Zhang was born in Zhuozhou, Hebei Province, in 1933. In 1952, he entered the screenwriting program at the Beijing Film Academy and graduated in 1954, joining the Scriptwriting Institute of the Central Film Bureau. He later worked as a screenwriter at the Changchun Film Studio.[3]
In 1957, Zhang published his first novella, The Friends by the Seaside, and the poetry collection Northern Walks. In 1960, he published July Lyric Poems. During the 1970s, he contributed to several films, including serving as screenwriter for Entrepreneurship (1974) and Hope (1977). He also published the novel version of Entrepreneurship in 1977, the same year he joined the China Writers Association.[3]
In 1979, his short story Warriors Pass Through the Minefield won the National Outstanding Short Story Award and the award from the General Political Department. He continued to publish collections such as Blue and Green (1979) and The Story of Xiao Wugeng (1980), while also writing screenplays for films including Be Proud, Mother! (1980) and May All Men Live Long (1981).[4]
From the early 1980s, Zhang worked with the Beijing Film Studio and published both fiction and screenplays, including The Last-Class Actor (1983), The Flower Chaser (1984), and The Story of the Huo Family (1985). In 1987, he even appeared in Bernardo Bertolucci’s film The Last Emperor.[5]
Zhang's most notable success came in 1989, when he co-wrote the historical film The Birth of New China. The film earned him the Best Screenwriter Award at the 10th Golden Rooster Awards.[6] In the 1990s, he continued to work on film and television, including the script Pan Hannian: Master of Espionage (1996) and the war drama The Decisive Engagement (1999).[7]
He also published works such as Selected Screenplays of Zhang Tianmin (1983) and the four-volume set Zhang Tianmin’s Film and Television Literary Masterpieces (2002). After his death, posthumous publications included the novels Young Mao Zedong (2003) and Qin Shi Huang (2003).[8]
Zhang Tianmin died of liver cancer in Beijing on March 16, 2002, at the age of 69.[9]