Zhang Jun

Biography

Family Background and Early Life

From youth, Zhang Jun possessed a unique and magnificent appearance. By the age of ten, he could compose essays. His character was exceptional and unconstrained, though he occasionally indulged in debauchery, often traveling incognito through streets and alleys at night—a behavior that became fashionable among the local populace. In Jianxing 4 (316), he was enfeoffed as the Marquis of Bacheng. Prior to this, Shu Fu, the envoy of the Emperor Min of Jin, arrived in Guzang; officials such as Zu Changshi, Left Assistant Du Yiyan, and Right Assistant Ma Mo advised Shu Fu to grant Zhang Jun titles including Envoy with Imperial Tally, Great Commander-in-Chief, Governor-General of Liangzhou, Protector of the Qiang, and Prince of Xiping. Zhang Jun issued a general amnesty within his territory, established four ranks of officials, and renovated the Southern Palace. Liu Yao, the emperor of Later Zhao, also sent envoys to invest Zhang Jun as Governor-General of Liangzhou and Prince of Liang.

In Jianxing 12 (324), upon the death of Zhang Mao, Zhang Jun ascended the throne. At that time, Xin Yan held power in Huhan relying on military strength. During a banquet hosted by Zhang Jun for his officials in the Xianyu Tang hall, he ordered Dou Tao to lead troops against Xin Yan. An official named Liu Qing advised against launching a campaign based solely on personal emotions or anger; noting that while the father and son of Xin Yan were cruel and fierce, their downfall was imminent and it was unwise to engage in large-scale warfare during a year of famine. Zhang Jun accepted this advice. That same year, Zhang Jun recovered the lands of Henan.

Military Expansion and Management of the Western Regions

In Jianxing 15 (326), Zhang Jun dispatched Dou Tao, the Administrator of Wuwei, Zhang Lang, the Administrator of Jincheng, Xin Yan, the Administrator of Wuxing, and Song Ji, the General of Yanglie, to march east toward Han Pu to attack the prefectures of Qinzhou. Liu Yin, a general of Later Zhao, stationed troops in Didao to resist them. After seventy days of stalemate and due to food shortages, Liu Yin led three thousand cavalrymen to raid Xin Yan’s army, defeating them; Han Pu's army collapsed with over twenty thousand casualties. Zhang Jun pardoned the defeated generals. Seizing victory, Liu Yin crossed the Yellow River, captured Lingju, and occupied Zhenwu, striking terror into Hexi. Zhang Jun dispatched Huangfu Gai to defend the borders and declared a general amnesty throughout the realm.

Subsequently, taking advantage of the fact that Liu Yao had moved north to fight battles in Shisheng and Chang'an, leaving the interior vulnerable, Zhang Jun used hunting expeditions as a pretext to conduct extensive military drills in preparation for strikes against Qin and Yong. Li Cao, a Director in the Bureau of Receptions, cautioned against premature action, pointing out the difficult terrain and depleted internal resources. Zhang Jun followed this counsel and offered wine as thanks to Li Cao.

Regarding domestic rebellions, Zhao Zhen, the Colonel of the Five Tribes, rebelled in the Western Regions. Li Bai, the Chief Clerk of the Western Regions, led a punitive expedition but was defeated by Zhao Zhen. When officials requested the execution of Li Bai, Zhang Jun compared the situation to how Emperor Wu of Han dealt with Wang Hui versus how Emperor Taizu of Latter Zhou spared Meng Ming; ultimately, he commuted Li Bai's death sentence, which won widespread admiration. Upon Li Bai's subsequent successful campaigns, the rebellion of Zhao Zhen was suppressed, and Gaochang Commandery was established in the area.

Zhang Jun also deployed his subordinate Yang Xuan to cross the desert to campaign against Kucha and Shanshan, resulting in the submission of numerous states in the Western Regions. The King of Shanshan presented his daughter to Zhang Jun, who built the Binxia Guan residence for her. Kings from Khotan, the Preti, and Yutian sent envoys offering local specialties. A jade seal inscribed with "Holding Ten Thousand Nations, Establishing Infinity" was obtained in the Hexi Corridor.

