Lịch sử

Lịch sử  Việt Nam.

Ca Dao (Chansons folkloriques)

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Chansons folkloriques (Ca Dao)

Version vietnamienne

Les chansons folkloriques sont une tradition orale que le peuple vietnamien a su conserver depuis quatre mille ans de son histoire derrière les haies de bambou du village. Elles sont employées souvent comme une expression populaire pour critiquer la société ou pour décrire les difficultés journalières rencontrées par les paysans.

Comme le Viêt-Nam est un pays agricole, la vie quotidienne  du paysan  est toujours dominée par des facteurs qu’il n’arrive pas à  maîtriser  à l’avance comme  l’inondation, la sécheresse, le typhon etc. Son existence est une lutte perpétuelle. De plus, lors d’une invasion étrangère, le paysan doit prendre les armes et défendre la terre. Dès lors  c’est la femme qui doit assumer la relève et le remplacer dans tous les travaux journaliers. On fait allusion souvent aux paysans et aux paysannes dans ces poèmes populaires en se servant des animaux connus plus proches  d’eux comme l’aigrette et le cochon.  

Etant un animal chasseur-cueilleur ayant l’air noble et innocent dans les rizières et plus proche des paysans, l’aigrette doit chercher durement de jour comme de nuit la nourriture mais elle peut s’envoler librement  à tout moment vers le ciel bleu comme tant de paysans rêvent avoir toujours la foi en l’avenir et l’optimisme contrairement aux lettrés imposant toujours la morale et enserrant l’individu dans un réseau impératif de rites et d’obligations.  Pour le paysan, la liberté n’a pas de prix en dépit du labeur journalier. Quant au cochon, il est synonyme de richesse et de prospérité.

La chanson populaire-ci-dessous est imprégnée de la sagesse et de l’amour de la vie de ces paysans avec un humour parfois acerbe. 

Con cò mà đi ăn đêm,
Đậu phải cành mềm lộn cổ xuống ao.
Ông ơi, ông vớt tôi nào,
Tôi có lòng nào ông hãy xáo măng.
Có xáo thì xáo nước trong,
Đừng xáo nước đục đau lòng cò con.

L’aigrette qui la nuit cherche sa nourriture
D’une branche flexible est tombée dans la mare
Monsieur, repêchez-moi d’ici
Si j’ai mal fait, vous pourrez me faire cuire aux pousses de bambou.
Mais si c’est fait, il vaut mieux le faire dans une eau limpide
Une eau trouble ferait mal au cœur de la  petite aigrette.

Cette chanson folklorique évoque le sort  des paysans face à la calamité sous le régime féodal. Analogue à l’aigrette, le paysan n’échappe pas à la mort mais elle souhaite mourir avec dignité au lieu d’être  blâmé dans le déshonneur. C’est là qu’on trouve l’essence de la chanson folklorique  qui a suscité l’admiration de plusieurs générations des Vietnamiens.

De même, le cochon est aussi un animal souvent cité dans les chansons populaires vietnamiennes. Il est employé d’abord pour décrire la situation d’une personne polygame au Viêt-Nam:

Một vợ nằm giường lèo,
Hai vợ nằm chèo queo,
Ba vợ thì xuống chuồng heo mà nằm

Avec une femme, on a le droit de dormir dans le lit d’une manière convenable,
Avec deux femmes, on commence à dormir tout seul
Mais avec trois femmes, on mérite d’être à la porcherie.

La critique est acerbe pour  les gens qui maltraitent leurs collègues quand ceux-ci sont pauvres et sans ressources et qui courbent leur tête et montrent leur docilité face à des gens puissants et riches :

Mèo tha miếng thịt xôn xao,
Hùm tha con lợn thì nào thấy chi

On s’agite quand le chat happe un morceau de viande,
On reste impassible quand le tigre dévore un cochon.

On se sert de l’apparence  pour donner une indication sur une personne rencontrée :

Trông mặt mà bắt hình dong,
Con lợn có béo thì lòng mới ngon.

En regardant le visage de quelqu’un, on a déjà une idée sur sa personnalité comme c’est le cas d’un cochon gras, on sait qu’il a toujours des boyaux délicieux.

L’esprit moralisateur et observateur des Vietnamiens a  abouti à une quantité de proverbes. En voici quelques échantillons suivants:

Trâu buộc ghét trâu ăn. 
Le buffle attaché hait celui ayant la liberté de manger.

Trai không vợ như ngựa không khấp. 
Garçon sans femme est comme cheval sans frein.

Trai có vợ như thuyền có lái. 
Le garçon marié est  considéré comme la barque dotée d’un gouvernail.

Thuốc đắng đỡ tật , lời thật mất lòng. 
Remède amer guérit, parole sincère blesse.

Trăm hay chẳng bằng tay quen. 
De belles théories ne valent pas une main experte.

Ca dao là truyền thống truyền miệng mà người  dân Việt đã gìn giữ trong suốt bốn ngàn năm lịch sử sau những hàng tre của ngôi làng. Chúng thường được dùng như một thành ngữ phổ biến  dùng để chỉ trích xã hội hoặc miêu tả những khó khăn mà người nông dân gặp thường ngày trong cuộc sống.

Việt Nam là một quốc gia nông nghiệp nên có những  yếu tố mà người nông dân không thể kiểm soát trước được như lũ lụt, hạn hán, bão vân vân.. Sự tồn tại của người nông dân  là một cuộc đấu tranh không ngừng. Hơn nữa, mỗi lần có cuộc xâm lược từ bên ngoài, họ phải cầm vũ khí và bảo vệ đất đai. Lúc đó thì người phụ nữ phải thay thế làm tất cả các công việc hàng ngày. Người nông dân thường được nhắc đến  qua cách ám chỉ  những con vật quen thuộc mà họ  đươc s ống  gần gũi như con cò hay con lợn trong  những  các  câu ca dao.

Là loài động vật săn bắt và hái lượm trông vẻ cao quý và ngây thơ trên những cánh đồng lúa và gần gũi với người nông dân, con cò phải vất vả kiếm ăn ngày đêm nhưng có thể bay tự do bất cứ lúc nào hướng về bầu trời xanh cũng như rất nhiều người nông dân hay thường mơ ước có được niềm tin trong tương lai và sự lạc quan, không giống như các  sĩ phu luôn áp đặt đạo đức và gò bó cá nhân trong một mạng lưới nghi lễ và nghĩa vụ.  Đối với người nông dân, tự do là vô giá bất chấp công việc nhọc nhằn  hàng ngày. Đối với con lợn, nó đồng nghĩa với sự giàu có và thịnh vượng.

Bài hát dân gian dưới đây thấm đầy  sự khôn ngoan và tình yêu cuộc sống của những người nông dân này với đôi khi có chút hài hước chua cay

Con cò mà đi ăn đêm,
Đậu phải cành mềm lộn cổ xuống ao.
Ông ơi, ông vớt tôi nào,
Tôi có lòng nào ông hãy xáo măng.
Có xáo thì xáo nước trong,
Đừng xáo nước đục đau lòng cò con.

Bài hát dân ca này gợi lên cảnh ngộ khốn khổ của người nông dân phải đối mặt với tai ương dưới chế độ phong kiến. Tương tự như loài cò, người nông dân không thoát khỏi cái chết nhưng muốn chết một cách được có danh dự thay vì qua đời trong tủi nhục. Đây chính là nơi mà chúng ta tìm thấy được  bản chất thật sự của bài dân ca nầy.  Nó đã khơi dậy sự ngưỡng mộ của nhiều thế hệ người dân Việt.

Tương tự như vậy, lợn cũng là loài vật thường được nhắc đến trong các ca dao. Trước hết,  lợn được sử dụng để mô tả tình trạng của một người đa thê ở Việt Nam:

Một vợ nằm giường lèo,
Hai vợ nằm chèo queo,
Ba vợ thì xuống chuồng heo mà nằm.

Những lời chỉ trích nặng nề đối với những người đối xử tệ bạc với đồng nghiệp khi họ nghèo khổ, túng thiếu và cúi đầu, tỏ ra ngoan ngoãn trước những người quyền lực và giàu có:

Mèo tha miếng thịt xôn xao,
Hùm tha con lợn thì nào thấy chi.

Người ta cũng dùng ngoại hình để đoán  ra được một người mà chúng ta gặp:

Trông mặt mà bắt hình dong,
Con lợn có béo thì lòng mới ngon.

Khi nhìn vào khuôn mặt của một người, chúng ta đã có ý niệm về tính cách của họ, cũng giống như chúng ta biết về một con lợn béo thì nó luôn có ruột ngon.

Tinh thần đạo đức và quan sát của người Việt đã tạo nên một số câu tục ngữ như sau:

Trâu buộc ghét trâu ăn. 

Trai không vợ như ngựa không khấp. 

Trai có vợ như thuyền có lái. 

Thuốc đắng đỡ tật , lời thật mất lòng. 

Trăm hay chẳng bằng tay quen. 

