Zhang Juzheng

Zhang Juzheng
張居正
47th Senior Grand Secretary
In office 1572–1582
Monarchs	Longqing Wanli
Preceded by	Gao Gong
Succeeded by	Zhang Siwei
Grand Secretary
In office 1567–1582
Monarchs	Longqing Wanli
Personal details
Born	26 May 1525 Jiangling, Huguang
Died	9 July 1582(1582-07-09) (aged 57) Jingshi
Spouse	Lady Liu
Children	7
Education	juren degree in the provincial examination held by Huguang province (1540) jinshi degree (1547)
Other names	Zhang Jiangling[a]
Courtesy name	Shuda[b]
Art name	Taiyue[c]
Posthumous name	Wenzhong[d]
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	張居正
Simplified Chinese	张居正
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Zhāng Jūzhèng Wade–Giles Chang1 Chü1–cheng4 IPA [ʈʂáŋ tɕýʈʂə̂ŋ]

Zhang Juzheng (26 May 1525 – 9 July 1582), courtesy name Shuda, art name Taiyue, also known as Zhang Jiangling, was a prominent grand secretary during the reigns of Ming emperors Longqing and Wanli. In 1547, he passed the highest level of official examinations and was granted the rank of jinshi. He then served at the Hanlin Academy. In 1567, he was appointed as the grand secretary to the Longqing Emperor, and upon the ascension of the Wanli Emperor in 1572, he became the head of the grand secretaries.

During the early years of the Wanli Emperor's reign, Zhang Juzheng played a crucial role as the emperor's mentor and de facto ruler of China due to the emperor's immaturity. His decisive foreign and economic policies led to one of the most successful periods in the Ming history.^[1] Influenced by the Mongol raids of the 1550s, Zhang Juzheng aimed to "enrich the country and strengthen the army" through legalistic methods rather than Confucian principles.^[2] He played a key role in centralizing the administration, limiting various privileges, and revising land tax exemptions.^[1] However, after Zhang's death in 1582, many of his reforms and policies were reversed, and in 1584 his family was stripped of their accumulated property and wealth.^[1] It was not until more than half a century later, just before the fall of the Ming dynasty, that he was finally rehabilitated.

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