Zhang Shi

Biography

Succession as Governor

Zhang Shi was the eldest son of Zhang Gui. Studious and perceptive from youth, he respected the virtuous and loved scholars. In 314, when Zhang Gui died, Zhang Shi succeeded as Governor of Liangzhou and was made Duke of Xiping Commandery, continuing to use Western Jin's Jianxing era name.

Encouraging Criticism and Governance

In the fourth month of 316, Zhang Shi issued an edict: officials and commoners who could point out his faults would be rewarded with silk, sheep, and grain. Kui Jin, a petty officer from Gaochang, advised him: "In governing, you should not decide everything personally. Sometimes you issue military orders without the knowledge of other prefecture officials. If there is a mistake, no one will share the blame. Subordinates fear your authority and merely obey your commands. Even with a thousand gold pieces as reward, they dare not speak. I suggest you reduce your personal involvement and seek opinions from subordinate officials on all matters." Zhang Shi accepted this advice and rewarded Kui Jin with a hundred bolts of silk. Zhang Shi sent troops to relieve Chang'an, attempting to save Western Jin from its crisis.

Death by Assassination

In 320, Liu Hong, a native of the capital region, used heterodox methods to deceive the people and developed influence in Liangzhou. Zhang Shi's subordinates Yan She and Zhao Ang were followers of Liu Hong and plotted to assassinate Zhang Shi. In the sixth month, Zhang Shi was assassinated by Yan She and others at age fifty. He was buried at Ningling. After his death, his younger brother Zhang Mao succeeded him. Zhang Shi's grandson Zhang Zuo later proclaimed himself emperor and posthumously honored Zhang Shi as King Zhao.

Zhang Shi was given to clear judgment from youth and honored the worthy and loved scholars. His father Zhang Gui had been made governor of Liangzhou in the early Yongning years and administered the Hexi region for over a decade, settling refugees, founding schools and minting coin, so that Liangzhou stayed comparatively quiet amid the disorders at the end of the Western Jin, laying the base for the Zhang family's hold on Hexi. On Zhang Gui's death Zhang Shi succeeded as governor of Liangzhou and Duke of Xiping.

In 316, with Chang'an in peril before Liu Yao's attack, Zhang Shi sent troops to its relief, but could not alter the fall of the Western Jin. In 317 he took the title King of Liang and founded the Former Liang; the Book of Jin says he relied on his distance and difficult terrain and grew arrogant, judging him unfavorably. He went on administering Hexi, maintaining farming, trade and learning in the Liangzhou region.

The Former Liang was the only Chinese regime in Hexi during the Sixteen Kingdoms, its rulers long using Jin titles and era names to show allegiance to the Jin house. In Zhang Shi's reign its political shape was essentially established: centered on Liangzhou, holding the Hexi corridor, opening westward to the western regions and defending eastward against the Later and Former Zhao. This was further consolidated under his successor Zhang Jun.

His end is bound up with a mutiny among his subordinates: the Book of Jin records that he was killed by men of his own guard and that his brother Zhang Mao succeeded him. The Former Liang lasted until the Former Qin destroyed it in 376, one of the longer-lived states of the Sixteen Kingdoms.

The founding of the Former Liang is directly connected with the situation in Liangzhou at the end of the Western Jin. When Zhang Gui became governor in 301 the wars of the eight princes and the risings of refugees were under way, the central plains in turmoil while Hexi was comparatively cut off. He put down the local Xianbei and bandits, settled refugees entering from Guanzhong in emigrant commanderies, founded schools and minted coin, making Liangzhou one of the quieter regions of the late Western Jin. The Book of Jin records that "those fleeing trouble from the central plains came one after another," so that a great many scholars gathered there.

Zhang Shi carried on his father's policies. The Book of Jin calls him given to clear judgment and honoring the worthy and loving scholars, and he treated the incoming scholars with courtesy, the region's cultural work continuing in his hands. He also sent men and supplies to Chang'an repeatedly in aid of the Western Jin against Liu Yao and Shi Le; after Chang'an fell and Emperor Min was taken, the officials of Liangzhou urged him to take the imperial title, which he declined, keeping order in Hexi under the title of King of Liang.

His assumption of that title was formally made in allegiance to the Jin: the Former Liang long used Jin era names and changed them only under Zhang Jun. This practice of holding to Jin legitimacy while ruling a region on its own was characteristic of the Hexi regimes of the Sixteen Kingdoms, keeping them nominally in touch with the Eastern Jin through embassies by way of Shu or by sea to Jiankang.

The institutions of the Former Liang largely followed Wei and Jin precedent, its offices, schools and recruitment of some scale. The administration of Zhang Gui and his son preserved elements of central-plains culture in Hexi through the turmoil of the Sixteen Kingdoms, laying a base for the region's cultural continuity after the Northern Wei.

After Zhang Shi was killed the state passed through Zhang Mao, Zhang Jun and Zhang Chonghua, reaching its height under Zhang Jun, when it controlled part of the western regions; it then declined amid internal strife and external pressure and was destroyed by the Former Qin in 376.

The Zhang family's rule in Liangzhou is directly connected with the social structure of Hexi. Since the Han the region had been the corridor between the central plains and the western regions, holding both Chinese farming commanderies and the pastoral tribes of the Qiang, Di and Xianbei. The policy of Zhang Gui and his son was to keep the Chinese commandery system going while winning over the tribal chiefs, maintaining basic order in disorderly times.

