An Duong Vuong Temple Co Loa Golden Turtle Magic Crossbow

Kim Quy (

Chữ Hán ( , ) are the Chinese characters that were used to write Literary Chinese in Vietnam, Literary Chinese (; ) and Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary in Vietnamese language, Vietnamese. They were officially used in Vietnam after the Red River Delta region ...

: 金龜) (“Gold Turtle”, also spelled Kim Qui) or Thanh Giang sứ giả (

: 清江使者) is a mythical golden turtle god appearing in several Vietnamese legends. In one legend, he appears to the early Vietnamese ruler

An Dương Vương An Dương Vương (), personal name Thục Phán, was the founding king and the only ruler of the kingdom of Âu Lạc, an ancient state centered in the Red River Delta. As the leader of the Âu Việt tribes, he defeated the last Hùng ki ...

(d. 179 BC) and gives him one of his golden claws as a trigger for a magical crossbow with which An Dương Vương can kill 300 enemies with one shot. With it he is able to protect the kingdom. Later on, however, An Dương Vương's daughter marries his enemy's son and betrays the secret of the crossbow. Her husband secretly switches the trigger so that the crossbow no longer has any magical powers, and when his father attacks, An Dương Vương is forced to flee with his daughter. He flees far to the south, but always feels the enemy is right at his back. Kim Quy appears to him and tells him that his own daughter, riding on the horse behind him, is his enemy. An Dương Vương executes his daughter for her betrayal before drowning himself in the ocean. In another legend, Kim Quy appears to the Vietnamese emperor

Lê Lợi Lê Lợi (, chữ Hán: 黎利; 10 September 1385 – 5 October 1433), also known by his temple name as Lê Thái Tổ (黎太祖) and by his pre-imperial title Bình Định vương (平定王; "Prince of Pacification"), was a Vietnamese peopl ...

(r.1428–1435) in The Green Water Lake in what is now

Hanoi Hanoi ( ; ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Vietnam, second-most populous city of Vietnam. The name "Hanoi" translates to "inside the river" (Hanoi is bordered by the Red River (Asia), Red and Black River (Asia), Black Riv ...

. Lê Lợi had led the

Lam Sơn uprising Lam or LAM may refer to: Organizations * Laguna Art Museum, California, US * Leather Archives & Museum (LA&M), Chicago, US * Lam Eng Rubber, a Malaysian manufacturer * Lam Research, American semiconductor equipment company * LAM Mozambique Airline ...

against the Ming Dynasty, who had occupied Vietnam. According to the legend, the Dragon King (Long Vương), a local god, had aided Lê with a magical sword, Heavens’ Will ( Thuận Thiên), with which Lê was able to drive out the Chinese and establish the Later

Lê dynasty The Lê dynasty, also known in historiography as the Later Lê dynasty (, chữ Hán: 朝後黎, chữ Nôm: 茹後黎), officially Đại Việt (; Chữ Hán: 大越), was the longest-ruling List of Vietnamese dynasties, Vietnamese dynasty, h ...

. After his victory, Kim Quy appeared to Lê from out of the lake to take back the sword for the Dragon King. The emperor hands over the sword and Kim Quy disappears into the lake, which has ever since been called The Lake of the Returned Sword ( Hoàn Kiếm Lake). The lake was, until very recently, home to the

Hoan Kiem turtle The Hoàn Kiếm turtle (''Rafetus leloii'') was an obsolete or controversial taxon of turtle from Southeast Asia, based on specimens from Hoàn Kiếm Lake in Hanoi, Vietnam. Most experts classify this turtle as synonymous with the rare Yangtz ...

, but the last one died in late 2015 or early 2016. The

Turtle Tower The Turtle Tower (), also called the Tortoise Tower, is a small tower in the middle of Hoan Kiem Lake (Sword Lake) in central Hanoi, Vietnam. It is one of the most iconic, symbolic and most recognizable pieces of architecture representing Hanoi ...

on an island in the lake, commemorates the legend.

References

{{Reflist Animal gods Legendary turtles Reptile deities Vietnamese gods