Early Life
He was born under the name Kui Sheng, and also as Zhang Guang Bi. Zhang Tian Ran was his official religious name. He was also known as Kung Chang (Kung and Chang are the two readings of the character Zhang). Zhang was born on the 19th day of the 7th Lunar month in 1889, in Jining prefecture, northern province Shandong. In 1908, Zhang married with a woman named Zhu, but Zhu died a year later. Two years later Zhang married again to a woman of the surname Liu.
He left home and traveled to Nanjing and Shanghai. At age 24, Zhang joined the army as a low ranking military officer. Zhang was then initiated in I-Kuan Tao in 1914. The 17th patriarch Lu Zhongyi heard the conduct of Zhang and told Zhang to join in Jining. Lu died in 1925, and was succeeded by his sister, Lu Zhongjie who temporarily looked after I Kuan Tao for 6 years. In 1930, Venerable Zhang and Sun Su Zhen became the 18th patriarch.
Read more about this topic: Zhang Tianran
Famous quotes related to early life:
“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)