Excelling in Kunqu and Yiyang opera, and often wearing her hair in a wo duo ji (high bun, 倭堕髻),[4] Chen became renowned as one of the Eight Beauties of Qinhuai, along with Ma Xianglan, Bian Yujing [zh], Li Xiangjun, Dong Xiaowan, Gu Mei, Kou Baimen [zh], and Liu Rushi.

[11] Government official Gong Ruofu (贡若甫) bought her freedom and intended to take her as a concubine, but Chen was released due to disagreements with other women in his household.

[12] In 1641, Chen had a brief relationship with the poet and calligrapher Mao Xiang (冒襄), who also intended to take her as a concubine, but before that she was "acquired" by the powerful courtier Tian Hongyu (田弘遇), father-in-law of the Chongzhen Emperor.

One account claims that Chen became a nun in Kunming after she fell out of Wu's favor due to her age and disagreements with his harem.

[25] In the 1980s, Chen's final whereabouts was uncovered by the historian Huang Tousong (黄透松), who was exiled to Guizhou in the 1970s during the Cultural Revolution.

In order to prevent being tracked down by Qing forces, Chen became a nun of a temple located at another mountain of Guizhou for years.

The knowledge of Chen's final whereabouts was passed down only by oral history of Wu Sangui's descendants living in the said village until Huang published the discovery.

The six armies, wailing and grieving, were uniformly clad in the white of mourning, One wave of headgear-lifting anger propelled him, all for the sake of the fair-faced one.