8 replies to this topic

[shawn]

Hi, who is Qi Wannian of the Di tribe?

[Yun]

The Di were not simply a tribe. They were an ethnic group consisting of many tribes and kingdoms, originating from the mountainous region where the present-day provinces of Sichuan, Gansu, and Shaanxi converge. Cao Cao moved a large number of them to Guanzhong (i.e. the area around Chang'an) after his conquest of Hanzhong, to prevent Liu Bei from recruiting them.

In 296, Xiongnu, Qiang, Di, and Lu River Hu (possibly descended from Yuezhi) communities in Guanzhong rose in revolt against the Jin government because the military commander-in-chief for the region, the Prince of Zhao Sima Lun, had murdered a large number of Qiang chieftains. The rebels chose a Di chieftain named Qi Wannian to be their emperor. The rebellion was suppressed by the Jin government in 299, with Qi Wannian captured and put to death.

[shawn]

Zhou Cu was killed in the process of supressing the rebellion, right? He was one of the 3 scrouges right? Can anyone tell me more about him? His background was something more like a legend, getting rid of the tiger and dragon?

[Yun]

Zhou Chu's father Zhou Fang was the Wu regime's Prefect of Poyang and a well-known general (he was the Zhou Fang whose fake surrender lured Cao Xiu into a deadly ambush in the 228 Battle of Shiting). Chu was orphaned at a young age and already had unusual physical strength as a teenager. He became a sort of village hooligan and was feared by everyone. Eventually he realized he was unpopular and wanted to do something to change people's impression of him. That is how the '3 scourges' story arose - it is first recorded in his Jin Shu biography. Besides Zhou himself, the other two scourges were "the white-foreheaded wild beast on the southern hill" (possibly a tiger) and "the water dragon under the long bridge" (probably a crocodile).

After this incident, Zhou studied diligently and became a prominent official, scholar, and writer. After the conquest of the Wu regime, he was present at the Wu imperial palace when Wang Hun (one of the generals in the Jin invasion force) got drunk and mocked the former Wu officials there, saying, "You people are the leftovers of a conquered state - isn't it sad?" Zhou Chu replied, "The empire broke apart at the end of the Han, and three states arose like the legs of a tripod. Wei ended long before Wu did. So why should we alone be the sad ones?" This embarrassing reminder to Wang Hun, that he himself had been a subject of the Wei regime, immediately silenced him.

The Jin regime brought Zhou Chu to Luoyang to be employed as an official. His first job for the regime was as a Prefect at Xinping in the west, where he earned praise by treating the local Di and Qiang with kindness, causing some rebel Qiang tribes to surrender. Next he was Prefect of Guanghan (in Sichuan), where he settled in just one day a large number of court cases that had been unresolved for up to 30 years. His third assignment was as Prefect in the principality of Chu (at Pengcheng/Xuzhou), where he helped the area make the transition from Wu to Jin rule. Xuzhou was previously a hotly-contested border area between Wei/Jin and Wu, and there were many remains of soldiers and refugees lying unclaimed. Zhou Chu had them collected and buried.

After this, Zhou served in the imperial capital as a Senior Consultant and then a Subordinate Censor. Here, he began to get in trouble because he reported the wrongdoings of various highly-placed personalities in the imperial court. One of them was Sima Rong, the Prince of Liang.

When Qi Wannian's revolt broke out, the officials Zhou had offended tried to get rid of him by recommending him to take part in the suppression campaign. To make matters worse, Zhou was placed under the overall command of Sima Rong, who had replaced Sima Lun as the military C-in-C of the region. Zhou Chu knew Sima Rong would use this opportunity to take revenge on him, but felt that his loyalty would be questioned if he tried to get out of this assignment. So he went to Guanzhong not expecting to come back alive. When the rebels occupied a position at Mount Liang, with an army of 70,000, Sima Rong forced Zhou Chu to attack with just 5,000 troops. General Lu Bo and Governor Xie Xi were supposed to lead their armies in support of Zhou Chu during this battle, but Sima Rong secretly ordered them to hold back once the fighting started. Sima Rong even pressed Zhou Chu's army to go into battle before the troops had time to eat.

At a place east of Mount Liang called Liumo, Zhou Chu and his 5,000 hungry troops fought the rebels from dawn to dusk, killing tens of thousands. Finally they ran out of arrows and their bowstrings were all broken. Yet the reinforcements led by Lu Bo and Xie Xi still did not appear. Zhou Chu's officers urged him to retreat, but he kept his hand on his sword grip, saying, "This is the day I prove my loyalty. What retreat is there for me!... Besides, if this army shows itself to be unreliable, the morale of all the armies will break. I am a senior official, so do I not have the right to die for my country?" He fought on, and the whole army was annihilated.

