Images of women in vietnamese traditional folk poetry (người phụ nữ qua kho tàng ca dao việt nam truyền thống)

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOIINSTITUTE OF VIETNAMESE STUDIES AND DEVELOPMENT SCIENCES ---DO THI THUY IMAGES OF WOMEN IN VIETNAMESE TRADITIONAL FOLK POETRY MASTER’S THESIS Major: Vi

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

INSTITUTE OF VIETNAMESE STUDIES AND DEVELOPMENT SCIENCES

-DO THI THUY

IMAGES OF WOMEN IN VIETNAMESE

TRADITIONAL FOLK POETRY

MASTER’S THESIS Major: Vietnamese studies

Hanoi - 2015

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI

INSTITUTE OF VIETNAMESE STUDIES

AND DEVELOPMENT SCIENCES

-DO THI THUY

IMAGES OF WOMEN IN VIETNAMESE

TRADITIONAL FOLK POETRY

Master’s thesis of Vietnamese studies

Code: 60 22 0113

Supervisor: Assoc Prof PhD Nguyen Thi Viet Thanh

Hanoi - 2015

This work is the result of my authentic synthesis and research The data and results presented in the thesis are honest under the direct supervision

of Assoc Prof PhD Nguyen Thi Viet Thanh The research results addressed

in the thesis have not been published in other works All references have beenclearly cited

Hanoi, January 14, 2015

The author

Do Thi Thuy

After a time doing the research, I have completed the dissertation of

“Images of women in Vietnamese traditional folk poetry”

First, I would like to give my sincere thanks to Institute of Vietnamesestudies and development sciences, especially the management committee and the staff of the Institute who have supported me to complete the M.A course

Sincerely,

The author

Do Thi Thuy

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 5

1 Personal motivation 5

2 Research problems and tasks 7

2.1 Research problems……… 7

2.2 Research tasks ……… 7

3 Literature review 7

4.The objectives of the thesis, and research areas 11

4.1 The objectives of the thesis 11

4.2 Research areas 11

5 Research methods 13

6 Contributions of the thesis 14

7.Thesis structure 15

Chapter 1: THE IMAGE OF VIETNAMESE WOMEN IN THE CONTEXT OF TRADITIONAL SOCIETY 16

1.1 Vietnamese traditional society 16

1.1.1 Natural, productive and economic situations 16

1.1.2 Social and political situations 16

1.1.3 Fundamental ideologies and religions 21

1.1.4 The structure of the Vietnamese traditional families 23

1.2 Cultural attitudes toward the women in Vietnamese traditional society 27

1.2.1 The strict concept of Vietnamese women in traditional society under the influence of Confucianism 27

1.2.2 The concept of promoting the women in traditional society 32

1.3 Sub-conclusion 34

Chapter 2: TYPICAL FEATURES OF THE WOMEN IN VIETNAMESE

TRADITIONAL FOLK POETRY 37

2.1 Physical and personality characteristics of Vietnamese women 37

2.1.1 Physical characteristics 37

2.1.2 Personality characteristics 47

2.2 The images of Vietnamese women in traditional families 54

2.2.1 In the spousal relationship 54

2.2.2 In the relationship of the daughter and her mother – in – law 64

2.2.3 In the relationship of parents and their children 69

2.2.4 In the matter of love and mariage 75

2.3 The images of Vietnamese women in traditional social relationships 82

2.3.1 The overview of traditional social relationships 82

2.3.2 In relationships of the people in the same community, teachers and students, friends and neighbors to each other 83

2.3.3 In the relationship with upper classes 86

2.4 Sub-conclusion 88

Chapter 3: THE REACTIONS OF VIETNAMESE TRADITIONAL WOMEN TOWARD THE UNJUST BEHAVIORS IN FAMILIES AND SOCIETY 89

3.1 The reactions of Vietnamese traditional women toward the unjust behaviors within family scope 89

3.1.1 In the spousal relationship 89

3.1.2 In the relationship of the daughter and her mother – in – law 95

3.1.3 In the relationship of parents and their children 96

3.1.4 In the matter of love and marriage 97

3.2 The reactions of Vietnamese traditional women toward the unjust

behaviors in social relationships 99

3.2.1 In the relationship of the king as well as feudal lords and ordinary people 99

3.2.2 In the relationships of landlords and peasants 100

3.3 Sub-conclusion 102

CONCLUSION 105

REFERENCES 108

APPENDIX 114

LIST OF ACRONYMS

Assoc Prof PhD: Associate Professor, Doctor of Philosophy

P : Page

M A : Master of Art

1 Personal motivation

There have been many studies of Vietnamese women in general andVietnamese women in traditional societies in particular approached fromdifferent angles and research methods Based on such studies, the portrait ofVietnamese woman with the beauty of ordinary life appears as

“laboriousness, considerateness, sacrifice for her husband and her children”but when the country was at risk, they became the embodiment of beauty of

“heroism, indomitableness, kindness, resourcefulness” Also through suchstudies that we see Vietnamese women in traditional societies, not onlyplaying a large role in family life as well as in social development but alsorecognized properly, there were many women who suffered misery, injusticethroughout life under the repressive prejudices of feudal society Sympathyfor the status of women in ancient society is tremendous momentum that wewish to clarify the image of women in traditional societies In addition, theold woman herself, she was the embodiment of the traditional cultural values

of the nation Although modern society has developed very fast, the culturalvalues of our ancestors should still be kept and promoted Exploring images

of women in traditional society is contributing to promote traditional culturalvalues in general and dignity of women in particular, which promotes thegood Vietnamese women’s values in today society

