VIETNAMESE LEGEND & FOLKLORE
P. Kim Long
Introduction
Legend
1. Descendants of Dragon & Fairy
2. Setting a pole
3. Saint Giong
4. Mountain & Water Spirits
5. The Three Kitchen Gods
6. Square sticky rice cake & Sticky rice dumpling
7. Princess Tien Dong
8. An Tiem & watermelon
9. The magical crossbow
10. Emperor Ly Thai To
11. Madam Lieu Hanh
12. Unjust Trial of Litchi Garden
13. Bewitching Singing
14. Feng Shui Geomancer Ta Ao
15. Doctorate Laureate Giap Hai
Folklore
1. The toad to be Heaven’s uncle
2. The betel & the areca tree
3. Little urchin Cuoi
4. Legend on mosquitoes
5. Da Trang crab
6. Asking for one to get three
7. The golden ax
8. The jar of gold
9. Lasting friendship
10. Young wife Nam Xuong
11. Models of laborious study
12. Killing dog to persuade her husband
13. One-hundred-internode bamboo tree
14. Eating carambola returning gold
15. Vietnamese Cinderella
16. Strange meeting in the Bich Cau land
17. Tu Thuc in fairyland
18. Thach Sanh
19. Vietnamese spectrophilia
20. Psychological strategy before offensive tactics
Appendix
1. Brief history of Vietnam
2. Yin & Yang
3. Method of naming
4. Vietnamese worship
5. Funeral rites
6. Matrimony & wedding
7. Ceremonial offerings at the tombs
8. Tet’s metaphysical meanings
9. Ancient examination
10. Parallel sentences
11. Fairy tales
12. Pleasure in enjoying folklore
Reference
INTRODUCTION
The Westerners and even all Western-trained Vietnamese scholars thought that ancient Vietnam had no philosophy and even no philosophical thoughts. Such fact tortures me a lot each time I read books about Western civilization and culture. In reality, their view is quite right if philosophy is a systematized philosophy like the one of Hegel. In this condition all philosophers and scholars think that they are the peak of intelligence and are prone to deflect from common sense and reality. It’s the typical of philosopher B. Russell and linguist N. Chomsky who became stupid doves and had wrong opinion about the Vietnam War. Finally, they became the outsiders living in their own ivory towers always expressing dissatisfaction with society.
For me, it is rather difficult to be in search of ancient remains related to culture and philosophy. There were various aggressive wars from foreigners and many ups and downs in politico-economic cultural states, especially if we want to mention what related to ancient Vietnam. But finally, I find another way to discover Vietnamese philosophy, precisely speaking, philosophical thoughts in aphorisms, proverbs and sayings through Vietnamese legend and folklore.
Being a small and peace-loving country close to big powerful and warlike China, Vietnam underwent 9 centuries of Chinese dominion, so Chinese influence was always present in literature, culture and civilization of Vietnam. After independence recovery, the system of administration and education was modeling of the Chinese because all Vietnamese kings and rulers were a slave to Confucianism. They refuted the traditional creation of Chu Nom (Vernacular Vietnamese letters), a special form of imitation or a variation of Chinese letters, so they didn’t use Chu Nom in educational program and administrative management. Finally, Vietnam uses the Romanized system of letters gradually separating her own past culture.
1. Foreign culture
Ancient Chinese culture always screened Vietnamese civilization. The foreign influence came out clearly in the upper classes and in the intelligentsia: from literary and cultural activities to politico-economical life and way of living. But the ancient Vietnamese civilization remained in the common people. For example, ancient China only had temple of Confucius in every village while ancient Vietnam, besides a temple of Confucius, had a common hall used as a meeting place for villagers to discuss the administration of rural activities. The former had only hat for men and women while the latter had turban which had two functions: to wipe one’s face and to wear on one’s head to protect oneself from the sun and the rain. Chinese women wore loose-fitting trousers and Vietnamese women in countryside wore brown or black skirts. Vietnamese men and women blackened their teeth to prevent dental decay. Ancient China had its foot-binding for women but Vietnam didn’t follow such barbaric custom.
1.1. Confucianism
Confucianism and Chinese letters were the effective instruments always used to rule ancient Vietnam and her people. With its special morality, Confucianism supported the male administration: man is a social being to find his fullest expression only through his associations with others to serve his king faithfully and his country loyally, to do good work, to serve as a mandarin when in success and to become a teacher when in failure, etc… It supported patriarchal society and female duties. Father is the supreme ruler in his family whereas king does the supreme governor in his country. Moderation (in idea, action, speech, etc …) is the ideal attitude to govern his own family and to deal with his surrounding people.
