Art

Art des pays d’Asie du Sud ou de la France

Le crapaud (Con cóc)

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

Con cóc (The toad)

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Lúc khai quật tìm kiếm các trống đồng ở miền bắc Việt Nam vào thế kỷ 19  thì các nhà khảo cổ Pháp và Việt tìm  thấy trên mặt của vài trống  lạị có 4 tượng  cóc (hay nhái)  được cách điệu  và thường đi ngược với kim đồng hồ.Theo sự nhận xét của các nhà khảo cổ đây là các trống đồng có liên quan  đến với những nông dân của nền văn hoá trồng lúa nước như người Việt cổ. Con cóc (hay nhái) cũng được thấy thường ở trên trống đồng nhất là thuộc loại Heger 1 thời kỳ muộn (thế kỷ 1 và 2 sau công nguyên). Các nhà khảo cứu người Hoa xem các con cóc  (hay nhái) nầy dùng để trang trí cho đẹp mặt trống đồng chớ không có ý nghĩa gì sâu xa cả. Ngược lại, với người dân Việt, sự hiện diện của nó trên mặt trống  thì  đây là các trống để cầu khẩn thần mưa cho màu mỡ đất đai và thụ hoạt thuận lợi. Theo phong tục của người dân việt thì có sự liên hệ mật thiết giữa các con vật nầy với ông Trời qua câu chuyện cổ tích hóm hỉnh nên mới có câu tục ngữ như sau:

Cóc nhái là cậu ông Trời
Ai mà đánh nó ông Trời đánh cho.

Các con cóc, nhái  nầy khi chúng nó kêu lên  thì  báo hiệu trời sẻ sấp mưa khiến chúng nó trở thành những vật linh thiêng. Chúng được đưa vào thế giới tín ngưỡng của các dân tộc ở miền nam Trung Quốc như đồng bằng Bắc Bộ, Quảng Đông và Quảng Tây  và trở thành từ đó một chủ đề riêng: tín ngưỡng thờ động vật. Chúng còn thường được nhắc đến trong các ca dao hay những câu từ ngữ mang ý nghĩa xâu xa như

Ăn cóc bỏ gan, ăn trầu nhả bã
Ăn cơm lừa thóc, ăn cóc bỏ gan

để nói lên sư thận trọng và kinh nghiệm trong việc ăn uống vì gan của cóc có chứa nhiều chất độc.

Cóc còn biểu hiện của cuộc sống tự lập, không dựa vào ai cả.

Con cóc cụt đuôi
Ở bờ ở bụi
Ai nuôi mày lớn ?
Dạ thưa Thầy, con lớn mình ên …

“Mình ên,” tiếng địa phương là một mình, một mình tự kiếm sống và trưởng thành.

Con ếch ám chỉ người dốt nát và có tầm nhìn hiểu biết kém nên mới có câu ca dao dưới đây:

Ếch ngồi đái giếng coi trời đất bằng vung.

cũng như nhà ngụ ngôn  Pháp nổi tiếng  Jean de la Fontaine  khiển trách  thậm tệ kẻ khoác lác trong chuyện « Con ếch muốn to bằng con bò ». Chúng ta hay thường  nghe nói « Ếch mọc lông nách » để  ám chỉ những kẻ tự phụ.

Ếch hay cóc đều là động vât lưỡng cư. Sau khi nở trứng  chúng là những con nòng nọc không tay hay chân cho đến khi trưởng thành, chỉ thở bằng mang và nhờ có một cái đuôi mà chúng dùng để bơi như cá. Môt khi trưởng thành, có  tứ chi và mất đuôi.  Để phân biệt ếch và cóc, động vật lưỡng cư có dáng ngắn, mập với chân nhỏ hơn cơ thể là cóc còn có dáng thanh mảnh với chân dài có khả năng là ếch. Ếch hay thường thích sống trong nước hay thích nhảy trên đất liền còn cóc thì không. Vã lại về kích thước của ếch thì có sự chênh lệch lớn giữa con  đực và con cái như ở nước ta  loài cái  có 10 cm nhưng loài  đực chỉ 3-4 cm nên lúc giao phối chúng bám chặc với nhau  và di chuyển, đẻ trứng ở những nơi có nước chảy khá mạnh. Trong những năm qua, các nhà khoa học Úc và  Việt  đã khám phá ra được nhiều loại ếch quá kỳ lạ. Một loài ếch biết bay mới thuộc chi Rhacophorus vừa được phát hiện ở rừng nhiệt đới  miền nam Việt Nam, chỉ cách xa thành phố Saigon một trăm cây số. Khả năng bay lượn của Rhacophorus helenae từ cây này sang cây khác đã bảo vệ con ếch bay này tránh  khỏi bất cứ thứ gì bò trên mặt đất. Nó sống chủ yếu trên tán cây (canopée). Với đôi chân và bàn tay hình cọ, nó bơi và bay trong không khí  theo lời tường thuật của nhà sinh học Úc Jodi Rowley. Còn có một loại khác được phát hiện tại khu bảo tồn thiên nhiên Pu Hoat, loài mới này được gọi là  Gracixalus Quangi, sống trong rừng ở độ cao từ 600 đến 1300 mét. Loai nầy nó biết  hót như chim  chớ  không phải quạ  quạ  như  các loại ếch khác và nó có nhiều tiếng kêu khác nhau.

Chử oa  蛙  trong tiếng nôm ta  dùng  chỉ con ếch và nhái. Còn cóc thì  ta gọi là thiềm thừ 蟾蜍 được nói nhiều trong phong thủy. Còn các tranh  Đông Hồ thì  có một tấm tranh được gọi  là thầy đồ  cóc. Trên tranh có dòng chữ  « Lão Oa độc giảng« , có nghĩa là ông Ếch một mình giảng dạy. Đáng lý ra phải  nói Ếch nhưng trong dân gian không quen phân biệt nên gọi Cóc nhất là  hình con cóc thể hiện trên trống đồng và trên các  đồ vật thời Đồng Sơn vã  lại còn là cậu ông Trời. Ngụ  ý của bức tranh không phải  dùng để chỉ là thầy cóc đang ngồi dạy học mà muốn nhắc nhở cho hậu thế biết dân ta từ ngày xưa có chữ khoa đẩu, một  loại chữ ấy giống như con nòng nọc có đầu lớn, đuôi nhỏ.Vi vậy  trong tranh dù chỉ có  hiện diện của các sinh vật  nhưng chúng nó có  những hành động như con người. Có lẽ nghệ nhân khi vẽ tấm tranh muốn nhắn nhủ  điều gì cho hậu thế biết dân tộc ta cũng có chữ viết và nên nhớ  về  cội nguồn của dân tộc. Vì là chữ giống như con nòng nọc nên mới biến người thành ếch vì ếch là mẹ của con nòng nọc.

