Zhōu Chǔ 周處 (236–297 CE), zì Zǐyǐn 子隱, native of Yángyí 陽羨 county (modern Yíxīng 宜興, Jiangsu), son of the Póyáng Commandant 鄱陽太守 Zhōu Fǎng 周魴. He served the Western Jin as Xīnjù tàishǒu 新居太守 and rose to Yùshǐ zhōngchéng 御史中丞. He died in battle against the Dī rebel Qí Wànnián 齊萬年 in 297 CE.
Zhōu Chǔ is famous in Chinese popular culture for the story “Zhōu Chǔ chú sān hài” 周處除三害 (“Zhou Chu eliminates the three scourges”): as a young man, local people regarded him as one of three menaces alongside a fierce tiger and a flood dragon in the Zhǎng Bridge river below his home. He killed both beasts, reformed his character, and became a model official and scholar. The story is recorded in Shìshuō xīnyǔ 世說新語 (Zìxīn 自新 chapter) and Jìn shū 晉書 (biography, juàn 58).
As a scholar, Zhōu Chǔ authored the Fēngtú jì 風土記 (KR2k0161), a systematic record of local customs, seasonal festivals, and geography of the Jiangnan region, which has become the foundational source for the early history of Chinese folk festivals including Duānwǔ 端午, Qīxī 七夕, and Chóngyáng 重陽. He also wrote a history of his home region and is credited with works on lǐ 禮 scholarship.