Zeus \'ziis\ In Greek religion, the chief deity of the pantheon, a sky and weather god. His Roman counterpart was Jupiter. Zeus was regarded as the bearer of thunder and lightning, rain, and winds, and his traditional weapon was the thunderbolt. The son of Cronus and Rhea, he was fated to dethrone his father. He divided dominion over the world with his brothers Poseidon and Hades. As ruler of heaven, Zeus led the gods to vic¬ tory against the Titans. From his home atop Mount Olympus, he dis¬ pensed justice and served as protec¬ tor. Known for his amorousness—a source of perpetual discord with his wife, Hera —he had many love affairs with mortal and immortal women, giving rise to numerous off¬ spring, including Apollo, Ares, Arte¬ mis, Athena, Dionysus, Helen,
Hephaestus, and Persephone. In art he was represented as a bearded, dignified, and mature man.
Zeuxis Vziik-S3s\ (fl. late 5th century-early 4th century bc, Heraclea, Magna Graecia) Greek painter. Though none of his work survives, his style and subject matter were recorded by ancient writers. He advanced the trend toward illusionism through the use of shadow to produce a rudi¬ mentary form of chiaroscuro. Apparently he was a panel painter rather than a wall painter. He preferred small compositions, often a single fig¬ ure; his subjects were gods and heroes and such genre figures as an old woman, an athlete, and a still life.
Zenobia, portrait bust; in the Vatican Museum, Rome
ANDERSON-GIRAUDON FROM ART RESOURCE
Zeus hurling a thunderbolt, bronze statuette from Dodona, Greece, early 5th century bc; in the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Germany
COURTESY OF THE STAATLICHE MUSEEN ZU BERUN, ANTIKENABTEILUNG
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Zhang Daoling ► Zheng He I 2107
Zhang Daoling or Chang Tao-ling Vjaq-'dau-'liqV (b. ad 34?, Pei, Jiangsu province, China—d. 156?, Hanzhong) Founder and first patriarch of organized religious Daoism. Zhang composed a Daoist work that attracted many followers among Chinese and indigenous groups in Sichuan. Like contemporary Daoists, he promised longevity and physical immortality, but, unlike others, he emphasized the importance of religious organization. He founded the Five Pecks of Rice movement. Zhang, his son, and his grandson are known as the Three Zhangs. While the Daodejing was the basic text, Zhang’s Xiang’er commentary interpreted it to suit the organization’s needs.
Zhang Daqian or Chang Ta-ch'ien (b. May 10, 1899, Neijiang, Sichuan province, China—d. April 2, 1983, Taipei, Taiwan) Chinese painter and collector. As a young man, he meticulously studied and cop¬ ied the works of ancient masters; he gained notoriety in Shanghai for his forgeries. Zhang extended his career to the north in the late 1920s, when he became active in the cultural circles of Beijing. He began to collabo¬ rate with the well-known Beijing painter Pu Xinyu, and together they became known as “South Zhang and North Pu.” In 1940 Zhang led a group of artists to the caves of Mogao and Yulin for the purpose of copy¬ ing their Buddhist wall paintings. The group completed over 200 paint¬ ings, and the experience left Zhang with a repository of religious imagery. During this period he became particularly known for his lotus paintings, inspired by works from the Tang-Song era. In reaction to the political cli¬ mate, Zhang left China in the early 1950s and traveled throughout the world. He developed eye problems in the late 1950s, and, as his eyesight deteriorated, he developed his mature splashed-colour ( pocai ) style. His work in this style fetched the highest market prices for contemporary Chinese paintings at international auctions of the time.
Zhang Juzheng Chang Chu-cheng Vjaq-'jii-'joqX (b. 1525, Jiang- ling, Hubei province, China—d. 1582, Beijing) Powerful Chinese minis¬ ter of the Ming dynasty under the Longqing and Wanli emperors. His benevolent rule and strong foreign and economic policies are considered to have brought the Ming dynasty to its peak. He is credited with cen¬ tralizing government, limiting special privileges, and reclaiming tax- exempt land.