Nhắc  đến chữ Oa củng nên nhắc đến chuyến công du của sứ thần Mạc Đĩnh Chi  khi lúc ông sang Tàu dưới thời ngự trị của vua Nguyên Thế Tổ (Kubilai Khan). Ông được vua Nguyên Thế Tổ công nhận tài năng của ông và trao cho ông danh hiệu « Trạng Nguyên đầu tiên » (Lưỡng Quốc Trạng Nguyên) ở cả Trung Hoa và Việt Nam, khiến một số quan lại ganh tị. Một trong số người nầy cố tình làm bẽ mặt ông ta vào một buổi sáng đẹp trời bằng cách ví ông ta như một con chim bởi vì âm điệu đơn âm của ngôn ngữ, người dân Việt khi họ nói cho cảm giác người nghe như họ luôn luôn hót líu lo:

Quích tập chi đầu đàm Lỗ luận: tri tri vi tri chi, bất tri vi bất tri, thị tri
Chim đậu cành đọc sách Lỗ luận: biết thì báo là biết, chẳng biết thì báo chẳng biết, ấy là biết đó.

Đây là một cách để khuyên Mạc Ðỉnh Chi nên khiêm tốn hơn và cư xử như một người đàn ông có phẩm chất Nho giáo (Junzi). Mạc Đỉnh Chi trả lời bằng cách ví anh nầy như một con ếch. Người Trung Hoa thường có thói nói to  và tóp tép lưỡi  qua tư cách họ uống rượu.

Oa minh trì thượng đọc Châu Thư: lạc dữ đọc lạc nhạc, lạc dữ chúng lạc nhạc, thục lạc.
Châu chuộc trên ao đọc sách Châu Thu: cùng ít người vui nhạc, cùng nhiều người vui nhạc, đằng nào vui hơn.

Đó là một cách để nói lại với người quan lại nầy nên có một tâm trí lành mạnh để hành xử một cách công bằng và phân biệt nghiêm chỉnh.

Theo đặc tính của đại tộc Bách Việt mà trong đó có tộc Lạc Việt thì các tộc nầy thích ăn sò hến và ếch. Chưa kể số lượng ếch dùng ở trong nước nhưng được biết ngày nay từ  2010–2019 Việt Nam đã cung cấp cho EU hơn 8400 tấn đùi ếch, trở thành nhà cung cấp đùi ếch lớn thứ hai  sau Nam Dương vào EU (theo tin Tia Sáng). Pháp nhập khẩu hơn 2.500 tấn đùi ếch từ nước ngoài mỗi năm để đáp ứng nhu cầu trong nước. Nhu cầu lên cao tại châu Âu đang gây rắc rối lớn cho các nước cung cấp vì  không biết có bao nhiêu con ếch được xuất khẩu trong các trại  nuôi ếch và bao nhiêu con còn lại trong tự nhiên.

Đây là mối lo ngại lớn nhất  của các nhà sinh học hiện nay vì ếch giữ  một vai trò cực kỳ quan trọng trong chuỗi thức ăn. Ếch vừa là thợ săn mà vừa  là con mồi. Nhờ có ếch mà  số lượng châu chấu và muỗi được giảm. Ếch là thuốc trừ sâu tự nhiên. Nếu ngày nào không còn  ếch  thì  phải dùng thuốc trừ  sâu  nhiều  hơn thì có  hại cho sức khoẻ  và môi trường. Theo cơ  quan Humance Society International, số lượng ếch ở Việt Nam đã giảm đáng kể trong những thập kỷ gần đây vì nó cũng là con mồi của con người. Nó không những là nguồn lợi đáng kể trong việc xuất khẩu mà còn là món ăn dân dã  ở nước ta nhất là thịt nó thơm như thịt gà nên được gọi là gà đồng.  Chổ nào có nước có sông ngòi là có sự hiện diện của ếch thì  có  các món đặc sản từ ếch như đùi ếch chiên giòn, ếch xào măng, ếch nấu cà ri, ếch xào chua ngọt, ếch xào xã ớt  vân vân.

 Ở miền tây Nam Bộ, vào cuối tháng 8, lúc mùa nước nổi  hay thường có thú vui giải trí là trò đi câu  hay soi bắt  ếch.  Lũ  ếch  thường tụ hợp ở những nơi  có nhiều côn trùng và sâu bọ. Chỉ  cần có cây trúc dài khoảng bốn năm mét, cước dài với mồi rồi thả mồi xuống các hang hay các vùng trũng nước. Khi có tiếng động thì phải nhanh tay giật mạnh cái cần trúc lên bờ vì ếch đã cắn câu. Đây là thú điền viên, một nghệ thuật câu ếch tinh vi và nhanh nhẹn của những  đứa trẻ sống ở miền tây. Còn soi ếch cần tránh làm ồn ào lúc trời lại tối và dùng  đèn pin soi  vào mắt ếch  thì nó lại ngồi im lìm trên bờ  không di chuyển còn không khi nghe tiếng động, nó  biến mất nhanh nhẹn dưới nước liền theo lời tường thuật của những kẻ rành đi bắt ếch đồng.

