Zhang Yi

Also known as Zi Sanyi · Hao Kuang Shan Ju Shi

Zhang Yi, courtesy name Sanyi, came from Longquan in Chuzhou and studied under Wang Yi, a disciple of Xu Qian. When rebel bands from Qizhou and Huangzhou raided Longquan at the end of the Yuan and took his nephew captive, he offered himself in the boy's place, later got away, and with Wang Yi led local militia to drive the raiders off. In 1360 he went with Liu Ji, Song Lian and Ye Chen to answer Zhu Yuanzhang's summons at Yingtian and was made an assistant in the office of military farms, later serving as assistant surveillance commissioner in eastern Zhejiang and Huguang. In 1368 he and Liu Ji were both appointed vice censor-in-chief and tutor to the heir. Soon after, he went home to bury his mother, carried earth and stones for the grave himself, fell ill from grief, and died the following year at fifty-five. His son Zhang Cundao led local troops in the Ming campaigns and was killed beyond the Great Wall in 1372.