Zhāng Huá 張華
WèiJìn polymath, statesman, and bówù (universal-knowledge) scholar, zì Màoxiān 茂先. Native of Fāngchéng 方城, Fànyáng 范陽 (modern Héběi). Lived 232–300; killed in the Bāwáng zhī luàn (Disturbance of the Eight Princes), 9th-month 300, by Sīmǎ Lún 司馬倫.
His career: rose through the late-Wèi and early-Jìn courts to Sīkōng 司空 (Minister of Works) and Tàizǐ shàofù; renowned as a man of universal learning, in part the inspiration for the Jìn-period bówù (universal-knowledge) genre. His Bówùzhì 博物志 is the foundational text of this genre — a wide-ranging collection of natural-history, mythological, and geographical anecdotes.
The Qínjīng 禽經 (KR3i0045) is pseudepigraphically attributed to him as commentator (the commentary text being attributed to Zhāng Huá while the main text is attributed to the legendary Spring-and-Autumn musician Shī Kuàng). The Sìkù editors have firmly established that the Qínjīng and its “Zhāng Huá commentary” are both forgeries — the commentary references late texts (Gù Yěwáng’s Ruìyìng tú and Rén Fǎng’s Shùyì jì) postdating Zhāng Huá by centuries; the work is a Sòng-period fabrication.
Zhāng Huá’s Bówùzhì is genuine; his attested poetry and political writings survive in standard WèiJìn anthologies.