Eminent Chinese of the Ch'ing Period/Chang Yü-chao
CHANG Yü-chao 張裕釗 (T. 廉卿, H. 濓亭), 1833–1894, man of letters, was born in a village near Wuchang, Hupeh. His father, Chang Shan-chün 張善準 (T. 樹程, 平泉, H. 愚公, 1796–1865), was a local scholar of some note. After studying under his father, he obtained in 1846 his chü-jên degree, and in 1850 went to Peking where he was made a secretary of the Grand Secretariat. Late in 1852, when the Taipings threatened Wuchang, he returned to his native place and shortly after became a member of the secretarial staff of Tsêng Kuo-fan [q. v.] with whom he had become acquainted during his stay in Peking. With Wu Ju-lun and Li Shu-ch'ang [qq. v.] he then studied diligently the belles-lettres of the T'ung-ch'êng school (see under Fang Pao). Unlike other followers of Tsêng Kuo-fan he was indifferent to political and military affairs, hence he did not obtain an official position. After the Taipings had been subdued and Tsêng Kuo-fan twice took office in Nanking as governor-general of Liang-Kiang, Chang was invited to the city to direct several academies, at the same time assisting Tsêng in cultural matters. In 1881 Chang was made chief compiler of a gazetteer Kao-ch'un, Kiangsu, and corrected the drafts compiled by local scholars. The gazetteer was printed in the same year in 28 chüan under the title 高淳縣志 Kao-ch'un hsien-chih. Late in the 1880's he served for a few years as director of the Lien-ch'ih (蓮池) Academy at Pao-ting, Chihli, and then went to Sian, Shensi, where he lived under the patronage of the Tartar General Jung-lu [q. v.].
Chang Yü-chao and Wu Ju-lun were perhaps the two best writers of the ku-wên, or archaic, style at the close of the Ch'ing period. Chang's prose works were edited and printed in 1882 by his pupil, Cha Yen-hsü (see below), under the title 濓亭文集 Lien-t'ing wên-chi, 8 chüan. Another collection of his prose, entitled Lien-t'ing i-wên (遺文), 5 chüan, and a collection of his verse, Lien-t'ing i-shih (詩), 2 chüan, were printed in 1895 by Li Shu-ch'ang. Chang's letters were collected by Liu Shêng-mu 劉聲木 (T. 述之, H. 十枝, original ming 體信) under the title 張濓卿尺牘 Chang Lien-ch'ing ch'ih-tu, and were printed in 1929 in Liu's 桐城文學叢書 T'ung-ch'êng wên-hsüeh ts'ung-shu. Chang Yü-chao was also a famous calligrapher.
Among the disciples of Chang Yü-chao, not including those who were taught by both Chang and Wu Ju-lun (for whom see under Wu), were the following brilliant writers: Chu Ming-p'an 朱銘盤 (T. 俶簡, H. 曼君, 1852–1893); Cha Yen-hsü 查燕緒 (T. 翼甫, H. 繼亭, 1843–1917); Sun Pao-t'ien 孫葆田 (T. 佩南, 1840–1911); and Chang Chien 張謇 (T. 季直, H. 嗇庵, 嗇翁, 1853–1926). All of them left works, among them the 校經室文集 Chiao-ching shih wên-chi, 6 chüan (1916), a collection of prose by Sun Pao-t'ien; and the 張季子九錄 Chang Chi-tzŭ chiu-lu (1931), the collected works of Chang Chien, who was the chuang-yüan of 1894, and later became an industrialist and social reformer.
[1/491/19b; 6/51/10a; Liu Shêng-mu (see above), T'ung-ch'êng wên-hsüeh yüan-yüan k'ao (淵源考) 1909, chüan 10; Lien-t'ing wên-chi (see above), passim.]