Folk Tales: Jingwei Reclamation

Jingwei reclamation is one of the myths and legends of ancient China.

Legend has it that Emperor Yan had a daughter named Nuwa, who was clever and clever, lively and lovely, and beautiful, and Emperor Yan liked her very much. One day, she walked out of the village to play with the children and saw a big child riding a small child as a horse. The children are tired and lying down, and the older children still refuse to give up. The baby girl walked over, pointed at the door of the eldest child's brain and angrily rebuked: "You are such a bad person, bullying children is what skill, have strength, go to fight tigers and bears, people will say that you are a hero." ”

The eldest child saw that the baby girl was a little girl, born thin and weak, and did not pay attention to her at all. He jumped off the child's back, walked up to the baby girl and said, "I am the son of the Sea Dragon King, what are you?" How dare you take care of me! The female baby said, "What's so great about the son of the Dragon King, I'm still the daughter of Shennong, and in the future you will rarely go to the land to spread wilderness, be careful that I hang you on a tree to dry." ”

The Dragon King's son said, "I'll let you know how powerful I am first, and then I'll take care of Xiao Ye's idle business." "Say hands-on and fight." The female baby followed her father up the mountain to hunt from childhood, her hands and feet were very flexible, her strength was not small, she saw that the other party was rude and rude, and did not show weakness, dodged the other party's fist, flew up a leg, and kicked the son of the Dragon King to bite the mud.

The son of the Dragon King stood up, refused to accept defeat, swung his fist and punched again, and was punched in the chest by the female baby, hitting him face to the sky.

The son of the Dragon King saw that he could not beat the baby girl, so he had to return to the sea in ashes.

A few days later, the baby girl went swimming in the sea and was having a lot of fun, when she happened to let the Dragon King's son find out. He swam over and said to the baby girl: That day on land you picked up a bargain, today you ran to my door, quickly admit your mistake, otherwise I will drown you in the wind and waves.

The baby girl said stubbornly, "I'm not wrong, admit what's wrong." ”

The son of the Dragon King saw that the female baby was stubborn, and had no intention of losing at all, and immediately stirred up the sea water and set off a fierce wind and waves, and the female baby did not have time to struggle, she was drowned, and never came back.

The baby girl was not willing to let her die, and her soul changed into a small bird called "Jingwei". Jingwei has a flower head, a white beak shell, red claws, and is a bit like a crow, and lives in the northern part of Mt. Hato. She was destroyed by the relentless sea waves, and thought that others might also be taken away from her young life, so she constantly brought small branches and stones from the west mountain and threw them into the sea, trying to fill the sea. She flew endlessly back and forth between the West Mountains and the East China Sea.

But the roaring sea laughed at her, "Little bird, forget it, even if you work for millions of years, don't try to fill me in!" ”

But the Jingwei soaring high in the sky resolutely replied, "Even if you work for ten million years, ten thousand years, until the end of the world, I will fill you in!" ”

"Why do you hate me so deeply?" "Because you have taken my young life, there will be many young and innocent lives to be ruthlessly taken by you in the future."

"Silly bird, then you do it—do it!" The sea laughed.

Jingwei screamed in the air, "I'm going to do it!" I'm going to do it! I'm going to do it endlessly!" This sea of misery, one day I will fill you to the ground! ”

She flew, screamed, left the sea, and flew back to the West Mountain; and threw the stones and branches of the West Mountain into the sea. She flew back and forth like this, never resting, and to this day she still does this kind of work.

The myth of Jingwei reclamation shows the most essential and eternal thing of human beings: the fear of survival, and the eternal and unique spiritual temperament of human beings expressed on it. These archetypal themes express the cultural consciousness of the ancestors from the most basic survival. Survival here is merely a cherishing of life. Because of this initial instinct to preserve life, this sense of crisis in later generations gradually extended to a deeper and broader extent.