Skip to main content

Truong Ba's soul inside Butcher's body

Once upon a time, a person whose name was Truong Ba played Chinese chess very good, master of Chinese chess. None in his country could defeat him. Therefore, he won all prizes from chess contests. The rumor of his talent spread to China, the neighbor country, where had Mr. Ky Nhu also a master of chinese-chess. Ky Nhu wanted to play chess with him so he left his country, came to meet Truong Ba. They had done matches but none of them had the win till the third match Truong Ba made Ky Nhu be in stuck. Seeing Ky Nhu spent too long time thinking Truong Ba became arrogant.
Truong Ba soul inside butcher
“Although De Thich was here he also can not help you to win this match” said Trương Ba.
Meanwhile De Thich, chess god, was sitting on heaven had heard the insolent words. He mounted on a cloud, flew down and planed to let him know he was too arrogant.
Ky Nhu and Truong Ba were playing, suddenly, an old man with long white beard and hair came. The old man guide Ky Nhu some moves. After seconds, Ky Nhu got the win. Truong Ba felt unhappy he wondered who the old man was. He looked the old man more closely the old man had white beard and hair, rosy face and looked not like human. Truong Ba keeled down immediately.
“It is you, De Thich. I am so insolent to not recognize you.”, he said.
De Thich laughed and said: “I heard you are a master of chess so I want to know how much you can do.”
Truong Ba kept De Thich in his house. He bought wine and chicken to treat him. De Thich though he had just met Truong Ba very liked him.
Truong Ba asked to study De Thich’s chess moves. De Thich seemed to felt his sincerity he sad: “I gifted you the joss sticks. If you need my help, fire a joss stick, I will come.”
Then he mounted the cloud and flew up.
From that time, whenever Truong Ba fired a joss stick he always made a meal. Two were pleased about the other.
One day, Truong Ba was taken suddenly by the Death. His wife, after burying him, cleaned their house and saw the joss sticks. She fired them and stuck them on her husband’s altar. De Thich appeared immediately
“Where is Truong Ba”, he said.
 The wife burst into sobs and said: “My husband has died for a month.”
“Why didn’t you call me when he just had died? Now, it is too late to do an…, uhm” he said
Thinking for few minutes, he added: “Does this village have any new dead people?”  
“A butcher died in yeater-evening.”, the wife replied.
“I will find the way to save your husband.”, muttered De Thich in the wife’s ear. The he flew up.
While people in the butcher’s house were crying the butcher suddenly woke up. He stood up then went straight to Truong Ba’s house without a word. When Truong Ba’s wife saw the butcher she realized immediately that her husband revived because of magic. She was happy to let him go in but the wife of butcher sprinted to pull him back. A violent argument happened. Then all of them pulled together themselves to court.
The judge called people to ask. All of them said that the person who revived was the butcher but Truong Ba’ wife said surely that was her husband, Truong Ba.
 “What does your husband do everyday?”, asked the judge toTruong Ba’s wife.
“He plays chess.”, answered the wife.
The judge turned to the butcher’s wife, asked: “What does your husband do?”
“He is a butcher.” Said the butcher’s wife.
The judge ordered soldiers to take a pig for the butcher but he didn’t know to do anything. Then, the judge called some chess masters to come. The butcher could win easily. The judge decided the butcher could go to Truong Ba’s house.
THE END
"Translated by Hung Nguyen"

Book Introductions

1. Complete Collection of Vietnamese Fairy Tales - A Treasury of Legends and Folklore

Discover over 240 enchanting Vietnamese fairy tales, translated into English and beautifully illustrated. This collection is a treasure trove of legends and folklore that reflect Vietnam's rich cultural heritage. Available as an ebook on: Kobo, Apple Books

2. Vietnamese Fairy Tales - Stories in English and Vietnamese

This bilingual collection features 162 Vietnamese fairy tales in both English and Vietnamese, with stunning illustrations. Ideal for language learners and cultural enthusiasts. Available as an ebook on: Kobo, Apple Books

3. The Treasury of Fables

An enchanting collection of timeless fables, written in English and beautifully illustrated. Perfect for all ages, these stories offer valuable moral lessons. Available as an ebook on: Kobo, Apple Books

Ebook Banner

Essential Reads: Engaging Books You Can't Miss!

Read more: 
-----

BÀI ĐĂNG ĐƯỢC XEM NHIỀU

List of Vietnamese fairy tales

Vietnamese  fairy tales includes many stories as Tam and Cam; So Dua; Hundred – knot- bamboo tree... which were spread in folk. Each stories has  its own meaning. I think I can not translate exactly each word into english but I will try my best to convey its meaning to you. Hope you like them!

Thuong Luong

Thuong Luong was common name of creatures which are in people’s imagines. They are distant relatives of dragons. While dragons are worshiped as gods, the gods ruled rivers and sea and the gods can make rains, Thuong Luong is not respected as dragons that the creatures are too amorous, combative, wild, and have bad behaviors. All most of them like to harm people.

