Outstanding diplomat and jurist in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China. Wu was born in Xinhui, Guangdong. At the age of 3, he returned to Guangzhou Fangcun with his father to settle down. He entered St. Paul's College in Hong Kong in his early years. 1874 He studied in Britain at his own expense, entered London College to study law, obtained his doctorate and obtained the qualification of barrister, and became the first doctor of law in modern China. Later, he returned to Hong Kong as a lawyer and became the first Chinese member of the Hong Kong Legislative Council.
After the Westernization Movement began, he entered the shogunate of Li Hongzhang in 1882 as a legal adviser and participated in the Sino-French negotiations and the Shimonoseki negotiations. 1896 was appointed by the Qing government as the ambassador to the United States, Spain and Peru, and signed the Sino-Mexican Trade Treaty, the first equal treaty in modern China. He presided over the revision of laws and put forward a series of advanced ideas, including the abolition of torture and the implementation of jury and lawyer systems.
After the outbreak of the Revolution of 1911, he served as the foreign minister of the military government of the Republic of China, presided over the North-South peace talks, and forced the Qing Dynasty to abdicate. After the establishment of the Nanjing Provisional Government, he became the Chief Justice. 19 17 went to Guangzhou to participate in the national defense movement, and served as the foreign minister, finance minister and Guangdong governor of the national defense military government. 1922, when Chen Jiongming defected, he fell ill with fright and anger and died in Guangzhou. Yuexiu Mountain has Wu Cemetery.