Zhang Zhu

Who was Zhang Zhu?

Zhang Zhu, courtesy name Zhongju, was a Yuan Dynasty poet.

A native of Jining, Yunnan, he brought himself into notice by his poetry, and was subsequently employed upon the histories of the Liao, Later Jin, and Song dynasties, rising to be a Doctor in the Hanlin Academy and holding other high offices. He was the author of a collection of verses. His phrase "cataclysm of the red sheep", is still used in the sense of "great calamity."

"In the hexagenary system of calendrical calculation, the years bingwu and dingwei in the cycle were believed to be years in which national disasters would occur. In the ten heavenly stems bing and ding, the first character in each combination, belong to the element fire, and their color is red; furthermore, of the zodiac animal signs for the twelve earthly branches, the sheep stands for wei. Hence, the "calamity of the red sheep.""