Master Yuan Chen, the fifth abbot of the monastery, was from Taixing, Jiangsu Province. His dharma name was Cheng Zhen. He became a monk when he was very young. At the age of 18, he was given full ordination in the Chaoan Temple in Jingkou where there was a Yu Shan Buddhist Institute at that time. So Master Yuan Chen followed Master Shou Pei to study sutras in the institute. Then he went to the Jiangtian Monastery at Jinshan and was assigned manager of the Monastery. In the autumn of 1932, at the order of his master, Master Yuan Chen left for the Xianglin Monastery in Nanjing to be the abbot. Shortly, Master Ke Cheng was so dangerously ill in the Jade Buddha Monastery that he asked Master Yuan Chen came to Shanghai immediately to succeed him. In May of 1942, Master Yuan Chen felt his strength fail him and incapable of the responsibility of abbot. For this reason, he quitted on the day when Shanghai Buddhist College started a new term. Master Zhen Hua succeeded him. Master Yuan Chen still gave his full support in running the Shanghai Buddhist College after his quit. He once taught Buddhist music and chanting after the foundation of PRC (1949). He cared about the affairs in the monastery, and did everything possible to develop the monastery. He had once lived in seclusion and kept on practicing meditation for three years. He died peacefully in the Jade Buddha Monastery in 1973.