Those 4 girls all possess a beauty that makes thousands of people fall in love, but each has their own path and unexpected turns that lead their lives to different endings. Today, when the four great beauties are gone, anecdotes about them are still remembered.
The once famous beauty of the beautiful Do Thi Binh in the early years of the 19th century.
The beauty “diving bird”
Among the four great beauties of Ha Thanh, Binh Hang Day is the one with the most peaceful and happy life. Ms. Binh’s real name is Do Thi Binh was born in 1915, at house number 37 Hang Day, now number 67 Nguyen Thai Hoc. Up to now, the house still retains its old appearance with French architecture for upper-class families at that time. In front of the house, the thorny rose garden is still there as a rare evidence associated with the stories of the peerless beauty.
Ms. Do Thi Binh is one of 19 children of bourgeois Do Loi – the largest contractor in Hanoi before the 1930s and one of the members of the Do Ba Gia family (Tien Lu village, Lap district). Thach, Vinh Phuc province). Mr. Do Loi (1893-1961) before 1945 was a bourgeois building material business. The body that gave birth to Mr. Do Loi is Mr. Do Van Ky, himself Phuc Thien. Mr. Do Van Ky was the Chief General of the old era, a wise man, foresight and very close to everyone, so the people affectionately called him Ba Gia. His children, including Mr. Do Loi, all moved to Hanoi to set up a business and be successful.
Ms. Binh Hang Day owns a beauty that is likened to “diving birds”. With fair skin, dove eyes, delicate face and slim figure. Ms. Binh often wears a black shirt and whether it is a long-sleeved or short-sleeved shirt, it is still a luxurious black tone. The black color helps Binh show off her white skin but still exudes the mystery, elegance and solemnity of the beauty. At that time, the beauty of Ms. Binh made many princes, writers … infatuated.
Because she grew up in a rich family, from a young age, Ms. Binh lived in luxury and did not have to worry about money at all. However, because she is a well-to-do family, Ms. Binh was taught very carefully. Ms. Binh possesses all the qualities of gong, patience, speech, conduct, calmness, shrewdness, gentleness and wisdom. Because of this, even though she is a famous beauty in Ha Thanh and a rich family, Ms. Binh is not arrogant but is always sociable, simple and close to everyone.
Fateful love without fate
In the 1930s, near Hang Day Street was the Temple of Literature, where the young son Nguyen Nhuoc Phap, the son of scholar Nguyen Van Vinh, lived. Falling in love with the shadow of a beautiful woman, Nguyen Nhuoc Phap always uses an excuse to pass by a beautiful woman’s house every day.
At that time, Ms. Binh often had the habit of going to the garden to water the plants. She watered the luxuriant rose hips and often sat reading a book on a rattan chair in the garden. Poet Nguyen Nhuoc Phap is one year older than Ms. Binh. At that time, he worked at the newspaper Annam Nouveau. Because he was in love with Miss Binh, he always used the excuse to go to 37 Hang Day house to see beautiful people. Every week like every week, he used the excuse to go through 37 Hang Day two or three times. When the beauty did not appear in the flower garden, he had to wait until he saw her and had to stand and watch her for a while before he left. At that time, they just exchanged a silent look and then left.
Ms. Binh is a famous beauty, boys are not lacking in love with her, so Ms. Binh’s family thinks that the story of the young poet falling in love with her is just like many other boys. Meanwhile, poet Nguyen Nhuoc Phap felt guilty because of his poor family, so he did not dare to ask. That apprehension makes them love on the inside, but on the outside they are afraid. Therefore, although the story lasted for nearly a year so that both families knew, Nguyen Nhuoc Phap and Ms. Binh had never met officially.
In 1935, Nguyen Nhuoc Phap’s poetry collection Once upon a time was published, and he became a name that people noticed. The collection of poems has only 10 poems, but it is enough to make him one of the leading writers full of talent in the early stage of the new poetry movement. When reading his poems, everyone understands the wonderful girl figure in poems such as My Nuong, Tay ivory, Girl by the pond are all inspired by the beautiful Do Thi Binh. “Bending her head gracefully / Lovingly as a passing cloud / Green eyes looking at the mark / Smiling at the flower branch” are all beautiful words that Nguyen Nhuoc Phap has for his dream lover Do Thi Binh.
