The Unraveling of a Rebellion

In the summer of 1678, the once-mighty warlord Wu Sangui received devastating news: his trusted general Wang Fuchen had defected to the Qing dynasty. This final betrayal shattered Wu’s already precarious position. While earlier defections by allies like Geng Jingzhong and Shang Kexi had been setbacks, Wang’s surrender struck at the heart of Wu’s rebellion. Within a single year, Wu’s campaign—which had initially swept across half of China—collapsed into isolation. Facing imminent defeat, the aging warlord made a desperate decision: he would declare himself emperor.

This ill-fated move would prove catastrophic, alienating his remaining supporters and accelerating his downfall. Yet for Wu, time was running out. At sixty-seven—an advanced age in the 17th century—he saw this as his last chance to seize the ultimate prize after a lifetime of warfare.

The Ill-Omened Coronation

On March 1, 1678, in the city of Hengzhou, Wu Sangui discarded his “Overthrow the Qing, Restore the Ming” banner and proclaimed the founding of the Zhou dynasty, adopting the reign title Zhaowu . The choice of era name immediately drew skepticism. Court scholars noted the inauspicious symbolism: the character Zhao contained a “slanting sun” radical, suggesting a dynasty past its zenith, while Wu evoked the blade of a knife—an omen of violence and instability.

Eyewitness accounts describe a portentous scene during the coronation. As Wu ascended the throne in imperial robes, a sudden storm engulfed the ceremony, stirring memories of another fateful gust decades earlier. In 1644, a similar wind had turned the tide at the Battle of Shanhai Pass, where Wu’s defection to the Qing secured their victory over Li Zicheng’s rebel forces. Now, nature seemed to mock his ambitions.

A Court Built on Shifting Sands

Undeterred, Wu established a miniature imperial court, appointing his wife as empress and grandson as heir. He awarded grandiose titles to loyal generals and even recruited eunuchs—a symbolic gesture mimicking the Ming dynasty’s rituals. Critics saw these actions as proof of his detachment from reality. While Qing forces tightened their grip on Hunan, Wu preoccupied himself with ceremonial trappings rather than military strategy.

The Military Collapse

By mid-1677, the Qing had massed 100,000 troops near Changsha, determined to crush the rebellion. Recognizing the threat, Wu scrambled to reinforce key strongholds like Yuezhou and launched diversionary attacks into Guangdong. But these efforts faltered when Shang Zhixin surrendered Guangdong to the Qing.

The decisive confrontation came at Yongxing, the gateway to Wu’s capital. For over twenty days, Qing defenders—many from elite Manchu banners—repelled waves of assaults despite crumbling walls and staggering casualties. The Eight Banners Annals recorded the deaths of forty Manchu officers, including several high-ranking commanders. Just as Wu’s forces seemed poised to take the city, history delivered its final twist.

Death of a Would-Be Emperor

On August 18, 1678, five months after his coronation, Wu Sangui succumbed to a sudden illness in Hengzhou. Historical accounts attribute his death to heatstroke exacerbated by stress—a fitting end for a man whose ambitions had burned too intensely. With no unifying figure to sustain the rebellion, his faction disintegrated. His grandson Wu Shifan briefly continued the struggle, but by 1681, the Qing extinguished the last embers of resistance.

Legacy of a Contradictory Figure

Wu’s life epitomized the chaos of China’s Ming-Qing transition. A Ming general who betrayed his dynasty, then rebelled against his Qing overlords, his final act of self-coronation revealed the paradox of his career: a man forever chasing legitimacy but doomed by his own opportunism. The Zhou dynasty existed only on paper, its ephemeral reign underscoring the fragility of power built on shifting alliances.

Modern historians debate whether Wu’s imperial bid was sheer folly or a calculated last stand. What remains undeniable is its dramatic symbolism—a rebel’s defiant gesture against the tides of history, swept away like leaves in the same wind that once made him.