Zhang was born in Wendeng, Shandong, in 1916. He joined the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in July 1935 and soon became active in underground revolutionary work in Jiaodong. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, he served as county party secretary in Huang County, head of the fishermen's anti-Japanese work teams in Penglai, Huang County, and Yexian, and director of the workers' department of the Jiaodong North and South Sea regional committees.[3]
In 1940 he went to Yan'an, studying at the Marxism–Leninism Institute, the Central Party School, and the central training classes for enemy-occupied areas. He was elected a delegate to the CCP's 7th National Congress in 1945 and became a member of the preparatory committee for the workers' congress in the liberated areas.[4]
After the war, Zhang worked in Northeast China. He held posts including organization section chief in the military industry department of the Northeast Bureau, political commissar of Factory No. 8, secretary of the Daowai District Committee in Harbin, and chairman of the Harbin Federation of Trade Unions. After 1949, he became head of the cultural and educational department of the ACFTU, later promoted to minister and secretary of the Secretariat.[5]
In November 1962, Zhang was appointed deputy director of the State Council's Office of Agriculture and Forestry and concurrently director of its political department. After the Cultural Revolution, he served as deputy director of the State Farms Administration, and from 1979 vice minister of the Ministry of State Farms, as well as deputy party secretary and head of the discipline inspection group. He retired in 1984 and fully stepped down in 1995.[6]
Zhang was a delegate to the CCP's 8th National Congress and a member of the 2nd to 7th National Committees of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC). He died in Beijing on July 9, 1996.[7]