Do Lan Hien[1]

Vietnamese folk literature has not been much explored by philosophers. As an orally transmitted tradition Vietnamese folk literature is usually considered non-academic, inexact, limited and backward. However, this kind of popular literature contains many sophisticated thoughts, on the basic of which we can study the faculty of thinking and reasoning of the Vietnamese. In other words, it shows the original nature of the way of thinking of the Vietnamese, the very distinctive features which are not borrowed from the traditions of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. And in order to affirm this point in this paper we will articulate distinctive features of the Vietnamese way of thinking through the folk literature.

In his work Vietnamese thought – the Philosophical Thought of the Common people, Nguyen Dang Thuc points out popular philosophical thoughts of the Vietnamese manifested in material objects like bronze, ancient tombs and so on as well as in spiritual activities such as festivals and folk gatherings and also in their folk songs, poems and proverbs.  According to him Taoist worldview, which emphasizes Ying - Yang integration and the sameness of all things, has exerted strong influence on the view of the Vietnamese on the cosmos and the world, which has been expressed in the image of Lac-Hong’s half man, half animal Bird in the myth of Dragon and Fairy descendants or in folk songs and poems. Moreover, Nguyen Dang Thuc also affirms that even the Vietnamese cult of national heroes as well as cult of gods and fairies is essentially Taoist by nature[2].

According to Professor Tran Quoc Vuong, Vietnamese legends, folk narratives and beliefs such as the legends of Son Tinh – Thuy Tinh, the cult of Hung King in Nghia Linh’s mountain, Thuc King in Co Loa temple, ect, are the “Taoistination” of different aspects of the conscious of the ancient Vietnamese[3]. He claims that in the history of the Vietnamese thought there is no creativity but only borrowing, assimilation and application[4]

In general, most of works on the history of Vietnamese thought share the view that the Vietnamese thought is the development of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism; instead of paying proper attention to originality and creativity of the national way of thinking, which is manifested distinctively in the folk literature, in encountering and acquiring foreign doctrines, many scholars emphasize only the borrowing and influence of these doctrines on our thought.

We do not deny the fact that the Vietnamese culture, through its history, has been under the influence of different cultures and the spirit of three traditional religions (Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism) has served as the core of the worldview the Vietnamese. However, we would like to mention that academic thoughts of these religions are not easily accessible to the common masses, who have little or no knowledge of Chinese language and among the population of Vietnam the also exist many (minor) ethic groups. Moreover, before the advent of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism there had been a culture of Dongson’s Bronze Age in Vietnam. The research on archeological relics and oral cultures has shown that Dongson’s culture had been mature enough to foster the development and flourishing of Viet’s community and Vanlang state, the first state in the history of Vietnam. At that time the Vietnamese already formed their view on the cosmos, the world and life based on the thinking of dichotomy and integration: the concept of Mountain/ Water – Heaven/Earth expressing in legends of Son Tinh and Thuy Tinh (the Spirit of Mountain and spirit of Water), Auco and Lac Long Quan, and especially on the surface of bronze drums. This kind of thinking still influences steadily on the later conception of marriage between Tien Dung and Chu Dong Tu in the famous legend of Da Trach’s Lagoon. Initial elements of such a worldview would have been developed further into a comprehensive system of view on the world, human life if the national history had been able to sustain a continuous and successive development.  However, soon after as the process began the Chinese invaded Vietnam imposed their domination, which lasted more than one thousand years. At that time, Vietnamese culture underwent, according to Professor Ha Van Tan, a kind of coercive acculturation[5]. However, the elements of the original worldview have been transmitted through the oral tradition of the folk literature to make the way of thinking of the Vietnamese distinctive from the traditional thoughts of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism.

The legend of Thanh Giong can serve as a good illustration to the above point: despite being interpreted in a deified language the legend demonstrates the self-awareness of the Vietnamese on their holy duty to safeguard the country from foreign invasion. Once being motivated by this sacred duty the Vietnamese will be able to defeat even the enemies which are much stronger than them. It is what we cannot find in the thoughts of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. Through the long history of struggling with foreign invasion the sense of readiness to fight against foreign aggressors has been developed into a theoretical cognition and theory, which is known as patriotism. Researchers of the history of Vietnamese thought share the idea that patriotism is one of the characteristically philosophical thoughts of the Vietnamese, the guiding thread throughout the national history. Patriotism has served as the foundation for building up an outlook on life – a standpoint on personality, the meaning of life and death, the proper way to conduct and duty to serve the country; a world outlook – a view on the origin of our ancestors, our species and other species as well as the circulation of four seasons etc. The outlook on life and world outlook also express patriotism and profound sense of national self-respect. 

Apart from reflecting on the world outlook of the Vietnamese, the legend of chung’s cake and day’s case (sticky-rice cake and rice cake) also shows that originally Vietnamese political thought is distinctive from that of Confucianism: leaders of the country must be people who are both virtuous and talented and leadership is not necessarily handed hereditarily or handed to elder sons. Thus, that is why in this legend the crown has been handed to Lang Lieu, who was not the elder son of Hung’s King; among population there is a wide circulation of the proverb saying: when people are up (to power) and mandarins down/ sons of the losing king will go to sweep temples    

Similarly we can find the identity of the Vietnamese thinking in the tale of the origin of watermelons. Mai An Tiem dared to go against the King but finally he was the winner. It means that the relationships between the king and subjects, father and sons are not interpreted in the spirit of three moral bonds of Confucianism.

