Background
Ai Jiang was a daughter of the royal house of Qi (in the north of present-day Shandong Province).
Ai Jiang was a daughter of the royal house of Qi (in the north of present-day Shandong Province).
In 670, Ai Jiang was married to Duke Zhuang, the ruler of Lu (in present-day Shandong Province). Ai Jiang had no children, but her younger sister, Shu Jiang, who had accompanied her when she went as a bride to Duke Zhuang, had a son named Kai whom Ai Jiang wished to appoint heir apparent. Ai Jiang was forced to flee, however, when her sexual liaison with her brother-in-law, Qingfu, was discovered. Qingfu nevertheless fulfilled Ai Jiang’s plan by killing the original heir apparent, which allowed her nephew, Kai, to inherit the title of Duke; he became known as Duke Min.
Ai Jiang is said to have continued her affair with Qingfu, who was plotting with her to kill her nephew Duke Min and to usurp his position. When their plot was revealed they fled, Ai Jiang to Zhu and Qingfu to Qu. Duke Huan of Qi (Ai Jiang’s home state) intervened at this point, installing Duke Xi as the ruler of Lu, and in 659 the men of Qi caught Ai Jiang, killed her, and took her body back to Qi. However, at the request of Duke Xi her body was returned to Lu, where it was buried. In 652, her ancestral tablet was placed in the Grand Temple during the di sacrifice, an act that later commentators claimed was improper due to the circumstances of her death and burial. The author of the Zuo zhuan commented that Qi had been “too severe” in killing Ai Jiang because she should have been dealt with by her husband’s house of Lu, not her natal house of Qi.
Ai Jiang is described as proud, lustful, corrupt, evil, and perverse.
Ai Jiang was married to Duke Zhuang (Zhuang Gong, r. 692-661 B.C.E.), the ruler of Lu (in present-day Shandong Province) and son of Wen Jiang. The marriage arrangements and exchange of gifts had begun three years earlier, the year of Wen Jiang’s death, and one source says Ai Jiang frequently had “illicit relations” with her future husband before she went to Lu.