Political Governance and Diplomacy

During his reign, Zhang Jun prioritized agriculture and diligent administration. He effectively balanced the interests of the prominent Han families of Hexi with those of various ethnic groups, ensuring everyone found employment and purpose. This resulted in a wealthy population and a formidable military, earning him the title of "virtuous ruler" across the land. His territory stretched south beyond the Heihe and Qu river systems, reached the Qin and Long regions in the east, extended to the Kunlun Mountains in the west, and touched Juanyuan in the north.

Administratively, Zhang Jun divided eleven commanderies—Wuwei, Wuxing, Xiping, Zhangye, Jiuquan, Jiankang, Xihai, Xijun, Huanghe, Jinxing, and Guangwu—into Liangzhou, appointing his eldest son Zhang Chonghua as Regional Inspector. He organized Jinxing, Jincheng, Wushi, Nan'an, Yongjin, Daxia, Wucheng, and Handong into Hey Prefecture, with Zhang Gua serving as Regional Inspector. Dunhuang, Jinchang, and Gaochang, along with the camps of the Protectorate-General of the Western Regions, the Commissioner of the Five Tribes, and the Protector-General of Yumeng, formed Shazhou, under the inspection of Yang Xuan. As the de facto Grand Commander-in-Chief and Generalissimo holding authority over the Three Prefectures, even bureaucrats of the two central offices acknowledged his supremacy.

Diplomatically, Zhang Jun once attempted to request passage through Chen Han via Fou Ying, sending memorials to the capital, but Emperor Li Xiong of Chen Han declined. He later sent Zhang Chun, a staff officer, to declare submission to Chen Han as a ruse to secure transit rights. Despite facing difficulties and threats from Li Xiong, Zhang Chun persuaded the monarch through reason, eventually receiving lavish gifts in return. Upon returning to the frontier, Zhang Chun recruited soldiers to escort formal memorials, which were well received by the imperial court.

In Jianxing 21 (332), Zhang Jun formally submitted to the Eastern Jin and was invested as Grand General and Commander-in-Chief overlooking the military affairs of Shaanxi, Yong, Qin, and Liang provinces, although he continued to use the Jianxing era name rather than the Eastern Jin one. Frequent diplomatic missions followed annually. However, most messengers sent by Zhang Jun were intercepted by Shi Hu and failed to reach their destination. In the first year of Yonghe (345), Zhang Xun designated his heir apparent, Zhang Chonghua, as Junior Attendant of the Palace and Regional Inspector of Liangzhou. Responding to a petition from Ma Ji, the Administrator of Jiuquan, regarding the need for a temple to Empress Dowager Xiwang atop Mount Kunlun, Zhang Jun granted the request.

Late Years and Death

In his later years, Zhang Jun engaged in extensive construction, building fortifications south of Guzang City and constructing the Qianguang Hall, decorated with five colors, gold, and jade. Four halls were erected around the main palace: Dongyue Yiyang Green Hall, Nanchao Zhuyang Red Hall, Xichao Zhengxing White Hall, and Beichao Xuanwu Black Hall, corresponding to the four seasons. Initially intended for seasonal residences, he eventually began living there according to his own whims regardless of the season.

On the Bingxu day of the fifth month in Jianxing 34 (346), Zhang Jun died at the age of forty. He was posthumously honored with the style Chengcheng by the Eastern Jin and buried in Dali Mausoleum. His son Zhang Zuo succeeded him and was posthumously titled Wenwen, with the temple name Shizu.

• Incognito Travels: Due to his unrestrained character in youth, Zhang Jun often traveled incognito through streets at night, prompting others to imitate him.
• The Changing of the Era Name: In the first year of Taining (323), after observing a yellow dragon appearing near Xu Ciji, Right Assistant Du Yiyan suggested changing the regnal era name, but Zhang Jun refused.
• Qianguang Hall: Built south of Guzang City, its four surrounding halls corresponded to the four seasons, reflecting the grandeur of his sovereignty.

