Legends of Crows in the Forbidden City

The owners of Forbidden City in the Qing Dynasty (1644 - 1911) were Manchu people, who worshiped crows as Sacred Birds. They even fed crows in the royal palace for over 200 years. To the east side of Palace of Earthly Tranquility (Kunninggong) in Forbidden City, there is a very humble stone. Although not attention-getting nowadays, it played a significant role in history to hold the royal flagpole with foods for crows. 
 The story starts with the Palace of Earthly Tranquility. It was the place where the empress lived in Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644). In Qing Dynasty, the emperor and other royal families respected divinity and believed in Shamanism so much. Thus, Palace of Earthly Tranquility was transformed into the altar for worshiping the deities of Shamanism while only the east side of the place was preserved as the nuptial chamber of the emperor. Sacrifices in this place were held almost every day, including Daytime Sacrifices, Nighttime Sacrifices, Spring Festival Sacrifices, Autumn Sacrifices and so on. The main procedure of sacrifice was killing pigs and then used the pork as the sacrificial offering. For the big needs, at least one pig was killed each morning and another each afternoon. After, people cut up pig offals and mix them with rice, then put them into a tin-made bucket. Next, put the bucket on the top of a flagpole and then insert the flagpole in the stone to the east of the palace, so the crows can help themselves easily. 

In addition, there was a special expense inside Forbidden City named ‘Laoyaliang’ for buying the food for crows. Every evening, crows’ foods were sprinkled in the high places inside the Forbidden City. It is a story related to Nurhachu, who is the founder and the first emperor of Qing Dynasty. His grandfather and father were killed by mistake when he was an attendant in the military of Ming Dynasty. After he got the news, he ran away from there anxiously overnight because he knew that the Ming soldiers would kill him too to cover the truth. Sure enough, he was hunted by lots of Ming soldiers. When he was too exhausted to keep running, he found an area of reed marshes and then sat down leaning against a tree in the reed marshes. He was so tired that he fell asleep unexpectedly. When Ming soldiers came to the reed marshes, they found a lot of crows in the tree. Based on the saying in Chinese culture, people didn’t go to the places where had crows, Ming soldiers thought that there was no people under the tree and went away. By this way, crows saved Nurhachu’s life. After Nurhachu became the first emperor of Qing Dynasty, he worshiped crows as Sacred Birds in order to thank them for saving his life, which was passed down to his descents. They thought that crows could bring them good luck and help them stay away from disasters.
 After more than two hundred years of feeding, the genes of Beijing’s crows have been improved, which make them grow darker and larger. Although there is no people feeding crows nowadays, they still fly back to the Forbidden City habitually and circle in the sky in the evening. 

Further Reading: 
Legend of the Duanhong Bridge in Forbidden City