Zhang Taiyan, known as Meishu (courtesy name), was born in Zhejiang, China. Zhang is a renowned philosopher, historian, sinology scholar and anti-Qing revolutionist. As one of Yu’s students (Yue Yu, 1821-1906, a great litterateur, educator, calligrapher and scholar in paleography), Zhang specialized in Chinese classics and education of Chinese classics. To help beginners learn Chinese characters. Zhang developed a system called "Jiyin zimu" based on seal script. The system is adopted as the basis of "Zhuyin", which is still used in Taiwan. Politically, Zhang, together with Yat-sen Sun (1866-1925, the founding father of Republican China), Xing Huang (1874-1916) and Jiaoren Song (1882-1913) are recognized as central figures in Chinese revolutions against Qing dynasty. Zhang worked with Sun to overthrow Qing dynasty; however, after a short period of cooperation, they separated their efforts due to an ideological conflict. In 1898, Zhang escaped to Taiwan from threats of the Qing government. He worked as a journalist for Taiwan Riri Xinbao (daily newspaper) and used it to criticize the corruption of Qing dynasty. The house Zhang lived in Taiwan is now located at Bopilao Historical Block in Taipei. A part of its space is preserved in memory of Zhang Taiyan.
