Tales of the Hồng Bàng dynasty

Đế Minh, grandson of Viêm Đế Thần Nông, father of Đế Nghi, one time while traveling in the South came to the Ngũ Lĩnh mountain and rejoiced in meeting and uniting with the elven (1) daughter of the Lady Vụ Tiên. Upon returning, he begot a son called Lộc Tục. Lộc Tục bore kindness and bright wits in his countenance, so much so that Đế Minh wished for him take the throne. Lộc Tục insisted that he did not wish so, and begged his father to still hail his older brother Đế Nghi as heir. Đế Minh then let Đế Nghi rule over the North of the land, while crowning Lộc Tục as Kinh Dương Vương reigning in the South, naming that land Xích Quỷ. Kinh Dương Vương was gifted with the ability to walk underwater as on land. He married Long Nữ, daughter of Long Vương who ruled over Động Đình lake, and from their union a boy was born. The prince was called Sùng Lãm, art name Lạc Long Quân (2), and inherited the throne. Kinh Dương Vương left afterwards, and none knew where to.

Long Quân taught the people how to plow and cultivate, how to cook food and clothe oneself; he set the rules and laws in the land, bestowed differing powers between king and subject, lord and liege, father and son, husband and wife. At times he could return to the water realm and the people would still leave in peace and joy. Whenever trouble arose, all that the people must do was to call, “Father! Wouldn’t you come to help us?”, and Long Quân would arrive at once. (The Viet people called their father cha or bố [1]; called kings vua [2].) Nobody could truly grasp the awe-inspiring power such as that of Long Quân.

Đế Nghi passed down the crown to his son Đế Lai. Recalling his grandfather Đế Minh’s travels in the South and meeting with the fairy who was to be his wife, Đế Lai thought to do the same. As the North was peaceful, he left his men and his country under the regency of Xi Vưu while he traveled southward, all the way to the Xích Quỷ land. At the time, Long Quân had returned to the water realm; there was no king in the country. Đế Lai thus left his concubine Âu Cơ with her handmaidens at their royal inn, and left to travel the realm, admire the landmarks and monuments, and enjoy the specialties of the land. There were foreign herbs and exotic flowers, precious fowls and rare beasts, elephants and rhinos, tortoise shells and jewels and gold and silver, cinnamon, pepper, sage, agarwood, sandalwood, and no lack of scrumptious viands. The climate was gentle, neither scorching nor frigid, four seasons alike. Đế Lai enjoyed himself to the point where he did not want to return to his own realm. The people in the South suffered, their lives troubled by this Northern king’s frivolous demands; day in and day out they longed for Long Quân’s return, so together they raised their voice: “Father, wherever you are, please come back, please save us.” Long Quân came back all of a sudden and found the magnificent beauty Âu Cơ abandoned, all on her own. With joy and wonder in his heart he turned himself into a handsome young man, with countless servants escorting him, singing to the beat of drums as they marched down the streets before the royal inn where Âu Cơ lived. Âu Cơ went from intrigue to interest to affection. Long Quân brought Âu Cơ along and welcomed her at Long Trang Nham. Đế Lai came back; finding the inn empty without Âu Cơ, he ordered his men to tear up the land in search of her. Long Quân drew upon his magical powers, shifted into thousands of shapes and summoned goblins and ogres, dragons and snakes, tigers and elephants, scaring the search parties witless. None dared to look for Âu Cơ any longer, and Đế Lai had to accept his defeat and return to the North. He passed down the crown to Du Võng, who later battled with the Emperor in the land of Bản Tuyền, and was not only bitterly defeated but also lost his life [3]. The lineage of Thần Nông ended here.

Long Quân married Âu Cơ, and within a year begot a sac of eggs. Considering it an unsettling omen, they threw it out into the fields; after seven days, the sac broke out into a hundred eggs, each egg hatching into a son, and it was then that the couple brought them back to raise as their children. Without the need for nursing, the sons grew up on their own, all of them clever and brave, respected and considered to be extraordinary beings by all. Long Quân having stayed in the water realm for some time, his wife and children wished to return to the Northern country. When Âu Cơ reached the borders between South and North, the Emperor was terrified as soon as he heard of her and ordered for his legions to guard the gates. Âu Cơ and her children, unable to enter the country and return to the North, raised their voice to call upon Long Quân: “Oh father of my children, where have you gone to leave us in such misery!” Long Quân returned briskly then, meeting them in the Tương Dã region. Âu Cơ lamented: “I am of origin from the North; having lain with you, my king, I have given birth to a hundred sons. My king please do not leave me bereft, do not leave me to rear our children alone, that I am a wife without husband, that these children are sons without father. Pitiable would we be.” Long Quân answered: “I am of dragon descent, leading water tribes; you are of elven kind, living on land; though our yin and yang flows were so harmonious that children were born of our union, our kinds are different, opposing as water and fire, such that it would be difficult for us to remain together for long. It would do us good to part ways. I shall bring fifty sons with me to the water realm so that they may rule over my regions, and you shall bring fifty sons with you so that they may reign over your land. Up towards the mountain, down towards the sea, we shall keep each other informed should there be any news - do not forget.” Their hundred children obeyed, bade their farewells and departed.

