Zhāng Héng 章衡
Northern-Sòng official and historian, zhuàngyuán of Jiāyòu 2 / 1057 (the famous jìnshì class that included the Sū brothers and Zēng Gǒng — Zhāng Héng took the top zhuàngyuán place). Zì Zǐpíng 子平. Native of Pútián 莆田 (modern Fújiàn). CBDB id 12964 confirms jìnshì / zhuàngyuán of 1057. Lifedates conventionally 1025–1099.
Career under Rénzōng, Yīngzōng, and Shénzōng: rose to Hànlín xuéshì 翰林學士, Lǐbù shìláng 禮部侍郎, Bìshūjiàn 祕書監; served on the Yuánfēng guān zhì (institutional reform) commission; held provincial governorships at Húzhōu 湖州 and Sūzhōu 蘇州. Distinguished as one of the small group of Northern-Sòng zhuàngyuán who had genuine scholarly substance — Sū Shì in his Húzhōu shàng Sū gōng dào shū warmly recalls him.
Sole surviving major work: the Biānnián tōng zǎi 編年通載 (KR2b0027) in originally 10 juǎn, presented to Shénzōng in Xīníng 7 / 1074. The work is a synoptic universal-history chronicle from Yáo to the Sòng dīngwèi (1067), in some 200,000 characters covering 3,400 years — the most condensed Northern-Sòng universal-chronicle. Substantially lost; the SBCK base preserves a 4-juǎn fragment (here labeled cán 殘 in the catalog title). Sūn Yuǎnjǐng 孫元景 of the late Northern Sòng wrote a printer’s preface for the work in defending it as a corrective to the Jìshì běnmò tendency. Zhū Xī read it (his comments preserved in the Zhūzǐ yǔlèi).
Also composed Sān cháo bǎo dìng 三朝寶錠 (lost) and various biǎo, zhuàng, and zòu yì. Sòng shǐ has no separate biography; biographical fragments are scattered in Sòng huì yào jí gǎo and in Sū Shì’s collected works.