Vietnamese literature (Vietnamese:Văn học Việt Nam) is theliterature, both oral and written, created largely by theVietnamese. Early Vietnamese literature has been greatly influenced byChinese literature. AsLiterary Chinese was the formal written language for government documents, a majority of literary works were composed in Hán văn or as văn ngôn.[1] From the 10th century, a minority of literary works were composed inchữ Nôm, the former writing system for theVietnamese language. The Nôm script better represented Vietnamese literature as it led to the creation of different poetic forms likeLục bát andSong thất lục bát. It also allowed for Vietnamesereduplication to be used inVietnamese poetry.
For a millennium before the tenth century, Vietnam wasunder the rule of variousChinese dynasties and as a result much of the written work during this period was inchữ Hán (Chinese characters), works written in chữ Hán were either called Hán văn or văn ngôn.Chữ Nôm, created around the tenth century, allowed writers to compose in Vietnamese using native characters that were coined by usingChinese radicals. It flourished in the 18th century when many notable Vietnamese writers and poets composed their works in chữ Nôm and when it briefly became the official written script during theHồ dynasty and theTây Sơn dynasty.
While theVietnamese alphabet was created in 1631 byFrancisco de Pina, it did not become popular outside of missionary groups until the early 20th century, when the French colonial administration mandated its use inFrench Indochina. By the mid-20th century, virtually all Vietnamese works of literature were composed inVietnamese alphabet. Today, Francophone Vietnamese and English-speaking Vietnamese are counted by many critics as contributors to the ongoing history of Vietnamese literature.
Unlike written literature, early oral literature was composed in Vietnamese and is still accessible to ordinary Vietnamese today. Vietnamese folk literature is an intermingling of many forms. It is not only an oral tradition, but a mixing of three media: hidden (only retained in the memory of folk authors), fixed (written), and shown (performed). Folk literature usually exist in many versions, passed down orally, and have unknown authors.
Myths consist of stories about supernatural beings, heroes, creator gods, and reflect the viewpoint of ancient people about human life. They consist of creation stories, stories about their origins (Con rồng cháu tiên),culture heroes (Sơn Tinh or Mountain Spirit - Thủy Tinh or Water Spirit).
The earliest surviving literature by Vietnamese writers is written inchữ Hán (Chinese characters). Almost all of the official documents in Vietnamese history were written in chữ Hán, as were the first poems.[2] Not only is theChinese script foreign to modern Vietnamese speakers, these works are mostly unintelligible even when directly transliterated from Classical Chinese into the modernVietnamese alphabet due to their Chinese grammar and vocabulary. As a result, these works must be translated into Vietnamese in order to be understood by the general public. These works include official proclamations by Vietnamese emperors, imperial histories, and declarations of independence from China, as well asVietnamese poetry. In chronological order notable works include:
Some of these Literary Chinese texts are still taught in school. For example, the poemNam quốc sơn hà (南國山河) byLý Thường Kiệt, is in the textbook used by schools in Vietnam.[3] The texts are generally and commonly is divided into three sections.
Phiên âm (Phonetic transliteration) - this section contains the original text transliterated into the Vietnamese alphabet. This section is not understood by any Vietnamese, as the text is in Literary Chinese which uses Classical Chinese syntax and vocabulary not used in Vietnamese.
| Classical Chinese | Vietnamese transliteration |
|---|---|
| 南國山河南帝居 | Nam quốc sơn hà nam đế cư |
| 截然定分在天書 | Tiệt nhiên định phận tại thiên thư |
| 如何逆虜來侵犯 | Như hà nghịch lỗ lai xâm phạm |
| 汝等行看取敗虛 | Nhữ đẳng hành khan thủ bại hư |
Dịch nghĩa (Translated meaning) - this section contains the translation of the poem, it is understood by Vietnamese speakers. It is often just a direct translation rather than a full fledged translated poem.
| Vietnamese translation |
|---|
| Sông núi nước Nam, vua Nam ở |
| Giới phận đó đã được định rõ ràng ở sách trời |
| Cớ sao kẻ thù lại dám đến xâm phạm |
| Chúng mày nhất định sẽ nhìn thấy việc chuốc lấy bại vong |
Dịch thơ (Translated poem) - this section contains the translation version of the poem. It is understood by Vietnamese speakers and is a full fledged translated poem.
