國之將亡必有；
老而不死是為。
Zhang's sentiment was easily understood; he was the most outspoken anti-Manchu in that era. His whole political idea was described in Qiu Shu (訄書), which, unfortunately, was exceptionally incomprehensible. (It was deliberately difficult because the book could be looked as a PhD thesis on the theory of anti-Manchuria. Zhang was jailed for three years for this book, but, if the Qing government did appreciate the whole of the meaning of this book, as well as it's influence, he would certainly be beheaded.)
But, notably, Zhang did not really support Sun Yat-Sen and was very skeptical about the Xinhai Revolution. To put it simply, Zhang was a strong believer of the Spring and Autumn Annals (春秋) and its teaching of if they are not of my race, their heart must be different (非我族類，其心必異). He longed for a country with the Han (漢) people and preferred doing away with all the barbarians.
PS. Besides being an industrious philologist and textual critic, Zhang was an expert in traditional Chinese medicine, on which he wrote two books: Synopsis on Cholera (霍亂論) and A New Treatise on Acute Diseases (猝病新論).
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