these are the first words that we learned from our teacher at the school. We have to love Quê Hương, that is what our teacher repeated everyday. This sometimes puzzled us when we were still attending school. Why do we have to love Quê Hương? It has nothing extraordinary. It has only a name. We do not see it. We do not even manage to feel its presence in Vietnam. Sometimes, we would like to deny it because it identifies poverty and misery. However it is like our mother, unique to each of us. It is live and irreplaceable. It is our raison d’être. We cannot grow if we do not think about Quê Hương. Even when we live overseas or in a remote corner of the planet, the shadow of Quê Hương keeps on grabbing us with tenderness and regret. If we have the opportunity to spend a sleepless night, we will notice how long the night would be. If we have the opportunity to leave Viêtnam, we realize we miss Quê Hương.
Poet Ðỗ Trung Quân managed to describe it through the poem entitled “Bài Học đầu tiên cho con (First lesson for my child) that the late composer Anh Bằng will succeed in putting latter into a song. Quê Hương is a bunch of sweet star fruits which my child gathered every day. Quê Hương is the road to school flooded with dried yellow butterflies my child took every day at the time of the return. Quê Hương is the kite of glaucous color which my child had the practice to make to fly away over the meadow . Quê Hương is the small boat that advanced gently along the river. Quê Hương is the small bamboo bridge which our mother had the practice to take at the time of the return with her conical hat inclined to protect her from the sun etc.
Bao năm xa cách Quê Hương Nỗi sầu viễn xứ biết dường nào nguôi Mai nầy vĩnh biệt chôn vùi Đất người thể xác ngậm ngùi nghìn thu.
Effectively, Quê Hương is our past, our youth, our identity, our memories. We can never grow if we have no attachment to our past. Because of the the hazards of the life,we may forget Quê Hương momentarily but we do not lose it forever.
Avec le premier grand royaume thaï Sukhothai, on voit naître une nouvelle civilisation qui savait tirer profit de la culture indigène sous l’élan d’une personnalité exceptionnelle et aussi marquante qu’était le roi Rama Khamheng. Pour Georges Cœdès, les Thaïs étaient de remarquables assimilateurs. Au lieu de détruire tout ce qui appartenait aux anciens maîtres (Môn-Khmers) comme le firent les Vietnamiens lors de la conquête du Champa, les Thaïlandais tentèrent de se l’approprier et de retrouver les thèmes dans les vieux répertoires môn-khmers pour créer un nouveau style propre et particulier en laissant transparaître les traditions locales dans l’architecture (les chedis) et la statuaire (les Bouddhas). Le Mahàyàna fut abandonné désormais en faveur du bouddhisme du Theravàdà auquel était consacrée entièrement l’esthétique thaïlandaise. Celle-ci tira évidemment ses formules iconographiques et plastiques de l’art khmer et de celui du Dvaravati (Môn).
L’éclosion de l’art de Sukhothaï témoigne d’une volonté d’innovation et d’une vitalité remarquable malgré certaines influences cinghalaises, birmanes et khmères. C’est ce qu’on voit dans la grande création de l’iconographie des Bouddhas. Ceux-ci représentés sous la forme humaine étaient sculptés selon des règles très précises que les artistes thaïlandais devaient respecter minutieusement. Selon Bernard Groslier, il y a un peu d’exagération dans la beauté de ces oeuvres afin de pouvoir accentuer la stylisation et montrer l’originalité d’une société nouvelle et dynamique. L’allongement démesuré trouvé dans les bras et les oreilles et la déformation excessive du chignon supérieur rappellent bien le manque du réalisme.
Malgré cela, la sculpture bouddhique de Sukhothai témoigne incontestablement d’un art entièrement original et d’une période où la nation thaïlandaise avait besoin d’une identité culturelle et religieuse et d’une personnalité propre illustrée par l’exemple trouvé dans la création du Bouddha marchant. Sa forme gracieuse ne peut pas passer inaperçue et réussit à pénétrer les Thaïlandais. Une fluidité est trouvée dans le mouvement de ce Bouddha. Son allure est à la fois légère et sereine. Sa tête en forme d’ovale, ses sourcils arqués en demi cercle parfait et prolongés par un nez aquilin et long, sa chevelure en bouclette surmontée d’une longue flamme (unîsa)(tradition cinghalaise), sa bouche entourée par une double ligne (tradition khmère), ses vêtements collés au corps sont les traits caractéristiques de l’art bouddhique de Sukhothaï.
