Long ago, there lived a poor elderly couple who earned a living by chopping wood. Despite being sixty, they had never had children. Although poor, they were well known for their kindness and generosity, always helping their neighbors without hesitation. Touched by their virtue, the Jade Emperor sent his son to be reborn as their child. After three years and nine months, the wife gave birth to a son just as the father passed away. The baby was named Thạch Sanh. From birth, he was extraordinary, able to stand and sit immediately. His mother survived by struggling day by day on meager meals to raise him.
When Thạch Sanh turned seven, his mother also passed away. He was left alone under a banyan tree with only his father’s axe as inheritance, which he would carry with him throughout his life. He continued the family work of chopping wood to survive. By the age of thirteen, a heavenly immortal sent by the Jade Emperor appeared to teach him martial arts and mystical powers, making him one of the most skilled warriors on earth.
One day, a wine merchant named Lý Thông passed by the banyan tree and noticed Thạch Sanh’s unusual strength. Believing he was special, Lý Thông befriended him and proposed a sworn brotherhood. Honest and straightforward, Thạch Sanh gladly agreed and moved in with Lý Thông’s family. With Thạch Sanh’s help, Lý Thông’s business prospered and his household grew wealthy. Seven years passed quickly.
At that time, a venomous snake demon called Xà Tinh terrorized the region, attacking people despite repeated efforts by the royal army. To appease the demon, the king commanded a shrine be built and demanded an annual human sacrifice. That year, it was Lý Thông’s turn to provide a victim. Terrified, he and his mother devised a cunning plan. When Thạch Sanh returned from the forest one evening, they invited him to a meal under the pretense of honoring Lý Thông’s deceased father. Then Lý Thông told him that he must guard the shrine that night because he had preparations at home. Thạch Sanh trusted him and went without suspicion.
At the shrine, Xà Tinh appeared in monstrous form and lunged at him. Thạch Sanh bravely fought with his father’s axe, which had become his divine weapon after training with the heavenly immortal, countering all of the demon’s magical transformations. Using his supernatural skills, he trapped the snake in an iron net, revealing its true form as a giant python. He decapitated it. When the body burned, it transformed into a golden bow and arrow, which Thạch Sanh claimed before returning home with the head. Lý Thông pretended to be concerned and warned Thạch Sanh to flee, claiming the snake belonged to the king and that killing it could bring punishment. Believing him, Thạch Sanh returned to live quietly under the banyan tree. Meanwhile, Lý Thông falsely claimed credit at court and was rewarded as a military official.
During this period, the king held a grand contest to find a husband for Princess Quỳnh Nga, his only daughter. She rejected all candidates, including heirs from other nations. One day, while walking in the royal garden, the princess was kidnapped by a giant eagle. Thạch Sanh, near the banyan tree, saw the eagle carrying her away and shot an arrow at its wing, but the eagle continued to fly, taking her to its mountain lair. The king’s armies failed to rescue her. Lý Thông pretended to organize a festival to lure Thạch Sanh out, claiming he needed help. He manipulated Thạch Sanh into revealing the location of the eagle, which was actually a transformed snake demon.
Thạch Sanh descended into the eagle’s cave using ropes and, with courage and skill, rescued Princess Quỳnh Nga. She offered to marry him out of gratitude, but he refused, honoring his bond of brotherhood with Lý Thông. When the eagle became incapacitated, Thạch Sanh used a sedative and secured the princess, allowing Lý Thông to claim her at court. Deceptively, Lý Thông tried to trap Thạch Sanh by sealing the cave with stones.
Undeterred, Thạch Sanh used the divine axe he always carried to destroy the snake demon’s fortress, defeat the magical bird, and rescue a sea king’s captured son who had been imprisoned for a year. In gratitude, the sea king offered him gold, but Thạch Sanh politely declined and returned to live quietly beneath the banyan tree. Meanwhile, Princess Quỳnh Nga remained mute from shock and sorrow until the sound of Thạch Sanh’s magical zither revealed the truth and cured her, exposing Lý Thông’s deceit. Thạch Sanh was finally cleared of all false accusations.
The king rewarded Thạch Sanh by granting him high ranks and arranging his marriage to Princess Quỳnh Nga. Lý Thông, however, was eventually punished by the Jade Emperor, who transformed him into a dung beetle for his treachery. When neighboring nations attacked in anger over Thạch Sanh’s marriage to a formerly poor commoner, Thạch Sanh used his magical zither to demonstrate justice and righteousness, overwhelming the armies and forcing them to surrender. He was crowned ruler, and together with Princess Quỳnh Nga, they governed wisely, bringing peace and prosperity to the land.
This story highlights bravery, loyalty, moral integrity, and the triumph of virtue over deceit. It reflects the values deeply embedded in Vietnamese folklore.