Vietnamese Literature: The Best Topic You Should Read

Vietnamese literature is literature, both oral and written, created largely by Vietnamese-speaking people, although Francophone Vietnamese and English-speaking Vietnamese authors in Australia and the United States are counted by many critics as part of the national tradition. For a millennium before the 11th century, Vietnam was dominated by China and as a result, much of the written work during this period was in Classical Chinese. Nom characters, created around the 10th century, allowed writers to compose in Vietnamese using modified Chinese characters. Although regarded as inferior to the Chinese, it gradually grew in prestige. It flourished in the 18th century when many notable Vietnamese writers and poets composed their works in Nom characters and when it briefly became the official written script.

While the Quoc Ngu, the script was created in the 17th century, it did not become popular outside of missionary groups until the early 20th century, when the French colonial administration mandated its use in French Indochina. By the mid-20th century, virtually all Vietnamese works of literature were composed in Quoc Ngu.

The literary arts, especially poetry, have traditionally been highly prized in Vietnam. There are three main types of Vietnamese literature: 

1) “Truyen” (traditional oral literature); 

2) “Han Viet” (Chinese-Vietnamese literature); 

3) “Quoc Am” (modern literature, or anything written in the romanticized “quoc ngu” alphabet).

The Ly period (1009-1225) saw the appearance of the first historical works. Do Thien compiled a history of the country which, now lost, was mentioned in Viet Dien U Linh and Linh Nam Chich Quai. Cheo popular theater, which first appeared in the 10th century, continued its development. A prisoner captured during the Mongol Invasion, Ly Nguyen Cat, made a notable contribution to tuong Classical theater. ~

A number of French- and English-language writers spent time in Vietnam and set novels and other works there. André Malraux,W. Somerset Maugham and Graham Greene all stayed at the Continental Hotel in Saigon (present-day Ho Chi Minh City). The Vietnam-set film "The Lover" was based on the Marguerite Duras novel.

In 2008, the Publishing Department under the Ministry of Information and Communications released a survey showing that on average each person in Viet Nam only reads 0.6 of a book per year. The survey also found that 80 percent of books published every year were textbooks.

THE LANGUAGE AND SCRIPTS

Among the 54 Vietnamese ethnic groups, some have had their own scripts for a long time and some have not preserved their ancient scripts. As a matter of fact, some ethnic groups consisting of some hundreds of individuals living in remote areas have their own languages.

Throughout the years, these languages have been enriched in terms of vocabulary, precision, and expression. However, the Viet language is most commonly used. In terms of script, for a long time under northern domination, Chinese was widely used in trade, education and state documents. This lasted until the beginning of the 20th century. During the eighth century, parallel to the use of Han, the Vietnamese created the nom script, which used the pictograph of Han to note the sounds of the Viet language. The appearance of the nom script marked a point of maturity in the national consciousness of the Viet and led to the development of literature in Vietnam.

The Romanized script produced by French missionaries appeared in the 16th century and was substituted for both the Han and Nom scripts.

THE MODERN VIETNAM LITERATURE

The Vietnamese literary tradition has evolved through multiple events that have marked the country’s history. New literary movements can usually be observed every ten years but in the last century, Vietnamese literature underwent several literary transitions.

The revolutionary campaign occurred at the beginning of Romanized Vietnamese literature, in an attempt to standardize its styles such as prose, poetry, and criticism. All the writings produced had one thing in common: the authors were using a powerful and flexible style to update events and trends and therefore predict social events.

The Vietnamese people fought two wars of resistance, and at the present time, are in a period of construction, industrialization and modernization. In this situation, in Vietnamese literature, movement and vital force currently exist.

THE FOLK LITERATURE

Vietnamese literature has been rich in folklore and proverbs; tales that have been handed down from generation to generation, gradually becoming valuable treasures.

The Muong ethnic group in the north has an epic poem called “giving birth to the earth and water”, the white Thai ethnic group in the north-west has “seeing off and instructing the loving heart”. This list could go on for quite some time.

The folk literature grows during the processes of activity, labor, construction and struggle of the people. It is the soul and vital power of the nation. At the present time, all kinds of artistic and folk literature from each ethnic group are being collected and maintained.

THE HAN CHARACTERS

During the 1,000 years of Chinese rule over what is now northern Viet Nam, classical Han Chinese, also known as became firmly established as the language of the Vietnamese royal court and would remain so until as late as 1918 when the ancient system of mandarin examinations was finally abolished.

The oldest extant literature written in classical Han Chinese comprises a corpus of 11th-century poems written by Buddhist monks. By the 13th and 14th centuries, poems in classical Han Chinese were written for the court by Confucian scholars such as Le Quat, Mac Dinh Chi ( 1346), Truong Han Sieu ( 1354), Chu Van An ( 1370) and Nguyen Trung Ngan (1289-1370), along with important historical works such as Le Van Huu’s Dai Viet Su Ky (‘Brief History of Dai Viet’) and a range of geographical and encyclopedic volumes.

