MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATIONHOANG THI HONG THAM DUONG VAN NGA CHARACTER - THE HISTORY AND THE LEGENDS Specialized in: Folk Literature Code:
Trang 1MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING HANOI NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION
HOANG THI HONG THAM
DUONG VAN NGA CHARACTER
- THE HISTORY AND THE LEGENDS
Specialized in: Folk Literature Code: 9.22.01.25
DISSERTATION PHILOLOGICAL
HA NOI – 2020
Trang 2This thesis has been completed
in Hanoi National University of education
Scientific Guide: Associate Prof Dr Nguyen Thi Bich Ha
Judge one: Prof Dr Le Chi Que
Judge two: Prof Dr Nguyen Xuan Kinh
Judge three: Associate Prof Dr Tran Duc Ngon
This thesis will be reserved in research and recognition Committee
of Hanoi National University of Education on … hour….date,
… month…year
This thesis can be looked for in National Library of Vietnam
or Library of Hanoi National University of Education
Trang 3LIST OF AUTHOR’S WORKS
1 Hoang Thi Hong Tham (2016), “The assassination of Dinh Tien
Hoang’s king, from the history to the legends”, Collection of research works in Literature, Volume 2 (Graduate Scientific Conference in Literature – 2016), Hanoi University of Education
Publishing house.
2 Hoang Thi Hong Tham (2018), “Continuing making interpretations
on the queens of Dinh Tien Hoang”, Jourrnal of Science and Technology, Danang University, 2 (123).
3 Hoang Thi Hong Tham (2018), “Dương Vân Nga – two opposite
opinions from the public” Journal of Science, Ho Chi Minh city
University Publishing house.
Trang 41 Reason for choosing topic:
The Xth century was a volatile century with great events innational history and also witnessed continuous change of throne,foreign victories Resounding, beating up the rebellion, unifying thecountry to one In the century, there was a character that played animportant role in transferring power from the Dinh dynasty to Tien
Le dynasty, but that character was not honored as historical figure atthe same time because there were suspicion and opposite opinions It
is the mother of king brought Duong's family name, whose life latercalled Duong Van Nga With outstanding contributions in the generaldevelopment process of history, she deserved the posterity toremember merit and honor
Mother of king brought Duong's family name was the Queen
of king - Dinh Tien Hoang, but after the king was murdered, the courtwas in turmoil, she handed over her son's throne to the Chancellor -
Le Hoan and remarried to him With this action, feudal history used
to criticize her, but the major folk legend praised her, acknowledgingher merits to the people and the country The system of temples andshrines is a vivid testimony to the people's gratitude for her Theopposite in assessment, different views in recording merit andimpeachment of posterity has created an interesting of the “double-dynasty's queen”, this suggests us to approach this character from theperspective of folk legends
Considering the Vietnamese legend system, the approach tothe group of people which has mixed opinions in general, the case ofDuong - queen in particular is in the aspect of legend is necessary for
Trang 5the teaching and research of literature current folk Hoping from therealm of legend, the topic will contribute a new perspective on one ofthe special phenomena of Vietnam history.
2 Research purposes
- The thesis aims to find out the similarities and differencesbetween history and legends, from that we can see the views andattitudes of folk authors towards this character, and at the same timedesire to learn more deeply and fully about the genre of legends,supporting our research and teaching legend at the University level
- From the perspective of legends, we place this character in awider range than contemporary culture and society (specifically:spiritual culture, political culture, contemporary art and literature andexisting cases) aiming for a fuller appreciation as well as seeing thevitality of this particular historical figure in the course of time
- Learning history of Duong Van Nga's character research andtheoretical issues about legend and history and along the time axisfrom the past to the present
- Identifying the theoretical issues which are related tolegends to support the research of this thesis
- Researching Duong Van Nga legend through basic motifs
Trang 6- Comparing similarities and differences (or difference)between the history and the legend of Duong Van Nga and explainthe causes
- Giving, explanation and assessment of Duong Van Ngacharacter from a contemporary research perspective
4 Object and scope of research
The scope of research is character Duong Van Nga from areas:history and folk legends
Regarding the scope of documentaries, we have surveyed 27legends (including 13 collected and published legends, 14 legendsstill exist in folk) which related to Duong Thai hau, combined to findwhere having traces, autographs history of this character Abouthistorically, we are interested in the historical books on her people
and times such as Dai Viet historical summary, Multisides of Vietnam history (Ngo Si Lien), and Dai Viet early compilation history (Ngo Thi Si), Vietnam history through small sentences (Ngo Thi Si), Imperial chronicle history outline (National history of Nguyen
