nghiên cứu một số truyện thơ của dân tộc thái ở việt nam có cùng đề tài với truyện thơ nôm dân tộc kinh bản tóm tắt tiếng anh

This is the main reason why we choose the topic "A study of tive poems of the Thai people in Vietnam with the same subject of Kinh people’s Nom poems" Vo Quang Nhon points out that narra

1 Rationale to the study

1.1 Vietnamese literature is composed of Kinh people’s literature and

minor-ity peoples’ literatures Some aspects of this component are still open for discussionand need to be studied further

1.2 Learning about the logic behind minority people’s works of art in

relation-ship with these of Kinh people is of great importance to developing Vietnam omy as well as enriching Vietnamese cultural life

econ-1.3 Thai literature has its own evolution process, at the same time is a

product of the combination between endogenous and exogenous factors Thisliterary component shares some similar aspects with Kinh literature but still hasits own values

1.4 In Thai cultural system, narrative poems are considered as a rather

unique genre

1.5 The common characteristics between Nôm narrative poems and Thai

nar-rative poems are the core, which is the story and the form of expression, which is

through a poem This is the main reason why we choose the topic "A study of tive poems of the Thai people in Vietnam with the same subject of Kinh people’s Nom poems"

Vo Quang Nhon points out that narrative poems of minority people do notcome along separately In contrast, they are considered a phenomenon when theycome out Phan Dang Nhat concludes that “if Kinh people have Nom narrative po-ems, minority peoples also have an equivalance, which is narrative poems” NongQuoc Chan on his overview of Tay Nung’s narrative poems puts narrative poemsunder the category of Tay Nung’s classic literature Later on, Cam Cuong on hisstudies of Thai literature emphasizes that “Narrative poems […] are basically nov-els in the form of poems”

Lê Truong Phat who focuses on the organization of narrative poems, sizes that “besides the happy ending, narrative poems also have a different kind ofending, that is a kind of plot structured in a different motif”.

empha-Vu Tien Quynh, on his way of tracing the social and cultural origin and thestyle of narrative poems, claims that “Narrative poems are the connection betweenoral literature and written literature.”

On the same page with Vu Tien Quynh, Dang Nghiem Van also stresses thatnarrative poems are “a transition from folklore to professional literature” In thisdissertation, we pay special attention to these two above opinions, as they give ussufficient information to elaborate on the content and arts of Thai’s narrative poems

as well as to form a scientific basis on which the interaction between Nom narrativepoems of Kinh people and narrative poems of Thai people can be explained

Not only do scholars study on the role, origin, structure and poetics of narrativepoems, some scholars such as Ha Van Thu, Hoang Tien Tuu, Phan Dang Nhat alsopay attention to the content and the arts of narrative poems

Phan Dang Nhat support the idea by stating that “Regarding the content, thesubject of love stories is the painful life of people whose love is damaged by the oldsocial system” Hoang Tien Tuu comments that “Regarding the content as well asthe form of art, narrative poems of minority people inherit and improve on thelegacy of love poems, especially love folk songs of minority peoples” In conclu-sion, all of the mentioned opinions agree on the idea that there are two main topics

in narrative poems, which are faithful love and the exposure of a stuffy and outdatedsociety

2.1.2 Thai narrative poems

Thai narrative poems come in 2 forms in oral and written, expressed throughrhythmic literature, have a plot, belong to Thai people in Vietnam, etc In compari-son with ancient stories and folk songs, Thai narrative poems have a larger scale interms of volume, social problems mentioned and the art of building literary figures.There is a shortage of scholars specializing in Thai literature with a modestsuccess The 1st literature book on Thai narrative poems is called “Studies on Thainarrative poems in Vietnam” written by Cam Cuong He points out that narrativepoems and poems in genaral is the quintessence of Thai written literature

In combination of the opinions of Vu Tien Quynh, Dang Nghiem Van andCam Cuong, we need to reconsider whether categorizing narrative poems into folk-

lore is correct or not.

