acting director of taxation (判戶部, Pan Hubu). Later in the year, when Zhu carried out a purge of many prominent Tang officials at the instigation of Liu and Li Zhen (in which, among others, Pei, Dugu, Cui, and other former chancellors Lu Yi and Wang Pu were killed), Liu had initially prepared an even larger list of officials to purge. It was said that it was at Zhang's urging that the purge was not expanded. After Liu himself was killed by Zhu around the new year 906, Zhang also took over the duties of the directors of finances and salt and iron monopolies. In 907, Emperor Ai was preparing to yield the throne to Zhu Quanzhong. As part of the ceremonial passage of the throne, Zhang, acting as the head of the legislative bureau (中書令, Zhongshu Ling), was put in charge of announcing the passage of the throne. He, as well as Yang (who was to deliver the main imperial seal to Zhu) and Xue Yiju (who was to deliver the secondary imperial seals), went in a grand procession from Luoyang to Daliang (i.e., the capital of Xuanwu Circuit), where Zhu was at the time, for the ceremony. Zhu accepted the throne, ending Tang and starting a new Later Liang (as its Emperor Taizu). It was said that, at a subsequent feast that the new emperor held for Zhang and the other Tang officials, most of them, including Zhang, were prostrate and unable to speak. During Later Liang After the transition to Later Liang, Zhang remained chancellor. He was said to be the drafter of much of the regulations that the Later Liang imperial government used. When Emperor Taizu left Luoyang in 908 to battle the state of Jin (i.e., the lands ruled by Li Cunxu the Prince of Jin, who refused to recognize the new Later Liang regime), he left Zhang in charge of Luoyang. Zhang died later in 908, while still serving as a Later Liang chancellor. Notes and references Old Book of Tang, vol. 178. History of the Five Dynasties, vol. 18. New History of the Five Dynasties, vol. 35. Zizhi Tongjian, vols. 265, 266. 9th-century births 908 deaths Chancellors under Emperor Ai of Tang Later Liang (Five Dynasties) chancellors Later Liang (Five Dynasties) people born during Tang