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This is a Chinese name; the family name is Chen (陳).

Chen Lin (? - 217), styled Kongzhang (Simplified Chinese: 孔璋) was a minister during the Three Kingdoms Period of ancient China. Chen Lin was one of the Seven Scholars of Jian An (建安七子) and originally served under Grand Commander He Jin in the Imperial Court of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

According to the Chronicles of the Three Kingdoms, he attempted to dissuade He Jin from amassing an army outside the capital city of Luoyang to intimidate the Ten Regular Attendants, a group of eunuchs who controlled the Imperial Court. He said: "To act in this manner is no difference from lighting a furnace to burn a strand of hair" (以此行事，无异于鼓洪炉以燎毛发). However, He Jin did not heed his advice and Chen Lin was obliged to flee to Jizhou (sc.: 冀州) during the ensuing chaos where he worked as a secretary for the warlord Yuan Shao.

Chen Lin rose to fame when he wrote a declaration of war for Yuan Shao to Cao Cao, listing the rationale for the subsequent campaign against Cao Cao which eventually culminated in the famous Battle of Guandu. In Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Cao Cao was having a headache while the declaration was being read but his headache but his headache was gone after hearing it. After Yuan Shao's defeat, Chen Lin was captured by Cao Cao, who reprimanded Chen for insulting Cao Cao's elders and ancestors in the declaration he wrote earlier. However, Cao Cao spared Chen's life and instructed him to read the declaration again before Yuan Shao's grave.

Chen Lin was later appointed as an official to serve Cao Cao, as Cao Cao admired his literary skills. Cao Cao once said: Reading Chen Lin's scripts heals my headaches much better than others." Chen's fate from then on was unknown.

See also

• Three Kingdoms
• Personages of the Three Kingdoms
• Records of Three Kingdoms
• Romance of the Three Kingdoms