His father was a folk hero in their hometown during the Eastern Wu period, known for "eradicating the Three Scourges" (周處除三害), and later died in battle during Qi Wannian's rebellion while serving the Jin dynasty.
Under Shi Bing's occupation, Zhou Qi planned to defeat him, and so he conspired with the former Interior Minister of Nanping, Wang Ju (王矩).
They recommended the Prefect of Wuxing, Gu Mi (顧秘) to lead their forces as Chief Controller of Nine Commanderies in Yang, and sent of calls to rally the local gentry.
He Xun, Gan Zhuo, Ge Hong and others all joined forces with Zhou Qi, and he led them to attack Shi Bing's Administrator of Wuxing, Ou Shan (區山), killing him and his chief clerks.
When Shi Bing heard that Zhou Qi had raised an army, he sent his general Qiang Du (羌毒) to intercept him, but he was routed.
After a month of siege, Shi Bing fled to a fellow rebel leader Feng Yun (封雲) in Xu province, where they were both assassinated by a subordinate of the latter as Chen Min attacked them.
With Yang province pacified, Zhou Qi returned to his hometown disbanded his army, never reporting his achievements and refusing awards from the imperial court.
They secretly informed the Jin general, Liu Zhun (劉準) in Shouchun regarding their plot and asked him to send his soldiers south of the Yangzi while they acted from within.
Sima Rui sent Guo Yi (郭逸) and Song Dian (宋典) to attack him, but the two generals initially did not dare to engage him as they had very little troops.
Zhou Qi personally gathered people from his hometown to join them in their campaign, killing Qian Hui and sending his head to Jianye.
At the same time, Sima Rui was also beginning to phase out the southern gentry clans in favour of the northern emigres families who were fleeing from the chaos in the north.
[7] Wang Hui contacted a refugee leader along the Huai river, Xia Tie (夏鐵) in hopes of getting him to raise an army while he and Zhou Qi prepared in the "Three Wus" region (Wu, Wuxing and Kuaiji commanderies).
Once he passed by Wuhu, he received a praiseful imperial decree from Sima Rui, making him Army Libationer-Consultant and promoting his peerage to Duke of Wucheng.