The country was in turmoil, the political institutions and Confucian ideology were shaken and broken, and people's spiritual lives had violent fluctuations. This was also the period when people had some conditions to express themselves and assert themselves. Nguyen Do Cung commented, " That was a difficult period full of wars and struggles between ruling families, a period of feudal chaos that Confucian scholars constantly mentioned with sadness and bitterness, but it was also the time when possibilities opened up to make the people less oppressed, less brutally trampled, and even a little more respected " [5]. Vietnamese society during this period showed signs of an urban society, and liberal ideas in love and sexuality appeared. Writing Truyen Ky Man Luc , Nguyen Du was more or less influenced by this turbulent historical context.
1.3.2. Some features of Truyen Ky Man Luc
Truyen Ky Man Luc is the only remaining work of Nguyen Du and is the most outstanding legendary work in the history of Vietnamese literature, considered a "thousand-year-old miracle". From research works on Truyen Ky Man Luc, we see that there are currently many texts of Truyen Ky Man Luc . In addition to the earliest printed version in 1712, " Cuu Bien Truyen Ky Man Luc" (with a preface by Ha Thien Han written in the early year of Vinh Dinh 1547), there are also a number of handwritten copies. In addition to the original Chinese text by Nguyen Du, these copies also have a supplementary section with phonetic explanations, notes, and notes on allusions and difficult words.
Speaking of the time of birth of Truyen Ky Man Luc, many documents have mentioned this issue and all affirm that Nguyen Du wrote the work around the early 16th century during the Mac Dynasty (1527-1592) during the time he retired from office to live in seclusion. In the preface of Ha Thien Han, it is written: "... He retired from office to take care of his mother to fulfill his filial piety, for several years he did not set foot in the city, then he wrote this collection of records to imply " [4, p.69]. Le Quy Don in Kien Van Tieu Luc stated that Nguyen Du: "Later, because of the Mac Dynasty's usurpation, he vowed not to become an official, stayed home to teach, did not set foot in the city, and wrote Truyen Ky Man Luc in four volumes" [16]. Tran Ich Nguyen in the work Tien Dang Tan Thoai and Truyen Ky Man Luc Ty Giao So So [55] stated that
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It was between 1509 and 1547. That was the period when the Le dynasty was in decline and the Mac dynasty usurped the throne. Researcher Nguyen Pham Hung affirmed that " Nguyen Du was an official and retired to live in seclusion, then wrote Truyen Ky Man Luc in the period before 1527, under the Le dynasty " [25].
Nguyen Du's Truyen Ky Man Luc was written in the genre of legendary novels. Legendary stories originated from Chinese folk tales. There are many opinions that Truyen Ky Man Luc was recreated on the basis of Chinese legendary stories. Cu Huu's work is called " Tien Dang Tan Thoai ", a work with the strongest and most obvious influence, promoting the birth of legendary story collections in the three remaining East Asian countries such as Kim Ngao Tan Thoai by Kim Thoi Tap (1435 - 1493, Korea ), Truyen Ky Man Luc by Nguyen Du (early 16th century, Vietnam), Gia Ti Tu by Asai Ryohi (1612 - 1691, Japan). Talking about the time when Tien Dang Tan Thoai was introduced to Vietnam, Nguyen Nam...tldd, p. 212 reported in the Chinese cultural magazine volume 12, 1995, by two authors Xu Shuofang and Suzuki Yoichi: " There was a discovery about the close relationship between Cu Huu and Truong Phu (a general of the Ming Dynasty who participated in the invasion of Vietnam). Based on the documents and newspapers, it can be thought that the book was popularized in our country during the Ming Dynasty as part of the cultural policy of the Ming Dynasty. On the one hand, they confiscated and burned many books and stone steles written by Vietnamese people, so on the other hand, they actively brought Chinese books into our country : [80, p. 212]. In the preface of Ha Thien Han, it is clearly stated that Nguyen Du's Truyen Ky Man Luc was influenced by Cu Huu's Tien Dang Tan Thoai , but Nguyen Du's purpose of writing was different: " Then he wrote this book (Truyen Ky Man Luc) to express his feelings. Looking at the text, it does not seem to go beyond the boundary of Tong Cat (Cu Tong Cat composed the book Tien Dang Tan Thoai). However, the old book has many places with reminders and advice, the educational effect on society is certainly not small" [4, p. 69].
