Biography
Family Background and Early Life
Zhou Wenyu was originally named Xiang Mengnu and came from Shouchang in Xin'an, present-day Jiande. His father died early, his mother was elderly, and he had many older siblings; the family was burdened by taxes and labor obligations. From childhood he was exceptionally strong and a superb swimmer. At eleven he was said to be able to swim several *li* back and forth and leap five or six *chi*, unmatched by his companions.
Zhou Hui, a local garrison commander from Yixing, noticed him and asked about his circumstances. Mengnu replied that his mother was old, the family poor, his older brothers and sisters grown, and the household exhausted by labor obligations. Zhou Hui took pity on him, sought his mother's permission, and adopted him. Xiang Mengnu thereafter became Zhou Wenyu; the courtesy name Jingde was given by Zhou She, Chamberlain for the Heir Apparent. When Zhou Hui's term ended, he took the boy to the capital Jiankang.
Zhou Hui asked his nephew Zhou Hongrang to teach Wenyu reading and writing. Zhou Hongrang, skilled in clerical calligraphy, wrote out Cai Yong's “Encouragement to Learning” and ancient poems for him, but Wenyu showed little interest, saying in effect that wealth and rank were won with a great spear, not through such study. Zhou Hongrang regarded his ambition as unusual and instead taught him riding and archery, which delighted him.
Early Military Career and Submission to Chen Baxian
Zhou Hui later served under Chen Qingzhi, governor of Si Prefecture, and was ordered with five hundred men to Xincai-Xuankou to reward the Baishui tribal people. A faction of the Baishui people plotted to seize Zhou Hui and defect to Northern Wei. After the plot was exposed, fighting broke out, with dozens of clashes in a single day. Zhou Hui was killed. Wenyu fought desperately to recover his body and received nine wounds, but the enemy, seeing his courage at the front, did not dare press him. Both sides withdrew at nightfall.
After recovering, Wenyu obtained leave from Chen Qingzhi and escorted Zhou Hui's coffin to Yixing for burial. Chen Qingzhi admired his loyalty and gave him generous assistance. Wenyu later followed Lu Anxing, Protector of the Southern River, to Guangzhou and was appointed magistrate of Nanhai County after earning merit against Li and Lao groups.
In 542 Lu Anxing's son Lu Zixiong was ordered to campaign against Li Ben in Jiaozhou. After disease caused failure, Jiaozhou governor Xiao Zi falsely accused him and the court executed him. Lu Zixiong's brothers Lu Zilüe and Lu Zilie and former subordinates Du Tianhe, Du Sengming, Zhou Wenyu, and others rose in anger and attacked Guangzhou. Wenyu, Lu Zilüe, Du Tianhe, and Du Sengming each commanded one force, and their numbers reportedly swelled to tens of thousands in a day.
Chen Baxian, then administrator of Gaoyao, brought three thousand elite troops to relieve Guangzhou and defeated them below the city. Du Tianhe was killed by an arrow; Du Sengming and Zhou Wenyu were captured. Chen Baxian released both and made them commanders. From then on Wenyu followed Chen Baxian, fighting in campaigns against Li Ben in Jiaozhou and against Yuan Jingzhong in Guangzhou, who had responded to Hou Jing.
Suppression of the Hou Jing Rebellion
The Hou Jing Rebellion began in 548. The next year Emperor Wu of Liang died in the besieged capital. Chen Baxian raised troops in Guangzhou in support of the dynasty, with Zhou Wenyu and Du Sengming serving in the vanguard; they took Lan Yu and relieved Ouyang Wei.
In 550 Chen Baxian marched north and fought Cai Luyang at Nanye, south of present-day Nankang, Jiangxi. Wenyu was surrounded as arrows and stones fell like rain and his horse was killed. Fighting with his right hand while removing the saddle with his left, he broke through and then joined Du Sengming in a renewed attack that routed Cai. Chen Baxian recommended him as marshal of the military administration.
