Zhang Jingxiu was first and second assigned as Anchashi (按察使) of the Guangxi and Jiangxi provinces by a Qing dynasty emperor.
(A Qing officer rank which corresponds to a vice governor nowadays.)
After he retired and returned to his home town Dongguan he lived in Keyuan.
Zhang was good at and fond of Chinese writing, painting, chess, poetry, antiquing, stone collecting, etc.
He invited friends, poets, scholars and painters to gather in Keyuan.