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Zhang Tingyu
Grand Secretary and Grand Councillor under three Qing emperors who, as director-general, saw the official History of Ming through to completion in 1739.
In a council hall, a long table holds an unrolled map scroll, a brass-cornered chest and a brush pot, with tall-backed chairs around it and a bronze lamp at the left; a figure stands with their back turned on the balcony at the right, with palace roofs beyond.
Also known as Zi Hengchen · Posthumous name Wenhe
Zhang Tingyu, courtesy name Hengchen, was a native of Tongcheng in Anhui and the son of Grand Secretary Zhang Ying; he took his jinshi degree in 1700. Serving the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong emperors, he rose to Grand Secretary and Grand Councillor and helped shape the Grand Council under Yongzheng. As director-general of the History of Ming he oversaw the final text, printed and presented in 1739, which is why the standard history bears his name as compiler. Posthumously named Wenhe, he was the only Han official of the Qing to be enshrined in the Imperial Ancestral Temple.
Life and times
Dates 1672–1755 CE