Late-Míng 明 philologist, military officer, and traveler-essayist. Native of Liánjiāng 連江 county in Fúzhōu fǔ 福州府 (modern Fújiàn). Zì Jìlì 季立; hào Yīzhāi 一齋. Lifedates 1541–1617 are firm.
Professionally a soldier rather than a literatus: he served on the Northern frontier under Qī Jìguāng 戚繼光 (1528–1588) during the late-Wànlì 萬曆 Mongol pacifications, ended his career as Jìzhèn xún biān shǒu 薊鎮巡邊守 (Frontier Patrol Commander at Jìzhèn 薊鎮), and after retirement (c. 1583) devoted the remainder of his life to scholarly travel and classical philology.
He is the founding figure of Chinese historical-phonology: his Máo Shī gǔ yīn kǎo 毛詩古音考 (“An Investigation of the Ancient Pronunciations of the Mao Odes”) in 4 juǎn, completed Wànlì 34 / 1606, was the first systematic philological argument that what later scholars called xié yùn 叶韻 (“rhyme-accommodation”) in the Odes was in fact regular ancient phonology — i.e., that the Shī were composed in a phonological system different from but as systematic as that of the post-Qin Imperial standard. The work was foundational for the entire Qīng kǎojù 考據 tradition of historical phonology (Gù Yánwǔ 顧炎武, Jiāng Yǒng 江永, Duàn Yùcái 段玉裁, Wáng Niànsūn 王念孫), all of whom credit Chén Dì as the originator. He also wrote a parallel Qū Sòng gǔ yīn yì 屈宋古音義 (on the Chǔcí phonology) and the Yì xiàng tú zàn 易象圖贊 (separately in the Sìkù); his collected travel essays — including the famous Dōng fān jì 東番記 (1603), the earliest substantial Chinese-language ethnographic account of Taiwan — are preserved in the Yīzhāi jí 一齋集.
His one Shàngshū work in the Sìkù is the Shàngshū shū yǎn 尚書疏衍 (KR1b0043) in 4 juǎn, a topical-essay commentary distinguished by its firm refusal to use the Zhōu lǐ 周禮 to gloss the Yú shū 虞書 (against the HànTáng zhùshū tradition); its rejection of the Wǔ chéng slip-displacement reading; and its argument that the Hóng fàn is not derived from a divinatory tortoise-shell pattern. Less successful — and explicitly criticized by the Sìkù compilers — is his firm acceptance of the Gǔwén Shàngshū Kǒng zhuàn as authentic and his vigorous attack on Méi Zhuó’s Shàngshū kǎo yì (KR1b0038) and Shàngshū pǔ.