Draft:Vietnamese creation myth

Vietnamese creation myth is a collection of stories about the origin of the universe, the world and life, reflecting the perception and visualization of the ancient Vietnamese about the origin of the world and human life.

Creation mythologies

Thần Trụ Trời

In Vietnamese mythology, the Thần Trụ Trời say that sky and earth were seperated from each other by a pillar that made the sky round like an upside down bowl and the earth flat like a square tray. The myth about this god was mentioned for the first in the book Lược khảo về thần thoại Việt Nam in 1956, collected and synthesized by Nguyễn Đổng Chi. In chapter V called Buổi đầu của vũ trụ, the author rewrote the myth of Thần Trụ Trời as follows:

At that time, there were no creatures and humans. Sky and earth are just a dark, chaotic area. Suddenly an extremely tall , giant god with indescribably long legs appeared . Every step he takes is ice from one area to another, from one mountain to another.

One day, the god stretched out his shoulders and stood up, raising his head to the sky. He dug the earth, carried the stone, and built it into a large and tall pillar to support the sky. As high as the pillar is raised, the sky is like a vast curtain that is gradually raised. He alone dug, built, the stone pillars kept getting higher and higher and pushed the dome of the sky up to the blue clouds.

Since then, heaven and earth have split into two. The earth is flat like a square tray, the sky is round like an upside down bowl, where sky and earth meet is the horizon. When the sky was high and dry, the god of sky broke the pillar and threw the earth everywhere. Every stone that was thrown turned into a mountain or an island, and the earth scattered everywhere into mounds, piles, and high hills. Therefore, today's ground is no longer flat, but has concave and convex areas. The place where god dug deep to get soil and stone to build columns, now is the immense sea.

The pillar of sky is now gone. It is said that traces of that column are in Thạch Môn mountain (or An Phụ mountain), Hải Dương region. That mountain is also known as Kình Thiên Trụ, which means Cột Chống Trời (Pillar Support Sky).

After the god Thần Trụ Trời divided heaven and earth, there were other gods who continued 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. Therefore, there is a folk song that is still handed down to this day:

"Ông đếm cát

Ông tát bể (biển)

Ông kể sao

Ông đào sông

Ông trồng cây

Ông xây rú (núi)

Ông trụ trời..."

In addition, this creation myth has another version, recorded by foreign authors. In this version, the giant god is called Khổng Lồ, and also, in this version he has wife. It says that:

Long time ago, Sky and Earth were all mixed together in a general chaos and darkness. A giant, Khổng Lồ, somehow appeared. At first the giant was creation itself, his breath is the wind, his voice is the thunder. Then he raised the sky from the earth by pushing up with his head and he maintained the separation by building a huge pillar that went up from the earth and turned the sky into a great ceiling like a bowl. Later, he pulled down the pillar. broke it up, and flung it all about. The pieces of pillar became familiar landscape elements. The ditches left by the giant's digging for pillar material became waterways. A giant turtle's breathing caused the tides. When a giant female figure came into being, the creator giant fell in love with her, but the female resisted him and was the larger and stronger of the two. Before she would agree to marry her suitor, she challenged him to several contests and always won. It was in the course of these frequently earth changing contests that much of the world as we know it - mountains, rivers, and much more - were formed. Finally, she accepted the giant and they were married. On the way to the wedding ceremony, the giant stretched his phallus across a river to serve as a bridge for his companions, When one of the friends dropped hot ashes on the penis, the giant jumped, and half of the men fell into the water, only to be rescued by the giantess, who hid them under her dress to dry.

Trời (Ông Trời)

One of the most popular creation myths in Vietnamese mythology is the myth of Trời. He is described as a powerful god who created all things. The myths about this god were also compiled for the first time in the book Lược khảo về thần thoại Việt Nam by Nguyễn Đổng Chi (1956) and later in the book Việt Nam Văn học Toàn thư (1959) by Hoàng Trọng Miên, Tuyển tập văn chương nhi đồng: Thần thoại (Việt-Nam, Trung-Hoa, Nhật-Bản, Đại-Dương) (1969) by Doãn Quốc Sỹ,...

Once upon a time, before all things existed, there was a god. Trời is an entity with unparalleled power above, creating everything: earth, mountains, rivers, sea, rain, sun. Trời gave birth to human, animals, plants...

Trời sees everything, knows everything that happens in the world. Trời is the father of all things, considering all things, rewards and punishments do not spare anyone, no one escapes the net of heaven, everything is determined by heaven. Therefore, people believe in heaven's way, and often say that they were born and raised by Trời, and when they die, they will return to heaven.

Ông Trời also has a wife, called Bà Trời (or Tây Vương Mẫu), and whenever he is angry with each other, it is sunny and rainy. Every time Heaven gets angry with man for making a mistake in the world, natural disasters will fall: storms, floods, droughts...

