Any Chinese parent or student fixated on education — so, basically, most Chinese parents and students — knew the name Zhang Xuefeng. As China’s most famous education influencer, Mr. Zhang was known for dispensing ruthlessly blunt advice about how to maximize a student’s chances at success.

任何一个执着于教育的中国家长或学生——也就是说，几乎所有中国家长和学生——都知道张雪峰这个名字。作为中国最知名的教育类网红，张雪峰以提供直白到近乎残酷的建议而闻名，教人如何最大化提升成功几率。

The liberal arts? Only good for service jobs, he declared. Finance? Don’t bother unless your family has connections. Fast-talking and sharp-tongued, to his detractors he was cynical and utilitarian. But to his tens of millions of fans, he embodied a rare willingness to acknowledge the harsh realities facing less privileged students, especially in the face of steep inequality and a slowing economy.

文科？他断言只适合从事服务业。金融？如果家里没有背景，最好别碰。他语速飞快、言辞犀利，在批评者眼中，他是功利主义的犬儒者；但在数以千万计的粉丝看来，他代表了一种难得的坦率，敢于直面寒门学生所面对的残酷现实，尤其是在贫富差距加剧、经济增速放缓的背景下。

So when Mr. Zhang suddenly died on Tuesday at age 41, of cardiac arrest, it prompted an outpouring — not only of shock, but also of reflection.

因此，当年仅41岁的张雪峰在周二因心脏骤停突然去世时，引发的不仅是震惊，更是广泛的反思。

On social media, people asked: Had he steered young Chinese to better lives or discouraged their idealism? What did his abrupt death, after he had long complained of being exhausted and overworked, say about China’s hypercompetitive work culture? And if life was so unpredictable, did planning so carefully — for success that seemed increasingly out of reach — even matter?

在社交媒体上，人们追问：他究竟是将中国年轻人引向了更好的生活，还是扼杀了他们的理想主义？在他长期抱怨疲惫与过劳之后的猝然离世，又折射出中国高度内卷的工作文化怎样的症结？如果生命如此无常，那么为着越来越遥不可及的成功而精心规划，究竟还有没有意义？

“Zhang Xuefeng’s lesson to lost young people: Enjoy your life,” was one of the top hashtags on Chinese social media on Wednesday, where news of Mr. Zhang’s death dominated discussion. “Excessive self-discipline” was another, a response to state media reports that Mr. Zhang had collapsed after going for a run in Suzhou, the city in eastern China where he lived.

周三，张雪峰去世的消息霸屏中国社交媒体，其中一个热门话题标签是“#张雪峰送给正在迷茫年轻人的一句话#：Enjoy your life”。另一个是“#过度自律#”，这源于官方媒体报道称，张雪峰是在他居住的苏州跑步后倒下的。

Another popular education influencer, Zhu Wei, posted a long tribute online, praising Mr. Zhang’s vigor and sincerity. Mr. Zhu urged his own students to slow down in their pursuit of test scores and jobs.

另一位知名的教育类博主朱伟在网上发表长文悼念，称赞张雪峰的活力与真诚，并呼吁自己的学生在追逐分数与工作的道路上放慢脚步。

“But I also know, what’s the cruelest thing about the age of internet traffic? It’s that nothing lasts even a month before it’s forgotten,” Mr. Zhu wrote. “Everyone will soon go back to their usual state, endlessly striving and slogging, never able to stop.”

“但我也知道，流量时代最残酷的是什么？是所有事情，不会超过一个月就会被遗忘，”朱伟写道。“大家又会回到自己的状态里，继续拼，继续熬，继续停不下来。”

Mr. Zhang was born in a small town in northern China. His real name was Zhang Zibiao, though he later adopted the name Xuefeng. He tested into a middling university, where he studied water supply and drainage, for which he had little enthusiasm, according to interviews he gave. After graduation, he turned to tutoring and college counseling.

张雪峰出生在中国北方的一个小镇。他本名张子彪，后来改为雪峰。据他在以往接受的采访中说，他考上了一所普通的大学，学习给排水专业，但对此并无太大兴趣。毕业后，他转而从事辅导和升学咨询工作。

He shot to fame in 2016, for a video in which he — in what would become his signature rapid-fire, snark-infused patter — summarized China’s top 34 universities in seven minutes. He started a consulting company where he helped students choose majors, internships and careers based on cold-eyed considerations of their test scores, family backgrounds and whether they prioritized money or stability. His livestreams attracted hundreds of thousands of views, and his courses could cost thousands of dollars.

