Chen Zhenlong is a native of Changle County, Fujian Province, and often goes to Luzon for business. He found that Luzon Island produced the highest yield of sweet potatoes, but the Spanish authorities who ruled Luzon Island banned the spread of sweet potatoes. So he patiently learned the planting methods from local farmers and managed to overcome many difficulties. He sailed at sea for seven days and nights and finally brought the sweet potato seeds back to Fuzhou. His son wrote to Jin, a local official, asking for help in promotion, but Jin asked the father and son to plant it themselves, but there was no promotion. Chen and his son planted sweet potatoes in the open space next to the shamao pool in the suburbs of Fuzhou, and gained a lot. The following year coincided with the drought and poor harvest in Fujian. In order to survive the drought, Jin ordered the promotion of planting sweet potatoes. Later, Jin boasted and asked local officials and gentry to erect a monument for him, and named this sweet potato "Golden Potato". Instead, Chen Zhenlong and his son were left aside and not mentioned at all.
Later, sweet potatoes were widely planted in Shandong, Henan, Hebei and other places, which was the result of the efforts of Chen's descendants. Chen Shiyuan, a descendant of Chen Zhenlong, contacted several companions and came to the ancient town of Shandong to try to grow sweet potatoes, which achieved remarkable results. Later, he spread the experience of planting sweet potatoes in wei county, Jiaozhou, sent his eldest son and his second son to Zhuxian Town, Henan Province to promote trial planting, and finally tried planting in the suburbs of Beijing, with good results. Farmers in the north and south have gradually realized the benefits of sweet potato, and the cultivation of sweet potato has gradually become common.
The Biography of Golden Potato was published by Shengchitang Bookstore in Nantaiqiao, Fuzhou in the thirty-third year of Qianlong in Qing Dynasty, namely 1768. It is divided into two volumes. Eighteen years later, in the fifty-first year of Qianlong, that is, 1786, the Qing government explicitly promoted the cultivation of sweet potatoes. Regrettably, this book has been ignored by agronomists for a long time and has not continued to play its positive role.