Lors de fouilles de tambours de bronze dans le nord du Vietnam au XIXème siècle, des archéologues français et vietnamiens ont découvert sur les faces de certains tambours de bronze quatre crapauds stylisés (ou grenouilles) se déplaçant souvent dans le sens inverse des aiguilles d’une montre. Selon les archéologues ces tambours en bronze sont liés étroitement aux agriculteurs de la culture du riz inondé comme les Proto-Vietnamiens. Les crapauds (ou grenouilles) sont également fréquemment trouvés sur les tambours de bronze, en particulier ceux du type Heger 1 tardif (1er et 2ème siècles après J.-C.). Les chercheurs chinois considèrent que ces crapauds (ou grenouilles) sont utilisés pour décorer les tambours de bronze et n’ont aucune signification particulière. Au contraire, pour le peuple vietnamien, leur présence sur la surface du tambour a pour but d’implorer  le génie  de la pluie de rendre  les terres plus fertiles et des  récoltes fructueuses. Selon la coutume vietnamienne, il existe évidemment un lien étroit entre ces amphibiens  et Dieu à travers un conte  humoristique. C’est pourquoi on a le proverbe suivant :

Le crapaud (ou grenouille) est l’oncle maternel de Dieu.
Celui qui ose le battre, Dieu le battra.

Lorsque ces crapauds et ces grenouilles coassent, ils  signalent qu’il est sur le point de pleuvoir, ce qui les rend en fait des animaux sacrés. Ils ont été introduits dans le monde religieux des peuples vivant au sud de la Chine comme ceux du delta de Tonkin, du Guangdong et du Guangxi et ils sont devenus désormais  un sujet à part entière  dans le culte des animaux. Ils sont souvent mentionnés dans des chansons folkloriques ou des expressions ayant des significations profondes.

Ăn cóc bỏ gan, ăn trầu nhả bã
Ăn cơm lừa thóc, ăn cóc bỏ gan

Lorsqu’on mange une grenouille, il faut jeter son foie. Lorsqu’on chique le bétel, il faut cracher les résidus ;
Lorsqu’on mange du riz, il faut rejeter les cosses de riz. Lorsqu’on mange une grenouille, il faut jeter son foie.

Ce sont des expressions notant  la prudence et l’expérience en matière de consommation car le foie d’un  crapaud contient de nombreuses substances toxiques.

Le crapaud est la représentation d’une vie indépendante et n’ayant  pas besoin de l’aide de personne.

Con cóc cụt đuôi
Ở bờ ở bụi
Ai nuôi mày lớn ?
Dạ thưa Thầy, con lớn mình ên

Crapaud sans queue,
Tu vis au bord du rivage et dans le ruisseau
Qui t’a élevé ?
Oui monsieur, je grandis tout seul.

La grenouille incarne  souvent  un ignorant et a   une vision assez étroite  et limitée.  Il y a donc un proverbe ci-dessous:

Ếch ngồi đái giếng coi trời đất bằng vung.
La grenouille assise au fond d’un puits considère le ciel comme un couvercle.

comme le célèbre fabuliste français Jean de la Fontaine a l’ occasion de réprimander le vantard dans l’histoire « La grenouille  veut être aussi grosse que le bœuf ». On entend souvent l’expression Ếch mọc lông nách « grenouille qui prétend avoir des poils sous les aisselles » pour désigner les personnes vaniteuses.

Les grenouilles et les crapauds sont tous deux des amphibiens. Après l’éclosion, ils sont des têtards sans bras ni jambes jusqu’à l’âge adulte, respirant uniquement grâce à  des branchies et une queue qui leur permet de nager comme des poissons. Une fois adulte, il possède quatre membres et perd sa queue.  Pour distinguer les grenouilles des crapauds, les amphibiens au corps court et gras et aux pattes plus petites que leur corps sont des crapauds, tandis que ceux au corps mince et aux pattes longues sont probablement des grenouilles. Ces dernières aiment généralement vivre dans l’eau ou sauter sur terre, mais pas les crapauds. De plus, il existe une grande différence dans la taille des grenouilles entre les mâles et les femelles. Dans notre pays, les femelles mesurent 10 cm de long, mais les mâles n’ont que 3 à 4 cm. Ainsi, lors de l’accouplement, elles s’accrochent  les unes aux autres dans leur déplacement et  pondent leurs œufs dans des endroits à fort courant d’eau. Au fil des années, les scientifiques australiens et vietnamiens ont découvert de nombreuses espèces étranges de grenouilles. Une nouvelle espèce de grenouille volante appartenant au genre Rhacophorus vient d’être découverte dans les forêts tropicales du sud du Vietnam,  seulement à cent kilomètres de la ville de Saigon. La capacité de Rhacophorus helenae de  planer d’arbre en arbre protège cette grenouille volante de tout ce qui rampe sur le sol. Il vit principalement dans la canopée. Dotée de pattes et de mains en forme de paume, elle nage et vole dans les airs, selon la biologiste australienne Jodi Rowley. Une autre espèce a été découverte dans la réserve naturelle de Pu Hoat. Cette nouvelle espèce s’appelle Gracixalus Quangi, vivant dans les forêts à des altitudes de 600 à 1300 mètres. Cette espèce peut chanter également  comme un oiseau.  Contrairement au corbeau et aux autres grenouilles  elle possède de nombreux cris différents.

Dans la langue Nôm  le mot « oa » est utilisé pour désigner les grenouilles et les crapauds. Quant au crapaud, on l’appelle « Thiêm thù » 蟾蜍 et il est souvent mentionné en feng shui. En ce qui concerne les estampes de Đông  Hồ, il existe un tableau  intitulé « L’érudit crapaud » sur lequel  il y a la ligne «Lão Oa độc giảng», ce qui signifie que le vieux crapaud  enseigne  seul. Normalement on devrait l’appeler « Grenouille ». Comme  les gens  ne sont pas habitués à faire la distinction, ils l’appellent Crapaud quand même  du fait  que le crapaud figure  sur les tambours de bronze et sur les artefacts de la période de Đồng Sơn et qu’il est aussi l’oncle maternel de Dieu. La signification du tableau n’est pas  dans l’intention de montrer le crapaud professeur assis et enseignant, mais de rappeler aux générations futures que notre peuple possédait l’écriture Khoa Đẩu dans le passé, un type d’écriture ressemblant  à un têtard avec une grosse tête et une petite queue. Ainsi, bien qu’il n’y ait que des créatures présentes dans le tableau, celles-ci agissent comme les humains. Peut-être au moment  de la réalisation de ce tableau, l’artiste voulait dire aux générations futures que notre peuple possédait aussi une langue écrite et qu’il devrait s’en souvenir. Comme la lettre ressemblait à un têtard, il voulait transformer les gens en grenouilles  car ces dernières étaient la mère des têtards.

