[1] After the Second Sino-Japanese War began in 1937, he left Beijing for his hometown Changsha and was appointed Professor and President of Hsiang-Ya.

[3][4] His advocacy of changing Hsiang-Ya to a national university, was supported by Minister of Education, Chen Lifu, and approved by the Republic of China government in 1940.

When Mao Zedong cracked down on dissent in the ensuing Anti-Rightist Campaign, he spared Zhang, a fellow Hunanese native, from persecution, calling him a "simpleminded person who has been manipulated by others".

His son, Zhang Youshang, is a biochemist and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences who served as Vice President of the Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry.

His youngest son, Zhang Youhui (张友会), is an oncologist and former President of the Cancer Institute of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.