Folklore divination drawn from across the East.
The great spiral citadel stood whole in its maker's mind long before it ever rose from the ground. You are the same: onc…
The princess walked into the enemy camp carrying no sword — only her calm and a purpose larger than her fear — and the t…
Long before the Warrior Lady rode her white elephant into battle, she had already stood tall inside herself — she had se…
The great river never hurries; it lets the water quietly rise, lets the stakes lie hidden beneath its surface, and then,…
The Magpie sings "khách, khách" from the eaves, and the old ears that heard it knew a welcome guest was near and a happy…
Long before the capital moved to the broad, open plain, that land stood clear in the heart of someone willing to look fa…
The little mouse never built the rice jar; it simply trusted that somewhere warm and full was waiting, and slipped in at…
A stick can jam the spokes and bring the whole wheel to a sudden stop — but the one steering is never the stick. When so…
A princess once drew a screen on an empty stretch of sand to bathe, on the very spot where a poor young man lay hidden b…
The small carp fighting upstream toward the Dragon Gate doesn't know it's about to become a dragon — yet the dragon's sh…
In the old drought, the toad was no bigger than anyone else, yet inside him the rain had already broken — he climbed tow…
A small crab labors at the shore, carrying grain after grain into the sea to fill it back up, still cradling the memory …
The phoenix walks into the fire without fear, because it knows the old feathers were only a coat — the light inside is t…
The two sister queens rode into battle on the same elephant and raised the same banner — not because two of them were tw…
The fighting is over, the lake lies still again, and the Golden Turtle surfaces — not to take, but to remind you that th…
The last empress once stepped into a Western basilica wearing her own court robe, and she altered nothing about herself …
In the old epic, the Scorned Wife saw through everything without ever raising her voice — yet behind that sharp, knowing…
The princess left the splendor of the imperial capital and crossed a thousand miles into an unfamiliar land — and that o…
The great sailboat that once cut through the waves toward open water wasn't fleeing anything; the one aboard had simply …
Someone once lay beneath a fig tree with his mouth open, certain that if he waited long enough the fruit would fall stra…
The faithful wife climbed to the mountaintop with her child in her arms, eyes fixed on the far horizon, her whole life p…
Long before the Great General scattered the invaders, he had settled the matter inside himself — settled it so completel…
The great physician once walked into a palace of golden halls to tend a prince who had everything — swallow's nests, gin…
The tiger was already lord of the forest — sure of foot, sharp of claw, with no fear in its heart. When wings unfold fro…
Old Hoi An didn't grow rich on luck — it grew rich because its people dared to swing the gate wide for unfamiliar ships,…
The old ones noticed it long ago — a mouth as soft as the Buddha's can sit above a heart as cold as a snake's — so they …
Snake's Mouth, Buddha's Heart speaks the way someone who loves you does — words with edges, blunt enough to sting, yet b…
In the great verse-tale, a young woman walking through a bright spring festival stops at a forgotten grave, lights a sti…
The old pilgrims who reached the sacred peak crossed winding passes, steep rock, and mountains rising upon mountains wit…
Beneath one palace roof, two strong women once stood face to face, and the whole household held its breath to see who wo…
A falling king knelt before a foreign court and threw open the gates to borrowed armies, and the more he leaned on outsi…
On the night the stronghold was surrounded, a loyal general slipped into the king's own robes, stepped into the king's p…
One man stands by the road in his new robe, waiting for someone to ask about it, while another runs back and forth showi…
Cast onto a bare island with only his two hands, the Father of Watermelons didn't see everything he'd lost — he saw a st…
Someone walks out, buys a length of rope, and binds their own wrists and ankles at the very moment they were free to wal…
The Fairy Mother held a sac of one hundred eggs against her heart, warm and waiting, long before a hundred children ever…
Long ago, a trail of goose feathers was scattered along the road to show the way home, and the card asks you very gently…
The Mountain God did not race for his bride in a panic — he came with the calm of one who already knew she was his, and …
A girl picking mulberry leaves beside an orchid bush, born to no rank at all, and yet a whole dynasty rearranged itself …
Five tigers sit at the temple gate, and they don't snarl or rush out at anything — they simply stay, and wherever they s…
A single lamp burns through a rainy night, its oil nearly spent, the wind pressing at the window and dragonflies skimmin…
A rope lies still on the path, and your eyes keep reading it as a snake. Once, a real snake bit you, and that pain was r…
The little clay rice pot looked like nothing at all, yet it was scooped from again and again and never ran dry, feeding …
Before he ever wore a crown, the Debtor King ate on credit at the eateries of the old capital, running up debts he could…
Spring is the seedling just breaking ground; summer is that same seedling standing tall in a field of sunflowers, holdin…
