Zhou Qun

Zhou Qun (onyomi: Shū Gun) was a politician who served under the warlord Liu Zhang before joining Liu Bei. Known for his work on Astronomy and Divination, he accurately predicted many future events which would come to happen.

Roles in Games
In Dynasty Warriors 7, he serves as an enemy at Chengdu in Shu's story. He will be stationed at Chengdu Castle along with Pang Yi. If the player succeeds in wiping them out, the gates of Chengdu Castle will then be opened. In Dynasty Warriors 8: XL, he is one of the enemy officers stationed at a camp before arriving at Luo Castle along with Ma Han.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms introduces Zhou Qun as an average, but overall mediocre official who is initially found serving under Liu Zhang before going over to Liu Bei later on. His highest stat is his intellect which is in the high 60s, with his politics and charisma sitting around the low 50s to low 60s. His military stats are even more abysmal, with leadership and war scores of 15 and 18 respectively. Zhou Qun is unsuited for war, but at best he can be used for domestic tasks if the player has no other good civil officers.

Historical Information
Zhou Qun was from a wealthy family based in Langzhong County, Baxi Commandery in Yi province. His father, Zhou Shu (周舒) was a famous scholar who received many offers to serve in the Han government, but turned them all down, and at one point mentioned that Wei would replace the existing Han Dynasty at the time.

In his younger years, Zhou Qun studied under his father's guidance and gained expertise as an Astronomer and Diviner. He would then construct an observation tower in his residence, and whether something unusual was spotted, he always rushed towards the tower to take note of it, regardless of the time, due to noting these unusual observations, this helped him to accurately predict future events and their course of action. Liu Zhang, who had heard of Zhou Qun's work, appointed him as an "Assistant Officer for Education" in his government.

Among the many events Zhou Qun accurately predicted, they included that the Han Dynasty would soon fall, which came true in 220 with Wei replacing Han, Liu Biao, the governor of Jing would die and lose control over his territory, which also came true with Liu Biao passing away in 208 and Jingzhou falling under Cao Cao's grip and Liu Biao's successor Liu Cong surrendering, and that the Western warlords Liu Zhang of Yi, Zhang Lu of Hanzhong, Han Sui of Xiliang, and Song Jian of Fuhan would all lose their territories and power, which proved to be true with Song Jian and Han Sui both dying to Cao Cao and Liu Zhang and Zhang Lu surrendering to Liu Bei and Cao Cao respectively.

In 214, after Liu Bei seized Yi province from Liu Zhang. He recuited Zhou Qun into his new adminstration and appointed him as acting "Colonel of the Scholars." Around the year 217, when the Hanzhong campaign was in it's planning stages, Zhou Qun was approached by Liu Bei and asked to predict whether he would be successful or not. Zhou Qun said "You will get the territory but you won't have its people. If you send a detachment of your main army to attack (instead of sending your main army), you will lose the battle. You should be very careful about this!" Liu Bei ignored his advice and went forward with the campaign. True to Zhou Qun's words, Liu Bei successfully defeated Cao Cao's forces in Hanzhong and gained the territory, but not the population since they already been relocated. Around the opening stages of the campaign, Liu Bei sent a detachment under Wu Lan and Lei Tong to attack Wudu commandery, but also true to Zhou Qun's warning, Wu Lan and Lei Tong were slain along with the detachment being completely wiped out by Cao Cao's army.

Liu Bei later proposed that Zhou Qun be appointed as a "maocai" (茂才; an outstanding civil servant) for his acccurate advice during the campaign. Zhou Qun would later pass away in an unknown year. His son, Zhou Ju (周巨) would go on to inherit much of his father's work.

Romance of the Three Kingdoms
Zhou Qun's only mention in the novel is in Chapter 65 where he is listed as one of the many officials rewarded by Liu Bei for their services.