Folk literature is a part of folklore treasure from which the picture oftraditional societies is extremely vividly reproducted under workers'perspective In the literary treasures of Vietnamese folk, folk is a kind of therichest and most diverse genre in number and content expression We can saythat folk poems have a very strong appealling to the people of Vietnam,because they are very close to their thought and soul, with words of daily

voices of workers Therefore, one of the key features of a traditional folk song

is richly expressed thoughts of human emotions in general, including inparticular women The image of traditional women is expressed not onlythrough the songs about them specifically the ones which are composed bythe people to portray the image of the woman but also through narrativesongs, the reader can feel all the thoughts, feelings, attitudes, their perceptions

of their own identity

The folk poems having content of the image of women in traditionalsocieties, has been the interest of many researchers who has had manyvaluable posts However, the researchers only focused on reflecting eachaspect, individual elements of the image of women In addition, most of thestudies were taken as research objects of folksongs with monophyleticresearch methods of literature, but not focusing on getting the woman is theobject of study With this starting point, we hope that this research will help

to clarify the image of Vietnamese traditional women with resource-basedsurvey was carried out as a wealth of traditional folk poems of the Vietnam

Also follow all policies and guidelines of the Party and State, Vietnam

is in the process of building an advanced culture imbued with nationalidentity Along with the momentum of integration and quintessence of worldculture, its needs to look back, to preserve the cultural traditions of thepeoples is extremely important Therefore, the study of the image ofVietnamese women through traditional folk poems by portraying more clearlythe cultural values of traditional practices to serve the country's development

is a critical job

2 Research problems and tasks

2.1 Research problems

The research done for contributing to learn the position, role, emotions

of Vietnam women in society was reflected in the ancient folk poems.Accordingly, the image of the traditional Vietnamese woman will beapproaches from two angles: the perspective of objective and subjectiveperspective Angle objective is to learn traditional Vietnamese womanthrough the assessment of the objective nature of the women folk Subjectiveperspective is the understanding of traditional Vietnamese women throughtheir attitude before the social behavior, which includes conduct the injusticesthey suffered, the perception of themselves of Vietnamese women intraditional social context

- Learn the characteristic manifestations of women in traditional societiescharacterized by the appearance, personality, as well as the expressionthrough family relationships and society

- Learn how the behavior of women in traditional societies through whichthey are incurred regardless of family life and society

3 Literature review

Folk is a genre of traditional folklore, the subject of many researchworks have scientific value in terms of both practical and theoretical.Researchers of literature in general and folklore in particular have defined

folk by different concepts We would go through some basic concepts asfollows:

In the book “Major literary history of Vietnam”, Duong Quang Ham explained the concept of folk poems: “folk is short songs; the songs are not

divided into chapters, etc.” [15, P.20]

It is also about the concept of folk poems , in “The Literary History of

Vietnam”, Volume 2 of the authors, Bui Van Nguyen (chief editor) stated:

“Folk is the songs with or without the chapters created with the nation's prose (usually in traditional way of 6/8 words per sentence one after another)

to describe, narrative, implied and express feelings.” [45, P.38]

The author of the book “The collective folklore of Vietnamese people”

by Nguyen Xuan Kinh (the chief editor) has clearly defined folk poems in

relation to folk poems : “Folk poems include the words (sentences or

articles), melody (voice or intonation), and methods of environmental oratorio, singing scene Folk poemss were formed on folk poems.” [28, P.20]

After the revolution in August 1945, researchers have used watercollected from “modern folk” (or new folk) to distinguish them from

“traditional folk” (also known as the ancient folk) Researchers generallyconsistently considered traditional folk (or ancient folk) is the onlycomponent conceptual language arts (poetry section) of folk (not includingaccompaniment, redu-language, and voiced sounds) and composed mainlycollected from the previous August Revolution

In terms of content reflecting the folk poems, folk poems is the subject

of many research literatures as well as the culture There were so many greatworks, have been published values, represented by the following works:

Folk poems reflect the lyrical content: Ma Giang Lan in research

proverb - Vietnam folk commented: “Folk is a lyrical genre of folklore.

These works speak of human relationships at work, in family life or social life experiences speak and act, etc They always express subjective attitudes of human beings with the objective phenomenon, rather than objectively describe the phenomenon of problems So in folk poems, the lyrical ego is in clear salience.” [37, P.19]

Dinh Gia Khanh (1973) has presented the current content in traditional

folk poems in detail in curriculum “Vietnamese Folk Literature” in Part II:

History and society, country and people in Vietnamese folk, etc In addition,

this content is also mentioned in several other books as presents traditionalfolk poems According to Chu Xuan Dien, so the main content which is often

referred to as folk history: “Historical folk are all short sentences and themed

on events in history These historical events are recorded in folk history is more or less the events that affect people's lives contemporaries” [23, P.358]

However, when referring to a specific historical phenomenon, folk history notworking as described, detailed narrative, that is not reflected in historicalphenomenon during its evolution In folk history, the people just mentionedhistorical facts to speak up and express the attitude of his views

Research on the characteristics of folk poems, we must mention the

book “The prosody of folk” by Nguyen Xuan Kinh (1992) In the work, the

author has studied systematic factors in terms of poetics: Language, poetry,textured art space-time, a number of images in the folk tradition This is abook of great value, providing readers with specific knowledge and overview

of many issues, useful for studying folk

On the subject of the images of women in traditional folk poems alsoappeared several research works have value When referring to the image ofwomen in the folk poems, the proverb works, folk poems, folk Vietnam, VuNgoc Phan said, “Life woman has to endure suffering and disadvantaged

Although contributions to society and the family is not inferior to men, but inreality women do not have power The author also asserted reasons pushingwomen into inferior status, because marriage regime was built based on theold social economy” [49, P.245].