Dynasty) to have an overall and systematic assessment of her - awitness of history and humanity wrestling of folk legends
The research space of the project focuses on Ninh Binh andextends to Nam Dinh, Ha Nam, Thanh Hoa and Nghe An provinces,everywhere has legend or worship her
5 Researching methodology:
We use some of the following methods: countryside method,comparative method type, secondary document analysis method, folklanguage study method and interdisciplinary research method
6 Expected contributions of the thesis
Trang 7The subject of Duong Van Nga's character - the history and the legends is the first project to recreate and systematize the legend
of the Duong queen in the Dinh and Le dynasties Based on themethod of comparative type, we also searched and analyzed the sevenbasic motifs that structure the Duong Van Nga legend These motifshave shown the similarity between the legends Duong Van Nga andsome other legends, as well as vivid proof of the common characters
of folk tales
With 27 legends about Duong Van Nga that we have codified,with 11 separate monuments and worship her, with thesystematization of contrary ideas and opinions about her thisdissertation will be a useful references about Duong Van Ngacharacter, and contributed to enrich the legend system of Vietnamesehistorical characters
The analyzing process of seven main motifs, mapping the plotstructure model and comparing the similarities - the differencebetween our history and the legend of Duong Van Nga to highlightthe value of the legend group also as a folk opinion in this complexway of evaluating this historical character
Researching this topic, we want to give her a more worthyposition in culture and society life today From a cultural perspective,the dissertation has approached the aspects: spiritual culture, politicalculture and contemporary art and literature, at the same timeanalyzing the two existing cases of the Duong Thai hau to see that thearguments concerning her in contemporary society are still vividlypresent in the cultural life of Vietnamese people
7 The thesis structure
Trang 8In addition to the Introduction, Conclusion, Reference, Appendix, the thesis consists of 4 chapters, as follows:
- Chapter 1: Overview of researching situation and basictheoretical of the topic
- Chapter 2: Researching historical documents and legends aboutDuong Van Nga's character
- Chapter 3: Duong Van Nga's character through the legend of theauthor
- Chapter 4: Duong Van Nga's character in contemporary culturaland social life
Trang 9CONTENT CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW OF RESEARCHING SITUATION
AND BASIC THEORETICAL OF THE TOPIC
The central task of chapter 1 is to summarize the situation ofresearch and to present basic theoretical issues About researchinghistory and documents concerned to Duong Van Nga's characterinclude chronicles and independent research works On thetheoretical basis, we will present the basic issues, which underlie thetopic such as: the relationship between legend and history, therelationship between legend and worship, legendary issues andlegendary textualization with some other theories
1.1 Historical overview of research topics
- In terms of history: the Middle ages, except: Dai Viet historical summary, Multisides of Vietnam history and Dai Viet early compilation history, Vietnam history through small sentences, Imperial chronicle history outline were very harshly critical
actions: Duong queen crowned and became the queen of Mr LeHoan In the modern era, one of the first people to defend the Queenwas Song Coi (Hoa Bang) in 1942, followed by researchers such asVan Tan (in 1971), Nguyen Danh Phiet (1981), Nguyen The Giang(1982), La Dang Bat (1998), Lee Seon Hee (2000), Tran Trong
Duong (2019) many seminars such as The context of Thang Long capital and career of Le Hoan (2005), Identity, career and monument
of Le Dai Hanh - Duong Van Nga (2007) .There have been
objective, new comments, which are mostly praised, affirming theQueen's merit in the context of a country hang by a single hair
Trang 10- In terms of legends, the stories told about her appeared in
the cast singing medieval period (Hoan Vuong history song, Thien Nam continental language, Dai Nam national history); narratives of
collectors and editors in the modern period such as Nguyen Van Tro,Truong Dinh Tuong, Nguyen Thi Kim Cuc Besides, there arelegends about her currently circulating among the people,concentrated in the localities where her temples such as Ninh Binh,Nam Dinh, Nghe An This piece of legend is currently mainly used
as an adjunct in social and historical studies of the Dinh - Le periodbut has not really paid attention to the central character of the story,Duong Van Nga This is a suggestive way for us to implement thethesis topic
1.2 Many concepts, terms:
- The legend concept: The thesis uses the legendary concept
of researcher Kieu Thu Hoach: “Legend is a form of oral narrative, inthe form of folk narratives; its plot content is to retell stories ofhistorical figures or explain the origins of local artifacts from thepeople's point of view; Its popular artistic measure is rhetoric, exaggerating, and at the same time it uses fictional, magical elementssuch as fairy tales and myths; it is different from fairy tales in that it
