後梁時代

張延朗生年不詳，生于汴州開封縣（今河南省開封市）。後梁時代，以租庸吏為鄆州（今山東省泰安市東平縣）糧料使。

後唐時代

唐莊宗時代

923年，後唐莊宗李存勖派大將李嗣源攻克鄆州，李存勖任命李嗣源為天平軍節度使（治鄆州）。李嗣源再以張延朗為糧料使。李嗣源在924年轉任宣武軍節度使（治開封府），925年轉任成德節度使（治恆州，今河北省石家莊市正定縣），張延朗跟隨他，擔任元從孔目官。張延朗工于心計，善事權貴。把他的女兒嫁給了安重誨的兒子。

唐明宗時代

926年，李存勖在首都洛陽死于興教門之變。李嗣源監國，任命中門使安重誨為樞密使，鎮州別駕張延朗為副使。

監國李嗣源下發教令，譴責租庸使孔謙侵占剝奪，使軍民貧困的罪行，將他處死。唐僖宗乾符以後，天下喪亂，國用空乏，始置租庸使，用兵無常，隨時調發聚斂，兵罷即止。後梁以租庸使領天下錢財糧食，廢戶部、度支、鹽鐵之官。這時撤消了租庸使和內勾司，依照舊例設鹽鐵、戶部、度支三司，委託宰相一人專門管理。李嗣源稱帝後，張延朗為莊宅使。927年六月初十日，李嗣源任命宣徽北院使張延朗兼判三司。張延朗改任忠武軍節度使（治許州，今河南省許昌市）。928年，李嗣源正準備攻打義武軍節度使（治今河北省保定市定州市）王都，下詔宣徽使張延朗和北面各位將領商議討伐王都。張延朗跟隨王晏球討伐王都，後唐軍打敗王都和援助王都的遼朝軍隊。

930年，張延朗為特進、行工部尚書，充當三司使，兼判戶部、度支、鹽鐵。三司使之名自此始。張延朗號為有心計，然無所建樹。隨後，張延朗改任泰寧軍節度使（治兗州，今山東省濟寧市兗州區）、雄武軍節度使（治秦州，今甘肅省天水市）。

唐末帝時代

934年，李嗣源的養子李從珂即位，文州都指揮使成延龜把全州軍民投降後蜀。張延朗擔任雄武節度使，領兵包圍了文州（今甘肅省隴南市文縣），階州刺史郭知瓊攻下尖石寨。後蜀李延厚帶領果州兵屯紮在當時已被蜀國占領的興州，派遣先登指揮使范延暉領兵救援文州，張延朗便解除了對文州的包圍而歸去。十二月初九，李從珂徵召雄武節度使張延朗為中書侍郎、同中書門下平章事、判三司。

936年，唐末帝懷疑河東節度使（治所在今山西省太原市）石敬瑭勾結契丹謀亂，與李崧等人商議。李崧和呂琦主張把逃亡後唐的耶律倍送回契丹、用大約值十多萬緡的禮物、錢財議和契丹，讓他不要幫助石敬瑭。張延朗主管三司，也支持他們的意見：「按學士的策劃，不但可以制約河東，也可以節省戍邊費用十分之九，計謀沒有比這更好的了。如果主上聽從了這個意見，只要責成老夫去辦理就行了，可以在國家財庫之外去搜集，以供其用。」薛文遇認為遼太宗會讓唐末帝的女兒嫁給他（或者他的兒子）進行和親，唐末帝因此改變了看法，從此群臣不敢再提和親的建議。

唐末帝任命石敬瑭為天平節度使（治今山東省泰安市東平縣），任用馬軍都指揮使、河陽節度使宋審虔為河東節度使。石敬瑭于是反唐，向遼太宗求援。遼太宗發軍援助，他們在晉安寨打敗了後唐張敬達指揮的軍隊。唐末帝的兒子雍王李重美願意代替父親向北方征討。唐末帝開始同意。然而,張延朗、劉延朗、劉皇后的兄弟劉延皓都勸末帝親征，末帝不得已，從洛陽出發。張延朗想解除趙延壽樞要機務，支持盧文紀的提議，讓皇帝留在河陽。派趙延壽北上聯合父親盧龍節度使（治今北京市）趙德鈞，阻擊河東、契丹聯軍。張延朗建議普遍搜集天下將吏以及民間的馬，又發動百姓當兵，每七戶出一個征夫，自己準備鎧甲兵器，稱作「義軍」，定期在十一月全部集中，命令陳州刺史郎萬金訓練他們的戰陣知識和技能。結果只得到馬二千餘匹，征夫五千人，沒有多大用處，但民間卻因此受到很大騷擾。

