W.Minh Tuan

Legend has it that during the reign of the sixth Hung King, a foreigner wandered to our country of Van Lang, and the sixth Hung King took care of him, gave him a title, gave him the name An Tiem, and gave him a wife.

Mr. An Tiem became rich and luxurious.

Mr. An Tiem is a self-confident person, often saying that success is determined by God, and due to his own efforts, not only the help of King Hung Vuong.

King Hung heard this and thought that An Tiem had the intention of being ungrateful, arrogant, and did not express his gratitude to Hung Vuong King for helping An Tiem, so King exiled An Tiem to a remote island to see if Mr.An Tiem could have himself be successful?

Mr. An Tiem and his wife are working hard on the exiled island. One day, a white pheasant brought a seed to the island, dropped it down, Mr. An Tiem tried to plant this seed on the soil. This seed quickly grew into a tree with a large fruit, red inside, delicious to eat.

Mr. An Tiem called Tay Qua fruit – the fruit brought by birds from the West.

Commercial ships came to Mr. An Tiem’s island to buy Tay Qua fruit, and An Tiem and his wife became rich and prosperous again.

King Hung Vuong missed An Tiem for a long time, so he sent people to visit An Tiem and see how his life was.

The messenger came back to tell King Hung Vuong that An Tiem and his wife were living very prosperously.

King Hung complained that “What he said was not wrong”, so King Hung called An Tiem and his wife back and restored them to their old positions.

What does the An Tiem-watermelon legend say?

Firstly, it talks about the relations, communication between Vietnamese people and foreigners that has existed since the time of King Hung Vuong. Mr. An Tiem was a foreigner who wandered to Vietnam and was taken care of by King Hung.

Second, this legend talks about the hospitality and human affection of King Hung Vuong, who conceived An Tiem, gave him a name, gave him a title, granted him servants, and gave him a wife.

And third, once again, this legend speaks of the benevolence and generosity of the Hung Vuong Kings. When King Vuong Hung saw An Tiem exiled to a remote island, without the help of King Hung Vuong, but doing well on his own, becoming rich and prosperous, King Hung Vuong was not angry, not jealous, but only complaining about his own mistake, he had remorse for his banishment of An Tiem to a remote island.

King Hung was very benevolent and invited An Tiem back to restore his old position, and this was equivalent to King Hung admitting that he had made a mistake.

Now, every time we eat watermelon, each of us can remember the benevolent and generous story of the Hung Kings, the ancestors of our Vietnamese people, so that we today must always remind ourselves to live altruistically and generously, like our ancestors in the past.///