Zhang Tingyu was a Han Chinese

Han Chinese

Han Chinese are an ethnic group native to China and are the largest single ethnic group in the world.Han Chinese constitute about 92% of the population of the People's Republic of China , 98% of the population of the Republic of China , 78% of the population of Singapore, and about 20% of the...

 politician and historian during the Qing Dynasty

Qing Dynasty

The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....

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Zhang Tingyu was born in Tongcheng

Tongcheng

Tongcheng City is a county-level city in Anhui under the jurisdiction of Anqing City. Its population is 744,000 and its area is 1571 square kilometers...

 in Anhui

Anhui

Anhui is a province in the People's Republic of China. Located in eastern China across the basins of the Yangtze River and the Huai River, it borders Jiangsu to the east, Zhejiang to the southeast, Jiangxi to the south, Hubei to the southwest, Henan to the northwest, and Shandong for a tiny...

 province. In 1700, he was awarded the highest degree (jinshi) in the imperial examinations and shortly afterwards he was appointed to the Hanlin Academy

Hanlin Academy

The Hanlin Academy was an academic and administrative institution founded in the eighth century Tang dynasty China by Emperor Xuanzong.Membership in the academy was confined to an elite group of scholars, who performed secretarial and literary tasks for the court. One of its main duties was to...

. He subsequently rose through the ranks in the Qing civil service and served under the Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong emperors. Zhang Tingyu was especially trusted by the Yongzheng emperor, who made him one of the first members of the Grand Council

Grand Council

The Grand Council or Junjichu was an important policy-making body in the Qing Empire. It was established in 1733 by the Yongzheng Emperor...

, an informal state organ which would, in due course, develop into the emperor's own privy council. His colleagues included renowned figures like Ma Qi

Ma Qi

Ma Qi was a Chinese Muslim warlord in early 20th century China.-Early life:His grandfather Sa-la Ma , is a Salar. He was born in 1869 in Daohe, now part of Linxia, Gansu, China. His father was Ma Haiyan...

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Zhang was an upstanding civil service officer and highly praised for both his upright character and principled background. Having considerable skill in literature, he compiled the History of Ming

History of Ming

The History of Ming is one of the official Chinese historical works known as the Twenty-Four Histories of China. It consists of 332 volumes and covers the history of Ming Dynasty from 1368 to 1644, which was written by a number of officials commissioned by the court of Qing Dynasty, with the lead...

in 1739. There is some confusion as to whether he or another trusted officer Longkodo

Longkodo

Longkodo was an eminent Manchu-Chinese official at court from the Tunggiya Clan, belonging to the Bordered Yellow Banner, during the Qing Dynasty...

 was the principal announcer of the will of Kangxi. Zhang was the only official to survive the battles of succession from Kangxi to Yongzheng to Qianlong, and was trusted by all three emperors.

See also

• Twenty-Four Histories
  Twenty-Four Histories
  The Twenty-Four Histories is a collection of Chinese historical books covering a period from 3000 BC to the Ming Dynasty in the 17th century. The whole set contains 3213 volumes and about 40 million words...