In ancient China, large canals for river transport were established as far back as the Warring States ( 481 – 221 BC ), the longest one of that period being the Hong Gou ( Canal of the Wild Geese ), which according to the ancient historian Sima Qian connected the old states of Song, Zhang, Chen, Cai, Cao, and Wei.

Early reference to the Chinese export of ivory is recorded after the Chinese explorer Zhang Qian ventured to the west to form alliances to enable for the eventual free movement of Chinese goods to the west ; as early as the first century BC, ivory was moved along the Northern Silk Road for consumption by western nations.

Vega is mentioned in a Chinese legend about Zhang Qian, though some argue that the historical person is not the subject of the legend ; he just shared a name.

Zhang read many of the great works of history in his day and claimed he had found ten instances where the Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian ( 145 – 90 BC ) and the Book of Han by Ban Gu ( AD 32 – 92 ) differed from other ancient texts that were available to him.

Also in the 2nd century BC, the Han dispatched the explorer Zhang Qian to explore the lands to the west and to form an alliance with the Yuezhi people in order to combat the nomadic tribe of the Xiongnu.

Emperor Wu of Han sent Zhang Qian to explore the west world and to discover other confederates against Xiongnu.

* Zhang Qian, Chinese diplomat and explorer

He sent Zhang Qian to find allies against the Xiongnu.

Zhang Qian did not succeed, but he brought back accurate information about Central Asia.

In 194, Cao Cao went to war with Tao Qian of Xu Province, because Tao's subordinate Zhang Kai had murdered Cao Cao's father Cao Song.

The weakness of the Greco-Bactrian empire was shown by its sudden and complete overthrow, first by the Sakas, and then by the Yuezhi ( who later became known as Kushans ), who had conquered Bactria by the time of the visit of the Chinese envoy Zhang Qian ( circa 127 BC ), who had been sent by the Han emperor to investigate lands to the west of China.

Zhang Qian taking leave from emperor Han Wudi, for his expedition to Central Asia from 138 to 126 BC, Mogao Caves mural, 618 – 712 AD.

The name Daxia appears in Chinese from the 3rd century BC to designate a mythical kingdom to the West, possibly a consequence of the first contacts with the expansion of the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom, and then is used by the explorer Zhang Qian in 126 BC to designate Bactria.

The reports of Zhang Qian were put in writing in the Shiji (" Records of the Grand Historian ") by Sima Qian in the 1st century BC.

By the time Zhang Qian visited Daxia, there was no longer a major king, and the Bactrian were suzerains to the nomadic Yuezhi, who were settled to the north of their territory beyond the Oxus ( Amu Darya ).

Overall Zhang Qian depicted a rather sophisticated but demoralized people who were afraid of war.

The central Asian sections of the trade routes were expanded around 114 BC by the Han dynasty, largely through the missions and explorations of Zhang Qian, but earlier trade routes across the continents already existed.

This came around 130 BC, with the embassies of the Han Dynasty to Central Asia, following the reports of the ambassador Zhang Qian ( who was originally sent to obtain an alliance with the Yuezhi against the Xiongnu ).

* Zhang Qian begins his explorations in central Asia for Chinese emperor Han Wu Di.

* Zhang Qian, Chinese explorer and diplomat ( b. 195 BC )

138 – 126 BC: Zhang Qian travels west to Bactria and returns with first information on the Western Regions.

The Han Dynasty made preparations for war when the Han Emperor Wu dispatched the explorer Zhang Qian to explore the mysterious kingdoms to the west and to form an alliance with the Yuezhi people in order to combat the Xiongnu.

While Zhang Qian did not succeed in this mission, his reports of the west provided even greater incentive to counter the Xiongnu hold on westward routes out of China, and the Chinese prepared to mount a large scale attack using the Northern Silk Road to move men and material.

According to Zhang Qian, the Yuezhi were defeated by the rising Xiongnu empire and fled westward, driving away the Saka ( Sai ).

The university dates back to the Ziqiang Institute ( Simplified Chinese: 自强学堂 ; Traditional Chinese: 自強學堂 ; Pinyin: Zìqiáng Xuétáng ), which was founded in 1893 by Zhang Zhidong 张之洞, governor of Hubei and Hunan Provinces in the late Qing Dynasty.

( Traditional historians attribute Gao's death to Gao's refusal to keep Chen Shubao's Consort Zhang alive in 589.

* 1981 – Zhang Yaokun, Chinese footballer

An American-Chinese-Hong Kong-Taiwanese co-production, the film was directed by Ang Lee and featured an international cast of ethnic Chinese actors, including Chow Yun-Fat, Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi, and Chang Chen.

* 1979 – Zhang Ziyi, Chinese actress

* 1988 – Zhang Jike, Chinese table tennis player

As the Chinese Ambassador to the FSM Zhang Weidong observed on the 20th anniversary of relations between the two countries, trade between China and the FSM had gone from " almost zero to $ 9. 5 million in 2007.

The model of an egg was often used by Chinese astronomers like Zhang Heng ( 78-139 AD ) to describe the heavens as spherical:

Image: Spring Outing of the Tang Court. jpg | Spring Outing of the Tang Court, by Zhang Xuan, 8th century, Chinese

Image: Meister nach Chang Hsüan 001. jpg | Ladies making silk, a remake of an 8th-century original by Zhang Xuan by Emperor Huizong of Song, early 12th century, Chinese

Robert Temple quotes an account from Zhang Yan's Zhongdou xinshu ( 種痘新書 ), or New book on smallpox inoculation, written in 1741 during the Qing Dynasty ( 1644 – 1912 ), which shows how the Chinese process had become refined up until that point:

* 1901 – Zhang Xueliang, Chinese warlord ( d. 2001 )

* 1984 – Zhang Hao, Chinese figure skater

* 1987 – Zhang Lin, Chinese swimmer

General Zhang shrewdly blocked the Communists of Vietnam, and Ho Chi Minh from entering the league, as his main goal was Chinese influence in Indo China.

* 1991 – Zhang Yixing, Chinese / Korean singer

* 1978 – Zhang Zhong, Chinese chess player

* 1948 – Zhang Chengzhi, Chinese author

Zhang Heng (; AD 78 – 139 ) was a Chinese astronomer, mathematician, inventor, geographer, cartographer, artist, poet, statesman, and literary scholar from Nanyang, Henan.

A 2nd-century Lacquerware | lacquer-painted scene on a basket box showing famous figures from Chinese history who were paragons of filial piety ; Zhang Heng became well-versed at an early age in the Five Classics | Chinese classics and the philosophy of China's earlier sages.

In addition to recording heavenly observations and portents, preparing the calendar, and reporting which days were auspicious or not, Zhang was also in charge of an advanced literacy test for all candidates of the Imperial Secretariat and Censorate ( who were expected to know at least 9, 000 Chinese characters and all major writing styles ).

As Chief Astronomer, Zhang Heng earned a fixed salary and rank of 600 bushels of grain ( which was mostly commuted to payments in Chinese coins | coinage currency or bolts of silk ), and so he would have worn a specified type of robe, ridden in a specified type of carriage, and held a unique emblem that marked his status in the official hierarchy.