[1] In or around 878, when the major agrarian rebel Huang Chao was pillaging the Fujian region on his way south toward Guang Prefecture (廣州 in modern Guangzhou, Guangdong),[2] Chen gathered several thousand men around him to protect their home territory, and named the army Jiulong Army (九龍軍).
Fearful of punishment, Li hid in mountainous caves and gathered troops to attack Fu Prefecture.
At some point, his family and that of Dong Chang, the military governor (Jiedushi) of neighboring Weisheng Circuit (威勝 headquartered in modern Shaoxing, Zhejiang), entered into a marriage relationship.
He is credited with miraculously saving Lu Yundi (路允迪) on his 1122 delegation to Korea to pay formal respects upon the death of its king Yejong[5] and to replace the Liao as the formal suzerains investing his successor Injong.
[7] The miracle was also credited to Mazu, the deified form of the Meizhou shamaness Lin Moniang.