Lady Wa

Also known as Wa Shi

Lady Wa appears in the History of the Ming as Wa Shi, wife of the Tianzhou chieftain Cen Meng and of the grandmother generation of his heir Cen Zhi. When wokou raiders ravaged the lower Yangtze in the Jiajing reign, the supreme commander Zhang Jing called up the native wolf troops of Guangxi and Guangdong. In the third month of 1555 the Tianzhou contingent under Lady Wa arrived first and was placed under the regional commander Yu Dayou, camped around Jinshan. The Ming history's account of the Guangxi chieftaincies records that her troops fought the raiders near Suzhou and killed so many that the court rewarded her and her grandsons Cen Dashou and Cen Dalu with silver and silk. Zhuang tradition holds that the Frost's Descent festival in Guangxi came to include her commemoration.