Zhang Jiuling

Also known as Zi Zishou · Shi Wenxian · Zhang Qujiang

Zhang Jiuling, courtesy name Zishou, came from Qujiang in Shaozhou, in present-day northern Guangdong, and passed the jinshi examination in 702 before winning the patronage of Zhang Yue. In 716 he proposed and oversaw a new road across the Dayu Pass, opening an easier route between Lingnan and Jiangxi. He became a chief minister in 733 and president of the Secretariat the next year, objecting to the promotion of Niu Xianke and urging that An Lushan be executed after a defeat on the frontier. Edged out by Li Linfu in 736, he was sent the following year to Jingzhou as an administrator, and there he wrote the twelve poems titled Gan yu (Stirred by Encounters). He died in 740 while visiting his family graves in the south and received the posthumous name Wenxian; his writings survive as the Qujiang Collection. The Qing anthology Three Hundred Tang Poems opens with one of his Gan yu poems.