At the beginning of graduation, Zhang also participated in some social and cultural activities such as "Shanghai Comics" edited by Ye, "White Goose Painting Society" founded by Fang Xueqi, Pan Sitong and Chen Qiucao (Hongkou Sichuan North Road). Later, because of the burden of getting married and starting a family, I had to seek a fixed occupation. Recommended by his uncle Zhang Baoling to general manager Zhang Yuanji, he joined the editorial department of the Commercial Press under the name of Art editor. At that time, there were many editors of Business, each with his own expertise, reaching more than 200 people. Zhang sketch has a solid foundation and is good at pen drawing. When he first entered the library, he designed covers and illustrated articles for four "business" magazines: Oriental Magazine, Novel Monthly, Women's Magazine and Student Magazine. We have cooperated with Shen Yanbing, Zheng Zhenduo, Hu Yuzhi and Kuang Fuzhuo successively, which is very harmonious and deeply appreciated by them.
At this time, the most important business income of the Commercial Press is the new Xuejia primary school Chinese textbooks approved by the Ministry of Education, which are sold all over the country with an annual circulation of10 million copies. At that time, Zhonghua Bookstore and World Bookstore also aimed at publishing teaching materials, and the competition was fierce. Therefore, it is urgent for business editors to constantly update the contents of teaching materials, mainly text illustrations. At this time, the new director Wang took a fancy to Zhang, a rising star, and asked him to redraw the full set of illustrations of Chinese textbooks in the new academic system in order to reach a new level. Zhang tried his best to make the perfect contribution to this. After many years, he consulted many children's books in Europe, America and Japan, and personally went to the commercial Dagong children's school for observation and investigation. Then he began to draft, with smooth lines and dynamic composition, carefully drew exquisite illustrations that conformed to the content of the text, completed the innovative task of primary school Chinese textbooks, and won the King Award. Soon, Wang was promoted to general manager of the business, and Li Bojia was the director of the editorial department. Wang promoted the scientific management method of enterprises, invented the "four-corner digital retrieval method" and put forward a series of new cultural management concepts; Subsequently, Wanxing Library and a large number of ancient books series were published one after another. This period can be called the most prosperous historical period since the establishment of the Commercial Press.
At the beginning of 1932, Shanghai suffered a "1.28" war disaster that was suddenly attacked by the Japanese army. The Commercial Press, located in Baoshan Road, Zhabei, was first bombed by Japanese planes, and the smoke did not go out for three nights, causing the city paper scraps to fly. Once the largest private cultural enterprise in China, it was bleak for more than 40 years and turned to ashes; The factory building, printing machinery, warehouse, editing room including five annex buildings, Oriental Library and Hanfenlou Library, which cover an area of 100 mu, have all become a pile of rubble. Zhang's family lived on a nearby road and was also burned down. The family fled to the concession hotel overnight, and the situation was very embarrassing. Fortunately, my father heard the news and immediately sent someone to take his family back to Ningbo.
The first thing that the Commercial Press is eager to recover from this disaster is to publish textbooks at all levels in primary and secondary schools to recover economic losses. This was the only simple and feasible way at that time. So Wang He and Li Bojia were in charge. They selected a group of capable teams and rushed to the Hong Kong branch library to plan and publish a set of textbooks for reviving the new academic system to meet the urgent needs of the national schools when they started school. Zhang was ordered to go to Shanghai, while Wang took the Italian cruise ship "Condi Wandi" to Hong Kong.
After arriving in Hong Kong, he lived in the small factory of the Hong Kong branch. In the small room next to the rumbling printing machine, Zhang sweated day and night. The hardships and difficulties there are as different as those in Shanghai. He was in a trance for a time and was in a coma for many times. Besides, living in Hong Kong is not suitable, and the language barrier makes him miss his wife. Driven by sudden emotional impulse, he left without saying goodbye and returned to his hometown in Shanghai. Since then, Zhang left the Commercial Press, which failed to live up to Mr. Wang's expectations and caused him lifelong regret.
In his hometown, he was considerate and cared for by his relatives, and his physical and mental decline was restored. In my spare time, I only read the ancient books at home and copy the calligraphy and painting of steles for recreation. A few months later, the armistice agreement between Songhu and Shanghai was signed and peace was restored. Zhang returned to Shanghai and accepted the engagement of Dadong Bookstore to plan and publish children's books for the bookstore, so as to gradually turn to the distribution of textbooks. Unfortunately, Dadong Bookstore has a small structure and insufficient funds, so it can't pay the editor's high salary. Later, you can only pay by the manuscript. From then on, Zhang became a freelancer, selling manuscripts for a living, turning from pen drawing to advertising painting, and developing in the direction of arts and crafts design: later, he went to children's comics, New Year pictures and comics, but his contribution was more and more extensive and his income was quite rich; As far away as Nanyang, I have also made a draft. For example, Nanyang Bookstore in Singapore commissioned him to draw illustrations of Chinese textbooks there. So he went to Shanghai with his family, lived in Tieqingfang, Xinzha Road, and then moved to a new house in Longmen Village, Penglai Road, Shinan. Life is finally heavy, well-off and comfortable.
1937, the "August 13th" war broke out again in Shanghai, and China began an all-out war of resistance. Under the pressure of the Japanese army, the Shanghai Concession became an island in the occupied area, and cultural undertakings were curbed. Zhang, who makes a living by pen farming, is once again in trouble, and his remuneration is decreasing day by day, but his value is getting higher every day. Intellectuals like Zhang, deeply influenced by the May 4th Cultural Movement, have a strong patriotism and lead a quiet life, but their pens will never be used by traitors and traitors. Therefore, in a small area of the concession, we can only fiddle with some commercial advertisements, painting, craft design and other work to kill time. It was not until the autumn of 1945 that War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression finally won. His children's books and cartoons have gradually attracted the attention of the cultural publishing community: at the same time, the manuscript of Nanyang Bookstore in Singapore has been restored and life has settled down again.
Shanghai was liberated in May 1949. The new China was founded. With the new development of national cultural undertakings, Zhang took comics as his major and entered a new situation of vigorous development.
However, the good times did not last long. In the decade of the Cultural Revolution, the original cultural publishing institutions were destroyed. During this long period, Zhang not only failed to receive the manuscript, but also was deprived of the royalties of the original work, and could fall into a fight at any time, which made him fall into a group environment for the third time. In order to support the family, in order to survive, I had to rely on the intermediary of the Artists Association in the later period, and reluctantly distributed some low-level western oil paintings from Shanghai Arts and Crafts Company for export imitation, and got a little meager reward.
At the end of the Cultural Revolution and the beginning of reform and opening up, Zhang was old and had no energy, so he had to stop writing at home. Later, recommended by Mr. Hua and Shanghai Artists Association, he was hired as a librarian of Shanghai Literature and History Museum on 1979. From then on, he lived happily in the sunshine of the Party's care for the elderly cultural workers. 1988+065438.
Zhang Zeng had a colorful ink-and-wash painting "Fishing on the Riverside", which was selected into "Painting Collection of Hanlin at Sea" compiled by Shanghai Literature and History Museum and published by Shanghai People's Fine Arts Publishing House. This is his rare heritage of Chinese painting except pen drawing.