Sous le règne de Rama Khamheng (ou Rama le Brave), une nouvelle société se forma à partir de l’héritage môn-khmer. Cette société trouva son modèle administratif et social auprès des Mongols. L’écriture thaïe fut créée et basée sur la cursive khmère qui trouvait sa lointaine origine dans l’Inde méridional. Le bouddhisme theravàda fut adopté comme la religion d’état. Malgré cela, l’animisme continua à se perpétuer comme en a témoigné le culte de l’esprit du sol évoqué par Rama Khamheng. Celui-ci installa sur une colline près de Sukhothai un autel dédié à un esprit nommé Phra Khapung Phi, supérieur à tous les autres esprits pour assurer la prospérité du royaume. Cela lui revint la charge d’honorer ce culte tous les ans. C’est aussi cet état d’esprit qu’on a vu encore au début du XXème siècle au Vietnam avec la cérémonie rituelle de Nam Giao (Huế) célébrée par l’empereur car étant le fils du Ciel, il était censé de demander chaque année la protection et la bénédiction du Ciel pour le pays. (idem en Chine avec le temple du Ciel (Thiên Đàn) à Pékin).
On n’est pas étonné de trouver encore de nos jours cette tradition, cette idée de l’esprit supérieur dans le Bouddha d’Eméraude (ou Phra Keo Morakot), palladium de la Thaïlande et protecteur de la dynastie de Chakri dans la chapelle du palais royal à Bangkok. Pour Bernard Groslier, le parallélisme n’est pas gratuit: les Thaï appartiennent au monde primitif de la pensée chinoise. On se pose des questions à cette comparaison car on ne peut pas ignorer qu’analogues à des Vietnamiens, les Thaï faisaient partie du groupe Cent Yue dont la plupart des ethnies étaient des animistes et appartenaient au monde agricole. Ils étaient habitués à honorer le culte des génies du sol, de l’agriculture ou du village avant d’être sous la coupe de l’influence chinoise. Rama Khamheng réussît à nouer des relations diplomatiques avec la Chine de Koubilai Khan. Il favorisa la venue et l’installation des artisans chinois dans la capitale. Avec leur savoir-faire, le royaume de Sukhothai ne tarda pas à être connu avec ses fameuses céramiques de Sawankhalok. Royaume d’Ayutthaya
Taking advantage of the exhaustion of Angkorian empire due to ceaseless wars against its neighbors (Champa, Vietnam) and gigantic works in the construction of temples (Bayon, Angkor Thom, Ta Prohm, Angkor Vat etc.) of Jayavarman VII, the death of the latter and the Mongolian invasion against Indochina (Khmer empire in 1283, Champa (between 1283-1285), Ðại Việt (or Vietnam) of the Trần (1257-1288)) and Pagan kingdom (Burma), the Thai began to etablish their political power as well in Thailand as Burma.
In Thailand, on the northern fringe of the Ménam basin, two Thai princes named Po Khun Bangklanghao and Po Khun Phameung managed to free Sukhothai from the influence of the Môn and the Khmers in 1239. Po Khun Bangklanghao thus became the first king of the Thai independent kingdom Sukhothai whose name means « the dawn of the happiness ». But it is rather to his son Rama Khamheng the great task to enlarge the Thai kingdom by conquering not only the northern Malaysia until Ligor (or Nakhon Si Thammarat) but also Khmer possessions in the direction Luang Prabang (Laos). At the same time, in the northern Thailand, after the annexation of Haripunjaya in 1292, another allied Thai prince named Mengrai, founded his kingdom Lannathai (kingdom of the million rice fields) by taking Chiang Mai for capital.
Rama Khamheng and Mengrai, two Thai princes shared the supremacy, the one in the centre and the other in northern Thailand. Other small Thai kingdoms were founded in Phayao and Xiang Dong Xiang Thong (Luang Prabang) in Laos. In Burma, the Pagan kingdom did not manage to resist to the invasion of the Mongols. The Thai of Burma (or Shan) took advantage of this opportunity to dismember the kingdom in several states shan.
No Vietnamese can remain impassible when it comes to recall the years of study spent at school with their teacher. The image of their school keeps on being intimately carved in their memories. That is the way composer Phạm Trọng Cầu felt in his song Trường Làng Tôi ( My village school ). How could they forget what has contributed in giving them their education, teaching them, and putting them on the road of apprenticeship in life? For them, one word taught by or one day of study with their teacher is enough to justify the obligation toward him.