The issues that the folk story of Tam and Cam deals can be typical in many other cultures: the relation between stepmother and husband’s daughter. However the typical Vietnamese color of the story is manifested in the consistent and drastic character of the little heroine Tam against the wicked and cunning stepmother. The image of little Tam reflects the tradition of the Vietnam, a small nation with enduring and resilient spirit capable of fighting against strong and ferocious enemies. The Confucian dogmas of loyalty, filial piety, trustworthiness and righteousness were completely absent in this story. Or in other words, we can find only typical Vietnamese concepts but not moral categories of Confucianism in this folk story. More interestingly, we can find that the interpretation of the death and reincarnation of Tam is different from the Buddhist theory of samsara: according to Buddhism samsara is the circle of suffering, being in samsara means suffering and only by reaching Nibanna can man be really liberated from samsara. But Tam’s ‘reincarnation’ is not suffering but enjoying of happiness and fighting against the evil and wicked… Eventually she won the battle and enjoyed her happiness.

Thus, the folk literature contains progressive elements and fighting spirit encouraging people to question or reject official political thoughts, namely Confucian socio-political thoughts used by the ruling class. The folk literature dares to point out crimes, bad habits and vices committed by the ruling class:  I tell you, my child/ (that) night robbers are criminals, daylight robbers are mandarins, or patrol soldiers are robber’s fathers, When you become a mandarin you can do (and say) the dishonest, every one can beat temple’s drum/ common properties can become private for the crafty. It also criticizes bad customs and rituals constraining human life: a small boat floats on the current/  pity  a widow in the lonely room, or  how much water can be enough to fill up a river?/ how many wives can be enough to make a man content? The folk literature questions many aspects of Confucian three moral bonds and five constant virtues: people believe that it is great honor for a family in which the son is more successful than his father, and husband and wife can change their job in June you plough I rake/ in October I harvest rice you bring me meals etc. Thus people want equality to be realized and developed in their social relations.

Without hesitation we can state that the folk literature is the foundation for building our academic literature. Vietnamese great poets, like Nguyen Du, Ho Xuan Huong, Nguyen Khuyen etc, have closely linked with the folk literature. Ho Chi Minh often use proverbs and folk poems to make his ideas accessible and understandable to people. It is also a common practice worldwide:  La Fontaine’s fables are so attractive because he uses the language of the folk literature of France. Beethoven also found much inspiration in the folk music of Germany etc.  

The works of folk literature in ancient times have been created by people at the dawn of humankind. At that time people already posed the problems of the origin of the cosmos and man. These problems and issues, which have not yet been solved or verified by modern scientists, are regarded as verification-free premises. In his theory of relativity Einstein states that when a thing moves at light speed it will increase its weight, the space will shrink and the time will slow down. This theory has been verified by today’s scientists. One year spent in a space shuttle flying at nearly light speed would be 100 year spent on Earth. In folk stories and tales of many nations the relativity of weight, space and time is mentioned, for example, in our tale of Tu Thuc meeting the fairy. Tu Thuc, a young man, by chance saved the life of a fairy and consequently was invited by the fairy to visit the Heaven for three years. After the visit Tu Thuc came back to his village on Earth he realized that everything have changed so much: all his friends have passed away even his nephew, who was one year old when Tu Thuc left the village, became 80 year-old man because three years he spent in fairy’s world are equal to 80 years on Earth.

Some researchers of folk culture claim that people, who created the above mentioned stories and tales, were ahead of their time and even more advanced than modern scientists on their approach to the origin of the cosmos and “it is possible that many hypothesises on the origin and development of the cosmos proposed by modern scientists who is motivated by the impact of the folk conscious rather than pure scientific reasoning’[6]  

However, in reflecting intuitively the reality of life, which contains many contradictions and diversities, Vietnamese folk literature itself is contradictory. For example on the one hand it states that thieves and robbers become Buddha and Fairies while visitors of temples and pagodas become hemiplegics but on the other hand, it says like: one good turn deserves another/The Heaven will help the virtuous or it is funny that a grasshopper kicks a carriage/ it seems that the grasshopper will be fall off but unexpectedly the carriage slopes down but eggs will be broken when being thrown against rocks etc.   

Moreover, we can see that as the folk literature the products of the masses (mainly peasants), most of views as well as psychological, educational and cognitive aspects presented in the folk literature are incomprehensive and lack of consistency. For example, Human life is long if you know how to use it and lying with an empty stomach is better than working hard eating one’s fill.  Some people believe that marriage is a burden therefore it better stay single to care for oneself but others say a woman without a husband like a hat without a fringe, a boat without paddles. Similarly some think that both virtuous and lascivious women all will die and be buried (six feet of earth make all men equal), other advise men to marriage the virtuous women rather than luscious. In some folk sayings a wife is willing to do support her husband to pursuit a studying carrier but in others people advise young girls do not marriage students who do nothing but eating and lying on bed studying, etc.  

The outlook on the world and human life expressed in the folk literature is limited and contains many negative, mystical and predestined elements: Thanks to Heaven that the weather is favorable; that God is not fair in creating some rich and other so poor, fortune smiles upon fools, one cannot fly from fate, man proposes, God disposes, that marriage is predestined ect.

Despite above-mentioned limitations, the Vietnamese in their life have shown the originality of their way of thinking without relying on Confucian ethical concepts, Buddhist views on human life and Taoist world outlook. It means that Vietnamese folk literature reflects the distinctive features of the way of thinking of the Vietnamese. These features have played a crucial role in the struggle against Sinolization. Unfortunately these ideas have not yet been generalized and theorized. However, they reflect basic elements of the original outlook on the world and human life of the Vietnamese. Therefore, in order to study systematically and comprehensively Vietnamese philosophical thoughts we should pay more attention to the research on the folk literature, on of the valuable heritages of our nation.

 (Translated by Tran Tuan Phong)