Jingwei

Jingwei

A long time ago, a little Chinese girl named Nvwa wanted to go boating with her father. Her father was none other then the Emperor Yandi, a very busy man, who sadly had no time for boating with his lovely young daughter. Being of determined temperment, Nvwa found an abandoned boat and took herself boating on the East Sea. In the way of such things, a terrible storm began, tossing Nvwa into the sea where she soon floundered and drowned. I'm sure her busy father was miserable indeed for such a tragic event. Though I must say, perhaps he was not surprised. 

His daughter Nvwa was angry with the sea for drowning her in such a cruel fashion. In revenge, she reincarnated as a white bird with strong wings to carry rocks and sticks and fill the sea up to its very top. By such an amazing action, she hoped to save other people from the similar fate of drowning. The sea was not impressed. 

"Ha!" the sea said in its sneering way. "Do you seriously think you can fill up me? Have you noticed how LARGE I am? You would fail with a MILLION years of effort!" The watery bully chuckled and preened its waves. 

"I don't care how long it takes!" said the determined Nvwa. Flying away for another load of sticks, she cried "Jingwei," as she was now a bird, and this was her new call. "If it takes me ten million years, or even one hundred million years," she promised, "I will not tire or give up." 

So from that day on, the relentlessly determined Nvwa continues her dogged pursuit of filling the sea. People now call her Jingwei, after her familiar bird cry, and honor her by saying "Jingwei filling the sea" when speaking of perseverance under impossible goals. 

Chinese Egret

Source: Surfbirds