The process of moving towards the canonization of Confucian literature in Vietnam from Tran Nhan Tong through Nguyen Trai to Le Thanh Tong

(literary brilliance). Therefore, we choose Nguyen Trai as a case of the period of Confucian literature that took shape.

Le Thanh Tong is the canonical period of Confucian literature, the case in which the norms and standards of this literary body were established and considered as models for Confucian scholars to follow. Le Thanh Tong was a famous Confucian emperor, the one who brought Confucianism to a unique position. He built the most prosperous dynasty in medieval history according to the Confucian model. Pointing out the position of the literary works of these three authors in the process of movement and development of Confucian literature in Vietnam will clarify issues not only of Confucian literature itself but also of Zen literature and many issues related to national history. At that time, his poetry became a canon for the courtiers to imitate. Than Nhan Trung once commented on the king's poetry: "That is a good example that was emitted naturally, without the need for carving, but hundreds of wonderful things are still revealed. The ministers often tried to follow that method, but in the end, it seemed that they could not do even one” [165, p. 284]. Dao Cu wrote the preface to Quynh Uyen Cuu Ca with the following passage: “The meaning is profound, the spirit is eloquent. The encouragement is not yet overflowing in the words. It is truly the life-teaching words of a true emperor. The emperor also specially rewarded, choosing 28 close ministers to compose rhymes, taking the statues of 28 stars in the sky, and the statues of 28 meritorious officials hanging in Van Dai of the Han Dynasty, a total of 200 poems, presented to the king for reading, then had them compiled into a book, named “Quynh Uyen Cuu Ca”…. Compared to the poem Cuu Cong, Volume a of the Ngu and Chu dynasties, it is truly the same way. Helping to stabilize the country, consolidate the royal line, maintain prosperity forever, and be infinitely good, isn’t that the reason why?” [165, p. 324-325]. Vu Quynh said: "His poetry and literature are better than those of the literary mandarins" [110, p. 712]. Ha Nham Dai also agreed: "In terms of writing poetry and literature, he is far superior to the literary mandarins of that time" [110, p. 716]. Later, Le Quy Don commented on Lam Son Luong Thuy : "Although he rarely used strange and difficult words, his heroic spirit was sublime, his writing was lively and poetic, not inferior to the ancients" [110, p. 722]. Phan Huy Chu in the Van Tich Chi section of the Lich Trieu Hien Chuong Loai Chi later selected many of his poems and commented: "His liberal words and beautiful sentences, compared to the works of the ancient emperors, no one could keep up" [15, p. 443]. This period

was considered by ancient Confucian scholars as a model of literature. Pham Dinh Ho, when commenting on a translation, wrote: "One day this translation will become brilliant and glorious, following the poetry of the Thieu Binh and Quang Thuan periods..." [54, p. 35]. Bui Huy Bich, commenting on the poetry of the dynasties, said: "From the Tran Dynasty to the early days of the country, our Vietnamese poetry had a bit of a soulful spirit. By the Hong Duc period, the poetry was elegant and beautiful. Later, it gradually became weak. By the Trung Hung period, it was honest and clumsy. From the Vinh Thinh and Thai Bao periods onwards, it was fluent and easy to listen to. Recently, it has been favored with a strong spirit" [15, p. 489]. In the 19th century, an extremely Confucian king, Minh Mang, also admired the Hong Duc literary era many times. Therefore, we believe that Le Thanh Tong is a typical case of the period when Confucian literature established a standard.

Considering the cases of authors to survey in which only Nguyen Trai was a Confucian scholar, Tran Nhan Tong and Le Thanh Tong were two emperors, we relied on the criteria of "literature with Confucian attributes" rather than "literature created by Confucian scholars". These are three important authors, focusing on major issues of medieval literature in the late 13th century, the first half and the second half of the 15th century, which are significant as milestones in the development process of Confucian literature in Vietnam.

For the above reasons, we chose the topic The process of movement towards the canonization of Confucian literature in Vietnam from Tran Nhan Tong through Nguyen Trai to Le Thanh Tong for our thesis in order to solve some theoretical issues of literary history during this period.

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2. Problem history

2.1. If we do not count the concepts, opinions, assessments and works collected and recorded by "insiders" from the 19th century and earlier, Confucian literature has been studied very early. In the Brief History of Vietnamese Literature

[30] by Duong Quang Ham - the first literary history work in the national language of modern times (1943), after "Popular Literature", the author began the literary part with many chapters about the influence of Chinese literature, the Four Books, the Book of Songs... then came to a single chapter about the spread of Buddhism and Taoism, then returned to the issues of imperial examinations, studying for exams, Confucianism... It can be seen that the author has

identified the influence of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism in Vietnam at different levels. Although not divided into streams with their own characteristics, Duong Quang Ham made the first distinction between the two literary streams of Zen masters and Confucianists: “Examining the Chinese studies of our country during the two dynasties of Ly and Tran, we see that at first the two schools of Confucianism and Buddhism were equally developed, then later Buddhism was attacked by Confucianists and had to gradually retreat and give way to Confucianism. In writing, Zen masters also occupied an important position. As for Confucianists, most of them had contributions to society and had noble character; in poetry and literature, they often valued morality more than words, and had not yet been infected with the habit of favoring empty literature” [30, p. 238].

