Zhāng Xíngchéng 張行成
Style name Wénráo 文饒 (also recorded as Zǐráo 子饒). Native of Línqióng 臨卭 (in Sìchuān). Active mid-12th century; flourished c. 1130s–1170s. Birth and death years not securely recorded.
The principal Southern-Sòng heir of the Shàoshì 邵氏 mathematical-cosmological school. The Sìkù 提要 of KR3g0006 Huángjí jīngshì suǒyǐn records that he served as Chéngdūfǔlù tíxiásī gànbàn gōngshì (Sìchuān provincial-circuit administrative officer); subsequently retired (qǐcí ér guī); in Qiándào 2 (1166), the imperial court accepted his presented Yìshuō (Studies of the Yì) as kěcǎi (worthy of selection) and appointed him Zhí Huīyóu Gé 直徽猷閣. According to Wāng Yìngchén’s 汪應辰 Yùshān jí, Zhāng Xíngchéng later served as Zhī Tóngchuānfǔ (Magistrate of Tóngchuān prefecture).
His principal work is the Yìshuō qīzhǒng 易說七種 (Seven Yì-Studies, in 7 separate works) presented to the throne in 1166, of which two survive in the Sìkù:
(1) Huángjí jīngshì suǒyǐn 皇極經世索隱 (KR3g0006) in 2 juàn — a commentary-and-elaboration on Shào Yōng’s KR3g0005 Huángjí jīngshì shū, supplementing Shào Bótāo’s earlier commentary by explicating the xiàngshù (image-and-number) cosmological apparatus that Shào Bótāo had not fully addressed.
(2) Yuánbāo shù zǒngyì 元包數總義 (in 2 juàn, appended to KR3g0003 Yuánbāo jīngzhuàn) — extensive cosmological-numerological supplement to the Wèi Yuánsōng Yuánbāo jīng.
Other entries in the broader Zhāng Xíngchéng oeuvre (some preserved in the Sìkù under separate KR3g entries): Yìshū 易書, Yìtōng 易通, Yìtú 易圖, etc. Through Zhāng Xíngchéng the Shàoshì cosmological tradition entered the Southern-Sòng Confucian-philosophical mainstream and provided the methodological foundation for the subsequent SòngYuánMíng Huángjí-related literature.