In 1969, the collective monograph “Popular poetry of Vietnam”,

Nguyen Tan Long and Phan Canh analyzed very carefully and deeply about

the suffering of women folk They insisted on the contents “Woman

disadvantaged and downtrodden in the society They were dependent on men and stripped of all power, they react to the injustice in many different ways They dared to resist harsh laws, to follow the call of true love” [38, P 118]

1974, in the research “The study of the process of Vietnamese popular

folklore”, Cao Huy Dinh affirmed that “the human problem, first of all, the fate of people and the slaves are all working women the main topic of folk folk Woman's life is a chain of suffering long hours in line Live Alone and suffering, pain and suffering marry well as do more if perhaps” [12, P 89]

1978, in The study of the historical process folklore Vietnam, folklore researcher Do Binh Tri said that “the image of women which is the most

common of the two forms the song of family activities and lyrical song about love - marriage (loving folk)” The contentz authors mentioned in this work

are “songs about family activities mainly expressed profound grief of the

women in the family and society” The authors asserted, “Violent protests stemed from conflicts with severe oppression of patriarchy On the other hand, it was also the basis of looking at the issue of love and marriage insider: For a woman, marriage based on love is a scenario in which the happiness of freedom crystals god and happy life” [57, P 221]

Besides the typical works, which have addressed most generalizationsabout the image of women in folk poems , there are also many articles of the

researchers on the subject of women in folk The post “Woman in folk

activities”, (1986) by Nguyen Thi Hue, has affirmed, “There are folks which

voiced the role of women in cultural activities, etc The songs prove that women's talents have been put in place equally or even surpass men in the art

of living” [17] The author pointed out “The research leading to these lyrics savvy woman spirit, the study of folk oratorio form shows creative role, the study of narrative form folk chorus shows creative role, the richness of their contributions in terms of art in the field of folklore” [17] The above article is

oriented to the intensive study systematically and comprehensively throughthe ancient Vietnamese women folk

Besides, there are many doctoral theses, master's theses; students have

continued the study of folk Typically, doctoral dissertation entitled “Proverb,

folk poems about family relationships” (2000) of Pham Viet Long has

specific insight into the relationship of the Vietnamese family throughproverbs and folk poems, in including specific analysis of women in the

family tradition Masters thesis “Topic of families in the Vietnamese

traditional folk song” (2003) by Do Thi Thu Thuy showed attitudes and

behaviors of Vietnamese people living within the family activities.Prominently, it is an important role of women in cultural behaviorsVietnamese families

The number of studies on traditional Vietnamese woman is extremelylarge, depending on the requirements of each specialty; the authors havestudied the traditional woman from the perspective of different approaches.However, the majority of studies on this research are being carried out byspecialized knowledge, mainly using analytical methods, description, image-building methods of literature to reach the works of folk poems Unlike theabove studies, in my research, we define the object of study of the thesis is the

traditional Vietnamese woman, not the traditional folk poems and theapproach is associated method industry instead of monophyletic method Wehope you will be able to achieve the purposes of the study as stated above.

4 The objectives of the thesis and research areas

4.1 The objectives of the thesis

The main research object of the thesis is the image of Vietnamesewomen in traditional societies The research document is based on atraditional Vietnamese folk to highlight the image of Vietnamese women inthe context of feudal society

4.2 Research areas

Theme revolves around a woman with a lot of things need to beclarified, however, within the framework of the thesis we focus only clarifythe characteristics of traditional Vietnamese woman, but not the women ofother ethnic minorities

The Vietnamese women will be approached from two angles objectivityand subjectivity noted in the research purposes Specifically, in order toclarify the characteristics of the traditional woman by objective perspective,besides clarifying the characteristic appearance, personality assessmentrecognized under the purview of his contemporaries We also learnVietnamese woman at the relationship between their families (spouses,parents and children, brothers, cousins) and the social relationships in whichthere is close interaction directly traditional Vietnamese woman (men andwomen, kings, ministers, landowners, etc.), which are the typical relationship

of women outside the scope of traditional families Subjective perspective,still in the relationships, as the contemporary social prejudice revolves aroundthe lives of women, to curb oppression, pushed their lives in circumstancesvery well hurt suffering, torment, they react in a particular context and thus

see the self-perceived myself with what traits As such, we will aim to clarifythe characteristics of traditional Vietnamese women from these two angles Regarding literature, we focus on the sources of all of the Vietnamese

folk poems ; specific survey materials are mainly in: Total collection of

Vietnamese Folklore (2002), Scientific and social studies Publishers This is a

collective work meticulously compiled including 19 sets in all genres ofVietnamese folklore We have used a set of 15, 16 books (part one, part two)

talking about the Vietnamese folk poems In addition, we may refer to “The

Vietnamese folk Treasure” (1995), four episodes, written by Nguyen Xuan

Kinh, Phan Dang Nhat (chief editors), Culture and Information Publishing

House; “Folk proverbs” (1957, reprinted 1998) by Vu Ngoc Phan;

“Collections of Vietnamese proverbs and folk” (2001) by Nguyen Cu, Nguyen

Thi Hue, Tran Thi An (editor), Literature Publishing House

5 Research methods

Traditional Vietnamese Woman is a class object exists in spaceVietnam traditional culture Therefore, besides the internal factors theythemselves are affected by factors such as age factor historical, economic -social, cultural, etc Therefore, to achieve the purpose of the study was theimage of Vietnamese women through a traditional folk perspective as weapproach the subject in the direction interdisciplinary Interdisciplinaryresearch methods are needed and have proved extremely usefully in this case

to be able to clarify the object of study of the thesis Subjects of the studywere Vietnamese women in traditional societies bearing the characteristic ofgender as well as the definition of society during the feudal society Objectiveoriented approach using interdisciplinary methods; specifically we willapproach the subject from the following research directions The first is fromthe perspective of history because they are the subjects of history; to measure

the angle of the object is anthropology because Vietnamese woman, from aregional perspective to study localized Vietnamese women and people women

of other ethnicities Study subjects are seen through folk so indispensablecombination of methods that are strong in folk studies such as analysis ofliterature, linguistics, cultural learning

