THACH SANH: TALE OF A VIETNAMESE DEITY

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THACH SANH – A son of the supreme deity Ngoc Hoang. His father forced him to incarnate as a human and in this demi-god form he fought monsters, rescued the son of the chief sea god Long Vuong, vanquished his evil foster-brother and married a beautiful princess.

He then went on to lead her father’s people in a war of conquest, uniting the legendary and traditional “original 18” villages (though some sources say 15 villages) that were the basis of the nation that eventually grew into ancient Vietnam.

The number 18 has special significance in Vietnamese mythology, like the number 8 in Shinto myth, 16 in Yoruba myth, 4 in Navajo myth, 5 in Discordianism and 12 in many western belief systems.

There were also said to have been 18 rulers in the possibly non-existent Hung Vuong Dynasty. For another example, Ngoc Hoang and the heavenly deities were said to live in the 18th Heaven above the 18th Heaven (AKA the 36th heaven, a name used in some English translations)  

Thach Sanh is said to have come before Lac Long Quan. (As usual I’m sticking with the home-grown Vietnamese versions of these myths over their Chinese hybrids when there are differences)

***I. Miraculous Birth – Long ago, in what eventually became the Cao Bang district of Vietnam an old woodsman lived with his wife. They were childless but desperately longed for a child and since they were such moral and virtuous people Ngoc Hoang ordered his son Thach Sanh to incarnate as a child for them.

He obeyed and entered the womb of the woodsman’s wife. Though she was advanced in age she and her husband were overjoyed to be expecting a child. Nine months came and went and the child did not emerge. A year passed and still she carried the child. When three years passed she at last gave birth (which is an interesting parallel with the Shinto myth in which the Empress Jingo was said to be pregnant for three years with Ojin, who eventually became Hachiman , the Shinto god of war). Unfortunately her husband had passed away and would never see their child. 

****II. Revelation Of His Divine Nature -By the time Thach Sanh was 13 years old his mother had also died so the youngster lived alone in their cabin by an old banyan tree. He made his living like his late father had, by chopping and selling wood, living off moss and berries when he could find no one to buy his wood.

Though Thach Sanh’s strength was exraordinary because of his divine heritage he did not fully realize it , since Ngoc Hoang had prevented him from remembering who he really was. One day while effortlessly carrying an entire tree that he had felled on his shoulders Thach Sanh was visited by Ngoc Hoang’s messenger god Ly Tinh.

This god revealed to Thach Sanh his full godly powers and instructed him on their use. Eventually the day came when Ly Tinh felt Thach Sanh had learned enough and returned to the 18th Heaven above the 18th Heaven. Thach Sanh asked why he could not return with him and was told he had to remain on Earth to fulfill the destiny his father Ngoc Hoang had in store for him, a destiny Ly Tinh was forbidden to reveal. 

***III. The Sinister Ly Thong – A crafty and amoral merchant named Ly Thong happened across Thach Sanh’s cabin by the banyan tree one day. From hiding he marveled at Thach Sanh’s prodigious strength as he watched him effortlesly fell trees with his axe and toss them around like kindling. A tiger attacked the lurking Ly Thong from behind, prompting Thach Sanh (now in his late teens) to save his life by dragging the tiger off him and killing it with his axe.

The unscrupulous merchant  befriended Thach Sanh and, realizing how naive the younger man’s innate virtue made him, decided to manipulate and exploit him by using his tremendous strength as virtual slave labor while paying him nothing but food and shelter in return.

Pretending to be touched at Thach Sanh’s solitary existence Ly Thong offered to let him live with him and his elderly mother as an adopted family member in exchange for his “help” in gathering and hauling Ly Thong’s merchandise and supplies. (Accounts vary as to what his business was) Thach Sanh happily accepted the offer and moved in with his foster brother. Ly Thong and his equally amoral mother exploited Thach Sanh’s massive strength in their business with his only pay being room and board. 

***IV. The Monstrous Python – Thach Sanh had been living with his nefarious adopted family for nearly a year, oblivious to how they were using him. Long before Thach Sanh had been living with them their village had been terrorized by a monstrous python, thick as a rhinoceros and longer than several felled banyan trees laid end to end.

Since the creature only needed to feed once a year the accomodation the priests of the village had reached with it was that once a year, a villager, selected by lot, would be sacrificed to it. That villager would stand outside the temple at the edge of the jungle and wait for the giant python to arrive to swallow them, then the serpent would return to its hidden lair and hibernate for a year while the sacrificial victim’s body would be digested over the course of that year.