However, life has its own rules, sometimes it is cruel but inevitable like beautiful flowers that don’t last long, beautiful scenes don’t last long. In 1938, talented young poet Nguyen Nhuoc Phap passed away at the age of 24 because of tuberculosis, leaving the heart of the beautiful Do Thi Binh with an indescribable nostalgia. If Nguyen Nhuoc Phap hadn’t left, they would have been a famous talented couple in Ha Thanh.
The war fairy
Although a love story is unfinished, among the four great beauties of Ha Thanh land, Ms. Binh is still a lucky person and enjoys better things than the rest.
After Nguyen Nhuoc Phap died for a year, her family persuaded Ms. Binh to marry an engineer who studied abroad in France, named Bui Tuong Vien – the youngest brother of the famous lawyer Bui Tuong Chieu at that time. At the age of 16, Bui Tuong Vien went to France to study silicate industry and was an engineer in Vietnam. After that, Bui Tuong Vien held the role of Rector of Indochina Fine Arts School (the predecessor of Hanoi University of Industrial Fine Arts today). Although it was an arranged marriage, Mrs. Do Thi Binh and Bui Tuong Vien had a happy and fulfilling life.
As a lady of the great bourgeois family at that time, the wedding of the beautiful Do Thi Binh and Mr. Bui Tuong Vien was extremely large. For several days in a row, the guests went in and out like a festival. On the wedding day, she wore a yellow ao dai, fabric woven from gold threads and glitter. When she put on the bride’s dress, Mrs. Do Thi Binh was more radiant than ever.
On the day she got on the flower car, Mrs. Do Thi Binh did not have any feelings for her husband. Because they had never met before. It was not until they lived together that she began to love her husband. Unlike the old bourgeois “where parents put their children” marriages, where the wife only obeys and takes care of her husband in terms of responsibility and command, the marriage of Mrs. Do Thi Binh and Mr. Bui Tuong Vien exist by love, admiration and sympathy. Mr. Bui Tuong Vien has never raised his voice to his wife, always showing respect and yielding.
The French resistance war broke out. The Do and Bui families both participated in the revolution. Responding to the policy of destroying the earth during the resistance war, the garden has no empty house since 1946, the beautiful Do Thi Binh followed her husband to evacuate to Tuyen Quang area to live in the days when the whole country devoted all human strength and resources to the war for independence. national peace and establishment.
Her family lived in a small house at the foot of the mountain. Rural life could not make it difficult for the radio lady of Ha Thanh, on the contrary, she adapted and improved her life by making cakes. With ingenuity and diligence, she made all kinds of typical cakes of Hanoi such as: rope rolls, sponge cakes, candies… to sell in country markets or sell termites to shops in Son Duong area. . At her new place, she built a small garden, grew vegetables, raised chickens, made fish sauce…
During her days in Son Duong, she was also taught by Doctor Bui Xuan Tam (brother of painter Bui Xuan Phai) how to inject kilofocals to deal with malaria. Although she did not have a single day of medical training, during the years of evacuation, Ms. Do Thi Binh saved many people’s lives from the dangerous malaria. With the sick, she took care of the patient carefully, wholeheartedly like a family member and did not receive any wages. That is why people in the Son Duong region love and call her “resistance fairy” or “resistance grandmother”.
After the successful resistance against the French, she and her family returned to Hanoi, at house number 67 Nguyen Thai Hoc (1954). From then until her retirement, she worked at the Hai Ba Trung District Education Department. She and her husband went through the war, living a happy and simple life like many other Hanoians. In 1972, Mrs. Do Thi Binh died at Bach Mai hospital, when she passed away, her family and friends dressed her in a black shirt, the color she loved, liked and attached to most of her life.
Associate her name with the title of being one of the four great beauties of Ha Thanh, but Mrs. Do Thi Binh never relied on the beauty that God gave, on the contrary, always took care of and nurtured herself and her family. It can be said that the life of Ms. Binh Hang Day, despite going through many years of ups and downs, but when placed next to Ms. Phuong Hang Ngang, Ms. Nga Hang Gai or Ms. Siu Cot, is still quite peaceful and peaceful.