Jingwei Fills the Sea

The Oath to Fill the Ocean

Nüwa, daughter of the Yan Emperor, drowned in the East Sea and became the Jingwei bird, forever carrying twigs and stones from the Western Mountains to fill the sea that took her.

The youngest daughter of the Yan Emperor drowned while playing in the East Sea and was reborn as the Jingwei bird. Perched on Fajiu Mountain — black crow-like, white-beaked, red-footed — she ceaselessly carries wood and stones from the Western Mountains and drops them into the sea, vowing to fill it. Tao Yuanming wrote: "Jingwei carries a tiny twig, to fill the vast blue sea." She endures as the emblem of unyielding will.