The price for not complying with this means of appeasing the beast would be a return to its random attacks on the village, destroying homes and killing several people with its poisonous breath. By chance Ly Thong was selected as that year’s sacrifice but he and his mother had no intention of giving up his life simply to save the village. Thach Sanh was completely ignorant of the yearly ritual so Ly Thong and his mother used that to their advantage, tricking him into thinking that standing outside the temple constituted “guard duty” and it was his turn to do it. (The various versions of the myth all use slight variations of this deception)

Thach Sanh innocently did so, as always taking his trusty axe with him. Overnight the monstrous python showed up to devour Thach Sanh and was surprised to encounter a villager who fought back after all this time. The creature’s poisonous breath only succeeded in making Thach Sanh groggy because of his massive strength and in a prolonged battle Thach Sanh at last succeeded in hacking a way all through the python’s thick body, while repeatedly fighting free of its massive coils. With the creature slain, he used his axe to cut off its huge head to take as a trophy. 

*****V. Ly Thong’s Lies – Thach Sanh’s massive strength allowed him to carry the dead monster’s enormous head back to Ly Thong’s home. At first the wicked merchant and his mother were so shocked to see Thach Sanh alive that they believed him to be a ghost come to seek revenge for their sending him to his death. They threw themselves to their knees and begged forgivenss of Thach Sanh, making him realize how they had misled him.

The benevolent demi-god forgave them, though, understanding how someone without his strength would be terrified of facing the monstrous serpent. Instead of being grateful for Thach Sanh’s forgiving nature Ly Thong instead plotted to manipulate the young god’s trusting nature yet again as well as take credit for the python’s death.

He convinced Thach Sanh that the python-beast was a favorite pet of the king, who would demand Thach Sanh’s life in return , even if he had to use his entire army to do it. The merchant went on to tell his trusting foster-brother that he would try to soothe the king’s anger, even if it meant losing his own life. Thach Sanh gratefully agreed to this plan, praising Ly Thong for his selfless courage on his behalf.

The merchant had Thach Sanh load the massive python head on to his horse-drawn wagon before sending him back to his parent’s cabin near the banyan tree to wait for Ly Thong to send him word “if it was ever safe for him to return.”  Hauling the slain monster’s head to the king’s mansion Ly Thong took credit for having slain it, prompting the impressed king to call a celebration on his behalf as well as putting him in charge of his personal guard and providing him and his mother with a luxurious home and a large income. Meanwhile, Thach Sanh was eking out a living back in the woods.

*****VI. Princess Quynh Nga – At length the king’s only child, Princess Quynh Nga, reached marriageable age. He sent out heralds announcing her availability to all of his own nobles as well as the nobles of the 17 other city-states of note in that ancient equivalent of Vietnam. They all came calling, including the recently ennobled Ly Thong, to present the cases for their suits. Quynh Nga rejected them all, because she was entranced by dreams the gods of the heavens had sent her about Thach Sanh (though she did not know his name). 

Each night she dreamed about the demi-god and his simple life at his cabin by the banyan tree and had fallen in love with him. (Chicks dig banyan trees. It’s a known fact!) The next day, while strolling in the royal gardens Quynh Nga was snatched from in front of her handmaidens by a giant eagle and carried off.

When the king heard this he immediately announced to his daughters’ suitors, who had not had time to leave yet, that whoever returned the princess from the beast that had taken her would be awarded her hand in marriage as well as the throne of the kingdom. As all the suitors and their retinues spread out to try to find the missing Quynh Nga, the cunning Ly Thong reasoned that finding the princess was one thing, but defeating the monster that had taken her was another.

He swiftly set out alone for Thach Sanh’s cabin to enlist his foster brother’s power to help him. As it turns out, the gigantic eagle carrying Quynh Nga had flown over Thach Sanh’s home and the young god had tried to help the screaming woman in the creature’s clutches by shooting it down with his bow and arrow. He succeeded in wounding the monstrous eagle and causing it to fall but it was still able to make its way to its subterranean lair, trailing blood from its wound behind it and dangling Quynh Nga from its beak. 

*****VII. Into The Monster’s Lair – While Thach Sanh was trailing the creature’s blood-flecked trail through the jungle he came across Ly Thong . His evil foster-brother again spun a series of lies, claiming he had been imprisoned by the king for supposedly killing the monstrous python and had been offered a chance for a pardon if he freed the princess from the clutches of the giant eagle Thach Sanh had wounded. At last Thach Sanh and his foster- brother reached the cavern entrance to the monster’s underground lair.

This was really just a hole in the ground ending in a floor hundreds of feet below. Thach Sanh, armed with his axe and his bow and arrow, lowered himself into the series of subterranean caves via a rope he and Ly Thong fixed up. With his teacherous foster- brother remaining safely above, Thach Sanh ventured into the darkness to find the princess and her monstrous abductor. 

In its wounded state the gigantic creature was even more dangerous than usual but after a lengthy and savage battle Thach Sanh succeeded in slaying it with his axe. While the demi-god and Quynh Nga made their way back through the labyrinthine caves to the dangling rope Quynh Nga told Thach Sanh of her recurring dreams about him and swore that the two of them would be married. Thach Sanh tied the princess to the rope and signalled Ly Thong to pull her up. He did so, then refused to lower the rope again.

Striking Quynh Nga unconscious when she protested this , Ly Thong then levered a few boulders to block the entrance of the hole in the ground and covered the protruding boulders with dirt, weeds and vines to further conceal it. He returned  the princess to her father and claimed credit for slaying the giant eagle that had stolen her away.