Trường Làng Tôi ( My village school )
That is why it was repeated time and again when they were young that
Nhất nhật vi sư Bán tự vi sư
Học một ngày cũng thầy Học nữa chữ cũng thầy
The one who teaches us for one day or even half a word is worth being our teacher. Without the teacher, they cannot become who they are today. They owe him part of their life, their success and above all their education because it is him that gave them not only knowledge but also taught him the wisdom and apprenticeship of life. The following famous remark : Không thầy đố mầy làm nên ( Without the teacher you cannot succeed ) continues to occupy their mind and justify their behavior, their deep feelings toward their teacher. They give him such a crucial role that they do not hesitate to use the word « teacher » ( or Thầy in Vietnamese ). Thầy is sometimes used to address the father because it is he that gave them the first lesson in education. That is why the teacher remains the second person to be respected in the unchanging following Confucian trilogy: Quân, Sư, Phụ.
Whichever their age, position and level of education, they continue to remain the little pupil, the young disciple of their teacher.
They are not willing to neglect their respect toward their teacher even in moments the most perilous in their life. This was shown by emperor Hàm Nghi toward his teacher before the colonial authorities who were not able to identify Hàm Nghi physically when he was captured. The only person who could identify him was his teacher; therefore the latter was brought by force before the young Hàm Nghi. For the respect of his old teacher, he could not let him kneel down. He was obliged to prevent his teacher from executing this gesture. Because of this inopportune attitude, he was thus identified by the colonial authorities. He preferred to die instead of making an irreparable mistake toward the one who had taught him not only dignity and courage but also the duty toward his people and country. It was also the case of emperor Duy Tân with is tutor Eberhard in charge of supervising and reporting all his activities to the colonial authorities. Instead of being hated, he became one of the people that Duy Tân continued to respect during his reigning years. It was a habit to say in Vietnamese:
Kính thầy mới được làm thầy. We should respect our teacher before becoming a teacher later.
It is in this Confucian spirit that young Vietnamese students were raised. They always try to listen to their teacher. They sometimes adopt an ambiguous attitude so as not to vex or bother their teacher even though when they are not entirely in agreement with him. It is the respect that emperor Gia Long knew how to maintain toward his tutor and spiritual guide, the bishop of Adran, His Highness Pigneau de Behaine during his reigning years. Age is not a factor in the behavior of a student toward his teacher who in several occasions was younger than him. It is shocking and moving to see sometimes an old student crossing arms in front of a young teacher but that never contradicts the intimate sentiments, the profound and sincere attachment he continues to keep for his teacher the way he does for his mother and his country. He knows what his teacher expects from him. He tries to keep up with this expectation, which sometimes puts him in a delicate and aberrant situation where he is himself in competition with his teacher.
It was the case of Phạm Duy Tri with his teacher Nguyễn Khắc Kínhduring a royal examination that took place in 1562 under the Mac dynasty. Issue of a very poor family and orphan of father at very early age, he was raised by his mother who did not hesitate to offer the teacher the only buffalo she possessed in order for the latter known for his years of experience in teaching in the village, to accept her son as his disciple. Moved by this mother’s sacrifice, teacher Nguyễn Khắc Kính agreed to take him as his student. A few years later, thanks to his assiduity and intelligence, he ended usentiments the latter always reserved for him, he did not want his student, because of the respect he had toward him, to be penalized and wop in surpassing his teacher, which the latter saw during the provincial and general exams where he was himself a candidate. Knowing perfectly well his student’s state of mind and his profound uld not put all his weights and ardor in the royal examination. For that, he told his student:
If you do not want to be brilliant in that exam, I would understand your behavior, your feelings. But you have to remember that this examination is reserved for the one who deserves to be chosen to serve the country. You must take into account the interest of the nation before any personal considerations. You should not betray your ideals and your country.
He reminded him the sentence that any school teacher would repeat to his student:
Bất nhượng ư sư Không nên nhường thầy.
Do not concede to your teacher what you deserve.
Moved by the advice, Phạm Duy Tri nodded his head and kept what his teacher had told him. He passed the royal exam and acquired the title of Trạng Nguyên ( 1st doctor ). As for his teacher, he was classified second and received the title of Bảng Nhãn ( or 2nd doctor ).
The feelings that a Vietnamese has for his teacher never fade with the time, which was shown by lord Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên toward his spiritual teacher and counselor Ðào Duy Từ. To thank him, lord Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên did not hesitate to grant him a vibrant homage by giving to one of his fortifications located in central Vietnam the name « Lũy Thầy » (fortification of the Teacher ). This fortification was built to counter the Trinh from the north. Thanks to this naming, he was successful in giving gratitude a wide range through history and the entire nation. Today the fortification is still known by this name.
On the other hand those feelings become as the time goes by a kind of cement that link a Vietnamese a little more to his school, his village and his native country. They are also a gift of affection and respect that Vietnamese love to give their teacher in the Confucian spirit.
