Qin and Han · Aristocrat

Zhang Fang 張放

Attested BC 33 - BC 7

Passages: 34
Chapters: 3
Histories: 1

Overview

The translated histories identify Zhang Fang as an aristocrat, family member, and official. This record brings together 34 passages from 3 chapters across 1 history, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Names

Type	English	Chinese	Pinyin
Personal	Zhang Fang	張放	Zhang Fang
Given	Fang	放	Fang
Given name	Fang	放	Fang
Personal name	Fang	放
Title	Marquis Zhang Fang	富平侯
Surname	Zhang	張	Zhang
Personal name	Zhang Fang	張放	Zhang Fang
Personal	Zhang Fang	張放	Zhāng Fàng
Personal name	Zhang Fang	放

Identity

Historicity: Historical
Identification: Named
Sex: Male

Sex: male
Explicit · hanshu:069:s0190
Value: male
Strongly inferred · hanshu:105:s0009

Roles

Aristocrat
Family Member
Official

Life and dates

Death

Cause: grief after Emperor Cheng's death
Explicit · hanshu:069:s0182

Attested activity

Source Date: Text: 張放 · Western Year: BC 17
Explicit · hanshu:069:s0154
Source Date: Text: 放子純嗣侯 · Western Interval: Start: BC 33 · End: BC 7
Explicit event contextual date · hanshu:069:s0190

Family

Immediate source-linked family. Drag to pan, scroll or pinch to zoom, and select a person to open their record.

Parent of Zhang Chun (張純)
Kinship Term: son / 子 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: son · Object Role: father
Kinship Term: father / 父 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: father · Object Role: son
Kinship Term: son / 子 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: father · Object Role: son
Child of Zhang Lin (張臨)
Kinship Term: son / 子 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: father · Object Role: son
Child of Princess Jingwu (敬武公主)
Kinship Term: son / 子 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: mother · Object Role: son
Spouse of Daughter of Xu Jia (許嘉女)
Kinship Term: wife / 妻 · Union Category: marriage · Subject Role: husband · Object Role: wife
Descendant of Zhang Anshi (張安世)
Line: paternal

Career and standing

Titles: palace attendant, grand coachman · Rank: middle two thousand piculs
Explicit · hanshu:069:s0180
Title: commandant of Hedong · Source Text: 何東都尉
Textual variant · hanshu:069:s0178
Title: commandant of Beidi
Explicit · hanshu:069:s0173
Title: commandant of the Tianshui dependent state
Explicit · hanshu:069:s0175
Titles: palace attendant, general of the household gentlemen
Explicit · hanshu:069:s0159
Title: marquis / 侯 · Action: held
Strongly inferred · hanshu:069:s0190
Text: Marquis of Fuping · Raw: 富平侯
Explicit · hanshu:117:s0041
Title: marquis of Fuping
Explicit · hanshu:105:s0163

Places and affiliations

Label: Han / 漢 · Relation: served
Strongly inferred · hanshu:069:s0190

Events and relationships

Kind: death · Role: subject · Action: wept-to-death · Other Person Id: Emperor Cheng (成帝)
Explicit · hanshu:069:s0182

References in the histories

Open any source group to read the Chinese and English passage in context.

Book of Han, Chapter 69Volume 59: Zhang Tang · 24 passages

薨，子放嗣。 When he died, his son Zhang Fang succeeded him.

臨子放 Lin's son: Zhang Fang.

鴻嘉中，上欲遵武帝故事，與近臣游宴，放以公主子開敏得幸。 During the Hongjia era Emperor Cheng wished to revive Emperor Wu's habit of informal outings and banquets with his inner circle. Zhang Fang, as the princess's son—quick-witted and polished—won exceptional favor.

放取皇后弟平恩侯許嘉女，上為放供張，賜甲第，充以乘輿服飾，號為天子取婦，皇后嫁女。 Zhang Fang married the daughter of Xu Jia, the Marquis of Ping'en and younger brother of the empress. The emperor staged the wedding himself, granted a mansion of the first rank, and filled it with wardrobe and ornaments from the imperial workshops, so that courtiers quipped it was as if the Son of Heaven had taken a bride and the empress had given her daughter away.

放為侍中、中郎將，監平樂屯兵，置莫府，儀比將軍。 Zhang Fang held concurrent rank as palace attendant and general of the household gentlemen, commanded the encamped troops at Pingyue, maintained a full staff, and enjoyed ceremonial honors equal to a field general.

太后以上春秋富，動作不節，甚以過放。 She rebuked Zhang Fang harshly, saying the emperor was still young and his conduct at court and abroad lacked restraint.

時數有災異，議者歸咎放等。 Omens and disasters multiplied at the time, and memorialists laid the blame at the door of Zhang Fang and his like.

於是丞相宣、御史大夫方進奏：「放驕蹇縱恣，奢淫不制。 Chancellor Xuan and Imperial Counselor Zhu Fangjin therefore submitted a joint memorial: "Zhang Fang is insolent, overbearing, and utterly without self-control—profligate and debauched beyond measure.

前侍御史修等四人奉使至放家逐名捕賊，時放見在，奴從者閉門設兵弩射吏，距使者不肯內。 When four attendant censors led by Xiu were sent to his house to arrest wanted men by name, Zhang Fang was at home. His slaves barred the gates, strung crossbows, and fired on the officers, defying the imperial messengers and refusing them entry.