Trời's country is from the ground up to above, there are nine heavens. Since being influenced by Chinese culture, Ông Trời is also known as Ngọc Hoàng for polished.

This myth is divided into 4 parts. The second part is called Sáng tạo vạn vật, about how this god created all things

After completing the creation of the universe, 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 large ones to small ones like insects. Only then did Trời decant the substance in order to shape man. Therefore, humans are wiser than animals.

Regarding the work of shaping people, Trời assigned twelve skillful goddesses that the world still called twelve Bà mụ. Twelve Bà mụ each doing a different job, she molded her hands and feet, she molded her ears, she molded her eyes, she molded her genitals, she taught cows to turn over, she taught how to speak and laugh. Because there are absent-minded midwives, so people have á nam, á nữ) because of lack of sinh thực khí.

When creating human beings, Trời intended for them to live forever without having to die. When they are old, they stay in one place for a short while, the outer skin changes, leaving the old disguise but becoming young again, spreading completely with snakes, because of their cruel nature, they only live at the right age and then have to die. A god who had to come down to the earth to do that was unexpectedly met with snakes first. When the snakes knew that god's job was to come down to pronounce the death sentence for their species, they gathered together tens of thousands of snakes to surround the porcelain of the heavens, determined to force god to say again: "Rắn già rắn lột, người già người tuột vào săng". Otherwise, the snakes will decide to vital with the god. Seeing ferocious snakes that only wanted to harm him, the god had to listen to them. Therefore, snakes are molted to live forever, and humans must die when they are old.

When Trời heard about it, he was angry at the angel for doing it against his will, then he was banished to the world to be a scarab beetle.

The third part, called "Tu bổ các giống vật", tells about Trời's restoration and repair of living things after he created them.

After creating all things and humans, Trời saw that there were still deficiencies in animals, so he sent three gods to earth to repair any animals whose bodies were still incomplete. The informed animals rushed to ask the gods of heaven to make up for the shortcomings.

When all the materials were distributed to the animals, a dog and a duck came and asked for an extra leg for each one, because dogs only have three legs, ducks only have one leg since they were born Trời created. Deity ran out of materials, tried to refuse, but seeing the two animals begging too much, god temporarily broke the chair leg to form the missing hind leg of the dog and took the stick from the tree to make the other leg for me duck and then tell the dog and duck when sleeping, remember to raise your paws in the air, don't put it on the ground, it will be damaged. The dog and duck bowed and left. Obeying god's instructions, from then on, when sleeping, the two animals always raise one leg in the air.

The gods were preparing to go to heaven, when suddenly, there were some types of skylarks, wagtails, ốc cau, and snipes... at the same time crying out because god had molded them without both legs. The three gods also refused at first, using the excuse that they had run out of materials to bring, but the birds insisted, saying that because they had no legs, they were slow to come, and tried to beg the gods for help. A god who saw a incense burner nearby broke a handful of incense sticks, making each bird a pair of legs. Seeing how fragile their legs were, the birds cried out: “Trời ơi! How can the incense stick look like this fragile, so it can't be parked, god advised: "It's okay, just take care of it for a bit. When you want to park, tiptoe to the ground to see if it's stable already then pass". Therefore, later on, these birds would try to put their feet first two or three times before they landed on the ground.

The last part Lúa và cỏ tells about Trời creating rice and accidentally creating grass.

One day Trời sat in the middle of heaven and asked what man wanted first. Our ancestors asked for two meals a day,

Trời blessed every day a giant grain of rice rolled through the doors of the house. The women just need to reach out their hands to collect enough rice to eat for the day. After each day of completing the task, the grain of rice is blessed by Trời to be as large as it was before. One only needs to sweep the house clean to receive the pearl of heaven rolling to the door.

There was a woman who was lazy and did not listen to Trời's instructions. When the grain of rice rolled to the door, he did not see the owner of the house cleaning to receive him, so he turned to another house. The owner of the house was angry with a broom and chased after it, smashing it so hard that the pearl broke into pieces. Humans had to fast for a while, so they went to Trời, and Trời said, "You don't respect my pearl, from now on you must do your best to make the pearl come to life. Everyone has to find my broken rice grain and bring it back, dig the soil, water it, and take care of it until it blooms and produces seeds. I will help you work, I will make rain and sunshine..."

Since then, people have started to grow rice.

Also at the birth of rice, Trời sent an god to earth to bring some rice seeds and some grass seeds to the earth to feed people and animals. At first he sowed all the grass in his left hand. The grass grew very quickly, spread very strongly overnight, until the next day he only planted half of the rice seed in his right hand, there was no more land to sow. He had to bring half of the rice seeds to heaven. Therefore, on the ground, the grass grows a lot but is very strong and the rice is very difficult to grow, if not taken care of, weeding will be overwhelmed by the grass.

