“Quan Am Thi Kinh” is a touching story about a woman who encountered many unfortunate adversities but still persevered and patiently maintained her virtue to practice Buddhism until she attained enlightenment, becoming a sacred and mysterious Bodhisattva. The story of “Quan Am Thi Kinh”, whose author is anonymous, has been passed down among the people of our country for generations, through many forms such as drama, film, opera, folk opera, contemporary dance drama... and most especially in the form of easy-to-remember, easy-to-remember six-eight verse, so our people often use it as a gentle lullaby for their babies to listen to before falling into a peaceful sleep. The story’s content can be summarized as follows:

In the previous life of Quan Am, she was a man who practiced diligently and was close to achieving the Supreme Fruition, but when Buddha Shakyamuni incarnated as a beautiful woman to test his heart, he fell into a state of confusion and swore that in the next life he would be destined to be with the beauty for a hundred years. Therefore, he was reincarnated by Buddha as a daughter of the Mang family in Korea, suffering a life full of hardships and challenges. That girl's name was Thi Kinh, both talented and beautiful. When she grew up, her parents gave her a scholar named Sung Thien Si. The couple lived a very peaceful life. But one day, when Thi Kinh sat sewing beside her husband, the husband read a book and tiredly leaned on his wife and fell asleep. She saw a beard growing in the opposite direction on her husband's chin. She had a knife in her hand, intending to cut off that annoying thing. Suddenly, the husband opened his eyes in surprise, thinking that his wife intended to kill him, so he shouted for help. Her husband's family accused her of plotting to murder her husband and sent her back to her parents. Thi Kinh was so wronged that she could not tell anyone and intended to commit suicide, but because she thought of her old and weak parents, she could not bear to end their relationship, so she decided to become a nun. She disguised herself as a man and went to Van Tu pagoda to ask for ordination. The abbot accepted her and gave her the dharma name Kinh Tam. After a period of time of becoming a Buddhist nun, thanks to the chanting of Buddhist scriptures, Thi Kinh's sadness and sorrow were greatly reduced, but her grievances and karma had not abandoned her. In the village, there was a rich man's daughter named Thi Mau who often went to the temple. Seeing the elegant and refined appearance of the novice Kinh Tam, she fell in love with him passionately, and continued to flirt with him, but the novice Kinh Tam was indifferent and cold, not wanting to interact with her. Thi Mau was lovesick and fantasized about the moon and flowers too much, so her lust flared up uncontrollably, and she had an affair with a servant in the house, and as a result, she became pregnant. The matter could not be hidden, and the whole village knew. When the village questioned her, Thi Mau confessed that the father of the child was... the novice Kinh Tam. Being wrongly accused and having difficulty expressing her grievances, Kinh Tam accepted the punishment of the village with the compassionate heart of a monk, as well as enduring many gossips and insults. When Thi Mau gave birth to a son, she brought him to the temple and asked Kinh Tam to raise him. Kinh Tam had no choice but to accept someone else's child and raise him until he was three years old. Knowing that the day of his resurrection had come, Kinh Tam called her adopted son to give him instructions, then wrote a letter to her parents before peacefully leaving this miserable world. When the monks in the temple were burying the body of the deceased, everyone found out that Kinh Tam was actually a woman disguised as a man. The village heard and ordered the rich man to take care of the funeral and burial properly. Thi Mau was so ashamed that she committed suicide. Thi Kinh was ordered by the Buddha to ascend to heaven to become Quan Am Buddha. Her parents and her adopted son were also ascended to the Pure Land. As for Thi Kinh's husband, he was transformed into a parrot... Later, our people worshiped the image of Quan Am Thi Kinh, who always had a baby accompanying her, called Quan Am Tong Tu. The story of "Quan Am Thi Kinh" in six-eight verse is divided into 31 sections, 788 lines long, very vivid and easy to understand.

On April 2, 1998, Vietnam Post issued the stamp set "Quan Am Thi Kinh" based on ancient Cheo art. This is a set of 6 stamps connected together, with code number 774, designed and presented by artist Ngo Manh Lan. All 6 stamps have a frame (KK) of 37x37, printed in multi-color offset, connected in 2 rows above and below, located in the middle of a gray frame decorated with white patterns with KK 133x97. According to the sample code order (MSM), the story "Quan Am Thi Kinh" is reproduced as follows:

- MSM 2892 stamp, face value 400 VND, titled "Thi Kinh is wronged": depicts the scene of Thi Kinh kneeling on the ground, her mother-in-law waving her arms and legs, aggressively scolding her gentle daughter-in-law, standing next to her is Thien Si. According to the story, it is the passage from verse 155 to 161: “She said: “Let me tell you…/Stealing incense, stealing powder is also full/How many people have one horse and one saddle/Today Truong, tomorrow Ly… what is rare in the world?/Luckily you wake up right away/If you have a peak, you might still have a life/Don’t take this matter lightly!”.

