Early experience

Zhang Zhidong, born in Xiang Tao, is called Bian Gong and Bao Bing. 1September 837 (August 17th year of Qing Daoguang), Zhang Zhidong was born in an ordinary official family. Great-grandfather and grandfather were local officials such as magistrate of a county. His father, Zhang E, was promoted in his early years, and later tried to promote Guizhou from a magistrate and county magistrate to a magistrate in Xingyi.

1837, Zhang Zhidong was born in the official residence of Xingyi Prefecture (now Anlong County) and was the fourth son of Zhang Ai. 14 years old, 16 years old. Zhang Zhidong had natural intelligence in his childhood. He entered the family school at the age of five. Before 13, he had learned the Confucian classics such as the Four Books and the Five Classics, studied history, primary school (philology), literature and economics, and taught himself many military classics such as Sun Tzu's Art of War and Liu Tao, which laid a preliminary foundation for future politics and scholarship. 12 years old, publishing astronomical phenomena. Zhang Zhidong, a teenager, has the habit of reading and meditating at night. "If you taste lanterns and think, you will get a solution every night," he recalled. "When I was young, I often stayed up to study." This habit of working at night was once called "freedom of life", which affected the meeting with family members.

1850, Zhang Zhidong, who was under 14 years old, returned to his hometown Nanpiying County to try, won the top prize and entered the county school. Two years later, he won the first place in Shuntianfu Township Examination, and was qualified to take the exam and enter the Jinshi. With Zhang Zhidong's academic strength at that time, he should be admitted to the top scholar and Jinshi as soon as possible, but he was not admitted to Jinshi until he was 27 years old. In these eleven years, he helped his father to deal with military affairs, cope with the Miao uprising in Guizhou, get married and have children, and organize the funeral for his father. Naturally, he was too busy to take the exam. I will take the exam at the age of 23. Because his brother Zhang is the same examiner, he will avoid it as usual. The next year, I should take the exam in Cohen, but I failed for the same reason. /kloc-in 0/863, he got his wish, won the third place in Jinshi Ji, entered imperial academy, was awarded the title of seven-product editing, officially entered the official career and became a member of the bureaucratic class.