Cultural work in Liangzhou was considerable in this period. Zhang Gui is recorded as founding schools and employing scholars, and Zhang Shi honored the worthy and loved scholars; among the scholars who fled from the central plains were Jiang Qiong and Du Ji, who taught pupils in Hexi, carrying classical and literary learning to the frontier. This accumulation still had influence under the Northern Wei, whose employment of Hexi scholars is connected with it.

Contact with the western regions was maintained at first chiefly through the garrisons and traders about Dunhuang and the Jade Gate. Under Zhang Jun the state controlled part of the Gaochang area for a time and sent envoys to the states of the west, activity recorded both in the Book of Jin and in excavated documents.

His death is bound up with internal conflict at the Former Liang: subordinates under Yan Sha plotted and killed him, and the region was thereafter governed by Zhang Mao and then Zhang Jun, the separatist regime lasting several decades.

The character of the Former Liang has been described variously: as a local government of the Western and Eastern Jin, or as one of the separatist states of the Sixteen Kingdoms. Given its long use of Jin era names and its acceptance of Jin titles, it remained nominally Jin; in actual military and civil practice the Zhangs ruled a region on their own, so that the state had the substance of separatism. This gap between name and reality is the key to the study of the Hexi regimes.

In Zhang Shi's time the military forces of Liangzhou were used chiefly to defend against the Former and Later Zhao to the east and to keep order within Hexi. There were dealings also with the Cheng-Han and Chouchi states, its diplomacy aimed at self-preservation rather than taking part in the contests of the central plains. The policy spared the region the destruction of large-scale war for decades.

His successor Zhang Mao reigned briefly, while Zhang Jun held power more than twenty years and brought the state to its height, its territory running from the Yellow River east to the western regions, making it a strong power in Hexi. The rise and fall of the Former Liang is connected with the geography and ethnic makeup of the region and with changes in central-plains politics, its history a typical case of a regional regime in the Sixteen Kingdoms.

He was killed about 320, his brother Zhang Mao succeeding as governor of Liangzhou and carrying on the state. The political shape established in his reign laid the base for the Former Liang's later strength, his career being recorded in the biography of Zhang Gui in the Book of Jin.

Under the Zhangs schools and classical teaching in the Former Liang never lapsed, so that Hexi was one of the better-preserved cultural regions of the north during the Sixteen Kingdoms. After the Northern Wei destroyed the Northern Liang many Hexi scholars were moved to Pingcheng and their learning entered the Wei, with some effect on the dynasty's early institution-building.

The corridor function of Hexi gave the Former Liang a part in maintaining Silk Road traffic: merchants and envoys from the western regions needed the cooperation of the Liangzhou government, which generally supported them.

Zhang Shi's time in power was short, his achievement lying chiefly in carrying on his father's policies and keeping Liangzhou settled; the state's political shape, cultural work and foreign dealings all continued in his hands. Under Zhang Jun afterward the Former Liang reached its height, and political conditions in Hexi stayed comparatively stable for a long stretch of the later Sixteen Kingdoms.

The Former Liang's offices largely followed Wei and Jin precedent, its local administration combining commanderies with garrison commands to govern both farming and pastoral populations. The arrangement worked fairly well in Hexi and was taken up by such later states as the Northern and Western Liang.

His career is recorded rather briefly in both the Book of Jin and the Comprehensive Mirror, while the state's actual condition may be filled in from the Spring and Autumn of the Sixteen Kingdoms and from excavated documents. The history of the Former Liang is thus one of the better fields in Sixteen Kingdoms studies for checking texts against material remains.

Besides the Former Liang the Hexi region saw the Later, Southern, Northern and Western Liang states in turn, their succession connected with its fortunes. Zhang Shi's time was the period before those states appeared, when Hexi was held by the Zhangs alone.

His reign was short, but the basic shape of the Former Liang was settled in his hands, and the strength that followed developed from it.

His posthumous and temple names were settled by his successors in the Former Liang's system of posthumous honors.

The measures of his reign follow directly from his father's policies.

Major Activities

Preserving Han Chinese Rule

Zhang Shi inherited his father Zhang Gui's administration of the Liangzhou region. Against the backdrop of Western Jin's collapse and chaos in the Central Plains, he maintained relative stability in the Hexi region. Though he proclaimed himself King of Liang, he nominally continued to honor the Jin dynasty, making Former Liang one of the last bastions of Han Chinese governance in the north.

Encouraging Criticism

Zhang Shi was known for encouraging criticism, rewarding subordinates who pointed out his faults. This open governance style was relatively rare among the rulers of the Sixteen Kingdoms period.

Personal Relations

• Zhang Gui**: Father, King Wu of Liang, founder of Former Liang
• Zhang Mao**: Younger brother, succeeded him as King Cheng of Liang
• Zhang Zuo**: Grandson, later proclaimed himself emperor
• Liu Hong**: Native of the capital region who used heterodox methods to gain followers and plotted Zhang Shi's assassination

Historical Assessment

Zhang Shi continued his father Zhang Gui's work, maintaining the continuity of Han Chinese governance in the Hexi region during the chaos of Western Jin's collapse. His practice of encouraging criticism and rewarding honest counsel was notable among rulers of the Sixteen Kingdoms period. Though he proclaimed himself King of Liang, he maintained nominal allegiance to the Jin dynasty in name. His assassination reflected internal tensions within the Former Liang regime.