His Accession, His Titles, and the Continuation of the Jianxing Era

Zhang Jun, styled Gongting, son of Zhang Shi, "was marvellous in boyhood"; in 316 he was enfeoffed marquis of Bacheng, and at ten he could write compositions, being "outstanding and unrestrained, but also excessive in licence, often going about the lanes by night in disguise, so that the whole state imitated him," and he was eighteen when he came to rule. When Zhang Mao died and Zhang Jun succeeded, he kept the old era name Jianxing. At that time the Yellow Gate attendant Shi Shu, sent by Emperor Min, was at Guzang, and the senior secretary Fan Yi with the junior secretary Ma Mo urged Shi Shu to make Zhang Jun commissioner with the staff of authority, grand commander, general-in-chief, governor of Liangzhou, protector of the Qiang and duke of Xiping; and Zhang Jun proclaimed an amnesty in his territory, set up the four commandants of the left, right, front and rear, and repaired the southern palace. Afterwards Liu Yao sent envoys to make him governor of Liangzhou and prince of Liang. He ploughed the sacred field in person; and on learning of Emperor Yuan's death he mourned and announced it for three days. It happened that a yellow dragon appeared at the Jia spring of Xuci, and the senior secretary Fan Yi told him that the era Jianxing had been the style of the young emperor at the outset, that the emperor had come to an evil end and the era should be changed, and that with the court far off in Jiangnan and news cut off they should take the dragon as the occasion to change it and display the auspicious sign; but Zhang Jun would not. When he first came to power a song had run in Guzang about the swan coming from the south and the phoenix crying with lifted wings, and now he recovered the country south of the river.

His Acceptance of Advice, His Diplomacy, and the Defeat at Wogan Ridge

Zhang Jun could take plain speaking. When Xin Yan of Fuhan would not submit, he feasted his officers in the Xianyu hall and ordered Dou Tao and others against him, and the secretary Liu Qing advised that a hegemon does not raise troops in anger or stake everything on hazard but waits for the season and the affairs of men, that the father and son Xin Yan were cruel and their end was near, and asked how they could raise a great army in a famine year and attack a city in bitter cold; he cited King Wu of Zhou turning back his chariot to await the end of Yin and Cao Cao waiting for the Yuans to destroy themselves, and asked why the prince should feel shame at turning back. And Zhang Jun took his advice. He sent the army adviser Wang Zhi on a mission to Liu Yao, who asked whether the honoured province really meant to follow Dou Rong and, being sincere in friendship, whether Wang Zhi could guarantee it; and Wang Zhi said he could not, and when Xu Miao asked why he came for concord and yet said he could not, Wang Zhi answered that at the covenant of Guanze Duke Huan of Qi was anxious and careful and the princes came without being summoned, whereas at the meeting of Kuiqiu he was proud and boastful and nine states revolted, so that the transformation of Zhao might last as it was today, but if its government and teaching declined it could not discern changes even close at hand, much less in a distant province; and Liu Yao, turning to those about him, called him a lofty scholar of Liangzhou and a worthy envoy, and sent him back with honour. In war he did not always win: in the early Xianhe years he sent Dou Tao, Zhang Lang, Xin Yan and Song Ji with troops east to join Han Pu against the commanderies of Qinzhou, Liu Yao sent Liu Yin against them, who camped at Didao city, and Han Pu advanced to Wogan ridge. Xin Yan urged a quick fight, saying that with tens of thousands of men and the keenness of the Di and Qiang they should fight at once and not let time breed change; but Han Pu held that since late summer the planet of punishment had invaded the moon, Mercury had gone backward and a white rainbow had pierced the sun, all great changes, so that nothing should be done rashly, and that since Liu Yao was fighting Shi Le, Liu Yin could not last; and he meant to wear the enemy out. After more than seventy days the grain was gone and Zhang Jun sent Xin Yan to bring supplies from Jincheng; and Liu Yin, greatly pleased, told his officers that Han Pu's force was ten times his own but the Qiang and Hu had all revolted and would not serve him, that his own grain was nearly gone and he could not hold out long, and that the enemy's dividing his force to fetch grain was a gift from heaven, that if Xin Yan were beaten Han Pu would break of himself, and that being fewer they must fight to the death; and with three thousand cavalry he surprised Xin Yan at Wogan ridge and beat him, so that Han Pu's army broke up with more than twenty thousand dead. When the generals came with their hands bound to take the blame Zhang Jun said that it was his own fault and that they had suffered no disgrace, and pardoned them all. Liu Yin pressed the victory, crossed the river, took Lingju and occupied Zhenwu, and Hexi was greatly shaken; Zhang Jun sent Huangfu Gai against him and proclaimed an amnesty in his territory. Afterwards, when Liu Yao went east against Shi Sheng and Chang'an was empty, Zhang Jun held a great review and would have attacked Qin and Yong, and the secretary Suo Xun advised that though Liu Yao had gone east Liu Yin still held the base, that the roads were difficult and long and the defence easy, and that with recent years full of campaigns, horses in the suburbs, lean and hungry people without and exhausted resources within, this was hardly the prince's care for his people; and Zhang Jun answered that he had always feared that loyal words were not offered and that men agreed to his face and broke faith behind, so that his government was at fault with none to correct it, and that Suo Xun's remonstrance fully answered his hopes, and honoured him with sheep and wine.

