He participated in the campaign against Qi Wannian's Rebellion when he was forced by his superiors to fight the 70,000-strong enemy head-on with 5,000 soldiers and no supply.
Zhou Chu is depicted in the woodcut print Wu Shuang Pu (無雙譜, Table of Peerless Heroes) by Jin Guliang.
Prompted by a villager, Zhou Chu took on the challenge to seek out and kill the tiger and the scaly dragon that lived in a stream (the jiao).
[3][5][4] Zhou Chu became Palace Aide to the Censor-in-Chief (御史中丞) and had no fear in indicting and exposing the wrongdoings of other ministers.
His fellow general Sun Xiu (孫秀)[6] warned him and suggested him to bid his aging mother a final farewell.
Zhou Qi became a famous general south of the Yangzi during the fall of Western Jin, thrusting their clan into prominence.