Zhang Zhidong's ancestral home is Nanpi, Zhili. He was born in Xingyi Prefecture (now Anlong County), Guizhou Province. He was called "Shuai" when he was governor, so everyone called him "Zhang Xiangshuai".

a famous minister in the late Qing Dynasty and a representative of the Westernization School in the Qing Dynasty. In the second year of Xianfeng (1852), at the age of sixteen, Shuntian was the third scholar to explore flowers in the second year of Tongzhi (1863) at the age of twenty-seven, and he was awarded editing by the Imperial Academy. He has served as a teacher, waiter, lecturer, bachelor of cabinet, governor of Shanxi, governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, governor of Huguang, governor of Liangjiang (acting for many times, but never granted) and minister of military aircraft. Brief introduction of people's deeds

Zhang Zhidong was the leader of the Qing school in his early years and later became the main representative of the Westernization School. In terms of education, he founded Ziqiang School (predecessor of Wuhan University), Sanjiang Normal School (predecessor of Nanjing University), Hubei Agricultural School (predecessor of Huazhong Agricultural University), Hubei Wuchang Mengyang Institute, Hubei Craft School, Ci 'en School (Nanpi No.1 Middle School), Guangya Academy, etc.

Politically, it advocates "taking middle school as the body and western learning as the application". Industrially, Hanyang Iron Works, Daye Iron Mine and Hubei Guns Factory were established. When Eight-Nation Alliance invaded, Dagu Fort fell, and Zhang Zhidong, together with Liu Kunyi, Governor of Liangjiang River, negotiated "mutual insurance in the southeast" with the consuls in Shanghai, and suppressed the independent army uprisings of reformists such as Tang Caichang, Lin Gui and Qin Lishan.

in the thirty-fourth year of Guangxu (198), in November, he was appointed as an important official of Prince Jin Taibao, and died of illness the following year. There is The Complete Works of Zhang Wenxiang. Zhang Zhidong, Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang and Zuo Zongtang are also called "four famous ministers of ZTE in the late Qing Dynasty".