The Western Regions, His Amnesties, and the Raising of His Ceremonial

Abroad and at home, the states of the Western Regions sent the Former Liang blood-sweating horses, asbestos cloth, humped cattle, peacocks, elephants and more than two hundred kinds of rare things; and when the long historian of the Western Regions, Li Bai, asked to attack the rebel general Zhao Zhen and was beaten by him, and the councillors, holding that Li Bai's plan had caused the defeat, asked that he be executed, Zhang Jun said that he had always thought the Han emperor Shizong's killing of Wang Hui worse than Duke Mu of Qin's pardon of Meng Ming, and had him sentenced to death commuted, at which all hearts were content. He reviewed troops at Xinxiang, hunted in the northern fields, and attacked and broke the Kemolu, then decreed in his territory that as Gun was executed and Yu rose, and Rui was put to death and Que advanced, so that the Tang emperor ended the flood and the marquis of Jin became one of the five hegemon, and as the law forbade the near kin of a man under sentence of death to hold office at court, all such kin should now be allowed office, only not to serve in the inner guards; and so "punishments were clear and the state rich." His ministers urged him to take the title prince of Liang with the governorship of Qin and Liang and a full court, after the manner of the Wei founder and the lord of Jin, and he answered that this was no speech for a subject and that whoever said it again should be pardoned nothing; yet within the territory men called him prince. His officers again asked him to set up an heir and he refused, until the general of the central ramparts, Song Ji, said that the urgency of an heir was for the sake of the ancestral temple, that Kings Cheng and Zhao of Zhou and Han were set up in swaddling clothes because the succession could not be left vacant and the heir must be settled early, and that "with the state in danger like a stack of eggs, for the prince to think himself safer than Mount Tai is not the right view"; and Zhang Jun accepted it and set up his son Zhang Zhonghua as heir. His communications with the Eastern Jin were tortuous: he first sent Fu Ying by way of Shu to present a memorial to the court, and Li Xiong refused; and he then sent the administration chief Zhang Chun to profess vassalage to Shu as a pretext for passage, and Zhang Chun urged Li Xiong that the southern Di were outrageous and did constant harm on the frontier, that the two states joining forces could sweep the Three Qin, clear Xu and Luo in the east and the Yan and Zhao in the north, rescue the coffins of the two emperors at Pingyang and bring the imperial carriage back to Luoyi, a feat of hegemony and a chance in a thousand years; at which Li Xiong was angry and pretended to consent while meaning to sink Zhang Chun in the eastern gorge, and the Shu man Qiao Zan secretly told Zhang Chun, who then told Li Xiong that if he wished to kill him it should be done openly in the marketplace before all eyes, proclaiming that Liangzhou, mindful of the old loyalty, had sent an envoy to Langya to show its faithfulness and had borrowed the road from Shu, and that the ruler being sage and the subject enlightened they had found him out and killed him, so that the name of righteousness would spread far and the empire fear their power — whereas to kill him secretly in the river would display neither authority nor punishment and could not spread his glory to the empire; and Li Xiong cried out in amazement that such a thing should never be, and that he would send him back to Hexi. When his own censor-in-chief Jing Qian advised keeping