Princess Le Chan

By a river in the Đông Triều area, a little girl grew up in a house that smelled of medicinal leaves. Her parents were healers who treated the sick, and from an early age she watched them care for every patient who came to the door. Her name was Lê Chân.

Tradition places her birth in the year 20 of the Common Era, in the village of An Biên. Today that area belongs to Quảng Ninh Province. Her father was Lê Đạo and her mother was Trần Thị Châu. She grew up beside the herbs that healed people, and early on her heart filled with love for people and for her home place.

People say that as a young woman she was clever, brave, and more hardworking than most. She was not content to sit in one spot. She held one very large wish in her heart: to find new land and build a village where people could settle in peace.

So she set out. She left home and followed the rivers, going on and on toward An Dương, where the Cấm River empties into the sea. At that time the place was wild land, thick with reeds, mud and salt water. A young woman stood before a stretch of land that nobody had ever cleared. Yet in her eyes there was no fear. There was belief.

A wild land. A young woman. And a belief.

So she began to clear it. With the people who followed her, she cut the grass, built up the banks, and won the land back one strip at a time, turning the swamp into fields. Little by little a village rose at the river mouth. It was first called Vẻn village. People came to it in growing numbers, house beside house, and cooking smoke began to drift over the new thatched roofs.

When the village had taken shape, Lê Chân gave it a name.

An Biên.

It was the name of the home village where she was born. She had traveled all the way to the sea, yet she carried the old village in her heart, and she gave its name to the new land. That way, however far she went, her roots stayed with her. This An Biên was the forerunner of today's city of Hải Phòng.

But Lê Chân was good at more than farming. In the new land she also gathered fighters, forged weapons and stored up provisions. With one hand she made sure the villagers had enough to eat. With the other she prepared a force, ready for the day the country would need her. She tended the village gently, and she stood as steady as a commander.

That day came. In the spring of the year 40, the Trưng Sisters raised their banner in the Mê Linh area and called on people everywhere to join together for their homeland. The call spread like a warm fire. When she heard the news, she at once led the force she had built so carefully from the river mouth to Mê Linh, determined to follow the sisters.

For years she had quietly drilled soldiers, forged weapons and nurtured her resolve, all for this hour. Her talent and courage won everyone's trust. She was given the title Thánh Chân Công Chúa, which means a princess, and was entrusted with the command of the forces along a wide stretch of coast.

The people of An Biên never forgot the young woman who had given birth to their village. They honor her as the Thành Hoàng, the guardian spirit who watches over the whole region. Every year on her birthday, the eighth day of the second lunar month, descendants from far and wide return to offer incense. Drums and gongs ring out, and together they retell the story of a strong young woman who loved her home.

Today, standing at the mouth of the Cấm River and looking out to sea, you see ships coming and going one after another. The reedy wasteland where Lê Chân first set foot has grown into one of the busiest port cities in the country.

And the name she gave is still here. An Biên, the piece of home she carried in her heart, still lives at the heart of Hải Phòng.