Zhou Ji
The legendary and historical record shows the Zhou Ji clan closely entwined with the Jiang (), who seem to have provided many of the Ji lords' high-ranking spouses. A popular theory in recent Chinese scholarship has suggested that they represented two important clans the Ji originally centered on the Fen River in Shanxi and the Jiang around the Wen River in Shaanxi whose union produced the Zhou state ruled by Old Duke Danfu, although the theory remains problematic.