so stout a man, Li Xiong said a stout man could not be kept and had Jing Qian test him, and Jing Qian told Zhang Chun that being large of body and the weather hot he might send a subordinate and stay a while until it cooled; and Zhang Chun answered that his lord, with the imperial carriage dishonoured, the coffins not returned, the shame of the empire unavenged and the people's lives hanging, had sent him to declare sincerity to a great state, that the matters discussed were weighty and no subordinate could convey them, and that if a subordinate could settle them he need not have come at all, so that though there were mountains of fire and seas of boiling water he would not decline, much less avoid heat and cold. Li Xiong said that this man was too stiff to be used, and sent him back with honour, asking why his lord, with a name covering the age and strong ground and troops, did not take the imperial title and amuse himself in one region; and Zhang Chun answered that his lord, his fathers and grandfathers having been loyal servants for generations and not having avenged the great shame of heaven and men or lifted the people from hanging, forgot his food till the sun declined and slept on his spear till dawn, and that it was because Langya had revived Jin in Jiangdong that he had come ten thousand li to support him and complete the work of Huan and Wen, so what did it mean to say "amuse himself"? And Li Xiong, looking ashamed, said that his own forebears had been Jin subjects and had come to this city with the six commanderies in refuge and been raised by their allies to what they were, and that if Langya could revive the great Jin in the central plain he too would lead his people to assist him. Zhang Chun, returning to Longhe, raised troops and forwarded the memorial, and it reached the capital, where the court commended him. On another occasion the court made Geng Fang acting investigating censor and sent him to make Zhang Jun general of the western garrison with his ranks of commandant, governor and duke as before, choosing twelve men of the west, including Jia Ling of Longxi, to accompany him; but Geng Fang stayed seven years in Liangzhou, and being recalled because the post road was blocked he gave the edict to Jia Ling, who disguised himself as a merchant; and reaching Chang'an he dared not go further, arriving in Liangzhou only in 333. Zhang Jun afterwards sent the army adviser Qu Hu with a memorial saying that east and west had been cut off for many years and that "on the day the edict came I was both glad and grieved," that the emperor had inherited the Jin house and met misfortune, drifting to Wu and Chu, so that the ancestral temple had the grief of the poem of the millet and the tombs the pain of desecration, and that after Shi Le and Li Xiong died men's hearts looked for a return to the rightful, while "your majesty in Jiangnan takes your ease, watching the ruin and injury of the state and clinging to present comfort, casting away the heritage of four ancestors, so that the galloping post and the proclamation are but empty words" — which was why he sighed by night in the desert and grieved on the long road; and he added that with the strength of Jing and Yang and the picked cavalry of his own province the remnant Jie might be swallowed. He afterwards sent the protector of the Qiang's army adviser Chen Yu and the secretaries Xu Xiao and Hua Yu to the capital, and the general of the western expedition, Yu Liang, memorialized that Chen Yu and the others had come from afar at risk and should be promoted, whereupon Chen Yu was made chancellor of Xiping and Xu Xiao and the rest magistrates.

