Zhang Xuecheng

His father and his grandfather had been government officials, but, although Zhang achieved the highest civil service examination degree in 1778, he never held high office.

[1] His biographer, David Nivison, comments that while his countrymen did not think him a great literary artist, "the infrequent western reader will find his style often both moving and powerful."

In Zhang's view, Confucianism developed over time in response to the concrete needs of the people for social organization.

Zhang's most famous quotation is that "the six classics are all history" (liù jīng jiē shǐ 六經皆史).

This means that the canonical texts of Confucianism are not to be understood as repositories of timeless wisdom, but as records of the actions and words of the sages in response to specific historical contexts.