is not intended to reflect family conflict, social life and personaldestiny, but often reflects matters of a broad national and ethnic scale;
it is different from myth in the way of shaping nature and society onthe basis of concrete historical truth, not entirely in imagination and
in imagination ”
- The name Duong Van Nga: Surveying the history books oflarge feudal chronologies and some modern history books, we found
Trang 11that during the Dinh and Le dynasties, there was not any queennamed Duong Van Nga However, this name is popular in folk andused by many researchers An interesting coincidence is that historyhas recorded many Queens named Duong in Vietnamese feudaldynasties Besides, the emperor's name of Dinh and Le dynasties waschanged and was associated with her different positions in history.From the above reality, we use the name Duong Van Nga in our thesis
to aim at a unity in the name of this special character
1.3 Theoretical basis
- Relationship between history and legend: This close
relationship has been mentioned by researchers such as Dao DuyAnh, Pham Van Dong, Kieu Thu Hoach, Chu Xuan Dien in theirarticles and researching works The relationship between history andlegend has created a mutual interaction between these two categories.There is a historical phenomenon that goes into legend and is painted
by folk writers, expanding the amplitude of creativity On thecontrary, there is also a historical phenomenon, those are charactersand events that were not historically brought into the history books
by the later historians, creating a certain degree of blur in both historyand legend
- Relationship between legend and worship: From the
fourteenth century, the political writer Ho Tong Thoc had noticed therelationship between “customary” and “temples of worship” Later,researchers such as Kieu Thu Hoach, Nguyen Bich Ha and Tran Thi
An continued to mention the close relationship between legend andworship Legend is a prerequisite for the existence of worship andvice versa, worshiping helps the legend to exist and is widely
Trang 12circulated, leaping through time and space That relationship showsthe inseparable existence of these two elements The rite of worshipbrings sacredness to the legend, whereas, the legend explains andformalizes the worship Both of these elements have contributed toaffirm, honor and sacred characters being worshiped
Besides the two above said theoretical, legendary problems and legendary textualization is also used in the thesis Folklore in
general, legends in particular are handed down and received in twoways: oral transmission and textualization The process of legendbecame easier and more sustainable when it was fixed in writing, but
it is also “cut”, adapted to the ideas, conceptions of the era or thescribe In the process of researching the dissertation, in addition tothe main theories mentioned above, we also apply many othertheories when dealing with the contents of each part or each part ofthe thesis such as the theory of type and motif, the theory of symbols,the theory of reception and the theory of literary comparison
Summary conclusion of chapter 1:
In the first chapter, we have presented: regarding thehistorical overview and theoretical issues Regarding the historicaloverview, Duong Van Nga is mainly learnt in terms of history, whichfocuses on the role of transferring the power and her queen position
of two kings in the Dinh and Le dynasties Theoretical issues that wehave presented, will be the fulcrum for us to research the character ofDuong Van Nga in the legend as well as put this character in thematch between legend and history books These contents areimportant opening lead us to reasearch deeper and more details aboutthe character Duong Van Nga in the following chapters
Trang 13CHAPTER 2: RESEARCHING HISTORICAL
DOCUMENTS AND LEGENDS ABOUT DUONG VAN NGA'S
CHARACTER
As we presented in the theory (chapter 1), history and legendsare two categories that are closely related Within the scope of thethesis, that relationship is vividly expressed through the history andfolklore about Duong Van Nga / Duong queen of Dinh-Le dynasties.Therefore, we used the whole chapter 2 of the dissertation to surveyhistorical documents and legends about the Queen of two dynasties.Our survey of historical documents is not intended to define historybut only serves as a fulcrum and bridge to study the legend of theDuong Van Nga's character That is the main target that the thesisaims to
2.1 Duong Van Nga's character through historical documents
century
Historically, the Xth century was a volatile century with greatevents in national history and also witnessed continuous change ofthrone, foreign victories Resounding, beating up the rebellion,unifying the country to one, during this period, the central monarchywas formed but still simple, not ensuring its intrinsic principles.Feudal dynasties of this period also paid attention to building aculture of national identity Although Confucianism has invadedVietnam since the beginning of the Northern domination, in the 10thcentury, it still didn't position in Dinh - Le dynasty society Thephenomena such as giving the throne, taking the queen of the pre-emperor in marriage the phenomena of history that more or less