It is the largest and the most sublime temple-mountain of all Khmer temples. It was built during the reign of Sûryavarman II in the first half of the XIIth century. It was considered as capital of the Khmer empire having in its center the temple of state dedicated to Vishnu. It is here that the towers are raised in quincunx. Two major characteristics of the Khmer architecture are found there: pyramids or temples-mountains symbolizing the Mount Meru (house of Gods) and the galleries which were built the one above the other. Many people considers it as the eighth wonder of the world. Other temple mountains can be visited: Bakeng, Takeo, Baphûon, Prè Rup, Bakong and Ak Yum.
Bayon is the central temple of the old city Angkor Thom, capital of Khmer sovereigns at the beginning of the XIIIth century. It is the last one of temples-mountains built by king Jayavarman VII, restorer of royal power of the Khmer Angkor kingdom after the invasion of the Cham. Its decoration of a exceptional wealth is at the apogee of Mahayana Buddhist art.
This king dedicates this monument to Buddha he spreads the doctrine of which with his face towers. There are over 37 harmonious towers around a big central tower, the sanctuary. But we think that they could be more numerous, perhaps 54 towers with 216 faces according to French Paul Mus.
King Buddha at Guimet museum
These towers are built by putting stony blocks piled on top of the other without any cement. The sculpture will be made after the completion of placement of these rocky blocks.
What mechanical strength did they have, the Cambodians in the past, to raise the enormous stony blocks until higher parts of the building after having extracted them from the distant mountains, having polished and sculptured them? It is this question which haunted frequently Henri Mouhot during the discovery of Angkor ruins. We find on four sides of each tower, gigantic faces in the enigmatic smile, each one of them turned respectively to one of the four cardinal points.
The visitor has the impression to be followed by their glaucous look. For Pierre Loti, Bayon was the heaviest stony mountain the men dared to undertake since the pyramids of Memphis.
[ngg_images source= »galleries » container_ids= »123″ display_type= »photocrati-nextgen_basic_thumbnails » override_thumbnail_settings= »1″ thumbnail_width= »180″ thumbnail_height= »100″ thumbnail_crop= »1″ images_per_page= »30″ number_of_columns= »4″ ajax_pagination= »0″ show_all_in_lightbox= »0″ use_imagebrowser_effect= »0″ show_slideshow_link= »0″ slideshow_link_text= »[Montrer sous forme de diaporama] » template= »/homepages/5/d276592279/htdocs/clickandbuilds/vietnamquehuongtoi/wp-content/plugins/nextgen-gallery/products/photocrati_nextgen/modules/ngglegacy/view/gallery-caption.php » order_by= »pid » order_direction= »ASC » returns= »included » maximum_entity_count= »500″] In his work entitled « Travel in the kingdoms of Siam, Cambodia, Laos and other central parts of Indochina « , the discoverer of the Angkor ruins, Henri Mouhot, left his impression: In spite of the disappearance of the gold and colors which almost totally removed from the building, there are only stones there. But these ones proclaim loudly the genius, the strength and the patience, the talent, the wealth and the power of the Cambodians in the past.
We discovered recently during a excavation realized in 1933, in the broken remains of a big stony statue 3,60 m in height, the representation of Jayavarman VII in king Buddha. The builder of the Bayon, is seated, legs tucked on the coiled body of the naga. Since then, we attributed this face with the mystic smile found on the sides of the Bayon towers to that of Jayavarman VII.
Located 20 km northeast of Angkor and almost at the foot of the mount Phnom Kulên, this temple was built in the Xth century in pink sandstone and in laterite under the reign of Jayavarman V. It is the work of certain Brahman Yajnavaraha, adviser of king Rajendravarman then guru of Jayavarman V. Besides the variety of stoneware (preferred material of the Khmers) in the warm tones of pink, the quality and the beauty of this temple are found in the exceptional delicacy of sculptures and the freshness of its sophisticated decorations. Depending on the period of sunshine, this temple changes colour through the day.
It was discovered by the French people in 1914. It became famous in 1923 when French writer André Malraux was arrested for the dissimulation of 4 apsaras. One gives to this temple a recent appelation naming » citadel of the women » in reference to the delicacy of the sculptured decorations which could have been made only by women or for its small size compared with the other temples. The restoration was made by Henri Marchal between 1931 and 1936 in a remarkable way by using the technique of the anastylose adopted by the Dutch people.
As Vietnam is a water country, it is not surprising to see the proliferation and large variety of boats used by the Vietnamese in their transport by water: from the lightest and smallest to the largest ones found until then only in the neighbouring countries like China or Indonesia. One finds in the construction of these vietnamese boats a notable foreign influence, chinese in the North and indonesian or even western indian in the South of Vietnam. This influence is more perceptible in the Center of Vietnam that has been occupied until the XIIIth century by the Vikings of Asia, the Chàms whose civilization has disappeared in the wirlwind of history by the secular march of the>Vietnamese towards the South.
In spite of that, the Vietnamese showing an acute sense of observation and of living experience due to the incessant coming and going of typhoons on the vietnamese coast, know to harmoniously combine the data of these different foreign techniques to construct boats often more handy than the chinese, malayan or indian models, as has noticed P. Paris in his work entitled « Search of relationship to four Indochise boats, BIIEH, 1946 ».
Because of the harshness of nature and of the quasi permanent fight against their chinese neighbors, the Vietnamese centered their efforts in the conquest of the rice plains. Locked up in the isolationism adopted by the Far East and comforted by the quasi permanent presence of the foreign boats in their ports ( Faifo, Tourane, Saigon etc), the Vietnamese do not see any interest to privilege the maritime transport although they are regarded as the most skilful sailors of the Far East. The Chinese recognized their superiority on water. A high chinese mandarin, Bao Chi, noted this in his confidential report submitted to the emperor of Song. The majority of the Vietnamese victories against the chinese neighbors took place on water. The Vietnamese are accustomed to using boats as means of transport for food or troops, as the abbot Prévost revealed in his » History of the Voyages » from 1751 while relying upon the description of Samuel Baron published in 1732.
The Vietnamese navy knew its apogee only in the first half of the XIXth century. It is the period when the emperor Gia Long assisted by his French lieutenants Jean-Baptiste Chaigneau ( Nguyễn Văn Thắng ), Philippe Vannier ( Nguyễn Văn Chấn ) etc. succeeds in defeating the army of Tây Sơn at Qui Nhơn with his royal navy made up of a hundred or so large galleys of 50 to 70 oars with guns and stone drains and of three european style vessels ( the Phoenix ( tàu Phụng ), the Eagle and the Flying Dragon ( tàu Long ). These last ones were built with such skill and remained no more than three months on the building site, as has noted father Lelabousse in his report dated at Nha Trang, the 24th of April 1800.
To request his investiture with the chinese emperor, in 1802, Gia Long sent the great poet Trinh Hoài Ðức (1), the first vietnamese delegate to travel by sea to Peking. Unfortunately, this apogee was only of short duration because his successors, surrounded by confuciasnist mandarins and entangled in the obscurantism, continued to adopt a policy of exacerbated isolationism in spite of the memorandum of the modernistic scholar Nguyễn Trường Tộ, which made it possible for the french navy to succeed in dropping anchor a few decades later in the vietnamese waters after having sunk in the port of Tourane ( Danang ) the first five armored junks of the vietnamese fleet on April 15, 1847.
Although the Vietnamese neglect the maritime transport, paradoxically they do not haggle the means of manufacturing a large variety of boats to facilitate their daily displacement because Vietnam has, in addition to the second mangrove of the world (the forest U – Minh 1000km2) after that of Brazil in the peninsula of Cà Mau, thousands of small rivers, affluents and distributaries, streams and rivers (Red River, Mekong River ).
Moreover, the vietnamese road network is quasi non-existent. The vietnamese boats are divided into two categories: those manufactured with bamboo plates coated in lacquer (thuyền nan) and those carved from tree trunks or made with wooden plates ( thuyền gỗ). With regard to the first category, if the boat is of a small size, it is often called in Vietnamese (thuyền câu). It is a small boat where only one person can be placed. If the light boat is of a round shape, it is called » thuyền thúng » and is frequently used by the fishermen of the Center of Vietnam.
This tight round basket existed in the Xth century. Dương Vân Nga, a girl from Hoa Lư, was known at that time to excel in the art of rowing with this floating basket. But on the day of competition, Ðinh Bộ Lĩnh, the leader of a rival band of boys, succeeded in immobilizing her floating basket by perforating it with the means of a pole.
This victory enabled him to win not only the admiration but also the love of Duong Vân Nga. This floating basket allowed the fast transport of the troops through the marshes and the rivers and ensured the couple Dương Vân Nga and Đinh Bô. Lĩnh the victory over the Chinese a few years later. As for the second category, the basic constitution is made with wood. There is a multitude of different boats but the most known and the most used by the Vietnamese is the sampan or the boat with three boards (Thuyền tam bản). It is that which is employed to cross the streams or the rivers. The majority of the people who advance the sampans are young girls.
This is why there are many stories of love born of these boats. One continues to tell them, in particular the story of emperor Thành Thái with the oarswoman. If a Vietnamese man was used to crossing the river in his youth, this could probably incite in him intense regrets, memories and emotions when he has the occasion to return to the river bank to take the vat. He feels more or less distressed when he learns that the oarswoman, the girl whom he continues to pity the fate and whom he is not far from falling in love with is no longer there. Probably, she is now the mother of a family or she has joined another world but she is no longer there to welcome him with her charming and ingenuous smile. He is not long to recall that he no longer has the occasion to hear her refrain, or to see the sides of her worn tunic flying in the wind of the river during the crossing. It is in this unusual context that he feels an indescribable affliction. He regrets missing so many occasions to find his dock, his river, his native land and to leave for too long in the lapse of memory the eternal charm of the sampan, that of a Viet-Nam bygone .
The film director Ðặng Nhật Minh, most known currently in Vietnam, does not hesitate to show the opposite case, the discrete love of the young boatwoman living on the River of the Perfumes, to the foreign and vietnamese public through his film.
The girl from the river ( Cô gái trên sông ) 1987
It is the story of its heroine Nguyệt who, to the peril of her life, does not hesitate to save a wounded young man known for his subversive activities by the south vietnamese police during the war. She tries to hide him in her sampan. Once peace is returned, this young man becomes an important communist cadre. The girl tries to find him because she continues to harbor deep feelings for this man. Unfortunately, she feels afflicted and betrayed because this man pretends not to know her and does not like to recollect the troubling periods of his life… She tries to remake her life with her former lover Sơn whom she rejected a few years earlier and who had the occasion to spend a few years in the reeducation camp for having the offence of being enlisted in the south vietnamese army.
In spite of the few things in their constitution, the boats, in particular, the sampans (đò ngang ) continue to charm the Vietnamese. They do not hésitate to integrate them not only in their everyday life but also in the songs and the poems. The songs » Con Thuyền Không Bến » ( The sampan without dock ) from the composer Ðặng Thế Phong and Ðò Chiều ( the sampan of the Evening ) from Trúc Phương going back to several decades and several generations continue to be appreciated and show at such point the profound attachment of all the Vietnamese to their rudimentary boats.
As for the poems describing them, there is only the Vietnamese having the occasion to take the vat who manages to appreciate the finesse and the beauty found in the verses because one perhaps rediscovers through these poems a fragment of one’s life so animated and so closely hidden in one’s memory with more emotions and sadness than joy and happiness. By reading the following verses,
Trăm năm đã lỗi hẹn hò Cây đa bến cũ con đò khác đưa
Our rendezvous did not take place a long time ago The banian and the dock are always the same but the sampan has changed owner.
The reader could realize that he is also caught up as so many other Vietnamese by memories that he thinks of erasing from his memory with the passing of the years. He cannot continue to sadden himself as that could be made when one was young and in love through the two following verses:
Tương tư thuyền nhớ’ sông dài Tương tư là có hai người nhớ’ nhau
It is no longer worth seeing each other again It is best to leave definitively when one loves intensely
But one should have the courage to forget when the sampan is no longer there as that was said in the following four verses:
Vô duyên đã lỗi hẹn hò Mong làm chi nữa con đò sang sông Thôi đành chẳng gặp là xong Nhớ thương bền chặt bền lòng ra đi
One misses the chance to be at the rendezvous One no longer hopes when the sampan has already left It is no longer worth seeing each other again It is best to leave definitively when one loves intensely
What becomes of her at this moment? Is she dead or happy? Does she deserve the life she leads? Is she like the young boatwoman, sister Tham who saved many people from drowning and who died drowning without anybody rescuing her in the story « Chảy đi sông ơi ( Run, my river, 1988 ) » of the talented writer Nguyễn Huy Thiệp? Is she like the young boatwoman Duyên who continues to hum a lullaby for her child:
Nước chảy đôi giòng … …Con sông Thương …nước chảy đôi giòng …
One can go up or descend the current… of the river Love… one can go up or descend the current..
and never asking questions about the life that was layed out for her just like the river that follows its course to the sea in the short story » Nước Chảy Ðôi giòng ( At counter-current, 1932 ) from Nhất Linh?. These are the questions that the reader overcomed by memories continues to ask intimately. It is also the deep sadness, the poignant pain of the one who no longer has the occasion to find the freshness of his youth through the sampan and its dock which he was accustomed to take at a distant time. He had thought that with time this could erase all the memories as the water of the river evoked in the song with a strange sadness which sister Thắm likes to sing on the bank in the story » Chảy đi sông ơi ( Run, my river, 1988 ) » from Nguyễn Huy Thiệp:
Chảy đi sông ơi Băn khoăn làm gì ? Rồi sông đãi hết Anh hùng còn chi ? …
Run my river Why be tormented? The river erases all Even memories of the heroes…
Chuyện Tình Buồn ( The story of sad love ) of Phạm Duy
(1) Author of two works Bắc sứ Thi Tập ( Collection of poems written during a mission in China ) and Cấn Trai Thi Tập ( Collection of poems from Cấn Trai ).