In addition to the above research method, the research process wecombine statistical methods, analysis, synthesis of research during theVietnamese folk treasure The method proved very useful to study the nature

of data sources harboring small but large numbers, and content rich folk

6 Contributions of the thesis

- Vietnamese woman was the truth of the nation’s cultural values Thein-depth research is very necessary that we also look for the real images ofwomen in traditional society as well as promote traditional values in a modernsociety

- The thesis is the references for those who wish to learn and havefurther research on the images of Vietnamese women in traditional societies

- The thesis initially uses interdisciplinary methods to approach thesubject of Vietnamese women in traditional societies With this approach, wewant to avoid unilateral comments of the research subject Interdisciplinaryresearch methods proved very effective in this case when we can not accessthe object of study directly because specific objects are Vietnamese woman in

a historical period which has passed, insteads, we must approach the object in

an indirect manner, namely through the folk material (other subjects)

Chapter 1:

THE IMAGE OF VIETNAMESE WOMEN IN THE CONTEXT OF

TRADITIONAL SOCIETY

1.1 Vietnamese traditional society

1.1.1 Natural, productive and economic situations

Economic base of agriculture Vietnam is incorporated with smallindustries and businesses with the most common characteristics are asfollows:

- State agricultural fields is the main economic base, which is thedominant crop, livestock and small rely heavily on farming Agriculturalproduction that relies on manual labor, technical muscle doing the thinkingbased on experience, there is no scientific and technical support; Moreover,the production takes place in a tropical climate with unusual events (droughts,floods, pests, etc) always happens to make life precarious, heavily dependent

on natural course

- Commercial: domestic trade mainly with rural market system (villagemarkets) and small trade flow Vietnamese society based on Confucianism,considered as degenerate art and craft wholesale traders considered the lastclass of the “Four classes” (Cholars - Farmers - Manufacturers - Traders)

In the above conditions, the traditional Vietnamese woman has a veryimportant position in the maintenance and development of the economyreflected in the family to team up with her husband and other members of theproduction workers and the unique role of the wife in trade

1.1.2 Social and political situations

Factors that greatly affect the lives of women in society and thetraditional Vietnamese families:

1.1.2.1 Village institutions

Important social factors first, strong dominant position in theVietnamese women’s traditional village institutions Vietnamese village - asthe study indicates, the traditional settlements of the Vietnamese people inrural areas, there are local private sector, organizational structure, processrules, dialect, psychological and personality complete individual and stableover the course of history The village has features:

- As a self-governing institution with many organizations based on thecollection forms, with many overlapping relationships, taking as a basisvillage conventions associated with the management of public opinion, theconcept of morality, religion, and the law, creating a very tight managementstyle

Looking at the horizontal axis, self-governing institution (village) is asystem of organization based on the set of the groups of people:

- Hamlet is the organization that sets the address based on therelationship (or neighborly relationships) Each neighborhood consists offamilies neighborly relationships associated with blood relations, in manycases, including marital relations (intermarried)

- Family line: phylogenetic relationships based on

- Males’ groups: They are institutions for men (men or boy’s) frombaby boy to his oldest tool in the village Each adjacent neighbor includesmany members of the lane, different clans, taking age as principles of socialadvancement for each member Armor is the institution that served as theorganizational unit of work done in the village Each member (men) in thevillage of receiving benefits and performs its obligations with its adjacentvillages through

In addition to the above institutions are the social relations that eachmember of the village to get to know to have a correct behavior It is thelongitudinal axis of the self-governing institutions In addition to bloodrelations (family and lineage), there are also gender relations (relationshipsbetween men and women), age (relations between older people and youngerpeople), to address the (neighborliness), the occupation, the social status Therelationship is expressed differently in each population component.

Villages such institutions clearly show the advantages of mencompared with women in traditional societies

1.1.2.2 Village conventions

The institutional organization and social relationships above (alongwith the important operational aspects of village life such as birth and death,unmarried, security, encouragement, worship organizations, security meet theobligations of the state) is adjusted by conventions Every member of theorganizing institutions shall be obliged to comply with the provisions set out

in the convention, if the violation or failure to comply will be subject to allthe different sanctions Conventions directly sanction violators, but manycases, the family and the family of the offender shall also be jointlyresponsible With the above rules, conventions are “rules of lifestyle”communities of each Vietnamese group that every member of the family aswell as other institutions, organizations must comply

Besides the general rules of social organization and social life in thevillage, and the conventions are also specific provisions for women in thevillage:

- Article 14 of the convention of Huu Le Village, Muc Son commune,

Thanh Hoa mentioned clearly: “Those who conjugal discord, disharmony

brothers cursing my eyebrows, a fine of 3 offices If it is caused by the

woman, adding: tied to a short rod segments, located at the crossroads of a day to quit unless unruly” [58, P.128]

- Article 65 stipulated: “Get to the virtuous wife, not marry

indiscriminately, making routine sex style, if someone does not stop your heart desires that whisper so awkward together wedlock births, the village began serious crime And as another boy wooing girl, bad rumors around, just penalize people discovered the first 10 buffalo worth relating, to bring out the bad beats, do punish guilty to the following form to leave”.[58, P.128]

- Conventions of Thien Ky village, Hoang Mai commune, Quynh Luu

district, Nghe An established in 1844, of which Article 7 states: “Women

uncovered wild sex if unmarried daughter is fine and shaved 20 views parents also fined 3 offices After 100 days of parturition is wild sex that the girl was fined 30 lashes Man fined for adultery and 3 silver coins and 50 lashes Added to that, he must take care of the girl until having given a birth and adopt children The pregnant girls without marriage came back parents’home Feminized husband committed 14 penalties related money Wild sex Money exciting sex scenes must be four related penalties Boys and girls were beaten 30 lashes Parents are mutually related fined 3” [14,

P.164]

- Conventions of My Phong Commune, Nong Cong district, ThanhHoa, established in Thanh Thai year 13th (1901), which stipulated severe

punishment adulterous guilty woman “The fornicator woman fined 12 silver

coins, tie award goes disparaged the lane, hit 10 lashes, not sit, go, have a chat with other people, fine people home 3 silver coins” [58, P 41]

