Chen Jitang (January 23, 1890 – November 3, 1954) was born into a Hakka Chinese family in Fangcheng, Guangxi. He joined the Chinese Revolutionary Alliance in 1908 and began serving in the Guangdong Army in 1920, rising from battalion to brigade commander. He was designated commander of the 11th Division within the 4th Army in 1925 and took up the garrison of Qinzhou City in Guangxi in 1926, thus staying in the south during the Northern Expedition. In 1928 he was made Commander of the 4th Route Army.