Male characters in Luc Van Tien read according to gender theory - 6

But it was not until Vietnamese medieval literature, when Confucianism occupied a unique position, deeply influencing the ideological consciousness and concept of man, that the issue of human duties in a patriarchal society became more clearly distinguished, especially in terms of gender . There were many Confucian scholars with clear views on the roles and functions of men and women in society such as Nguyen Cong Tru, Nguyen Du, Ho Xuan Huong or Nguyen Dinh Chieu... However, in terms of quantity, there were more works written about men, which were mostly Confucian scholars' views on men. The status of men in this period was exalted as gentlemen, Confucianism taught men to be content with their lot, to be loyal to their king, because the king was the Son of Heaven. Confucianism also taught them to cultivate virtue, correct themselves, and observe etiquette, that clever words were not trustworthy, and beautiful words were not true.

Looking at the overall process of Vietnamese medieval literature, we can see that in each literary period, the concept of gender has clear changes. The concept of the individual is deeply influenced by Confucian ideology. The common feature of the works of this period is that with a patriarchal view, Confucianism advocates looking down on women, praising men, gentlemen, and underestimating beautiful and talented women. Therefore, most of the literary works focus on praising men who "cultivate themselves and establish themselves" to build great ambitions. Representing this period, we must mention Nguyen Trai and his works. As we know, when mentioning Nguyen Trai, people often talk about a benevolent, patriotic, and compassionate person who sets out to find the roots of history and the nation. Nguyen Trai stands out as an individual in his tormented choice between ideologies and paths to establish himself and nurture his

himself and especially to protect himself, but in the end he still could not escape the cruel sword of fate. Nguyen Trai once abandoned both "poetry and books" to "cultivate himself":

Retreat and keep your duty. Cultivate yourself differently, regardless of literature or poetry.

(Romance – XII)

Confucian philosophy has set out principles for life, hierarchies that people must always respect. Those principles, Confucianism talks about the relationship between family and society. Those are three important relationships that govern all human emotions and duties: monarch and subject, father and son, husband and wife. On the other hand, Confucianism also raises important virtues that people need to have in order for people and life to become better, which are: humanity, courtesy, righteousness, wisdom, and trust. Nguyen Trai was a Confucian scholar, a moralist, so he turned to Confucian ethics. Nguyen Trai followed the Confucian path of "literature to convey the way" , which means using literature to spread the thoughts and morals of the sages. First of all, we see that in his works, he always talks about loyalty and filial piety , the duties that men need to have in society. Nguyen Trai's personality always turned to the sacred duty towards family and country. In particular, he always kept in mind the two words loyalty and filial piety :

intelligence, trust:

" Bui has a feeling that he cannot bear to delay his duty as a son or a servant ." (Words of wisdom - lesson 1)

" The king has not yet reported to his heart, but his love is like a father's food and clothes ."

(Words of wisdom - lesson 7)

In his writings, Nguyen Trai also talked a lot about humanity, justice, and courtesy.

" If you see profit, do it rightly. The West wears a horse and makes the heart ache ."

(The Mirror of the Realm – Lesson 6)

" Friendship is not forgotten, the other person is rich and noble, do not forget the heart ."

(The Mirror of the Realm – Lesson 51)

" Advice to men to stay in this world, Do not be unjust or disorderly ."

(The Mirror of the Realm – Lesson 58)

Nguyen Trai lived in a society that was broken by war, so he was aware of the duties of a scholar. He advised people to treat each other with righteousness. In Nguyen Trai's poetry, the concepts of the three bonds and five constants are always combined together:

“ All things depend on God, All actions and stillness depend on the teacher.

Joy, anger, hardness, and softness may exist, but righteousness, courtesy, wisdom, and horses can allay them .

(Narrative – Part 3)

According to his concept, the image of a gentleman must be a person of complete virtue and talent:

" The virtuous and gentle are everywhere, and naturally all beings want to yield ."

(The Mirror of the Realm – Lesson 1) “ The gate of humanity awaits guests to come,

Plant virtue trees for your children to eat .

(Narrative - Lesson 5) " Giving back talent and virtue is kindness ,

Talent is one or two points less than virtue. To serve one's father, one must be filial. To meet the Lord every day, one must be careful .

(The Mirror of the Realm – Lesson 57)

It is clear that in his poems, virtue always comes first. He used the benevolence of Confucianism to advise his children and grandchildren, and to teach the younger generations with heartfelt poems. Going further, he also outlined a program of action for scholars. Once they become officials, scholars must be completely loyal to the king and the country, and must use moral words to advise the king not to flatter and commit evil deeds that harm the country and the people. He believed that scholars must have the same heart as Wei Zheng of the Tang Dynasty and Bao Zheng of the Song Dynasty in China:

" Showing off the snow in the place of learning the way

In the dynasty, loyalty and diligence are the top priorities .

(The Mirror of the Realm – Lesson 60) “ In the palace, keep Bao Zheng's heart,

The appointed general has the habits of Wei Zheng .

