Biography
Family Background and Early Life
Zhou Fashang came from the prominent Runan Zhou lineage. His great-grandfather Zhou Wenqiang served Southern Qi as Attendant to the Crown Prince, chief secretary of Liangzhou, and administrator of Xincheng. His grandfather Zhou Lingqi served Liang as General of the Palace Guard, administrator of Yiyang, governor of Lu and Gui prefectures, and founding Marquis of Baocheng County, with the posthumous title Su. His father Zhou Jiong served Liang and Chen and rose to General Who Pacifies the North, Regular Mounted Attendant, and governor of Dingzhou, receiving the title Duke Zhuang of Wuchang. His mother, Lady Zhang of Wu Commandery, was a granddaughter of Zhang Yong, General Who Conquers the North under Southern Qi. Zhou Fashang was Zhou Jiong's second son; his elder brother Zhou Faseng was Duke of Wuchang County.
Zhou was bold, determined, and fond of military writings from youth. In 573, aged eighteen, he became Central Army Staff Officer to Chen Shuling, Prince of Shixing, and was appointed General Who Calms the Waves. When his father died in 576, Zhou supervised Dingzhou and took command of his father's old army. After repeated military achievements he received the imperial tally, became General of Resolute Fortitude and Regular Mounted Attendant, took concurrent charge of Qichang Commandery, and was made Marquis of Shanyin County with five hundred households.
Slander under Chen and Defection to Northern Zhou
In 579 Zhou fell out with Chen Shujian, Prince of Changsha. Chen Shujian accused him before Emperor Xuan of Chen of plotting rebellion. The emperor imprisoned Zhou's elder brother Zhou Faseng and prepared troops to attack. Zhou had not intended rebellion and initially hesitated when his followers urged flight to Northern Zhou. His chief secretary Yin Wen used the example of Yue Yi leaving Yan to persuade him, and Zhou led his men in submitting to Northern Zhou. Emperor Xuan of Northern Zhou, Yuwen Yun, welcomed him, appointed him Grand General with Open Office Equal to the Three Excellencies and governor of Shunzhou, made him Duke of Guiyi County with one thousand households, and gave him horses, entertainers, silk, and a gold belt.
Emperor Xuan of Chen sent General Fan Meng across the river to attack him. Zhou used a false-surrender stratagem, sending his subordinate Han Ming to pretend to defect and entice Fan into a hurried assault. Zhou outwardly showed fear and withdrew to a bend in the river while secretly placing light boats in the channels and elite troops north of an old village. He feigned retreat in battle, drew Fan into the ambush, attacked from front and rear, routed the Chen army, and captured eight thousand men; Fan escaped narrowly.
In 580, after Emperor Xuan of Northern Zhou had abdicated to the child Emperor Jing and Yang Jian held power as chancellor, Sima Xiaonan, commander of Yunzhou, rebelled against Yang. He sent Duan Xun to Shunzhou under the pretense of assistance but actually intending to seize it. Zhou recognized the deception and barred the gates. Duan besieged the city. With only five hundred officials and soldiers and no outside aid, Zhou held for twenty days and then broke out. Sima Xiaonan captured Zhou's mother, younger brother, and three hundred family members and took them south to Chen.
Service under Sui and Pacification of Lingnan
When Yang Jian founded Sui in 581, Zhou was appointed governor of Bazhou. That year he defeated rebellious Sanya groups at Tieshan and joined Pillar of State Wang Yi in repelling a Chen attack. He was promoted to commander of Hengzhou with military authority over four prefectures and transferred as Duke of Qiao Commandery with two thousand households.
In 585 Emperor Wen summoned him during a visit to Luoyang and rewarded him with costly vessels, five hundred bolts of silk, fifteen fine horses, three hundred servants, and a ceremonial music corps. Zhou tried to decline, but the emperor told him he had rendered great service to the state and the music was intended to show his home district how much the ruler favored him.
In 586 Zhou became commander of Huangzhou and received secret instructions to prepare for operations in Jiangnan and observe Chen. When the Sui conquest of Chen began in 588, Zhou served as a field army commander under Prince Yang Jun of Qin, leading thirty thousand naval troops to Fankou, present-day Ezhou, Hubei. He defeated Chen governor Xiong Menchao and captured him in battle.