THE NOM CHARACTERS

From an early period, a special ideographic script known as classical Han Chinese was also devised for transcribing spoken Vietnamese. According to annals dating from the late 13th century, the poets Nguyen Thuyen and Nguyen Si Co were the first to write in classical Han Chinese. At the turn of the century, King Ho Quy Ly (1400-1407) himself translated the Confucian classic Kinh Thi into nom. Thereafter an increasingly large number of other works were composed in the new script.

The era of the Le kings (14th and early 15th centuries) was a significant period of development for classical Han Chinese literature. Of particular note were the works of Nguyen Trai, scholar and strategist to Le Loi (later King Le Thai To, 1428-1433) during the resistance war against the invading Ming Chinese. Trai, whose “Proclamation of Victory over the Ngo” remains one of the finest works of Vietnamese national literature, left an important collection of 254 poems written in classical Han Chinese known as Quoc Am Thi Tap. Though classical Han Chinese was the official the language of the Vietnamese royal court, two Le monarchs – Le Thai Tong (1434-1442) and Le Thanh Tong (1460-1497) – are remembered for their poems written in nom; some 300 works of great historical and literary significance written by Le Thanh Tong may be found in the anthology “Collected Poems of the Hong Duc Period”.

However, nom poetry did not really begin to break free from Chinese influence until the 16th century, a process signaled by the appearance of 100 remarkable works in nom by Confucian scholar Nguyen Binh Khiem (1491-1585), brought together as the “Compilation of B?ch Van’s Poems”.

The slow demise of the Le dynasty and the corresponding rise of the powerful Trinh and Nguyen families during the 16th and 17th centuries seriously undermined respect for the concept of absolute monarchy, leading to the collapse of the Confucian system. This, in turn, had important consequences for the development of Vietnamese classical Han Chinese literature, which now entered a new and exciting phase of development – fresh themes appeared, and the language itself became richer, more concise and more flexible. A particular feature of the period was the appearance of stories and fables which contained thinly-veiled criticisms of official corruption and the shortcomings of feudal society.

However, the golden age for classical Han Chinese was the 18th century, which witnessed a truly remarkable literary flowering. Particularly popular at this time were long narrative poems known as a story, which borrowed elements of popular oral tradition, fusing them with classical language to create new and vibrant works of literature. These works, with their complex plot, characterization and structure, were the first to express in writing the personal feelings and desires of the protagonists. Amongst the greatest narrative poems of this period are “Lament of a Warrior’s Wife” by Dang Tran Con, translated into nom from the original classical Han Chinese by Doan Thi Diem (1705-1748), and “Lament of a Royal Concubine”, written in nom by Nguyen Gia Thieu (1741-1798). During the brief reign of King Quang Trung (Nguyen Hue, 1788-1792) classical Han Chinese was adopted as the national script for official texts and in education, to replace the classical Chinese which had been used for centuries.

The 18th century is known too for its satirical poems and stories, many of which vehemently attacked the ruling Confucian elite. Perhaps best known are the feminist poems of Ho Xuan Huong (late 18th-early 19th century) and the anonymous popular stories “Doctor Pig” and “Doctor Quynh”.

Also of significance during this period were historical works written by scholars such as Le Quy Don (1726-1783), whose “Complete History of Dai Viet” and “History of the Le Dynasty” marked a major advance in the development of historical studies.

Notwithstanding the revival of a strong monarchy after 1802 under the Nguyen dynasty, Vietnamese literature continued for some time thereafter to convey the humanistic aspirations and sentiments which had featured so strongly in the literature of the previous century. The best-known work of the early 19th century and today perhaps the most famous work in the history of Vietnamese literature is the narrative poem “The Story of Kieu”, written by poet, scholar, mandarin and diplomat Nguyen Du (1765-1820). Highly regarded for its elegant language and style, this masterpiece relates the story of a beautiful and talented young woman condemned by the actions of a wicked mandarin to 15 years of tribulation and suffering.

During the second half of the 19th century, some notable works of nom literature were created by leading figures in the various patriotic movements set up to fight against French colonialism. These included proclamations, appeals to struggle, funeral orations, stories of combat and patriotic poems by the likes of Phan Dinh Phung, Nguyen Quang Bich, Phan Van Tri, Nguyen Thong and Nguyen Xuan Du, together with lengthy but eloquent appeals to the monarch by Nguyen Truong To and Nguyen Bo Trach. Perhaps the best-known writer of this period was blind poet Nguyen Dinh Chieu, who composed several volumes of patriotic literature before his death in 1888.

THE "QUOC NGU"

Modern Vietnamese literature finds its roots during the French colonial period when popularization of the romanised script Quoc Ngu finally allowed it to break free from the restrictions of classical Chinese literature.

