[1] After the rebel general Hou Jing attacked the capital Jiankang in 548 and captured it in 549, Liu Jingyan and Liu Pan went to Jiangling to rely on Princess Changcheng's brother Xiao Yi the Prince of Xiangdong.
While Chen Xu was at Jiangling, Emperor Yuan married Liu Jingyan to him as his wife, notwithstanding that he had already married a Lady Qian while he was a commoner at his home commandery of Yixing (義興, roughly modern Huzhou, Zhejiang).
In 554, Western Wei forces attacked and captured Jiangling, and around the new year 555, they put Emperor Yuan to death.
Chen Xu, as the young emperor's uncle, was in an honored position, sharing power with the officials Dao Zhongju (到仲舉), Kong Huan (孔奐), Yuan Shu (袁樞), and Liu Shizhi (劉師知).
He created Princess Liu as empress and her son Chen Shubao as crown prince.
Chen Shuling, who wanted the throne for himself, secretly had a dull knife designed to cut medications sharpened.
When Emperor Xuan died, Crown Prince Shubao, while mourning his father, placed himself over the casket.
As Chen Shubao was continuing to recover from his injuries, the various urgent matters at hand—including Emperor Xuan's funeral arrangements, the border defenses (as Chen had recently lost the region between the Huai River and the Yangtze River to Northern Zhou's successor state Sui dynasty), and other important matters, were ruled on by Empress Dowager Liu, assisted by Chen Shujian.
When Chen Shubao recovered, she returned the imperial authorities to him and no longer ruled on governmental matters.