Love by a Green Stream

May 23, 2010 10:41 AM GMT+7

VGP - Bích Câu means "green stream" and the name is related to an unexpected romantic love affair. Long ago, a palace maid from China who lived in the total confinement of the palace wrote part of a poem on a red leaf and let it float away in a stream. A student picked it up and later got married; his wife turned out to be the maid who wrote the piece of poetry on the red leaf so, as a result of this story, the stream became a symbol of unusual encounters.

The votive portrait of Giáng Kiều at the Bích Câu Temple

Interestingly, five centuries ago there was another unusual encounter known as the "predestined love affair beside the green stream" in what is now Cát Linh Street in Đống Đa District.

Long ago, a scholarly gentleman called Tú Uyên came to visit the Ngoc Ho pagoda and picked up a red leaf under a peony bush. On the leaf there was a piece of a poem:

“Blue willow and pink peach are in season during March

The vehicle of the Phoenix parks at the heaven gate

Cầu Lam is full of people; who is the angel among them?”

He was brooding over the verses when he saw a beautiful girl passing by the gate. He hurriedly folded the leaf and followed the girl, but when he came to Quảng Vân Temple, the girl suddenly disappeared.

Tú Uyên returned home back with a blank mind. He lost his appetite and couldn’t sleep. A few days later, he went to pray in Bạch Mã Temple where he was asked to go to Cầu Đông Village. He waited for half a day but only met an old man selling pictures of beautiful girls. He looked at the pictures and recognized the girl he saw in Ngọc Hồ in one of them. He bought the picture, hung it next to his desk, and looked at it day and night. At meals, he prepared two bowls, two pairs of chopsticks, and two teacups, and talked to the girl as if she was really there in front of him. One day he went fishing and came home late but his food was already prepared and placed on the table. He hid and watched secretly to see if the girl in the picture was a real person and, after awhile, he saw her doing the housework. Tú Uyên came out from his hiding place and the girl did not have enough time to escape. She confessed she was a fairy called Giáng Kiêu who had a predestined affinity with him and had come here to be his wife and they lived happily together for a time.

After awhile, Tú Uyên became dissolute; he was always drunk and neglected his studies. Giáng Kiều could not change him so she left without a word. Living alone, Tú Uyên felt so much regret that he wanted to commit suicide. When Giáng Kiều returned, Tú Uyên apologized and they lived happily together again. When they had a son, Giáng Kiều asked Tú Uyên to leave the earth and live with her in Fairyland.

This fabulous story was so popular with the common people that it was thought it to be true so they built Tú Uyên temple to honor them. People wrote the story in the Han script, and they called it Bích Câu Kỳ Ngộ (a usual meeting by the green stream). Tú Uyên Temple was also called Bích Câu Temple and was built in 1485 under the Lê Thánh Tông Dynasty.