Lê Trường Phát emphasizes that many of Thai works borrow the plots fromthese of other minority peoples

Based on those Thai stories which were translated into Vietnamese, researcheshave also covered contents and art structure (even in the abridged form) of some sto-

ries relating to the topic such as Trang nguyen, Y Noi - Nang Xua, Ú Them, Trang

Tu, Luu Vinh (Ngu háu)… After analyzing, Cam Cuong has catagorized Thai

stories-the subject of stories-the stories-thesis research into two kinds The first one is stories with ethnic

origin, including 2 files: Y Noi - Nang Xua, U Them The second is poem originated from foreign nations, including 3 files: Trang nguyen, Trang Tu, Ngu hau These are

valuable orientation for us to conduct our research topic

2.2 Interaction between Thai narrative poems to Kinh’s Nôm poems

During the past few decades, studies about the differences between Kinh’sNôm poems and minorities’ poems have drawn attention from researchers "Narra-tive poems at mountainous areas and lowland Nôm stories have similarities in terms

of: mainstream ideology, character building, structural work and the popular use

of art." Kieu Thu Hoach concurs with the opinion above, if seen from the

perspec-tive of art, "the Nom stories of the Vietnamese gradually entered the poetry genre ofTay, Nung, Thai people to create the poems appearing as Nom stories, more ex-actly, those poems could be influenced at both the ideology structure and art " LeTruong Phat have his directional opinion as follows: The unique and easy-to-seething is that "this poem is not necessarily the other translations of the Nom story.Between the two, there was quite a big gap in the storyline, the plot [ ], the people

“side” of the iconic character, the characters’ language”

One explanation for the similarities and differences between narrative poems

and Nom stories cited that the author of ethnic minorities groups inherited and veloped their stories from the surrounding literature.

de-In searching for answers to the phenomenon of "couple" of narrative poemsand Nom stories, Gia Khanh made two assumptions "Maybe scholars, intellectuals,religious people relied on the narrative poems of Viet people in lowland or intro-duced the stories of India, Laos, China to build up our national poems Then thoseworks were widely circulated among the people, even anonymous but was noticed

by outstanding individuals self-composing The composers’ styles soon approached

to the literary text” Nevertheless, narrative poems might just be the copy or

adapta-tion from the works of Nom Kinh books to poems of ethnic minorities "

N.I.Nikulin said, "the comic-style story as Nom stories can be found in the folksongs of the ethnic groups in Vietnam such as the Muong, Nung, Tay, Thai "The similarity was also explained by a phenomenon called “the same type”.Narrative poems were created by the peoples of Southeast Asia as well as ethnicminorities in Vietnam with the same "from native anthropology, ethnic origin, his-tory, language to the economy, culture, customs, and religious beliefs " Perhaps,the migration and cross-cultural exchange led to this social integration One hypoth-esis questions that the relationship influenced by the literature of the Kinh and eth-nic Thai rooted from cultural anthropology (like relationships of Thai - Vietnamese

or Vietnamese - the Muong group) or by some other reason?

From the above overview, we can see that those mentioned work mainly trated brief and scattered judgments on the subject, content, artistic similarities, dif-ferences in terms of storyline between Nom Kinh stories and narrative stories ofethnic minorities (including Thai poems) None of the scholars study thoroughlyand no specific public works deeply survey, analyze, compare stories of specificgroups to find legitimate scientific conclusions Therefore, on the basis of opinion-oriented nature of some researchers and critics, we consider previous findings as in-

illus-heritance achievements and also serve as valuable suggestions for us to conduct " A study of narrative poems of the Thai people in Vietnam with the same subject of Kinh people’s Nom poems"

3 Objectives and scope of the research

3.1 Objectives of the research

The research focuses on 5 Thai poems which are: Trang Tu, Trang nguyen, Ý Noi - Nang Xua, Ngu hau, U Them, in comparison with 5 Nom poems: Hoang Truu, Tong Tran - Cuc Hoa, Cái Tam - Cai Cam, Thach Sanh, Truyen Tu Thuc…

3.2 Scope of the research

We study 5 ethnic Thai poems in the same topics with Kinh people’s Nom ems and find out the contents and artistic angle of these poems

po-4 Duties and limitations of the research

4.1 The duties of the research

Study the common problems relating to narrative poems and Thai poems

Learn about the contents and art structure of some Thai poems

Compare, explain reasons about the similarities and differences between Thai

poems and Nom Kinh poems

4.2 Limitations of the research

The research covers only 5 books of Thai poetry and five books of Kinh ple’s Nom poetry Other works are not mentioned

peo-5 Research Methodology

5.1 Systematic Method

5.2 Interdisciplinary Method

5.3 Comparison Method

6 Contribution of the research

The system of evaluation, scrutiny, outlining poem countenance

Overview of the content value of some Thai poems in the same topic with theKinh’s Nom poems

Overview of the artistic value of some Thai poems in the same topic with theKinh’s Nom poems

Providing documentation, translations of three stories: Trạng nguyên, Trạng

Tư, Ngu háu by the thesi's author and other intellectuals who conducted translation,compilation

7 Structure of the research

Chapter 1 COMMON KNOWLEDGE OF THAI POEMS

IN THE SAME TOPICS WITH KINH PEOPLE’S NOM POEMS

1.1 Narrative Poem, Theme and Plot

1.1.1 Narrative Poem

Narrative poem is a kind of narratives and used to reflect human life.

Story has 2 important factors: storyline and character, as expressed in twoforms as prose and verse In this thesis, we study verse stories only

Verse story is used to express the content and later elevated to art Thus, ourthesis studies art comic verse which the researchers call a narrative poem

Thus, narrative poem can be understood as follows: Narrative poems werecomposed in the form of narrative poetry, exist in writing or non- writing Theyserve as intermediate phenomenon between folklore and written literature

Narrative poems present a story, which is the nuclear factor Story is "literary

works portraying the character’s personality and incidents through the writer's rative writings" Expression forms of narrative poems are poems Story is told in theform of poetry Poetry is "the art of using image-abounding language and rhythm toexpress contents coherently and emotionally" Two modes of narrative, lyricalwork combine together in the same genre of poetry and create a special thing, which

nar-no other category has: reflect nar-not only the objective world but also directly expresshuman subjectivity Story pays attention to the details Poetry, however, depicts in-ner focus

1.1.2 Theme and plot

Theme is the term used to refer to the range of events forming the basis of theartwork More generally, theme highlights the direct descriptions of that artwork

In literature, theme is the surface area of explicit words, phenomena describedand reflected in literary texts Theme is the objective aspect of the content of thework We can identify themes in literature according to limits the scale of reality re-flected in the work

Narrative poems of the ethnic minorities have three main themes: love, family, society These themes have both external and internal links and show the scale of

reality reflected Three themes penetrate each other and make us difficult to rate

sepa-Theme always comes along with the structural content of the work With the

narrative work, structure content always includes three main aspects: storyline (or plot), character, form of expression Each aspect has its own internal function in

particular

The plot is a system of events which are carefully selected and arranged It ates an environment to convey the value of content and art The structure of thepoem is often in the major forms: linear order; sequencing, assembly; circle

cre-1.2 The Kinh People’s Nom poems

Nom poem is a genre of special interest in Vietnam’s medieval literature Nom

poem was born in the historical- social conditions in the late fifteenth century to theeighteenth century

The introduction of Nom poem associated with the cultural and art premise.

Folk types as traditional theater, folk sculptures, folklore were featured

In terms of plot, it is closely related to the democratic winds, folk narrativegenres available – fairy tales became the source of the Nom story script

Nom poem is not simply the result of Kinh ethnic people’s culture in Vietnam

but it was also launched by the cultural exchange The formation and development

of the Nom genre are inseparable from developing Nom literature and prose andverse literary in particular as well as the formation and development of this kind ofliterary narrative in Vietnam in general

Nom poem comes from three major sources: the novel of urban China, namese folktales, personal real life

The Thai people in Vietnam reside within a wide area ranging from the NorthWestern side of the Northern Vietnam to the West of Thanh Hoa and Nghe An

1.3.1.2 Socioeconomic features:

a Economic

The Thai people live in mountainous areas which allows for burnt-over fields

as the only means of cultivation Farming has always been considered “a lifetimefriend” of every Thai family

About marriage in the phia tao society, the marchiarchy system required every

marriage to be allowed by both families based on two sets of criteria: both have to

be financially equivocal and the husband has to stay with his wife’s family

d Beliefs

Regarding beliefs, the Thai group associates authority with supernatural ers They also observe a multipower lifestyle in which everything in life is believed

pow-to be under the guard of a supernatural force

1.3.1.3 Language and literary works

Due to limited historical documentations, the root of the Thai language is still

in controversy The Thai language might appear during the time the Nom was firstintroduced but bear no resemblance to the pictographic form There are currently 7forms of written Thai, all of them share the same structure

Thai’s literary works are diverse in categories Those like mythologies, fairytales and traditional rhymed works have been translated to Vietnamese Tale poetryhas been considered to play an important role marking the significant development

of Thai literature in terms of both paperwork and artwork Các thể loại hoàn toàndân gian như thần thoại, cổ tích, lời có vần cha ông truyền

1.3.2 Current situation of Thai tale poetry

Tale poetry is one of the most long-lasting categories in Thai literature with thegreatest number of works

Compared to other ethnic minorities, Thai tale poems are of larger number(about 300), only 6 of which have been translated to Vietnamese Like the tale po-ems written in the Nom language systems, those in Thai still remain anonymous

Thai tale poetry bears strong connection with khap (a type of singing) When it comes to performing, the poems are sung in the khap xu melody.

