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Zhang Zhidong
Late Qing governor-general who built the Hanyang ironworks and arsenal in Wuhan, wrote Exhortation to Learning and co-led the 1900 Southeast Mutual Protection
A walled hilltop city with a tall brick gate tower stands above a pine-covered cliff, its wall running along the ridge, while a long wooden bridge crosses a wide river below and plains, islets and layered mountains stretch into the distance, with no person in view.
Also known as Zi Xiaoda · Xiang Shuai
Zhang Zhidong, courtesy name Xiaoda, styled Xiangtao and in old age Baobing, came from Nanpi in Zhili and took third place in the palace examination of 1863. He made his name as an outspoken censor of the Pure Stream group, became governor of Shanxi in 1881, and during the war with France in 1884 was moved to Canton as governor-general, where he recalled the veteran Feng Zicai, who won the battle of Zhennan Pass. From 1889 he governed Hubei and Hunan for most of two decades, building the Hanyang ironworks, the Hubei arsenal and textile mills in Wuhan and opening modern schools such as the Ziqiang Institute. His Exhortation to Learning (Quanxue pian) of 1898 argued for Chinese learning as the foundation and Western learning for practical use, and in 1900 he and Liu Kunyi led the Southeast Mutual Protection. Called to Beijing in 1907 as a grand councillor in charge of the Ministry of Education, he died in 1909 and received the posthumous name Wenxiang.
Life and times
Dates 1837 CE–1909 CE