Tale
Wondrous Tales of Linh Nam
Lĩnh Nam chích quái
Anonymous · 1380
Synopsis
A water dragon marries a mountain fairy; she lays a hundred eggs, from which a hundred sons emerge, and the couple divides the children between the sea and the heights. There follow the mountain spirit and the water spirit who quarrel over a princess, the watermelon that came from nowhere, the magic crossbow whose secret a princess gives away to the enemy, and other short tales about the origins of the country, its spirits and its beasts.
Context
The collection brings together stories that were already old and gives the country its ancestors: the dragon and the fairy whose hundred sons found the lineages. It was compiled at the moment when the country was asserting its independence from China, and these origin stories have since served as an argument for that autonomy. The text is in classical Chinese and has reached us through several successive states, reworked and expanded by the scholars who copied it.
Who it is for
Brief tales, set side by side in no apparent order. Each legend can be read on its own, with no prior knowledge.
Prizes and reception
The principal source on Vietnamese mythology, the collection is on the school curriculum and its tales are known to everyone.