[3] He came to power following a succession crisis involving two of his brothers,[2] but his nineteen-year reign saw numerous moral scandals and the decline of Wey into a minor state of the Spring and Autumn period.
In 719 BC, Duke Huan was assassinated by his younger brother Zhouyu, who ruled for less than a year before he too was killed in a plot orchestrated by Shi Que and the ruler of Chen.
[4] Duke Xuan had a son named Jizi [zh] with his deceased father's concubine Yi Jiang.
When Jizi became the "Noble Son of the Right", a girl named Xuan Jiang from the state of Qi was selected to be his wife.
[1] One time, when Jizi was about to go to Qi, Xuan Jiang ordered soldiers to ambush and kill him on the way so that her sons would succeed the throne.