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Concept
Three-legged crow
Summary
The three-legged (or tripedal) crow is a mythological creature in various mythologies and arts of East Asia. It is believed to inhabit and represent the Sun.
Evidence of the earliest bird-Sun motif or totemic articles excavated around 5000 BCE. from the lower Yangtze River delta area. This bird-Sun totem heritage was observed in later Yangshao and Longshan cultures. Also, in Northeast Asia, artifacts of birds and phoenix observed to be a symbol of leadership was excavated to be around 5500 BCE in Xinle culture and later Hongshan culture from Liao river basin.
The Chinese have several versions of crow and crow-Sun tales. But the most popular depiction and myth of the Sun crow is that of the Yangwu or Jinwu, the "golden crow". It has also been found figured on ancient coins from Lycia and Pamphylia.
In Chinese mythology and culture, the three-legged crow is called the sanzuwu (; Cantonese: sam1zuk1wu1; Shanghainese: sae tsoh u) and is present in many myths. It is also mentioned in the Shanhaijing. The earliest known depiction of a three-legged crow appears in Neolithic pottery of the Yangshao culture.
The sanzuwu in a disc represents the sun and is also one of the Twelve Ornaments that is used in the decoration of formal imperial garments in ancient China.
The most popular depiction and myth of a sanzuwu is that of a sun crow called the Yangwu () or more commonly referred to as the Jīnwū () or "golden crow". Even though it is described as a crow or raven, it is usually coloured red instead of black. A silk painting from the Western Han excavated at the Mawangdui archaeological site also depicts a "golden crow" in the sun.
In ancient Chinese depictions, the Chinese god of creation, Fuxi, is often depicted carrying the sun disk with the jīnwū () while the Chinese goddess of creation, Nüwa, holds the moon disk which contains a gold-striped toad.
According to folklore, there were originally ten sun crows which settled in 10 separate suns. They perched on a red mulberry tree called the Fusang (), literally meaning "the leaning mulberry tree", in the East at the foot of the Valley of the Sun.
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