NGUYEN DU & KIEU, his MASTERPIECE

NGUYEN DU & KIEU, his MASTERPIECE

Nguyen Du was born in 1765 in Thang Long (now Hanoi) to a noble and illustrious family. His father was a Chief Mandarin in the Le Dynasty and his mother a Beauty Queen. All his older brothers were high-ranking mandarins. His father died when he was only ten and three years later, he lost his mother. He lived with his brother Nguyen Khan, then Minister of the Interior in Thang Long capital, until the “Proud Soldier Uprising” (similar to the recent “Cultural Revolution” in Communist China). Nguyen Khan, whose yamen was totally destroyed by the uprising, had to flee for safety. Nguyen Du, also for his own security, fled the capital taking refuge in his wife’s native village in Thai Binh province and his “ten years of misery” – to borrow his own words – began. During this period, he suffered tremendously from poverty, sickness, and frustration over his inability to restore the Le Dynasty.

In 1789, a great historic event occurred: Le Chieu Thong, the last emperor of the Le Dynasty, in an effort to save his dynasty from being destroyed by the military uprising, appealed to China to intervene on his behalf. On that pretext, China sent an expeditionary corps to invade Vietnam. Nguyen Hue, a popular military hero, completely destroyed the Chinese army of 200,000 men in a short but very fierce battle. Right before his astounding military victory over the Chinese troops, a victory that startled not only the Chinese Emperor and his court but also all the monarchs in Southeast Asia, he proclaimed himself Emperor of Vietnam and founded the Tay Son Dynasty. In spite of his miserable economic condition, Nguyen Du refused to cooperate with the new dynasty. As an orthodox Confucianist, he wanted to be faithful to the Le Dynasty even though he had served it for only a short period of time. In his eye, the founder of the new dynasty was nothing but a usurper.

In 1796, he left his father’s native village, where his miserable living conditions remained sorrowful. Although only in his early thirties, he saw his hair turn all white and his health lamentably deteriorate. Meanwhile, Emperor Nguyen Hue died, leaving the Tay Son Dynasty in the hands of his teen-aged son who was incapable of saving the dynasty from falling into decadence. In 1802, Nguyen Anh, a warlord, defeated the Tay Son troops and became Emperor Gia Long, the first emperor of the Nguyen Dynasty. This political and military event brought a radical change in poet Nguyen Du’s life.

Emperor Gia Long adopted the new policy of using people still faithful to the Le Dynasty and offered Nguyen Du a position of mandarin in the royal administration. At the time, after ten years of exile in his wife’s native village and six years of abject poverty in his father’s hometown, Nguyen Du had lost all hope to restore the Le Dynasty and all desires for honors. He reluctantly accepted the emperor’s offer, most likely because he realized he could never reverse the course of history and needed a steady income for his needy family (three wives and eighteen children).

During the sixteen years he served the Nguyen Dynasty, he resigned three times: in 1804, 1808, and again in 1812. But each time the Emperor refused his resignation and promoted him to a higher position. Three different times he was appointed Vietnamese Ambassador to Peking, China. Upon his return from China in 1814, he was promoted to the position of Minister of Protocols. In 1820, he became seriously ill but refused all medical treatments and died at the age of fifty-five.

Nguyen Du was a brilliant scholar, well versed in Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism, and also had some military training. He was extremely intelligent and had great poetic and musical talents. In addition to Kieu, his masterpiece, he left the Vietnamese literature numerous poetic works in both Vietnamese and classic Chinese. At that time, Chinese scripts were still commonly used by scholars in their literary works,

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especially in the domain of poetry. It should be noted, however, that although the Vietnamese used Chinese scripts, they had their own pronunciation.

Nguyen Du apparently was not interested in worldly wealth, nor did he accumulate it. Even when he was a mandarin under the Nguyen Dynasty, he had difficulty making ends meet. While living with his brother in the capital, he was a reveler himself and developed a compassion for prostitutes, singers, and call girls. During his sixteen years of exile and abject poverty, he witnessed the sufferings of the populace, who had to toil from morn ‘till eve but still suffered from want and from the oppression by the feudal administration system in which self-serving mandarins could do whatever they wanted to build up their wealth to the detriment of the populace. He was well aware of the fact that he was difficult to understand as revealed by the following verses of his:

I wonder, more than three hundred years after I die,

Whether anyone would understand me and cry.

He was also an emotional type of person. During a cabinet meeting where state affairs were being discussed, Nguyen Du burst into tears, to the surprise of the Emperor who presided at the meeting and of all the mandarins present. Being a true Confucianist, he should have controlled his emotions. Is it true that strong emotions make great poets?