After having born, a man is to show his merit by studying hard to become a mandarin to serve his king and his country, or to become a scholar or a professor to teach Confucianism and Chinese letters. Beside he must always fulfill filial piety (towards his own parents), propriety, wisdom, rightness, charity and sincerity while a woman must perform her four duties (home management, conduct, chastity and fidelity) in her family.
1.2. Buddhism
Its misanthropic attitude is suitable to the low society and broken-spirited people in the same time its advocacy of mental struggle against sensual need always adapt to self-made people and intelligentsia. The Buddha teaches people to rely on themselves to achieve their own deliverance and not to look to any external savior. He supports that “life is suffering” so the best way to get Nirvana is to remove suffering and wish because there is the result of actions in a previous life and as well as the unbroken circle of birth and death in various worlds.
2. Native culture
2.1. Taoism
Lao Zi was a Chinese citizen, but in my opinion, he should be a Vietnamese-born Chinese because thousands of years ago one half of ancient China had belonged to the ancient Vietnamese. But after having been defeated by Chinese Emperor Huang Di in a decisive battle, our Vietnamese ancestors were reluctant to evacuate from the center of China to the south to form a new country called Van Lang (2879-258 BC). Taoism is the philosophy of worldly disengagement versus Confucianism viewed as the one of worldly engagement. It supports the harmony of Yin and Yang. Yin and Yang are principal in nature: Yang symbolizes positive trait, and Yin stands for negative one. Yin and Yang are hostile but complementary to each other. These two parts interact with each other to become the motor of all changes in the microcosm as well as in the macrocosm. Besides, it supports Wu Wei (Vo vi): to do without doing and deliberate inactivity. Wu Wei is effortless doing because the harder we work to get in, the farther we drift from its entrance. In brief, we get along as nature does, or we should work according to the Way of Heaven.
2.2. Ancient Vietnamese civilization
According to Scholar Ho Huu Tuong (in his novel Hon Buom Mo Hoa) and Professor Kim Dinh (in his book Viet Ly To Nguyen), the ancient culture and civilization of China were the ones of ancient Vietnam, because Emperor Huang Di (so-called the father of Chinese civilization) was a plagiarist of ancient culture and civilization. According to Sino-Vietnamese legend, after various bloody battles against Chi You (Si Vuu), the so-called cruel barbarian leader of the South region, he won the last battle. But the real fact was reverse: his victory over the Southern leader was only the victory of war-mongers over peaceful-loving people, of guerrilla warfare and terrorism over civilized society, of warlike nomadic civilization over peaceful agricultural one. After his power seizure, he massacred his Southern enemies and captured the culture and civilization of the war losers claiming falsely his inventions and discoveries. Lao Zi was the representative of the Southern war losers and Confucius the one of the Northern conquerors.
According to Professor Kim Dinh (in his cultural treatise “Viet Ly To Nguyen”), the southern civilization was agricultural, glorious and peaceable while the one of the North had its characteristic of nomadic and warlike society.
According to Scholar Stephen Oppenheimer in his book “Eden in the East” (pp. 4-5 and pp 475-485, Phoenix, Orion Books, 1999), the real cradle of the world’s civilization and culture was Southeast Asia, for example, Thailand and Vietnam.
2.2.1. Southern matriarchy
Matriarchy was the family governance by woman, and custom of bridegroom to live in his wife’s family. Vietnam had three heroines and various female generals to battle against Chinese and French invaders.
2.2.2. Higher culture
2.2.2.1. Invention of Ba Gua (Bat quai). – After having invented, the eight-element diagram (Ba gua) was the basis of the Book of Changes;
2.2.2.2. Jie Sheng (Ket thang). – “Knotting a cord” was a preliminary form of ancient letters to prepare the Book of Changes, Odes, Dao De Jing (Dao Duc Kinh), etc…
2.2.2.3. Information of meteorology.- The knowledge of harvest and cultivation requires at least one-year cycle to remark season and climate while understanding of stalking preys only needs twenty-four-hour period to watch time and space.
2.2.2.4. Agriculture. – Because of the discovery of fire, there were many inventions of agricultural tools such as plow and harrow… The ancient Vietnamese showed a competence in astronomy, weather, meteorology, soil science and irrigation which resulted in fixed settlements and promoted the welfare of the nation.