In the South from 1945 to 1974, Pham The Ngu's Concise History of Vietnamese Literature (1961) divided literary history into Han, Nom and Quoc Ngu languages. This way of thinking corresponds to the thesis's concept of the canonization stages of Vietnamese literature, although we also agree with Thanh Lang that this is not the optimal method to divide a literature. The Confucian literature from the end of the 13th century to the end of the 15th century that the thesis is interested in will have to be studied in both Han and Nom characters. Pham The Ngu has examined medieval literature from the influence of Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism. He briefly but clearly presented the stages of "Buddhism flourishing" during the Northern domination period, Dinh, Le, Ly to "Three religions established" during the Tran dynasty and "Confucianism alone" during the Le dynasty. Apart from a few lines dedicated to Zen poetry and the heroic atmosphere of Tran poetry, the author assumes that Vietnamese literary history belongs to Confucian scholars. This work has made accurate, though only brief, comments on Chinese literature in each period. For example, in the Hong Duc period: “So a major tendency in the works of the Hong Duc Tao Dan is the didactic or moral tendency. The poetic ideas praise the method of governing the country and pacifying the people along with the political ethics in the Confucian classics that the Hong Duc period began to be deeply influenced by” [98, p. 141]. In general, although the part about Chinese and Nom literature from the end of the 13th century to the end of the 15th century is not large, we highly appreciate Pham The Ngu’s contributions in recognizing and analyzing the influences of Confucianism on medieval literature in each period. Our thesis has inherited a number of important arguments from this work.

Thanh Lang's literary diagram [71] argues that Vietnamese literature from the 13th century to the mid-19th century was under the influence of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. "The model for the way of thinking of Vietnamese writers for nearly seven centuries was the way of thinking according to the Three Teachings: literary themes never went beyond the influence of the three thoughts of Confucius, Buddhism, and Taoism." [71, p. 2] With the concept that literature is an "activity" with its own "life", the author found the "personalities" of each literary era to build a diagram of literary "generations". Part

Literature from the late 13th century to the end of the 15th century is divided into two generations: Literature of the Chinese period of resistance (13th-14th century) and Literature of the period of national cultural development (1428-1505). Because of focusing on the "individuality" of each generation, Thanh Lang rarely views the movement of literature in different periods according to the same system of issues, specifically as in the case of Confucianism. Although Confucianism is considered an ideology that influences throughout "classical" literature, when presenting literary generations, Thanh Lang rarely pays attention to the impact of Confucianism on literary life or specific authors and works.

The literary history books of the North from 1945-1975: Outline of Vietnamese literary history [144] by the Literature-History-Geography Department, Outline of Vietnamese literary history [76] by the Le Quy Don group were influenced by the contemporary political situation as well as the Marxist research methodology and Lenin's reflection theory, so they paid little attention to the issue of Confucian literature. They mainly focused literature on national issues, class struggle and reflection of reality. The Outline even clearly stated the concept of " not considering our poems and literature written in Chinese characters as purely national literary works, (...) only works written in the national language are completely national literary works" [76, p. 6]. Therefore, Chinese literature was excluded from the scope of research of this literary history book, only briefly mentioned in the appendix of each literary period. With such a concept, Vietnamese literature from the 10th to the 15th century was almost ignored. Also because of standing on the position of class struggle, the authors of this book evaluated Confucianism in a rather extreme and biased way: "If we say that Buddhism and Taoism are religions

1 Thanh Lang believes that classical literature began in the 13th century with Han Thuyen and ended in 1862 [71, p. 1]. He did not explain why he chose such milestones.

Confucianism is even more so than the feudal class that used it to lull the masses to sleep, to make their rule easier. Confucianism speaks frankly about protecting feudal society. Confucianism sets out a common discipline for people in the feudal class to ensure the long-term rule of the class, and for people in the ruled classes, so that they not only obey the feudal class, but also work hard for that class, fight to consolidate the order that is beneficial to that class” [76, p. 181]. From there, these authors conceived of the relationship between literature and Confucianism as follows: “Confucianism forms the content of the literature of the imperial examinations, especially from the Later Le Dynasty onwards. But although Confucianism intervenes in many aspects of our lives, it does not have a great and positive effect on our literature and poetry (Nom literature and poetry). Its realism, its disciplined and restrictive thinking are the enemies of all transcendence of thought and emotion; it does not arouse interest. Our poems and stories often take loyalty and filial piety as their thesis. But the good and the beautiful come from other details” [76, p. 182] When commenting on Chinese literature up to the 15th century, the authors of this book only recognized the value of patriotism and national spirit.

