Ch'en Ch'i-mei 陳其美 Ch'en Ch'i-mei (1876-18 May 1916), anti- Manchu revolutionary, early patron of Chiang Kai-shek, and supporter of Sun Yat-sen, recruited men and directed such uprisings as the capture of Shanghai in November 1911. During and after the so-called second revolution he opposed and organized maneuvers against Yuan Shih-k'ai. Yuan had him assassinated in 1916. A native of Wuhsing, Chekiang, Ch'en Ch'imei was born the second of three sons into a family of modest means. His father, a businessman with scholarly interests, planned a commercial career for him. After receiving an early education in his native town, Ch'en Ch'i-mei at the age of 15 sui was apprenticed to a pawnbroker at Shihmen near Wuhsing. Even in this prosaic position, the young Ch'en was exposed to the nationalistic stirrings in China. He was outraged by China's ignominious defeat in the Sino-Japanese war of 1894-95. About 1900, Ch'en moved from rural Shihmen to Shanghai to work in a silk company. Shanghai was then a major center of anti-Manchu ferment, and he was drawn into political activities. Then in his mid-twenties, Ch'en Ch'i-mei turned to a new career as a revolutionary. About 1905 he visited Changsha in Hunan province, where his younger brother, Ch'en Ch'i-ts'ai (T. Ai-shih), commanded army troops. Ch'en Ch'i-ts'ai, who had studied in Japan and appreciated the importance of modern education, agreed to finance his brother's study in Japan.

Ch'en Ch'i-mei arrived in Tokyo in 1906 shortly after the formation of the T'ung-menghui and the establishment of its official journal, the Min-pao [people's journal]. He immediately joined the new organization. Ch'en nominally studied police law for a while and then enrolled in a military school; actually, he was more involved in political activities than in formal study. While in Tokyo, Ch'en met a young fellow-provincial from Chekiang, Chiang Kaishek, who had arrived in Japan about that time to attend military school, and he brought Chiang into the T'ung-meng-hui. The young military cadet became a close friend of Ch'en Ch'i-mei and regarded him as both political mentor and elder brother. Although some Kuomintang sources state that Ch'en Ch'i-mei introduced Chiang Kai-shek to Sun Yat-sen, this story seems to be apocryphal, for Sun had been ordered to leave Japan in the spring of 1908. When the T'ung-meng-hui continued to press for anti-Manchu uprisings, Ch'en Ch'i-mei returned to China. He traveled through his native Chekiang and to Peking and Tientsin in north China, recruiting men for the republican cause. He established a secret headquarters in the International Settlement at Shanghai to direct revolutionary activities. In the summer of 1909, Ch'en and his cohorts plotted to strike at Kiangsu and Chekiang, the two important coastal provinces of the lower Yangtze valley. The plan's were betrayed to the imperial authorities, however, and Tuan-fang, then governor general of the Liang-kiang provinces, smashed the proposed operation. Undaunted, Ch'en Ch'i-mei continued his efforts. In the spring of 1911, when he was in Hong Kong, news arrived of the Huang-hua-kang uprising at Canton (for this event, see Huang Hsing). Hastening to the scene, Ch'en, disguised as a journalist, rescued a number of his comrades. After the failure of the April 27 revolt at Canton, he returned to Shanghai. There, in July of 1911, with Sung Chiao-jen, Chü Cheng (qq.v.), and others, he formally established the central China bureau of the T'ung-meng-hui and, with his associates, turned to the task of organizing and coordinating revolutionary uprisings in the Yangtze region, centering attention upon the Wuhan cities and Nanking.

The Wuchang revolt of October 1911 struck the spark which led to the collapse of Manchu rule in China. In the face of strong military pressure from the imperial authorities, quick response in the central Yangtze provinces was essential. At great personal risk, Ch'en Ch'i-mei directed the capture of Shanghai by the revolutionary forces early in November 1911. That victory had an important psychological effect, and within a few days independence was declared at Soochow and Chinkiang. Ch'en Ch'i-mei became military governor of Shanghai and organized the joint forces which captured Nanking, where Chang Hsün (q.v.) commanded troops loyal to the Manchus. The victories of the revolutionary armies at Shanghai and Nanking made possible the establishment of the new provisional government at Nanking and the election of Sun Yat-sen as provisional president at the end of 1911.

The next four years witnessed a struggle for power in China between Sun Yat-sen and Yuan Shih-k'ai. Ch'en Ch'i-mei, committed to total success in the revolution and aware of Yuan's anti-republican aims, opposed any compromise with the North. After Yuan's strength grew, however, he forced Ch'en Ch'i-mei to relinquish his military post at Shanghai in August 1912. During the so-called second revolution (June- September 1913), Ch'en Ch'i-mei commanded the anti-Yuan forces in Shanghai. His position, however, became increasingly precarious, and he was forced to flee in November of 1913 to join Sun Yat-sen in Tokyo. Ch'en remained in Japan for about a year. In this period, defeatism and disaffection, even among veteran comrades and followers of Sun Yat-sen, was widespread. Ch'en Ch'i-mei, however, remained a consistent supporter of Sun, and when the Kuomintang was reorganized into the Chung-hua ko-mingtang in july 1914, he became the party's director of general affairs.

Ch'en journeyed to Shanghai early in 1915, but was again frustrated in efforts to extend Sun Yat-sen's power into the Yangtze provinces. In the north Yuan Shih-k'ai moved steadily toward establishing a monarchy. After further conferences with Sun Yat-sen in Tokyo in mid191 5, Ch'en Ch'i-mei returned to China to plan anti-Yuan maneuvers. In November 1915, Ch'en Ch'i-mei planned the assassination of Cheng Ju-ch'eng, Yuan Shih-k'ai's garrison commander at Shanghai. The following month, Ch'en engineered an attempt to seize a gunboat, the Chao-ho, stationed at Shanghai. Although the Chao-ho uprising was unsuccessful and Ch'en and his associates were soon overwhelmed by the superior forces of Yuan Shih-k'ai, the incident did have political significance in stirring opinion against Yuan. Later in December 1915, Ts'ai O (q.v.) launched an anti-Yuan drive in Yunnan, and new revolutionary fervor spread through other provinces. Intent on eliminating his antagonist in Shanghai, Yuan Shih-k'ai finally had Ch'en Ch'i-mei assassinated in May 1916. Entering Ch'en's house by a ruse, Yuan's agents shot him. The death of Ch'en, then only 41 sui, was a grave loss for Sun Yat-sen and his political forces.

Ch'en Ch'i-mei was known by his contemporaries as a devoted follower of Sun Yat-sen and an indomitable activist in Sun's cause. Ch'en's early patronage of Chiang Kai-shek in Japan was especially important. Chiang had consistently praised his early benefactor and friend; and several members of Ch'en's personal entourage, including Chang Ch'un, Huang Fu, Shao Yuan-ch'ung, Wu Chung-hsin, and others, later became trusted lieutenants of Chiang Kai-shek. Ch'en's nephews, Ch'en Kuo-fu and Ch'en Li-fu (qq.v.), played leading roles in the organizational apparatus of the post- 1924 Kuomintang. Ch'en Ch'i-mei's wife, Yao Wenying, long survived her husband and died in Taiwan on 9 October 1961 at the age of 83.