Jiang Yong’s father was Jiang Wuya, garrisoning Xuzhou. During the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Jiang Wuya was appointed the Marquis of Yongning,¹ taking the older sister of the Gaozu Emperor, Senior Princess Ninghua, as wife. When Great Yong was founded, while Jiang Wuya and Gaozu were battling for supremacy, Jiang Wuya was seriously injured by an a.s.sa.s.sin, dying on the battlefield. Yong, seeing the strength of the enemy, under orders from his mother, took his father’s former subordinates and fled to the Eastern Sea to become a pirate. Inheriting his father’s n.o.ble rank as the Marquis of Yongning, he seized control over the Eastern Sea, using his might to shake the coastal regions. Everyone called him the Marquis of the Eastern Sea. Gaozu attempted to have him surrender, but he refused.

—Yong Dynastic Records, Biography of the Marquis of the Eastern Sea