The princess, in the frustratingly soap-operatic nature of many myths, was struck dumb (or mute if you prefer) with fury at all this and was unable to tell her father what had really happened. Her father announced that Ly Thong and his daughter would be married and that he would then abdicate in favor of his new son-in- law. 

*****VIII. The Sea God’s Son – While wandering the labyrithine caverns he was trapped in Thach Sanh came across a handsome young man confined in a cage. This man told Thach Sanh that he was the son of Long Vuong, the sea god and that he had been captured by the giant eagle just as the Princess had been and was confined in a cage that prevented him from using his godly powers. (If the eagle wasn’t capturing people so he could eat them what was the point? Was he subjecting them to Amway presentations?)

Thach Sanh slashed open the bars of the cage with his axe and freed  his fellow deity. The Sea Prince invited his rescuer to return with him to Long Vuong’s undersea realm so he could be properly rewarded. He gave Thach Sanh a rhinoceros horn to clutch so he could breathe underwater ( a recurring theme in Vietnamese mythology where trips under the sea are concerned) and Long Vuong was so grateful for his son’s return that he called for a celebration by his entire undersea kingdom. While that  was going on for days the King was holding off Ly Thong’s claim on his daughter by insisting they await the formality of Quynh Nga verbally giving her assent.

The princess was still unable to speak (if you’re like me you’re wondering why she doesn’t just write down what really happened in the giant eagle’s cave) and had not despaired of Thach Sanh’s life because she was still having dreams, in this case of the banyan tree by his cabin. Since the banyan tree was still healthy she took it as a sign that Thach Sanh was still alive. (This note seems a bit out of place here but my personal theory is that it was syncretized into the story from contact with Philippine and Malagassy peoples since a tree or some other form of plant life continuing to bloom is frequently a sign that a hero off on a quest is still alive in myths from the Philippines and Madagascar) 

When the day arrived for Thach Sanh to return to the surface world Long Vuong gave him the gift of an enchanted lute that had once been given to him by his older brother Ngoc Hoang. The lute could play itself and provide its own singing voice as accompaniment. Thach Sanh’s return to his cabin by the banyan tree was witnessed by the spirits of the python-monster and the eagle-monster he had slain.

These demonic entities were plotting revenge on him from the astral plane and contrived to steal the crown jewels and bury them beside the banyan tree. They then informed Ly Thong (in some versions Ly Thong gives them the crown jewels to frame Thach Sanh with) who was happy to play along if it meant an opportunity to eliminate his foster brother before he could tell the King that he was really the one who saved the princess. He dispatched an armed band of his troops to bring Thach Sanh in and restore the crown jewels. 

*****IX. Thach Sanh’s Destiny – The soldiers returned with the trusting Thach Sanh and the stolen crown jewels. At the king’s command they stripped him of his axe, bow and arrow and lute and ignored his pleas of innocence. They had him thrown into a cell to await the king’s judgement.

The sinister Ly Thong was encouraging the king to have  Thach Sanh executed before his upcoming marriage to Princess Quynh Nga. The magic lute that Long Vuong had given to Thach Sanh began playing on its own and providing its own vocal accompaniment in a voice that was heard by everyone in the king’s palace.

The lute sang the true story of Thach Sanh and his evil foster brother. Since this was clearly a  sign from the gods nobody doubted that what they heard was the truth. By the time the song was over everyone in the palace knew of Thach Sanh’s divine heritage, his manipulation by Ly Thong and his equally evil mother, his slaying of the monstrous python and the giant eagle, and of how the vengeful spirits of those monsters had framed him for the theft of the crown jewels.

Overjoyed, Princess Quynh Nga regained her voice and told her father of her dreams about Thach Sanh and her desire to marry him and not Ly Thong.  The king ordered Thach Sanh freed and Ly Thong and his mother imprisoned. He granted Thach Sanh his daughter’s hand in marriage and gave him the right to decide on a punishment for his treacherous foster brother and his mother. Thach Sanh was merciful despite all he had suffered and spared Ly Thong and his mother’s lives and simply sent them into exile.

Ngoc Hoang, however, was not as forgiving and ordered the thunder god Thien Loi to strike them both down with his lightning axes when they reached the outskirts of the kingdom. He also had Thien Loi obliterate the spirits of the slain python and eagle monsters who had sought revenge on Thach Sanh from the astral plane. The king abdicated in favor of Thach Sanh when he married Quynh Nga.

Her rejected suitors who were the aristocrats of the surrounding 17 kingdoms were outraged at the Princess’ marriage to a commoner and refused to believe the story of Thach Sanh’s divine heritage. They gathered their armies and attacked the kingdom. Thach Sanh led his father-in-law’s armies against them and defeated them all, convincing them of his godly status and incorporating them with his own kingdom into a realm of 18 cities, thus fulfilling the destiny decreed by his father Ngoc Hoang. +++