Consort Y Lan

Beside a green mulberry field in the village of Thổ Lỗi, a girl was picking leaves and singing. Her hands moved fast as she bent down each young branch, and her song hung in the morning sun. That girl, who grew mulberries and raised silkworms, would become one of the most talented and virtuous women of the Lý dynasty. The Lý dynasty ruled Vietnam from 1009 to 1225. Her field lies today in Gia Lâm, in Hanoi.

She was born in 1044 into a farming family that lived by the humble trade of silk. Her childhood was the clack of the shuttle. It was the smell of mulberry leaves, early mornings in the fields, and nights awake beside the trays of silkworms. She grew up among village people and understood the hardship of farm life. She knew how hard it is to make a grain of rice or a thread of silk.

In 1063, Emperor Lý Thánh Tông was on his way to a pagoda to pray when he passed through that countryside. An old tale says that crowds poured out to watch the royal carriage, but one girl simply stood quietly by a tree at the edge of her mulberry field. The emperor stopped and spoke with her. He admired the girl for her talent and her gentle manner, and he brought her to the capital, Thăng Long. Thăng Long is the city now called Hanoi. People gave her the name Ỷ Lan, which means leaning on the lan tree, so that the first meeting beside the mulberry field would never be forgotten.

From a picker of mulberry leaves, she became a consort in the palace. But what was precious in her was not silk robes or red towers. It was that she kept the heart of a country girl. She still remembered the fields, and she still felt for the poor.

Then in 1069, a great task came. Emperor Lý Thánh Tông had to travel far to the south with Lý Thường Kiệt, a gifted general. Before leaving, the emperor trusted her to look after the affairs of the country at home. A girl who grew up in a mulberry field now had to care for a whole country. Yet she did it very well. While the emperor was away, she managed everything herself. The harvests were still tended, and people lived in peace and worked in contentment. Moved by her virtue, the people gave her the finest title they had, Quan Âm nữ. They meant that she was as gentle as Quan Âm, the bodhisattva of compassion, who shelters all people.

She was the mother of Emperor Lý Nhân Tông. Later, when he was still young, she took up the burden once more. For more than 20 years, day after day, she helped her son manage the country. In those 20 years her love for the people never faded. It went into countless small deeds, close to home and warm.

Some girls from poor families had to go and work as maidservants for other people. When she heard this, in 1103 she paid to buy them out. She did not stop there. She arranged marriages for them and gave them a home and a new life. A woman at the height of the palace still bent down to look after the smallest of lives. That picture is as lovely as the name Quan Âm nữ that the people had given her.

Having grown up among mulberry fields and rice paddies, she held farmers in special regard. She issued an order to protect buffalo and cattle. A buffalo is a farmer's strength at the plow, and his friend. When the buffalo stay strong, the fields grow green and the people's rice bowls stay full. For her, the comfort of every household began in the field and the furrow.

She was also devout, and she had many pagodas built. When she died in 1117, the court gave her a very long and solemn honorific, Phù Thánh Linh Nhân Hoàng Thái Hậu. The last three words mean Empress Dowager. But the name the people kept in their hearts was the simple one from long ago, Ỷ Lan, the girl who leaned on the lan tree.

From a girl who picked mulberry leaves and sang as she worked, there came a woman who loved her people like a kind mother, and who is still called Quan Âm nữ. And that kindness, green as a mulberry field, remains whole to this day.