Jiang Yuan () is an important figure in

Chinese mythology Chinese mythology () is mythology that has been passed down in oral form or recorded in literature throughout the area now known as Greater China. Chinese mythology encompasses a diverse array of myths derived from regional and cultural tradit ...

and

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

. She is recorded as having lived during ancient Chinese history. Jiang Yuan was the mother of

Houji Hou Ji (or Houji; ) was a legendary Chinese culture hero credited with introducing millet to humanity during the time of the Xia dynasty.. Millet was the original staple grain of northern China, prior to the introduction of wheat. His name trans ...

, who is a

culture hero A culture hero is a mythological hero specific to some group (Culture, cultural, Ethnic group, ethnic, Religion, religious, etc.) who changes the world through invention or Discovery (observation), discovery. Although many culture heroes help with ...

and revered as the god of millet.

Clan name and title

Jiang Yuan's personal name was not recorded. During the

Spring and Autumn period The Spring and Autumn period () was a period in History of China, Chinese history corresponding roughly to the first half of the Eastern Zhou (256 BCE), characterized by the gradual erosion of royal power as local lords nominally subject t ...

, women were not called by personal names (名 ''míng'') and even seemingly did not have such names, which could be considered

taboo A taboo is a social group's ban, prohibition or avoidance of something (usually an utterance or behavior) based on the group's sense that it is excessively repulsive, offensive, sacred or allowed only for certain people.''Encyclopædia Britannica ...

(諱 ''huì'') to those of inferior status. Instead, Jiang is her clan name. Yuan does not seem to be a lineage name: instead, it seems to be a

title A title is one or more words used before or after a person's name, in certain contexts. It may signify their generation, official position, military rank, professional or academic qualification, or nobility. In some languages, titles may be ins ...

signifying "origin" or "source", in reference to her role as the mother of Houji, whom is claimed as an ancestor of the royal Ji family of the Zhou dynasty.

Mythological biography

Jiang Yuan was the mother of Qi (also known as Houji), credited in Chinese mythology with founding the Ji clan who went on to establish the Zhou dynasty. She was said historically to have been a consort of

Emperor Ku Kù (, variant graph ), usually referred to as Dì Kù (), also known as Gaoxin or Gāoxīn Shì () or Qūn (), was a descendant of the Yellow Emperor. He went by the name Gaoxin until receiving imperial authority, when he took the name Ku and t ...

. In mythology, she gave virgin birth to a miracle child. In some versions such as that found in the Zhou hymn " Birth of Our People" credit Qi with a miraculous birth after Jiang Yuan stepped into a footprint or toeprint left by the supreme deity

Shangdi Shangdi (), also called simply Di (), is the name of the Chinese Highest Deity or "Lord Above" in the Chinese theology, theology of the classical texts, especially deriving from Shang dynasty, Shang theology and finding an equivalent in the lat ...

. The hymn records her as attempting to abandon him three times (his name Qi means "the Abandoned One"). According to mythology, the baby Houji was guarded in the street by livestock and fed by birds. Houji then (still little grown) introduced the cultivation of millet (''ji'') and other agricultural improvements and as the Lord of Millet set up the founding of the

Zhou dynasty The Zhou dynasty ( ) was a royal dynasty of China that existed for 789 years from until 256 BC, the longest span of any dynasty in Chinese history. During the Western Zhou period (771 BC), the royal house, surnamed Ji, had military ...

. Thus, the woman who gave birth to a child not sired by a husband mythologically became the ultimate human ancestor of the series of emperors known as the

, the era when Chinese history as it is known truly commenced (Ferguson 1928, 6).

History

Sima Qian Sima Qian () was a Chinese historian during the early Han dynasty. He is considered the father of Chinese historiography for the ''Shiji'' (sometimes translated into English as ''Records of the Grand Historian''), a general history of China cov ...

's rationalistic account in the ''

Records of the Grand Historian The ''Shiji'', also known as ''Records of the Grand Historian'' or ''The Grand Scribe's Records'', is a Chinese historical text that is the first of the Twenty-Four Histories of imperial China. It was written during the late 2nd and early 1st ce ...

'', Jiang Yuan is simply the first consort of

and Qi is one of his children. He also records her lineage name as '' óuTái'' [], also the name of the fief granted to her son Houji by Emperor Shun.''Records of the Grand Historian''
"Annals of Zhou"
/ref> In his account, he credits the success of Zhou as being due primarily to the two women: Jiang Yuan and Tai Ren ().''Records of the Grand Historian'
"Hereditary Houses of the In-Laws"
quote: "周之興也以姜原及大任" It is possible he meant this to credit the virtue and success of their children, but it is also possible that they represented important marriage alliances. The Jiang were closely involved with the Ji before and after their rise to empire: Jiang Yuan was mother of Zhou dynasty's founder

Hou Ji Hou Ji (or Houji; ) was a legendary Chinese culture hero credited with introducing millet to humanity during the time of the Xia dynasty.. Millet was the original staple grain of north and South China, northern China, prior to the introduction of ...

, Tai Jiang (or Jiang Nü) was wife of

Gugong Danfu King Tai of Zhou () or Gugong Danfu () was a leader of the Predynastic Zhou during the Shang dynasty in ancient China. His great-grandson King Wu of Zhou, Fa would later conquer the Shang and establish the Zhou dynasty. Name "King Tai" was a posth ...

and mother of his son Jili,''

Classic of Poetry The ''Classic of Poetry'', also ''Shijing'' or ''Shih-ching'', translated variously as the ''Book of Songs'', ''Book of Odes'', or simply known as the ''Odes'' or ''Poetry'' (; ''Shī''), is the oldest existing collection of Chinese poetry, co ...

'', "Major Court Hymns - Decade of King Wen
Da Ming
. Translated by James Legge Tai Ren - born in Zhi (摯) and connected to the

Shang dynasty The Shang dynasty (), also known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Chinese royal dynasty that ruled in the Yellow River valley during the second millennium BC, traditionally succeeding the Xia dynasty and followed by the Western Zhou d ...

- was wife of Jili and mother of King Wen.

Religion

In Chinese popular religion, Jiang Yuan is worshiped as a

goddess A goddess is a female deity. In some faiths, a sacred female figure holds a central place in religious prayer and worship. For example, Shaktism (one of the three major Hinduism, Hindu sects), holds that the ultimate deity, the source of all re ...

.Yang, 152

References

Sources

* *
">Ferguson, John C. 1928. "China" in Volume VIII of ''Mythology of All Races''. Archaeological Institute of America.
*Yang, Lihui & al. ''Handbook of Chinese Mythology''. Oxford Univ. Press (New York), 2005. .

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Jiang Yuan Chinese goddesses Chinese royal consorts Pre-Xia Chinese people