Vietnamese creation myths

Vietnamese creation myths are mythological narratives recounting the origin of the universe, the world, and the origin of the Vietnamese people. Since the middle of the 20th century, a number of scholars have begun to collect and study Vietnamese mythology. Typical among scholars is Nguyễn Đổng Chi, he published the book Lược khảo thần thoại Việt Nam in 1958, the first book of Vietnamese mythology.

Creation myths

There are two myths about the creation of the universe and the world of Vietnamese people collected by scholars. It's the myth of Thần Trụ Trời and the myth of Trời.^[1]

Myth of Thần Trụ Trời

The world was created by a primordial god called Thần Trụ Trời (神柱𡗶 "heaven-pillar god"). This god, supposedly, built a stone pillar to separate heaven and earth from a chaotic mess where neither the world or humanity had existed, and once he was finished, he destroyed the pillar, which resulted in the creation of landforms such as mountains and islands. After the division of the Thần Trụ trời divided the world into Heaven and Earth, other gods appeared to follow in the work of building this world. There are many such gods, such as Thần Sao, Thần Sông, Thần Núi, Thần Biển... and other giant gods. People have credited these gods in the verse handed down from generation to generation:

"Ông Đếm Cát

Ông Tát Bể

Ông Kể Sao

Ông Đào Sông

Ông Trồng Cây

Ông Xây Rú

Ông Trụ Trời..."^[2][3][4]

Myth of Trời

This creation myth is more complete than that of Thần Trụ Trời, divided into five parts. The first part tells about the appearance of two gods Ông Trời and Bà Trời,^[5] then the appearance of the Sun and the Moon,^[6] two daughters of Ông Trời. After creating the universe, Ông Trời and 12 Bà mụ began to mold creatures.

After completing the creation of the universe, Ông Trời began to create all things. Legend has it that in the beginning, Trời used the residue left in heaven and earth to mold all kinds of animals, from the big ones to the small ones like bugs. After that, Trời decanted the clean substance to mold human. Therefore, humans are wiser than animals. Regarding the work of creating humans, Trời assigned twelve skillful goddesses, which the world still calls twelve Bà mụ. Twelve Bà mụ each do a different job. One goddess creates limbs for humans, another goddess creates ears, this goddess creates eyes, then another goddess creates sex organs, one goddess teaches babies to crawl and roll over, then another goddess teaches babies babies talk and laugh. Because there are some goddesses who are absent-minded at work, so they create á nam á nữ people^[7] because they lack sinh thực khí.^[8]

After creating all things and human, Trời saw that there were still some shortcomings in creatures, so he sent three gods down to correct them.^[9] Finally in part five, Trời created rice and grass, he sent a god to bring it down to humans, but because of a mistake, that god spread weed all over the world, making Trời angry to turn that god become a water buffalo must eat grass for eternity.^[10]

Myths about giant gods

In Vietnamese mythology, after heaven and earth were formed, many giant gods appeared. These giant gods were both male and female,^[11] and their daily affairs often had a significant impact on the world's topography.^[12]

Ông Tứ Tượng and Bà Nữ Oa

In the beginning, after the world was formed, there were two gods named Tứ Tượng and Nữ Oa. Tứ Tượng wanted to marry Nữ Oa, the goddess Nữ Oa forced Tứ Tượng to participate in a mountain building competition with her. The rules of the contest are that within three days Tứ Tượng and Nữ Oa will compete to build mountains. If Tứ Tượng's mountain is higher than Nữ Oa's mountain, Nữ Oa will take Tứ Tượng. They began to split into two directions to compete, Tứ Tượng built mountains in the north and Nữ Oa built mountains in the south. After the time was up, they climbed each other's mountain to see whose mountain was higher and in the end Nữ Oa won, she kicked down Tứ Tượng's mountain and told Tứ Tượng to build another mountain. Nữ Oa's mountain was then called Nam Giới mountain. Tứ Tượng then tried their best to build more mountains hoping to please Nữ Oa, causing mountains to appear scattered from north to south. Faced with Tứ Tượng's enthusiastic pursuit, Nữ Oa finally agreed to marry Tứ Tượng. Later the two gods were considered the ancestors of mankind.^[13][14]

Ông Lộc Cộc and Bà Tồ Cô

These two gods are described as very huge, their heads pierce the sky, their shoulders touch the clouds and their feet can sink rocks and puncture the ground. Every step they take is from one mountain to another, after each step they often leave giant footprints on the ground. Although the two gods are giant, they have innocent personalities, easily happy and sad like children. When they are angry, each blink of their eyes creates flashes of lightning, each sneeze creates thunderstorms, each strong breath creates storms, and their voices then will roar like a drum. But when the two gods are happy, they will create gentle rains that help the trees flourish. Because Lộc Cộc and Tồ Cô are both huge, they often compete with each other to do great jobs such as digging rivers, building mountains and filling the sea. And thanks to Lộc Cộc and Tồ Cô pouring water into the sea and draining the swamps, land and fields appeared, creating a place for people to live. Later, Tồ Cô gave birth to a bundle, from which 12 beautiful girls hatched. The daughters of Lộc Cộc and Tồ Cô later dispersed to all four directions to teach people their profession and became kings of those places.^[15][16]

Ông Đùng and Bà Đùng

At that time, there were two giants, Ông Đùng and Bà Đùng, who helped people in the area many times. Ông Đùng liked Bà Đùng very much, so one day, early in the morning, he came to ask Bà Đùng to marry him. Bà Đùng issued a challenge that when the cock crows tomorrow, Ông Dùng must be able to arrange 100 mountains. If Ông Đùng completes the challenge, Bà Đùng will accept to marry Ông Đùng. So Ông Đùng struggled alone to pull the mountain and arrange it, he even forgot to eat while working. When he arranged 99 mountains, Bà Đùng woke up and saw Ông Đùng arranging the mountains, so Bà Đùng pretended to make the sound of a rooster crowing to tease Ông Đùng. Ông Đùng was arranging a mountain to make it 100. When he reached the north bank of the Lam River, he heard a rooster crowing and thought it was real, so he stood up, brushed his hands and left. Therefore, Hồng Lĩnh mountain has 99 peaks, and the one mountain left behind by Ông Đùng is Quyết Mountain on the north bank of Lam River. It was Ông Đùng who dug iron ore in the mountains and brought it to Vân Chàng and Trung Ương villages to teach people how to make blacksmiths - a traditional profession that still exists today.^[17]

Ethnic origin

The story of Lạc Long Quân and Âu Cơ is considered the origin of the Vietnamese people. The first book to write this story was Lĩnh Nam chích quái written in the 14th century, then this story was copied into the Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư in the 15th century.^[18] Legend has it that Lạc Long Quân (son of Kinh Dương Vương and Thần Long Nữ) married Âu Cơ (the daughter of Đế Lai). Âu Cơ then went on to give birth to a pouch filled with one hundred eggs, which soon hatched into a hundred sons. However, soon thereafter, Lạc Long Quân and Âu Cơ separated. Lạc Long Quân went to the coast with 50 of the children, while Âu Cơ went to the highlands with the rest. The eldest son who followed Âu Cơ was handed the throne, that was the first Hùng Vương.^[19]

See also

• Vietnamese mythology
• Mongol mythology
• Chinese creation myths
• Japanese creation myth
• Korean creation narratives

References

This page was last edited on 30 October 2023, at 12:42