Institutions, Palaces, the Recovery of Henan, and His Death

In internal institutions Zhang Jun divided three commanderies west of the province to form Shazhou and six east of it to form Hezhou, the officers of both governments all styling themselves his subjects; and south of Guzang he built a walled town and raised the Qianguang hall, "painted in five colours, adorned with gold and jade, exhausting rare and skilful work," with a hall on each of its four sides to answer the seasons: Yiyang the blue hall of the east for the three months of spring, with robes, insignia and vessels in the colour of that quarter; Zhuyang the red hall of the south for summer; Zhengxing the white hall of the west for autumn; and Xuanwu the black hall of the north for winter, each with its duty offices alongside, all in the colour of the quarter — until in his last years he lodged where he pleased and no longer followed the four seasons. Though he acknowledged himself a subject of Jin he did not use the new calendar of the restoration, dancing with six rows, flying the leopard-tail banner and establishing offices and buildings "modelled on a king's, with names slightly different." Between law and human feeling he also chose: where the law forbade the near kin of a man condemned to death to hold office, he decreed that they might all hold office, only not serve in the inner guards; and in a great famine, when the market officer Tan Xiang asked to give out the granary grain and take back three times the amount at harvest, the secretary Yin Ju objected that this was to "take threefold profit from men's famine, like turning a fur robe and spoiling the leather," and Zhang Jun accepted the objection. He also sent the generals Song Ji and Wei Zuan with troops to move more than two thousand households of Longxi and Nan'an to Guzang and sent envoys to Li Xiong to keep good relations with a neighbour. With the two Zhaos his fortunes varied: he was once beaten by Liu Yao's army and lost Henan, and when Liu Yao was killed by Shi Le he took advantage of the disorder at Chang'an to recover Henan as far as Didao, setting up the five garrisoning commands of Wuwei, Shimen, Houhe, Qiangchuan and Gansong and dividing the ground with Shi Le; and when Shi Le sent envoys to confer titles on him he refused them and detained the envoys, sending them back only later when he feared Shi Le's strength, with envoys of his own acknowledging vassalage and offering local products. It is also recorded that on the advice of the governor of Jiuquan he built a shrine to the Queen Mother of the West in the southern mountains to pray for the court's blessing. In 346 Zhang Jun died and was buried at Daling, his son Zhang Zhonghua succeeding to the government; Former Liang gave him the posthumous name duke Wen and the Eastern Jin that of duke Zhongcheng, and after Zhang Zhonghua, Zhang Jun's son Zhang Zuo seized the rule and honoured him as prince Wen with the temple name Shizu — these names coming from different regimes and from later honouring, not titles he claimed in his lifetime. The Jin History says of him and his brothers that "Mao, Jun and Zhonghua, loyal and following in one another's steps, through hardship and in a remote corner, never forgot the court, and so could hold the western barbarians and repel the great villains, holding the seals of several generations and bringing tribute from outlandish regions, their glory shining in distant wastes — all the effect of upholding the rightful."

Major Activities

Recovery of Henan and Longxi

After ascending the throne, Zhang Jun first focused on recovering territories in Henan. In Jianxing 15 (326), despite initial setbacks when dispatching troops to campaign against the prefectures of Qinzhou, he took advantage of the internal turmoil in Later Zhao to reclaim lost lands and occupy the entirety of Longxi. He reorganized administrative control by dividing the western region into three commanderies and establishing Sha Prefecture, and dividing the eastern region into six commanderies and establishing He Prefecture.

Dominance in the Western Regions

Zhang Jun commanded Yang Xuan to lead an army across the desert to strike Kucha and Shanshan, leading many Western States to submit. To honor the Princess of Shanshan provided by King Yuanmeng, Zhang Jun constructed the Binxia Guan pavilion for her residence. Envoys from Khotan, the Preti, and Yutian brought local tributes. The acquisition of a jade seal bearing the inscription "Holding Ten Thousand Nations, Establishing Infinity" symbolized the extent of his influence deep into the Western Regions.

