Career
Zhang was a native of the Wu River area, in Jiangnan. According to Herbert Giles, he was renowned as a scholar and poet, and he "was patronised by the great Han Yu, whom he even ventured to take to task for his fondness for dice. The latter in 815 recommended him for employment, and he rose to be a Tutor in the Imperial Academy.
But it is by his poems that he is known.
Among which may be mentioned the exquisite lines under the title of 節婦吟. In one account, he was 80 years of age when he died.".
