Formation Of Vietnamese Classical Poetic Tradition - Mo Poetry

Since Qin Dynasty had unified China, Vietnam has been one part of the country, and before she gained her independence, she received wide and profound influence of Chinese culture. After independence in 939.B.C to modern times, Vietnamese feudal government introduced Chinese cultural achievements vigorously, during that time, classical Chinese was written language of the country. As a result, Vietnam set up systematic institution of politics and propriety stem from China, as well as ideology based on Confusion mixed Buddhism and Taoism together. In this historical background, Vietnamese classical literature maintained close communication with Chinese literature, not only in the meaning of the form, but also of the content and aesthetic judgment, it aped the later at every step. Hence we can find many types of literature such as prose, parallel prose, songs of the south, ancient style poetry, modern style poetry, weird story, marvellous tales, historical romance in the treasure-house of Vietnamese literature, and among all the different forms. Vietnamese poetry in Chinese has the closest ties with the tradition of Chinese ancient poetry.In the early period after dependence, i.e. Ngo -Dinh-Le period, the ruling class paid little attention to the construction of culture because of the short break to Chinese tradition and social instability resulted in sustained wars, therefore the physiognomy of culture in Vietnam was impoverished. According to the materials handed down, poetry in Chinese was in the embryonic stage, now we just can see a few prophecy poems and one ci written at that time, and the truthfulness of the later is doubtful. After Pre-Le Dynasty, Ly Dynasty lasted for a long time, but because the ruling class upheld and worshiped Buddhism, system of civil official hasn't been set up, and stratum of Confucian scholars has not taken shape. As a result, poetry in Chinese was not developed. Extant works of that time all have something to do with Buddhism or sorcery, in fact, some poems are Buddhist hymns. Le-Nhan-Tong attempted to emulate Chinese culture, which must have exerted some influence in classical literature of Vietnam, such as poems and Fues written in royal situation. Although we cannot see them now, such activities show that the ruling class needed Chinese political institution and cultural achievements.In Iran and Ho Dynasty, the trend of introducing Chinese culture became very clear. In community Buddhism was powerful and was protected by imperial family and officials, but in political field. Buddhism could not interfere politics any more. At the same time, Iran Dynasty began to set up imperial examination system to select civil official, in the examination, poem and fu is one of important parts. The stratumof Confucian scholars was taking shape and the men of letter were put in important position, which gave much impetus to literary activities. In this period, the number of poet and poem was much more than that of Ly Dynasty, and Vietnamese poems in Chinese share the same physiognomy, i.e. strong characteristics of literati with Chinese classical poems, the author of which was more interested in individual expression and learning.In Le Dynasty, examination for Jinshi marked the establishment of civil official system. The campaign of excluding Buddhism that began in the later time of Iran Dynasty achieved complete success. In this period Confusion occupied a dominant position. In this cultural background, the creation of poems in Chinese reached a high tide. Not only the number of authors and works was much higher than early times, but also there existed activities of twenty- eight stars in the circle of poets. The practice of Le-Thang-Tong represented two orientations of Vietnamese poems in Chinese, the one is pure works of style, the other ideological tools.There was also a characteristic in the theory of poem that it continued from Chinese tradition but had reconciled it, for example, it accepted "poem express heart" as guiding principle but gave consideration to the theory o...