Like any other old nation in the world, Viet Nam has her own legends on the origins of the race in the dawn of time.

According to the National Annals, illustrious King Lac Long, of the HongBang Dynasty and grandson of The God of the Seas, married an immortal called Au Co, a descendant of the angels of the mountains. From this union, one hundred boys were hatched from one hundred eggs carried in a pouch by Au Co. All the sons were handsome and stalwart. Then, the King and the fairy, conscious of the transitory nature of human existence, and the elusiveness of human happiness, decided to part. Au Co went up to the mountains along with fifty of her sons, and Lac Long went down to the sea with the others. From this separation, the kingdom of One Hundred Principalities (Bach Viet) came into being, including a vast zone adjacent to the Yang-tse-Kiang in the North, the Champa in the south, the China sea in the east, and the Tseu Chouan in the west.

Of these principalities, the most powerful and best organized was the Lac Viet, or Van Lang (the country of the lettered) - the area of which included present-day North VietNam, and the northern part of Central VietNam. This Kingdom supposedly endured from 2879 B.C. until 258 B.C.,and had 18 kings. Thus, the 18 Hung Vuong kings of the Hong Bang Dynasty reigned for some 2622 years - which would mean an average of 150 years each. So we must assume that there must have been many lesser kings whose names were forgotten long before the period of recorded history.

Somewhere in the northern part of VietNam, meanwhile, there was a Kingdom known as Thuc ruled by the Thuc Dynasty. King Thuc Vuong had asked the southern King, Hung Vuong XVIII, for his daughter's hand in marriage. Whenthe Thuc King's request was refused, he became enraged and a feud developed between the two family dynasties. One of King Thuc Vuong's nephews, Thuc Vuong Phan, profited from the degeneracy and debauchery of Hung Vuong XVIII to invade and conquer the Van Lang Kingdom in 257 B.C., thus ending the Hong Bang dynasty.

The combined kingdoms were then known as Au Lac, and were ruled by Phan, who assumed the name of An Duong Vuong. King An Duong sought to protec this reign by constructing a spiral-shaped citadel, which was called Loa Thanh, or The City of Shell. In this endeavor, the King was said to have received the divine help of the Gold Turtle, who equipped the King with a supernatural cross bow which made him invincible. This weapon derived its magic from an attached claw offered by the Gold Turtle himself. The remaining ruins of The City of Shell still exist in the village of Co Loa, in Dong Anh province, North VietNam.

To the north, however, the powerful Chinese King, Shih Hwang-ti, of the Chin Dynasty, sent his General, Do Thu, on a mission to conquer the lands to the south; and the Tan dynasty then divided into three parts, the conquered lands, including the Kingdom of Au Lac which King An Duong Vuong had been forced to surrender. One of these three regions came to be governed by the Chinese general, Trieu Da. Capitalizing on the decay of the Tan dynasty, Trieu Da killed all the Chinese who were still loyal to the Emperor, and expanded the territories under his control. Trieu Da, who had by this time adopted the customs of the Viets, married his son Trong Thuy to the princess My Chau, daughter of King An Duong. In the year 208, the fiftieth year of An Duong Vuong's reign, the princess connived in a plot with her husband, so the story goes, and the pair managed to make off with the magic crossbow which had heretofore made her father, King An Duong Vuong, invincible. Thus it was that Trieu Da was able to benefit by his son's marriage to conquer and annex the Kingdom of Au Lac. Unfortunately, his daughter-in-law, the princess, was beheaded by her father, who drowned himself in the East sea before the invaders could reach his citadel. Before her death, My Chau wished that her blood would transform into pearls to show her dignity towards her country, her love to her father and her husband. They said that the oysters in the East sea absorbed her blood, which later became pearls. Trong Thuy burried the body of his wife in the City of Shell (Loa Thanh), but he always felt sorrow of loosing her. Once it seemed to him that he saw her appearance in a well in Loa Thanh. He threw himself into the well and died. They said that if one washes the pearls found in the East sea oysters with the water from this well, the pearls will be very shiny.

Trieu Da reigned as absolute monarch under the royal name of Trieu Vu Vuong, and his new, enlarged kingdom was renamed Nam Viet. This dynasty lasted for 70 years, from 208 B.C. until the beginning of the Chinese domination.

This painting depicts the aftermath of the fall of Co loa, the moment when Trong Thuy found the beheaded body of his wife, My Chau, on the shore of the East Sea.