Jingwei

[2] The story is recorded in the Shanhaijing: Three thousand ninety li farther southeast, then northeast, stands Departing-Doves Mountain.

There is a bird dwelling here whose form resembles a crow with a patterned head, white beak, and red feet.

She then transformed into the bird Spirit-Guardian and regularly carries twigs and stones from the Western Mountains to fill up the Eastern Sea.

From this myth comes the Chinese chengyu (four-character idiom) "Jingwei Tries To Fill the Sea" (Jīngwèi tián hǎi 精衛填海), meaning dogged determination and perseverance in the face of seemingly impossible odds.

Professor Manyuan Long of the University of Chicago named a Drosophila gene (jgw) after Jingwei[7] because it is - like the princess - "reincarnated" with a new function and a new appearance (structure).