Early Life
Zhang Tianxi was born in 346, the same year that his father Zhang Jun died, and it is not known whether he was born before or after his father's death. His mother was Zhang Jun's concubine Lady Liu (but see her article on confusion about his mother's identity).
Not much is known about Zhang Tianxi's early life other than that in 354, when his older brother Zhang Zuo formally broke away from Jin, Zhang Zuo created him the Marquess of Changning. Sometime either during Zhang Zuo's reign or that of his nephew Zhang Xuanjing, who became ruler after the violent and arbitrary Zhang Zuo was overthrown in 355, Zhang Tianxi visited the Jin capital Jiankang, and it was this time that his non-standard, three-character courtesy name Gongchungu was apparently joked about, so he dropped the initial character "Gong" and made it Chungu.
Read more about this topic: Zhang Tianxi
Famous quotes related to early life:
“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)