At the same time Li Qianshi, governor of Gaozhou, occupied Dagao and ordered Du Pinglu to build Yuliang fort in the Gan River region. Wenyu attacked, and Du abandoned the fort. Li Qianshi then came with elite troops, but Wenyu held him until Du Sengming arrived and together they defeated him. Li fled to Ningdu, received support from local magnate Liu Xiaoshang, and returned. Wenyu and Du Sengming held Baikou and fought Li for more than one hundred days, finally capturing and killing him. Emperor Yuan of Liang then appointed Wenyu Acting Bearer of the Imperial Tally, General of Resolute Trust, and governor of Yi Prefecture.
In 551 Chen Baxian left Nankang and ordered Wenyu with five thousand troops to open the river route. Wenyu took Yuzhang, drove off Hou Jing's general Wang Bochou, and was promoted to General of Roaming Cavalry and Extraneous Cavalier Attendant, with the title Marquis of Dongqian County and a fief of five hundred households.
In 552 Chen Baxian joined Wang Sengbian at Baimao Bay. Wenyu and Du Sengming frequently formed the army's spearhead, taking Nanling, Quetou, Gushu, and other places and defeating Hou Jing's general Hou Zijian at Gushu. Hou Jing fled and was killed at Hudou Isle by his own subordinate Yang Kun. After the rebellion ended, Wenyu received the offices of Regular Mounted Attendant and administrator of Xinyi, was transferred as Marquis of Nanyi County with one thousand households, and later rose to Regular Mounted Attendant and General of Resolute Martiality, serving successively as administrator of Southern Danyang, Lanling, and Jinling.
Founding Meritorious Official of Chen
In 554 Western Wei captured Jiangling and killed Emperor Yuan of Liang. Chen Baxian and Wang Sengbian then shared control of court affairs. After Wang accepted Xiao Yuanming, backed by Northern Qi, as emperor, Chen Baxian attacked and killed Wang and took sole power. Zhou Wenyu firmly supported Chen and helped suppress Du Kan, Zhang Biao, and other surviving followers of Wang Sengbian.
In 557 Chen Baxian replaced Liang and founded the Chen dynasty as Emperor Wu of Chen. Zhou Wenyu was promoted to Regular Mounted Attendant, General Who Guards the South, and governor of Jiangzhou and was made Duke of Shouchang County.
Campaign against Wang Lin and Death
In 559 Chen Baxian sent Zhou Wenyu, Zhou Di, General Who Pacifies the South, and Xiong Tanlang, administrator of Bashan, against Wang Lin, a former Liang commander holding Yingzhou and resisting Chen. Wenyu advanced to Sanbei and faced Wang Lin's commander Cao Qing. Cao sent Chang Zhong'ai to resist them; Zhou Di was defeated and disappeared. Wenyu withdrew to Jinkou, southwest of present-day Xinjian, Jiangxi.
Seeing the unfavorable situation, Xiong Tanlang began to consider defection. Wenyu's army supervisor Sun Baixiang noticed and advised killing Xiong first, but Wenyu refused. Xiong killed Wenyu at night—one account says during a banquet—and surrendered to Chang Zhong'ai. Wenyu was fifty-one. The Chen court posthumously granted him the offices of Palace Attendant and Minister of Works and the posthumous title Zhongmin.
Family, Soldiering, and the Death of Zhou Hui
The History of Chen records that "Zhou Wenyu, styled Jingde, was a man of Yangxian in Yixing. Left an orphan and poor in boyhood, he was originally of Shouchang county in Xin'an, of the Xiang clan, and named Mengnu. At eleven he could swim back and forth several li in the water and jump five or six feet high, and among the boys at play none could match him." He came of a poor family in Shouchang, his father dead, his mother old, brothers and sisters many, "the household oppressed by taxes and corvée." Zhou Hui, a garrison commander of the place, liked the boy and pitied his circumstances, and with his mother's consent adopted him; Mengnu took the surname Zhou and followed Zhou Hui, going with him to the capital when his term ended. There Zhou Hui presented him to Zhou She, junior guardian of the heir apparent, asking that a name be given him, and Zhou She named him Wenyu with the courtesy name Jingde, and had his nephew Zhou Hongrang teach him writing and arithmetic. Hongrang, a good writer of clerical script, copied Cai Yong's "Encouragement to Learning" and old poems for him, but Wenyu "gave them no thought," saying: "Who would study this? To win wealth and honour one needs only a great lance." Hongrang admired his spirit and taught him riding and archery, "at which Wenyu was delighted." The record is almost a summary of his life: he never meant to stand by letters but by prowess.
