Zhang Shizhao was born in Changsha in Hunan. He entered Lianghu Academy of Chinese Literature in 1901 and was a classmate of Huang Xing, with whom he co-founded the Huaxing Party . In May 1903, he was appointed the chief editor of the Su Bao journal. After the paper was banned, he founded "Minyu Daily", whose name insinuated that people could not complain loudly, only murmur. Together with Yang Shouren, Cai Yuanpei, Cai E and others, he organized the Patriot Association in Shanghai. In these early years, Zhang took a radical position, rejecting Confucian culture in favor of Western values. His botched attempt to assassinate the Empress Dowager led him to flee. He went first to Japan, where he was much impressed with the advanced state of modernization, and then to Great Britain, where he enrolled at University of Edinburgh. This trip did not convince him of the virtues of the West, but brought about a reconciliation with traditional Chinese values. After the Xinhai Revolution, he joined the opposition to the Beiyang Military Government led by Yuan Shikai. In 1914 he founded and became the editor in chief of Jiayin , a conservative journal. In 1916 he fled once more to Japan, returning briefly to Beijing only to leave once again for Shanghai, then to Guangzhou, then again to Europe in 1921. At some point, he lent the young Mao Zedong some 20,000 yuan, perhaps because he had met Mao's father-in-law, Yang Changji while they were students in England. As the New Culture Movement of the 1910s gathered support among young intellectuals, Zhang stood against their allegiance to Western ideas and institutions. He promoted Classical Chinese writing and protested written vernacular Chinese, disputing for many years with Hu Shih, a pioneer of liberal Chinese. He insisted that China as an agrarian country could not absorb institutions developed in the industrial West. He advocated a political system organized around professions or "caucases" rather than European-style electoral democracy. In 1925, Zhang became Minister of Justice and Minister of Education in the government led by Duan Qirui. When student demonstrators ransacked Zhang's house in order to protest his support of Confucian ritual in the schools and suppression of student activism, in retaliation he fired their prominent hero, Lu Xun. In 1930, he was invited by Zhang Xueliang and became the dean of the school of Chinese literature at Northeast University in China. After the Mukden Incident, he went to Shanghai to work as a lawyer. After the Sino-Japanese War, he became a senator in the Republic of China Chongqing government. He returned to Shanghai later and resumed his law practice. In Spring of 1949, he was invited by Li Zongren as a KMT delegate and twice went to Beijing to negotiate with Chairman Mao, a fellow native of Changsha whom he had known many years before. Zhang stayed in China as the new government took control and spoke on its behalf to overseas Chinese. In May 1973, he flew to Hong Kong and coordinated the proposed Third KMT and CPC corporation. He died in Hong Kong on July 1, 1973 at age of 92. He had three sons: Zhang Ke, Zhang Yong, and Zhang Yin. Zhang Yong and Zhang Yin died young and were unmarried. Zhang Ke married in his 60s and did not have children. His adopted daughter was Zhang Hanzhi, who, at the suggestion of Mao Zedong, married the then recently widowed Qiao Guanhua.