| Vietnamese translated poem |
|---|
| Sông núi nước Nam vua Nam ở |
| Vằng vặc sách trời chia xứ sở |
| Giặc dữ cớ sao phạm đến đây |
| Chúng mày nhất định phải tan vỡ |
Works written inchữ Nôm - a locally invented demotic script based on chữ Hán - was developed for writing the spoken Vietnamese language from the 13th Century onwards. For the most part, these chữ Nôm texts can be directly transliterated into the modern chữ Quốc ngữ and be readily understood by modern Vietnamese speakers. However, since chữ Nôm was never standardized, there are ambiguities as to which words are meant when a writer used certain characters. This resulted in many variations when transliterating works in chữ Nôm intoVietnamese alphabet. Some highly regarded works in Vietnamese literature were written in chữ Nôm, includingNguyễn Du'sTruyện Kiều (傳翹),Đoàn Thị Điểm's chữ nôm translation of the poemChinh Phụ Ngâm Khúc (征婦吟曲 - Song of the Soldier's Wife) from the Classical Chinese poem composed by her friendĐặng Trần Côn (famous in its own right), and poems by the renowned poetHồ Xuân Hương.
Other notable works include:
| Modern Asian literature |
|---|
While created in the seventeenth century, theVietnamese alphabet was not widely used outside of missionary circles until the early 20th century, when the French colonial government mandated its use inFrench Indochina. During the early years of the twentieth century, many periodicals inVietnamese alphabet flourished and their popularity helped popularizeVietnamese alphabet. TheSelf-Reliant Literary Association with its two weekliesPhong Hóa andNgày Nay were among the most read newspapers at the time, and these two papers brought fame to many writers, includingKhái Hưng,Nhất Linh,Xuân Diệu,Thế Lữ,Thạch Lam andHuy Cận. The success of The Self-Reliant Literary Association also inspired the development of modern literature during the 30s, a thriving period marked by the debuts of important writers, such asNguyễn Tuân,Vũ Trọng Phụng, andTô Hoài.
While some leaders resisted the popularity ofVietnamese alphabet as an imposition from the French, others embraced it as a convenient tool to boost literacy. After declaring independence from France in 1945,Empire of Vietnam's provisional government adopted a policy of increasing literacy withVietnamese alphabet. Their efforts were hugely successful, as the literacy rate jumped overnight.
In those early years, there were many variations inorthography and there was no consensus on how to write certain words. After some conferences, the issues were mostly settled, but some still linger to this day. By the mid-20th century, all Vietnamese works of literature are written inVietnamese alphabet, while works written in earlier scripts are transliterated intoVietnamese alphabet for accessibility to modern Vietnamese speakers. The use of the earlier scripts is now limited to historical references.
After the1954 Geneva Conference, Vietnam was divided intoNorth Vietnam andSouth Vietnam, and the literature of these two regions also developed in different directions. In the North, which hitherto formed an alliance with theSoviet Union, writers were under the control of the Communist Party, although there were some periods of turmoil among Northern writers when the government launched the land reform campaign or whenKhrushchev came to power and denounced the legacy of Stalin. The most well-known writers in North Vietnam of this period wereTố Hữu,Nguyễn Đình Thi,Trần Dần, andHoàng Cầm. In the South, which welcomed a wave of Northerners during the 1954–1955 Great Migration, the writers had more freedom in expressing their political beliefs. They gathered and discussed new styles and different philosophical viewpoints about writing through certain periodicals, one of which was Sáng Tạo magazine, founded byThanh Tâm Tuyền andMai Thảo. There was also one group called Quan Điểm, assemblingVũ Khắc Khoan,Mặc Đỗ andNghiêm Xuân Hồng. South Vietnam's literature went through different ups and downs under the ruling ofNgô Đình Diệm andNguyễn Văn Thiệu. Although it existed for only 20 years (1955-1975), South Vietnam literature witnessed the emergence of various great writers and novels.
Works in modern Vietnamese include:
