Southern Song Neo-Confucian of the Hunan school, son of Zhang Jun, who taught at the Yuelu Academy and debated with Zhu Xi at Changsha in 1167
Mural guide
A thatched pavilion open on three sides stands among tall bamboo; one person sits with their back turned at the veranda rail beside a zither and a stack of bamboo slips, while a stone path runs to a calm pond reflecting clouds and distant hills.
Zhang Shi, courtesy name Jingfu or Qinfu, sobriquet Nanxuan, came from Mianzhu in Hanzhou and was the son of the chief minister Zhang Jun. He studied with Hu Hong, carrying on the Hunan school of learning, and later led teaching at the Yuelu Academy in Changsha. In 1167 Zhu Xi travelled from Fujian to see him, and the two debated for more than two months in what came to be called the Zhu-Zhang discussions. Entering office through his father's privilege, he was called to lecture to Emperor Xiaozong, whom he urged to distinguish right from profit, and later governed Guilin and Jiangling, tightening frontier defence and local administration. He died in office at Jiangling in 1180, aged forty-eight, and was named Xuan. Zhu Xi edited his collected works, and later scholars grouped him with Zhu Xi and Lu Zuqian as the Three Worthies of the Southeast.
Learning begins with the line between right and gain
Southern Song
Zhang Shi came to the Way early; Zhu Xi once said his own learning had been built up bit by bit, while Zhang Shi had seen the great root clearly first. Zhang held that learning comes first from the line between right and gain: right is what the original mind ought to do, and whatever is done for an end is human desire, not heavenly principle. This was called the core of his lectures.
Song
Literature · Poetry