Wishing pearl

De was a young boy. His parent was servants of a landlord. Every morning, De led landlord’s cattle to meadow and brought them back at nightfall. De used to be excited in playing with his fellows and when he was in his game he didn’t care anything. Many times the cattle he herded ate rice on field and the owners used to beat him pained but he still left cattle and joined in his fellows. One normal day, he and his fellows had a swimming competition. An award was given to the winner that he couldn’t refuse. Therefore, he participated in the competition and left his cattle on a wild hill. They swam and dived in water until noon and when they walked on ground, a cow had disappeared. The cow belonged to no one but his master. Children separated to find the cow but the cow seemed to vanish they couldn’t find it. Sun was going to down, children made their ways to home they left De staying at there. Day stayed at there alone crying. After that, he fell in sleep. Latter, he was woken up b...

Thanh Giong

Once  upon a time, a woman was old but she had not given birth a child. One day, when she went to her field, she saw a stranger footsore on the ground. The big footsore made her surprise and said: “omg, this footsore is so big” the she put her foot into the footsore. More 9 months later, she gave birth to a little boy named Giong. The boy was extraordinary that he was over three years old but had not spoken. He only knew lying and smiling. vietnamesefairytales.blogspot.com That year, the enemies they were known An planed to attack the country of the boy. They were merciless. Wherever they had gone, houses were ruined, fields were fired, people were killed. The sight behind them is mess of corpse and blood and ashes.The King was worry he forced his servants to look for person who could fight against the enemies.  One day, a servent went to Giong’s village while the woman was holding the boy in her arms, she said sadly that: “Giong, I wonder that when you hav...

The tale of watermelon

Once  upon a time, a young man whose name was Mai An  Tiem   was a slave. He was sold to a King named Hung   Vuong . Mai An   Tiem   was clever, he   learned   vietnamese   language very fast.   Futher , he knew so many stories, places and could do everything so good so he was liked by Hung   Vuong   very much that wherever Hung   Vuong   had come he also came with him. Three years later, he was Hung   Vuong   let to become a noble and was stayed in a building near the castle. Besides, Hung   Vuong   made his daughter become his wife.  Mai An   Tiem   now had wife, a five-year-old son, servants and assets. He seemed to lack nothing. Although he had never been arrogant people still were jealous with his his luck. vietnamesefairytales.blogspot.com One day, people who were participating in a party complimented as much as they could but he only said: “That because of ...

Crow and Peacock

Once  upon a time, both Crow and Peacock were best friends and had same feather colors, gray. They knew themselves were ugly so they didn’t appear front of other birds. Peacock in Crow’s eyes was uglier than him because Peacock had a small head and a long neck that they didn’t connect to his body. vietnamesefairytales.blogspot.com One day, Crow talked Peacock: “A painter was painting nearly so we should come and steal some colors to paint on our feathers and make it beautiful” said Crow Peacock bowed his head. That day, the painter hadn’t finished his picture so he left his jar of colors on ground and took a nap. The first time, they stole a paintbrush and some jars then hid them on mound middle lake nearly. The second, they planned to go and steal again but the panter had woken up and came his home so they only took a jar of ink and a pocket of purl he had left. “Right, we start painting, yet” said Crow Crow made Peacock lie down and began painting. Crow painted v...

My Chau and Trong Thuy

Once upon a time, there had a king, named An Duong Vuong. After many years fighting, he get a large area. The king planed to build a castle but whenever it had been built as tall as a men’s height then it was ruined. The king was unhappy. Therefore, the king had made an altar to pray God for few days until an early morning, a old man from seaside went to talk him God Turtle was going come to help him. The king was very happy and forced soldiers to wait on the seaside. The next day, in the water appeared a big gold turles toward seaside. The soldiers invited God Turtle to set sat on a big gold platter and brought to the king. The God Turtle told the king that the castle couldn’t have finished because of demons. God Turtle helped the king to kill the demons so all demons was killed. Besides, the God Turtle help the king design a castle look like a seashell with many gate levels. Half a month later, the castle had been finished. The king was very pleased but a little worry. He a...

So dua - Coconut boy

Once upon a time, there in a village had a couple who worked as servants for a landlord. Although they were over fifty years old, they had ever not had a child. They were sad about that, but they had never given up to dream about a child. One day, it's a very hot day, when the wife was working in the field and felt very thirsty. She seeked for water, but she didn't see any but a little water in a skull which was in a hole beside an ancient tree. She had no choice but to drink it. Right the moment she drank, the feeling of cold water running from her throat to her stomach made her felt very comfortable. As a magic, she was pregnant after that short time. Then, the husband died before he got the happiness looking his child be born. After nine months and ten days, the wife gave birth a son but he didn't look like any child on the world. He had no feet, no leg, and even no body. He just had a head with full of eyes, nose, ear, hair and mouth on it. He didn't ugly but was ...

The love story of Chuc and Nguu

Deeply  in forest where rarely people stepped   on there had a pond which were filled by cool clear water. The pond had never dried so that was where fairies used to gather. They often took water from the pond and sometime they waded in it to bath. And while they were bathing they always left their clothes on shore. Though, they had never been discovered by anyone who lived on ground. He, a woodcutter, lived alone in a hut standing by edge of forest. His name was Nguu. Everyday, he went in forest, cut down tree then brought it to market to sell. One day, he went in forest to deeply that he didn’t remember the way to get out the forest. It’s random he headed to the pond at the middle of forest. That time, three fairies were romping in the pond. And of course they were the most beautiful girls Nguu had ever seen so he immediately was enchanted their beauty. Then, he caught a plan that he wanted a fairy to be his wife. He saw sets of white clothes which were left on grass n...