Philosopher File: Jing Jiang
One of China’s earliest women philosophers, on weaving and politics
Jing Jiang is one of the earliest women in Chinese recorded history to engage in philosophical debate. She was a thinker with a keen grasp of politics, and a considerable skill in argument.
Life
Far-ranging wisdom
Jing Jiang was a Chinese philosopher who was born in the state of Lu around 540 BCE. She appears in the Discourses of the States, or Guoyu, a text that dates to between the fifth and fourth centuries BCE. She is also featured in the later Biographies of Exemplary Women or Lienü Zhuang, an anthology compiled in by the scholar Liu Xiang who lived between 77 BCE and 6 BCE.
Jing Jiang was the wife of Gongfu Mubo, a high-ranking official in Lu. Predeceased by her husband, she raised their son, Gongfu Wenbo, alone. In both the Guoyu and the Lienü Zhuang, she can be found instructing her son on a wide range of matters: from ritual, to the virtues of hard work, to politics.
This instruction is not just something she does while the somewhat wayward Wenbo is growing up. Even after Wenbo has risen to become a rather hapless minister in Lu, Jing Jiang is on hand to put him right.
