Ch'en Yu-ch'eng (c. 1836-May 1862) was a Chinese general during the Taiping Rebellion and later served as the Ying Prince of the Taiping monarchy in the later stages of the rebellion. Charles Darwin 1836 was a leap year starting on Friday (see link for calendar). ... Look up May in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... 1862 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... The Taiping Rebellion (1851 - 1864) was the second bloodiest conflict in history, a clash between the forces of Imperial China and those inspired by a Hakka self-proclaimed mystic named Hong Xiuquan, who was also a Christian convert who had claimed that he was the new Messiah and younger brother...

Born to a peasant family around 1836, Ch'en Yu-ch'eng joined Taiping forces during the March to the Yangtze in 1851. Although around 15 at the time of his enlistment, Ch'en would quickly rise through his bravery and demonstrated tactical skill and by 1856, in the aftermath of an internal straggle within the Taiping leadership, Ch'en was promoted to general.

Commanding a series of successful operations west of Nanking (Nanjing) between 1856 and 1858, Ch'en was awarded the title of Ying Prince of the Taiping Kings the following year. Cooperating with General Li Hsiu-ch'eng, Ch'en organized a second siege of Nanking in 1860, he later advanced northwest leading one half of a pincer movement in an offensive against Imperial forces in 1861, however, due to the poor coordination of Taiping forces, Ch'en was thrown on the defensive and eventually forced to withdraw. Following this defeat, Ch'en was later betrayed and executed by Imperial forces in May 1862. Nanjing (南京, Pinyin: Nánjīng, Wade-Giles: Nan-ching; Postal System Pinyin: Nanking, formerly Jinling 金陵, Jiangning 江宁, and Tianjing 天京) is the central city of downstream Yangtze Basin and is a renowned historical and cultural city. ... Nanjing (Chinese: 南京; Hanyu Pinyin: ; Wade-Giles: Nan-ching; Postal System Pinyin: Nanking), is the capital of Chinas Jiangsu Province and a city with a prominent place in Chinese history and culture. ...

References

• Hummel, Arthur W., ed., Eminent Chinese of the Ch'en Period (1644-1912), Washington, D.C., 1944.
• Michael, Franz. The Taiping Rebellion: History and Documents (Vol. II/III), Seattle, 1971.
• Michael, Franz and Chang Chung-li, The Taiping Rebellion: History and Documents (Vol. I), Seattle, 1966.
• Teng, Ssu-yu. New Light on the Taiping Rebellion, Cambridge, Mass., 1950.