
Late-Yuán historian who lived into the early Míng. Zì Zǐjīng 子經. Native of Fènghuà 奉化 (modern Zhèjiāng); long resident at Chángzhōu 長洲 (Sūzhōu region). CBDB id 10546 confirms Yuán dynasty.
Family: descended from the historiographical Chén lineage of Tāizhōu. His grandfather Chén Zhù 陳著, in the Sòng, served as Mìshū shǎojiān and prefect of Tāizhōu, and composed the Lìdài jì tǒng 歷代紀統 (universal-history chronicle). His father Chén Mì 陳泌 served as a school-officer and continued the family’s historical writing. Chén Jīng is therefore the third generation of a SòngYuán family historiographical project.
Career: in the Yuán a private scholar at Chángzhōu; on the Míng founding (1368) he entered the Hànlínyuàn as biānxiū 編修 (compiler); rose to dàizhì 待制 (Awaiter of Edicts) by attaching to the HúWèi faction of Yáng Xiàn 楊憲. The Míng shǐ Yáng Xiàn zhuàn preserves a notice of Chén Jīng under this attachment. He probably died in the early Hóngwǔ era.
Sole surviving major work: the Tōng jiàn xù biān 通鑑續編 (KR2b0034) in 24 juǎn, completed in the late Yuán. Conceived as the natural completion of the Tōng jiàn lineage on the Lǐxué-orthodox plan: a biānnián gāngmù-style chronicle covering (a) high antiquity from Pángǔ to Gāoxīn (juǎn 1, supplementing what Jīn Lǚxiáng’s Qián biān had begun only at Yáo); (b) the rise of the Khitan Liáo as a separate juǎn (juǎn 2); (c) the entire Sòng dynasty (juǎn 3–24), from Tàizǔ to the Èr wáng — closing the gap between the Tōng jiàn gāngmù end (Five Dynasties) and the Sòng-end. Despite the title Tōng jiàn xù biān, the form is Gāngmù — the work would more properly be called Xù Gāngmù but Chén Jīng kept the Tōng jiàn name. The Sìkù editors, while critical of various judgments, recognise the work as the principal post-Gāngmù continuation, predating Wáng Zōngmù’s and Xuē Yìngqí’s later Míng efforts.