Zhao Zhongshi

Zhao Zhongshi (Chinese: 趙仲始, Vietnamese: Triệu Trọng Thủy), or Zhong Shi (Chinese: 仲始, Vietnamese: Trọng Thủy), was a prince of Nanyue.

Trọng Thủy - Mỵ Châu well, where Trọng Thủy committed suicide

He was a son of the Chinese mandarin Zhao Tuo, was sent as an emissary to the king of Âu Lạc, and was given the hand in marriage of Mỵ Châu, the only daughter of An Dương Vương.^[1] But she unwittingly betrayed her father to her husband's father, leading to the fall of Cổ Loa fortress to Zhao Tuo. In legend. An Dương Vương fled with his daughter. When he reached a river, he called out to the Golden turtle for help, to which the turtle surfaced and scolded him: “The one on horse behind [you] is the enemy? Why not kill [that one]?” So he killed her. Zhao Zhongshi arrived immediately afterward, and found the body of his beloved wife and his father-in-law nowhere to be seen, he brought her body back to Cổ Loa for burial and later on drowned himself in the well where his wife once bathed.

Zhao Zhongshi and Mỵ Châu in literature

Zhao Zhongshi and Mỵ Châu are a Romeo and Juliet motif in Vietnam's literature.^[2]

See also

• Nanyue
• Triệu dynasty
• Zhao Tuo
• Panyu District
• An Dương Vương
• Âu Lạc
• Baiyue

References

1. The Oxford companion to world mythology - Page 395 David Adams Leeming - 2005 "Another aspect of the Vietnamese cycle tells the quasi-historical story of An Dương Vương, one of the hundred sons of ... But the king is tricked by Trieu Da, who sends his son Trong Thuy as an emissary to Au Lac to find out the source of An ..."
2. Two rivers: new Vietnamese writing from America and Viet Nam Kevin Bowen, Frank Stewart, Ba Chung Nguyen - 2002 "I was always thinking of the story of Trong Thuy and My Chau." Our impoverished homeland has many legends. Almost any Vietnamese would know the story of how Trong Thuy's father, king of the Trieu kingdom, had sent him to the court of ..."