Củ Chi (Tây Ninh)

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Le culte de la baleine (Tục lệ thờ cá Ông)

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Tục lệ thờ cá Ông

The whale cult

Version française

Version anglaise

Ai đến miền trung và miền nam Việt Nam sẽ  khám phá một tập quán mà theo nhà nghiên cứu Charles J.C. MacDonald  (CNRS Marseille) là một đặc tính của người Việt ở vùng biến  chớ ở miền Bắc thì không có, đó là tục lệ thờ cá Ông (hay cá voi (poisson éléphant) ).  Cho đến giờ nầy  các nhà học giả Việt như Thái Văn Kiểm, Trần văn Phước hay Trần Hàm Tấn thì nghĩ rằng đây là một tập quán cũa người Chàm mà người Việt tiếp nhận  cũng như ở Nha Trang với thánh mẫu Po Nagar nhưng cho đến giờ không có sách vỡ nào chứng minh là tập quán nầy  thuộc về dân tộc Chàm. Theo cố cả Léopold Cadière thì đúng hơn là người dân Việt  theo thuyết duy linh và đa thần nên chuyện thờ cá Ông cũng không ngoại lệ. Ở  đảo Cù lao chàm có hẵn hòi luôn  một đền thờ cá Ông. 

 Người dân Việt ở miền Trung và miền Nam kính nể cá Ông như  cha mẹ  và thần thánh. Còn gọi cá Ông với các tên như sau : ông Chung, ông Khơi, ông Lớn  vân vân…Mỗi khi gặp cá Ông « lụy (chết) » dạt vào bờ, ngư dân đầu tiên thấy được thì  dân làng cử làm trưởng tang, phải chịu tang như là con của cá Ông dù  được cả làng đứng ra tổ chức mai táng và xây mộ.

Theo lời nhà học giả Thái văn Kiểm, dưới thời vua Gia Long, cá Ông được chứng chỉ sắc phong làm thống chế của các biển phía nam vì cá Ông đã giúp vua Gia Long thoát chết đuối. Dưới thời vua Tự Đức (1848-1883) cá voi được tôn xưng là Đức Ngư có nghĩa là cá có đức độ. Theo sách « Gia Định thành thông chí » của Trịnh Hoài Đức thì  thấy chép như sau : Những khi tàu bè găp sóng gió lớn thường thấy cá Ông dìu đỡ mạn thuyền và bảo vệ người dân được yên ổn. Cũng thường đưa người vào bờ khi thuỳền bị chìm đắm hay lúc có sóng gió thần.

Chỉ có từ Linh Giang đến Hà Tiên ở nứớc Nam ta mới có hiện tượng nầy mà thôi chớ ở các biển  khác thì không có sự  giúp đỡ  kỳ diệu nầy. Cũng có phần đúng với sự nhận xét của học giả Anh Quốc  Ruddle Kenneth như sau: chuyện thờ cúng cá Ông cũng là một thể thức nhẳm cố liên kết chặt chẻ các ngư dân Việt sống ở vủng biển.

Version française

Quiconque débarque  dans le centre et le sud du Vietnam va découvrir  une coutume que le chercheur Charles J.C. MacDonald (CNRS Marseille) a considérée comme une caractéristique typique trouvée chez les Vietnamiens vivant le long de la côte  vietnamienne  car les gens du Nord ne l’ont pas eue. C’est le culte de la baleine. Selon certains érudits vietnamiens tels que Thái Văn Kiểm, Trần văn Phước ou Trần Hàm Tấn, ce culte appartenait aux Chams. Lors de l’occupation de leur territoire par les Vietnamiens, ceux-ci n’hésitaient pas à l’adopter comme la déesse Po Nagar à Nha Trang. Mais cette hypothèse n’est pas très convaincante dans la mesure où aucun document n’apporte jusqu’aujourd’hui la certitude à propos de cette appartenance  chame.

Selon le père Léopold Cadière, cette coutume n’est pas une exception car les Vietnamiens étaient animistes et polythéistes. C’est dans l’île Poulo Cham qu’on découvre un temple dédié carrément au culte de la baleine. Ce mammifère marin est vénéré comme  les parents ou un génie. On l’appelle parfois avec les noms suivants : Monsieur Chung, Monsieur Khơi, Monsieur Lớn etc. Chaque fois que  le pêcheur  découvre en premier  une baleine échouée morte  sur le rivage, il sera nommé d’office par les villageois comme l’organisateur des funérailles car il est considéré comme le fils du cétacé malgré les frais des funérailles et de la construction de sa tombe à la charge de tous les  gens du village.  

Selon l’érudit Thái văn Kiểm, sous le règne de l’empereur Gia Long, la baleine reçut un brevet de génie et le titre d’amiral des mers du Sud car l’empereur Gia Long dut sa vie à ce mammifère marin lors d’une noyade. Sous le règne du roi Tự  Đức (1848-1883), les baleines étaient honorées sous le nom de Đức Ngư, ce qui signifie  « poisson vertueux ». Selon le livre «Gia Định thành thông chí» de Trịnh Hoài Đức, il est écrit ce qui suit: Lorsque le bateau  rencontre  de grosses vagues et le vent violent, on voit souvent la baleine soutenir le bateau et protéger les gens. Elle les ramène souvent  sur terre sains et saufs  lors du naufrage du bateau ou durant la tempête.  Dans notre pays, ce phénomène  se produit uniquement de Linh Giang jusqu’à Hà Tiên, mais dans d’autres mers, cette aide miraculeuse n’existe pas. 

Rien ne contredit pas ce que le chercheur anglais Ruddle Kenneth a remarqué dans son livre: le culte de la baleine renforce la cohésion de la communauté des pêcheurs vietnamiens vivant le long de la côte du centre et du Sud Vietnam.

Version anglaise

Anyone arriving in central and southern Vietnam will discover a custom that researcher Charles J.C. MacDonald (CNRS Marseille) considered a typical feature found among Vietnamese living along the Vietnamese coast. MacDonald (CNRS Marseille) considered a typical characteristic found among Vietnamese living along the Vietnamese coast, because the people of the North didn’t have it. It’s the cult of the whale. According to some Vietnamese scholars such as Thái Văn Kiểm, Trần văn Phước or Trần Hàm Tấn, this cult belonged to the Chams. When the Vietnamese occupied their territory, they didn’t hesitate to adopt it as the goddess Po Nagar in Nha Trang. But this hypothesis is not very convincing, as no document to date provides any certainty about this Chame affiliation.

According to Father Léopold Cadière, this custom is no exception, as the Vietnamese were animists and polytheists. On the island of Poulo Cham, we discovered a temple dedicated to the cult of the whale. This marine mammal is revered as a parent or a genie. It is sometimes called by the following names: Monsieur Chung, Monsieur Khơi, Monsieur Lớn etc. Whenever a fisherman is the first to discover a whale washed up dead on the shore, he is automatically appointed by the villagers as the organizer of the funeral, as he is considered the son of the cetacean, despite the fact that the costs of the funeral and the construction of its grave are borne by all the people of the village

According to scholar Thái văn Kiểm, during the reign of Emperor Gia Long, the whale was awarded a patent of genius and the title of Admiral of the South Seas, as Emperor Gia Long owed his life to this marine mammal during a drowning incident. During the reign of King Tự Đức (1848-1883), whales were honored as Đức Ngư, meaning “virtuous fish”. According to the book “Gia Định thành thông chí” by Trịnh Hoài Đức, it says the following: When the boat encounters big waves and strong wind, the whale is often seen supporting the boat and protecting the people. It often brings them safely ashore when the boat sinks or during a storm.  In our country, this phenomenon only occurs from Linh Giang to Hà Tiên, but in other seas, this miraculous help does not exist.

Nothing contradicts what English researcher Ruddle Kenneth noted in his book: whale worship strengthens the cohesion of the Vietnamese fishing community living along the coast of central and southern Vietnam.

Ngô Quyền (Version anglaise)

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Ngô Quyền

Version  vietnamienne

Version française

Faced with the Chinese army, which is accustomed to resorting to force and brutality during its conquest and domination of other countries, the Vietnamese must find the ingenuity to emphasize flexible and inventive tactics adapted essentially to the battlefield in order to reduce its momentum and its material superiority in men and numbers. One must never throw oneself headlong into this confrontation, as in this case one seeks to oppose the hardness of egg to that of stone (lấy trứng chọi đá) but one must fight the long with the short, such is the military art employed by the talented generalissimo Ngô Quyền. This is why he had to choose the place of the confrontation at the mouth of the Bạch Đằng River, anticipating the intention of the Southern Han to want to use it with their war fleet led by Crown Prince Liu Hung-Ts’ao (Hoằng Thao) ordered by his father Liu Kung (Lưu Cung) as King of Jiaozhi to quickly facilitate the landing in Vietnamese territory.

This celestial fleet entered the river mouth as planned. Ngô Quyền had pointed iron-covered stakes planted in the riverbed and invisible during high water prior to this confrontation.  He tried to lure the celestial fleet beyond these iron-covered pointed stakes by incessantly harassing them with flat-bottomed boats. At low tide, the Chinese ships retreated in disarray in the face of attacks from Vietnamese troops, and were besieged on all sides and now hindered by the barrage of emergent piles, resulting not only in the annihilation of Chinese ships and troops, but also the death of Hung-Ts’ao.

 Bạch Đằng river

Ngô Quyền was a fine strategist as he managed to perfectly synchronize the movement of the tides and the appearance of the celestial fleet in a time frame requiring both great precision and knowledge of the place. He knew how to turn the superiority of the opposing force to his advantage, for the army of the Southern Han was known to be excellent in maritime matters, and always made water or the river Bạch Đằng its ally in the fight against its adversaries. Water is the vital principle for the Vietnamese flooded rice civilization, but it is also the lethal principle, as it can become an incomparable force in their battles.  As a high-ranking Chinese mandarin, Bao Chi, later noted in a confidential report to the Song emperor: the Vietnamese are a race well-suited to fighting on water.

If the Vietnamese fled to the sea, how could Song’s soldiers fight them, as the latter were afraid of the wind and the wave (1). Ngô Quyền knew how to refer to the three key factors: Thiên Thời, Địa Lợi, Nhân Hòa (being aware of weather and propitious conditions, knowing the terrain well and having popular support or national concord) to bring victory to his people and to mark a major turning point in Vietnam’s history. This marked the end of Chinese domination for almost 1,000 years, but not the last, as Vietnam continued to be a major obstacle to Chinese expansion to the south.  The leading figure of Vietnamese nationalism in the early 20th century Phan Bội Châu regarded him as the first liberator of the Vietnamese nation (Tổ trùng hưng).

How could he succeed in freeing his people from the Chinese yoke when we knew that at that time our population was about a million inhabitants facing a Chinese behemoth estimated at more than 56 million inhabitants. He must have had courage, inventive spirit and charisma to succeed in freeing himself from this yoke with his supporters. But who is this man that the Vietnamese still consider today as the first in the list of Vietnamese heroes?

Đường Lâm village

Ngo Quyen was born in 897 in Đường Lâm village, located 4 kilometers west of the provincial town of Sơn Tây. He was the son of a local administrator, Ngo Man. When he was young, he had the opportunity to show his character and his willingness to serve the country. In 920, he served Dương Đình Nghệ, a general from the family of Governor Khúc of Ái Châu (Thanh Hóa) province. Dương Đình Nghệ had the merit of defeating the Southern Han by taking the capital Đại La (formerly Hànội) from them in 931 and now declared himself governor of Jiaozhi. He entrusted Ngo Quyen with the task of administering the Ái Châu province. Finding in him great talent and determination to serve the country, he decided to grant him the hand of his daughter. During his 7 years of governance (931-938), he proved to bring peaceful life to this region.

In 937, his father-in-law Dương Đình Nghệ was assassinated by his subordinate Kiều Công Tiễn to take the post of governor of Jiaozhi. This heinous act provoked the anger of all sections of the population. Ngô Quyền decided to eliminate him in the name of his in-laws and the nation because Kiều Công Tiễn asked for help from the Southern Han emperor, Liu Kung. For the latter it was a golden opportunity to reconquer Jiaozhi.

Unfortunately for Liu Kung, this risky military operation ended a long Chinese domination in Vietnam and allowed Ngô Quyền to found the first feudal dynasty in Vietnam. In 939, he proclaimed himself king of Annam and established the capital at Cổ Loa (Phúc Yên). His reign lasted only 5 years. He died in 944. His brother-in-law Dương Tam Kha took advantage of his death to seize power, which provoked the anger of the entire population and led to the breakup of the country with the appearance of 12 local warlords (Thập nhị sứ quân).This political chaos lasted until the year 968 when a brave boy from Ninh Binh, Dinh Boy Linh, succeeded in eliminating them one by one and unifying the country under his banner. He founded the Dinh Dynasty and was known as « Dinh Tien Hoang ». He settled in Hoa Lu in the Red River region and Vietnam at that time was known as « Dai Co Việt (Great Việt) ».

Bibliography

Hoàng Xuân Hãn: Lý Thường Kiệt, Univisersité bouddhique de Vạn Hạnh Saigon 1966 p. 257
Lê Đình Thông: Stratégie et science du combat sur l’eau au Vietnam avant l’arrivée des Français. Institut de stratégie comparée.
Boudarel Georges. Essai sur la pensée militaire vietnamienne. In: L’Homme et la société, N. 7, 1968. numéro spécial. 150° anniversaire de la mort de Karl Marx. pp. 183-199.
 Trần Trọng Kim: Việtnam sử lược, Hànội, Imprimerie Vĩnh Thanh 1928

Sacrifice (Version vietnamienne)

j050807 Culture, Lịch sử, site touristique, Paris, Văn Hóa, Vietnam

 
 sacrifice_1f
Version française
Version anglaise

Cuộc đời  giống như một trò chơi cờ bạc. Chúng ta không có may mắn. Tốt hơn là chết vì đất nước này và để lại tấm gương của sự hy sinh.

Nguyễn Thái Học

 
Việt Nam không chỉ là vùng đất của  các truyền thuyết  và  sĩ phu, mà còn là vùng đất mà con người đã chinh phục từng mẫu đất một, với một  thiên nhiên khắc nghiệt  từ bốn nghìn năm. Cái nôi của dân tộc Việt là đồng bằng Bắc Bộ. Nó được bao bọc ở phía Bắc bởi những ngọn đồi thoai thoải của Bách Vạn Sơn của Trung Quốc và bị  thắt lại ở phía Nam bởi dãy Trường Sơn, một dãy núi gần như không thể xuyên thủng qua được. Nó bị  thu hẹp lại chỉ  còn 15.000 cây số vuông nhưng lắm bùn do sông Hồng lôi  cuốn và nó vẫn tiếp tục bị đe dọa bởi lưu lượng dòng chảy thất thường  thay đổi từ 500 m3 khi nước thấp đến 35.000m3  trong  những ngày có các cơn  lũ lớn.
Để kiềm chế  những trận tấn công dữ  dội của sông Hồng, người dân Việt  phải dùng đến biện pháp xây đê  để ngăn chặn, đòi hỏi họ không chỉ phải tăng cường giám sát đê thường trực mà họ còn phải đấu tranh triền miên. Đối mặt với thời tiết xấu liên miên của thiên nhiên, sự thất thường của Sông Hồng và tham vọng lãnh thổ của Trung Quốc, người dân Việt phải trả giá cho sự cứu rỗi họ bằng công sức và lòng dũng cảm cũng như sự hy sinh của họ trong cuộc hành trình dài  đầy gian nan hướng về đất phương Nam.

Sự hy sinh này không còn xa lạ  hầu hết với  người dân Việt, đặc biệt là những người có cá tính. Nó cũng trở thành một giáo phái mà người ta thích duy trì và ca ngợi không ngừng ở Việt Nam  để tôn vinh cả một dân tộc trước mối đe dọa từ bên ngoài.

Hy sinh là cách an toàn nhất để duy trì sự hoàn hảo của tổ quốc nhưng nó cũng đồng nghĩa với lòng trung thành và nhân phẩm. Một người đàn ông vĩ đại là người dám chịu trách nhiệm trong những thời điểm khó khăn của cuộc đời, nhưng cũng là người biết hy sinh bản thân vì mục đích tốt đẹp, đặc biệt là vì đất nước. Sự hy sinh không thể tách rời khỏi chữ “danh dự” ở Việt Nam.

Hùm chết để da, người chết để tiếng.

Lịch sử của Việt Nam cũng là lịch sử của sự hy sinh.Nhiệm vụ của một người dân Việt là phục vụ quê hương của mình bằng cả trái tim. Những nguy hiểm càng lớn, thì lòng trung thành được thể hiện càng tốt hơn.

 

 Po Klong Garai (Phan Thiết)

Người anh hùng hy sinh thân mình vì quê hương. Dù có chuyện gì xảy ra, danh dự cũng sẽ không bao giờ bị hoen ố. Đây là trường hợp của sĩ phu  Phan Thanh Giản, người ký kết hiệp ước Pháp-Việt năm 1868. Sau khi thất bại trong nỗ lực chống lại người Pháp để bảo vệ ba tỉnh phía tây đồng bằng sông Cửu Long (Vĩnh Long, An Giang và Hà Tiên), ông đã đầu hàng và quyết định tự tử vào năm 1867 vì ông nghĩ rằng đó là cách duy nhất để cứu dân và thể hiện lòng trung thành của mình với vua Tự Đức. Tương tự như vậy, Nguyễn Tri Phương (1873) và Hoàng Diệu (1882), những đối thủ tương ứng của Francis Garnier và Henri Rivière, đã chọn cách tự tử sau khi thất bại trong việc bảo vệ thành phố Hà Nội.

Trong thời kỳ Pháp đô hộ, sự hy sinh đã trở thành ngọn đuốc hy vọng được thắp sáng bởi những con người vô danh như Nguyễn Trung Trực và Phạm Hồng Thái. Người đầu  đã đồng ý chết thay thế  mẹ mình bị bắt sau khi ông thành công làm nổ tàu  « Espérance » trong  cuộc hành trình trên sông « Nhựt Tảo » ở Long An trong khi người sau, bị cảnh sát Trung Quốc truy đuổi trong  cuộc chạy trốn, đã chọn cách nhảy xuống sông tự tử sau khi ông không thành công trong nỗ lực ám sát thống đốc Pháp Martial Merlin trong cuộc viếng thăm của ông nầy ở Quảng Châu vào năm 1924. Ngưỡng mộ lòng dũng cảm và sự hy sinh của ông vì quê hương, sau đó thống đốc Quảng Châu đã chôn cất hài cốt của ông trong một nghĩa trang chỉ dành riêng cho 72 anh hùng Trung Quốc và được gọi là « Hoàng Hoa Cương » trong tiếng Việt.

Nếu  sự hy sinh không phải là một từ vô ích  đối với đàn ông, nó cũng mang một ý nghĩa đặc biệt đối với  ng ư ời phụ nữ Việt Nam. Công chúa Huyền Trân của nhà Trần được cầu hôn vào năm 1306 với vua Chiêm Thành là Chế Mân (Jaya Simhavarman) để đổi lấy hai vùng đất Chiêm Thành là Châu Ô và Châu Ri’. Bà đã phải hy sinh mạng sống và tình yêu của mình vì lợi ích quốc gia. Tương tự như vậy, ba thế kỷ sau, một công chúa của triều Nguyễn tên là Ngọc Vạn, người thường được gọi bằng cái tên « Cochinchina » hay (Cô chín Chin), đã sớm nối gót Huyền Trân để trở thành phi tần của vua Cao Mi ên  Prea Chey Chetta II vào năm 1618 để  đánh đổi lấy sự thuận lợi cho người Việt được  định cư  dễ dàng ở vùng Đồng Nai-Mô Xoài, chính là vùng Sài Gòn – Chợ Lớn ngày nay.

Em gái của bà, công chúa Ngọc Khoa, được gả cho vị vua cuối cùng của Chăm Pa, Po Rômê vào năm 1630 vài năm sau đó. Mối quan hệ này khiến bà trở thành mục tiêu chính của người Chàm  trong mối hận thù đối người Việt Nam. Sự hiện diện của bà trên đất Chàm là cái cớ để Chúa Nguyễn Phúc Tần tiến hành cuộc viễn chinh và sáp nhập lãnh thổ cuối cùng của Chăm Pa vào năm 1651. Không thể trách người Chàm vì lúc đó căm ghét công chúa Ngọc Khoa và vì bà mà họ mất quê hương. Nhưng ngược lại, những người dân Việt  như chúng ta thì Ngọc Khoa  minh họa sự hy sinh cao cả mà bà đã dành cho đất nước và dân tộc.

 

 

 

The much love French

j050807 Histoire, Lịch sử, Văn Hóa

francais_aimes

Version vietnamienne

Version française

Despite 100 years of colonization, the Vietnamese continue to hold a deep sense of gratitude for certain French citizens, particularly those who contribute to Vietnamese society and culture. These people are considered not only great men but also saints. This is the case for Alexandre Yersin and Victor Hugo. The former is one of only two French citizens, along with Pasteur, to have streets named after him in several Vietnamese cities

Yersin (1863-1943)

was in Vietnam in 1889 as a military doctor. He spent his entire life for researching medicinal plants. He settled in Dalat, a health resort in Vietnam. He was the one who introduced  quinquina and rubber trees in  Vietnam. His popularity in the Vietnamese community is largely due to his concern for the underprivileged and the poor among whom he shared his  life  in a  thatched hut in a fishing zone. He died in 1943 and is buried in Suối Giào, southwest of Ðalat, where every March 1st, locals still come to offer incense sticks and fruit. There is even a high school named after him in Dalat. In Vietnam, everyone knows his name and cherishes his memory.

Livingston of  Indochina

Alexandre de Rhodes (1593-1660 )

No one disputes what he did for Vietnamese writing in order to facilitate evangelization. Without this French Jesuit, it is difficult for Vietnam to free itself from the Chinese cultural influence. He established and perfected a first model of romanization by publishing in 1651 his « Dictionnarium annamiticum, lusitanum et latinum » (Tự Ðiển Việt-Bồ-La) based on elements provided by his Portuguese predecessors Gaspar de Amaral and Antonio de Barbosa. Thanks to Alexandre de Rhodes, the Vietnamese have a romanized script that they usually call « quốc-ngữ la tinh. »

Victor Hugo

Thanks to his literary works (Les Misérables) and his humanitarian philosophy, he is adored by the 7 million followers of Caodaism. « Les Misérables » is a thesis novel that addresses the problem of the relationship between human criminality and the social environment. There is a point where the unfortunate and the infamous mingle and merge into a single word: « Les Misérables. »

It is the fault of poverty, injustice, and social misunderstanding, opting for repression. There is always a chance to save hardened criminals through patience and love. This seems to be Victor Hugo’s response through the story of Jean Valjean.

Is it through this humanitarian thesis that Victor Hugo was consecrated by Caodaism in the image of its hero Jean Valjean?

Les Français tant aimés ( Version vietnamienne)

j050807 Histoire, Lịch sử, Văn Hóa

francais_aimes

Version française 

Mặc dù trải qua 100 năm đô hộ, người Việt Nam vẫn luôn trân trọng lòng biết ơn đối với một số người Pháp, đặc biệt là những người có công đóng góp cho xã hội và văn hóa Việt Nam. Họ không chỉ được coi là những người vĩ đại mà còn là những vị thánh. Đây là trường hợp của Alexandre Yersin và Victor Hugo. Người đầu tiên là một trong hai người Pháp duy nhất, cùng với Pasteur, có đường phố mang tên ông ở một số thành phố tại Việt Nam.

Yersin (1863-1943)

đã đến Việt Nam vào năm 1889 với tư cách là bác sĩ quân y. Ông đã dành cả cuộc đời để nghiên cứu các loại cây thuốc. Ông định cư tại Đà Lạt, một khu nghỉ dưỡng chăm sóc sức khỏe ở Việt Nam. Ông là người đã đưa cây quinine và cây cao su vào Việt Nam. Sự nổi tiếng của ông trong cộng đồng người Việt Nam phần lớn là nhờ sự quan tâm của ông đối với những người nghèo và bất hạnh, những người mà ông chia sẻ  cuộc sống trong một túp lều tranh ở một vùng đánh cá. Ông mất năm 1943 và được chôn cất tại Suối Giào, phía tây nam Ðà-Lạt, nơi mà cứ đến ngày 1 tháng 3, người dân địa phương vẫn mang hương, quả đến dâng lễ. Thậm chí còn có một trường trung học mang tên ông ở Đà Lạt. Ở Việt Nam, mọi người đều biết tên ông và trân trọng ký ức về ông.

Livingston de l’Indochine

Alexandre de Rhodes (1593-1660 )

Không ai tranh cãi về những gì ông đã làm cho chữ viết Việt nhằm thúc đẩy công cuộc truyền giáo. Nếu không có vị tu sĩ dòng tên người Pháp này, Việt Nam khó  mà có thể thoát khỏi ảnh hưởng văn hóa Trung Hoa.

Ông đã thiết lập và hoàn thiện mô hình La Mã hóa đầu tiên bằng cách xuất bản cuốn “Tự điển Việt-Bồ-La” (Dictionnarium annamiticum, lusitanum et latinum) vào năm 1651 dựa trên các yếu tố do những người tiền nhiệm người Bồ Đào Nha của ông là Gaspar de Amaral và Antonio de Barbosa cung cấp. Nhờ Alexandre de Rhodes, người Việt Nam có chữ viết La-tinh mà họ thường gọi là « quốc-ngữ la tinh

Victor Hugo

Nhờ các tác phẩm văn học (như những người khốn khổ) và triết lý nhân đạo, ông được 7 triệu tín đồ Cao Đài tôn sùng. « Les Misérables » là một tiểu thuyết luận đề đặt ra vấn đề về mối quan hệ giữa tội phạm của con người và môi trường xã hội. Có một điểm mà những điều bất hạnh và tai tiếng hòa trộn và hợp thành một từ duy nhất, đó là sự khốn khổ.

Đó là lỗi của đói nghèo, bất công và hiểu lầm xã hội, lựa chọn sự đàn áp. Luôn luôn có cơ hội để cứu những tên tội phạm cứng đầu bằng sự kiên nhẫn và tình yêu thương. Có vẻ như đây chính là câu trả lời của Victor Hugo thông qua câu chuyện về Jean Valjean.

Có phải thông qua luận án nhân đạo này mà Victor Hugo đã được Cao Đài giáo tôn vinh theo hình ảnh người anh hùng Jean Valjean không?

 

The bamboo ( Cây Tre)

j050807 Art, Culture, Histoire, Lịch sử, Traditions

 

Version française

Version vietnamienne

Bamboo is closely linked to Vietnamese daily life. When we’re young, we fall asleep in the swing of a bamboo cradle. When we’re old and dying, we lie in a coffin lowered into the grave with bamboo ropes. French journalist Jean Claude Pomonti, a specialist in Southeast Asian issues, has often humorously referred to our civilization as the “bamboo civilization” in his columns for the newspaper “Le Monde”, because bamboo is an important part of our culture. Thanks to scientific research, we know that 39,000 years ago, bamboo was the main resource used by human groups in Southeast Asia, but due to the extremely unfavourable preservation conditions for organic materials, this use was no longer visible several thousand years later. In 1948, the famous geographer Pierre Gourou spoke of a “plant civilization” for Indochina, and more specifically for Vietnam.

It is a plant with multiple uses in Vietnam. Thanks to this plant, everything is possible in this country where nothing is easy and where we do not let ourselves be put off or stopped by obstacles. First, in our history, bamboo is evoked in the myth of the giant child of the village of Gióng. This man grew enormously in a few weeks to chase away the armies coming from the North (the Shang) and on his iron horse breathing fire, he succeeded in pulling out bamboo forests to defeat his enemies. Then in the 13th century, a resounding victory was led by the generalissimo Trần Hưng Đạo against the Mongol hordes of Kublai Khan on the Bạch Đằng River with junks and boats made of wood and bamboo. The victory of Dien Bien Phủ was also achieved in 1954 against the French expeditionary force through the massive and clever use of bamboo poles and bamboo-trimmed bicycles in supplying the front with food and ammunition and i clever use of bamboo poles and bamboo-trimmed bicycles in supplying the front with food a around the fortified camp of Dien Bien Phủ, which thus facilitated intensive artillery bombardment, day and night.

Through history, we can see that there is a long-standing deep attachment of the Vietnamese people to this bamboo. It is this plant that the Vietnamese poet Nguyễn Duy tries to humanize and describe for the noble qualities in his poem entitled « Tre Việt Nam (Vietnamese bamboo) » from which some verses are extracted below:

Bão bùng thân bọc lấy thân
Tay ôm, tay níu tre gần nhau thêm.
Thương nhau, tre chẳng ở riêng
Luỹ thành từ đó mà nên hỡi người.

During the storm, the bamboos protect their bodies.
Arms clasped together, they try to get closer to each other.
Filled with affection, they cannot live apart.
Thus, the bamboo fortress is born.

In food, bamboo shoots are used in the preparation of many dishes. They are necessarily cooked or canned in order to remove the natural toxins they contain. There are many proverbs and popular songs alluding to childhood by evoking bamboo shoots. We say măng sữa (bamboo shoot to breastfeed) or tuổi măng sữa (tender age) to refer to childhood. We usually say: Măng không uốn thì tre uốn sao được. (If we do not straighten the shoot, how can we straighten the bamboo?). The bamboo shoot reminds us of the notion of the passage of time. We must not let lost time slip away because bamboo grows for a time and man has only one age. We must enjoy time before it passes and old age catches up with us. This is what we find in Vietnamese folk songs and sayings:

Măng mọc có lứa người ta có thì.

There’s a season for bamboo shoots, just as there is a time for people. Or

Khi đi trúc chưa mọc măng
Ngày về trúc đã cao bằng ngọn tre.

The bamboo hadn’t yet sprouted when I left.
It had already reached the top of the bamboo when I returned.

Or

Tre già măng mọc

When the bamboo grows old, the shoots begin to emerge.

This expression somehow reflects our hope for youth and future generations.

In the past, the Vietnamese used this hollow bamboo, so strong and so light, to build partitions and hedges several meters high to protect their village from enemies and bandits. This material is found everywhere in the house, from the framework, walls, partitions to the floors. Everything is made with this hollow wood (furniture, beds, tables, various accessories, etc.), even a drinking cup. Torn into strips, it is used as ropes and strings. Bamboo filaments are used to make baskets of all kinds to facilitate transport on land (baskets) or on water (round baskets). It is also used to make conical hats to shelter from the rain and the sun. Thanks to this plant, we know how to create everyday tools (buckets for drawing water, pipes for smokers, water pipes, etc.).

It is also used as food for animals and even for villagers. They eat the most tender bamboo shoots like asparagus. The roots of this hollow wood are even dug up and dried in the sun for weeks on end. As Tet approaches, it is used as firewood to bake sticky rice cakes or to protect against the cold, especially in winter in northern and central Vietnam. Bamboo thus becomes something « sacred, » intimate and specific to the village. It is thanks to these hedges made from this plant that the village regains not only its tranquility and privacy, but also its traditions and customs. Bamboo thus becomes the protector of the villagers. This is why a Vietnamese proverb says that

The king’s authority stops before the village’s bamboo hedges. (Phép vua thua lệ làng)

It is also only in villages today that we find this incomparable plant that makes life easier for villagers. Bamboo and the village are so closely linked that they are often compared to a person linked to his shadow. This is why we find this evocation in several Vietnamese poems. This impression, every Vietnamese will probably have it when passing through his native village through the following four verses:

Thì bao nhiêu cảnh mơ màng
Hiện ra khi thoàng cỗng làng tre xanh.

As we indulge in dreaming, we see the entrance to the village and the bamboo appear from afar.

Dừng bước nơi đây lòng ngỗn ngang
Ngùi trông về Bắc nhớ tre làng

When we stop here, we feel helpless
When we remember our homeland with emotion, we are reminded to see the village bamboo again.

 

To find the bamboo is to find the village. That’s why bamboo has become the representative symbol of Vietnam.

 

 

 

 

 

Cham elements in Vietnamese culture (Yếu tố Chàm trong văn hóa Việt)

j050807 Art, Histoire, Lịch sử, Traditions, Văn Hóa

 

Version française

Version vietnamienne

In Vietnamese folklore, when speaking of Princess Huyền Trân (Jade Jenny), the Vietnamese people deplore not only the fate reserved for her but also the promise of King Trần Nhân Tôn to grant his daughter’s hand in marriage to the Cham King Chế Mân (Jaya Simhavarman III) during his special trip to the capital Vijaya (Bình Định) through the following folk song:

Tiếc thay cây quế giữa rừng, 
để cho thằng Mán, thằng Mường nó leo.

It is a shame to let a Man or a Mung climb the cinnamon tree in the middle of the forest. However, we do not know that the founder of the « Bamboo Forest » sect was a talented politician with great insight who wanted to expand his territory in the South and maintain good neighborly relations in the fight against the danger coming from the North.

 Thanks to the support provided by the Đại Việt kingdom in blocking the land passage, the Yuan army lost the battle for the second time by attacking Champa under the command of the valiant King Chế Mân with 20,000 soldiers. As for Chế Mân, the two provinces of Châu Ô and Châu Ri were not entirely under his control because their inhabitants had fled to the forest or to places where the Cham government still fully exercised its authority, the other three provinces Bố Chinh, Ma Linh and Địa Lý having long since been ceded to King Lý Thánh Tôn by the Cham king Chế Củ (Rudravarman III) in exchange for peace and his liberation.Now, by ceding two more provinces, Châu Ô and Châu Ri, it seemed difficult for him to speak to his people, especially since he was the hero of the Cham nation who had managed to win the victory against the Yuan army. The marriage of Huyền Trân was an excellent solution for the political situation of the time. This event also demonstrates the use of the « non-violence » method of the founder of « Bamboo Forest » to resolve conflicts in Buddhism according to the Vietnamese newspaper Giác Ngộ, but no one expected the sudden death of the king forcing Huyền Trân to accompany him and die with him on the funeral pyre according to Cham custom.

According to researcher Po Dharma, this is indeed a staging of the story of the organized rescue of Huyền Trân and the broken promise of the Trần dynasty, which transformed this incident into a deep discord between the two peoples, thus leading to the decline of the Champa kingdom a few centuries later with the dazzling victory of King Lê Thánh Tông in the citadel Đồ Bàn (Vijaya).

Is this ironic folk song true or not? Is Cham culture so mediocre that people despise it like this? We also need to know who they are, where they come from with the practices of a different culture carrying cultural and traditional elements specific to India. The temples and towers they possessed on the current central coast stretched over 1,000 kilometers with statues of gods of a strange and different religion. Although they were in ruins or intact, they were still invisible threats deeply rooted in the minds of our people like the statues of Brahma, Shiva, Vishnu, which created more or less anxiety, confusion and fear as is the case of Lord Tiên (Nguyễn Hoàng) who was in charge of governing the territory of Thuận Hóa (Binh Trị Thiên) in Đàng Trong, a remote, arid and dangerous region.

Tới đây đất nước lạ lùng   
Con chim kêu cũng sợ, con cá vẫy vùng cũng lo.

This is a very strange place.

A bird’s cry frightens me as much as the wriggling of a fish in a stream.

This is why, according to Abbot Léopold Cadière, in order to reassure the soul and gain peace, our people do not hesitate to introduce Cham cultural sites into their world of religious belief and transform them into places of worship such as the Pagoda of the Celestial Lady (Thiên Mụ), the Hòn Chén palace, the Po Nagar temple etc.

Throughout the travel to Thuận Hóa, the group of faithful and trusted men of Nguyễn Hoàng were all from Thanh Hóa and integrated into that of Nghệ An during the first migration in the 14th century when the provinces of Châu Ô and Châu Rí belonged to the Đai Việt kingdom. The inhabitants of Thuận Hóa were called at that time by the name of « Thanh Nghệ people » (Thanh Hóa-Nghệ An). Having left without knowing the date of return, they had to endure all the hardships and sufferings from then on. But, having strengthened the will of an adventurer in a foreign land, sometimes, they could console themselves. That is why there is a folk song tinged with philosophy as follows:

Măn giang nấu cá ngạnh nguồn,
Tới đây nên phải bán buồn mua vui.

Nothing beats wild bamboo shoots cooked with catfish,
Once you’re there, you have to sell your sadness for a little hope.

Having arrived first, the inhabitants of Thanh Nghệ were not numerous in the current region of Quảng Tri. They were forced to live in harmony with the Chams who remained there. At first, Nguyễn Hoàng still spoke with a northern accent, but over the course of only a few generations, his heirs and residents were influenced by the social environment resulting from the mixing of the two peoples, especially at the time of the breakdown of relations and trade by taking the Gianh River as the border between Đàng Trong and Đàng Ngoài and especially after the construction of the rampart (Trường Dục)  of Đào Duy Từ, which gave them a particular tone, recognizable to the inhabitants of Quảng Bình and Quảng Trị.

According to scholar Thái Văn Kiểm, the Huế accent was formed later when Lord Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên (Lord Sãi), decided to move the capital to Phước Yên village, Quang Điền district and Lord Thượng (Nguyễn Phước Lan) to Kim Long village in 1636. Through the interaction of two ancient cultures, Việt Mường (Thanh Hóa and Nghệ An) and Cham, a new way of life emerged focusing on food (eating spicy food, shrimp paste, pissalat etc.), treating diseases with southern medicinal plants, cultivating Cham rice, building boats with the Cham model (thuyền bầu) for trading at sea, water management and the construction of dikes along rivers and the use in fine arts, of the five most distinctive colors among which is purple, a color that does not provoke sad emotions and which Cham women still love and use today. These are the new characteristics of the Việt-Cham community that are often seen in Binh Trị Thiên and are now called the identity of Huế.

According to American historian Michael Vickery, based on comparative linguistic analysis, it is known that the Cham came from the island of Borneo by sea at the end of the first millennium BC. Their language belonged to the Austronesian languages. They often settled in places suitable for transporting goods on the river. Known as the Vikings of Southeast Asia, they used to cause trouble at sea by plundering ships in the southernmost coastal region of Nhat Nam district, which was directly under the administration of Giao Chau (the land of the Vietnamese) when the latter was still annexed by the Chinese. According to the observation of Vietnamese archaeologist Ngo Van Doanh, they often preferred to live in coastal plains located between three slopes of high mountains and a slope leading to the sea, all equipped with one or more fortresses.

Based on Chinese historical documents and epigraphic inscriptions, it is known that the Lâm Ấp (Lin Yi) country was transformed into the kingdom of Champa (Champapura) from the beginning of the 7th century with Simhapura (Trà Kiệu) as its capital. It is thanks to the name Champapura that we can guess that Champa is a kingdom composed of several city-states (pura). It is in some ways a federation of many city-states. The most powerful city-state is chosen to assume the role of « leader » (main role) and thus becomes Champapura (the capital of Champa). The dynasty of this city-state thus controls the entire kingdom of Champa.

According to archaeologist Trần Quốc Vượng, the Cham used to use the following cultural model, which always consisted of 3 parts: sanctuary (mountain), citadel (capital) and port (economic center) in their city. This type of model has been seen repeated in every Cham city-state from Quảng Trị to Bình Thuận. According to the observation of archaeologist Trần Kỳ Phương, city-states that built grandiose religious sites must be able to mobilize a necessary human resource that they can feed with possible economic potential. The Cham are generally oriented towards maritime trade because their arable land found in the coastal valleys of central Vietnam is very limited.

How many times has human history demonstrated that a superior civilization has a transformative effect on an inferior one? The more powerful ancient Rome, at the time of its conquest, was subject to the influence of Greek civilization. Similarly, the Mongols or Manchus, at the time of their conquest in China, were subsequently assimilated by the latter. Our Đại Việt kingdom was no exception either. Being accustomed to denigrating and despising the Chams (or Mans), could our Đại Việt have anything to do with this conquest? He received many things during the punitive military expedition of King Lê Đại Hành to Champa in 982. To enhance his prestige and celebrate his victory, he brought back not only an Indian monk (Thiên Trúc) who was at the monastery of Đ ồng Dương (present-day Quảng Nam) but also a hundred musicians and dancers (Thai Van. Kiem:64).

It can be said that since then, royal music included many elements of Champa. In 1069, King Lý Thánh Tông ordered the court musicians to compose a kind of slow and sad melody, in the style of the Cham people called Chiêm Thành Âm. Then, during the reign of Lý Cao Tôn, there were “Southern Rhymes (Airs of the Southerners)” such as Ha Giang Nam, Ai Giang Nam, Nam Thuong etc. There was also a Cham musical instrument called “Rice Drum” or “Phạn sĩ” which our people frequently use, according to the book titled “Annam chí lược (Abridged Records of Lê Tắc). As for sculpture, the Vietnamese lived under the southern influence of the South to create artifacts such as the head of a dragon from the Lý-Trần dynasty resembling that of a makara dragon or the Siamese duck (vịt siêm) with the Hamsa goose of Champa for example, all of which were found in the imperial citadel Thăng Long on the tiled roofs and gables of buildings up to the decorated motifs on bowls (Hồ Trung Tú:264). Another Cham element of the Lý dynasty that can be observed in the field of architecture and to which few people pay attention is that the pagodas of this period often had square plans, similar to the model of Cham towers (kalan).

The Dien Huu Pagoda (One Pillar Pagoda) originally consisted of a square main hall only 3 meters across and a single entrance similar to that of a Cham tower, erected on a column 4 meters high above the water surface. As for the barcarolles of the coastal region, such as the song of the second oar (hò mái nhì) or song of the propelling oar (hò mái đẩy), they all received Cham influence. According to musicologist Professor Trân Văn Khê, the boatmen’s songs of Huế (or barcarolles) and the Pelog songs of Java (Indonesia) both present the same melodic line. He concluded that after centuries of exchange, Vietnamese music was tinged with Cham color. According to researcher Charles J.C. MacDonald (CNRS Marseille), whale worship is considered a typical characteristic found among the Vietnamese living along the coast of Central and South Vietnam, as people in the North did not have it. Some Vietnamese scholars such as Thái Văn Kiểm, Trần văn Phước, or Trần Hàm Tấn have confirmed that this cult belongs to the Chams.

Thanks to these Cham elements, Vietnamese culture has become rich and diverse because, in addition to the Việt-Mường (Bai Yue) culture, it has also inherited, more or less, since the founding of the country, traditions from two ancient cultures: India and China.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The long march towards the South: the end of Champa.

j050807 Art, Chămpa, Histoire, Lịch sử, Văn Hóa

Vietnamese version

Version française

According to scholar Thái Văn Kiểm, our people’s long march towards the South is an obvious historical fact that veritable foreign historians must recognize, and it is also a source of great pride for our nation. For over a thousand years, the Vietnamese people have crossed more than five thousand kilometers, or 1,700 meters a year or 5 meters a day. This speed is even less than that of a snail. This proves that our people have encountered many obstacles and have sometimes had to stop and take a step back on this long march. In a way, this folk song evokes the anxiety and fear of the Vietnamese people on this journey strewn with pitfalls:

Đến đây đất nước lạ lùng
Con chim kêu cũng sợ, con cá vẫy vùng cũng lo.

This land seems very strange to them
The chirping of birds also frightens them, as does the restlessness of fish.

Despite the fact that our population stood at around one million against a giant China estimated at the time at over 56 million subjects, we were led to discover the incredible talent of Ngô Quyền, who succeeded in freeing our people from Chinese domination for almost a thousand years. Unfortunately, he reigned for only 5 years. Then came the period of national unrest with the twelve warlords. Fortunately, the hero Đinh Bộ Lĩnh from Ninh Bình province emerged. He succeeded in eliminating them, unifying the country under his banner and founding a new dynasty, the Đinh dynasty. During this period, our country had just become an independent nation, but was confined only to the Red River delta and the small plains along the central coast of North Viet Nam (Thanh Hóa, Nghệ An).