隨後，張敬達大軍面臨飢餓，唐將楊光遠殺害張敬達，然後投降。唐末帝回到河陽，命令諸將分守南、北城。張延朗請求唐末帝再去滑州，以便同魏博聲勢相接，唐末帝沒能作出決定。石敬瑭被遼國封為後晉皇帝，打敗了趙德鈞和趙延壽的軍隊，前往洛陽。唐末帝絕望，與家人縱火自焚，後唐滅亡。石敬瑭隨後進入洛陽。

死亡

石敬瑭在河東時，受到後唐朝廷的猜忌，張延朗不願讓河東有更多的積蓄，于是把除了應該留供地方使用的財物以外，全部收取上繳，石敬瑭因此怨恨他，十一月二十七日，百官入宮朝見，石敬瑭把張延朗扣押交付御史台究辦，其餘的都謝恩免究。十一月二十九日，石敬瑭實行大赦：只有張延朗、劉延皓、劉延朗不能寬貸；將中書侍郎、平章事馬胤孫、樞密使房、宣徽使李專美、河中節度使韓昭胤等予以除名。他把張延朗斬首，接著選拔三司使，難于有合適人選，石敬瑭很是後悔。

Background and service during Later Liang

It is not known when Zhang Yanlang was born, but it is known that he was from Kaifeng. During Later Liang, he served as an administrator under the director of material pricing, later becoming the material pricing adjustor at Yun Prefecture (鄆州, in modern Tai'an, Shandong).

During Later Tang

During Li Cunxus reign

In 923, Li Siyuan, a major general for Later Liang's archrival Later Tang, which was then ruled by Li Siyuan's adoptive brother Li Cunxu, captured Yun Prefecture in a surprise attack, and was subsequently commissioned by Li Cunxu as the military governor (Jiedushi) of Tianping Circuit (天平, headquartered at Yun). Zhang Yanlang came under his command, and he had Zhang continue to serve as the material pricing adjustor. Later (after Later Tang destroyed Later Liang later in 923), when as Li Suyuan was moved to Xuanwu Circuit (宣武, headquartered at Kaifeng) (in 924) and later Chengde Circuit (成德, headquartered in modern Shijiazhuang, Hebei) (in 925), Zhang followed him to those assignments and served as the circuit treasurer. At some point, Zhang fostered his relationship with Li Siyuan's chief strategist An Chonghui by giving a daughter in marriage to An's son.

During Li Siyuans reign

In 926, Li Cunxu was killed in a mutiny at the capital Luoyang. Li Siyuan claimed the throne thereafter. He made An Chonghui his chief of staff, and An, on account of the marital relationship between his son and Zhang Yanlang's daughter, had Zhang made the deputy chief of staff.

Meanwhile, Li Siyuan had executed Li Cunxu's director of material pricing, Kong Qian, under the rationale that Kong's harsh taxes had driven the people against Li Cunxu. The directorate of material pricing — which Later Liang had established to replace Tang's three financial agencies (taxation, treasury, and salt and iron monopolies) and merge them into one — was abolished. Rather, the three agencies were reestablished, at least in name, as separate agencies, and typically placed under the command of a chancellor. In 927, Zhang, who was then also carrying the title of director of palace affairs (宣徽使, Xuanhuishi), was made the acting director of the three agencies, but continued to also serve as the director of palace affairs. He was also apparently, at the same time, serving as the military governor of Zhongwu Circuit (忠武, headquartered in modern Xuchang, Henan). In 928, when Li Siyuan was preparing to launch a general campaign against the warlord Wang Du the military governor of Yiwu Circuit (義武, headquartered in modern Baoding, Hebei) after Wang Du had tried to, but failed to, assassinate the imperial general Wang Yanqiu, it was Zhang that Li Siyuan sent to the front to consult with Wang Yanqiu and the other generals stationed nearby to determine the strategy. Later, when the Khitan Empire sent an army to try to aid Wang Du, Zhang and Wang Yanqiu both commanded armies in defeating the joint Yiwu/Khitan army.

In 930, Zhang Yanlang was given the titles of acting minister of public works (工部尚書, Gongbu Shangshu) and director of the three agencies (三司使, Sansishi). This was the first time that anyone was given the title of Sansishi. (He was later, though, made the military governor of Taining Circuit (泰寧, headquartered in modern Jining, Shandong), and then of Xiongwu Circuit (雄武, headquartered in modern Tianshui, Gansu), although it was unclear whether these assignments were made during or after Li Siyuan's reign.)

