Jingwei

The Jingwei is a bird from Chinese myth. Her name is thought to be onomatopoeia, and she’s seen as an ambiguous figure. She represents lone heroes and figures dealing with acts of futility. Her origin comes from a figure named Nu Wa, the daughter of another figure Yan Di. She was on a beach when she was suddenly washed away in the Eastern Sea where she drowned. She was reborn as a small bird whose call sounded like “jingwei. This bird remembered its past life and death and despised the ocean. To avenge her previous death she worked every day to try and fill the ocean with twigs and pebbles. She continued this until one day a twig pierced her beak and killed it.

Citations:

Bane, Theresa. Encyclopedia of Beasts and Monsters in Myth, Legend and Folklore. United States, McFarland, Incorporated, Publishers, 2016.