Before heading for Guanzhong, Zhou Chu had been advised by a friend to turn down the assignment on the grounds that his mother was an aged widow and needed taking care of. Zhou replied, "How could one hold to both loyalty and filial piety! Since I have left my family to serve my lord, how could I still be just a filial son to my parents? This is the time for me to die with honour." After his death in battle, the imperial court rewarded Zhou Chu's family by giving it a million coins, a large plot of burial land, a plot of residential land in the capital, and some farmland adjacent to the imperial clan's own farms. Zhou's mother was compensated with a supply of food and medicine for the rest of her life.

The Battle of Mount Liumo took place in 297. In 298-299, General Meng Guan was sent with an army of elite crossbow troops to suppress the rebels, and finally defeated and captured Qi Wannian after a series of more than ten battles.

Food for thought: If you were Zhou Chu, would you have fought to the death, dooming your entire army, for the sake of a posthumous reputation for loyalty? Or would you have pulled your soldiers out and lived to fight another day?

Another one: Since all of Zhou Chu's men presumably died, how did the historians know what he said and did in his last hours? Were there survivors, or were his words made up to embellish his heroic story?

[snowybeagle]

First, even if we presumed Zhou Chu would be punished by his enemies with death for withdrawing, did it necessarily mean the survivors from his army would be spared? Especially if they could serve as witness to the treachery? I would not say it was fair for Zhou Chu to sacrifice the lives of his men to preserve his reputation for loyalty, but I'm not sure if his men would be spared either way.

Second, though records said all his men died, I suspect there'd always be survivors. Another possibility would be non-military men accompanying the army for various purposes. They may have been spared from the killings. Yet a third alternative could be it was recorded through the rebels who interrogated captured soldiers before killing them.

These are just possibilities, just like making up last words.

[Yun]

BTW, Zhou Chu's two sons buried him in his hometown of Yixing, on the burial land given by the imperial court. The tomb was discovered in the 20th century, and in it was a very interesting artifact that is now in the Nanjing Museum:

http://www.regenttou...-mysterious.asp

I really don't agree that the monster represents Zhou Chu's youth. It is probably just one of the many fierce tomb guardian beasts that were popular in the Age of Fragmentation.

[Yun]

"Zhou Chu and the three scourges", edited into a children's story to teach the Chinese language:

http://barney.gonzag.../CP/zhouchu.htm

Zhou Chu is one of two Wu figures famous in Chinese children's books for showing that studying can make you a better person The other one is Lu Meng.

[Kenshinng]

Before heading for Guanzhong, Zhou Chu had been advised by a friend to turn down the assignment on the grounds that his mother was an aged widow and needed taking care of. Zhou replied, "How could one hold to both loyalty and filial piety! Since I have left my family to serve my lord, how could I still be just a filial son to my parents? This is the time for me to die with honour." After his death in battle, the imperial court rewarded Zhou Chu's family by giving it a million coins, a large plot of burial land, a plot of residential land in the capital, and some farmland adjacent to the imperial clan's own farms. Zhou's mother was compensated with a supply of food and medicine for the rest of her life.

So according to what Zhou Chu said in this paragraph, is the chinese phrase "忠义两难全" attributed to him?

[sima old bandit]

After this incident, Zhou studied diligently and became a prominent official, scholar, and writer. After the conquest of the Wu regime, he was present at the Wu imperial palace when Wang Hun (one of the generals in the Jin invasion force) got drunk and mocked the former Wu officials there, saying, "You people are the leftovers of a conquered state - isn't it sad?" Zhou Chu replied, "The empire broke apart at the end of the Han, and three states arose like the legs of a tripod. Wei ended long before Wu did. So why should we alone be the sad ones?" This embarrassing reminder to Wang Hun, that he himself had been a subject of the Wei regime, immediately silenced him.

pwned! Though it was a rather easy put down for Zhou Chu to think up, Wang Hun musta been really drunk or just dumb to have said such a thing.

Food for thought: If you were Zhou Chu, would you have fought to the death, dooming your entire army, for the sake of a posthumous reputation for loyalty? Or would you have pulled your soldiers out and lived to fight another day?

With the enemy not yet vanquished i doubt his soldiers would be killed. In any case, Zhou Chu could not be 100% certain that Sima Rong would kill his entire army so basically he caused many lives to be lost. I would have endured the humiliation to save my men and secondly to try and leak out his wrong doings since the commander in chief cannot be allowed to act in such an unprofessional fashion and be allowed to get away with it.