W.Minh Tuan

The legend of My Chau – Trong Thuy is as follows:

Trieu Da was a general of the Qin Dynasty. After the death of Qin Shi Huang, he rebelled against the Qin Dynasty and proclaimed himself as Vu Vuong of Nam Viet in the southern region of China, bordering Au Lac.

After that, Trieu Da sent troops many times to attack King An Duong Vuong in Au Lac, but did not win.

After that, Trieu Da pretended to make peace with King An Duong Vuong, agreeing to divide each person into ruling his own land, no one encroaching on anyone else’s.

But in reality it was just a trick, Trieu Da pretended to make peace to have time to think of another plan.

King An Duong Vuong was very confident about his defenses. He was helped by the Golden Turtle- god Kim Qui to build a snail citadel at Co Loa.

The god Kim Qui also helped him with a magic crossbow to fight Trieu Da.

Therefore, when Trieu Da proposed to make peace, King An Duong Vuong, with his peace-loving nature like the period of the 18th Hung King, immediately agreed, thinking that Trieu Da’s request for peace had real intentions, not lie.

After pretending to make peace, Trieu Da sent Trong Thuy’s son to propose marriage to King An Duong Vuong’s daughter, My Chau.

King An Duong Vuong was gentle and thought this was a good opportunity to maintain good relations between the two countries of Au Lac and Nam Viet, so King An Duong Vuong agreed to marry his daughter My Chau to Trong Thuy.

Trong Thuy accepted the mission given by Trieu Da’s father, which was that the marriage was just a pretense, but the real plot was to probe and steal Au Lac’s military secrets, which is the magic crossbow – the secret weapon of the Au Lac people.

The custom during the Hung Vuong and An Duong Vuong periods was that after getting married, the husband had to stay at his wife’s house for 3 years, called sending the son-in-law.

Therefore, after marrying My Nuong, Trong Thuy moved from Trieu Da’s Han country to Au Lac – Vietnam to stay as son-in-law for 3 years.

This is exactly like the ancient Trojan Horse of the Greek war. Trong Thuy was brought to live in Vietnam legally, but was actually a powerful spy of Trieu Da.

One day after having loving night with My Nuong’s wife, Trong Thuy said to My Nuong’s wife:

-I heard that your father the king has a very powerful magic crossbow, can you get it for me to see?

My Nuong was naive, loved her husband very much, and did not want to displease him, so she secretly took her father’s magic crossbow and showed it to Trong Thuy.

Trong Thuy held the magic crossbow in his hand, looked at it, admired it, and praised the beautiful and powerful magic crossbow.

But when My Nuong wasn’t paying attention, Trong Thuy broke the little magic crossbow lever-trigger, put in inside his sleeve, and returned the magic crossbow to My Nuong.

My Nuong completely did not notice that the magic crossbow lever had been broken and disappeared, so she took the magic crossbow and left it in its original place for her father.

Trong Thuy, after stealing King An Duong Vuong’s military secret, which was a magic crossbow trigger, immediately told his wife My Chau that he wanted to visit his father, King Trieu Da, in the Han country.

But at that time, Trong Thuy really loved his wife, so he worried about her.

Trong Thuy guessed that this time when he returned to visit his father and gave Au Lac’s magical crossbow bolt and military secret to Trieu Da, war would probably break out. Trong Thuy was worried about his wife, so he told My Chau that if anything unexpected happened, she should wear a goose feather shirt, and wherever she went, pluck goose feathers out and spread them on the road behind, Trong Thuy would know to find her.

Mrs. My Chau was naive, not knowing what unexpected things would happen, which Trong Thuy hinted at. Mrs. My Chau simply thought that her husband thought of her and loved her, and that was enough.

Trong Thuy returned home and gave the magic crossbow bolt to Trieu Da.

Trieu Da immediately dispatched troops to attack Au Lac.

King An Duong Vuong was subjective and unprepared because he thought he had a magic crossbow and a solid, inviolable Co Loa citadel.

When Trieu Da’s army arrived, King An Duong Vuong took out his magic crossbow to shoot, but the trigger of the magic crossbow was stolen, so the magic crossbow could not shoot, so he lost the war.

King An Duong Vuong rode a horse, let his daughter My Chau sit on the back behind, and fled to the waters sea of Dien Chau district, Nghe An today.

