Background
Zhang Jiuling was born in 673, during the reign of Emperor Gaozong. His family was from Qujiang (曲江) in Shao Prefecture (韶州, roughly modern Shaoguan, Guangdong), which was at the time a relatively remote area of the Tang empire. His family traced its ancestry to the Jin Dynasty (265-420) chancellor Zhang Hua. His great-grandfather Zhang Junzheng (張君政) served as the secretary general of Shao Prefecture, and therefore settled there. His grandfather Zhang Zizhou (張子冑) served as a county magistrate, and his father Zhang Hongyu (張弘愈) served as a county secretary general.
Zhang Jiuling was said to be intelligent in his childhood and capable in literary skills. In 685, when he was 12, he had an occasion to write a letter to Wang Fangqing, then the prefect of Guang Prefecture (廣州, roughly modern Guangzhou, Guangdong). Wang was impressed and commented, "This child will do great things in the future." When the official Zhang Shuo was exiled to the region, he met Zhang Jiuling and was impressed, and treated Zhang Jiuling with kindness. Zhang Jiuling later passed the imperial examinations and scored the highest on that occasion. He was made a Xiaoshu Lang (校書郎), a clerk at the imperial institute Hongwen Paviliion (弘文館). Later, while Li Longji was crown prince under his father Emperor Ruizong (r. 710-712), he summoned those in the empire known for their literary talent and personally examined them. Zhang scored the highest on this occasion as well, and was made You Shiyi (右拾遺), a consultant at the legislative bureau of government (中書省, Zhongshu Sheng).
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