Why did the Qing Dynasty regard crows as divine birds?

People who have seen the ancestral palace drama "War and Beauty" may remember that Chen Hao's bodyguard Kong Wu often feeds crows with a pole, and Maggie Cheung's maid-in-waiting Qian An often tells other maids and eunuchs about crows, calling them "God Crows". At this point, the screenwriter of War and Beauty has done a lot of work. In the Qing Dynasty, crows were really regarded as sacred objects, divine birds. In the imperial palace in Shengjing and the imperial palace in Beijing in Qing Dynasty, there were special people in charge of crow's food. They regularly hung crow's food with bamboo poles called Soren poles to feed them. It is said that when worshipping ancestors in Kunning Palace, the image of crows will be displayed.

In fact, the worship of crows has existed in China since ancient times. In myth, the sun is a golden crow with three legs; Before the Three Kingdoms, people often used crows for divination. Only later, due to the carrion of crows, the Han people gradually regarded crows as ominous things, but crow worship still existed in a large number of ethnic minorities. On the one hand, the worship of crows in Qing dynasty came from this ancient belief, on the other hand, it came from a legend spread among Manchu people.

It is said that on one occasion, Nurhachi was chased by Ming soldiers, and he was about to catch up. The situation is very critical. At this time, a group of crows fell on Nurhachi and covered him. Seeing a flock of crows from a distance, the Ming army judged that Nurhachi did not escape in this direction, but chased him to another place, so Nurhachi was saved.

There are two variants of this legend, one is Huang Taiji and the other is sourdrang dowager. In short, they are all important figures in the Qing royal family. But in fact, the true prototype of this legend is much earlier than Nurhachi's time.

According to the records of Manchuria, the ancestor of Ai Xinjue Roche was Bukuuri Yongon. After several generations, Bukuri passed down in harmony, met with rebellion and destroyed Ai Xinjue Roche. One of the teenagers, Fan Cha, ran away desperately, with pursuers behind him, and he was about to die under the sword, gun and halberd. At this moment, a crow flew over his head and stopped. When the pursuer saw the crow, he thought it was impossible for people to perch on the crow, and thought it was a stake, so Fan Kuai was saved. Therefore, the descendants of Ai Xinjue Roche regard crows as gods and do not allow anyone to hurt crows.