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.
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 Zhou dynasty, the era when Chinese history as it is known truly commenced (Ferguson 1928, 6).
In Sima Qian's rationalistic account in the Records of the Grand Historian, Jiang Yuan is simply the first consort of Emperor Ku and Qi is one of his children.
[2] In his account, he credits the success of Zhou as being due primarily to the two women: Jiang Yuan and Tai Ren (大任).
[3] 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.