VietnameseMythology

Mộc Tinh

A thousand-year-old chiên đàn tree in Phong Châu, taller than a thousand arm-spans, its canopy spreading over several thousand leagues. It withered and turned demon — shape-shifting, ferocious, devouring people. Kinh Dương Vương defeated it through magic but could not destroy it — the demon only partially submitted, still wandering and killing. The people built a shrine; every year on the 30th day of the 12th lunar month they had to offer a living person, calling it Thần Xương Cuồng. During the Qin dynasty, Nhâm Ngao tried to abolish the ritual and was killed by Xương Cuồng for it. Not until the reign of Đinh Tiên Hoàng did the Taoist Văn Du Tường lure Xương Cuồng with a troupe of performers, then recite a secret incantation and cut it down — ending a human sacrifice tradition that had lasted thousands of years.