The hammock is an instrument very familiar to the Vietnamese. For many generations, one was used to hearing its resonant creaking with a regular cadence from the South to the North of Vietnam. This strident sound blended with the crying of the little children and lullabies becomes a tune of music eternally rooted in the Vietnamese soul. Poor or rich, each Vietnamese possesses at least one hammock. It is not only the cradle of the little Vietnamese children but also their swing.
It is used by adults for relaxing. It is also a resting bed for people of old age. It is the only instrument that no Vietnamese could do without. It is a habit to say that in Vietnam one has grown up with the sound of the hammock ( lớn lên trong tiếng võng ) and will grow old in the lullabies ( già trong lời ru ) because the latter are sung tirelessly by the mothers or grand-mothers to pamper their children or grandchildren.
The lullabies stay the same but this time they are sung by a young mother who by a curious coincidence may be the girl he had known at the time he was an adolescent, or an old ferry crossing. It is sure there will be in this case the same resentment felt by a person returning to his or her native village after so many years of absence, proven in this following lullaby:
Bước chân vào ngõ tre làng Lòng buồn nặng trĩu nghe nàng ru con Bước lên thềm đá rêu mòn Lòng buồn nặng trĩu nghe buồn võng đưa
One feels sad, setting foot on the village entrance Hearing the nursery rhyme lulling her baby in cadence, One feels sad, stepping on the worn and mossy rock Hearing the melancholic creaking sound of the hammock.
One cannot stay insensitive when one is the issue of the Mekong delta when listening to the following lullaby:
Ầu ơ .. Bao giờ Chợ Quán hết vôi, Thủ Thiêm hết giặc em thôi đưa đò, Bắp non mà nướng lửa lò Ðố ai ve được con đò Thủ Thiêm.
Âu ơ .. When the Chợ Quán market is out of lime, The Thủ Thiêm region is out of war, I will stop being a ferrywoman. Young and tender corn baked in oven, I bet anyone who could court me, the boat of Thủ Thiêm.
This has without a doubt, made us relive the time of our youth, a time when we were still carefree, we would like very much flirting the girls even the ferrywoman.
Even the hammock is simply made of jute or fabrics, the sound provoked by its back and forth motion continue to anchor itself softly in the intimacy of our conscience and in our spiritual lifestyle and become as the years go by, the most talked about in the Vietnamese popular songs.
Ðố ai nằm võng không đưa, Ru con không hát, đò đưa không chèo
Let’s bet who is sleeping on a hammoc without swinging, Lulling a child to sleep without saying nursery rhyme, conducting a sampan without rowing.
In the old days, the hammock was also used to transport women or mandarins who did not know how to ride on horseback. The hammock is held up by a big bamboo resting on the shoulder of two men who trotted along with a rhythmical look. To shelter from the sun, a sedge matt is placed astride the bamboo. This assembly is often known as palanquin. This one has to follow certain protocols when it comes to a palanquin used by mandarins. According to their rank, the line that accompanied the palanquin was more or less important. One or several persons preceding the official palanquin bore arms (sabres, sticks etc…). By the sides of the palanquin walked the porters of parasols, betel nut box, spittoon, water pipe etc… This palanquin was replaced only at the appearance of the rickshaw in 1884 in Hànội. The hammock was also the dream of most of Vietnamese young girls to be married to a mandarin as in our tradition, the young bride was riding in a palanquin preceded by her husband on horseback. ( Ngựa anh đi trước, võng nàng theo sau ). In the West, one has the Eye of Cain to symbolize the torture of moral conscience. In Vietnam, to talk about this torture, one refers often to the creaking of the hammock of » Con Tấm » (or Vietnamese Cinderella ) because this creaking brings back the thought the wandering soul of Tấm, victim of a plot hatched by her half-sister Cám and her step mother, trying to take revenge on Cám. The moment this one lay down on the hammock, its creaking became so deafening and menacing that Cam had the feeling her sister Tam’s wandering soul substituted for the hammock.
Nowadays, in the cities, well-to-do people replace the hammock with a bed for their little children. But it is certain that the bed, despite its comfort and attractiveness, cannot be recognizable as a familiar instrument, own and intimate of the Vietnamese people because its use is very limited and it lacks another part, the creaking that comes along with melancholic lullabies to become an eternal and irreplaceable tune of music.
In spite of its rudimentary constitution, the hammock continues to give rhythm to the Vietnamese life and witness as the years go by,the intimacy and cultural specificity of the Vietnamese people.
