Zhāng Gēn 張根
Style name Zhīcháng 知常; hào (sobriquet) Wúyuán 吳園 (“Wú-Garden”). Native of Déxīng 德興 in Ráozhōu 饒州 (modern eastern Jiāngxī). Lifedates 1062–1121 (CBDB; the Kanripo catalog gives 1061–1120, a one-year-off variant). The Sòngshǐ (juan 356) gives him a brief biography.
Jìnshì of 1081 (Yuánfēng 4) at age twenty. Held a series of central and provincial offices under Zhézōng and Huīzōng, rising in the Dàguān 大觀 era (1107–1110) to Huáinán zhuǎnyùn shǐ 淮南轉運使 (“Fiscal Commissioner of the Huáinán Circuit”); died at home with the rank of Cháosàn dàfū 朝散大夫. Father of Zhāng Tāo 張燾, who served the Southern Sòng court under Xiàozōng as Vice Privy Councillor (Cānzhī zhèngshì 參知政事) and obtained a posthumous elevation of his father’s rank to “Grand Tutor” (Tàishī 太師), as recorded by his grandson Zhāng Gāi 張垓 in the postface to the present text.
His scholarly output was substantial — Zhāng Gāi’s postface lists several hundred juan of Sòngcháo biānnián 宋朝編年 (“Annal-Style History of the Sòng”) and commentaries on the Five Classics and the various philosophers; Cháo Gōngwǔ’s Dúshū zhì lists a further Chūnqiū zhǐnán 春秋指南 in ten juan. Of all this, only the Yì-commentary survives:
- [[KR1a0019|Wúyuán Zhōuyì jiě]] 吳園周易解 in nine juan — the only of his works to come down complete, with a Tài 泰 hexagram essay appended that is read as a zhī wēi 識微 (“perceiving the subtle”) prediction of the late-Huīzōng political collapse.
A modern punctuated edition is in the Sìkù WYG reprints; no Zhōnghuá shūjú critical edition has been issued.