他在2016年一举成名，当时一段视频中，他用后来标志性的高速、带点讽刺的讲述方式，在七分钟内概括了中国34所顶尖高校。他随后创办了一家咨询公司，根据学生的考分、家庭背景以及他们是更看重金钱还是稳定等因素，以冷静而现实的考量帮助学生选择专业、实习和职业方向。他的直播曾经吸引上十万人同时在线观看，课程收费甚至可达上万元。

His celebrity came as much from his advice as his willingness to provoke. A comment in 2023 that parents should knock their children unconscious rather than let them study journalism, because of the weak job prospects, set off days of online debate. Critics said he misunderstood the point of education, or was suggesting that poorer students shouldn’t follow their dreams.

他的名气不仅来自建议本身，也来自他语出惊人的风格。2023年，他曾表示，与其让孩子学新闻，不如把他们打晕，因为就业前景太差，这一言论引发了持续数日的网络论战。批评者认为他误解了教育的意义，甚至是在暗示家境不好的学生不应该追逐梦想。

“I come from an ordinary family,” Mr. Zhang wrote in response. “If you come from a wealthy family, you have more choices, you can’t choose wrongly. But most families aren’t that well-off, and when choosing a major, you have to choose one that’s suitable and will put food on the table.”

“我出身普通老百姓，”张雪峰在回应中写道。“如果家境优渥，选择更多，不存在错不错的问题。但是大多数家庭，条件没有那么好，选专业就要选适合自己的，能让自己吃上饭的。”

北京大学的学生。

For the most part, Mr. Zhang’s outsize persona fueled his popularity, and his business. The Paper, a Shanghai-based outlet, wrote in a profile of Mr. Zhang that the furor over his journalism remarks made his fans only more devoted: “The comment section is dominated by one voice: The poor need Zhang Xuefeng.”

总体来说，是张雪峰张扬的个性推动了他的走红，成就了他的事业。总部位于上海的澎湃新闻在一篇关于张雪峰的人物特稿中写道，他关于新闻学的言论引发的轩然大波反而让他的粉丝更加坚定：“评论区被一道声音占据——‘穷人需要张雪峰’。”

After another controversy, Mr. Zhang started selling a T-shirt that said “I was wrong, I apologize.”

在另一次风波之后，张雪峰甚至开始销售一款印有“我错了，我道歉”的T恤。

But he had recently landed in bigger trouble. In September, his social media accounts were blocked from posting or adding new followers, during a campaign by China’s cyberspace administration to erase what it called “excessively pessimistic” sentiment.

但他最近也陷入了更大的麻烦。去年9月，在中国网信部门开展的一项整治所谓“过度渲染消极悲观”情绪的行动中，他的多个社交媒体账号被禁言或禁止被关注。

Mr. Zhang was among a list of influencers targeted, according to China’s state broadcaster, which said that he was being punished for using “vulgar language for an extended period” during a livestream.

据中国官方的广播电视台报道，张雪峰是被整治的网红之一，称他在直播中“长时间使用污言秽语”。

But some observers speculated that his true offense was speaking bluntly about young people’s economic anxieties, at a time when the government has tried to hide high youth unemployment rates and accused young people of being too picky about jobs. (Others thought Mr. Zhang was being penalized for cheering on an invasion of Taiwan. The Chinese government, though it claims Taiwan, often censors what it deems overly hawkish sentiment.)

但一些观察人士猜测，他真正的错误在于直言不讳地谈论年轻人的经济焦虑——而政府当时正试图淡化青年失业率居高不下的问题，并指责年轻人对工作过于挑剔。（也有人认为他是因为曾为“收复台湾”言论叫好而受到处罚。中国政府虽然宣称台湾属于中国，但也常常对被认为过于激进的鹰派言论加以审查。）

Mr. Zhang recovered his accounts a month later and returned to streaming multiple times a week. The morning he died, he did a broadcast then went for a run, as was his habit.

一个月后，张雪峰的账号得以恢复，并重新开始每周多次直播。他去世那天早上还进行了一场直播，随后像往常一样去跑步。

His death was announced by his company in a post on social media. He is survived by his wife and a daughter, according to Chinese media.

他的公司通过社交媒体发布了他去世的消息。据中国媒体报道，他身后留下了妻子和一个女儿。