Zhang Renjie
| Zhang Renjie | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
Zhang Jingjiang (張靜江) 19 September 1877 Wuxing, Zhejiang, China |
| Died |
2 September 1950 (aged 72) New York City |
| Occupation | Entrepreneur, political figure |
Zhang Renjie (Chinese: 張人傑; Wade–Giles: Chang Jen-chieh; 19 September 1877 − 3 September 1950), born Zhang Jingjiang (Chinese: 張靜江; Wade–Giles: Chang Ching-chiang), was a political figure and financial entrepreneur in the Republic of China. He studied and worked in France in the early 1900s, where he became an early Chinese Anarchist under the influence of Li Shizeng and Wu Zhihui, his lifelong friends. He became wealthy trading Chinese artworks in the West and investing on the Shanghai stock exchange. Zhang gave generous financial support to Sun Yat-sen and was an early patron of Chiang Kai-shek. In the 1920s, he, Li, Wu and the educator Cai Yuanpei were known as the fiercely anti-Communist Four Elders of the Chinese Nationalist Party.
Zhang was born September 13, 1877, in Wuxing, Zhejiang, but his family's ancestral home was Nanxun, Anhui Province, where his grandfather was a prosperous salt and silk merchant. Zhang's father, Zhang Baoshan (张宝善, 1856–1926), developed the family business, and married into a family of Shanghai silk compradores which had extensive contacts among Western businesses.
As a boy, Zhang was adventurous and bright; he enjoyed both riding horses and calligraphy, memorized classics, and was especially good at Chinese Chess. As a child he suffered from a form of arthritis, which continued to affect him for the rest of his life, and an eye condition which eventually required him to wear dark glasses. Yet he was a sociable child. So self-confident was he that he gave himself the name "Renjie," meaning "outstanding personality." Zhang's grandfather, convinced that Renjie should become an official, purchased the office of "Expectant Daotai" for him. The family arranged a marriage for him with Yao Hui, and the first of his five daughters was born in 1901.
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