Jiang Yuan

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Jiang Yuan (Chinese: 姜嫄) is an important figure in Chinese history and in Chinese mythology.

Name

Women of her era did not have their names recorded (and may not even have possessed them); instead, Jiang is her clan. However, Yuan does not seem to be a lineage name: instead, it is a word meaning "origin" or "source", in reference to her role as the mother of the royal Ji family of the Zhou dynasty.

History

Jiang Yuan was the mother of Qi, credited in Chinese mythology with founding the Ji clan who went on to establish the Zhou dynasty. She was a consort of the Emperor Ku, but 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. The hymn records her as attempting to abandon him three times (his name Qi means "the Abandoned One").

In Sima Qian's rationalistic account in the Records of the Grand Historian, she is simply the first consort of the Emperor Ku and Qi is one of his children. However, in his account, he credits the success of Zhou as being due primarily to the two women Jiang Yuan and Tai Ren. 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 and Tai Ren likewise represented an important connection to the Shang dynasty.

In Chinese popular religion, Jiang Yuan is worshiped as a goddess.[1]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Yang, 152

External links

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