Zhang Zongchang was born on March 4th, 1882 (15th day of the first lunar month). Because this day is the Shangyuan Festival, also known as the Lantern Festival, there is a folk saying that "the 15th day of the first month is an official", and Zhang Zongchang is nicknamed "the official of the lamp". Zhang Zongchang received a brief private school education when he was young, which laid the foundation for Zhang Zongchang to read and write later. Shu named it Zhang Zongchang, which means to prosper the Zhang family. As a teenager, Zhang Zongchang was often hungry and cold. In order to make a living, Zhang Zongchang spared cattle and worked as a porter, hotel waiter and so on. His miserable childhood not only made him feel the coldness of the world prematurely, but also honed his will and enhanced his adaptability to the harsh environment. 1897, Jiaodong suffered another famine year, and the people were poor, so Zhang Zongchang fled to other places. During his wandering in the northeast, he did odd jobs, carried long-term jobs and let the old rich family graze. 1899 Zhang Zongchang was recruited as a middle east railway road builder. During this period, I worked as a loader and a switchman. Because Zhang Zongchang is tall, dare to do heavy work, generous, value righteousness over profit, he has gained great prestige among workers and gradually gained the favor of Russians. And learn to speak fluent and accurate Russian. After that, he went to Siberia as the chief foreman to search for gold. When I was the chief foreman in a gold mine, I not only learned excellent gold panning techniques, but also trained myself as an excellent hunter who shot wild animals and developed a set of very accurate marksmanship.
Zhang Zongchang is known as the "three don't know" general, that is, soldiers don't know how much, money doesn't know how much, and concubines don't know how much.
Zhang Zongchang felt that since he was Confucius' father and mother, he didn't bring some tenderness, so he made a trip to Shandong for nothing. So I learned from the teacher on the spot. After some hard work, Zhang Zongchang's skills improved greatly, and soon he published poems and distributed them to friends and lovers. There are many poets in China for a hundred years, but few poets like Zhang Zongchang still have poems and are remembered.
Zhang Zongchang is addicted to gambling. The local people in Liaodong call playing dominoes "eating dog meat", while Zhang Zongchang is often a scoundrel. All the people who gambled were his subordinates, so they didn't dare to offend him, so they had to call him' General Dog Meat' secretly. "