These things lead on a number of conventions to maintain morality invillages, reflecting the strict local laws On the one hand, the provisions of theconventions have to taste to create a legal and moral tradition of marriage and

the nuclear family built stable in the old village Confucian ideology On theother hand, the provisions of conventions to uphold patriarchy, genderprejudice The women hardly participate in the village general strike Workthere mostly men, men If promiscuous women about pregnancy will lead toheavy fines wild as above, while men were asleep right in the Bay, where thefemale teaser, or hurdles accidentally discovered also lower fines women

Besides the dominant conventions of the written regulations,Vietnamese women living tradition also influenced by religious beliefs,public opinion, the concept of ethics and law feudal state In particular, thesocial discourse constitutes a strong pressure and that tightening control onthe lives of poor women Many public opinions and the actual had strongereffect than the customary penalty or law In this case, folk also contributed asignificant part in shaping public opinion Numerous folk poems sung not byreasons of coal bearing bodies that purpose admonition, brought highpermeability

1.1.2.3 Factors of historical situations

Besides the internal factors of the organizational mechanisms ofVietnamese traditional society, historical contextual factors also affect thecountry directly to the life of a traditional Vietnamese woman From 179 BC

to 938 BC, during 1117 years invaded by the North and 30 times our nationhad rebelled against the domination of the North (including two uprisings led

by women: uprisings of Trung’s sisters and Ba Trieu) In the period of ournation regaining independence and sovereignty (938 to 1884), our people hadtwo time against the Force of Tong (981, 1074-1075), three times against theMongol-Yuan (1258, 1285 and 1288); against re-colonization the Ming(1407 - 1427); one against the Qing (1789); one against the Siamese, then theanti-imperialist France, Japan, the United States invaded, etc The

Vietnamese, including many Vietnamese women were heroic, indomitable,sacrifice, happy couple happy family in order to protect the nation'sindependence Context of national construction, defense of our nation, ourpeople must require heroic, indomitable resilience against natural disasters,sabotage to community cohesion, cohesion individual - family - village -nations made up the strength to survive, fight and win In the process, womenhave contributed greatly forming qualities and ethics of the nation, has tried topreserve, transmit and promote the quality and ethics that.

1.1.3 Fundamental ideologies and religions

Ideology and society in feudal Vietnam were under the longdomination of Confucianism Religion is a combination of three religions co-existing with Confucianism - Buddhism – Lao-tse Religion

Confucian, which was a political – social doctrine, addresses threefundamental relationships, king and his fellows - father and son – husbandand wife later became a cult religion Confucianism was introduced intoVietnam needs under assimilation policies of feudal China However, as inVietnam, many elements of Confucianism Vietnam have turned, fused witheconomic conditions - of the Vietnamese society After holding theautonomy, the feudal lords took Vietnamese Confucianism as officialideology for national unity and national management By the mid-fifteenthcentury, most of the social relations of the Vietnamese village were underConfucian ideas

Based on Confucianism, education and Confucian civil serviceexamination has formed Only men are allowed to take the exam, and themandarin, so in society at that time very popular iconic woman punching herhusband scraped feed grinding business use and to pack away contest That

image was clearly portrayed in folk poems “When he was reading books, shewas spinning”.

Buddhism was introduced into Vietnam earlier, in the Ly and Trandynasty, was considered the “state religion” Buddhists have a profoundimpact on how people behave Most middle-aged women and older wereinvolved “community for old woman” and how most of the village has at leastone temple to worship Buddha The women seemed to stand on the sidelines

of Vietnamese society in Confucian ideology finds themselves whereBuddhism was skillfully blended with indigenous beliefs

The morphological characteristics of folk beliefs of the Vietnamesepeople incorporate the three religions and social existence in ancientVietnamese people so far:

- The cult of ancestors: the Vietnamese in today appeared about 3000years ago, when agriculture used to pull the plow at the buffalo was born, haschanged the position of men, patriarchy instead for sample generation.Ancestor cult and patriarchal family appeared on the scene So also theposition of the man in the family was pushed to the absolute minimum (nomatter how many daughters a family has, they are considered childlesswithout a son) is from that belief

- The cult of Mother: the worship of Mother with the power tomultiply, storage and protection of human shields is very popular Cult model

is also a place where Vietnamese women were putting the desire to free fromprejudice, binding of Confucianism

Thus, Vietnamese traditional society was influenced by many differentideologies that are mainly on ideological Confucianism, Taoism andBuddhism Three religions co-existing trends and integrate into local beliefssupposedly salient features of social ideology in traditional Vietnam There

are stages that Buddhism, or Confucianism played a major role, the dominantideology at the time but thought elements, indigenous beliefs have never beenlost, as well as notions respecting the mother, women in traditional societiesuntil now remained and promoted.

1.1.4 The structure of the Vietnamese traditional families

The family of Vietnam is a small family, patriarchy The vast majority

of the ancient family of two generations in two forms:

- Parents and the juveniles

- Or parents and spouses of mature sons and their immature children(but not grandchildren)

Although family structure monogamy and family is common but inancient time, there were exceptions:

- Polygamous family (a husband with many wives), in addition to hisfirst wife, he was probably married to another, while the infertile wife without

a son, a husband had the right to probably remarried In many cases, even ifthe wife had a son, husband still took more concubines (his second wife, even

as his third wife), some people were rich or in upper class also hadconcubines

- Family of four or five generations: usually only exists in the way ofwell - educated background families, elite bureaucrats, wealthy ones

Vietnamese families, who are under the legal regime of concrete,expressed in two levels of distinction with clear rights and responsibilities ofchildren grades:

- Distinguish between the first and the secondson, son and daughter,offspring and adoption The first child (the eldest) was regarded as the officialrepresentative of inheritance and worship, fortune more divided If parents

unfortunately died early, he is responsible for both raising them untilmaturity.