After a summer of pouring yourself into the planting, heaven and earth grow quiet, and the rice bows its head because th…
Long before the trees outside break into leaf, the warm breath of the East touches the soil from within, and the earth b…
When snow blankets the northern lands, the world hasn't died — it has only drawn every living thing deep into its core, …
Buddha Emperor stood at the very top — a throne in his hands, a kingdom held safe by his sword — and then one quiet day …
The Bodhisattva of Mercy catches even the faintest sound inside you — the things you haven't found words for yet, the on…
In the old tale the Crow painted the Peacock a coat of dazzling feathers with its own deft hands, but when its turn came…
The snake here doesn't slither in from somewhere outside; it uncoils from a story you never finished telling — some old …
The old story tells of a man who hungered for a chair so badly he turned his back on his own blood, then climbed to the …
The Mountain God and the Sea God were never truly enemies; they were two great powers reaching for one beautiful thing. …
In the old story a man arrives wearing honeyed words and an elegant air, promising a way out so perfect it can't quite b…
The three figures stand at the hinge where an old reign quiets and a new one opens, and they learn one truth: the seat o…
The eye opens inside you, the one that stays awake even when your two ordinary eyes have grown used to skimming over eve…
High on Her throne, the Mother looks down and sees everything — not to catch you out, but because Her light falls clear …
The blade engraved with "In Accordance with Heaven's Will" is not sharp on its own; it lights up only when the one who h…
A citadel a thousand fathoms high stands whole against the storm, yet the thing that truly lifts it isn't the great wall…
The Dragon Robe left her hands and settled on the shoulders of the one general who could hold the nation together — and …
Behind the curtain the Grand Tutor stood wearing no crown, and still the whole board of the kingdom turned on what he ha…
Three years old, never a word, never a smile — until the day a call rose in Giong's heart that he was born for something…
For years Kieu was tossed by the world, until a hero crossed her path and lifted her straight out of the dust into the s…
Deep in the forest, alone, with no one there to watch, Thach Sanh slew the Ogre — and that deed stayed real whether he k…
The old ones never set these two side by side by accident: the God of Wealth opens the door and welcomes fortune in from…
The waves of the Chain of Funerals roll in close together — one has barely settled before the next rises — and it can fe…
A girl leans over the rim of an ancient well, her hand stretched toward the full moon shining on the water — bright, clo…
Hemmed in on every side, seeing no way through, Nguyen Hoang came to the sage and was handed a whole future folded into …
Green betel, green areca, white lime — each one is pale and quiet on its own, yet pressed together they bloom into a war…
The Gianh River once cut a single homeland in two, and both banks wore themselves out pulling against each other, forget…
Long ago, conquerors sank a bronze pillar deep into the earth and read a curse over it, hoping to pin the living pulse o…
The Sovereign Consort walked into the lord's palace so luminous that the whole Long Tri festival turned to look, and she…
The younger brother sewed his bag to fit his own hand, and he walked home light, the gold following him all the way to h…
Tam climbed the betel-nut tree on her father's anniversary, and the ground beneath the trunk shifted until the tree came…
The new First Rank Scholar rides home beneath banners and parasols, the whole village turning out to meet him — yet that…
Emperor Khai Dinh drew his own tomb by hand, a place where porcelain, gold leaf, and the forms of East and West met in a…
Even a king who stands above all his people and holds the whole land in his hands still bows his head before the Holy Mo…
Above the Enlightened King's head hangs the great scales of justice, balanced and still — and even the most powerful rul…
Once, a king fell into a strange spell that wore the shape of a tiger, until a healer's hands met him at the right momen…
The moment his spring campaign was won, the Emperor of Swift Victory had a branch of pink peach blossom carried from the…
Picture a king who holds the whole realm in his hands, yet kneels before his mother and offers her the cane himself, ask…
Long ago, Vu Nuong pointed to her own shadow and told her child, "There's your father" — a small, loving gesture that la…
When the invaders poured into Thăng Long, they found a city gone quiet — no people, no grain, nothing left to seize. The…
Spring, summer, autumn, winter, then spring again — the tree never rushes to bud in the cold, and never grieves when its…
Long ago the Dragon Lord led fifty children down to the sea and the Highland Fairy carried fifty up into the mountains —…
A glowing tapestry begins with a single thin thread, an eye that knows how to look, and hands that know how to wait. You…
The two escorts at the gate of the otherworld move without hurry and without anger; they simply walk forward when someth…
Earth Store Bodhisattva is the one who walks willingly into the darkest place so that no one has to stay there alone, an…
The frog believed the heavens were no bigger than the mouth of its well, because the round of bright water above was all…