Originally devised by French Jesuit missionary Alexandre de Rhodes (1591-1660) as a means of propagating Roman Catholicism, Quoc Ngu became a cornerstone of the French colonial educational system in the late 19th century and was initially rejected by Confucian scholars such as Nguyen Dinh Chieu, who referred to Quoc Ngu as ‘the script of heretics’. However, following the “Renovation” movement of 1907 Vietnamese intellectuals began to realize the potential value of Quoc Ngu as a medium for disseminating patriotic and anti-colonial ideas.

As literacy gradually spread throughout the country, the development of modern printing methods facilitated the production of books, newspapers and magazines in Quoc Ngu and both journalism and literature written in the romanised script began to flourish.

THE MODERN VIETNAM LITERATURE BEFORE 1945

Amongst the earliest attempts at Vietnamese creative writing in Quoc Ngu was a collection of folk tales entitled Chuyen Doi Xua published in 1876 by Truong Vinh Ky (1837-1898), editor of Viet Nam’s first French-sponsored Quoc Ngu newspaper, the Sai Gon-based Gia Dinh Bao. This work was followed in 1887 by the publication, also in Sai Gon, of a rather rudimentary short story by Nguyen Trong Quan entitled “The Story of Sad Teacher Lazaro”.

However, the first real flowering of modern Vietnamese literature took place in the north under the influence of the romantic styles, themes and techniques of French literature. Between 1907 and 1909 pioneering Ha Noi journalist Nguyen Van Vinh (1882-1936) translated and published numerous foreign short stories and drama scripts in his newspaper Dang co tung bao, but perhaps the most important catalyst in the propagation of western cultural ideas was the northern cultural magazine Indochina Review, launched by Vinh in 1913, which not only showcased western literature in translation but also provided an important platform for the work of aspiring Quoc Ngu writers, thereby laying the essential groundwork for the acceptance of Quoc Ngu as a bone fide literary medium.

In the years which followed, the novels of leading French writers such as Balzac, Hugo, Flaubert, Rolland, Gide, Pascal, Malot, Moliere and Corneille became increasingly available in translation, contributing to a growing popular interest in prose literature. In 1917 a rival Sai Gon-based cultural magazine known as South Wind Journal was launched by Pham Quynh (1890-1945), though much of the work featured in this publication remained heavily influenced by Chinese literature. Perhaps more significant in terms of the development of new Vietnamese writing was the role of “Women’s News”, Viet Nam’s first influential women’s periodical, which was established during the early 1920s and devoted much of its column space to creative writing in Quoc Ngu serving as a significant forum for the development of modern literature in both content and form.

However, not until the 1930s did there develop a truly satisfactory language for modern prose writing, in particular, the capacity to handle vocabulary and syntactic structures. Literary historians and critics alike have emphasized the great contribution made to this process by the Ha Noi-based “Self Reliance Literary Group”, established in 1932 by Nhat Linh (Nguyen Tuong Tam, 1906-1963) and Khai Hung (Tran Khanh Giu, 1896-1947), which published many important literary works in its popular weekly journals Phong Hoa (‘Customs and Mores’, 1932-1935) and “Today, 1935-1940”.

The beginnings of modern Vietnamese poetry may be traced back to the early years of the twentieth century when poet Tan Da (1888-1939) began to experiment with irregular verse lengths, signaling the first serious attempt to break away from the classical model. During the 1930s, under the direct influence of works by early 20th century French poets such as Mallarme, Musset, Baudelaire, Valery and Chateaubriand, Tan Da’s pioneering work was taken a step further by the New Poetry Movement which was established in Ha Noi in 1932 by The Lu (Nguyen Thu Le, 1907-1989) to forge a new literary direction free from the strict rules of Chinese poetry. The Lu himself later devoted his life entirely to drama, but his work laid the groundwork for a whole new generation of poets who demanded freedom both in form and content.

By this time a powerful current of realism was also developing under the growing ideological influence of the Communist Party. By the late 1930s, revolutionary literature was flourishing, as evidenced by the novels of Ngo Tay To (1894-1954) and Nguyen Cong Hoan (1903-1977) and the short stories of Nam Cao (1917-1951) and Nguyen Hong (1918-1982), which vividly described the trials and tribulations of the peasantry at the hands of oppressive government officials. A new and militant style of poetry also emerged at this time, its chief exponent being To Huu (1920-2002), whose famous work Viet Bac was later awarded First Prize by the Viet Nam Literature and Arts Association.

THE MODERN VIETNAM LITERATURE BEFORE 1945 - 1975

Prior to 1945, comparatively few southern writers had achieved recognition or success, but against a background of relative stability, prosperity and artistic freedom in the late 1950s and early 1960s a small but active literary scene began to emerge in South Viet Nam, initially under the influence of a circle of writers, linguists and educators who had relocated from the north. An important catalyst in this development was the proliferation of private publishing companies, particularly in Sai Gon.