Daughter and adapted children also had the right to inherite in terms ofthe law, but the division was always less Customary, daughters are often notshared assets, only a very small part of the dowry of money or marry whengetting married which depended on specific conditions of the parents, because

“the daughter was the child of other people” Therefore, in many villages,they did not eat the wedding hold in the girl and if so, there is almost happyfor her daughter to her husband’s house

Vietnamese traditional family was a manufacturing unit, basic laborframe of organization Each little family had its own economic destiny, inaccordance with the conditions of agriculture land owned water with smalland fragmented, mainly labor handcrafted with techniques used muscles Thismodel was summarized by the folk:

Trên đồng cạn, dưới đồng sâu Chồng cày, vợ cấy, con trâu đi bừa.

Therefore, the division of labor within the family naturally occurred,harmonious gender and age Men (the husband) took on the hard work,requiring labor that was more muscular Women (wives) took these stagesseemed little heavy but it required strength, endurance, such as transplanting,sowing paddy Adults take on the heavy side for young children, especiallythose in small, lightweight, and gradually work up to heavier according to theincrease of age and endurance Smallholders’ production mainly based onhuman beings and their labor This feature leaded to some otherconsequences:

- Early marriage to have more people working on the farm, so veryoften the wife was a few years older than her husband

- Giving a birth as soon as possible not only made “the family wasmore happy” but also had more labour when they grow up; particularlyeagered to have a son, not only for his people worship later but also to addmanpower, offset the loss of human being (daughters growing up and getmarried)

The characteristics of economic, social, ideological, religious beliefsdominate family life as described above have great influence on the marriagecustoms of the Vietnamese people First, the Vietnamese conception ofmarriage is not only to own but the mixed doubles of the family clan.Husband's parents marry and were given to children in order to build thefamily nest for couples The Vietnamese people have the notion couples whoare not husband and wives - especially women - are alone Only when thechildren have their own families, the parents completed their obligations.Marriage of Vietnamese ancient people had the following features:

- The couple does not have the right to make choice, absolutely nofreedom loving, understanding before marriage, new parents decide

- When getting marriage, children, parents do not pay attention to thecompatibility of age, health, and streak and especially true love of the couplebut homogamy peer relations in economics, social status, age, and educationallevel of both parents’ sides In particular, see “origin” and “family line” thetwo sides are top priority (women based on origin, men based on family line).Beauty is not considered important, but pay attention to the ethics of the girl(virtue is more than appearance)

- Vietnamese people got married very early, usually daughter was 13,boys was 16 (daughter 13, son 16 years old) has started a family Many caseswere under the age of marriage Sometimes the parents had formed good

relationship, or homogamy between the two promised to marry each otherwhen we were very small and this promise came true when they first major.

Behaviors in Vietnamese traditional families

Spousal behaviors

Vietnamese family under patriarchy as well as under the influence ofConfucian ideology to the right of the husband, the father, the man waspromoted The wife must obey the direction of the side of her husband,children must be in compliance under the protection of their parents, should

be filial to their parents Only new father husband is the sole legitimaterepresentative of all aspects of the family before the village community andoutside the village as well as the State Confucian teachings were bold in lifeevery Vietnamese family, bound woman, the wife of the director “Threeobediences of a woman” (Listen to her father when staying with her parents,listen to her husband when getting married, and listen to her son when herhusband passes away) Le codes also stipulated husband had the right to leaveher if she committed “six forbidden things” (childless, lustfulness, notworshiping his parents, talkative, theft, jealousy, ill disabilities) This isdefined full disadvantage, disadvantaged women, because five out of sevenarticles of this regulation was not the fault of the woman

However, the paternalistic nature of Vietnamese families was not stricklike the families of the Chinese The woman, the wife Vietnam still has ahighly respected position in the family by two basic factors First, paddyfields agriculture requires the labor of both husband and wife Second,because the woman, the wife who truly strived to worries of family life (theytraded throughout the country to earn extra income on the meager incomefrom agriculture), “managing family money” Wives were an indispensable

part of every family and conjugal harmony is crucial to the success andprosperity of each nest (If the couple join hand, they can do everything).Hence, she is not completely dependent on her husband, but still had asignificant impact on the success of her husband (the husband’s property isthe wife’s effort) In many cases, the husband’s success is due arrangementand strive wholeheartedly sacrifice of his wife

Behaviors between parents and their children

Vietnamese families are nurturing environment, early education forevery human being as a child Parents raised their children, worried of asuccessful school career for their children life; hold marriage for theirchildren constituted “the father’ effort and the mother’s love”

In the education of their children, parents have similar roles, but eachone in favor of each side

- With the stern, the father children obeyed and feared that listened tothe teachings With foresight, the father knew about the quality andcapabilities of each child that included measures of education, especially inprofessional orientation for the

- As the role of “managing the family money”, the mother directlymade ends rice and clothing for the family, undertook the majority of thehouse, with all the love, the mother played a very important role in theeducation of their children In addition to teaching her daughter, her son of theway of working, the mother also tought their children effective ways to treatpeople well, and behave in and outside the home

Conversely, children concerned circle of filial piety, trying to self-made

to repay gratitude to teach parents, grandparents

Behaviors between siblings and relatives

In addition to the relationship if the Vietnamese people also attachesgreat importance to relations cousins, especially with siblings, which isconsidered a sacred feelings are valuable assets, in relation to or greater thanwife husband.

