Three Green Birds

Messengers of the Queen Mother

Birds that fetched food and bore messages for the Queen Mother of the West, ancestors of the qingluan.

The three green birds of the Shanhaijing dwell on Sanwei Mountain and fetch food for the Queen Mother of the West; a later passage places them south of her throne. Over time they became her messengers, and the “green bird” grew into the standard poetic image of the go-between who carries news of love across the distance — a mythic courier still flying through Tang verse.