Career
His travels were contemporaneous to the treasure voyages of the admiral Zheng He. Chen was born in 1365 in Linchuan County, Jiangxi province. He obtained the positions of juren (举人) and gongshi (贡士) in 1393 and 1394 respectively after taking the imperial examination.
In 1396, Chen was sent on a diplomatic mission to the western region of Qaidam to establish border defence.
In 1397, he was sent by the Yongle Emperor as an envoy to Vietnam. From 1406 to 1411, he served in the Wenyuange (文渊阁), the imperial library in the Forbidden City, as an editor of the Yongle Encyclopedia.
In 1414, 1416 and 1420, Chen Cheng led a Ming mission to the court of the Timurid dynasty at Samarkand.