She was posthumously honoured as Empress Wulie in 229 by her second son Sun Quan, who became the founding emperor of the state of Eastern Wu in the Three Kingdoms period.
However, Lady Wu's relatives disliked Sun Jian, whom they perceived as an idler and a rascal, so they wanted to reject his proposal.
According to a story in In Search of the Supernatural, Lady Wu dreamt about the moon entering her body before she gave birth to Sun Ce.
"[5] In 190, when Sun Jian raised an army to join the campaign against Dong Zhuo, he relocated his family from Changsha Commandery (長沙郡; covering present-day Changsha and parts of Hunan) to Shu County (舒縣), Lujiang Commandery (廬江郡), which is in present-day Shucheng County, Anhui.
Zhou Yu offered to let Sun Ce and his family stay with him and he paid respects to Lady Wu as though she was his real mother.
Between 194 and 199, Sun Ce embarked on a series of conquests in the Jiangdong (or Wu) region to seize territories from the local governors and warlords in the area.
Lady Wu showed up, stood beside a well, and told her son, "You've recently established a foothold in Jiangnan and there are many things you still need to do.
She consulted Dong Xi about her incertitude, and Dong Xi emboldened the former by saying, "The lands east of the Yangzi enjoy natural barriers from mountains and rivers, while the good government and virtue of Sun Ce have already attracted the people, lord Sun Quan can build on these foundations, so that great and small may follow his commands.
[14][b] Before her death in 202, Lady Wu summoned Zhang Zhao, Dong Xi[15] and others and instructed them to help Sun Quan in governing the territories in Jiangnan.
[1] In 229, when Sun Quan declared himself Emperor and established the state of Eastern Wu, he granted his mother the posthumous title "Empress Wulie" (武烈皇后).
[16] In the 14th-century historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Lady Wu had a fictional younger sister who also married Sun Jian.
Wu Guotai lived longer than her sister because she played a significant role in the marriage of her daughter to Liu Bei in 209.