Through the unpublished letters of Zhang Zhidong (张之洞) to Zhang Peilun (张佩纶), this paper makes an inquiry into Zhang Zhidong’s coping reactions to the SinoFrench negotiations about Vietnam when he was governor of Shanxi Province. In the early days of the Tonkin (Bac Ky, or Northern Vietnam) Campaign (18831886), Zhang Zhidong had obtained Li Hongzhang’s relevant information from Zhang Peilun through his relationship of the Qingliu Dang (清流Purification Clique, group of conservative Chinese officials who advocated a return to traditional Confucian moral principles), and expressed his opinions therein. With the changing of the situation between the Qing and the French powers, Zhang Zhidong was involved in having Yan Jingming (阎敬铭) and Li Hongzhang (李鸿章) reassume office. A big factor in his account for so doing was for the SinoFrench negotiations about Vietnam. From the beginning of the SinoFrench conflict, in his capacity as the governor of Shanxi Province, Zhang Zhidong commissioned many lowly officials as his exclusive intelligent sources. Seizing the opportunity of SinoFrench negotiations, Zhang Zhidong took the initiative to seek transfer from Shanxi, and was finally appointed as the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi. Although Zhang Zhidong’s position in the early SinoFrench negotiations about Vietnam was not as important as that of the Southeast Military Governor, and he could not be compared with the general administrators, such as Li Hongzhang, Zeng Jize (曾纪泽), and He De (赫德), his coping reactions and his transfer in position or location of work were related to the changes of the Qing Government in 1884. He thus became one of the main figures from whom we could had a peek at the changes of related events.