When he knew about this, Trời was angry and banished that god to earth to become a buffalo, eat grass for generations and have to pull the plow for humans to grow rice. Trời set up a god to take care of rice, Thần Lúa is an old man with white hair and beard, often walking around with a stick.

Perfect the world

In Vietnamese mythology, giants play an important role in perfecting the world, there are many stories about these giant.

Ông Tứ Tượng and Bà Nữ Oa (Thần Đực and Thần Cái)

In the past, there were two male gods, the female god was very large, the male god was called Tứ Tượng or Khổng Lồ, the female god was called Nữ Oa.

Tứ Tượng wanted to marry Nữ Oa, the goddess forced the male god to compete with her, and within three days each person built a very high mountain, able to stand on top and look over the whole earth. If the mountain of the male god is higher, then the goddess is willing to be husband and wife.

Male god in the north, goddess in the south, the two sides race to build mountains. Tứ Tượng has a pair of great baskets that can hold thousands of hills. When a god was carrying, the rope broke, causing the earth to fall down into nine large hills.

After the deadline was over, the two gods climbed each other's mountains to see which was higher. Standing on the mountain of the male god, he could see out into the East Sea as far as the neighboring countries. Standing on the mountain of the goddess, you can clearly see all four sides of the horizon. The male god lost, the goddess knocked down Tứ Tượng's mountain and told him to rebuild another mountain.

The mountain of the goddess today is said to have traces of Nam Giới mountain in Hà Tĩnh.

The male god tried to build many other mountains for the goddess to agree. Therefore, many mountains rise from the North to the South. There are large footprints left on rocks in some mountains in the North and Central Vietnam, which are later considered to be the footprints of the male god Tứ Tượng.

In the face of the male god's sincere pursuit, the goddess was finally willing to marry.

Talking about two male and female gods, in folklore there is a simile about:

… Bà Nữ Oa bằng ba mẫu ruộng

… Ông Tứ Tượng mười bốn con sào

to refer to the great body of the two gods. The two gods Tứ Tượng - Nữ Oa are also considered to be the ancestors of mankind.

Ông Lộc Cộc – Bà Tồ Cô and their daughters

When sky and earth were still in chaos, when sky and earth were established, there were often giant gods who appeared to help people. Both male and female gods. These gods often go together in a pair like Ông Tứ Tượng - Bà Nữ Oa, Ông Đực - Bà Cái, Ông Đùng - Bà Đà... in Tiên Du area, Ông Lộc Cộc - Bà Tồ Cô.

Ông Lộc Cộc and Bà Tồ Cô both have tall bodies, their heads are in the sky, their shoulders are touching the clouds, their feet are sinking into the ground. Every step of they is from one mountain peak to another. They left in the middle of the field, on the hillside, in the alley of the village, huge footprints measuring ten inches in the hand in Sơn, in Chè Dọc, in Lim, in Kẻ Đồng, in Tiên Lát, in Phật Tích... there are footprints everywhere.

Ông Lộc Cộc and Bà Tồ Cô sometimes go in pairs, one after the other. Sometimes see only him. Sometimes see her alone. Two giants, but their temperaments are so kind and natural, happy and sad like playful children. When angry, the two grandparents blinked brightly, their voices rumbled like drums, their sneezes turned into thunderstorms, their strong breaths turned into storms. When they were happy, they made rain and wind to water the lush plants.

Ông Lộc Cộc and Bà Tồ Cô are both so big, so they both have bigger health than humans. They often compete with each other to do great things such as digging rivers, building mountains, filling the sea.

A neglected earthen basket also becomes a shore. Digging the ground for one night, you get a hill. An outstretched footprint also opened up a stream. If you dig for a day, you will get a river... Thanks to the two gods pouring water into the sea, slapping the swamps dry, the land and fields appear, becoming a place to live and work for people.

When people became crowded, Ông Lộc Cộc still came back to create thunderstorms, create thunder, swing lightning and storm winds, Bà Tồ Cô still came back to launch herds of deer and birds for people to hunt...

Looking at the scenery of mountains, rivers, fields, trees, flowers and leaves of four consecutive seasons, Bà Tồ Cô was very satisfied. After the temporary work was over, she was pregnant again, so Bà Tồ Cô stretched out on the side of the Đuống River to rest. Here, Bà Tồ Cô gave birth to a bundle. From the bundle grew twelve beautiful daughters. The girls took their mother's place and went to all four directions to teach the people professions, each of them became the king and grandmother of each region.

Undressing, Bà Tồ Cô still lies naked in the sunny and windy sky, forever displaying her beautiful beauty in Nguyệt Hằng Mountain in Tiên Du land.