(The Mirror of the Realm – Lesson 61)

Like Nguyen Trai, Nguyen Khuyen and other Confucian scholars, Nguyen Binh Khiem always carried in his heart the two words " loyalty to the king " , he always kept in mind the thought "Heavy blessings thanks to the holy and intelligent virtue" (Nom poetry, poem 125). In terms of personality, he himself was a Confucian gentleman. Nguyen Binh Khiem lived in the period when Confucianism became the only religion and in the period when the country was divided, the people were suffering and rebelling. Therefore, the Confucian gentleman Nguyen Binh Khiem raised a new problem for the scholars of that time. According to him, for a man, a scholar, the essential, ideal problem was still loyalty to the legitimate king. But in Nguyen Binh Khiem's ​​time, the concepts of king and country were no longer consistent, the king's interests conflicted with the people 's interests , so loyalty to a foolish king ( a tyrant ) would become foolish loyalty : the problem of choosing a master was raised. Instead of helping the country, he chose the path of leisure and seclusion to preserve the noble character of a gentleman : "I am foolish, I seek a quiet place, a wise man goes to a bustling place . "

If in the poems of Nguyen Trai and Nguyen Binh Khiem, besides the noble ideal of detachment, elimination of desire, purity and innocence, then in the Tales of Nguyen Du, "desire", especially sex and material desire, appears as a category of the individual, but is understood as negative manifestations. The individual appears under negative qualities, in the form of evil and ugliness. Trong Quy gambles to marry his wife (Nhi Khanh); Trung Ngo is greedy for the ghost of the kapok tree (Nhi Khanh); Duong Thien Tich takes advantage of the situation to take petty revenge; Ha Nhan is infatuated with the two souls of Lieu and Dao flowers; the god Thuong Luong captures the famous courtesan Duong Thi Han Than with the greedy monk Vo Ky, reincarnated as Thuong Luong; the unjust love of the unjust soul Thi Nghi with the mandarin Hoang

; the corrupt kings and mandarins in the story of The Woodcutter of Na Mountain; the statues of gods stolen from the abandoned Dong Trao pagoda; General Ly who committed evil and was punished by the King of Hell; Miss Tuy Tieu who was arrested and Du Nhuan Chi sought to save her; the daughter of Nam Xuong who died unjustly because her husband was jealous... In the system of characters in Truyen Ky Man Luc, there are female characters alongside men, but most of them are seen as harmful elements to men and scholars. They are mostly seen as demons, unjustly killed and condemned... And men who are infatuated with beauty are considered bad characters, villains, going against the concept of a gentleman. In general, the author's tendency is to encourage goodness, punish evil, promote virtue, condemn materialism and sex, following the Confucian ideology of the Song Dynasty "Destroy human desire, preserve natural principles". Those who stay away from the dust of the world and material desires will become immortals, become immortals, and ascend to heaven, such as Tu Thuc, Duong Tram, and Vu Nuong. Those who are greedy and greedy for profit will be punished in the underworld of the King of Hell. The needs for personal enjoyment and selfishness are considered to have their roots in demons, dragons, and serpents, and darkness. However, the "desire" of free individuals in love between men and women, although not acknowledged in the commentary, is described as memorable romantic encounters. Trung Ngo's meeting with the lonely ghost of Nhi Khanh is full of love, singing and composing, with the ideal of pleasure. Ha Nhan's love and composing encounter in the West camp, then the encounter with Han Than and Vo Ky, Nhuan Chi and Tuy

Tieu, Phat Sinh with Le Nuong, Thi Nghi with the Hoang family, were all meetings outside of etiquette, marriage, purely personal, love affairs with enjoyment as the purpose, of course not accepted by Confucian scholars in terms of morality, but in terms of emotions, they were favored by the author's pen to describe quite beautifully with special romantic verses. The poems of Nhi Khanh, of the two ladies Lieu and Dao describe the feelings of love very boldly, rare in the literature of that time, and also difficult to appear in the form of non-legends. In short, in the literature of the 15th to 17th century, the concept of gender appeared in two main forms: either abandoning fame, abandoning gossip, praise and criticism, "the only good person", opposing other ordinary people; or being passionate about material things, sex as a sin, contrary to morality but no longer feeling guilty, on the contrary, expressing a passionate, beautiful, romantic feeling.

Vietnamese literature from the 18th to the end of the 19th century was deeply influenced by Confucianism. Literature in this period was still mainly written about men and praised manhood. Confucian scholars focused on exploiting men from their responsibilities and ideals of helping the people and the country, and through that expressed the heroic model of the era. That was a somewhat stoic view of men for men. Along with the system of viewpoints, Confucianism also built for itself an ideal human model, which was the model of a gentleman for men. In the history of Confucianism, this was a model that was mentioned frequently, and was the pride of Confucianism to protect the feudal order. In other words, scholars and gentlemen were those who were educated and grew up from the common people, and through studying the Tao they became mandarins "wise mandarins, wise people" . Because the ideal of Confucianism is to educate people to have personality to serve politics and feudalism, educating people to become gentlemen has become the most important issue that Confucianism aims for.

Representing the concept of manhood in this period is the author Nguyen Cong Tru - a writer who affirmed the duties of men in feudal society. If we consider the convergence in the thoughts of Nguyen Dinh

Chieu and Nguyen Cong Tru, we can see that they are men with dreams of fame. Nguyen Cong Tru, when talking about the poet's ideal life when he was young, he once said:

Heaven gave me, earth gave me. Heaven and earth gave me a purpose.

Nguyen Cong Tru believes that people living in this life must do things that are useful to life:

Or:

Having a reputation in heaven and earth, must have a name in the mountains and rivers

The universe is my duty

No fame, no standing in the world

Here we can see that, for Nguyen Cong Tru, "fame" is duty and

The destination of men is always associated with the concept of loyalty and filial piety.

With loyalty and filial piety one can stand in heaven and earth. Without fame and fortune one will die with the grass and trees.

However, his concept of a gentleman was a bit different from the previous period. If in the previous period, gentlemen often constrained themselves with stoicism, then in this period, the image of a man that Nguyen Cong Tru wanted to convey, in addition to the dream of fame, was also a romantic and talented man. He openly talked about his pleasures, a pleasure with unconventional content that made many Confucian scholars at that time and almost all moralists today unable to help but react:

"The pleasure of dispelling sorrow is to pour wine and write poetry

It's so much fun to have pink swallows! When you're pleased, your eyes go away and your eyebrows come back.

Enough, enough ...

(Clever)