“A Letter of Recording the Civil Strife” in Running Script

Zhang Zhu was born in Jinning (today’s Linfen, Shanxi province). He was also known by his courtesy name Zhongju and literary name Tuian. He lived in Hangzhou during his early years and was a student of Li Cun, a Rationalist scholar. He also studied poetry under the guidance of Qiu Yuan. He became an assistant teacher (zhujiao) in the Imperial Academy of learning (guozijian) and was later promoted as Lead Bachelor of the Hanlin Academy (hanlinyuan). He co-wrote the history of the Liao, Song, and Jin dynasties and edited the book Records of Loyalty (zhongyilu). Other books he wrote include The Collected Works of Zhang Tuian (tuianji) and Poems of Tuiyan (tuiyanci).