2.2.3. Feeble sword
The southern people were peaceful, kind, generous, wise, intelligent, but libertine and coward…
3. Harmony of foreign and native cultures
Leniency and compassion in Buddhism was suitable to the peace-loving Southerners; while the law of cause and karma in Buddhism adapted to the spirituality of the Vietnamese ancestors. Confucianism, the doctrine of worldly engagement, was Yang; while Taoism, the one of worldly disengagement was Yin. Extremely antagonistic, basically their doctrines remained essentially the same: both accepted the idea of Dao, Yin and Yang as principles of beginning and completion and the cyclical characteristic of Nature. They became complementary to each other, so Confucianism and Taoism had their mutual dependence and mutual supplementation. Besides, the two contradictory thoughts were only the way of life, and not the religion in the Western meaning of the word so they were easily suitable to the ancient Vietnamese society.
4. Hidden philosophy
In a word, Vietnam didn’t support systematized philosophy but had incoherence of conception of life. Only in legendary stories and folktales we can discover unsystematic or disjoined philosophy of our ancient Vietnamese. The ancient Vietnamese supported Idealist Monism (God) and Materialist Dualism (Yin & Yang) and resulted in a paradox of philosophical thoughts at first glance. But after a moment of examination, it seems there is no paradox because Idealist Monism stands for the immaterial world while Materialist Dualism covers the material one.
4.1. God & Apostles
The God is a mere image of a man or woman, so the God has his or her human temper and quality: good or bad, compassionate or cold-blooded, fair or partial…, which means there is always a two-edged factor. Therefore, there is a copy of the human kind’s socio-cultural institution in the heavenly world. A leader always needs few obedient servants to achieve his plan therefore the God also has many special apostles. Mr. But (abbreviation for the Vietnamese Buddha), the Goddess of Mercy, male or female fairy… have their duty of helping the miserable in misfortune and danger. In a bad and difficult situation we are always prone to pray the God or the Buddha in hope of getting out of such plight, therefore, such above divine helpers always appear in all folktales. Besides, the Local Deity, the Presiding Genius (of a village), the Three Kitchen Gods, the Genius of Mountain… have their duties of guarding their on-spot people or of reporting their bad or good deeds to the divine superior (God). Our ancient ancestors always thought that in the earthly world there are many plights, catastrophes, demons and ghosts. But in folktales there are also two kinds of Genie: Good Genie and Evil Genie.
4.2. Yin & Yang
Being Vietnamese Materialist Dualism, Yin & Yang only show two material or physical elements of the world. They are principal in nature: Yang symbolizes positive trait such as the sun, day, activity, man, heat, height…, and Yin stands for negative one such as the moon, night, inactivity, woman, coldness, depth… Besides, Yin and Yang are hostile but complementary to each other. They interact with each other to become the motor of all changes in the microcosm as well as in the macrocosm.
4.3. Conception of life
4.3.1. Metempsychosis
They believed that death was not the end of a living being, but a mere end of one of a series of periods of that living being. Its material body changed into another form while its soul was the same, which means the transmigration of the soul. It is the passage of the soul after death from a human or animal to some another human or animal body. In a word, humanity’s life is not a linear design, but a circular one.
4.3.2. Happy ending
Perfect beauty and perfection is people’s expectation so they all prefer a happy ending. In all folktales there is always a motif of such topic because there is always an appearance of fairy or angel to help all victims and good people.
4.3.3. One good turn deserves another
All good people are always in good luck while bad and cruel ones always meet disaster and death. That is a certainty in all other ancient cultures.
4.3.4. Paradise & Hell
These two paradoxical categories appear in all ancient cultures. They are the home of the doers of good and the doers of evil.
5. Conclusion
The ancient Vietnamese had no interest in philosophy, but only devoted to the “smallest such as eating, drinking, sleeping, living, weather, and enjoyment” which supported by philosopher Nietzches (1844-1900) one hundred years ago. The father of Existentialism thought that we should study such above (Ecce Homo). Those above “smallest things” are always present in our folklore and legend. They are a part of philosophy too because the philosophical opinion is always prevalent in human deeds, behavior, conception of life, etc… Writer Maxim Gorky (1868-1936) said in his work The Zykos 1914 that “you can’t do without philosophy, since everything has its hidden meaning which we must know.” (Tripp, Rhoda. The International Thesaurus of Quotations. p. 688. A Crowell Reference Books, 1986.)