Numerous important literary magazines were established in the south after 1954, including “Literature Today”, Literary News, Expound, Create and Opinion) which introduced new currents of thought from the west such as existentialism and humanism. Together with the newly-established Sai Gon branch of PEN International and the Front for the Protection of Cultural Freedom, these publications did much to facilitate the development of new writing. Southern literary development was further encouraged by the establishment of various state literary prizes.

However, the southern literary flowering proved short-lived; whilst the overthrow of the Diem government in 1963 brought greater artistic freedom, growing political instability, the escalation of war with the north and the steady slide into official corruption and decadence which attended the influx of large numbers of American troops in the period after 1963 engendered what one scholar has called a ‘culture of entertainment’. In a radical departure from the past, a people brought up to associate literature with education and moral improvement turned increasingly for escapism to cheap imported martial arts novels and sentimental romances.

In order to survive in this new climate, many members of the literary community began writing daily feuilletons (serialized stories) for the newspapers, whilst others turned out novels featuring unusually racy subject matter. Nonetheless, the last years of the Saigon regime did see some literary works of note, notably the novels of Nhat Tien, Le Tat Dieu and Nha Ca with their vivid descriptions of the horrors of war.

In the north, the immediate aftermath of the August Revolution saw the establishment of the Giai Pham writer movement, the name of which was drawn from its two journals Nhan van (Humanism) and Works of Beauty. Established by a group of northern intellectuals which included writers Tran Dan, Hoang Cam ( 1922), Phan Khoi (1887-1959), Nguyen Huu Dang, Truong Tuu, Tran Duc Thao and Thuy An, this movement aimed to secure a greater measure of intellectual independence for the Vietnamese literary community.

However, the trial which followed firmly established the principle that Vietnamese literature existed to advance socialism and must be guided by the Communist Party vanguard. With the establishment of the Viet Nam Writers Association in 1957 northern literature became firmly subordinated to the task of building the socialist future.

During the 1960s and early 1970s, northern literature continued to identify closely with the national and ideological cause.

Throughout the American War leading prose writers of the 1940s and 1950s such as Nguyen Cong Hoan, Nguyen Hong, Bui Hien, To Hoai, Nguyen Van Bong, Chu Van, Thanh Chau and Nguyen Dinh Thi continued to devote their work to the revolutionary cause.

Other important novelists and short story writers emerging during this period included Thep Moi (anh Hong, 1925-1991), Vo Huy Tam (1926-1996), Nguyen Trong Oanh (1929-1993), Ngo Ngoc Boi ( 1929), Nguyen Minh Chau (1930-1989), Nguyen Khai (1930), Vu Thi Thuong ( 1930), Phan Tu (Le Kham, 1930-1995), Vu Bao ( 1931), Ma Van Khang ( 1936), Do Chu ( 1944) and war martyrs Le Vinh Ha (1932-1967), Nguyen Thi (Nguyen Ngoc Tan, 1928-1968) and Chu Cam Phong (1941-1971). Of particular importance was a small group of southern writers who had regrouped in the north after 1954 and now returned south into enemy territory to gather material for their compositions; these included novelists Nguyen Quang Sang (b 1932), Anh Duc (Bui Duc Ai, 1935) and Nguyen Ngoc (1932).

THE MODERN LITERATURE FROM 1975

With national integrity finally secured in 1975, it was not long before the literary community began to explore in their work themes which had largely been set aside during the long struggle for self-determination. This trend received a boost with the implementation of “Renovation” in 1986, which afforded Vietnamese writers a measure of creative freedom, allowing them to look at life from an individual point of view rather than focusing on the role of society as a whole.

Since that time Vietnamese writers have begun to question established views and to tackle such sensitive issues as the enormous cost of victory in terms of human suffering, the problem of official corruption, the disappointments of the post-war era and the social effects of the change from a subsidised to a market economy, including ‘social evils’ such as prostitution and drug addiction. Such themes have provided the raw material for some of the most exciting contemporary literature emanating from modern Viet Nam, though to date only a handful of the works which tackle them have been translated into other languages.

Over the past quarter-century the Viet Nam Writers Association, the Ha Noi Writers Association, the Ho Chi Minh City Writers Association and several other literary organizations have continued to promote the development of creative writing through their annual awards for the best prose, poetry, theory and criticism and translated works. There has also been corresponding development in the field of literary criticism and literary research. Mention should also be made of the Nguyen Du School of Writing, Ha Noi, modeled on the Pushkin Institute in Moscow, which was established in 1981 by the Ha Noi University of Culture with the aim of training writers in the two key areas of prose and poetry.

VIETNAMESE POETRY