W.Minh Tuan

Legend has it that during the sixth reign of King Hung Vuong, the country was at peace for a long time. King Hung Vuong neglected to defend the country, so the An enemy invaded.

At that time, in Phu Dong village, Bac Ninh province today, there was an old couple over 60 years old without children.

One day the wife went out to work in the fields and saw a huge footprint. She set foot in it, and when she returned home, she was pregnant. After 9 months and 10 days, she gave birth to a son, whom they named Giong.

But little Giong is three years old and still doesn’t know how to talk or laugh.

The grandparents were very sad, but still loved baby Giong very much.

When the An enemy invaded our country Vietnam, the sixth King Hung Vuong sent messengers throughout the country to ask for talented people to lead the army to fight the enemy.

King Hung’s messenger arrived at Phu Dong village and called loudly:

“Loa, loa, whoever is talented, please lead the army to help the country fight the enemy, loa loa.”

Then little Giong suddenly stood up and told his mother to invite the messenger.

Giong’s parents were extremely surprised when they saw little Giong suddenly able to speak. The couple quickly ran out to invite the messenger into the house.

Little Giong said loudly to the messenger:

“Go back to report to the King, that please cast an iron horse and an iron whip, bring them to me, I will use these weapon to kill the enemy.”

At that time, little Giong stretched out to become an adult, no matter how much rice he ate, not enough rice for him to eat, no matter how much meat he ate, not enough meat for him to eat, no matter how big his clothes were, he felt tight.

The whole Phu Dong village contributed rice to cook for baby Giong to eat and clothes for baby Giong to wear.

The messenger was surprised, considered it strange, and go back to report the incident to King Hung Vuong. King Hung Vuong immediately ordered iron horses to be cast, iron whips made, and brought to Giong.

Giong wore an iron helmet, held an iron whip, rode an iron horse, rushed into battle like a storm, wherever he went he slashed the enemy like trash. When the iron whip broke, Giong pulled up bamboo bushes on the side of the road and threw them at the enemy.

The An enemy was defeated and fled.

After defeating the enemy, Giong rode horse  straight up to Soc Son mountain near Phu Dong village today, took off his clothes and flew with his horse straight up into the sky.

Today, lakes and ponds can still be seen as traces left by iron horses’ feet. The forest burned by the An enemy was also called Dang Nga forest-brown burn forest. The bamboo in this forest turned yellow as if burned when Giong fought the enemy, so it was called ivory burn bamboo.

The people of Phu Dong built a temple to worship Giong, called Thanh Giong, because he incarnated to save the Vietnamese people.

The legend of Saint Giong-Phu Dong Thien Vuong is as simple as that.

Mr. Tran Trong Kim expressed skepticism about the An enemy from China invading our country during the reign of the sixth Hung King.

The sixth King Hung Vuong was named Hung Hon Vuong. He was born in the year of the Dau-Rooster, 1740 BC. He ascended the throne at the age of 29, in the year of Ky Suu, 1712 BC.

He passed down 2 generations of kings, both named Hung Hon Vuong. He reigned for 81 years, to the year of the Dau Rooster, 1632 BC.

Mr. Kim said that the country of An at that time was in China, located near the Yellow River, in today’s Shaanxi province, several thousand kilometers away from Vietnam, so it was hard to believe that the country of An can marched several thousand km southward to invade Van Lang.

Furthermore, Mr. Tran Trong Kim said that Chinese history books say nothing about this invasion.

This legend represents a reminder to our Vietnamese people that if we are not always prepared to defend our country, the disaster of being invaded and colonized is unavoidable.

The opening paragraph of the legend of Thanh Giong, talking about how King Hung Vuong lived in peace for a long time, neglected the country’s defense, and was invaded by the An enemy, expressed an indelible regret about a country Vietnam of Hung Vuong perod.

It once had independence for more than 2,000 years during the reign of 18 Hung Kings, but now, after Trieu Da invaded and ruled our Vietnam country, put our Vietnam country under 1000 years of Han domination.

Perhaps while suffering under the harsh domination of the Northern invaders during the 1000-year period of Northern domination, the Vietnamese people dreamed and built the image of Thanh Giong, like the small Vietnamese people weak, like the weak 3-year-old boy Thanh Giong, but maybe one day, he will eat a lot, grow as fast as the wind, and have enough strength to chase away foreign invaders.

Until now, in the 21st Century, when the 9-dash cow tongue map is lurking in the East Sea, we see that the story of Thanh Giong-Phu Dong Thien Vuong in ancient times still has its value.

Not using talents and neglect of protecting the country, the risk of being enslaved or dependent again is unavoidable.

Will our Vietnamese people grow as fast as Thanh Giong in the past, and have enough strength to uproot the bamboo bushes again to protect the sea and islands?

We are sitting here, re-reading historical stories and legends about the period of the Hung Kings more than 2,000 years ago, but actually we are reviewing the strength of the Vietnamese people today.

And the story of Giong asking King Hung to forge iron horses and iron whips shows that modern weapons are very important.

Thanh Giong, even though he had the strength to pull up bamboo, and could eat 3 ounces of rice a day.

But he could not defeat the An enemy without modern weapons such as iron horses and iron whips.

So it is the same today, Vietnam is currently mainly buying weapons from abroad to protect the sea and islands, but has not focused on developing domestic talent to be able to research and produce weapons on its own.

And the story of when the country was at war, King Hung Vuong order to seek talent, is completely similar to the story of the Vietnamese communist party, when it had not yet won power, called on the Government to unite the entire people, gather talent without partisanship, like President Ho Chi Minh called for in 1946.

When President Ho Chi Minh was still alive, the President appointed many Ministers who were outside the party, reflecting the true spirit of King Hung Vuong sending messengers to seek talented people to lead the army to fight the enemy in the Thanh Giong era in the past.

However, after President Ho Chi Minh passed away, we saw no more non-party ministers appointed.

Where is the slogan “Gathering talents without partisanship”, as President Ho Chi Minh called for, now?