 In the North, it is difficult to begin territorial expansion because of the presence of China. This country had a large population and always caressed  the intention of annexing our country at the opportune moment, whatever the reigning dynasty. At the West stand the rugged Trường Sơn mountain range, which is difficult to cross, and at the East is located  the East Sea, which Nguyễn Trãi had occasion to mention in the “Proclamation on the Pacification of the Ngô (Bình Ngô Đại Cáo)” as follows:

Độc ác thay, trúc Nam Sơn không ghi hết tội,
Dơ bẩn thay, nước Đông Hải không rửa sạch mùi.

What cruelty! The bamboo of the southern mountains can’t record all their crimes,
What filth! The water of the Eastern Sea can’t wash away their stench.

to allude to the cruelty of the Ming (Chinese) that the East Sea failed to erase during the ten years of their aggression against the Great Yue (Đại Việt). This is a pressure that our people always had to endure during the course of our nation’s formation. Only in the South lies the only way for our nation to expand its borders, avoid extermination and maintain national independence, especially as our ancestors remain the only tribe of the Bai Yue who have not been assimilated by the Chinese since the time of Qin Shi Huang Di (Tần Thủy Hoàng).

However, at this moment in time, in this march  towrds the South,  our people have two undeniable advantages, one of which is to have a brilliant strategist to defend against  Chinese invaders in the North, and the other is to succeed in involving the mass popular movement in this expedition for legitimate reasons. In the South, there is a kingdom called Lin Yi (later Champa), which succeeded in gaining independence from China in Nhật Nam in 192 A.D., and used to provoke unrest on our country’s border. This kingdom occupies an important position on the trans-Asian sea route coveted by the envious (Manguin 1979: 269). The capture of Champa can be considered a major success in the control of the East Sea and passing ships (Manguin 1981: 259). Today, it’s still a burning issue that attracts the attention of world powers.

The Great Yue (Đai Việt) was a country that had just had its first king when it was caught in a pincer movement between China and Champa. These two countries initially acted in concert to destroy our country. Considered a warrior king and a strategic visionary, King Lê Đại Hành (or Lê Hoàn) had both of these advantages. He succeeded in defeating Hầu Nhân Bảo‘s Song army in 981 at Chi Lăng (Lạng Sơn) and in punishing Champa during an expedition mounted within a year to drive the Chams out of Amaravati province (Quảng Ngãi) after their clumsy king Bề Mi Thuế had imprisoned Đại Việt’s messengers, Từ Mục and Ngô Tử Canh sent to Champa in an attempt to smooth over disagreements. He destroyed the capital Indrapura (Quảng Nam) and the shrine in 982 and killed its king Paramec Varavarman (Bề Mi Thuế).

He then handed over control of operations in the capital Indrapura and northern Linyi to his subordinate Lưu Kế Tông before returning to his capital. Through this disguised power of attorney, we can see more or less clearly Lê Đại Hành’s intentions to expand the territory, but he was afraid of perhaps receiving reprimand from the Song dynasty at this time. That’s why he didn’t want to reveal them.

According to “Les Mémoires historiques du Grand Viet au complet (Đại Việt Sử Ký Toàn Thư)”, Lưu Kế Tông went into hiding in Champa. That’s why King Lê Đại Hành had to send his unnamed adopted son to capture and kill him in the year 983. But in Song history, it’s worth noting that Lưu Kế Tông became king of Champa three years later, from 986 to 989, and he even sent an ambassador to the Song dynasty to ask the latter to recognize him as ruler of Champa. This shows that there is something at odds with what has been written in our history. It can be explained that Lưu Kế Tông was initially tasked with fulfilling a mission that King Lê Đại Hành had entrusted to him. As Lưu Kế Tông managed to gain fairly strong local support, he attempted to pose as king and gave up honoring his mission.

But thanks to the restoration of the Cham people’s growing military strength in Vijaya (Chà Bàn, Bịnh Định), King Harivarman II succeeded in defeating Lưu Kế Tông, then retaking the whole province of Amaravati and once again settling in the capital Indrapura. As for Lưu Kế Tông, according to French researcher Georges Cœdès, he had passed away. He is no longer mentioned in history. Despite intensified looting along the northern frontier, Champa was now under constant and increasing pressure from our Annam. According to the scholar Trần Trọng Kim’s “History of Vietnam”, China always granted our king the title “Prince of Jiaozhi Province (Giao Chỉ quận vương)” because it continued to regard our country, Jiaozhi (or Giao Chỉ) as a Chinese province at the time of its rule. It was only under King Lý Anh Tôn that our king officially received the title of King of Annam. Since then, our country has been called Annam.

marche_sud

Under the Lý dynasty, on the pretext that Champa had not paid tribute to the Annam kingdom for 16 years, King Lý Thái Tông was forced to go and fight Champa in 1044. The Chams suffered many casualties. Cham general Quách Gia Di decided to slash his king Sạ Đẩu (Jaya Simhavarman II), the last king of Champa’s Indrapura dynasty, and cut off his head to demand surrender. In 1069, based on the reason of not honoring the payment of tribute by Champa for 4 years, King Lý Thánh Tông decided to personally take 100,000 soldiers to fight Champa, succeeded in capturing Chế Củ (or Jaya Rudravarman III) in Cambodia where he sought refuge at that time and brought him back to the capital Thăng Long. To redeem his freedom and return to his homeland, Chế Củ offered in exchange the three northern provinces of Champa roughly equivalent to two provinces of Quảng Binh and Quảng Tri (Georges Cœdès: 248).

It can be said that from this transaction, Đại Viêt began to expand to new lands and encouraged people to live there under the reign of King Lý Nhân Tôn after Lý Giác‘s revolt in the Nghệ An region. On the advice of this rebel, King Chế Ma Na (Jaya Indravarman II) attempted to retake the three exchanged provinces, but was subsequently defeated by the famous general Lý Thường Kiệt, and this time had to definitively retrocede these three retaken provinces.

According to scholar Henri Maspero, during the reign of Lý Thần Tông, our country was invaded by the warrior king Sûryavarman II of Chenla (Chân Lạp). The latter used to often drag Champa into war by constantly inciting or coercing it against our country in the Nghệ An and Thanh Hóa regions. Then, as the two countries became hostile, there was a war lasting almost a hundred years. This was to weaken them in the face of the Annam country, which became powerful at the beginning of the 13th century with a new dynasty, the Trần dynasty. It was also a time when the entire Eurasian region was being invaded by the Mongols. But it was also a time when neighboring Annam and Champa enjoyed good relations, and Champa regained peace and stability under King Indravarman V (1265-1285).

It was thanks to this rapprochement that the Vietnamese and the Chams, united in the same struggle and acting together against a common enemy, the Yuan empire of Kubilai Khan (Đế Chế nhà Nguyên của Hốt Tất Liệt), together achieved military feats of great historical significance not only for our people but also for Southeast Asia. Thanks to this union, the two peoples defeated the Mongol empire. In order to strengthen the hitherto non-existent good understanding between the two peoples, King Trần Nhân Tông visited the Kingdom of Champa for nine months as spiritual leader of the Đại Việt Zen sect on May 11, 1301.

Thanks to this visit, he promised to grant the hand of his daughter, Princess Huyền Trân (Jet Pearl), to King Chế Mân (Jaya Simhavarman III), even though Huyền Trân was only 14 and Chế Mân was quite old. Despite his monk’s cassock, he was still the king-father of the Đại Việt kingdom. He therefore always had a long-term vision for the country and had realized that the Đại Việt kingdom needed territory as a rear base in case of need in the south when he was well aware of the malevolent intentions of the Northerners and he managed to win the war of resistance against the Yuan army twice (1285 and 1287-1288). On the contrary, why did the hero of the Cham people, Chế Mân (Jaya Simhavarman III), cede the two Ô-Lý districts at this time to become a traitor to his people? Is Champa too disadvantaged and Đại Việt too advantageous in this transaction, isn’t it?

It was perhaps because of the aridity of the ceded area that Chế Mân felt it was impossible for him to control it, as Quảng Trị was an area of sandy soil and Thừa Thiên Huế surrounded by hills was also a region devoid of any significant plain (Hồ Trung Tú:283). Moreover, it was a matter of legalizing a territory that Champa no longer had the capacity to govern since Chế Củ (or Jaya Rudravarman III) had ceded it in exchange for his release 236 years ago. The fact that Princess Perle de Jais (Huyền Trân) married Chế Mân five years later (1306) with the dowry of two thousand square meters of the Ô and Lý districts (today’s Quảng Trị and Thừa Thiên Huế provinces) should be a well-considered political calculation with the aim of perpetuating peace and carrying the strategic character for both Đai Việt and Champa dynasties. Thanks to this marriage, Đai Việt’s territory had extended as far north as the Thu Bồn River, and Champa could preserve the remaining territory for future generations.

