Wu Zhi was born in a poor family in Jiyin Commandery, which is around present-day Dingtao County, Shandong. He became a close aide of Cao Pi, the eldest surviving son of the warlordCao Cao, who controlled the Han central government and the figureheadEmperor Xian in the late Eastern Han dynasty. During this time, he served as the Chief of Zhaoge County and Prefect of Yuancheng County. In 220, following Cao Cao's death, Cao Pi usurped the throne from Emperor Xian, ended the Eastern Han dynasty and established the state of Cao Wei with himself as the emperor. Cao Pi then appointed Wu Zhi as North General of the Household and granted him imperial authority to supervise military affairs in You and Bing provinces. Later, Wu Zhi was promoted to General Who Inspires Might and put in charge of overseeing military affairs in the Hebei region. In 230, during the reign of Cao Pi's successor Cao Rui, Wu Zhi was reassigned to be a Palace Attendant. He died in the same year. After his death, some officials suggested to Cao Rui to give him a negative-sounding posthumous title, "Marquis Chou", because Wu Zhi used his close friendship with Cao Pi to gain power and status. Although Cao Rui initially agreed, he later changed Wu Zhi's posthumous title to "Marquis Wei" after Wu Zhi's son, Wu Ying, convinced him that the posthumous title did not befit his father.
Anecdotes
Around 217, before Cao Cao left for the Hanzhong Campaign, Cao Zhi sang praises of his father while seeing him off and earned much favour from his father. Cao Pi, feeling uneasy that Cao Zhi had stolen the limelight, turned to Wu Zhi for advice. Wu Zhi instructed Cao Pi to cry while seeing his father off. Cao Pi did so and touched the hearts of many people, who felt that Cao Pi was much more sincere in expressing his emotions as compared to Cao Zhi. In another incident, Wu Zhi did not want to be seen as being too close to Cao Pi, so he sneaked into Cao Pi's residence by hiding in a silk hamper. When Yang Xiu, Cao Zhi's close friend and adviser, heard about it, he reported it to Cao Cao. Wu Zhi, knowing that Yang Xiu knew his trick, stopped sneaking into Cao Pi's residence and he instructed Cao Pi to refill the hamper with silk. When Cao Cao and Yang Xiu came to investigate, they did not find Wu Zhi hiding inside the hamper, so Cao Cao became very displeased with Yang Xiu. In 224, Cao Pi ordered Wu Zhi to host a banquet in his residence to celebrate Cao Zhen's return from a campaign. During the banquet, Wu Zhi instructed actors to put up a skit to make fun ofCao Zhen and Zhu Shuo, who were fat and thin respectively. Cao Zhen turned furious and he shouted at Wu Zhi, "Are you and your men seeking a fight with me and my men?" Cao Hong and Wang Zhong egged Wu Zhi on by saying, "If you want to make the General admit that he is fat, you have to show that you're thin." Cao Zhen drew his sword, glared at them and said, "I'll kill whoever dares to mock me." Wu Zhi also drew his sword and insulted Cao Zhen by saying, "Cao Zidan, you're not meat under a butcher's cleaver. My throat won't tremble when I swallow you and my teeth won't chatter when I chew on you. How dare you behave so rudely!" Zhu Shuo stood up and tried to reduce tensions by telling Wu Zhi, "His Majesty ordered you to host entertainment for everyone. Do you have to do this?" Wu Zhi then shouted at Zhu Shuo, "Zhu Shuo, how dare you leave your seat!" Everyone then returned to their seats. Zhu Shuo felt outraged but did not say anything, and returned to his seat and used his sword to hit the ground.
