Zhang Chao

Zhang Chao was a Chinese litteratus, publisher, and fiction writer from Anhui. He was born in 1650 during the Qing dynasty. Zhang had extensive knowledge in the field of Confucianism, Taoism and New Tales of Yu Chu in 1663, 1666, 1669 and 1672 during the reign of the Kangxi Emperor. He worked as a bureaucrat in the early Kangxi era, but his rank was low and he became disillusioned.

Disappointed with his career, he traveled to many places and lived in Rugao and Yangzhou for long periods. He made a lot of friends who were famous scholars or litterateurs at that time, such as , Kong Shangren, , and Shitao. When he finished Shadows of Sweet Dreams, almost a hundred of his friends made comments about his book.

In 1699, he fell victim to a conspiracy and he was sent to prison.

In 1707, he compiled Xinang cunjin. From that point, there is no further information on him and no reliable research in terms of the date of his death. He was familiar with writer , and spoke highly of him. In 1711, Dai Mingshi was sent to prison, where he was killed, an affair that entangled many others. If Zhang Chao was still alive, he would certainly have been involved in that case, so it is inferred that he was no longer alive by 1711.

Major works

Shadows of Sweet Dreams

In 1936, Zhang Yiping, a litterateur, managed to purchase a manuscript of Shadows of Sweet Dreams, which was read by Lin Yutang, who thought highly of it. Lin Yutang translated it into vernacular Chinese and English. Lin Yutang classified the content into six parts: human life, personal character, women and friends, nature, the house and home, reading and literature. The book reflected Zhang Chao's sympathies with the Ming dynasty, and in style was highly reminiscent of Ming-era literature. He kept close contact with a number of famous textual criticism scholars of his day, such as and Yan Ruoqu. When he was editing, he made philological comments on the books he referred to and explored their origin and development.

Zhang Chao was one of the scholars who accepted western learning relatively early. He was very interested in western people and language. Moreover, he took advantage of western learning to study Chinese culture. He held the view that western medicine, law, and astronomy should be introduced to China.