Recorded in the text
Crow-like, with a patterned head, white beak and red feet; it carries wood and stones from the western mountains to the Eastern Sea.
Nüwa (女娃), the Yan Emperor's youngest daughter, drowned while travelling at the Eastern Sea and became the bird Jingwei. Day after day she carries twigs and stones from the western mountains and drops them into the sea that took her life. The sea is immeasurable and the bird is small, yet the tale became an enduring emblem of refusing to abandon an impossible task. This Nüwa is not the creator goddess Nüwa (女媧).
The sea has no shore; the will to carry one more twig does not cease.Reading boundary: the Northern Mountains records Nüwa becoming Jingwei and carrying wood and stones to the sea; later meanings and episodes should be read as later reception.