奔自髡鉗，衣赭衣，及守令史調等皆徒跣叩頭謝放，放乃止。 The chief clerk's son Ben shaved his head and donned the convict's iron collar and red robe in token of submission, while the yeoman Diao and the other clerks went barefoot to Zhang Fang's gate to kowtow in apology—only then did he call off his men.

奴從者支屬並乘權勢為暴虐，至求吏妻不得，殺其夫，或恚一人，妄殺其親屬，輒亡人放弟，不得，幸得勿治。 His slaves and their hangers-on traded on his power: they murdered a magistrate whose wife they could not take, slaughtered the kin of anyone who offended them, then took refuge inside Zhang Fang's compound. When the authorities could not lay hands on them, they often walked away unpunished.

放行輕薄，連犯大惡，有感動陰陽之咎，為臣不忠首，罪名雖顯，前蒙恩。 Zhang Fang's conduct was reckless and he piled up grave crimes, enough to disturb the balance of nature. He stood first among disloyal ministers. His guilt was obvious, yet he had long enjoyed imperial indulgence.

臣請免放歸國，以銷眾邪之萌，厭海內之心。」 We beg that Zhang Fang be stripped of office and sent to his fief, to nip this evil in the bud and give the empire what it wants to hear."

上不得已，左遷放為北地都尉。 The emperor, unable to refuse outright, relegated Zhang Fang to commandant of Beidi.

太后以放為言，出放為天水屬國都尉。 At the empress dowager's insistence he was transferred out again, this time as commandant of the Tianshui dependent state.

永始、元延間，比年日蝕，故久不還放，璽書勞問不絕。 During the Yongshi and Yuanyan reign periods eclipses came year after year, so the emperor kept Zhang Fang away from the capital for a long stretch, though edicts of inquiry and reassurance followed him without cease.

居歲餘，徵放歸第視母公主疾。 After more than a year abroad he was allowed home to his mansion to nurse his mother, the princess, in her illness.

數月，主有瘳，出放為何東都尉。 When she had recovered several months later, he posted Zhang Fang as commandant of Hedong.

上雖愛放，然上迫太后，下用大臣，故常涕泣而遣之。 The emperor still loved Zhang Fang, but he could not withstand pressure from the empress dowager above and his ministers below, and more than once he dismissed him with tears in his eyes.

後復徵放為侍中光祿大夫，秩中二千石。 Later he recalled Zhang Fang to serve as palace attendant and grand coachman at the middle rank of two thousand piculs.

歲餘，丞相方進復奏放，上不得已，免放，賜錢五百萬，遣就國。 A year later Chancellor Zhu Fangjin renewed the attack. The emperor had no choice but to dismiss Zhang Fang, grant him five million cash, and order him to his fief.

數月，成帝崩，放思慕哭泣而死。 A few months later Emperor Cheng died. Zhang Fang grieved so deeply that he wept himself to death.

放子純 Zhang Fang's son: Zhang Chun.

放子純嗣侯，恭儉自修，明習漢家制度故事，有敬侯遺風。 Zhang Chun, Zhang Fang's son, succeeded to the marquisate. He was modest, frugal, and self-disciplined, thoroughly versed in Han institutions and precedent, and carried something of the old Marquis Jing's manner.

Book of Han, Chapter 105Volume 93: Flatterers · 4 passages

孝成時士人則張放、淳于長； under Emperor Cheng, Zhang Fang and Chunyu Chang;

附：張放 Appendix: Zhang Fang

始，長以外親親近，其愛幸不及富平侯張放。 Even at his height, Chang's intimacy never matched that of Zhang Fang, marquis of Fuping.

放常與上臥起，俱為微行出入。 Zhang Fang shared the emperor's bedchamber and roamed the city incognito at his side.

Book of Han, Chapter 117Volume 100a: Afterword and Family History 1 · 6 passages

自大將軍薨後，富平、定陵侯張放、淳于長等始愛幸，出為微行，行則同輿執轡； Once Wang Feng was gone, favorites such as Marquis Zhang Fang of Fuping and Marquis Chunyu Chang of Dingling won the emperor's intimacy: on town trips they slipped out in disguise, and on the road they shared his chariot and took the reins.

放等不懌，稍自引起更衣，因罷出。 Zhang Fang and his set scowled, excused themselves to change robes, and drifted out until the party collapsed.

宜遣富平侯且就國。」 She insisted that Marquis Zhang Fang of Fuping be ordered back to his estate for the time being."

車騎將軍王音聞之，以風丞相御史奏富平侯罪過，上乃出放為邊都尉。 When General of Chariots and Cavalry Wang Yin heard of this, he prompted the chancellor and the imperial counselor to memorialize the crimes of the Marquis of Fuping, Zhang Fang, and the emperor sent Fang out as a commandant on the frontier.

後復徵入，太后與上書曰：「前所道尚未效，富平侯反復來，其能默虖？」 Later, when he was summoned back again, the Empress Dowager wrote to the emperor, saying, "What I spoke of before has still not taken effect, and now the Marquis of Fuping has come back again. How can I remain silent?"

丞相方進復奏，富平侯竟就國。 After another memorial from Chancellor Fangjin, Zhang Fang finally went to his estate for good.