In 589 Zhou became governor of Ezhou and in the twelfth month commander of Yongzhou, taking 3,500 Huangzhou troops to pacify Lingnan. Through personal prestige he induced the surrender of former Chen officials including Qian Jiqing, governor of Guizhou, Liu Xuan, administrator of Nankang, Deng Gao, governor of Western Hengzhou, and Mao Shuang, administrator of Yangshan. Former Dingzhou governor Lü Zikuo resisted from mountain caves. Zhou crossed the Five Ridges to attack; Lü's followers dispersed, killed him, and surrendered, stabilizing Lingnan. In 590 Zhou became commander of Guizhou while continuing as pacification commissioner of Lingnan.
Suppression of Rebellions and Later Campaigns
In 597 Li Guangshi, a Li leader in Guizhou, rebelled. Emperor Wen sent Zhou and Wang Shiji on separate routes. Zhou hurried to Guizhou and mobilized Lingnan forces, while Wang raised troops north of the ridges; the armies were to meet in Yinzhou. Disease delayed Wang at Hengzhou, so Zhou attacked alone. When Li retreated to Baishi Cave, Zhou captured Li's younger brother and relatives of the rebels and returned relatives to those who surrendered. Thousands submitted within ten days. Zhou then blocked the enemy's movement, hid picked troops in the woods, and struck the rebel camp during battle. Li Guangshi was routed and killed by pursuers. Zhou received large rewards in servants, gold, and silver.
During the Renshou era, Zhou as field army commander suppressed a Liao uprising in Suizhou. Soon Wuman groups in Xizhou captured the prefectural city. As Zhou advanced, the rebels abandoned it and scattered into the valleys. He sent envoys offering pacification and fictitious offices, then pretended to withdraw twenty li and camp. Scouts reported that the rebel leaders had gathered to drink in celebration. Zhou launched a surprise attack with several thousand infantry and cavalry, routed them, and captured leaders, several thousand fighters, and more than ten thousand men and women.
After Emperor Yang's accession in 604, Zhou became governor of Yunzhou. In 607 he became governor of Dingxiang and advanced to Grand Master of Splendid Happiness. During an imperial visit to Yulin, Secretariat Director Yuan Shou proposed imitating Emperor Wu of Han by dividing the imperial army into twenty-four columns spread for a thousand li. Zhou openly opposed the proposal. Such a dispersed force, he argued, would fragment when danger arose and the front and rear could not support each other. He advocated a compact square formation facing outward on all sides, with the imperial women, officials, and families protected inside, wagons forming walls, curved hook formations supporting the perimeter, surprise forces attacking in battle, and the army falling back into camp if defeated. Emperor Yang was initially displeased but accepted the reasoning and immediately appointed him General of the Left Martial Guard.
In 608 Xiang Siduo of the Qian'an region rebelled, killed General Lu Yuan, and besieged Administrator Xiao Zao. Zhou and General Li Jing advanced by separate routes and defeated Xiang at the Qing River, killing three thousand. Zhou then joined the campaign against Tuyuhun, moved independently from the Songzhou route, and pursued fleeing enemies to Qinghai. He received servants, silk, and seventy fine horses and was appointed administrator of Dunhuang, then soon transferred to Huining.
In 612 Emperor Yang mobilized more than a million troops against Goguryeo. Zhou served as deputy naval commander under Lai Hu'er, whose fleet sailed from Donglai across the Yellow Sea and entered Goguryeo by the Pae River, today's Taedong River. About sixty li from Pyongyang they defeated a Goguryeo force. Lai wanted to advance immediately on the city. Zhou advised waiting for the other armies to converge, but Lai ignored him and led forty thousand elite troops forward. Goguryeo forces prepared an ambush at an empty temple in the outer city, feigned defeat, and drew the Sui troops into plundering. When their formation dissolved, the ambush struck and Lai's army was shattered; only a few thousand returned. Goguryeo troops pursued toward the ships, where Zhou had kept an ordered formation, causing them to withdraw.
In 613 Zhou again followed Lai Hu'er on the second Goguryeo expedition. At Donglai news arrived that Minister of Rites Yang Xuangan had rebelled. The army turned west to suppress the uprising. Zhou was promoted for merit to Grand Master of Right Splendid Happiness and received nine hundred bolts of silk. That year Wang Bo and Meng Rang of Qi Commandery gathered more than one hundred thousand rebels around Changbai Mountain; Zhou fought them and won repeated victories.
In the seventh month of 614, during the third expedition against Goguryeo, Zhou reached the coast with Lai Hu'er but suddenly fell gravely ill before sailing. He told chief secretary Cui Junsu that he had again reached the sea but could not cross it, that time would not wait for him, and that he would now leave the world with his great ambitions unfulfilled. He then died at fifty-nine. The court posthumously made him General-in-Chief of the Left Martial Guard and Duke of Qiao, granted the posthumous title Xi, and buried him at Beimang Mountain.