<title>Chen Xin</title>
陳鑫傳
[25] CHEN XIN
陳鑫字品三前淸歲貢生研究太極拳精妙入微著有陳氏家乘若干卷安愚軒詩文集若干卷太極拳圖畫講義四卷太極拳引蒙入路一卷均未梓行
Chen Xin, called Pinsan, was recommended to be a scholar by his local government during the Qing Dynasty. He studied Taiji Boxing in extreme detail. He wrote several volumes about the Chen family’s history, as well as several volumes on An Yuxuan’s poetry and essays, four volumes of Illustrated Handbook of Taiji Boxing, and one volume of Taiji Boxing for Beginners, but none of these works have yet been published. https://brennantranslation.wordpress.com/2017/08/31/taiji-boxing-according-to-chen-ziming/
Chen Xin (1849-1929), 8th generation Chen family member, provided one of the most important written description of the Chen style. He was the grandson of Chen Youshen (陈有恒), 6th generation Chen family member. Chen Youshen was the brother of Chen Youben (陈有本), the creator of Small Frame. Chen Xin's father was Chen Zhongshen and Chen Xin's uncle, Chen Ji-shen were twins. In that 7th generation Chen family, Chen Zhong-shen, Chen Ji-shen, Chen Geng-yun (陈耕耘, the son of Chen Chang-xing), Yang Lu-chan (杨露禅, founder of Yang Style) and Chen Qing-ping (陈清萍, promoter of Zhaobao style Tai chi ch'uan) were all martial artists with exceptional abilities.
Chen Xin initially trained with his father but his father ordered him to study literature rather than the martial arts. It was only later that he decided to use his literature skills to describe his understanding of the secrets of Chen style. In Chen Xin's generation, his older brother, Chen Yao and his cousin, Chen Yanxi (陈延熙, father of Chen Fake) were considered masters of the Chen style. Chen Xin's legacy is his book and his student, Chen Ziming (陈子明). Chen Ziming, went on to promote Chen style small frame throughout China and wrote books promoting the art. Chen Ziming was in the same generation as Chen Fake.
Also see: Chen Bu, Chen Wang-Ting, Chen Chang-Xing, Chen You-Ben, Chen Fa-Ke.