Background
Mu Jiang was born in 621 B.C. She was the daughter of the Marquis of Qi (a powerful state in the north of present-day Shandong Province) and a woman of the Jiang clan.
Mu Jiang was born in 621 B.C. She was the daughter of the Marquis of Qi (a powerful state in the north of present-day Shandong Province) and a woman of the Jiang clan.
Mu Jiang used her considerable influence as the daughter of the Marquis of Qi to shore up their position against certain powerful members of the Lu aristocracy, especially the Ji and the Meng clans, who had come to dominate the state. She appears to have been involved in negotiations with neighboring states and in decisions about war and peace.
In an attempt to neutralize her son’s enemies, Mu Jiang urged him to expel the family heads of the Ji and Meng clans on the grounds of treason. Unfortunately, at the same time as she proposed this stratagem war broke out between the two more southern states of Chu and Jin. Her son led his armies out in support of Jin, promising Mu Jiang he would deal with the Ji and Meng clans when he returned.
Mu Jiang dispatched her lover Shusun Qiao to Jin to try to garner support for expelling the troublesome family heads. Shusun Qiao failed in his bid to win the support of Jin, however, and was forced to flee Lu. Mu Jiang was sent to the Eastern Hall to be kept under house arrest, presumably by members of the Ji and Meng clans.
Mu Jiang has great intellectual acumen, but it also became the source of her poor reputation throughout history.
Mu Jiang was the wife of Duke Xuan of Lu. This marriage was intended to highlight Lu’s dependence on her home state of Qi. She head a son who succeeded his father, taking the title Duke Cheng, while after him her grandson ruled Lu as Duke Xiang.