During Li Congkes reign

In 934 — by which time Li Siyuan's adoptive son Li Congke was emperor — Zhang Yanlang was serving as the military governor of Xiongwu. That year, the commander of the army at Wen Prefecture (文州, in modern Longnan, Gansu), Cheng Yangui (成延龜), surrendered the prefecture to Later Shu. Zhang launched his army and put Wen Prefecture under siege. When the Later Shu general Li Yanhou (李延厚) sent a relief force, however, Zhang lifted the siege and withdrew, allowing Later Shu to retain Wen. Shortly after, Li Congke recalled him from Xiongwu, made him Zhongshu Shilang (中書侍郎, the deputy head of the legislative bureau of government (中書省, Zhongshu Sheng)), and made him a chancellor with the designation Tong Zhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi, as well as acting director of the three financial agencies.

In early 936, Li Congke, concerned that his brother-in-law (the husband of Li Siyuan's biological daughter the Princess of Jin), Shi Jingtang the military governor of Hedong Circuit (河東, headquartered in modern Taiyuan, Shanxi), would rebel, consulted a number of imperial officials on what to do to ward off a Hedong rebellion. Lü Qi advocated entering into an alliance with the Khitan by submitting a large financial gift to the Khitan. Zhang was very supportive of Lü's proposal, believing that not only would it ward off a Hedong rebellion, but it would create great savings in border defenses. He and Lü therefore drafted a proposed communique to the Khitan. However, when Li Congke consulted the imperial scholar Xue Wenyu (薛文遇), Xue not only opposed, but persuaded Li Congke that it would be humiliating, particularly because the Khitan Emperor Taizong may insist on marrying Li Congke's daughter (or have a Khitan prince do so) under the Heqin system. Li Congke thus rejected the proposal. Meanwhile, over the years he served as Li Congke's acting director of the three agencies, Zhang, apprehensive of a possible Hedong rebellion, tried to reduce the amount of revenues Shi had access to by strictly examining the tax revenues from Hedong, allowing the circuit to retain only the amount of revenues it was entitled to keep legally and requiring it to submit all other tax revenue to the imperial government, drawing Shi's resentment.

Later in the year, when Li Congke tried to test Shi's loyalty by transferring him to Tianping, Shi rebelled and, with a Khitan force commanded by Emperor Taizong himself aiding him, defeated the Later Tang force Li Congke sent against him, commanded by Zhang Jingda. The remnants of Zhang Jingda's army was surrounded by the Hedong/Khitan forces at Jin'an Base (晉安寨, near Taiyuan). Upon Zhang Jingda's defeat, Li Congke's young son Li Chongmei the Prince of Yong volunteered to command another Later Tang army against the combined Hedong/Khitan forces, and initially Li Congke was inclined to agree. However, Zhang Yanlang, Liu Yanlang, and Li Congke's brother-in-law Liu Yanhao (brother of Li Congke's wife Empress Liu), all advocated that Li Congke himself command the army, despite Li Congke's own lack of desire to do so. Li Congke felt compelled to do so. Zhang, not trusting Li Congke's chief of staff Zhao Yanshou, also had Zhao removed from the scene by supporting fellow chancellor Lu Wenji's proposal to have Li Congke send Zhao north to rendezvous with Zhao's father Zhao Dejun the military governor of Lulong Circuit (盧龍, headquartered in modern Beijing) to jointly face the Hedong/Khitan army, and Li Congke did so. Meanwhile, also under Zhang Yanlang's suggestion, Li Congke issued a general conscription order, requiring a collection of the people's horses, as well as the requirement to have one man enter the military for every seven households. The result of the conscription order only yielded 5,000 soldiers and 2,000 horses, creating no real help for the imperial army but causing the people much alarm.

Subsequently, Zhang Jingda's army, which was then facing starvation, surrendered after Zhang Jingda's deputy Yang Guangyuan killed him. The Later Jin/Khitan army (Shi having been created the emperor of a new Later Jin by Emperor Taizong by this point) also defeated Zhao Dejun and Zhao Yanshou's army, and was heading for Luoyang. Li Congke, believing the situation to be hopeless, committed suicide with his family by fire, ending Later Tang. Shi subsequently entered Luoyang.

Death

Shi Jingtang summoned the Later Tang officials to an imperial gathering. At the gathering, he declared a general pardon for all present — except for Zhang Yanlang, whom he arrested and put into jail. He subsequently issued an edict, reaffirming the pardon, but excepting Zhang, Liu Yanlang, and Liu Yanhao from the pardon. Zhang was then executed. It was said, though, that later when Shi was trying to find a suitable person to head the three financial agencies but could not find one, he regretted killing Zhang.

Notes and references

• History of the Five Dynasties, vol. 69.

• New History of the Five Dynasties, vol. 26.

• Zizhi Tongjian, vols. 275, 276, 277, 279, 280.