Chen Baozhen was a Chinese statesman and reformer during the Qing dynasty

Qing Dynasty

The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....

. Chen was born in Xiushui County in Jiangxi

Jiangxi

' is a southern province in the People's Republic of China. Spanning from the banks of the Yangtze River in the north into hillier areas in the south, it shares a border with Anhui to the north, Zhejiang to the northeast, Fujian to the east, Guangdong to the south, Hunan to the west, and Hubei to...

 province and obtained the second highest degree in the imperial examinations in 1851. During the Self-strengthening movement

Self-Strengthening Movement

The Self-Strengthening Movement , c 1861–1895, was a period of institutional reforms initiated during the late Qing Dynasty following a series of military defeats and concessions to foreign powers....

, Chen became closely associated with Zeng Guofan

Zeng Guofan

Zeng Guofan was an eminent Han Chinese official, military general, and devout Confucian scholar of the late Qing Dynasty in China....

 efforts to rearm China. In 1895, he was appointed governor of Hunan

Hunan

' is a province of South-Central China, located to the south of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and south of Lake Dongting...

 province, where he carried out a reform program with the aid of Tan Sitong

Tan Sitong

Tan Sitong , courtesy name Fusheng, pseudonym Zhuangfei , was a well-known Chinese politician, thinker and revolutionist in the late Qing Dynasty who was in support of reform; he was however, finally executed because of the failure of the reformation...

 and Liang Qichao

Liang Qichao

Liang Qichao |Styled]] Zhuoru, ; Pseudonym: Rengong) was a Chinese scholar, journalist, philosopher and reformist during the Qing Dynasty , who inspired Chinese scholars with his writings and reform movements...

. Chen's sympathies to the Hundred Days of Reform attracted criticism from his superiors, and he was dismissed from his post in 1898. He died in Nanjing

Nanjing

' is the capital of Jiangsu province in China and has a prominent place in Chinese history and culture, having been the capital of China on several occasions...

two years later.