Hue - Perfume River

I still remember in the Vietnamese reading exercise from the year I was in grade 4 or 5, it has wrote that before the confluence of the Perfume River, it consisted of two sources and its resources flowed through the smell woods and the blossom of grassflowers on both sides of the river, fragrant rose petals flowing into the blue water of the Perfume River, winding through the city of Hue carrying its fragrance, so the river was to name.

The name is very beautiful; I mean perhaps this name is definitely for the most beautiful river in Vietnam - Perfume River.

 

Perfume River is just in front of the imperial city.

http://dantri.com.vn/van-hoa/bai-3-thuy-dao-he-xuong-nuoc-dieu-hoa-phong-thuy-cho-kinh-thanh-hue-20161002065427608.htm

At that time, 10 years ago, I remembered that the books were still very little and expensive; the information was not updated as widely as it is now. Each time my dad went to Hanoi or my birthday, I was given a book by my parents. However, I never once saw the bone scabbard, in my mind, I imagined it was a very tall tree, stretching out to the sides of the river, on which the petals of white flowers, fragrant , falling down to the river, then from where the fragrance was brought back to where we are. It's just a fantasy of a 10-year-old boy, but one thing I do not know is that folk also have a legendary story about the Perfume River, although unlike what I have imagined like petals scented water.

 

That is when I was in high school, we learned the text "Who named the river of Perfume – writer Hoang Phu Ngoc Tuong, he wrote at the end of his book: “ There are many ways to answer that question; In it, I like the most legendary story that because love the beautiful river of the homeland, the people on both sides have boiled hundreds of flowers poured into the river, to the fragrant water forever. I understand the meaning of the legend as the poet chose his pen name, sent to all the desire to bring the beautiful and Fragrant to build culture and history.

 

Peaceful Perfume River - that day weather was not very good as Hue is the province having highest amount of raining in Vietnam. 

It was not until later that I knew that kind of tree which makes pleasant smell as Perfume called “ Thach Suong Bo” , herbaceous, not a tall tree as I imagined. Thach Suong Bo also has folk name as Xuong Bo. The scientific name is Acorus Gramineus Soland, the medicinal properties of the highly exuberant alfalfa, almost an immortal medicine.

 

A small fishing boat is on the river!

Regarding the name of the river, I know of another legend. It is the story of the incense stick of the heavenly woman (Thien Mu) given to Nguyen Hoang ( My name is Nguyen Vu Hoang quite the same as Nguyen Hoang Lord, he is the first emperor of the Nguyen Dynasty who has expanded Vietnam to the South)  to find the new land for his kingdom, later became the legendary capital of the Nguyen Dynasty. It is said that Lord Nguyen Hoang from Dinh Cat district of Quang Tri province south, along the road to the camp rest near the river (Huong), saw a woman heaven appeared, gave her a compressed incense, told: Incense and then go down this beautiful river, when the incense ceases, it is the land of the great emperor. Lord Nguyen Hoang believed that he heard the advice of the heavenly woman that the capital of Phu Xuan was chosen later. The story involves the names of two real and important items on the land of the nerve: Lord Nguyen Hoang compressed the soul that named the river led the way to choose the land of the imperial family. And thanks to the woman who told the story, in 1601, God built a nation where the woman was told by the river, named Thien Mu. Thus, according to the story, the river name of Perfume  is named by  Lord Nguyen Hoang.

 

In addition, there is another document that says that the ancients have a habit of naming rivers according to the name of the village, commune, district, province it passes through. The Linh Giang River (former name of Huong River) flows through the district of Huong Tra (equivalent to Huong Tra District and part of Phong Dien District, Thua Thien Hue Province). That is also the origin of the name Huong River. ( Huong means Perfume)

Although I do not believe in this answer, naming place names is quite popular in Vietnam. Because I personally think that the name of the town has been told due to the name of the river. So this answer is not appropriate I think.

 

My mom with the river - she is a literature teacher so she really loves Perfume River.

Next, I would like to quote another interesting piece of history: In 1792, during the Phu Xuan cruise, King Quang Trung asked what the river was naming. The goddess replied that the passage was just under the name of Dan Dien, this section was named Huong Tra, while the last one was named Kim Tra. The king was not satisfied, so why take the name of the finite, often changed to name the long river of nature forever, and said that from now unified called Huong Giang, from the source to the sea. Thus, according to this history, the name of the Perfume River is King Quang Trung.

 

Until now the story of who named the river is still a mystery. And I'm no longer naive to believe that the river water is fragrant anymore.

But to my own, the Perfume River is always a romantic, beautiful river, attached to my childhood.

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