Zhang Jiuling (678–740; his birth year is also given as 673 or 679) was a Tang poet and calligrapher who served as a chancellor during the Kaiyuan era. His courtesy name was Zishou; he was also known as Zhang Bowu and Zhang Qujiang, received the posthumous name Wenxian, and came from Qujiang in Shaozhou (present-day Shaoguan, Guangdong), with an ancestral origin in Fanyang.
Life
He was described as intelligent and accomplished in composition from childhood. He entered government through the jinshi examination; accounts place that success in 697, 702, or 707, and also record his success in the Caikeng Jingbang and Daomou Yilu special examinations. He first received appointment as xiaoshulang, then served as zuo shiyi and was promoted to zuo buque.
During the Kaiyuan era he successively held the posts of Libu yuanwailang, Sixun yuanwailang, Zhongshu sherenshi, and Taichang shaoqing; Chancellor Zhang Shuo valued his talent and judgment, helping advance him to Zhongshu sherenshi. After Zhang Shuo lost office in 726, Zhang Jiuling was transferred to Taichang shaoqing and appointed governor of Jizhou; to support his mother, he requested transfer to Hongzhou, then served as governor of Guizhou, while also acting as censor-in-chief and as inspector and examination commissioner for Lingnan.
Because his draft memorials met imperial approval, he was summoned as secretary supervisor, an academician of the Jixian Academy, and deputy director of the academy, and later became vice minister of works and drafter of edicts. In 733 he became Zhongshu shilang and tong Zhongshu menxia pingzhangshi; in the following year he was promoted to Zhongshu ling, concurrently supervised the compilation of the national history, and received the titles of Lord of Qujiang and Earl of Shixing. During his chancellorship he was hailed as a worthy minister; he tried to decline the office of tong Zhongshu menxia pingzhangshi but was not permitted to do so.
In 736, Li Linfu’s hostility and political pressure forced him from the chancellorship; his opposition to the appointment of Zhang Shougui and Niu Xianke also led to covert intrigues against him. He was transferred to the post of Right Chancellor in the Ministry of Revenue and demoted the following year to Chief Secretary of Jingzhou. In Jingzhou he occupied himself with literature and history and did not brood over his circumstances. In 740 he requested leave to return home to sweep ancestral graves, and died of illness in his native place on the seventh day of the fifth month.
His age at death is variously given as 63 or 68. After his death he was posthumously made Grand Governor of Jingzhou, received the posthumous name Wenxian, and was further granted the title of Situ in the first year of the Jianzhong era. His father was Zhang Hongyu, his father-in-law Tan Hui, his brother Zhang Jiugao, and his son Zhang Zheng; Zhang Zheng is also described as his heir, while Zhang Chang is listed as a nephew’s grandson or a grandnephew, and Zhang Gu as a direct descendant.
In 737 he joined Wang Wei, Xiao Song, Han Xiu, Du Xian, Wang Qiu, and Pei Yaoqing in composing and exchanging poetry at the Wei family’s Xiaoyaogu gathering; he also composed a tomb inscription for Xu Jian and was admired or valued by Li Bi.
Literary achievement and influence
Zhang Jiuling excelled in poetry and prose, particularly in stele and funerary inscriptions. His poetry was noted for its clear, elegant manner and deep, subtle resonance, and his twelve poems entitled *Ganyu* were ranked with Chen Zi’ang’s poetry. His five-character old-style poems looked back to Han and Wei models, and later criticism credited him with helping restore an archaizing direction to early Tang poetry; his regulated and old-style poems on scenery and feeling, marked by a plain, harmonious manner and resonant imagery, were regarded as opening the line that included Wang Wei, Meng Haoran, Chu Guangxi, Chang Jian, and Wei Yingwu.
His five-character poetry centered on xingji, with compact structures and cool, select diction; critics also described the *Ganyu* poems as possessing extraordinary resonance and standing alongside Chen Zi’ang. Critical responses were not uniform: some judged the structure of portions of *Ganyu* inferior to Chen Zi’ang’s, while still praising their elevated tone, plaintive language, and clear musicality, as well as the freshness of his descriptive poems. His prose was praised as elegant, expansive, and substantial, and as no less distinguished than that of Yan and Xu; the image of him as an upright minister who resisted evil and assisted the government through principle stood together with his reputation as a worthy minister of the Kaiyuan era.
Works
The surviving *Qujiang Zhang xiansheng wenji* (《曲江張先生文集》) comprises 20 juan and is also known as *Qujiang ji* (《曲江集》). *Quan Tang shi* preserves three juan of his poetry, while *Quan Tang shi waibian* and *Quan Tang shi xuese* supplement them with four poems. When he was serving as Zhongshu ling, officials commonly presented rare gifts at the Tianchang Festival, but he alone presented the five-juan *Jinjing lu* (《金鏡錄》), on the rise and fall of earlier states; the same five-juan work is also found under the title *Qianqiu jinjian* (《千秋金鑑五卷》).
References
- CBDB Zhang Jiuling (3130)
- 搜韵 張九齡 (15164)
- 法鼓佛教人名规范数据库 張九齡 (A019386)
- Wikidata Zhang Jiuling (Q712065)