Kieu, the greatest masterpiece of the Vietnamese literature and probably the longest poem on earth, consisting of 3,254 verses, borrowed its theme from a second-class Chinese novel by Thanh Tam Tai Nhan, an almost unknown Chinese author. Why did a great poet like Nguyen Du have to use another author’s theme for his masterpiece? Probably he wanted to use a Chinese story as an alibi. Should there be anything in his work that could be interpreted as critical of the dynasty he was serving, he could easily reject any critic by saying that the story he told happened in China hundreds of years ago, not in Vietnam. Apparently, he wanted to confide in his work an aspiration dear to him but not in favor of the emperor he was serving, to launch an outcry against the injustice to which he and his countrymen were submitted, and to depict the miseries and harrowing ordeals of the populace under the oppressing monarchy. Probably that’s why he warned the readers right at the beginning of his work that the story he was going to tell took place in China

under the Ming Dynasty (1368-1566) hundreds of years before, not in Vietnam.

Under the reign of Gia Tinh Emperor (1522-1566) of the Ming Dynasty, there lived a small bourgeois, Mr. Vuong, who had two girls and a boy. The eldest child, a girl named Thuy Kieu, the heroine of the poem, was a great beauty endowed with exceptional poetic and musical talents. On a festival day, when people went out to visit and clean graves as well as to enjoy the green and clean air of springtime, Kieu cried over the abandoned grave of Dam Tien, a singer, and courtesan. On the same day, she had an unexpected encounter with a handsome young man, a former schoolmate of her younger brother Vuong Quan. They were irresistibly attracted to each other. That night, Kieu dreamed of the ghost of Dam Tien, who informed her that she belonged to the corporation of “Rent Trails Girls” or courtesans. Kim Trong succeeded in seeing Kieu again, and the two exchanged a solemn love oath, disregarding the Confucianist ethic prevalent at the time. Unfortunately, Kim Trong’s uncle died, leaving no descendants, and he had to return to his native place to conduct the funeral as dictated by tradition. This terribly agonized the two lovers, who had just begun to know each other.

After Kim Trong’s departure, a catastrophe fell upon the Vuong family: Mr. Vuong, a victim of a slanderous denunciation, was arrested, and Kieu had to sell herself for a large sum of money needed to bribe the authorities and save her father. Thus, she became the concubine of a certain Ma Giam Sinh. Before

 

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leaving the paternal home, she pleaded with her sister Thuy Van to take her place and marry Kim Trong to pay her love debt to him.

Kieu discovered later on, that she fell into the hands of a trafficker of women and suffered terribly while being forced to ply the trade of prostitution. She met Thuc, a young reveler, and became his concubine. She underwent the harrowing punishments by Hoan Thu, the legitimate and jealous wife of Thuc Sinh, and finally had to flee. Mishap after mishap, she found herself again in the world of prostitution. This time a rebel chief named Tu Hai redeemed her from the house of pleasure and married her. A few years later, Tu Hai became a victim of a perfidy and was killed in an ambush by an imperial thug. Kieu jumped into the Tien Duong River in order not to survive her husband. Fortunately, she was rescued by a bonzess and joined the Buddhist order.

Meanwhile, Kim Trong wedded Thuy Van as Kieu had wished but still loved Kieu and kept her image at the bottom of his heart. He spent fifteen years searching for her and finally found her at a Buddhist temple. He entreated her to come back to him, but she categorically refused, saying that after so many humiliating adventures and degrading misfortunes, she was unworthy to marry him, although polygamy was legal and very common at that time. Upon entreaties from her parents, her sister, and Kim Trong himself, Kieu finally agreed to unite in an unconsummated marriage with him whom she never ceased to love.

The Vietnamese People have wondered, still wonder, and will continue to wonder why the theme of a second-class Chinese novel was used as raw material to weave the most illustrious poem, the most beautiful diamond of the Vietnamese literary treasure and probably the longest poem in the universal poetry. But this really doesn’t matter much. No matter the reason, the poet offered the Vietnamese People a wonderful masterpiece, entirely new, profoundly original, typically Vietnamese both in form and spirit, that has moved, is moving and will move for centuries to come, the sensible and sensitive heart of the Vietnamese People. Since its publication almost two centuries ago, generation after generation, the Vietnamese People have been enjoying the exquisite beauty of the poem, so much that almost every Vietnamese knows by heart some of Kieu’s beautiful verses, that Kieu is included in the literary columns of all schools from middle schools to universities.

