Abstract: To an art master with international influence, apprenticeship is an important event. ZHANG Da-qian took famous calligraphers ZENG Xi and LI Rui-qing as his teachers. This has long been considered to in 1919 in Shanghai. From ZHANG’s postscript of bronze mirror rubbings, LI Rui-qing’s poems and other relevant literature, we can infer that it was in 1917 that ZHANG became pupils of the above two calligraphers. ZHANG’s narration that he returned from Japan and took ZENG Xi as his teacher when he was 20 years is not correct due to his wrong memory in his late years.