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.

[2] On a trip to Beijing in 1901 to arrange a suitable posting for himself as "Expectant Daotai," Zhang met the equally well-placed and adventurous Li Shizeng, son of a high Qing official.

After stopping over in Shanghai to meet Wu Zhihui, who was by then a well-known anti-Manchu revolutionary, Zhang and Li arrived in Paris as part of Sun's delegation on December 17, 1902.

Because of Zhang's position in China, the company was able to source high quality works of art directly, including items from the old Imperial Collection.

Although Zhang later dealt extensively on the Shanghai stock exchange, a great deal of his wealth and therefore the financing of the Nationalist (then Tongmenghui) cause, came from the profits created by the Ton-ying Company.

On a steamship returning from China to Europe in 1906, Zhang met and was entranced by Sun Yat-sen, the anti-Manchu revolutionist, giving him the first of many substantial contributions.

Zhang had been sworn into the society by Hu Hanmin and Feng Ziyou, two of Sun's important lieutenants (in view of his attacks on religion, they allowed him to omit the oath "by heaven").

In 1908, they started a journal, Xin Shiji (New Century), titled La Novaj Tempaj in Esperanto, funded by Zhang and edited by Wu.

When Ah Feng's family commissioned a detective report which found that Chiang was not only unemployed but also had a wife and concubine, Zhang reassured them that he would vouch for the young man's good intentions.

[10] Zhang also hit it off with Chen Lifu, another of Chiang's most important advisers and supporters, also from Zhejiang, organizer of the right-wing CC Clique [11] In 1923, Sun invited Soviet advisors to reorganize the Nationalist Party and incorporate the Chinese communists (First United Front), setting up an internal rivalry between the left and the right wings.

Zhang, as a right-wing leader, was elected to the Central Executive Committee (CEC), along with Li Shizeng, Wu Zhihui, and Cai Yuanpei, all from Zhejiang.

Chiang Kai-shek built his rise to power and subsequent long political life on his ability to skillfully using this and other groups for a certain time, then shifting his support to opposing factions to keep both friends and enemies off balance.

[15] The radical left wing of the party, led by Wang Jingwei, who set up its own headquarters at Wuhan, mounted a campaign with the slogan "Down With The Muddle-headed, Old and Feeble Zhang Jingjiang."

[16] A Soviet advisor recalled that Zhang "was able to generate incredible energy in the struggle with the leftists and Communists" even though he could not walk and had to be carried upstairs in his wheelchair.

[17] In April 1927, Zhang and the other Four Elders urged Chiang Kai-shek to purge the leftists and initiate the White Terror which killed thousands.

[19] The four friends from anarchist days of cultural exchange and education in France collaborated on the National Labor University, which revived two abandoned factories and used them for Work–Study.

The Commission confiscated a number of private mines and power companies, though its influence was soon undercut by the National Economic Council headed by T. V. Soong.

[18] Over the next few years, Zhang continued to play a profitable and influential role in Shanghai financial circles, sometimes in conjunction with Soong, sometimes in rivalry.

Zhang suppressed rural unrest, perhaps to avoid the opposition of landlords and local elites to his projects for building infrastructure for the power industry, as well as heading the National Reconstruction Commission.

[23] It is said that when he heard the news of the Japanese attack on Shanghai in 1931, he was struck with the strength of the Chinese proverb "the strong making meat of the weak," and became a vegetarian.

In 1937, at the age of fifty-four, in spite of failing health and financial strains, he decided to take his family to live in Hong Kong, then left for Europe.

When his daughter, who was living in Taipei, heard the news, she did not have the courage to inform Chiang Kai-shek directly, fearing the lingering enmity between the two men.

The marriage produced five daughters: Therese 蕊英 (1901?- 1950); Yvonne 芷英(1902–1975); Suzanne 芸英 (1904- 1998); Georgette (荔英 Liying; 1906–1993); Helen (菁英 Jingying 1910–2004).

They object to Sterling Seagrave's The Soong Dynasty, for instance, which says that Zhang's disease "crippled one of his feet and thereafter gave him the lurching gait of Shakespeare's Richard III.

[32] Zhang was a successful investor and business man and one of his investments was a European style neighbourhood in Shanghai, Jing'an Villa, which still stands today.