张柬之
Early in Wu Zetian's "Shengli" era (697-700) (when she was ruling as Empress Regnant of a new Zhou Dynasty, interrupting Tang Dynasty), Zhang Jianzhi was promoted to be "Fengge Sheren" (), a mid-level official at the legislative bureau of government (鳳閣, "Fengge"). Around that time, he had a debate with the imperial scholar Wang Yuangan () over whether the traditional three-year mourning period for a parent's death should be three full years (as Wang advocated) or 25 months—i.e., two full calendar years, extending into the first month of the next year (as Zhang advocated). The people at the time were said to be largely approving Zhang's interpretation.