Zhang Jiazhen

Also known as Posthumous name Gongsu · Marquis of Hedong

Zhang Jiazhen, a native of Yishi in Puzhou, was born in 665 and died in 729. He began as commandant of Pingxiang, was recommended as investigating censor, rose to secretariat drafter, served as governor-general of Qinzhou and administrator of Bingzhou, and headed the newly founded Tianbing Army. In 720 he was named vice director of the Secretariat with the title of grand councilor, and a few months later was given an honorary rank and advanced to director of the Secretariat. In 723 he was sent out as prefect of Youzhou; the next year he became minister of revenue and administrator of Yizhou, was for a time demoted to prefect of Taizhou, and then served as minister of works and prefect of Dingzhou, where he was made Marquis of Hedong. In 729 he asked to go to the eastern capital for medical care because of illness and died that autumn at sixty-four by Chinese reckoning; he was posthumously granted the office of governor-general of Yizhou and the posthumous name Gongsu.