Nguyen Du, thanks to his poetic genius, has proven that his mother tongue, Vietnamese, is a very poetic language, extremely rich, delicate, and powerful. He combined the poetic and novel forms to give Kieu a dual character: scholarly and popular at the same time. He united the best of classic poetry with realism in his best beautiful literary style to give Kieu an appealing charm not previously known. In Kieu, all Chinese classic metaphors, images, symbols, and hyperboles were Vietnamized and mingled with those of Vietnamese language, proverbs, and sayings so skillfully that they have been integrated into the everyday language.

The poetic language of Kieu is colorful, expressive, very musical, and able to paint not only landscapes and portraits but also the states of mind, feelings, and emotions in just a few verses that vibrate every fiber of the Vietnamese heart and soul.

The mode of versification used in Kieu is typically Vietnamese; the six-eight meter: a six-syllable verse followed by an eight-syllable verse. This six-eight meter is undoubtedly more musical and more versatile than the classic pentasyllabic and heptasyllabic meters but requires more rimes. The last word or syllable (Vietnamese is monosyllabic, each syllable forms one word) of each verse rhymes with the sixth word or

 

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syllable of the following verse. For a better picture of this type of rhyming, let us borrow the first four verses of Kieu to see how it works:

Trăm năm trong cõi người ta 1 2 3 4 5 (R)

Chữ tài chữ mệnh khéo là ghét nhau 1 2 3 4 5 (R) 7 (R)

Trải qua một cuộc bể dâu 1 2 3 4 5 (R)

Những điều trông thấy mà đau đớn lòng 1 2 3 4 5 (R) 7 (R)

The rhythm is very simple: two horizontal tones are followed by two oblique ones, except the eight one that makes the rime and must be horizontal. In addition, the rule does not apply to the first, third, and fifth words, which can be either horizontal or oblique. Each Vietnamese word or syllable has six different tones, depending on the mark that goes with it.

Example Meaning

Ma (Ghost)
Mà (That)
Má (Mother)
Mả (Grave)
Mã (Horse)
Mạ (Rice seedling)

Changing the tone mark creates a different word with the same spelling. The first two words have horizontal tones, and the remaining four words oblique tones.

To better understand the states of mind of Kieu’s character, let’s briefly review Confucianism and Buddhism, since they were predominant in Vietnam before the arrival of the Europeans, and have molded the Vietnamese traditions, beliefs, and philosophies of life.

Confucianism, a doctrine formulated in China by Confucius (551-479 BC), was intended to create a harmonious order in society by regulating the ethics of relations between individuals within the family and society. It is not a religion in the strict sense of the word, but rather a canon for family and social behavior. In the family, Confucianism insists on filial piety, the duties of a child towards his/her parents, which serves as the regulator of family unity and morality. In society, loyalty, respect, and absolute obedience to the king or emperor are the first duties of anyone. The hierarchy begins with the emperor, then the teacher, and finally the father. Followings are the most common Confucian rules of behavior:

- If the emperor wants a subject to die, but the subject refuses to do so, he or she is a disloyal subject. - If the father wants the son to die, but the son refuses to comply, he is an undutiful son.
- A superior man (ideal man in Confucianism) never serves two dynasties.

   

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- The most important virtue of a woman is to be virgin on her wedding day and to be faithful to her husband until death.

- As a girl, she must obey her parents; once married, she must obey her husband; when widowed, she must follow the advice of her son.

Buddhism is the predominant religion in Vietnam. Ninety percent of the Vietnamese population is Buddhists. Originally founded in India by Prince Siddhartha, Buddhism was introduced into Vietnam from China since the early days of her independence (early 9th century), and as the national religion, it played an important role in the Vietnamese society. The Buddhist doctrine is based on these Four Noble Truths:

1. Man is destined for suffering.
2. Suffering has its roots in desires and lust.
3. Desires and lust can be neutralized by non-attachment to worldly things. 4. Non-attachment is realized through the Eight-fold path:

       

Right Understanding, Right Intent,
Right Speech,
Right Action,

Right Livelihood, Right Effort,
Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration.

Buddhists believe the
determined by karma or the law of cause and effect. The effect or fruit of a man’s good or evil deeds in previous existences determines his destiny. If he did good things in his previous life, he has happiness as a reward but if he did evil things, he has to pay for it by suffering from misfortune, bad luck, and catastrophe. If for some reason he cannot pay his debt in full in the existence, the balance due will be carried over to his next life. If while paying his debt contracted in previous existences, he also does good things, these good deeds have the effect of diminishing the amount of the debt he has to pay in this life.