后梁时代

张延朗生年不详，生于汴州开封县（今河南省开封市）。后梁时代，以租庸吏为郓州（今山东省泰安市东平县）粮料使。

后唐时代

唐庄宗时代

923年，后唐庄宗李存勖派大将李嗣源攻克郓州，李存勖任命李嗣源为天平军节度使（治郓州）。李嗣源再以张延朗为粮料使。李嗣源在924年转任宣武军节度使（治开封府），925年转任成德节度使（治恒州，今河北省石家庄市正定县），张延朗跟随他，担任元从孔目官。张延朗工于心计，善事权贵。把他的女儿嫁给了安重诲的儿子。

唐明宗时代

926年，李存勖在首都洛阳死于兴教门之变。李嗣源监国，任命中门使安重诲为枢密使，镇州别驾张延朗为副使。

监国李嗣源下发教令，谴责租庸使孔谦侵占剥夺，使军民贫困的罪行，将他处死。唐僖宗乾符以后，天下丧乱，国用空乏，始置租庸使，用兵无常，随时调发聚敛，兵罢即止。后梁以租庸使领天下钱财粮食，废户部、度支、盐铁之官。这时撤消了租庸使和内勾司，依照旧例设盐铁、户部、度支三司，委托宰相一人专门管理。李嗣源称帝后，张延朗为庄宅使。927年六月初十日，李嗣源任命宣徽北院使张延朗兼判三司。张延朗改任忠武军节度使（治许州，今河南省许昌市）。928年，李嗣源正准备攻打义武军节度使（治今河北省保定市定州市）王都，下诏宣徽使张延朗和北面各位将领商议讨伐王都。张延朗跟随王晏球讨伐王都，后唐军打败王都和援助王都的辽朝军队。

930年，张延朗为特进、行工部尚书，充当三司使，兼判户部、度支、盐铁。三司使之名自此始。张延朗号为有心计，然无所建树。随后，张延朗改任泰宁军节度使（治兖州，今山东省济宁市兖州区）、雄武军节度使（治秦州，今甘肃省天水市）。

唐末帝时代

934年，李嗣源的养子李从珂即位，文州都指挥使成延龟把全州军民投降后蜀。张延朗担任雄武节度使，领兵包围了文州（今甘肃省陇南市文县），阶州刺史郭知琼攻下尖石寨。后蜀李延厚带领果州兵屯扎在当时已被蜀国占领的兴州，派遣先登指挥使范延晖领兵救援文州，张延朗便解除了对文州的包围而归去。十二月初九，李从珂徵召雄武节度使张延朗为中书侍郎、同中书门下平章事、判三司。

936年，唐末帝怀疑河东节度使（治所在今山西省太原市）石敬瑭勾结契丹谋乱，与李崧等人商议。李崧和吕琦主张把逃亡后唐的耶律倍送回契丹、用大约值十多万缗的礼物、钱财议和契丹，让他不要帮助石敬瑭。张延朗主管三司，也支持他们的意见：「按学士的策划，不但可以制约河东，也可以节省戍边费用十分之九，计谋没有比这更好的了。如果主上听从了这个意见，只要责成老夫去办理就行了，可以在国家财库之外去搜集，以供其用。」薛文遇认为辽太宗会让唐末帝的女儿嫁给他（或者他的儿子）进行和亲，唐末帝因此改变了看法，从此群臣不敢再提和亲的建议。

唐末帝任命石敬瑭为天平节度使（治今山东省泰安市东平县），任用马军都指挥使、河阳节度使宋审虔为河东节度使。石敬瑭于是反唐，向辽太宗求援。辽太宗发军援助，他们在晋安寨打败了后唐张敬达指挥的军队。唐末帝的儿子雍王李重美愿意代替父亲向北方征讨。唐末帝开始同意。然而,张延朗、刘延朗、刘皇后的兄弟刘延皓都劝末帝亲征，末帝不得已，从洛阳出发。张延朗想解除赵延寿枢要机务，支持卢文纪的提议，让皇帝留在河阳。派赵延寿北上联合父亲卢龙节度使（治今北京市）赵德钧，阻击河东、契丹联军。张延朗建议普遍搜集天下将吏以及民间的马，又发动百姓当兵，每七户出一个征夫，自己准备铠甲兵器，称作「义军」，定期在十一月全部集中，命令陈州刺史郎万金训练他们的战阵知识和技能。结果只得到马二千馀匹，征夫五千人，没有多大用处，但民间却因此受到很大骚扰。

随后，张敬达大军面临饥饿，唐将杨光远杀害张敬达，然后投降。唐末帝回到河阳，命令诸将分守南、北城。张延朗请求唐末帝再去滑州，以便同魏博声势相接，唐末帝没能作出决定。石敬瑭被辽国封为后晋皇帝，打败了赵德钧和赵延寿的军队，前往洛阳。唐末帝绝望，与家人纵火自焚，后唐灭亡。石敬瑭随后进入洛阳。

死亡

石敬瑭在河东时，受到后唐朝廷的猜忌，张延朗不愿让河东有更多的积蓄，于是把除了应该留供地方使用的财物以外，全部收取上缴，石敬瑭因此怨恨他，十一月二十七日，百官入宫朝见，石敬瑭把张延朗扣押交付御史台究办，其馀的都谢恩免究。十一月二十九日，石敬瑭实行大赦：只有张延朗、刘延皓、刘延朗不能宽贷；将中书侍郎、平章事马胤孙、枢密使房、宣徽使李专美、河中节度使韩昭胤等予以除名。他把张延朗斩首，接著选拔三司使，难于有合适人选，石敬瑭很是后悔。

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 (郓州, 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 (义武, 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 (工部尚书, 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 (泰宁, 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 (成延龟), 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 (中书侍郎, the deputy head of the legislative bureau of government (中书省, 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 (河东, 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 (晋安寨, 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 (卢龙, 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.