Âu Cơ and fifty sons arrived to the Phong Hiệp region (now Bạch Hạc district). Unanimously they crowned the eldest son as king, who took the art name Hùng Vương and named the country Văn Lang - bordering South Sea (Nam Hải) to the east, Ba Thục to the west, lake Động Đình to the north, Hồ Tôn country (now Chiêm Thành (3)) to the south. The country was divided into 15 bộ, named as follows: Giao Chỉ, Chu Diên, Ninh Sơn, Phúc Lộc, Việt Thường, Ninh Hải (now Nam Ninh), Dương Tuyền, Quế Dương, Vũ Ninh, Y Hoan, Cửu Chân, Nhật Nam, Chân Định, Quế Lâm and Tượng Quận. The king put his younger brothers in charge of these regions, gave them posts at court: bureaucratic masters were called Lạc Hầu, masters-at-arms were called Lạc Tướng. Sons of kings were called Quan Lang, daughters of kings called Mỵ Nương, court officials called Bố Chính, servants called Trâu, serving girls called Tinh. Subjects of the king called themselves Côi, and from father to son onward and onward all subjects called the king Phụ Đạo, and all kings called themselves Hùng Vương without a change.

At that time, the people who lived by the forest were constantly attacked by jiao water dragons (4) whenever they came by the coast. They lamented this to the king. The king said, “Mountain people and water creatures are so different, that they feel compelled to hurt you.” He told the people to use ink and needle to tattoo the images of water creatures onto their bodies. From there on, they were never again harmed by jiao dragons. Body tattoos thenceforth became a tradition of the Bách Việt people. So rudimentary was the country back then that the people had no tools to speak of, so they made clothes out of tree bark, wove mats out of cogon grass, made liquor out of fermented rice; in palm trees they found nourishment; from game and fish and krill they made mắm (5); from ginger roots they made salt; and they plowed the earth with knives, cultivated the ground with fire. Their soil became fertile and yielded bountiful harvests; they began to glutinous rice in bamboo tubes heated over fire. They knew now to build houses out of wood, to fend off tigers and wolves and such beasts. They cut their hair short for convenience, such that they may journey through the forests with ease. When they gave birth, they knew to put out banana leaves for the infants to sleep on; when they encountered death, they pounded the mortar to make noises, to give a sign, and call for those nearby to aid. In matters of coupling between men and women, one was to bring a pouch of salt as offering when asking for somebody’s hand in marriage; then one must slaughter a buffalo for the ceremonial feast and dine together on glutinous rice in their shared chamber; and only then would their union be sealed. This was before they had betel and areca.

Thus was how the hundred sons of Lạc Long Quân and Âu Cơ came to be the ancestors of the Bách Việt people.

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Author’s note:

[1] Cha (father) is written in Nôm script as 吒; Bố (also meaning father but less formal) is written in Nôm script as 布. 

[2] Vua (king) is written in Nôm script as an ideogram with the radical 王 on top and the radical 布 on the bottom.

[3] Lĩnh Nam Chích Quái version VHV 1473 added the following section: Xi Vưu in the North overtook the court and enacted mutiny. Emperor Hiên Viên of Hữu Hùng kingdom brought his bannermen to repress these to no avail. Xi Vưu had the face of a man but the body of a beast, immensely strong. Someone advised the Emperor to use a drum made of beast skin to sound their orders; Xi Vưu heard the sound and was so frightened that he ran to Trác Lộc region. Hoàng Đế claimed the country of the North and annexed it. Đế Lai heard of this and at once came back to the North to fought the Emperor. He was defeated 3 times before succumbing in Lạc Ấp land. The lineage of Thần Nông ended here.

Translator’s note:

(1) The original Vietnamese word employed is tiên. It likely has some etymological ties with the Taoist concept of 仙 (immortal). The most common English translation of tiên is "fairy", but "elf" - as in Tolkien's writing - has also been translated as tiên. It's my personal choice to render tiên as elf and elven in my translation of Vietnamese mythology.

(2) Lạc Long Quân means “dragon lord Lạc”. Long (竜 in Chinese) means dragon. It should also be noted that Long Vương and Long Nữ are likely not names, rather titles, as they mean “dragon king” and “dragon woman”, respectively. The title Long Vương is also how Vietnamese folktales commonly refer to any mythical ruler of a body of water (river, lake, even the sea in some instances).

(3) Chiêm Thành is the ancient, Vietnamized name of Cambodia.

(4) Giao long (or jiao, jiaolong), also called thuồng luồng in Vietnamese, are mythical aquatic scaled dragons that often recur in Vietnamese folklore and mythology. (Not usually the same as the regal type that might’ve been Long Quân’s predecessors, though.) Some accounts speculated that these creatures might’ve been crocodiles.

(5) Mắm (or nước mắm) is a type of liquid condiment, usually made of fermented fish or krill though it can also be made from other types of meat, including - apparently - human meat (as shown in Tale of Tấm and Cám). It is a staple of Vietnamese seasoning (the fish mắm, not the human meat mắm).