Zhang Yimou Vjaq-'ye-'moV (b. Nov. 14, 1950, Xi’an, China) Chinese film director. He began his film career as a cinematographer, and his work for Chen Kaige’s The Yellow Earth (1983) helped launch the “Fifth Gen¬ eration,” filmmakers who brought back sensuality and emotion to Chi¬ nese movies. Zhang made his directorial debut with Red Sorghum (1987), which starred Gong Li in the first of her acclaimed roles. Noted for his technical mastery, he also directed films such as Ju Dou (1990), Raise the Red Lantern (1991), The Story of Qiu Ju (1992), To Live (1994), and Hero
( 2002 ).
Zhang Zai or Chang Tsai Yjaq-'dzA (b. 1020, Chang’an, China—d. 1077, China) Realist philosopher of the Song dynasty. The son of a mag¬ istrate, he studied Buddhism and Daoism before being inspired by the Confucian classics. In his Cheng-meng , he declared the universe a unity with myriad aspects and all existence an eternal integration and disinte¬ gration. Ren (humaneness) is the basic virtue, and morality consists in doing one’s duty as a member of society and of the universe.
Zhang Zhidong or Chang Chih-tung Yjaq-jir-'d6q\ (b. Sept. 2, 1837, Xingyi, Guizhou province, China—d. Oct. 4, 1909) Chinese clas¬ sicist and one of the foremost reformers of his time. From 1862 to 1882 he was a scholar and educational director; from 1882 to 1907 he rose from a provincial to a national leader. He supported the dowager empress Cixi, who in turn favoured him with many promotions. Concerned with reju¬ venating China, he searched for a way for China to survive in the mod¬ ern world that could accommodate Western knowledge but preserve traditional ways. His attempt to launch China’s first iron-and-steel works failed, but he later built a railway that extended from Hankou to near Beijing, and he founded a mint, tanneries, tile and silk factories, and paper, cotton, and wool mills. In response to China’s defeat in the Sino-Japanese War, Zhang turned his attention to education, encouraging study abroad for Chinese students, establishment of a school system, translation of Western and Japanese books, and acquisition of knowledge from foreign newspapers. He also urged that civil service examinations be abolished, which occurred in 1905. See also Zeng Guofan.
Zhang Zuolin or Chang Tso-lin Vjaq-dzo-'linX (b. March 19, 1875, Haicheng, Liaoning province, China—d. June 4, 1928, Shengyang, Lia¬ oning) Chinese warlord. After fighting in the Sino-Japanese War (1894-
95), Zhang organized a self-defense militia in his native district. By 1912 he was in command of a division, and he set out to dominate Manchuria (northeastern China), relying on the tacit support of the Japanese, to whom he granted concessions in Manchuria. In 1918 he became inspector gen¬ eral of Manchuria’s three provinces, which he ruled as a virtually autono¬ mous state. In 1920 he pushed south into China proper and in 1924 took Beijing, but his troops had to abandon their position in the face of Chiang Kai-shek’s 1927 Northern Expedition. Zhang was killed by a bomb planted by Japanese extremists who hoped his death would provoke the Japanese into occupying Manchuria.
Zhao Youqin (b. July 26, 1271, Poyang, China—d. c. 1335, Longyou Mountains, Zhejiang province) Chinese astronomer, mathematician, and Daoist philosopher. He was one of the patriarchs of the northern branch of the Quanzhen (“Complete Perfection”) sect of Daoism. His astronomi¬ cal treatise Gexiang xinshu (“New Writing on the Symbol of Alteration”) presents his cosmological theory featuring a flat Earth inside a spherical Heaven, his explanation of the lunar and solar eclipses, and his experi¬ ments with a camera obscura. The book also describes his methods of remote surveying with gnomons to measure the distance from the Earth to the Sun, the Moon, and the stars, as well as his procedure for calcu¬ lating the value of n. His Xian Fo tongyuan (“On the Common Origins of [the Teachings of] Transcendentals and Buddhas”) is devoted to the “Inner Alchemy,” an esoteric discipline focusing on the attainment of immortality via respiratory and meditative practices.