The above analysis can be summarized according to the judgment ofTran Dinh Huou when considering traditional family Vietnam under the

influence of Confucianism The author wrote, “The traditional Vietnamese

families suffered deeply by Confucian, but to find it out, we cannot base only

on the Confucian theory, we should see the family in political institutions economic - social institutions and Confucian management, are conditioned of the institutions that develop athletes” [21, P.89]

-1.2 Cultural attitudes toward the women in Vietnamese traditional society

1.2.1 The strict concept of Vietnamese women in traditional society under the influence of Confucianism

1.2.1.1 The attitude of promoting “Three obediences of a woman”,

“Four virtues of an ideal woman”

Viewpoints featured “Three obediences of a woman”, “Four virtues of

an ideal woman” originated from China were introduced to Vietnam as

teaching decences for women in traditional societies According to “Gia huan

ca”, ideological terms are explained as followed: “The woman who listened to

the teaching of men Therefore, for them, there is no inherent autonomy, but only directed “Three obediences of a woman” As a child according to his father and brother in the family, when they go married and her husband died when their husbands take their son without re-price”[61, P.90] Thoughts on

what the cost is set to tie the woman to the man throughout his life, according

to the law, once a woman is married and her husband completely under her

husband’s family, rarely have the opportunity to change no matter whathappens This is shown clearly thinking lowly status and dependent status ofwomen in patriarchal society Before her husband, the woman sufferedbeyond filial father’s teachings, are entirely submissive absolute authority ofthe father without political or other rights granted under the notion of lifeitself Woman under the standards of traditional societies are not evaluatedaccording to Gia huan ca As for marriage, the father may decide that all girlsshould be obliged to comply When getting married, she had to follow the

concept of “subordinating to the husband when married” This concept means

that home after her husband, a woman devoted to her husband and family tofollow orders and obey her husband without permission requires nothing

The concept of “subordinating to the husband when married” is

one-dimensional concept, because this concept is only for women, but there is nomention of the obligations of men In addition, men also have the right to getmore concubines without his wife’s opinion Gia huan ca advised women tofollow the advice without protests:

Dây bìm cho tựa cành vàng, Trước chàng đẹp mặt, sau nàng đỡ tay Câu “đường cái” xưa nay cũng vậy, Trai làm nên lấy bảy lấy ba,

Lấy về hầu hạ nhà ta, Thêm hòe, nẩy quế có là con ai?

(Gia huan ca)

Taking advantage of “subordinating to the husband when married”

theory, dominant castes in a feudal dynasty also proposed some rules, which

forced woman to kill herself when her husband died or ordained title “The

woman of virtue” promoted the preservation woman virginity after her

husband died Employment is the absolute expression of the theory of

“subordinating to the husband when married” to inculcate this concept onwomen make them invisible as it is noble values, extinguish all of the anti-woman when women want to demand justice for her It is an expression of the

basic definition of the concept “Three obediences of a woman” of Vietnamese

women in general in traditional societies, the starting point is to establishroutines in the family and society, but in reality become a shackle shacklestighten woman must follow the ordering of men without protest

Besides the notion of “Three obediences of a woman”, old social assessment also considers woman under standards of ‘‘Four virtues” include,

ingenious home-making skills, appearance, Proper language and behavior

‘‘Ingenious home-making skills’’ means the assessment criteria ingenuity of

women in the work, such as embroidery, sewing, housework, parenting and

childcare “Appearance” is the gauge of beauty, features of a woman.

“Proper language” is the word assessing a woman’s voice, consistent, gentle, easy listening or not In addition, “Behavior” is the love of a woman with her

husband and children, compassion, self-sacrifice, the faithful golden, etc Thiswas an important criterion to assess woman’s virtue and the first elementbrought into consideration when choosing her man

Phận làm gái này lời giáo huấn, Lắng tai nghe cổ truyện mới nên, Hãy xem xưa những bậc dâu hiền, Kiêm tứ đức: dung, công, ngôn,hạnh.

Công là đủ mùi xôi, thức bánh, Nhiệm nhặt thay đường chỉ mũi kim.

Dung là mặt ngọc trang nghiêm, Không tha thiết, không chiều lả tả.

Ngôn là dạy trình thưa vâng dạ, Hạnh là đường ngay thảo kính tin.

Xưa nay mấy kẻ dâu hiền, Dung, công, ngôn, hạnh là tiên phàm trần.

(Gia huan ca)

Besides these positive aspects, “Four virtues” are the teachings to helpwomen make the best of its obligations to the men, and it was the standardguideline for his life Follow “Four virtues” unfettered woman in the familyspace, without any conditions operating in the social space, to perform theobligation is the woman in the family, although there are other talents they

did not have the opportunity to develop Li-Hsiang in Confucian studies and

the woman - a philosophical interpretation indicated: “Unlike men, women and educated talent is not officially out of society to court may use, for academic talent and they can be confirmed Do not have an opportunity to prove, the high literacy of women is often perceived as a useless surplus and not social, not consistent with the nature or the good people are all accepted received’’ [64, P.113] Woman should not have the talent to work in the field

of political education and the gender bias has created a strong barrier to holdback their shine

“Three obediences of a woman”, “Four virtues” on the one hand is the

evaluation standards of women in traditional society, but on the other hand isthe invisible barrier preventing women stepped outside world, turning theminto completely dependent on men, despised This was the cause of an unjustideology that women follow the general rules are the front, whereas womenwho have inadvertently violated one of these standards shall be considered avillain and suffered a lot of injustice in life

1.2.1.2 The attitude of promoting female virginity, discrimination of their beauty and sexual needs

The word “virgin” actually refers to “good character” of a good

woman It is meant by nature subjective and women voluntarily practice

However, in the male-dominated society, a “virgin” has been male molded into “virtuousness” In the patriarchal society, the view considering “virgin”

as “virtuousness” caused a lot of pressure for women

The policy of praising the virgin women in Nguyen dynasty became a

harsh law as “the holding of the virtuous widow has become traditional

beliefs and worship is recognized by the law official” [61, P.136] Under this

dynasty, there were around 280 women referred more compliments in theGreat Southern continent actually - national history book of this dynasty.These women are all very young age; they may have voluntarily committedsuicide to express her love for her husband Song is undeniable element oftime pressure led them to sacrifice their youth Vietnam feudal society has set

a double standard of “virginity” which originated from China under Confucian notion demanding woman must preserve “virtuousness” This is

totally one-dimensional concept, but has left lasting legacies in traditionalVietnamese culture The images of women through folk also were impacted

by the culture

According to conception of “Ingenious home-making skills, apperance,

Proper language, behavior” has been mentioned above, the “Appearance” to

show the beauty here is second appearance standards “Ingenious

home-making skills”, but the second, when considering the beauty of their

appearance, also Confucian standards and generally avoiding the harsh natural

beauty, their instincts In their eyes, the beauty of “Kieu” is a signal for

disaster, disaster to the woman herself, and was representative of the strength

of the temptation, needed to stay away From the point of view, instead ofhonoring the natural beauty of the woman, Confucian expressed very strict

opinion of women This stigma also became very popular in medievalVietnam, which will be considered in chapter 2 and chapter 3.

A characteristic of women’s sexual life in traditional societies needconsidering Woman in traditional societies must comply with strict rules

“three obediences of a woman”, “four virtues” and the concept of “virginity”,

as a corollary, the notion of sexual life was strict The man can get moreconcubines which essentially satisfy his instinct, whereas a woman when herhusband walked to the adoption of the arrangement of the husband's family

1.2.2 The concept of promoting the women in traditional society

Many Western scholars have identified agricultural areas of SoutheastAsia, including Vietnam Recently, Insun Yu, historian at the NationalUniversity Seuol, South Korea, has published his research on the social modelhermaphrodite and status of women in traditional societies of Vietnam Insun

Yu from the perspective approach of the historians has asserted, “Vietnamese

social tradition had the hermaphrodite even when under the influence of Confucianism and this characteristic was closely related to the high position

of women in society” [63] The above statement shows that in the evaluation

of the research world, the role of women in family and society is huge Theirposition was very high, over the course of history, their position had beenpushed down to make room for men, but they just faded out on the surfacewhile their real role was still high In addition, Insun Yu specified,

“Confucius doctrine affected some people in the ruling class in Vietnam, but

it only happened from Le period” [63] Here the authors emphasized two

points; the influence of Confucianism was not comprehensive Secondly, theauthors would like to emphasize that just from Le on, Confucianism wasinfluential, but before that, in the anti-Chinese cultural trends, the impact ofConfucianism was very faint

During the flourishing period of matrilineal clans, marriage relationshipand social marriage and methods of clan life style established the importantrole of women in all areas Children named after their mother’s clan, woman'sdivision of labor, division of assets, owned fire and other forms of sacrifice,etc Added to that, the respect of the community about reproductive rightsstrengthens the position of women in society That was one of the reasonsexplaining the phenomenon had a large number of gods and goddesses andwomen occupied a very high position in god power In book Holy Mother andGoddess, Goddesses recorded in the area are 362 [26, P 380-421] According

to Ngo Duc Thinh, relic worship goddesses are around 250 per 1,000monuments and cultural relics [56, P.10]

The spirit of matrilinealness among the people marked vividly whenturning to patriarchy Hong Duc Code (1948), the law of patriarchal-feudalstate, an independent Confucianism could not rigid and authoritarian one way

to protect the rights of men, the women’s rights generally guaranteed the right

of marriage: marriage only occured when a woman agreed (Term 314).

Divorce rights: the wife was entitled to divorce if the husband mistreated, etc (Terms 308, 333) On the right to inherit property: daughters might inherit parental property (Terms 375, 376) [62]

The contents and meaning of this legend system has been discussed alot, we pay attention to aspects of their relationship with the community thanmen in the thinking of contemporary folk In this case, the community, thewomen are strong, beyond man, confirmed his absolute power, they broughtthe shadow of the goddess, the mother country in mythology Legend ofTrung’s sisters said that there were hundreds of women minister to followTrung’s sisters fight Oath of this two women in the day of uprising flag,recorded in Vietnamese national historical collection, which has been

interpreted as this two women always uphold loyalty with water, dehydratedput shame on the enemy We can see that the woman in that age, the husband

is not the only leading position in family The woman next in the history ofthe nation to stand up against foreign invaders after the Ba Trieu, Hai Ba

Trung for mettle extremely magnanimous: “I want to ride the wind, be above

the waves, cut tilefish offshore east, destroy Ngo enemy, etc but not be the concubine” [20, P 212] Heroic mettle not only represented the national spirit

indomitable resilience “when the enemy arrived, the women also became the

soldiers” but also rather affirmed the position of women in society, not just in

family size In everyday life, the role that place can be lurking, is thefoundation for men, but will rise when historical claims require replacementman Then, Trung’s sisters, Ba Trieu appearance was majestic silhouette ofthe mother country, back cover, cover for the people of this nation

1.3 Sub-conclusion

Vietnamese women in traditional societies have been the subject ofmany intensive domestic and abroad research scholars for a long time undermany different perspectives, based on different sources, but the conclusionshave been inconsistent, sometimes conflicting

The scholars recognizing the women from the Confucian perspectivebelieved that Vietnamese women in traditional society were inferior to men inall respects, moreover they had to live a miserable and suffering life

These scholars recognizing the women from Vietnam culturalperspectives as a farming culture, Vietnamese women in traditional societyhad an important position and role in real life, especially family life and notentirely looked inferior as Confucianism Some foreign researchers believedthat social patterns of Vietnam’s social model were hermaphrodite, and

Vietnamese women had a traditionally high place much higher than someneighboring countries

Through folk poems , the literary sources to reflect real life of people intraditional societies, we want to understand the role and position ofVietnamese women in traditional societies from two angles subjective andobjective Objective perspective means through folk poems , particularlywhen placed in the main relationships: relationships with men, family, andother social relationships, how the women were seen and assessed Subjectiveperspective means that how the woman evaluated themselves in the aboverelationships, they reacted before the binding of Confucianism laws