But when he looked back, he still saw the Han army chasing behind him, so he tilted his head and lamented why the enemy army knew they were running here and chased after them.

Then the god Kim Qui appeared and said,

“The enemy is sittingright behind your horse.”

King An Duong Vuong then discovered that his own daughter had taken off her goose feather coat and scattered it on the road to mark the road, so the enemy knew and followed the King’s trail.

King An Duong Vuong pulled out his sword and slashed his daughter to death, then rode on the back of the golden turtle god Kim Qui, dived deep into the sea, and disappeared.

Trong Thuy chased to My Chau and saw that My Chau was dead, her blood spreading dark red across the sea.

He loved his wife so much, hugged My Chau’s body, took it to Co Loa citadel for burial, then jumped into a well and committed suicide.

The ending of the My Chau-Trong Thuy legend says that later generations, when people caught pearl oysters in the sea waters of Dien Chau, Nghe An, brought them to Co Loa snail citadel, washed them in the water of Ngoc Well, where Trong Thuy jumped down himself, and the pearls became shinning pearls so beautiful.

The legend ends there.

What does the My Chau-Trhong Thuy legend say?

Firstly, it speaks to the gentle, peace-loving nature of our Vietnamese people. During the time of King An Duong, as well as the time of Hung King before that, our Vietnamese people never thought that they would be invaded, colonized by other countries.

So the Vietnamese people do not care much about national defense.

King An Duong Vuong, although Trieu Da led his troops to attack several times, still did not think that Trieu Da would continue to invade Vietnam, so the country’s defense work was somewhat negligent.

Second, talking about subjectivity and contempt will lead to failure. King An Duong Vuong subjectively trusted that he had a magic crossbow and a fortified Co Loa citadel, so he was very negligent in training his army and preparing for war against foreign invaders.

Third, this legend shows that Vietnamese people will never be as cunning and deceitful as Trieu Da did, using the love between husband and wife and father and son to cheat and steal military secrets, to invade our country.

It is common for countries to send spies to other countries to gather intelligence.

This country allows people to go to another country, pretending to be fishermen, traders, woodcutters, craftsmen,,, using their foreign language skills and the ability to hide their origins, using the ability to extract intelligence information, or bribe people from the other country, is a normal thing for countries in the world.

But the king of this country, pretending to send his son to marry the daughter of the king of the rival country, and immediately using that most senior, most sacred diplomatic-family relationship to make spying is truly dirty, despicable, and extremely cruel.

Therefore, even though Trieu Da defeated King An Duong Vuong of Au Lac, Trieu Da could never win the hearts and minds of the our Vietnamese people.

And we Vietnamese people will never learn from Trieu Da’s petty, dirty tricks to trick others, to rob other people’s country and land like that.

Fourth, this legend speaks of the generosity of our Vietnamese people towards Trong Thuy, the man who caused the internecine war, the man who started the 1000-year period of Northern domination of our Vietnamese people. .

If there is no such naive thing as of My Chau:

-“The heart is in the wrong place on the head,

– Then to let the mountains and rivers sink into the deep sea”.

then our Vietnamese people would not have gone through the dark period of 1000 years of Northern domination.

However, the legend of My Chau – Trong Thuy still has Trong Thuy falling in love with My Chau, Trong Thuy threw himself into the well to die with My Chau.

When the Vietnamese people created the legend of My Chau – Trong Thuy, they did not create hatred between the Vietnamese and Han peoples, did not call for revenge, but forgave the poor Trong Thuy boy, when the legend let him fall in love, and die with My Chau.

The tragic love story My Chau – Trong Thuy is actually a voice denying the war of our Vietnamese people, our Vietnamese people have forgiven the Han people, even though the Han people have invaded and colonized Vietnam for more than 1,000 years, and later, invaded our country many more times, the most recent of which was the 10-year border war from 1979-1989, and recent clashes in the East Sea.

However, Vietnamese people still respect the 16 golden words of the Vietnam-China relationship, still consider China as the big brother, so that the Vietnamese younger brother can learn from, and receive help from the older brother China.

In 1999, during General Secretary Le Kha Phieu’s visit to China, senior leaders of the two Parties and two countries Vietnam-China defined the 16-word motto to promote bilateral relations in the 21st century as

“friendly, harmonious neighbors, Comprehensive cooperation, long-term stability, looking to the future“.