En mentionnant le mot Oa, nous devons  évoquer également le voyage de l’ambassadeur Mạc Đỉnh Chi lorsqu’il se rendit en Chine sous le règne du roi Nguyên Thế Tổ  (Kubilai Khan). Ce dernier dut reconnaître son talent et lui accorda ainsi le titre  » Premier docteur » ( Lưỡng Quốc Trạng Nguyên ) aussi bien en Chine qu’au Viêt-Nam, ce qui rendit jaloux quelques mandarins chinois. L’un d’eux tenta de l’humilier un beau matin en le traitant comme un oiseau car à cause de la tonalité monosyllabique de la langue, les Vietnamiens donnent l’impression de gazouiller toujours lorsqu’ils parlent:

Quích tập chi đầu đàm Lỗ luận: tri tri vi tri chi, bất tri vi bất tri, thị tri
Chim đậu cành đọc sách Lỗ luận: biết thì báo là biết, chẳng biết thì báo chảng biết, ấy là biết đó.

L’oiseau s’agrippant sur une branche lit ce qui a été écrit dans le livre Les Entretiens : Si nous savons quelque chose, nous disons que nous la savons. Dans le cas contraire, nous disons que nous ne la savons pas. C’est ainsi que nous disons que nous savons quelque chose.

C’est une façon de recommander Mạc Ðỉnh Chi de se montrer plus humble et de se comporter comme un homme de qualité confucéenne ( junzi ). Mạc Ðỉnh Chi lui répliqua en le traitant comme une grenouille car les Chinois ont l’habitude de clapper à cause de leur manière de boire ou de parler bruyamment:

Oa minh trì thượng đọc Châu Thư: lạc dữ đọc lạc nhạc, lạc dữ chúng lạc nhạc, thục lạc.
Châu chuộc trên ao đọc sách Châu Thu: cùng ít người vui nhạc, cùng nhiều người vui nhạc, đằng nào vui hơn.

La grenouille barbotant dans la mare lit ce qui a été écrit dans le livre Livre des Documents Historiques (Chou Ching): certains jouent seuls de la trompette, d’autres jouent ensemble de la trompette. Lesquels paraissent en jouer mieux.

C’est une façon de dire au mandarin chinois d’avoir un esprit sain pour pouvoir avoir un comportement juste et un discernement équitable.

Selon les caractéristiques des Bai Yue dont fait partie la tribu Lo Yue, ils aiment manger des palourdes et des grenouilles. Sans parler du nombre de grenouilles consommées dans le pays, on sait qu’entre 2010 et 2019, le Vietnam a fourni à l’UE plus de 8 400 tonnes de cuisses de grenouilles. Il devient ainsi le deuxième grand fournisseur de cuisses de grenouilles après l’Indonésie à l’UE (selon  le journal Tia Sáng). La France importe chaque année plus de 2 500 tonnes de cuisses de grenouilles de l’étranger pour répondre à sa consommation  interne. La forte demande en Europe pose de gros problèmes aux pays fournisseurs car on ne sait pas combien de grenouilles  exportées des fermes d’élevage et combien de grenouilles prises dans la nature.

C’est la plus grande préoccupation des biologistes d’aujourd’hui, car les grenouilles jouent un rôle extrêmement important dans la chaîne alimentaire. Les grenouilles sont à la fois des chasseurs et des proies. Grâce aux grenouilles, le nombre de criquets et de moustiques est réduit. Les grenouilles sont des « pesticides naturels ». S’il n’y a plus de grenouilles, nous devrons utiliser davantage de pesticides, ce qui est nocif pour la santé et l’environnement. Selon la Humance Society International, le nombre de grenouilles au Vietnam a considérablement diminué au cours des dernières décennies, car elles sont également la proie des humains. Ce n’est pas seulement une source importante d’exportation mais c’est aussi une  spécialité populaire  dans notre pays, en particulier sa chair parfumée comme celle du  poulet. C’est pourquoi on appelle  la grenouille  avec le vocable « poulet des champs ».

Partout où il y a de l’eau et des rivières, il y a des grenouilles. Il existe donc des spécialités locales de grenouilles telles que les cuisses de grenouilles frites, les  cuisses de grenouilles sautées aux pousses de bambou, les cuisses de grenouilles au curry, les cuisses de grenouilles sautées aigre-douce, les grenouilles sautées à la citronnelle et au piment etc.

Dans la région du sud-ouest du Viet Nam, à la fin du mois d’août, durant la saison des inondations, les gens aiment aller  pêcher ou attraper des grenouilles.  Celles-ci  se rassemblent souvent dans des endroits où il y a beaucoup d’insectes et de bestioles. Il suffit d’avoir un bâton de bambou d’environ quatre à cinq mètres de long, muni  d’une longue ligne avec un appât et  de déposer le tout dans des grottes ou des zones basses. Lorsqu’il y a du bruit, il faut rapidement tirer la perche en bambou jusqu’au rivage car la grenouille a mordu à l’hameçon. Il s’agit  bien d’un passe-temps rural, un art de pêche à la grenouille sophistiqué et agile des enfants vivant dans l’ouest du Vietnam. Pour attraper les grenouilles, on doit devez éviter de faire du bruit. Lorsqu’il fait sombre la nuit, on doit se servir d’une lampe de poche pour éblouir les yeux de la grenouille. Celle-ci  reste  « tétanisée » et  immobile sur le rivage  sinon en cas de bruit, elle  disparaîtra rapidement sous l’eau selon les gens qui sont habitués à attraper les grenouilles.

Version anglaise

During excavations of bronze drums in northern Vietnam in the 19th century, French and Vietnamese archaeologists discovered four stylized toads (or frogs) on the faces of some bronze drums, often moving counterclockwise. According to archaeologists, these bronze drums are closely related to flooded rice farmers such as the Proto-Vietnamese. Toads (or frogs) are also frequently found on bronze drums, especially those of the late Heger 1 type (1st and 2nd centuries A.D.). Chinese researchers consider these toads (or frogs) to be used to decorate bronze drums and have no particular significance. On the contrary, for the Vietnamese people, their presence on the drum surface is intended to implore the rain spirit to make the land more fertile and harvests fruitful. According to Vietnamese custom, there is obviously a close connection between these amphibians and God through a humorous tale. This is why we have the following proverb:

The toad (or frog) is God’s maternal uncle.
Whoever dares to beat him, God will beat him.

