Phung Hung

One afternoon in a village at the foot of a hill, the whole stretch of fields fell silent. Everyone held their breath and looked toward the edge of the forest. Then a young man stepped out of the crowd, broad in the shoulders and big in the hands, walking as steady as a rooted tree. This was Phùng Hưng. The whole region passed down the story that he was strong enough to catch a tiger with his bare hands. In time, the villagers would give him a name that sounded unusual and felt warm.

Phùng Hưng came from Đường Lâm, a village now part of Sơn Tây, in Hanoi. It is the same land that later gave birth to Ngô Quyền. A small village among low hills, and yet it raised two heroes.

His father was Phùng Hạp Khanh, a local leader who looked after matters in the area. Phùng Hưng also had two younger brothers who shared his aims. They were Phùng Hải and Phùng Dĩnh. The brothers grew up among cornfields and cassava patches, at home with the forest trees, the streams, and the plain, honest people around them.

In those days the people of Đường Lâm lived off their fields. From morning to night they depended on the grain of rice and the root crops they grew. But one worry never left them.

Fierce tigers lived in the forest around the village. Each time people went out to the cornfield on the hillside, they were on edge, afraid to go far and afraid to stay long. The corn patches grew sparse, and the harvests got worse.

Tradition says Phùng Hưng had strength beyond other people. The tiger tale is a story of the village, a legend handed down from long ago, and not something written in the histories.

The story goes that one day a tiger crept close to the fields. Phùng Hưng waited quietly on the path it usually took. The villagers say that with only his hands and the courage he was born with, he made the tiger back away. It stood still for a long while, and then everyone around, who had been holding their breath, burst into cheering. The tiger never dared come back to trouble the village. From then on, people felt safe going out to the fields again, and again they could grow rice and corn.

A man that strong had put his strength to work sheltering his neighbors. That was what made everyone love him.

He never used his strength to bully anyone. In the stories the villagers pass down, he was gentle with everyone yet steady in the face of hardship, a support for those weaker than himself.

Then came a time when the country lay under the rule of the Tang dynasty of China. Families worked hard from early morning to dark on their own soil. In every village, old and young hoped for a day when they could live in peace on their own land.

From the Đại Lịch era, Phùng Hưng and his two brothers rose up and raised a banner. They called on people from many regions to win back the right to govern themselves. People followed him because they knew he cared for them truly. The movement lasted steadily for more than 20 years.

In 791, his followers marched on the citadel of Tống Bình, in the area of today's Hanoi, and took Long Biên. The people of Đường Lâm must have been very proud that year. The strong, gentle son of their own village had done something great for a whole region.

Yet what keeps his name alive has little to do with strength.

After he died, his son Phùng An and the villagers honored him with a special title: Bố Cái Đại Vương. Those words sound unusual, and yet they are deeply loving.

In the old Vietnamese language, "bố" means father and "cái" means mother. By calling him Bố Cái, the people meant that he was like a father and mother to a whole region. To be loved so much that the people treat you as their parent is worth more than any rank or office.

People still remember Phùng Hưng, and not only because the old tales say he was strong enough to subdue a fierce tiger. They remember him because he gave all the strength he was born with to protect gentle country people. So, generation after generation, in the village of Đường Lâm, people still say his name. They tell his story to their children and grandchildren, the way they speak of the most beloved person in the family.