But we can see a series of philosophical thoughts appeared continuously in Vietnamese legend and folklore. We can only explain details or plots of these Vietnamese folktales and legends in their own national traditional surroundings because they only happened in such environment. The Dialectical Materialism is useless to explain all ancient cultures in the world because Materialism was only correct and suitable in its time, e.g. the 19th century. French philosopher Michel Foucault (1926-1984) affirmed that Marxism had only existed in thoughts of the 19th century as a fish could only live in water, which means that it will surely die when it must live in a waterless environment. (Robert Andrews, Dictionary of Contemporary Quotations, p. 274, ed. Cassell, 1996)
Vietnam has some hundred traditional and legendary stories in which there are some tens of interesting meaningful ones. I completed 35 stories by adding an appendix of 10 articles covering Vietnamese mores, customs, mode of life and so forth to help the foreign readers understand well our Vietnamese people because each country has its own cultural feature that is always strange to the other foreigners. For example, the article “Method of naming” explains the meaning of the names of the Vietnamese people. According to its contents, we can notice the immanent spirit of the Yin Yang principle: basing on all human names, we can distinguish the sex and characteristics of the name holders. I only selected intentionally 35 stories to demonstrate that ancient Vietnam had a series of unsystematic or disjointed philosophy and each story expresses an implicit philosophy of Yin Yang and Yi Jing (Book of Changes).
All stories retold in my book are adapted from some ancient books written in Chinese by Vietnamese authors living in the 14th and the 16th centuries, afterward translated into the Vernacular Vietnamese letters and finally into Vietnamese in the 20s in Hanoi; and some books written in Vietnamese published in recent years. My work shows three parts: legend, folklore and appendix.
5.1. Legend
All Vietnamese legendary stories cover the defense of country and freedom, justice, morals and virtue (filial piety, loyalty, chastity, righteousness, benevolence, propriety, truthfulness). In a word, they have the clear vestiges of Kong Zi’s philosophy. Confucianism was the philosophy of “worldly engagement” because its Venerable Master always told its followers to serve king and lord, defend their country, and educate people and so forth. There are about 70 per cent of Confucianism and 30 per cent of Buddhism and other doctrines. But this part shows 15 stories: 1. Descendants of Dragon & Fairy, 2. Setting a pole, 3. Saint Giong, 4. Mountain & Water Spirits, 5. The Three Kitchen Gods, 6. Square sticky rice cake & Sticky rice dumpling, 7. Princess Tien Dung, 8. An Tiem & watermelon, 9. The Magical crossbow, 10. Emperor Ly Thai To, 11. Madam Lieu Hanh, 12. Unjust trial of Litchi Garden, 13. Bewitching singing, 14. Feng shui geomancer Ta Ao, and 15. Doctorate laureate Giap Hai.
5.2. Folklore
All Vietnamese folktales have immanent humanity because they have the clear vestiges of Buddhism, especially its compassion and metempsychosis: about 70 per cent of Buddhism and 30 per cent of Confucianism and other doctrines. But this part only shows 20 stories: 1. The Toad to be Heaven’s uncle, 2. The betel & the areca tree, 3. Little urchin Cuoi, 4. Legend on mosquitoes, 5. Da trang crab, 6. Asking for one to get three, 7. The Golden ax, 8. The Jar of gold, 9. Lasting friendship, 10. Young wife Nam Xuong, 11. Models of laborious study, 12. Killing dog to persuade her husband, 13. One-hundred-internode bamboo tree, 14. Eating carambola returning gold, 15. Vietnamese Cinderella, 16. Strange meeting in the Bich Cau land, 17. Tu Thuc in fairyland, 18. Thach Sanh, 19. Vietnamese spectrophilia, and 20. Psychological strategy before offensive tactics.
5.3. Appendix
This part shows 12 articles introducing a summary key topic, mores, religion, faith and taboos: Brief history of Vietnam, Yin & Yang, Method of naming, Vietnamese worship, Funeral rites, Matrimony & wedding, Ceremonial offerings at the tombs, Tet’s metaphysical meanings, Ancient examination, Parallel sentences, Fairy tales and Pleasure in enjoying folklore. They are a main key to decipher mores, religion, faith, habit and the way of life of the Vietnamese people because each people has their own culture. For example, the article “Funeral Rites” explains clearly the Vietnamese people’s faith in Buddhism’s metempsychosis. Therefore, they become fanatical about worshipping ancestors and other Gods (Spirits).
In a word, I hope that my book can help you understand some ambiguous parts in conception of life of the ancient Vietnamese so you can grasp the prevalence of Vietnamese philosophy and the characteristic of ancient Vietnamese culture and civilization.
P. Kim Long
Saigon, 2006