In 2000, President Tran Duc Luong visited China, and the two sides signed a Joint Declaration on comprehensive cooperation in the new century. After that, the two sides Vietnam-China agreed to make the two countries “good neighbors, good friends, good comrades, good partners” (the “4 good” spirit).

In particular, during General Secretary Nong Duc Manh’s visit to China in May 2008, the two sides agreed to establish the Vietnam-China relationship framework as a comprehensive strategic cooperative partnership under the motto “16 words”, ” and the “4 good” spirit.

However, now, entering the 21st Century, more than 2000 years have passed since the legendary story of My Chau-Trhong Thuy, Vietnamese people need to remind themselves that:

-We absolutely never learn from those dirty, heartless fraud tricks,

-but we’ll never let anyone trick us like that again.

Always be vigilant and know how to use talented people to develop the country.

Vietnamese people must produce their own powerful magic crossbows to protect the country, not letting magic crossbows – modern weapon technology stolen, that is a lesson that is still hot to this day for the Vietnamese people.

I teach Vietnamese language at Tokyo University of Foreign Studies in Tokyo.

Every year, at universities throughout Japan there is a University Festival, lasting from a few days to a week.

Second-year students of the Vietnamese Studies Department of Tokyo Foreign University-Tokyo, have to perform Vietnamese plays on this school festival, usually around November every year, and several times, Japanese students of Vietnamese language performed the play My Chau – Trong Thuy.

I asked the students why they performed this play. They said because the story My Chau-Trhong Thuy is about the beautiful and tragic love between the two peoples Vietnam and China.

It’s interesting because Japanese students also understand that the story My Chau – Trong Thuy is about the love between the two peoples Vietnam and China, not about hatred and war.

In addition, another meaning of the story of My Chau – Trong Thuy, is the custom of husband living in the wife’s house – the husband must live in his wife’s house for 3 years, showing that the Matriarchy system has existed in Vietnam for a longer time, more than 2000 years of the period of Hung King and An Duong Vuong.

And the Matriarchy regime is one of the reasons why Vietnamese people have not been assimilated or Sinicized after more than 1,000 years of Chinese domination.

On the contrary, the Han people were assimilated by the Vietnamese to and the Han people became Vietnamese.

During more than 1,000 years of Northern domination, the Han people sought to assimilate the Vietnamese people, a common way was for Han people men to marry Vietnamese women, so that the Vietnamese wife would become Han Chinese, and her children would become Han people.

But actually the situation is the opposite, after a Han husband marries a Vietnamese wife, he must stay as son-in-law in his wife’s house for 3 years, and the Matriarchy regime in Vietnam shows that the wife has more power in the family than the husband, so in fact, after marrying a Vietnamese wife, the Han husband was Vietnameseized, and the children were also Vietnameseized and became Vietnamese.

And after the reign of An Duong Vuong for more than 200 years, the first two uprisings of the 1000-year period of Northern domination against Han domination were three women, the sisters Trung Trac and Trung Nhi in 40-43 AD, and 200 years later, the Ba Trieu uprising in 248 AD.

That is, the first two uprisings of Vietnamese people against Han domination during the 1,000 years of Chinese domination were 3 women, not 3 men.

That has proven the strength of Vietnamese women, the strength of the Matriarchy regime in Vietnam.

And until now, the strength of Vietnamese women is still shown in the fact that after marriage, the wife does not have to change her family name to her husband’s family name, which is still done in many countries around the world.

The spirit of Ba Trung and Ba Trieu being strong, courageous, proactive in being the head of the family and mastering society in Vietnamese women is clearly shown in the story of Trong Thuy staying at My Chau’s wife’s house in the legendary story of My Chau-Trhong Thuy mentioned above.

And Trong Thuy died along with his My Chau wife, even though there was a war between the two Sino-Vietnamese countries, showing that Vietnamese women from the time of the Hung Kings were so strong, so attractive, so lovely, making their husbands spy Trong Thuy had to give up all antagonism between the two nations to follow his good wife.

And it is the peace-loving Vietnamese culture that created the beautiful, tragic ending of the My Chau-Trhong Thuy love story.//////