23 Facts About Zhang Renjie

Zhang Renjie, born Zhang Jingjiang, was a political figure and financial entrepreneur in the Republic of China.

Zhang Renjie studied and worked in France in the early 1900s, where he became an early Chinese anarchist under the influence of Li Shizeng and Wu Zhihui, his lifelong friends.

Zhang Renjie became wealthy trading Chinese artworks in the West and investing on the Shanghai stock exchange.

Zhang Renjie was born September 13,1877, in Wuxing, Zhejiang, but his family's ancestral home was Nanxun, Zhejiang Province, where his grandfather was a prosperous salt and silk merchant.

Li quickly resigned his official position to study French and biology, but Zhang Renjie did not resign until 1905.

Zhang Renjie told friends of the anti-religion and anti-family theories which he had adopted.

On his return to Paris, Zhang Renjie led Wu and Li to join Sun's Tongmenghui, the more politically radical of the anti-Manchu groups.

Zhang Renjie had been sworn into the society by Hu Hanmin and Feng Ziyou, two of Sun's important lieutenants.

In 1908, they started a journal, Xin Shiji, titled La Novaj Tempaj in Esperanto, funded by Zhang Renjie and edited by Wu.

Zhang Renjie was one of the organizers of the Diligent Work-Frugal Study Movement, which sent worker-students to France.

Zhang Renjie used his money and charm to make friends in many parts of Shanghai society, including the underworld, and especially among those from Zhejiang province.

When Chen was assassinated, apparently on orders of Yuan Shikai, Zhang Renjie took over Chen's role as Chiang's mentor.

At their wedding, Zhang Renjie delivered a speech wishing the couple happiness and success.

Zhang Renjie hit it off with Chen Lifu, another of Chiang's most important advisers and supporters, from Zhejiang, organizer of the right-wing CC Clique.

When Sun died in 1925, Zhang Renjie was one of the witnesses to his deathbed Political Will, and was elected to the new State Council which convened in Canton.

Zhang Renjie had introduced Chiang to his second wife, Jennie, who was a friend of his wife, Yimin, and had felt aggrieved when Chiang abandoned her for Soong Mei-ling.

In 1927, after the success of the Northern Expedition and the alliance with the wealthy Soong family, Chiang perhaps was in less need of Zhang Renjie's help, and might have feared Zhang Renjie's growing power.

Zhang Renjie oversaw the first stage of the removal of more than half of the Imperial Collections to Shanghai in 1933 following the Japanese invasion of Manchuria.

From November 1928 to January 1930, Zhang Renjie was governor of Zhejiang, his and Chiang Kai-shek's home province.

Zhang Renjie suppressed rural unrest, perhaps to avoid the opposition of landlords and local elites to his projects for building infrastructure for the power industry, as well as heading the National Reconstruction Commission.

Zhang Renjie kept his position in the National Reconstruction Commission but found that Chiang did not grant it enough money for its work.

In 1920, Zhang Renjie met and married Zhu Yimin in Shanghai.

Zhang Renjie was a successful investor and business man and one of his investments was a European style neighbourhood in Shanghai, Jing'an Villa, which still stands today.