Young or old, a scholar (Sĩ) is always well considered in the Vietnamese society. Much regard is given to him as well as the first place in social hierarchy before the farmer (Nông), the craftman ( Công ), and the merchant ( Thương ). That’s why the latter does not cease to ridicule him in folk songs.
Ai ơi chớ lấy học trò Dài lưng tốn vải ăn no lại nằm
Never marry a student, His long back costs a lot of fabrics Once full, he just keeps lying down
Equipped with intellectual kowledge, the learned man does not let himself be upset by these remarks and tries to reply with a snicker:
Hay nằm đã có võng đào Dài lưng đã có, áo trào nhà vua Hay ăn đã có thóc kho Việc gì mà chẳng ăn no lại nằm
Lying down, here is the luxury hammock My long back, this is the gown granted by the King Eat until full, there is plenty of rice in the warehouse I don’t have to worry, just eat until full, then lie down and rest
This consideration dated back from the time when Confucianism was implemented as the single model structure of the society. The recruitment of the learned man as a mandarin was essentially based on the literary contests which took place every three years at the great temple of Confucius or the Temple of Literature (Văn Miếu). This temple was built by King Lý Thánh Tôn in 1070 and was changed to The College of the Nation’s Children (Quốc Tự Giám) in 1076. From 1484, the name of the scholar who passed the mandarinal contests was inscribed on a stele including his date of birth and his works. This practice of inscription on the stele was stopped only in 1778. Therefore, the dream of passing the mandarinal contests became an obsession for the majority of the learned men. Some of them passed their tests with an astonishing ease such as Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm,Chu văn An and Lê Quí Ðôn. Others failed several times as was the case of the learned man Trân Tế Xương whose poems always convey a caustic irony. His everlasting failure has influenced his works enormously. Besides litterary knowledge, the passing candidate or future mandarin must possess all the concepts of mandate of Heaven, filial piety, loyalty to the king (Nghĩa tôi ) and all the values that provide a cohesion to the confucian vision. Armed with these concepts, the learned man will try to accomplish his mission not only until the end of his days but also to the detriment of his life.
It was the case of the poet laureate Nguyễn Du who prefered retiring to serving the new regime after the fall of the Lê dynasty. It was also the case of the learned man Phan Thanh Giản who decided to take his own life with poison while advising his children to farm the land and not to accept any position during the French occupation of Cochinchina in 1867. As for the learned man Nguyễn Ðình Chiễu, author of the popular poem Lục Vân Tiên and one of the noblest figures of scholars, he never stopped giving moral support to the resistance during the colonial time.
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In his Confucian vision, the scholar tried to maintain at any costs and strictly apply these principles unless the king becomes no longer worthy of the obedience owed to him. In this case, the learned man being keen on justice, may overthrow the king because the latter has been dispossessed of the mandate of Heaven. It was the case of Cao Bá Quát who participated in the famous Locust uprising ( Giặc Châu Chấu ) in the name of the Le family against king Tự Ðức, and who was captured and executed by the latter in 1854.
Although the Scholar was one of the cornerstones of a society upon which rested so many Vietnamese dynasties to govern the country and the legitimate defender of moral values particularly the five human relations ( Ngũ Luân ), i.e. between the King and his subordinates, the Father and his son, the Husband and his wife, the Brother and his younger siblings, and the Friend and his friend), which enables us to have a social cohesion and a national identity through centuries, He is however the factor of inertia and cultural isolationism which proved to be mortal for the Nguyễn’s Empire since 1840.
While continuing to underestimate the foreign power and by maintaining his conservatism, the Scholar was incapable of adapting to modernizational reforms advocated by the modernistic learned man Nguyễn Trường Tộ. Thus, He became the major obstacle to reforms that Vietnam needed in facing the ambitions of the foreign powers. This compelled Him to disappear at the same time with the Empire during the French conquest.
The Scholar formed part of a population of 40,000 learned men, approximately 20,000 of whom were holders of ranks in 1880. The last learned man known for his patriotism and reformism was Phan Chu Trinh. This one was in favor of reforms and insisted on the priority of total progress of society, of the diffusion of the modern knowledge on simple political independence.
His banishment to Poulo Condor and especially his death in 1926 has brought an end to the dream of all Vietnamese to find an independent Vietnam with a policy of non-violence and gradual decolonization that he advocated and defended with enthusiasm and conviction for so many years.
He tried to reveal his state of mind in his poem entitled
The candle
He wants the flame to shed light to the bottom of darkness Because his heart is burned with anxiety of lighting But the half-opened door lets in the north wind In the ending night, with whom to share his tears?
Phan Chu Trinh
It was the tears of the last great Vietnamese learned man. But it is also a cry of despair of a great Vietnamese patriot facing the destiny of his country.