In the eyes of the people, Princess Huyền Trân is a woman deeply admired in the minds of several generations of Vietnamese, and she is evoked repeatedly in this long march south through her history and destiny. After a year of marriage, King Chế Mân died in 1307. Only the latter and Trúc Lâm đại sĩ (the nickname given to king-father Trần Nhân Tông) managed to know just why, but they had both died within a year of each other. Since then, this wedding gift became a bone of contention between the two countries, leading to continuous wars in which Đai Việt was always the country with the most victories.

Thanks to demographic pressure and immigration policy under the Hồ dynasty, the territories ceded by Champa had become independent, autonomous regions thanks to the Vietnamese village organization (the king’s authority stops in front of the village bamboo hedges). This made it more difficult for Champa to reclaim these territories in the future. Once again, after the 14th century, Champa became a major military power, engaging in battles as far afield as Thanh Hóa. This was the time of the appearance of a character described in the history of the Ming dynasty as Ngo-ta-ngo-tcho, but in the history of the Cham people he became known as Binasuor (or Chế Bồng Nga). Having taken advantage of the weakening of the Trần dynasty and at the same time received the title of King of Champa from the Ming dynasty in China, Chế Bồng Nga attacked North Vietnam 5 times in succession during the period from 1361 to 1390, but 4 times he took his troops directly to the capital Thăng Long.

Due to the treachery of one of Chế Bồng Nga’s subordinates, named Ba-lậu-kê, general Trần Khắc Chân of the Trần dynasty managed to spot the junk carrying Chế Bồng Nga and asked his soldiers to fire on it. Chế Bồng Nga was hit head-on. According to G. Maspero, Chế Bồng Nga’s period was at its peak, but according to G. Cœdès, this sentence is completely incorrect, but Chế Bồng Nga’s military victories should be compared with the blue light at sunset (Ngô Văn Doanh: 126 or G. Cœdès: 405).

A Cham general with the Vietnamese name La Khải, whom the Chams recorded as Jaya Simhavarman in their history, ascended the throne after eliminating the children of Chế Bồng Nga. La Khải decided to abandon all Cham territories north of the Hải Vân Pass (the present-day provinces of Quảng Bình, Quảng Trị and Thừa Thiên Huế).

To avoid another war with the Đai Việt, he ceded Champa’s province of Indrapura in 1402, corresponding to the present-day province of Quảng Nam, where the Mỹ Sơn shrine was located, but reclaimed it later in 1407 when the Ming took the pretext of eliminating the Hồ dynasty for the usurpation of the Trần throne. These Ming thus annexed Annam, sought out all men of talent and virtue and brought them back to China for employment. These included the young Nguyễn An (Ruan An), who later became a Vietnamese eunuch architect responsible for building the Forbidden City in Beijing according to the theory of Yin and Yang and the 5 elements, and Nguyễn Phi Khanh, father of Nguyễn Trãi. After ten years of resistance against the Ming army, Lê Lợi ascended the throne in 1428 and founded the later Lê dynasty. He re-established peaceful relations with the Ming and Champa, whose king was the son of La Khải, named Virabhadravarman and known in Vietnamese chronicles as Ba Dich Lai (Indravarman VI).

According to George Cœdès, Champa rapidly fell into a state of political recession at the end of this dynasty, with up to five successive kings in 30 years due to civil wars for power. At that time, in Annam, there was a great king known as Lê Thánh Tôn, renowned for the literary and martial arts in the history of Việt Nam. It was he who asked the historian Ngô Sĩ Liên to compile all the information relating all the historical events into a collection of articles known as “Đại Việt sử ký (The Historical Memoirs of the Great Viet)”. He ordered his subordinate to trace the geographical map of our country, but secretly sent someone to Champa at the same time to draw a map of Champa with all the strategic nooks and crannies, which enabled his army to take the capital Đồ Bàn (Vijaya) from Chà Bàn (Bình Định) in the year 1471 and capture King Trà Toàn (Maha Sajan) brought back to Đại Việt with 30000 prisoners.

The capture of the Vijaya capital could be compared to the fall of Constantinople (1453) at the same time by the Turks (Nepote 1993:12). After this, the Ming emperor sent an emissary to ask him to return the territory of Binh Định to Champa. But faced with his categorical refusal, the Ming emperor had to give up all action, as our country’s prestige was great in view of the tributes paid by neighboring countries such as Laos (Ai Lao) and the Mường of the West. Champa had now shrunk to just the territories south of Cape Varella (Đại Lãnh, Phú Yên) and no longer posed major obstacles to the southward advance of the Vietnamese people.

As for the Chams, they were dispersed into numerous groups and evacuated by sea and land: one group fled to Cambodia and was sheltered by the Cambodian king Jayajettha III (Ang Sur) in Oudong, Chrui Changvar and Prêk Pra near the capital Phnom Penh and in the province of Kompong Cham, another group went as far as the island of Hainan (Thurgood 1999: 227) and Malacca, and the remaining population had to hide in the Panduranga region still belonging to Champa or accepted to live with the Vietnamese in the annexed territory.

By now, Vietnamese and Cham villages had been established side by side for several hundred years. Nor was it known who was really assimilated when there was the clash and peaceful cultural exchange between humanity’s two great civilizations, India and China. How many times has human history demonstrated that a superior civilization has a transformative effect on an inferior one? The more powerful ancient Rome, at the time of its conquest, was under the influence of Greek civilization. Similarly, when the Mongols or Manchus conquered China, they were assimilated by the latter.

Our Đại Việt kingdom was no exception either. Being accustomed to denigrating and despising the Chams (or Mans), could our Đại Việt have had anything to do with this conquest? He received many things, including many elements from Champa found in royal music such as the Chiêm Thành Âm (Champa Resonances) or the well-cooked rice-plated tambourine (trống cơm)(Thái Văn Kiểm 1964: 65) or later with the “Danses du Sud (Airs des Méridionaux)” through the endless painful laments of the Cham people such as Hà Giang Nam (Descent to the South of the River), Ai Giang Nam (Lamentation of the South of the River), Nam Thương (Compassion of the South) etc. and in sculptural art under both the Lý and Trần dynasties.

There was a time when the Vietnamese lived under the southern influence of the South to create artifacts such as the head of a Lý-Trần dynasty dragon resembling that of a Makara dragon or the Siamese duck (vịt siêm) to the Hamsa goose of Champa for example, all found in the imperial citadel Thăng Long on tile roofs and building gables right down to the decorated motifs on bowls (Hồ Trung Tú: 264).

As for the Chams, they weren’t completely assimilated right away, as they were abandoning their language to speak Vietnamese in their homeland. Henceforth, they were to have a surname like the Vietnamese under King Minh Mạng. The names they had had in their history were the surnames of kings or those of the royal family according to author Phú Trạm in the newspaper Tia Sáng (October 2, 2006). They used Ja (man) or Mu (woman) They also created an accent tone for themselves that hadn’t existed before, by speaking the Vietnamese language with the intonation of a native Cham. They spoke, they listened, they corrected themselves, they understood each other with the Vietnamese community on the spot to produce a distinct accent tone that no longer resembled the original tone (Quảng Nam’s intonation for example) when they had contact with the Vietnamese people before (as their Vietnamese wife and children) or when they were appointed notables in territories belonging to the Đai Việt kingdom. They didn’t necessarily lose their roots immediately, as they still retained the habits and customs of the Cham people.

More specifically, in regions such as Đà Nẵng, Hội An, we continued to see people still wearing Cham clothing at the end of the 18th century through the photographs of Cristoforo Borri or John Barrow. The men wore kama or bottomless pants (the sarong) with a fairly wide turban, and the women long skirts with several multicolored pleats or bare torsos (Hồ Trung Tú: 177).in front of the names like the words văn or Thị among the Vietnamese. When they became old and occupied an important role or rank in society, they were called from then on by that function or title (Hồ Trung Tú: 57).

 

 

The Vietnamese who migrated to areas where the Cham population was dense were obliged to adapt and accept the Chams’ way of speaking the Vietnamese language, from Quảng Nam to Phú Yên. As for the territories where the number of Chams was low and that of Vietnamese migrants was high, the intonation practiced in these territories remained that of the Vietnamese migrants. The latter managed to retain their intonation entirely in territories stretching from the Ngang Pass to Huế. They frequently used the dialects of Nghệ An-Hà Tịnh (Hồ Trung Tú:154) or Thanh Hóa later with Lord Nguyễn Hoàng.

As for the cultural characteristics of the Cham people, they have all disappeared since the 9th month of the Year of the Tiger, under the reign of Minh Mạng (1828). This was the time of the royal edict designed to prohibit southern men from wearing kamas. Since the Chams claimed not to know how long ago or when they had a link of Northern origin like hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese families cohabiting in this territory, they no longer wondered who they were exactly, because after a few generations they had become “pure Vietnamese” and thus joined their people in the long march to the tip of Cà Mau. From then on, the end of Champa could be announced.

 

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