Qin and Han · Official

Zhang Tang 張湯

Attested BC 141 - BC 87

Passages
132
Chapters
15
Histories
3

Overview

The translated histories identify Zhang Tang as an aristocrat, judge, official, and statesman. This record brings together 132 passages from 15 chapters across 3 histories, with names, dates, relationships, offices, and events preserved as source-backed claims.

Names

TypeEnglishChinesePinyin
Personal Zhang Tang 張湯 Zhang Tang
Title Commandant of Justice 廷尉 Tingwei
Title Imperial Counselor 御史大夫 Yushi Dafu
Title Imperial Counselor Zhang Tang 御史大夫張湯 Yushi dafu Zhang Tang
Personal Tang 湯
Given Tang 湯 Tang
Given Tang 湯 Tāng
Given name Tang 湯 Tang
Given name Tang 湯
Surname Zhang 張 Zhāng
Surname Zhang 張 Zhang
Personal Zhang Tang 張湯
Personal name Zhang Tang 張湯 Zhang Tang
Personal Zhang Tang 張湯 Zhāng Tāng
Personal name Zhang Tang 張湯 Zhāng Tāng
Surname 張 Zhang
Surname 湯 Tang
Given 湯 Tang

Identity

Historicity
Historical
Identification
Named
Sex
Male

Roles

  • Aristocrat
  • Judge
  • Official
  • Statesman

Life and dates

Death

Attested activity

  • Source Date: Text: 元鼎中 · Western Interval: Start: BC 116 · End: BC 111
    Explicit event contextual date · hanshu:068:s0192, hanshu:068:s0204
  • Source Date: Text: 其後人有上書欲通褒斜道 · Western Year: c. BC 120
    Explicit · shiji:029:s0045
  • Source Date: Text: 孝武時 · Western Year: BC 120
    Explicit event contextual date · hanshu:025:s0182
  • Source Date: Text: 張湯本居杜陵 · Western Interval: Start: BC 141 · End: BC 87
    Explicit event contextual date · hanshu:069:s0192
  • Source Date: Text: 御史大夫七歲，敗 · Western Year: BC 116
    Explicit · hanshu:069:s0001
  • Source Date: Text: 武帝 · Western Interval: Start: BC 141 · End: BC 87
    Explicit event contextual date · hanshu:059:s0173, hanshu:101:s0094
  • Source Date: Text: 武帝時期 · Western Interval: Start: BC 126 · End: BC 115
    Explicit event contextual date · shiji:120:s0050, shiji:120:s0076, shiji:120:s0115
  • Source Date: Text: 漢…張湯 · Western Year: BC 120
    Explicit event contextual date · qingshigao:142:s0019
  • Source Date: Text: 漢興六十餘載 · Western Interval: Start: BC 141 · End: BC 87
    Explicit event contextual date · hanshu:068:s0254, hanshu:068:s0258
  • Source Date: Text: 贊曰 · Western Interval: Start: BC 141 · End: BC 87
    Explicit event contextual date · hanshu:069:s0193, hanshu:069:s0195

Family

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

  • Child of Zhang Tang's father
    Kinship Term: father / 父 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: son · Object Role: father
  • Parent of Zhang Anshi (張安世)
    Kinship Term: father / 父 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: father · Object Role: son
    Kinship Term: son / 子 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: father · Object Role: son
    Kinship Term: son / 子 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: son · Object Role: father
  • Child of Zhang Tang's mother (湯母)
    Kinship Term: mother / 母 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: son · Object Role: mother
  • Parent of Ang (卬)
    Kinship Term: son / 子 · Parentage: biological · Subject Role: father · Object Role: son

Origins and identity

Career and standing

Places and affiliations

Works and attributed material

Events and relationships

Assessments and attributes

  • Assessment: cruel and fierce; came under blame himself · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment
    Explicit · hanshu:069:s0195
  • Assessment: fixing statutes (定令) · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment
    Explicit · hanshu:068:s0258
  • Assessment: promoted the worthy and spoke well of others; deserved posterity · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment
    Explicit · hanshu:069:s0195
  • Assessment: 深文慘刻 / twisted law into cruel severity · Provenance: Mode: historian-judgment
    Explicit · qingshigao:142:s0019

Source notes

  • Field: ancestry · Statement: Sima Qian does not state shared ancestry with the Marquis of Liu; the historian therefore omits it · Witness Person Id: Sima Qian (太史公)
    Explicit · hanshu:069:s0193

