Wu Liuqi, courtesy namesJianbo and Geru, was a general of the Qing dynasty. He was born in Fengshun County, Meizhou, Guangdong, but his ancestral home was in Chaoyang, Shantou, Guangdong. Wu Liuqi was born during the reign of the Wanli Emperor in the late Ming dynasty. In his younger days, he was addicted to gambling and squandered away his family fortune. During the chaotic period leading to the collapse of the Ming dynasty, Wu Liuqi became a beggar in the Wuyue region and later came to serve the Yongli Emperor of the Southern Ming dynasty, a state formed by remnants of the fallen Ming dynasty. When the forces of the Manchu-led Qing dynasty invaded Chaozhou, Wu Liuqi surrendered to Shang Kexi and was appointed as the chief military commander in Chaozhou. He was subsequently promoted to the position of tidu of Guangdong. The scholar Wang Shizhen wrote about Wu Liuqi in Wu Shunke Liuqi Biezhuan, claiming that when Wu was a teenager, he met Zha Jizuo, who commented that Wu was "an extraordinary man". In 1663, during the early reign of the Kangxi Emperor in the Qing dynasty, Zha Jizuo was implicated in a case of literary inquisition and was nearly executed. However, Wu Liuqi intervened and defended Zha Jizuo and eventually saved Zha's life. Volume 7 of Wang Shizhen's Xiangzu Biji recorded: " Liuqi died in office and was granted the posthumous positions of shaoshi and taizi taishi and the posthumous nameShunke."
In fiction
Da Li Jiangjun, one of the stories in Liaozhai Zhiyi, mentioned Wu Liuqi, who was referred to as "Wu Liuyi" in the tale. In this story, Zha Jizuo saw Wu Liuqi lift a huge metal bell in a temple with only one arm and take out rice from the bell. Zha was astounded by Wu's feat and felt that Wu was an extraordinary person, so he suggested to Wu to make full use of his ability to do something that would benefit society. Many years later, Wu Liuqi became an official of the Qing government and he came back to find Zha Jizuo and thank him. In the short novelGusheng by Niu Xiu, Wu Liuqi felt grateful to Zha Jizuo after he became the tidu of Guangdong. He sent a huge rock called "Yingshifeng" to Zha to express his gratitude. The rock was later renamed "Zhouyunfeng" and became one of the "Three Famous Rocks of Jiangnan". Wu Liuqi also appears as a minor character in the novelThe Deer and the Cauldron by Louis Cha. In the novel, he is nicknamed "Iron Beggar" and is a member of the Heaven and Earth Society and the Beggars' Sect.