As for the plots, Thai tale poems have their roots from these 2 basic sources:Thai traditional folktales and Kinh, Lao, Chinese tales

Regarding the themes, Thai tale poetry mainly focuses on these following 3topics: love, conquests of nature and family life The storyline usually goes in theflow of meeting – catastrophe – union

1.4 Interactions between Nom and Thai tale poetry

Due to limited documentations, the thesis chose 5 Thai poems as research jects, 2 of which are under the world-recognized themes The composing methodol-ogy was at first based on the theme, but later improvised and made familiar to theThai people

sub-With the aspiration for content broadening and intercultural exchange, Thaipoets also based their stories on those in the Nom language of the Kinh People Thewriter at first followed the original content, and later made additions, reversed thedetails and blew in the shades of the Thai culture

1.5 Some relevant works of Thai and Nom tale poetry

1.5.1 Thạch Sanh (Nom) and Ngu hau (Thai)

1.5.2 Tam - Cam (Nom) and Y Noi - Nang Xua (Thai)

1.5.3 Tu Thuc (Nom) and U Them (Thai)

1.5.4 Tong Tran - Cuc Hoa (Nom) and Trang nguyen (Thai)

1.5.5 Hoang Truu (Nom) and Trang Tu (Thai)

CONCLUSION OF CHAPTER 1

Tale poetry is the term that refers to a literary category of the King people as

well as some other ethnic minorities including Thai in Vietnam Some works ofThai and Kinh tale poetry (in the Nom language) are under the same themes – somelife incidents recorde, described and used to reflect in literary works

The theme reflects the objective views on the main content of the work whosedevelopment must be through the structure Both Thai and Kinh’s tale poems sharethe same core – the tale – and the means – the poem

Being stories at the first place, tale poems always hold the strong core factor:plot The storyline always goes in the flow of meeting – catastrophe – union, con-ducted according to time order with happy endings

Both Nom and Thai tale poems exist in the form of either word of mouth andwritten documentations, which can be considered as a special occasion in Viet-namese literature Some studies even suppose this to be the median between folk-lore and modern literature

Literature always forms in certain conditions Thai tale poetry is composedbased on historical, natural and cultural situations, bringing to the tales an air of my-terious colors Besides, the formation of Nom tale poems also bears some similari-ties and differences, both intermingling and distingushing the 2 cultures

Chapter 2 THE VALUE IN CONTENTS OF SOME THAI TALE POEMS WITH

SIMILAR CONTENT TO KING’S 2.1 Value

2.1.1 Conquest of nature

2.1.1.1 Nature conquering as Thai people’s long-lasting desire

As mentioned above, some Thai tale poems under this theme are Ngu hau, Trang nguyên, U Them.

Ngu hau focuses on buildin the image of the hero Luu Vinh in an epic battle.

Lưu Vinh wins the rocks, controls the rocks and turns them to his own tools and

weapons in the battle against a Basilik to rescue the princess and protect the countrywith his talents This exposes the time when humans were taking steps to controlthe nature, also indirectly defeated the superpowers

Meanwhile, the character Thach Sanh in the Thach Sanh Nom tale poem alsowon the Basilik as arranged by the God Thach Sanh was originally son of god sent

to the world and raised by ordinary people Humans at that time were supposed torely on superpowers in solving their problems and Thach Sanh’s origin somehowreflected the incapability of people in the past Unlike Thach Sanh, Luu Vinh wasborn normal with skills learned from his father and practice He killed the beast withhis own powers, reigning over the nature Moreoever, the story shows people’sawareness of the nature

2.1.1.2 Conquest against the nature as a form of protecting the village

The nature conquest does not only show Thai People’s desire but also proves

that it is the only way to protect the community, which is best clarified in Ngu hau and Trang Nguyen.

In Ngu hau, the Basilik appeared as a threat to the life of the villagers LuuVinh defeated the beast not only to rescue the princess but also to save the villagefrom the coming deluge The same goes in Trang Nguyen, reflected in these 3 inci-dents: taming the tiger, defeating the waters and killing the giant aquatic serpent Ifthe tiger represents onland dangers, the event of marriage to the daughter of God ofthe Waters shows the human ability in conquering the waters

2.1.2 Reflections of family life

2.1.2.1 Family life in reality

4 out of 5 research subjects bear this content in the stories (except for Trang Tư)

Y Noi Nang Xua refers to the stepmother-daughter relationship with Láng’s bringing

her stepdaughter into the forest Compared to King people’s Tam Cam, the

father-daughter connection in Y Noi Nang Xua is of more significance The father, however,

could hardly offer his daughter nothing but love The story deeply described Thai’smarchiarch culture where powers in the family are in the hands of the wife