References in the histories

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

Book of Han, Chapter 25Volume 23: Treatise on Punishment and Law · 1 passage
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Book of Han, Chapter 27Volume 24b: Treatise on Trade 2 · 6 passages
Open chapter
Book of Han, Chapter 38Volume 29: Treatise on Rivers and Canals · 3 passages
Open chapter
Book of Han, Chapter 59Volume 50: Zhang, Feng, Ji and Zheng · 11 passages
Open chapter
張湯以更定律令為廷尉，黯質責湯於上前，曰：「公為正卿，上不能褒先帝之功業，下不能化天下之邪心，安國富民，使囹圄空虛，何空取高皇帝約束紛更之為？ When Zhang Tang rewrote the code and became commandant of justice, Ji An cornered him in open court: "As chief minister you neither celebrate the founder's legacy nor reform public morals, bring peace to the realm, fill the granaries, nor clear the jails—why do you busy yourself tearing apart the statutes Gaozu left behind?
Book of Han, Chapter 65Volume 56: Dong Zhongshu · 1 passage
Open chapter
Book of Han, Chapter 68Volume 58: Gongsun Hong, Bu Shi and Er Kuan · 8 passages
Open chapter
漢之得人，於茲為盛，儒雅則公孫弘、董仲舒、兒寬，篤行則石建、石慶，質直則汲黯、卜式，推賢則韓安國、鄭當時，定令則趙禹、張湯，文章則司馬遷、相如，滑稽則東方朔、枚皋，應對則嚴助、硃買臣，歷數則唐都、洛下閎，協律則李延年，運籌則桑弘羊，奉使則張騫、蘇武，將率則衛青、霍去病，受遺則霍光、金日磾，其餘不可勝紀。 Never did the dynasty gather talent so thickly: Hong, Dong, and Kuan for classical breadth; the Shi brothers for steadfast service; Ji An and Bu Shi for blunt loyalty; Han Anguo and Zheng Dangshi for lifting others; Zhao Yu and Zhang Tang for codifying law; Sima Qian and Xiangru for voice; jesters Dongfang Shuo and Mei Gao; debaters Yan Zhu and Zhu Maichen; calendar-makers Tang Du and Luoxia Hong; the harmonist Li Yan'nian; the reckoner Sang Hongyang; envoys Zhang Qian and Su Wu; blades Wei Qing and Huo Qubing; regents Huo Guang and Jin Midi—and a cloud of names besides.
Book of Han, Chapter 69Volume 59: Zhang Tang · 61 passages
Open chapter
湯掘熏得鼠及余肉，劾鼠掠治，傳爰書，訊鞫論報，並取鼠與肉，具獄磔堂下。 Tang excavated the burrow, smoked the rat out, recovered the leftover meat, then drew up a formal accusation against the creature. He subjected it to interrogation under torture, filed the written record of the inquest, examined it, passed sentence, and reported the outcome. He produced the rat and the meat as evidence, closed the entire case, and had the convict torn apart alive in the courtyard.
嚴助、伍被，上欲釋之，湯爭曰：「伍被本造反謀，而助親幸出入禁闥，腹心之臣，乃交私諸侯如此，弗誅，後不可治。」 The emperor wanted to pardon Yan Zhu and Wu Bei. Tang objected: "Wu Bei helped lay the plot from the beginning, and Yan Zhu enjoyed intimate access to the inner apartments—he was a minister of the ruler's inmost counsels—yet he secretly conspired with the kings. If they are not put to death, the law will never again command respect."
湯承上指，請造白金及五銖錢，籠天下鹽鐵，排富商大賈，出告緡令，鋤豪強並兼之家，舞文巧詆以輔法。 Reading the emperor's wishes, Tang proposed minting the white-metal currency and the five-zhu coin, bringing the empire's salt and iron under state monopoly, squeezing the great merchant houses, promulgating the "report-your-neighbor's-wealth" statute, and breaking up powerful clans that engrossed land and labor—all the while bending the statutes to give the policy a legal veneer.
會人有盜發孝文園瘞錢，丞相青翟朝，與湯約俱謝，至前，湯念獨丞相以四時行園，當謝，湯無與也，不謝。 Then robbers broke into the burial mound in Emperor Wen's mausoleum park and stole the consecrated coins. At court Chancellor Zhuang Qingzhai agreed with Tang that they would both apologize. When they came before the throne, Tang reflected that only the chancellor made the seasonal rounds of the shrines and therefore bore responsibility; he himself had nothing to do with it, so he offered no apology.
Book of Han, Chapter 70Volume 60: Du Zhou · 3 passages
Open chapter
Book of Han, Chapter 74Volume 64a: Yan, Zhu, Wuqiu, Zhufu, Xu, Yan, Zhong, Wang, and Jia 1 · 7 passages
Open chapter
Book of Han, Chapter 75Volume 64b: Yan, Zhu, Wuqiu, Zhufu, Xu, Yan, Zhong, Wang, and Jia 2 · 3 passages
Open chapter
世稱公孫弘排主父，張湯陷嚴助，石顯譖捐之，察其行跡，主父求欲鼎亨而得族，嚴、賈出入禁門招權利，死皆其所也，亦何排陷之恨哉！ Posterity blames Gongsun Hong for sidelining Zhufu Yan, Zhang Tang for ruining Yan Zhu, and Shi Xian for destroying Jia Juanzhi—yet examine how these men lived. Zhufu Yan clawed after the honors of the high minister's tripod and instead won the execution of his entire kin; Yan Zhu and Jia Juanzhi used their passes through the forbidden gates to peddle influence and line their pockets. Each fell by his own doing; there is little cause to nurse a grudge against those who merely 'squeezed' or 'framed' them.
Book of Han, Chapter 101Volume 89: Upright Officials · 3 passages
Open chapter
Book of Han, Chapter 102Volume 90: Cruel Officials · 9 passages
Open chapter
Draft History of Qing, Chapter 142Volume 142 Treatises 117: Penal Law 1 · 1 passage
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Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 29Treatise on Rivers and Canals · 3 passages
Open chapter
Records of the Grand Historian, Chapter 120Biographies of Ji and Zheng · 12 passages
Open chapter
張湯方以更定律令為廷尉，黯數質責湯於上前，曰：「公為正卿，上不能褒先帝之功業，下不能抑天下之邪心，安國富民，使囹圄空虛，二者無一焉。 Zhang Tang had recently been appointed Commandant of Justice, tasked with revising the laws. Ji An repeatedly challenged him before the Emperor, declaring: 'You serve as Chief Justice, yet you have neither upheld the legacy of the former emperors above nor suppressed the wickedness in the hearts of the people below. You have failed to bring peace and prosperity to the nation, and the prisons remain full—you have accomplished neither of these goals.