Zhang Wenwei

Zhang Wenwei (張文蔚) (died April 25, 908 ), courtesy name Youhua (右華), was an official of the Chinese Tang dynasty and the Tang's succeeding Later Liang dynasty, serving as a chancellor during the reigns of Tang's final emperor Emperor Ai and Later Liang's founding emperor Emperor Taizu (Zhu Quanzhong).

During the Tang dynasty

Background It is not known when Zhang Wenwei was born. His family claimed ancestry from the early Han dynasty general Zhang Er (張耳). The traceable ancestry of Zhang Wenwei's included officials of Sui dynasty and Tang dynasty. His grandfather Zhang Junqing (張君卿) was a copyeditor at Jixian Pavilion (集賢院), and his father Zhang Shang (張裼) served in a number of prominent positions, including, eventually, the military governorship (Jiedushi) of Tianping Circuit (天平, headquartered in modern Tai'an, Shandong). Zhang Wenwei had at least two younger brothers, Zhang Jimei (張濟美) and Zhang Yixian (張貽憲),

Early career Zhang Wenwei passed the imperial examinations in the Jinshi class in 875, during the reign of Emperor Xizong. he then served as a sheriff of a county near the imperial capital Chang'an, as well as a scholar at an imperial institute. Emperor Xizong, in order to raise funds for the military campaigns against Qi, moved the office of salt and iron monopolies to Yang Prefecture (揚州, in modern Yangzhou, Jiangsu) and put the official Li Du (李都) in charge of the office. At Li Du's recommendation, Zhang Wenwei was made a roving surveyor for the office. Zhang was first made an imperial censor with the title Jiancha Yushi (監察御史); then (either successively or holding the offices all at once) Zuo Bujue (左補闕), a low-level advisory official at the examination bureau of government (門下省, Menxia Sheng); an imperial censor with the title Dianzhong Shi Yushi (殿中侍御史); an imperial chronicler with the title Qiju Sheren (起居舍人); and Sixun Yuanwailang (司勛員外郎), a low-level official at the ministry of civil service affairs (吏部, Libu). He was then promoted to a supervisory position at the ministry of civil service affairs, with the title Sixun Langzhong (司勛郎中) and put in charge of drafting edicts. After serving in those roles for a year, he was made Zhongshu Sheren (中書舍人). After his mother's death, he left governmental service to observe a mourning period for her. and the imperial authority was extremely weak at that time, edicts that Zhang drafted had to be, and were, appropriately delicate in language but assertive, and was much praised for their propriety. He was then given the additional post of deputy minister of census (戶部侍郎, Hubu Shilang), and later was made the deputy minister of rites (禮部侍郎, Libu Shilang) but no longer imperial scholar by that point. —at that time, at Luoyang, which had been made the capital after the powerful warlord Zhu Quanzhong the military governor of Xuanwu Circuit (宣武, headquartered in modern Kaifeng, Henan) had forcibly moved Emperor Zhaozong from Chang'an to Luoyang in 904, —under Emperor Zhaozong's son and successor Emperor Ai, as Zhu had had Emperor Zhaozong assassinated late in 904. In 905, the chancellor Liu Can, an associate of Zhu's, had alienated Zhu from the other chancellors Pei Shu, Dugu Sun, and Cui Yuan; Pei, Dugu, and Cui were therefore removed from chancellor offices, while Zhang and Yang She were made chancellors, with the designation Tong Zhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi (同中書門下平章事). When Emperor Taizu left Luoyang in 908 to battle the state of Jin (i.e., the lands ruled by Li Cunxu the Prince of Jin, who refused to recognize the new Later Liang regime), he left Zhang in charge of Luoyang. Zhang died later in 908, while still serving as a Later Liang chancellor.

Notes and references

Old Book of Tang, vol. 178. History of the Five Dynasties, vol. 18. New History of the Five Dynasties, vol. 35. Zizhi Tongjian, vols. 265, 266.