On October 27, 1892, Chen Guofu was born in Wuchangli, Xueqian Street, Huzhou, Zhejiang, whose real name was Zu Tao and zi Guofu. The ancestor of the Chen surname was Yu Shun, and the 56th generation of Sun Hu Gongman was sealed in Wanqiu, Henan, which was originally the homeland of the Chen Feng tribe, called the Mountain of Chen Prefecture, so Hu Gongman established the Chen State, and his descendants took the state as their surname, and the Chen clan blossomed and scattered.
In the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the 78th generation of Sun Chen's clan moved to Wuxing, Zhejiang, and operated the silk industry for generations, and by Chen Feng and Chen Xuan, they had become a local noble family. When it reached his grandfather Chen Yanyou, it was just in time for the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, Jiangnan was beaten to no longer flourish, and the Chen family tried to cultivate and gradually recovered its vitality.
Chen Yanyou had three sons. The eldest Chen Qiye was a late Qing Dynasty Xiucai, hoping to take a road of industry to save China and run a silk weaving industry in Huzhou; the second eldest Chen Qimei, who started business and supported his family in his early years, later led the Jiangsu and Zhejiang revolutions, and was the leading elder brother of Chiang Kai-shek, but was later assassinated; the third chen Qicai studied at the Japanese Non-Commissioned Officer School, graduated with the first place, founded the Hunan Wubei Academy, and later entered the financial circles.
Chen Guofu is the eldest grandson of changfang, and has two younger sisters and a younger brother, Chen Lifu. Chen Guofu looked quiet and handsome, but he also often caused trouble. His mother, He Shi, was a bridesmaid and had a strict tutor, cultivating his habits of frugality, hard work, and etiquette, and even taught him embroidery to exercise patience.
At that time, Chen Guofu was very good-looking, and his relatives and friends who came to hug him, no matter who the He family was, they all agreed to three chapters: they were not allowed to give food; they were not allowed to lift up and tease; they were not allowed to take them out of the house. The women of the Chen family all believed in Buddhism and led the children to the temple, which still had a certain impact on them.
He first read with his father and aunt, entered a private school at the age of 7, and studied for several years but his studies were mediocre. At the age of 13, he went to Changsha with his third uncle and studied at the Mingde Academy. Returning home for the holidays, 8-year-old Lifu pestered him to tell stories, especially loving the foreign "Little Thumb".
Once, he made up a pomegranate myth, saying that 500 seeds in it can become 500 villains, and each person tells a story every day, and as a result, when 59 are told, he and his third uncle went to Nanjing to study.