Balancing Power and Diligent Administration

Zhang Jun excelled at balancing the powerful Han clans of Hexi with other ethnic forces, integrating them into the state structure. Through emphasis on agriculture and efficient governance, he ensured a prosperous citizenry and a strong military. Throughout his reign, laws were clear and the treasury full, making him renowned far and wide as a "virtuous ruler." His grand architectural projects, such as the walls and palaces south of Guzang, stood as testament to the stability and prosperity of his rule.

The Two Sides of His Government and His Restraint in the Matter of Status

Zhang Jun's government had two parallel sides. The first is diligence in affairs and the good use of men: he valued agriculture, led his civil and military officers so that "all could exert their talents," and balanced the great Chinese families of Hexi against the several peoples, "so that all were well used and the people rich and the armies strong," and was called a worthy ruler far and near; he took Liu Qing's advice not to besiege a town rashly in cold and famine, Suo Xun's advice to desist from a move when Chang'an was empty, and Huang Bin's advice, conceding that "law exists to be enforced, and its rules know no high or low," promoting Huang Bin on the spot to be governor of Dunhuang; he relaxed the prohibition on the kin of men condemned to death holding office, forbidding them only to serve in the inner guards, and after Li Bai's defeat spared his life, citing Duke Mu of Qin's pardon of Meng Ming. The second is restraint in the matter of status: he acknowledged himself a subject of Eastern Jin and accepted the offices of general-in-chief and commander of the military affairs of Shaanxi, Yong, Qin and Liang, yet did not use the new calendar of the Eastern Jin and kept the era Jianxing within his territory; when Li Xiong asked him why he did not take the imperial title he answered that his fathers and grandfathers had been loyal servants for generations and had not avenged the great shame of heaven and men; and when his ministers urged him to take the title prince of Liang after the manner of the Wei founder and the lord of Jin he answered that this was no speech for a subject and that whoever repeated it should be pardoned nothing — while within the territory all called him prince. This coexistence of nominal subjection to Jin and practical autonomy in the region is the typical condition of the Former Liang state among the Sixteen States. Correspondingly his palaces and ceremonial moved steadily toward a king's scale: the Qianguang hall with its four seasonal halls, the six rows of dancers, the leopard-tail banner and the offices and buildings modelled on a king's, "with names slightly different." In frontier matters he set up Shazhou, Hezhou and the five garrisoning commands, extending his military and civil organisation toward Longxi and the Western Regions; but his campaign against Liu Yin ended in a heavy defeat and the loss of Lingju and Zhenwu, which shows that his expansion was not always successful. To write him up as simply a worthy ruler, or simply as a warlord, would be incomplete: what can be confirmed are the concrete instances of his taking advice and his administrative results, the coexistence of subjection to Jin with the title of prince at home, and the fact that diligence in internal government stood alongside the building of palaces and the burden of campaigns.

Personal Relations

• Father**: Zhang Shi (Bright King of Former Liang)
• Uncle**: Zhang Mao (Cheng King of Former Liang)
• Wives/Consorts**: Lady Yan, Lady Ma (mother of Zhang Chonghua), Lady Liu (mother of Zhang Zuo), Daughter of King Yuanmeng of Shanshan
• Sons**: Zhang Chonghua (Prince Huan of Former Liang), Zhang Zuo (Prince Wei of Former Liang), Zhang Tianxi (Duke Mourning Gong of Former Liang)

Representative Works

• Xielu Xing (Song of the Reed)
• Dongmen Xing (Song of the East Gate)

Historical Assessment

• Book of Jin: "Mao, Jun, and Chonghua remained loyal to their ancestors... they controlled the barbarians to the west and repelled the great usurpers to the east... Their ability to govern remote frontiers and bring wealth from distant lands is attributed to their effective leadership."
• Contemporary View: Known widely as a "virtuous ruler."