 When these toads and frogs croak, they signal that it is about to rain, which actually makes them sacred animals. They were introduced into the religious world of people living in southern China such as those in the Tonkin Delta, Guangdong, and Guangxi, and have now become a separate subject in animal worship. They are often mentioned in folk songs or expressions with deep meanings.

Ăn cóc bỏ gan, ăn trầu nhả bã
Ăn cơm lừa thóc, ăn cóc bỏ gan.

When you eat a frog, you must discard its liver. When you chew betel, you must spit out the residue;
When you eat rice, you must discard the rice husks. When you eat a frog, you must discard its liver.

These are expressions that denote caution and experience when consuming food, as a toad’s liver contains many toxic substances.

The toad represents an independent life that requires no help from anyone.

Con cóc cụt đuôi
Ở bờ ở bụi
Ai nuôi mày lớn ?
Dạ thưa Thầy, con lớn mình ên.

Tailless toad,
You live by the shore and in the bush.
Who raised you?
Yes sir, I’m growing up all alone.

The frog often embodies an ignoramus and has a rather short and limited vision. Therefore, there is a proverb below:

Ếch ngồi đái giếng coi trời đất bằng vung.

The frog sitting at the bottom of a well considers the sky as a lid.

as the famous French fabulist Jean de la Fontaine has occasion to reprimand the boaster in the story « The frog wants to be as big as the ox. » We often hear the expression Ếch mọc lông nách « frog who claims to have hair under his armpits » to refer to vain people.

Frogs and toads are both amphibians. After hatching, they are tadpoles without arms or legs until adulthood, breathing only through gills and a tail that allows them to swim like fish. Once adult, it has four limbs and loses its tail. To distinguish frogs from toads, amphibians with short, fat bodies and legs smaller than their bodies are toads, while those with thin bodies and long legs are probably frogs. The latter generally like to live in water or hop on land, but toads do not. Furthermore, there is a large difference in the size of frogs between males and females.

In our country, females are 10 cm long, but males are only 3 to 4 cm. Therefore, during mating, they cling to each other as they move and lay their eggs in places with strong water currents. Over the years, Australian and Vietnamese scientists have discovered many strange species of frogs. A new species of flying frog belonging to the genus Rhacophorus has just been discovered in the tropical forests of southern Vietnam, just 100 kilometers from the city of Saigon. Rhacophorus helenae’s ability to glide from tree to tree protects this flying frog from anything crawling on the ground. It lives primarily in the canopy. Equipped with palm-like legs and hands, it swims and flies through the air, according to Australian biologist Jodi Rowley. Another species has been discovered in the Pu Hoat Nature Reserve. This new species is called Gracixalus quangi, which lives in forests at altitudes of 600 to 1300 meters. This species can also sing like a bird. Unlike the crow and other frogs, it has many different calls.

In the Nôm language, the word « oa » is used to refer to both frogs and toads. The toad is called « Thiem thù » (蟾蜍) and is often mentioned in feng shui. Regarding Dong Ho’s prints, there is a painting titled « The Scholarly Toad » with the line « Lão Oa độc giảng, » which means that the old toad teaches alone. Normally, he should be called « Frog. » Since people are not used to making the distinction, they call him Toad anyway, because the toad appears on bronze drums and artifacts from the Dong Son period and he is also the maternal uncle of God. The meaning of the painting is not to show the toad teacher sitting and teaching, but to remind future generations that our people had Khoa Đẩu writing in the past, a type of writing resembling a tadpole with a big head and a small tail. Thus, although there are only creatures present in the painting, they act like humans. Perhaps at the time of making this painting, the artist wanted to tell future generations that our people also had a written language and should remember it. Since the letter resembled a tadpole, he wanted to turn people into frogs because frogs were the mother of tadpoles.

Mentioning the word Oa, we must also mention the journey of Ambassador Mạc Đỉnh Chi when he went to China during the reign of King  Kubilai Khan. The latter recognized his talent and thus granted him the title of « First Doctor » (Lưỡng Quốc Trạng Nguyên) both in China and in Vietnam, which made some Chinese mandarins jealous. One of them tried to humiliate him one fine morning by treating him like a bird because due to the monosyllabic tone of the language, the Vietnamese give the impression of always chirping when they speak:

Quích tập chi đầu đàm Lỗ luận: tri tri vi tri chi, bất tri vi bất tri, thị tri
Chim đậu cành đọc sách Lỗ luận: biết thì báo là biết, chẳng biết thì báo chảng biết, ấy là biết đó.

The bird clinging to a branch reads what was written in the book « The Conversations »: If we know something, we say that we know it. If we don’t, we say that we don’t know it. This is how we say that we know something.

This is a way of recommending Mạc Ðỉnh Chi to be more humble and to behave like a man of Confucian quality (junzi). Mạc Ðỉnh Chi replied by treating him like a frog because the Chinese have the habit of clapping because of their way of drinking or speaking loudly:

Oa minh trì thượng đọc Châu Thư: lạc dữ đọc lạc nhạc, lạc dữ chúng lạc nhạc, thục lạc.
Châu chuộc trên ao đọc sách Châu Thu: cùng ít người vui nhạc, cùng nhiều người vui nhạc, đằng nào vui hơn.

The frog splashing in the pond reads what was written in the Book of Historical Documents (Chou Ching): some play the trumpet alone, others play the trumpet together. Which one seems to play it better?

This is a way of telling the Chinese Mandarin to have a sound mind so as to be able to behave justly and discern justly.

According to the Bai Yue people, who include the Lo Yue tribe, they enjoy eating clams and frogs. Not to mention the number of frogs consumed in the country, it is known that between 2010 and 2019, Vietnam supplied the EU with more than 8,400 tons of frog legs. This makes it the second largest supplier of frog legs to the EU after Indonesia (according to the Tia Sáng newspaper). France imports more than 2,500 tons of frog legs from abroad each year to meet its domestic consumption. The high demand in Europe poses major problems for supplying countries because it is unclear how many frogs are exported from breeding farms and how many are taken from the wild.

This is the biggest concern of biologists today because frogs play an extremely important role in the food chain. Frogs are both hunters and prey. Thanks to frogs, the number of locusts and mosquitoes is reduced. Frogs are « natural pesticides. » If there are no more frogs, we will have to use more pesticides, which is harmful to health and the environment. According to the Humance Society International, the number of frogs in Vietnam has decreased significantly in recent decades because they are also preyed on by humans. It is not only an important source of export but also a popular specialty in our country, especially its fragrant meat like that of chicken. That is why the frog is called « field chicken. »

Wherever there is water and rivers, there are frogs. Therefore, there are local frog specialties such as fried frog legs, stir-fried frog legs with bamboo shoots, curry frog legs, sweet and sour stir-fried frog legs, stir-fried frog legs with lemongrass and chili etc. In the southwest region of Vietnam, at the end of August, during the flood season, people like to go fishing or catching frogs. These often gather in places where there are many insects and creatures. All you need is a bamboo stick about four to five meters long, equipped with a long line with bait, and drop it into caves or low-lying areas. When there is noise, you must quickly pull the bamboo pole to the shore because the frog has taken the bait. This is indeed a rural pastime, a sophisticated and agile frog fishing art of children living in western Vietnam. To catch frogs, you must avoid making noise. When it is dark at night, you must use a flashlight to dazzle the frog’s eyes. This one remains « frozen » and motionless on the shore otherwise in case of noise, it will quickly disappear underwater according to people who are used to catching frogs.

Le tatouage (Tập tục xăm minh)

j050807 Art, Histoire, Traditions, Văn Hóa, Vietnam

Tục lệ xăm mình

Version française

English version

Theo sách Lĩnh Nam Chích Quái, tục lệ  xăm mình có từ thời Hồng Bàng. Lúc đó dân ta thường sống trong nước để đánh cá hay bắt sò nên thường bị giống giao long làm hại bèn tâu với vua. Vua ta mới nói giống sơn man và giống thủy man có thù với nhau, thưòng  ghét nhau cho nên hại nhau đó. Nhờ lấy mực xăm vào mình theo hình Long Quân dạng thủy quái nên từ đó không bị hại. Tục xăm mình có từ lâu từ thời dân tộc ta thuộc  đại tộc Bách Việt và  còn cư trú ở vùng hạ và trung lưu  của sông Dương Tử, nơi có một loại cá sấu lớn  thích sống ở những khúc sông nước chảy chậm mà dân ta gọi là giao long. Ngày nay loại cá sấu nầy trong tình trạng bị đe dọa tuyệt chủng. Tục xăm mình chỉ là một hình thức văn hóa tâm linh trong việc ghép cho vật tổ của họ, Tiên-Rồng với  quan niệm song trùng lưỡng hợp (hai thành một) của tộc Việt nên mới có việc vẽ hình Rồng trên người và đội mũ lông chim.(Con Rồng Cháu Tiên).

Tục xăm mình vẫn được duy trì dưới hai triều  đại nhà Lý và Trần. Dưới thời nhà Lý thì chỉ có qúi tộc mới có quyền vẽ hình rồng trên ngực và đùi. Đến đời nhà Trần, để  tỏ ra ý chí can đảm diệt quân Nguyên  với tinh thần bất khuất, dân ta không ngần ngại thích xăm  trên cánh tay hai chữ  Sát Thát  như Trần Quốc Toản dưới thời nhà Trần.  Tục lệ nhà Trần, khi lên ngôi  vua phải xăm hình rồng ở đùi để nhớ nguồn gốc của mình nhưng vua Trần Anh Tôn không thích nên tục lệ nầy  bị mất dần từ đó trong giới hoàng tộc. Xăm mình ngày nay ở  Việt Nam được giới trẻ  xem như là một phương pháp làm đẹp cơ thể theo sở thích  của mình và thể hiện được cá tính dù xã hội ngày nay đôi khi có cái nhìn không thân thiện nhất là còn ảnh hưởng đạo Khổng ít nhiều. Điều nầy cũng không  quan trọng chi cho mấy  trong cuộc sống hiện nay nhất là ta biết  ta,  sống cho ta và ta có quyền tự chủ  con người của ta. Với cái ý nghĩ nầy , hình xăm đã được dân chủ hóa phần lớn và đã trở thành một hiện tượng xã hội thực sự.

Selon le livre intitulé  « Sélection des contes étranges à Lingnan », le tatouage remonte à la période de la dynastie des Hồng Bàng. À cette époque, notre peuple vivait souvent dans l’eau pour pêcher ou attraper des palourdes. Ils étaient donc souvent attaqués par les alligators. Alors ils le signalaient au roi.  Ce dernier venait de leur dire que les gens des montagnes et ceux de l’eau étaient  hostiles les uns envers les autres, se détestaient souvent et se faisaient donc du mal. Grâce au tatouage effectué « en forme de monstre marin » avec de l’encre, ils n’étaient plus blessés depuis lors. Le tatouage exista depuis l’époque où notre peuple faisant partie de la  grande tribu « Cent Yue ( Bai Yue) » vivait encore dans les cours inférieur et moyen du fleuve Yang Tse.  Il y avait  un grand type de crocodile aimant  vivre dans les cours d’eau  à débit lent de ce fleuve. Notre peuple l’appelait souvent sous le nom Giao Long. Aujourd’hui cette espèce vivant dans ce fleuve est menacée d’extinction. Le tatouage n’est qu’une forme de culture spirituelle dans l’association du couple (Oiseau /Dragon)(Fée-Dragon)   à leur totem avec la notion de dualité (deux en un) des Proto-Viet. C’était pour cela qu’ils aimaient à se faire tatouer le dragon sur leur corps et porter le chapeau à plumes (Enfants du Dragon et Grands Enfants de l’Immortelle).

Cette coutume continuait à exister sous les deux dynasties des Lý et des Trần. Sous la dynastie des Lý, il n’y avait que les gens de la noblesse ayant le droit de  se faire tatouer le dragon au niveau de la poitrine et des cuisses.  Puis sous la dynastie des Trần, afin de montrer le courage de vaincre les Mongols avec l’esprit indomptable de résistance, les Vietnamiens n’hésitaient pas à se faire tatouer sur le bras deux mots « Sát Thát (Tuer les Mongols) comme le jeune général Trần Quốc Toản. Selon la tradition des Trần, une fois monté au trône, le roi devait  se faire tatouer sur les cuisses  le dragon pour rappeler son origine. Mais le roi Trần Anh Tôn n’appréciait pas cette coutume et refusait de le faire. Le tatouage disparut ainsi auprès de la noblesse.

Aujourd’hui, le tatouage est  considéré au Vietnam par les jeunes comme une méthode d’embellissement de leur corps selon la préférence et la possibilité d’exprimer leur personnalité  bien que la société ait parfois une vision défavorable car elle est encore influencée dans une certaine mesure par le confucianisme.  Ce n’est pas si important dans la vie d’aujourd’hui car on sait qu’on peut vivre pour soi-même et on a le droit de disposer librement de son corps. Avec cette idée, le tatouage réussit  à se démocratiser largement  et devient ainsi un phénomène de société.

 

According to the book entitled “Selection of Strange Tales in Lingnan”, the tattoo dates back to the period of the Hồng Bàng dynasty. Back then, our people often lived in the water to fish or catch clams. So they were often attacked by alligators. So they reported it to the king.  The king had just told them that the mountain people and the water people were hostile to each other, often hated each other and therefore did each other harm. Thanks to a tattoo in the shape of a “sea monster” with ink, they have not been hurt since. The tattoo has existed since the time when our people, part of the great “Cent Yue ( Bai Yue)” tribe, still lived in the lower and middle reaches of the Yang Tse River.

There was a large type of crocodile that liked to live in the slow-moving streams of this river. Our people often called it Giao Long. Today this species living in this river is threatened with extinction. Tattooing is only a form of spiritual culture in the association of the couple (Bird / Dragon) (Fairy-Dragon) to their totem with the notion of duality (two in one) of the Proto-Viet. That was why they liked to have the dragon tattooed on their body and wear the feathered hat (Children of the Dragon and Great Children of the Immortal).

This custom continued to exist under both the Lý and Trần dynasties. Under the Lý dynasty, only the nobility were allowed to have the dragon tattooed on their chest and thighs. Then under the Trần dynasty, in order to show the courage to defeat the Mongols with the indomitable spirit of resistance, the Vietnamese did not hesitate to have two words « Sát Thát (Kill the Mongols) » tattooed on their arms like the young general Trần Quốc Toản. According to Trần tradition, once ascended to the throne, the king had to have the dragon tattooed on his thighs to recall his origin. But King Trần Anh Tôn did not appreciate this custom and refused to do so. The tattoo thus disappeared among the nobility.

Today, tattooing is considered by young people in Vietnam as a method of beautifying their bodies according to their preferences and the possibility of expressing their personality, although society sometimes has an unfavorable view of it because it is still influenced to some extent by Confucianism. This is not so important in today’s life because we know that we can live for ourselves and we have the right to freely dispose of our bodies.

With this idea, tattooing has managed to become widely democratized and thus becomes a social phenomenon.

Tài liệu tham khảo:

Lĩnh Nam Chích Quái . Trần Thế Pháp. Nhà xuất bản Hồng Bàng.
Đai Việt Sử Ký Toàn Thư Toàn Bộ. Nhà xuất bản Thời Đại.
Văn Lang Dị Sử. Nguyễn Lang. Lá Bối.

Củ Chi (Tây Ninh)

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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

The bamboo ( Cây Tre)

j050807 Art, Culture, Histoire, Lịch sử, Traditions

 

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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

 

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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.

[Return to CHAMPA]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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.

[Return to CHAMPA]

Bibliography

Thái Văn Kiểm: Việt Nam quang hoa Editeur Xuân Thu, USA
Georges Cœdès: Cổ sử các quốc gia Ấn Độ Hóa ở Viễn Đông. NXB Thế Giới năm 2011
Pierre-Yves Manguin: L’introduction de l’islam au Champa. Études chames II. BEFEO. Vol 66 pp 255-287. 1979
Pierre-Yves Manguin: Une relation ibérique du Champa en 1595. Études chames IV. BEFEO  vol 70 pp. 253-269
Ngô văn Doanh: Văn hóa cổ Chămpa. NXB Dân tộc 2002.
Hồ Trung Tú: Có 500 năm như thế. NXB Đà Nẵng 2017.
Agnès de Féo: Les Chams, l’islam et la revendication identitaire. EPHE IVème section.2004
Thái Văn Kiểm: Panorama de la musique classique vietnamienne. Des origines à nos jours.  BSEI, Nouvelle Série, Tome 39, N° 1, 1964.
Thurgood Graham: From Ancient Cham to modern dialects . Two thousand years of langage contact and change. University of Hawai Press, Honolulu. 1999
Trần Trọng Kim: Việtnam sử lược, Hànội, Imprimerie Vĩnh Thanh 1928.
Đại Việt Sử Ký Toàn Thư. Nhà xuất bản Thời Đại. Năm 2013.

 

 

Forbidden Purple City (Huế)

j050807 Art, Histoire, Lịch sử, Sites touristiques, tourisme, Văn Hóa

 

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Version vietnamienne

The Forbidden Purple City of Hue is protected by a 4-meter-high brick wall. This wall is further reinforced by the installation of a water-filled moat system, thus encircling the city. Each gate leading into the city is preceded by one or more bridges, but the Meridian Gate remains the main entrance, once reserved for the king. Today, it is the main entrance for visitors.

It is a powerful masonry structure pierced by five passages and topped by an elegant two-story wooden structure, the Five Phoenix Belvedere (Lầu Ngũ Phụng). To the east and west of the citadel are the Chương Đức Gate (7) and the Hiển Nhơn Gate (8), which are very well decorated and each pierced by three passages. The Hiển Nhơn Gate was completely restored in 1977.

World cultural Heritage of Viet Nam

Once you pass through the Meridian Gate, you see the sumptuous Palace of Supreme Harmony or Throne Palace, which can be reached by crossing the Esplanade of Great Salutations (Sân Ðại Triều Nghi). It was in this palace that the emperor, seated on the throne in a prestigious symbolic position, received the greeting of all the dignitaries of the empire. They were lined up hierarchically on the esplanade for major ceremonies. It is also the only building that has remained relatively intact after so many years of war. Behind this palace is the private residence of the king and his family.