- Stamp sample MSM 2893, face value 1000 VND, titled “Thi Mau goes to the temple”: the scene of Thi Mau entering the temple and meeting Kinh Tam sitting and chanting sutras. According to the story, it is the passage from verse 389 to 394: “She said she kept her virginity/On the first and fifteenth day of the lunar month, she also went to make offerings/Lazy to see the gentle young lady/The autumn waves made her long/Who has an elegant figure/The moon’s reflection in the water, the stars in the sky…”.

- Stamp sample MSM 2894, face value 2000 VND, titled “Thi Mau- a slave”: the scene where Thi Mau meets and has an affair with a man in the house, resulting in a fetus. According to the story, it is the passage from verse 411 to 416: “In the house, there is already a lover/ A little bit of authority is easy to serve, who knows/ Unexpectedly, the wind blows and the rain flies/ The seed is planted and waits for the day to be born/ After three moons, it is already different from me/ I am lazy at meals, but I crave the smell of lemon”.

- Stamp model MSM 2895, face value 4000 VND, titled “Mother Dop- Village Chief”: These are 2 characters of the art of Cheo that create a more humorous and lively Cheo play, not present in the story, but we can understand that they are characters symbolizing the Village- a formidable force of the feudal regime- who interrogated and accused Kinh Tam. According to the story, it is the passage from verse 497 to 502: “When we got to the village, we asked for the truth/ The little girl was already determined to practice here/ Why are the autumn waves still shaking/ Thi Mau has explained clearly/ Speak right away, forgive the love/ Let go, don't lie and beat around the bush again!”.

- Stamp MSM 2896, face value 6000 VND, titled “Thi Kinh is punished”: Re-drawn scene of Kinh Tam being punished painfully by the village. According to the story, it is the passage from verse 527 to 532: “No matter what you say, just know it/ The whip bag immediately whips the sting/ Makes all nine sections hurt/ Peach trees grimace, willows frown/ Roses encounter the west wind/ Leaves fall and scatter, flowers fly everywhere…”.

- Stamp MSM 2897, face value 9000 VND, titled “Thi Kinh asks for milk”: This is a scene excerpt from ancient folk opera, Kinh Tam has to adopt Thi Mau's child to raise, has no milk to breastfeed, has to go around the village begging for milk to endure gossip, endure seeing the the contemptuous look of the world. Corresponding to the passage from verses 625 to 632 in the story: “Clearly, it is plain water, but mistakenly / Still mixed with drops of blood and deep love / Mother Jar, thirsty for milk / Worrying about how to raise the Spider child to be pure / Cherishing the hardships / Chewing rice and feeding milk, to become a human / Wherever he goes, everyone laughs at him / That little one cannot practice for a lifetime…”.

According to Buddhist scriptures, Quan The Am (people often call it Quan Am for short, because since the Tang Dynasty in China, people in the country avoided using the word The for fear of offending the name of King Duong Thai Ton (real name Ly The Dan), so they omitted a word, over time it became a habit) is a Great Bodhisattva with a compassionate heart, often saving suffering and helping sentient beings in the midst of the sea of suffering in the world. Quan The Am Bodhisattva also has the name Quan Tu In Bodhisattva, all are translated from Sanskrit as Avalokitésvara Bodhhisatva. Quan The Am has many different titles and appearances, such as: Quan The Am Vo Uy, Thousand-Handed Thousand-Eyed Quan The Am, Quan The Am Chuan De, Nhat Nguyet Quan The Am...

From folklore, if in China there is a vivid image of a Quan Am Dieu Thien, worshiped in many places, then in our country there is the image of Quan Am Thi Kinh that has also entered the minds and consciousness of many generations. From the story "Quan Am Thi Kinh", the injustice of the young monk Kinh Tam, as well as the promiscuous and fickle nature of the capricious girl Thi Mau have become typical and familiar, so much so that among the people there are sayings: "Wronged like Thi Kinh", or "Flirtatious like Thi Mau".

The stamp set "Quan Am Thi Kinh" of Vietnam Post is a stamp set classified as beautiful, unique, with many themes for stamp lovers included in the collection: paintings, fairy tales, ancient Cheo art, and Buddhism...