Two comparative studies by Taiwanese scholar Tran Ich Nguyen and Dr. Nguyen Nam compared and contrasted all the stories of Tien Dang Tan Thoai and Truyen Ky Man Luc and found that: " The text of Truyen Ky Man Luc is indeed directly related to Tien Dang Tan Thoai " (55, p. 197).
In addition, researchers also believe that Truyen Ky Man Luc was not only influenced by Tien Dang Tan Thoai but also by other sources of text. According to Russian literary critic M. Tkachov, sources of text such as history, literature, and medieval Vietnamese culture influenced the creation of Truyen Ky Man Luc. He said: The fact that real characters and courtiers such as Nguyen Duc and Luong Dac Bang exposed King Le Uy Muc made Nguyen Du create dialogues between fictional characters. Tkachov commented: " For Nguyen Du, historical events are first of all a basis for his own presentation and evaluation, honest and strict evaluations of people and events" in the story of the night party in Da Giang . Tkachov compared Nguyen Du's thoughts with Nguyen Binh Khiem's poetry, saying that Nguyen Binh Khiem's image is similar to Tu Thuc; from the material about the fate of many contemporaries, Nguyen Du " conveyed the gloomy tragedy of his time" . He wrote: “ Perhaps because Nguyen Du always chose in the past events that were suitable for the difficult and stressful days that he himself lived ”. Tkachov said: “ Nguyen Du did not simply borrow in terms of themes and images. The influence of Chinese themes can be seen in the story of the Nam Xuong girl, but the space of the story and the story are real in our country. Nguyen Du is proud of the national literary and cultural tradition. The poetic conversation in Kim Hoa honors Nguyen Trai and Le Thanh Tong. Nguyen Du's creativity is also shown in the 19 comments at the end of the story - something not found in Chinese works” [80, p.370]. In his research work, Tran Ich Nguyen synthesized the sources of texts that influenced Truyen Ky Man Luc : influenced by Tien Dang Tan Thoai, transformed from Vietnamese myths and legends, and copied local folk legends. In particular, Tran Ich Nguyen believes that even Tien Dang Tan Thoai imitates Chi Quai Truyen Ky and records local folk legends, a process similar to the creation of Truyen Ky Man Luc . Here we can affirm that Truyen Ky Man Luc is a successful work of Nguyen Du, a truly creative work based on the absorption of foreign works and folk literature [80, p.376].
Nguyen Du named the work Truyen Ky Man Luc, meaning a scattered record of legendary stories, but it is actually a true literary work. Truyen Ky Man Luc consists of 20 stories, divided into 4 volumes, each volume has 5 stories, the stories are named "luc" "ki". Truyen Ky Man Luc consists of 20 stories, divided into 4 volumes. Divided by genre, out of 20 stories, there are 6 stories (Khoai Chau Nghi Phu Truyen, Ly Tuong Quan Truyen, Le Nuong Truyen, Thuy Tieu Truyen); 9 records (Tra Dong Giang Dan Luc, Long Tien Hon Luc, Tan Vien Tu Phan Su Luc, Tu Thuc Tien Hon Luc, Pham Tu Hu Du Thien Tao Luc, Xung Giang Yeu Quai Luc, Na Son Tieu Doi Luc, Nam Xuong Nu Tu Luc, Da Xa Bo Soai Luc); 5 records (Hang Vuong Tu Ky, Tay Vien Ky Ngo Ky, Dao Thi Nghiep Oan Ky, Da Giang Da Am Ky, Kim Hoa Thi Thoai Ky). Associate Professor Dr. Tran Nho Thin commented: “ From the genre perspective, the distinction between the historical stories in this book has very little meaning. In medieval literature, the name of the work often indicates the genre characteristics, but this is not an immutable rule as some researchers have asserted” [80, p.373]. The story is written in Chinese prose with poems, songs, verses, and parallel prose interspersed. At the end of each story (except for story 19 Poetry Conversation in Kim Hoa ), there is a commentary by the author. The basic content of the Legend of the Ancients focuses on reflecting the fates of people in that society. Behind the fantastic and magical elements is a social picture that appears in the work. It is a society where the ruling class is deceitful, greedy, cruel, fighting for power, and killing each other. In the end, all the evil and wicked people are punished, denied, or condemned and ridiculed. It was a society where women were the most miserable victims of social institutions, of Confucianism, of the reality of life. He not only wrote about women as a mere object of reflection but also showed deep concern for their fate. He wished to maintain and protect the feudal social order in which evil must be punished and good must be exalted. It can be said that Nguyen Du's work Truyen Ky Man Luc has both realistic value and profound humanistic value and with this work Nguyen Du was the pioneer of humanism in Vietnamese literature in the Middle Ages.
In terms of artistic form, we can affirm Nguyen Du's creativity in terms of legendary art. Nguyen Du was the first author to affirm the position of the legendary genre in Vietnamese prose, introducing elements of folk literature into this genre to create a unique color for the Vietnamese legendary genre. As Professor Bui Van Nguyen said, " all twenty stories in Truyen Ky Man Luc, if analyzed meticulously, reveal more or less folk literary elements in accordance with the writing style of the legendary genre " [54]. Clearly, there is a harmonious combination between the legendary genre - a foreign genre - and elements of national literature in Nguyen Du's pen.
With rich content, high realism, and unique artistic techniques, Truyen Ky Man Luc truly became a " historical miracle " and became a goal that was not easy to overcome for later works. Surely, the more we study Truyen Ky Man Luc , the more we will discover its multifaceted value and from there, the more we will understand what Nguyen Du wanted to convey to many later generations. After Truyen Ky Man Luc appeared in Vietnam, imitative works including Truyen Ky Tan Pha by Doan Thi Diem, Truyen Van Tan Luc by Nguyen Dien Trai, Tan Truyen Ky Luc by Pham Quy Thich were born one after another and occupied an important position in the history of Vietnamese Chinese novels and inherited the genre of legendary novels.
1.4. Summary
In chapter 1, we have presented some theoretical and practical issues of the topic such as understanding the concept of sexuality; the concept of sexuality in ancient and medieval Eastern culture; sexuality in world literature and Vietnamese medieval literature; general features of author Nguyen Du and the work Truyen Ky Man Luc. In our opinion, sexuality is a natural physiological instinct, an attribute of all living organisms, an indispensable need in human life. Ancient and medieval Eastern culture has a rather strict concept of sexuality. Confucian thought exalts the mind and downplays the issue of the human body, considering sexuality as one of the "taboos". In world literature and Vietnamese literature, the issue of sexuality has appeared with different degrees of intensity, expressing views on life and ways of looking at things.
about the personalities of authors in each era. Nguyen Du was an author who lived in a period when Vietnamese society had many complex political and cultural changes. He was a reclusive writer and at the same time he was influenced by the humanitarian ideology, democratic spirit, and individual consciousness that began to appear in society in the 16th century. Truyen Ky Man Luc is the only remaining work of Nguyen Du and is considered a " thousand-year-old miracle". The work marked the development of Vietnamese narrative prose, expressing Nguyen Du's profound humanitarian ideology.
CHAPTER 2: EXPRESSION OF SEXUALITY IN NGUYEN DU'S ROMANTIC LEGENDS
2.1. Sexuality expressed through the theme
Each literary work focuses on certain topics and through them the writer expresses life's problems and reflects his thoughts and feelings. Medieval literature was clearly influenced by Confucianism. With the concept of "literature to convey morality ", "poetry to express one's will" , literature of this period mostly talked about will, ideology, morality, great issues of the country, focusing on the sublime, extraordinary things without paying attention to the personal and private lives of people. The topic of sexuality was considered a taboo topic and rarely appeared in the poetry and literature of Zen masters and Confucian scholars. But with Nguyen Du, writing Truyen Ky Man Luc , he still directed his pen to this topic.
