Chen Fan

Chen Fan (90s - 25 October 168), courtesy name Zhongju , was a Chinese politician of the Eastern Han dynasty. A native of Pingyu, Runan (north of present-day Pingyu County, Henan), Chen served as Grand Commandant during the reign of Emperor Huan and later as Grand Tutor in the first year of Emperor Ling's reign. He and Dou Wu (father of Empress Dowager Dou Miao) plotted against the eunuchs, but their plan was leaked; they were then both killed.

Service under Emperor Shun Chen Fan was nominated as xiaolian in 132. In that year, the official Zuo Xiong (左雄) proposed that nominated xiaolians below the age of 40 (by East Asian reckoning) needed to be tested more stringently; Emperor Shun agreed. Chen Fan and Li Ying were among the 30-plus individuals who passed the stringent tests and were granted the position of langzhong (郎中).

Service under Emperor Chong/Emperor Zhi Between September 144 and July 146, while Li Gu was Grand Commandant, he recommended that Chen Fan be made an official. Soon after this appointment, Chen was reassigned as Administrator of Le'an.

Service under Emperor Huan In the 160s, when a teenage Xu Shao went to Yingchuan Commandery (潁川郡; covering present-day southern and central Henan), he visited and mingled with many reputable men in the region, except for Chen Shi. Later, when Chen Fan's wife died, many people attended her funeral, but Xu Shao did not show up. When asked, Xu Shao replied, "Taiqiu is too well-acquainted, it's difficult for him to be thorough; Zhongju is a serious person who hardly makes compromises. These are the reasons why I didn't visit them."

In July or August 165, Chen Fan was appointed Grand Commandant, replacing Yang Bing (杨秉; grandfather of Yang Biao), who had died on 18 June that year. He remained Grand Commandant until August 166; Emperor Huan found Chen's advice too uncomfortable so he relieved Chen of his position, citing that the officials Chen recommended were unsuitable for their positions.

Service under Emperor Ling Emperor Huan died without issue in January 168; on 30 January, Dou Wu was made General-in-Chief while Chen Fan was made Grand Tutor. In February, after Empress Dowager Dou consulted her father and Chen, Liu Hong, then Marquis of Jiedu Village (解瀆亭侯), was selected as the next emperor; he would posthumously be known as Emperor Ling.

At Chen Fan's urging, Dou Wu presented a memorial to the court in June 168 denouncing the leading eunuchs as corrupt and calling for their execution, but Empress Dowager Dou refused the proposal. This was followed by a memorial presented by Chen Fan calling for the heads of Hou Lan (d. 172 CE) and Cao Jie (d. 181 CE), and when this too was refused Dou Wu took formal legal action which could not be ignored by the court. When Shan Bing, a eunuch associate of Chen and Dou's, gained a forced confession from another eunuch that Cao Jie and Wang Fu plotted treason, he prepared another damning written memorial on the night of 24–25 October which the opposing eunuchs secretly opened and read.

Chen Fan entered the palace with eighty followers and engaged in a shouting match with Wang Fu, yet Chen was gradually surrounded, detained, and later trampled to death in prison that day (his followers were unharmed).