Yizhou ｜ He was born into a Chinese family of Yizhou in the Liao state, mastering the classics and histories from youth, with a memory that forgot nothing, and skilled in composition.
1088 CE–1156 CE
Jin statesman and envoy
Zhang Tonggu
张通古
Zhang Tonggu was a senior official who served first under the Liao and then under the Jin. He negotiated the 1138 settlement with the Southern Song and participated in the ceremony that recognized Zhao Gou. Although he initially represented peace, he later supported reopening the war, rose to grand councillor and ministerial posts, and died in 1156.
1088 CE–1156 CESouthern Song
PROFILE
Zhang Tonggu was a senior official who served first under the Liao and then under the Jin. He negotiated the 1138 settlement with the Southern Song and participated in the ceremony that recognized Zhao Gou. Although he initially represented peace, he later supported reopening the war, rose to grand councillor and ministerial posts, and died in 1156.
- Courtesy / Art Name
- Lezhi
- Era
- Late Liao and early Jin
- Dynasty
- Liao and Jin
- Identity
- Jin statesman and envoy
- Date of Birth
- 1088
- Date of Death
- 1156
- Ethnicity
- Han
- Ancestral Home
- Yixian, Yizhou
- Place of Birth
- Yixian, Yizhou
- Place of Death
- Unknown
- Lifespan
- 69
- Highest Office
- Minister of Education; Grand Councillor
- Major Offices
- Clerk and chief presenter in the Privy Council; secretary for military and penal affairs; Vice Minister of Works; Deputy Intendant of the Central Capital; Left Vice Director of the acting Secretariat; Grand Councillor; Minister of Education
- Peerage
- Prince of Tan, Yun, Shen, and Cao
- Major Achievements
- Served under Liao and Jin; declined a Song summons; passed the Liao examination in 1112 and entered the Privy Council
LIFE TIMELINE
Birth ｜ He was born at Yi County in Yizhou.
Linhuang ｜ He passed the Liao metropolitan examination in the second year of Tianqing and became a clerk of the Bureau of Military Affairs; he returned home to mourn his father and lived in retirement at Xingping.
Aged twenty-four #2 ｜ He passed the metropolitan examination and became a clerk of the Bureau of Military Affairs; going into mourning for his father he was not recalled and lived in retirement at Xingping.
Yizhou ｜ With the change of masters in the Yan-Yun region the Song summoned Zhang Tonggu to office; he declined and lived in retirement at Mount Taining.
Aged thirty-six #2 ｜ Summoned by the men of Song he declined and lived in retirement at the foot of Mount Taining in Yizhou.
Yanjing ｜ After Wanyan Zongwang recovered Yanjing, Liu Yanzong engaged him as chief memorialist of the Bureau of Military Affairs and he was transferred to be the head of the military and penal section.
Huining ｜ The Jin first established the Department of State Affairs and he was appointed Vice Minister of Works in charge of the affairs of the six ministries, taking part in determining the institutions of state.
Aged thirty-nine #2 ｜ With the first establishment of the Department of State Affairs he was appointed Vice Minister of Works and put in charge of the six ministries.
Zhongjing ｜ Zonghan’s examination-and-dismissal measure cost him his office, but Wanyan Zonggan argued his case and he was transferred to be deputy keeper of Zhongjing.
Dismissal and transfer #3 ｜ With the introduction of the examination-and-dismissal measure he was dismissed; Wanyan Zonggan argued his case and he was appointed deputy keeper of Zhongjing.
In 1138 he became the Jin envoy to the Southern Song. ｜ In 1138 he became the Jin envoy to the Southern Song.
Aged fifty-two ｜ He went out as assistant administrator of the branch Department of State Affairs.
Kaifeng ｜ The Jin court broke the agreement and moved south; Zhang Tonggu accompanied Wanyan Zongbi in taking Henan and Shaanxi, calling on the old adherents to submit.
Aged fifty-three #2 ｜ He accompanied Wanyan Zongbi in taking Henan and asked to go ahead to Bianjing to proclaim the terms to the Song.
In 1149 he became Left Vice Director and then Grand Councillor ｜ In 1149 he became Left Vice Director and then Grand Councillor, receiving the titles Prince of Tan and Prince of Yun.
In 1149 he became Left Vice Director and then Grand Councillor ｜ In 1149 he became Left Vice Director and then Grand Councillor, receiving the titles Prince of Tan and Prince of Yun.
Age 62 ｜ In 1149 he became Left Vice Director and then Grand Councillor, receiving the titles Prince of Tan and Prince of Yun.
In 1149 he became Left Vice Director and then Grand Councillor ｜ In 1149 he became Left Vice Director and then Grand Councillor, receiving the titles Prince of Tan and Prince of Yun.
Zhang retired as Minister of Education in 1156 ｜ Zhang retired as Minister of Education in 1156, was promoted to Prince of Cao, and died that year at sixty-nine.
Age 69 ｜ Zhang retired as Minister of Education in 1156, was promoted to Prince of Cao, and died that year at sixty-nine.
BIOGRAPHY
Biography
Zhang Tonggu passed the Liao examination and began as a clerk in the Privy Council. The collapse of the Liao put him in an uncertain position. He first withdrew to the mountains and refused a Song summons, then entered the Jin administration under Wanyan Zongwang. His knowledge of Liao institutions and Chinese literary culture made him useful to the new regime. In 1138 he became the Jin envoy to the Southern Song. The mission arranged a treaty, and Zhang took part in the formal recognition of Zhao Gou as emperor. The settlement did not end the competition between the two states. Zhang argued that the Song court would not honour the agreement and later supported the Jin decision to resume hostilities. His career therefore cannot be reduced to either a peace advocate or a permanent expansionist: he used treaty diplomacy as an instrument of Jin policy. After the war he served in the acting Secretariat. In 1149 he became Left Vice Director and then Grand Councillor, receiving the titles Prince of Tan and Prince of Yun. His request to leave central government because of illness was refused; he subsequently became Minister of Education and Prince of Shen. Although Wanyan Liang treated princes and ministers harshly after taking the throne by regicide, he continued to receive Zhang with courtesy. Zhang retired as Minister of Education in 1156, was promoted to Prince of Cao, and died that year at sixty-nine. Jin histories present him as an experienced administrator whose diplomacy served the court’s military aims.
Major Activities
- Passed the Liao examination.
- Negotiated the 1138 Jin–Song settlement.
- Served in provincial and central Jin offices.
- Rose to grand councillor and Minister of Education.
Personal Relations
- Wanyan Zongwang: Jin commander who brought him into the new administration.
- Emperor Gaozong: Song ruler recognized in the 1138 ceremony.
- Jin court: government that used his diplomatic and administrative expertise.
Historical Assessment
Contemporary and traditional records Jin records preserve his treaty mission and later policy arguments alongside his high offices. ### Later evaluations Later histories used him to illustrate the tension between diplomacy and conquest in the early Jin. ### Modern scholarship Modern research reads the 1138 mission within the changing balance of Jin military power and Song claims to legitimacy.
FIGURES ASSOCIATED WITH THIS DYNASTY
Bibliography
- History of Jin*, biography of Zhang Tonggu.
- Records of the 1138 Jin–Song settlement.