Poor Man and the Jade Emperor

Before dawn had fully broken, he closed the bamboo gate behind him, tied on his grass sandals, and took the first step onto the long road. In his chest he carried a question so big that no one in the village would dare to think of it. He meant to find Ngọc Hoàng, the Jade Emperor, and get a proper answer. In the old folk belief, the Jade Emperor is the ruler of Heaven.

This is how an old Vietnamese folktale tells it. There is an old saying: no one stays rich for three generations, and no one stays poor for three generations. Yet his family had been poor for three generations already. His grandfather was poor, his father was poor, and now it was his turn, still as poor as ever. The rice pot was seldom full at mealtimes, and his shirt was patch upon patch. He thought and thought but could not understand. People said that out in the sea there was an island where the Jade Emperor sometimes came down to stay. So he packed a bundle and set off. He promised himself he would ask one question: why was his life so hard, year after year?

After several days on the road, he stopped at a big house to ask for a sip of water. The owner was a kind-faced rich man. When he heard that the young man was going to find the Jade Emperor, his eyes lit up. He took the young man by the arm and spoke earnestly. He had an only daughter, pretty and well-mannered, and the family lived kindly and honestly. Yet strangely, she had never spoken a single word since she was little. "Please ask one question for this old man," the rich man said. "Why can my daughter not speak?" The young man nodded, kept the question in his heart, and went on his way.

A little farther on, he passed an orange orchard, lush and green. Every tree had thick leaves and was white with blossom, and the scent filled the whole countryside. But strangely, there was not a single orange in the whole orchard. The owner stood gazing blankly at the clusters of flowers. He said that every year the trees blossomed like this, a canopy of flowers, yet not one fruit ever set. "You are going to see the Jade Emperor," he said. "Please ask for me. Why does my orchard give only flowers and no fruit?" The young man nodded again, and carefully tucked a second question away in his heart.

On and on he walked, until the wide sea spread out before him, its waves lapping at the shore. The island of the Jade Emperor lay far out on the water, and the sea was deep beyond measure. There was no way across. He was standing on the sand, unsure what to do, when the water suddenly parted and a giant sea turtle lifted its head. The turtle was very old, and its shell was covered in green moss and weed. It said it had lived in this sea for a full thousand years. It had trained itself year after year, yet it had stayed just as it was and never changed. The gentle turtle offered to carry him across to the island, and asked just one thing in return. "When you meet the Jade Emperor, please ask for me. Why have I trained for a thousand years and still cannot change into my next form?" Delighted, he climbed onto the turtle's back, and so the third question went into his heart.

Not one of those three questions was his own. All belonged to others. The turtle cut through the waves and brought him to the island in the middle of the sea. White clouds drifted over it, and the Jade Emperor sat there in majesty. His hair and beard were snow white, and his eyes were kind yet grave. He looked at the poor man who had come so far. He asked what had brought him there.

The young man pressed his palms together and bowed his head. His mind was crowded. He had his own question, carried all the way from home, but he had already given his word to the three he had met on the road. He thought of the rich man waiting for news of his daughter. He thought of the orange grower standing sadly beside his white-flowered orchard, and of the old turtle out at sea. Then he spoke. He asked those three questions first and left his own for last.

Calmly, the Jade Emperor answered each one. The turtle was holding a precious jewel in its throat. As soon as it spat the jewel out, it would be able to change. The orchard never bore fruit because a jar of gold was buried under the trees. Once the gold was dug up, the branches would hang heavy with oranges. As for the daughter of the rich man, she could not speak only because she had not yet met the one meant for her. The moment she met that person, her voice would come on its own. With all three answered, the Jade Emperor rose and rode a cloud back to Heaven, leaving the young man in a daze. He had not had time to say a single word about his own question.

So he made his way back alone, sorry and yet a little glad. He was sorry he had not asked about himself, and glad he had answers for the other three. The old turtle was waiting at sea. When it heard his news, it was filled with joy. It opened its mouth, spat out a sparkling jewel, and laid it in his hand. "I can change now. After a thousand years of waiting, my wish has come true. Take this jewel as my gift," the turtle said. Then its body glowed bright and rose gently, and it became a winding ribbon of cloud that floated up into the sky. Jewel in hand, he watched it go, amazed.

Back at the orange orchard, he told the owner everything. The two of them dug hard beneath the trees, and sure enough, they unearthed a jar of gleaming gold. The owner was delighted. He insisted on giving the young man a share of the gold to thank him. A few days later, the orange branches began to droop with round, golden fruit that filled the air with scent.

At last he came back to the house of the rich man. As he stepped through the gate, the daughter looked out from inside. The moment their eyes met, something wondrous happened. The girl who had been silent for so long smiled and bowed to him, and then she spoke in a voice as clear as a bell. The rich man was astonished, and then overjoyed. So the one meant to open her voice was the young man himself. To thank him, the rich man asked him to marry his daughter.

From that day on, the man who had once been poor had a precious jewel, gold, a warm home and a gentle wife. The poverty that had clung to his family for three generations was behind him. He still remembered clearly the morning he closed the gate and set out. He had carried a question of his own, and in the end he never got to ask it. What he had longed for came to him on its own. It came not from the question he meant to ask, but from the three questions he carried for others along the way. Now, on evenings by the porch, the jewel from the turtle still glows softly in his hand. And on the long road he once walked, the old orange orchard hangs heavy with golden fruit, scenting a whole stretch of the road.