 

 

  • 1 Gate of the Midday (Ngọ Môn)
  • 2 Palace of the Supreme Harmony. ( Điễn Thái Hòa)
  • 3 Belvedere of the Lecture or Pavilion of the Archives (Thái Bình Ngự Lâm Thư Lâu)
  • 4 Royal Theatre (Duyệt Thị Đường)
  • 5 Splendour Pavilion (Hiên Lâm Các)
  • 7 Gate of the Vertu (Chương Đức Môn)
  • 8 Gate of the Humanity (Hiển Nhơn Môn)

Vietnamese makara (con kim)

j050807 Art, Culture, Lịch sử, sculpture, Văn Hóa

 
 

Con kìm 

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For so many years, when I have the opportunity to visit temples or pagodas, I am used to taking photos of the sacred animal that is clearly visible on their roofs. I always think I am dealing with a dragon because its head resembles that of a dragon, its mouth being gaping and always swallowing an element of the roof. But when you examine it closely, you discover its very short body and its tail resembling that of a fish. The Chinese are used to calling it Xi. This is their way of calling this legendary creature Makara. This one is used to living underwater and is the favorite vehicle of the goddess of the Ganges River, Ganga. It is therefore an aquatic creature from abroad. Its mouth is so large that it can swallow an architectural element of the roof. Is this why the Vietnamese give it the name « Kìm » (or pincer in French)? Why is it often found on the roofs of temples or communal houses?

According to the Taiping Leibian Encyclopedia, it is a tradition dating back to the Han period under the reign of Emperor Han Wudi and the period when Buddhism began to take root in China. Following the fire at the Bach Luong Palace and at the suggestion of a mandarin to the emperor, the Imperial Court decided to sculpt the statue of this aquatic creature and install it on the roof of the palace because it was capable of extinguishing fire by surfing on the waves, which caused rain when it appeared. This creature henceforth became the symbol of the extinction of fire.

This custom was widespread not only in the Han imperial court but also in popular belief. Our country, annexed by the Han at this time, was no exception in the practice of this cult. Kim thus became the sacred animal of decoration on the roofs of communal houses and pagodas because Vietnamese artists have succeeded today in giving it a specific character in Vietnamese culture over the centuries. It has long since become a purely Vietnamese sacred animal. Everyone forgets not only its Hindu name, makara, but also its origin. 

 

 

Dong Son culture (Văn hóa Đồng Sơn)

j050807 Art, Culture, Đồng Sơn, Histoire, Văn Hóa

 
vanhoa_dongson
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In the early 20th century, archaeologists from the Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient (Louis Pajot, Olov Jansen) discovered a large number of Bronze Age artefacts in the Mã valley, notably in the village of Ðồng Sơn.

Among these finds are musical instruments, in particular drums. These are decorated with figurative motifs depicting stylized animals and scenes from daily life. But the most remarkable of these drums remains that of Ngọc Lũ. This is a cylinder 63 cm high and 79 cm in diameter. It was purchased by EFEO at the 1902 exhibition and auction in Hanoi for the price of 550 piasters at the time. It is arguably the finest drum ever found in Asia. On its upper side are motifs mixed with various ritual subjects: herds of deer, waterfowl, houses on stilts etc. The Austrian archaeologist Heine-Geldern was the first to propose the name Đồng Sơn for this culture. Since then, the culture has been known as the Ðồng Sơn or Dongsonian culture.   According to researchers Louis Bezacier and Nguyễn Phúc Long, the art of Đồng Sơn represents only the final phase of a long evolution of bronze metallurgy from the Gò Bông (late Phùng Nguyên) , Đồng Dậu and Gò Mun eras and corresponds to the period when it reached perfection and acquired prestige and influence in Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

According to researcher Hà Văn Tấn, the culture of Đồng Sơn has its roots among the proto-Dongsonian cultures discovered, which gradually enable it to have remarkable creations.  The art of Đồng Sơn emerged on the basis of Neolithic industry, as the first bronze objects can be found alongside carved stone instruments and pottery with a still Neolithic character. To look for the origins of the Dongsonian in the north or west of Vietnam, as several researchers have done, is to put forward a hypothesis that has no scientific basis. Dongsonian art is also in contact with the art of the Warring Kingdoms (Houai-style daggers from the Wu-Yue kingdom).  The ancient bronzes found in Vietnam are totally different from those of the Shang and Chu dynasties in China, both in the creation of charming forms and in decoration and alloying.  We can say without hesitation that this is a purely local production with very little influence from Chinese bronzes.

Đồng Sơn culture

(500 B.C. – 43 A.C.)

dongsonien

  

Thanks to the discoveries of bronze ploughing implements (ploughshares) found at Vạn Thắng and Sơn Tây reported by Vietnamese researchers in their book entitled “Les premiers vestiges de l’Âge de bronze au Vietnam p 110-113, Hànội 1963)(1), the Proto-Vietnamese already knew how to plough their rice fields. This invalidates the old Chinese thesis that the Proto-Vietnamese didn’t know how to plough before the Han conquest. They had to learn from the governors Si Kouang (Tích Quan) and Ren Yan (Nhâm Diên) how to grow rice and how to live and dress (Livre des Han postérieurs). One of the characteristics of Dongsonian bronze lies in the subtle blend of copper, tin and lead elements, depending on the type of tool produced (battle axe, crossbow trigger, spear point, ploughshare, hoe, dagger, etc.). According to Vietnamese researcher Nguyễn Phúc Long, ancient bronze drums found in North Vietnam have a much higher lead content than those from archaic China, in the order of 27.8% for the former versus 0.55% for the latter.

Beauty and skill are not lacking either in the decoration of the various objects found with the creatures living in the rice fields (toad, pelican, turtle, buffalo etc.). For some time now, despite the proximity of a multi-cultural country like China, there has been unanimous agreement on the singularity of this age-old culture, which originated with the rice-growing peasants, whose feet were buried in the mud of the flooded fields and who were close to nature. It is contemporary with the Sa Huỳnh and Đồng Nai cultures of central and southern Vietnam today.