From the Bon Kho mountain range, Tuan Giao district, Dien Bien province, the Ma River flows through Son La, to Laos and back to Vietnam, across the S-shaped strip of land to the sea. Thanh Hoa has embraced this returning part of the river to create the Ma River Delta, the third largest delta, after the Red River Delta and the Mekong Delta. I walked along the Ma River from Muong Lat to Lach Hoi and Lach Truong estuaries. Everywhere I heard the murmurs of history. The entire Ma River section of Thanh Hoa is associated with cultural sediments, but to me, the most special is the origin and the end of that historical flow.
1. The Ma River re-enters Vietnam through the Ten Tan border gate, Muong Lat district. I will always remember a summer day in 2023 when I went with the writers on a field trip to the border posts at the head of Thanh land. Lieutenant Colonel Ho Ngoc Thu, Deputy Chief of Politics of the Thanh Hoa Border Guard, took the whole group to a temple where the Ma River flows into this Vietnamese land. It is understandable, because the story from the 15th century tells about a young man from Dao village in Ba Thuoc region who was talented in archery and martial arts and was selected by the king to be his son-in-law. When the country was invaded by foreign invaders, the son-in-law Hai Dao volunteered to lead the army to defeat the invaders and keep the border peaceful. He was given the title of Border Guard Commander by the king and set up a defense post at Ten Tan. He established villages and hamlets, building Muong Xia into a beautiful and prosperous land. From beautiful Muong Xia, Tu Ma Hai Dao asked the king's permission to establish Muong Chu San, connecting a large border strip of Son La - Thanh Hoa - Nghe An. Muong Chu San includes 14 Muongs south of Ma River, from Muong Chanh, belonging to Muong Lat today to Muong Chu, belonging to Quan Son today.
Lieutenant Colonel Ho Ngoc Thu informed the visitors from afar about the history of the temple. Before being restored to a small but solemn state as it is today, the temple of Tu Ma Hai Dao was historically a wooden stilt house of the Thai people. The temple was burned down, leaving only the old foundation with some traces and artifacts such as bronze incense burners and stone mascot statues. Afterwards, the temple was temporarily rebuilt by the people for worship. However, the temple of the Border Guard Tu Ma is still very sacred. Local people said that, according to legend, any official passing by here must get off his palanquin and dismount to pay homage.
The ancient place name Ten Tan is still intact today at the starting point of the Ma River when it returns to its motherland.
2. The waves of the Ma River took me back to Thanh Hoa City, stopping at a small riverside village that has gone down in history - Dong Son village.
The first god of the village, whose real name is Le Huu, was the youngest son of the Governor of Cuu Chan district, Le Ngoc. It is said that after the battle with the Tang invaders, his head was cut off, but he picked it up, holding the head in one hand and the sword in the other, continuing to fight, causing the enemy to be terrified and run away. After that, he put his head back on his neck and ran back to Dong Cuong Thuong village and passed away here. Later, he was honored as Tham xung Ta Quoc. It is also said that the place where he was worshiped was located on the bank of Ma River. Although the weather was harsh, exposed to wind and rain, it was very sacred. In the year of Tan Hoi, King Tran Thai Tong personally led the army to defeat the Champa invaders. When he crossed Ma River, the boat kept turning around at this part of the river. The king thought that there must be a temple or sacred shrine in the area, so he sent his soldiers to the shore to inquire and sure enough, there was a temple worshiping Tham xung Ta Quoc. The king held a ceremony to ask him to defeat the Champa invaders. After that, the boat sailed smoothly, his prayer was answered, and the foreign invaders were defeated. Upon returning, the king issued an edict ordering the villagers to choose a good location to move the temple to a quiet place of worship, and also provided 30,000 quan of money for spring and autumn offerings. The king also bestowed the words "Supreme God of Fortune" to be worshiped forever at the Tham xung Ta Quoc temple.
We visited Dong Son village communal house. In front of the communal house is a crescent-shaped lake with red lotus flowers next to the silver-gray branches of old banyan trees. Each laterite slab is like evidence telling stories from the time the village was founded, naming the legends about the village's patron saint. Mr. Duong Dinh Tho, the keeper of Dong Son village communal house, said that Dong Son, according to the explanation passed down from generation to generation by the people here, means many mountains. Many mountains gather together to write legends about the village. No one in Dong Son does not know the verse "99 mountains in the East / Still has the mountain Nit by the river not returned yet". According to Mr. Tho, Nit mountain means "child". The whole group of children gathered together, but there is one missing child who got lost on the other side of the river. That Nit mountain is Ngoc mountain on the other side of Ham Rong bridge.
On a visit to Dong Son, I walked along the banks of the Ma River with Mr. Nguyen Van Ve, a descendant of Mr. Nguyen Van Nam, who discovered the first bronze drum in Dong Son village in 1924, from which archaeologists began to search and research artifacts and archaeological sites, gradually identifying a culture. Decades later, when all research was completed, refuted, and hypotheses were proven, the name Dong Son from the village name became the name of a culture that covered a wide area from Vietnam, through Thailand, to China.
Following Mr. Ve, I went to the place where the bronze drum originated on the banks of the Ma River. The riverbank was still windy, the waves were rippling like a hundred years ago. The grass was still green like a hundred years ago. The land here always held secrets and one of the great secrets had been revealed. I kept wondering, if one day the Ma River did not change course, would Mr. Nguyen Van Nam have accidentally discovered the bronze drum on the riverbank in Dong Son village? Maybe history had its own arrangements. That change of course was not accidental, the thunder and lightning, the whirling winds must have been the twists of heaven and earth for a change of life.
3. Thanh Hoa City, if counted from 1804, when King Gia Long issued an edict to move Thanh Hoa Citadel from Duong Xa village to Tho Hac village, the great effort of construction and renaming it Thanh Hoa has been exactly 220 years. And in 2024, when the Standing Committee of the National Assembly issued a resolution on the arrangement of administrative units of Thanh Hoa province, accordingly, Dong Son district was officially merged into Thanh Hoa City, creating new opportunities for the Thanh provincial capital located on both banks of the Ma River.
My thoughts kept drifting along with the Ma River's waves flowing from its source to the ocean, from the rolling mountains and forests to the deep blue plains and beaches, playing the country's symphony in the depths of history, touching the hustle and bustle of today in the process of building the country and homeland with new opportunities and new challenges. The stories of yesterday and today kept flickering and blurring. And the Ma River still lies there, majestic and proud, murmuring as it turns the pages of history about this land.
NGUYEN XUAN THUY
Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/song-ma-ri-ram-ke-chuyen-237940.htm
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