Zhang Renjie (Chinese: 張人傑; pinyin: Zhāng Rénjié; Wade–Giles: Chang¹ Jen²-chieh²; 19 September 1877 − 3 September 1950), born Zhang Jingjiang, was a political figure and financial entrepreneur in the Republic of China. He studied and worked in France in the early 1900s, where he became an early Chinese anarchist under the influence of Li Shizeng and Wu Zhihui, his lifelong friends. He became wealthy trading Chinese artworks in the West and investing on the Shanghai stock exchange. Zhang gave generous financial support to Sun Yat-sen and was an early patron of Chiang Kai-shek. In the 1920s, he, Li, Wu and the educator Cai Yuanpei were known as the fiercely anti-Communist Four Elders of the Chinese Nationalist Party.

Zhang was born September 13, 1877, in Wuxing, Zhejiang, but his family's ancestral home was Nanxun, Zhejiang Province, where his grandfather was a prosperous salt and silk merchant. Zhang's father, Zhang Baoshan (张宝善, 1856–1926), developed the family business, and married into a family of Shanghai silk compradores which had extensive contacts among Western businesses.

As a boy, Zhang was adventurous and bright; he enjoyed both riding horses and calligraphy, memorized classics, and was especially good at Go. As a child he suffered from a form of arthritis, which continued to affect him for the rest of his life, and an eye condition which eventually required him to wear dark glasses. Yet he was a sociable child. So self-confident was he that he gave himself the name "Renjie," meaning "outstanding personality." Zhang's grandfather, convinced that Renjie should become an official, purchased the office of "Expectant Daotai" for him. The family arranged a marriage for him with Yao Hui, and the first of his five daughters was born in 1901.

On a trip to Beijing in 1901 to arrange a suitable posting for himself as "Expectant Daotai," Zhang met the equally well-placed and adventurous Li Shizeng, son of a high Qing official. The two discovered that they shared a dissatisfaction with the state of Chinese politics and society. When in 1902 Li was appointed as attache on the staff of the Minister to France, Sun Baoqi, Zhang used his family influence to join him and be appointed as "Third Secretary." After stopping over in Shanghai to meet Wu Zhihui, who was by then a well-known anti-Manchu revolutionary, Zhang and Li arrived in Paris as part of Sun's delegation on December 17, 1902. Zhang's wife, Yao Hui, accompanied him. Li quickly resigned his official position to study French and biology, but Zhang did not resign until 1905.

In Paris he established the Ton-ying Company (Chinese: 通运公司; pinyin: Tongyun Gongsi), with a gallery on the Place de la Madeleine, which imported Chinese tea, silk, and art. This was the first of its kind in France, and employed, among others, C.T. Loo, who was to become one of the most influential dealers of Chinese art. With the financial assistance of $300,000 Chinese dollars from his father, the firm was the basis of Zhang's own considerable fortune. Ton-ying remained a family business branching out to New York from its original base in Paris and its source in Shanghai. Because of Zhang's position in China, the company was able to source high quality works of art directly, including items from the old Imperial Collection. Although Zhang later dealt extensively on the Shanghai stock exchange, a great deal of his wealth and therefore the financing of the Nationalist (then Tongmenghui) cause, came from the profits created by the Ton-ying Company.

Li soon introduced Zhang to the doctrines of Anarchism and they began to apply them to analyzing the situation in China. Zhang told friends of the anti-religion and anti-family theories which he had adopted. He also opposed traditional ideas of sex: "It is obvious," he told them, "the reason why society is divided along sexual lines is because of traditional customs ... It's not impossible to reform them." Zhang's interest in anarchism later cooled, however, and he was probably more attracted by its aura of science and iconoclastic social reform than its political side.

On a trip to London in 1905, Zhang renewed his friendship with Wu Zhihui, who was nearly ten years older than Li and Zhang, and a deeper scholar. Backed by Zhang's money, the three formed the Shijie she (The World), a publishing house for radical social ideas. On a steamship returning from China to Europe in 1906, Zhang met and was entranced by Sun Yat-sen, the anti-Manchu revolutionist, giving him the first of many substantial contributions. The two established a code for Sun to use if he needed money: "A" meant send $10,000 Chinese dollars, "B" meant send $20,000, and so forth. On his return to Paris, Zhang led Wu and Li to join Sun's Tongmenghui, the more politically radical of the anti-Manchu groups. Zhang had been sworn into the society by Hu Hanmin and Feng Ziyou, two of Sun's important lieutenants (in view of his attacks on religion, they allowed him to omit the oath "by heaven").

The three anarchists—Zhang, Li, and Wu—established a relationship which lasted for the rest of their lives. In 1908, they started a journal, Xin Shiji (New Century), titled La Novaj Tempaj in Esperanto, funded by Zhang and edited by Wu. Another major contributor was Chu Minyi, a student from Zhejiang who accompanied Zhang back from China and would help him travel in the years to come. The journal translated radical French thinkers and introduced Chinese students in France to the history of radicalism, especially the anarchist classics of Peter Kropotkin, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, and Élisée Reclus. They were especially impressed by their conversations with Jean Grave, who had spent two years in prison for publishing "Society on the Brink of Death" (1892) an anarchist pamphlet. But Zhang, who continued to travel back and forth to China, did not have money enough to finance both Sun Yat-sen and the journal, which ceased publication in 1910.