Reading Truyen Ky Man Luc, we cannot deny that Nguyen Du devoted many pages of excellent literature to describe encounters and love relationships with the "comfortable", easy and intense presence of sexual elements occurring between humans and ghosts, humans and fairies, and humans and humans. According to a survey, we found that out of a total of 20 stories in the work, 10 stories (The story of the cotton tree; The story of a strange encounter at Trai Tay; The story of a monster in Xuong Giang; The story of Dao Thi's unjust karma; The story of Tuy Tieu; The story of Le Nuong; The story of a lawsuit at Long Dinh; The story of Tu Thuc meeting a fairy; The story of a girl from Nam Xuong; The story of a foster father in Khoai Chau) mentioned this issue. That is also a not small number.
The love story between people and ghosts is told vividly by Nguyen Du. Commenting on this group of works, Associate Professor, Dr. Dinh Thi Khang wrote: " The group of works about Love stories between people and ghosts has a plot that is both romantic, thrilling and bizarre ". Comparing this group of stories with Tien Dang Tan Thoai, this researcher commented: " In comparison with Tien Dang Tan Thoai, considering the number of works that are the subjects of the survey, we have the following results: Tien Dang Tan Thoai has 5/20 stories, accounting for 25%; Truyen Ky Man Luc has 3/20 stories, accounting for 15%. Although the number is less than Tien Dang Tan Thoai, it can still be seen that this is a topic that Nguyen Du
Data shows interest. The content of each story is about the love encounter between two main characters. In all 8 stories (5 of Tien Dang Tan Thoai, 3 of Truyen Ky Man Luc), the male characters are all humans, the female characters are ghosts incarnated as humans. Writing about people meeting and falling in love with ghosts; living happily as husband and wife with ghosts in the human world, the authors have brought fantasy and fantasy scenes into the human world; brought the "unreal" world to exist in the real world. Thus, the fantasy nature of each work lies in the content of the plot and the "inhuman" form of one of the two main characters " [35]. The three stories in the group of Love Stories between Humans and Ghosts in Truyen Ky Man Luc that the researcher mentioned are The Story of the Kapok Tree, The Strange Encounter at Trai Tay, and The Story of Monsters in Xuong Giang.
Reading The Story of the Kapok Tree , the author takes us to the love story of Trinh Trung Ngo and the ghost of Nhi Khanh. Trinh Trung Ngo is a handsome man from Bac Ha, Nhi Khanh's ghost turns into a beautiful woman, good at playing the violin. They meet and fall in love with Nhi Khanh's philosophy of freedom about finding pleasure in love in life: " Thinking about human life, it is no different from a dream. It is better to live each day in heaven, so find pleasure. Otherwise, one day when you die, you will become a person of the underworld, even if you want to find pleasure in love, you will not be able to anymore" [11, pp.35-36] . The love story between the man and the ghost continued for more than a month and when he knew Nhi Khanh was a ghost, Trinh Trung Ngo still could not resist the call of love. In the end, he hugged Nhi Khanh's coffin and died to be able to love more freely.
The story of the encounter in Trai Tay tells about the joyful love between the scholar Ha Nhan and two flower souls Lieu Nhu Nuong and Dao Hong Nuong. The scholar went to the capital to study with Mr. Uc Trai (Nguyen Trai) and met the girls. The two girls, in the first meeting with Sinh, took the initiative to get acquainted with him, " laughing and joking or picking delicious fruits, breaking beautiful flowers and throwing them to Sinh " [11, p.54] . Faced with the kindness of the two girls, Sinh could not ignore it, stopped to chat. The two girls introduced their backgrounds, expressing their desires: " We were originally concubines of the Grand Tutor. Since the Grand Tutor passed away, we have kept our studio closed. Now that the spring is beautiful, we want to make sunflowers, so as not to waste the spring light" [11, p.54 ]. He