Trang Nguyên poses a picture of rotten upper classes along with the inhumane

trade for marriage Tương, father of Cuc Hoa, sells his daughter’s destiny away as acommodity in trade This shows the downfall of current Thai society

2.1.2.2 Society in reality

While Y Noi – Nang Xua holds its reality reflections within the family scope,

U Thêm has wider range in criticizing a turbulent, complicated society ofconflicting relationships This is depicted through the appearance of the evil ladywhich represents the manipulation of powers and the selfish desire to rule over othercountries Social conflicts also affect and trigger family conflict between husbandand wife, first and second wife, stepmother and daughter

2.2 The expess one’s thought

2.2.1 The beauty of the human nature

Thai tale poetry directs itself to the value of the human goodwill and the dream

of “one good turn” will be granted with “another good turn” In Ngu hau, the beauty

of a laborer is represented in Lưu Vinh Through his valiant act of killing the beastwith an impartial soul, the writer constructed an image of an ideal character with apure soul that only wants to do good for the community Lưu Vinh does not look forremuneration in that he is the center of moral, physical and intellectual powers andvalues In Thai tale poetry there appears a type of hero matured from practice,which is a familiar and attainable to everyone, it praises the thorough beauty oflaborers with skills, morals in whom the writer trusts with his dream of a equalsociety led by a talented, deserving leader

Images of women in literature are slightly different each ethnic, but they allshare these qualities: beautiful and practical, dutiful, faithful

We can point out some of the characters in this poem which is built according

to Thai standards In the poem, Kham In is not just a beautiful woman, but also traordinary woman with intense love, closeness, loyalty, a wise sage daughter, aloving mother In the poem Trang Nguyen, praising the work, faithful love, the de-termination of the main character Cuc Hoa and two supporting characters: theprincess Peng and Cao Vuong Speaking of Trang Tu, the heroine in the story, she

ex-is also built according to the standards of idealex-ism Princess Annam ex-is a wonderfulwoman and faithful in love The princess of Thailand poem has also a wise sense ofhappiness or marriage

Most works about love or marriage are praised for fidelity of women Most ofthe female characters have to go through a series of life-challenging events They allmore or less suffer the hardship in order to affirm their loyalty and faithfulness

2.2.2 The belief of “one good turn deserves another”

This concept can be found both in Kinh and Thai tale poetry

Through the characters in Thach Sanh and Ngu hau, the concept of good

people receiving the good things are immensely reflected From the characters’ life

and feats of arms, the writers show their desire of a society with equality and belief

in justice This philosophy is also best demonstrated in Y Noi – Nang Xua (Thai)

and Tam Cam (Nom) with perfect humanity reflected in Tam and Y Noi

The philosophy of “a good turn deserves another” is indicated to be reflected

by the happy endings at the end of the story as the subjective wish of the writers.This is also the humane values of the works, the lessons of humanity and the belief

in the beauty of life that one can draw from the tale

Lofty, profoundly humane philosophical spirit is presented in both comic pair

Y Noi-Nang Xua (Thai) and Cai Tam-Cai Cam (Kinh) The inside beauty with thestandard aesthetic values are reflected in the character Tam and Y Noi.Characteristics of the philosophy “One good turn deserves another” prescribedhappy endings of work as well as the author’s very desire

This also reflects the humanitarian value, the life lessons on how to live andbeliefs in a better live This concept leads to a happy ending and is a testament tothe statement: comics contains some characteristics of fairy kind

In addition U Them poem, Thai people in Thanh Hoa have shown a lot of

con-cepts about life The Thai people have a notion "afterlife" world of dead souls; theyalso said that there are penalties for offenders after death U Them poem describesthe way to glimpse God's going to find his wife U Them to glimpse through thewhole bizarre punishment: the guilt of unfaithfulness, the guilt of abstinence inchildbirth, the guilt in abandoning partners and kids Images which can glimpse themonstrous punishment are somewhat similar to Pluto's power Cross Vietnam It justreflects the views of the Thai people about social ethics, philosophy of life, just tokeeping the law strictly Who continuously violate will not only be punished whenthey are alive they were punished at the other side of the world

2.2.3 National- pride Mindset

2.2.3.1 The Power of Outstanding Individuals

The similarities, though unremarkable, but are important to the Vietnamesethought and Thais Through abroad journey of character Tung Tan, the authors hasaffirmed, Vietnam has national patriots, many talented and righteous and virtuecompared to China

When taking the exams and travelling abroad, Tung Tan danced through twochallenges Over ten years abroad, Tung Tan made King Tan compliment him forhis excellent strategies Painful time passed, despite the fact that the king of Qin