Zhang Haipeng 張海鵬

Zhang Haipeng 張海鵬 (1755-1816), courtesy name Ruoyun 若云 or Ziyu 子瑜, was a Qing period 清 (1644-1911) collector and publisher. He hailed from Changshu 常熟, Jiangsu, and began collecting books at an early age, especially such from the Jin 金 (1115-1234) and Yuan 元 (1279-1368) periods.

His own library was called Airijinglu 愛日精廬. He acquired books from the libraries of the late Ming period 明 (1368-1644) collectors Qian Zeng 錢曾 (1629-1701) and Mao Jin 毛晉 (1599-1659) when these were dissolved. Zhang Haipeng's motto was that it was his duty to lend out books to his friends, like Chen Kui 陳揆 (1780-1825) or Huang Jingjian 黃廷鑒 (1762-1842), or to print them to bring them into a wider circulation. This was in his eyes better than simply collecting or even reading books.

Huang Tingjian wrote the books Cangshu eryou ji 藏書二友記, in which he described the intimate friendship with Zhang Haipeng. Zhang accordingly revised Mao Jin's old series Jindai mishu 津逮秘書 and published it in a new form with the title of Xuejin taoyuan 學津討源.

He also published the series Mohai jinhu 墨海金壺 that specializes on Song period 宋 (960-1279) books, and the Jieyue shangfang huichao 借月山房匯抄 that focuses more on Ming and early Qing period books of all literary genres and categories. The three series published by Zhang Haipeng deeply contributed to the spread and survival of important ancient texts.

In his later years Zhang Haipeng run into debts, and the books of his library were confiscated by the creditors. He died at the age of 62. His own writings are to be found in the book Jinzhoubian 金帚編.