Afterwards Chen Qingzhi, governor of Sizhou, being of the same commandery as Zhou Hui and his friend, had him made commander of the forward army with five hundred men to go to Xincai and Xuanhu to comfort the Baishui Man; the Man plotted to seize Zhou Hui and take him to Wei, and the plot discovered, the two sides fought fiercely, "in one day more than ten engagements," and Zhou Hui died in the mêlée. Zhou Wenyu fought to recover his body, so that "his own person took nine wounds," and the Man, seeing him "in the front breaking the line, bravest in the whole army," dared not press; the two sides faced each other until dark and then drew off. When his wounds healed he asked leave of Chen Qingzhi to take Zhou Hui home to Yixing for burial, and Chen Qingzhi, "admiring his sense of honour, gave him generous gifts and let him go."
Joining Chen Baxian and Destroying Li Qianshi
Zhou Wenyu and Du Sengming later came under Chen Baxian, afterwards Emperor Wu of Chen. In the Datong era of Liang, Lu Anxing was commander of the southern river district of Guangzhou, and Sengming with his brother Du Tianhe and Zhou Wenyu were engaged by him to go with him; after Lu Anxing's death Sengming served his son Lu Zixiong. When Li Ben, a local chief of Jiaozhou, rebelled and drove out the governor Xiao Zi, the court sent Lu Zixiong with Sun Jiong, governor of Gaozhou, against him; but "the spring grass had grown and the miasma was rising," and at Hepu "six or seven in ten died," the troops, dreading the service, scattered, and Lu Zixiong had to lead the rest back. Xiao Zi then accused him and Sun Jiong of "communicating with the rebels and halting without advancing," and Emperor Wu of Liang ordered them to die at Guangzhou. Lu Zixiong's younger brothers Zilüe and Zilie being bold and chivalrous, with their families in the southern river district, Du Tianhe proposed to the others that "the house of Lu has treated us with great kindness for generations, and now they are put to death unjustly — not to avenge them would be no man's part," and all answered with spirit, joining with Zhou Wenyu and others, supporting Zilüe as their leader, to attack the governor Xiao Ying. Chen Baxian came to the rescue with three thousand picked men "in armour by forced marches," winning repeatedly, and Du Tianhe was killed by a stray arrow and the rebels broke, whereupon Du Sengming submitted — and Zhou Wenyu passed to Chen Baxian about this time. Later, in Chen Baxian's defeat of Cai Luyang at Nanye, Zhou Wenyu was surrounded by Cai's troops in several rings with arrows and stones falling like rain; "his horse was killed, and Wenyu fought with his right hand and unbuckled his saddle with his left, broke out of the ring," and then joining Du Sengming and the others pressed on again and heavily defeated the enemy, and Chen Baxian memorialized him as marshal of his office. When Li Qianshi, governor of Gaozhou, held Dagao and sent his officer Du Pinglu into the Gan rapids to build the Yuliang fort, Zhou Wenyu led troops against the fort and drove Du Pinglu out; Li Qianshi came in person with picked troops whose "edge was very keen, and the soldiers feared them," and Wenyu, fighting him to a stand, was relieved when Du Sengming broke the enemy's river force, whereupon Li Qianshi's men scattered and he fled to Xingan, and Zhou Wenyu was made acting commissioner, general of faithful trust and governor of Yizhou by Xiao Yi, "acting by imperial authority."