The two later textbooks on literary history of Hanoi Pedagogical University (first published in 1961) [92] and Hanoi General University (first published in the 1970s) [59] have not made many changes when examining Vietnamese literature from the perspective of Confucianism's influence, and from the perspective of Confucian works. The textbooks of the Pedagogical University (Bui Van Nguyen) are still extreme when standing from the perspective of class struggle to call Confucianism "poison" [92, p. 20] and view Confucianism as follows: "Before and after, Confucianism in the Western Zhou or Eastern Zhou, the doctrine of rites, humanity or benevolence and righteousness are all doctrines of the slave-owning class or the feudal class. Thus, we are not surprised to see that the Chinese feudal class, when they came to our country, or the Vietnamese feudal class, both embraced Confucianism... as a "treasure", a sharp tool, to fascinate our people in many ways, such as the path of imperial examinations, the path of becoming an official, etc., to easily dominate and exploit them in a sophisticated way" [92, p. 18]. It is from this starting point that the perception of the influence of Confucianism on literature has biases: "progressive scholars such as Chu An, Nguyen Trai, Nguyen Binh Khiem, Ngo Thi Nham, Cao Ba Quat... were alert to closely follow the lives of our people.

with the good traditions of the nation, not blindly following the scriptures and stories of Confucianism.” [92, p. 20] “The way to create a way out for themselves of the above progressive scholars is to filter out the positive elements in Confucianism so that they can be reconciled with reason, in the people…” [92, p. 21]. The author of the textbook placed Confucianism in opposition to national character, the negative elements of literature were attributed to Confucianism and the valuable elements were associated with the nation.

The curriculum of the General University was born later, and its view of Confucianism was less strict. The authors objectively recognized the obvious truth that Vietnamese medieval literature was the written literature of Confucian scholars, influenced by Confucianism: “In the past, the intellectual class - including a large part of the clergy - was influenced by Chinese studies. Their concept of literature was also influenced by Chinese studies. And when studying written literature, it is impossible not to study the influence of the concept of literature of the Chinese intellectual class, more or less trained in Confucian schools” [59, p. 25]. The study of specific authors and literary works has been more or less referred to the influence of Confucianism on literature. The development of Confucianism and the influence of Confucianism in literature have been considered. In the Ly-Tran literary period, the authors made some noteworthy, albeit brief, comments on the level of influence of Confucianism and its relationship with Buddhism and Taoism: “The Confucian framework is sometimes just a formality. And the terms tu, tề, tri, binh, nhan, nghia, trung, hieu in the works of the Tran dynasty are often somewhat separate from the Confucian framework or more or less break that framework to be able to rise up and contain practical content close to the struggle of the nation to build the country and build people” [59, p. 86]. The situation in the second half of the 15th century was completely different: “Confucianism was especially highly regarded. Those who wrote literature were all Confucian scholars, many of whom held high positions in the royal court... Therefore, literature in general expressed the orthodox views of the feudal state and often tended to be more servile and praising. Literature clearly demonstrated its official character” [59, p. 270]. However, this work is still influenced by the old perspective, so sometimes the evaluation of Confucianism is not really fair. In particular, the authors still use Confucianism to contrast with national character. For example, when commenting on Chu An, Dinh Gia Khanh wrote: "Chu An is a Confucianist. So the teachings

His virtues cannot be separated from the Confucian classics. But it must be seen that the virtues of frankness, integrity, disregard for fame and profit, not fearing power, always thinking of the country and the people that he exalted are worthy of belonging to the spiritual values of the nation" [59, p. 84].

In general, we believe that limitations in scientific methodology and worldview caused Northern authors in the period 1945-1975 to have a rather biased view of Confucianism, leading to avoidance or denial of the influence, characteristics, and even the values and contributions that Confucianism brought to literature.

2.2. Since the renovation 2 , in recent decades, many projects

The research of authors Tran Dinh Huou: Confucianism and Vietnamese literature in the Middle Ages (1995), Typology of Confucian authors - Confucian scholars and Vietnamese literature (1995); Tran Ngoc Vuong: Vietnamese literature: a separate stream between a common source (1997), Vietnamese literature in the 10th and 19th centuries (2007, editor-in-chief) and Tran Nho Thin: Vietnamese medieval literature from a cultural perspective (2003, 2008), Vietnamese literature from the 10th century to the end of the 19th century (2012)... has achieved significant achievements that laid the foundation for the study of Confucian literature. The common point of these works is the concept of studying literature according to the sociological-historical method, combining the typological or cultural method. But unlike the sociology of the North in the period 1945-1986, which focused on the issue of class struggle and evaluated works based on prejudices about the subject in reality, these works were all carried out according to the sociological concept of a scientific and modern spirit. The authors examined literature from the perspective of society, history, ideology, philosophy, religion and cultural issues. Tran Dinh Huou can be considered the first person to systematically raise the issue of studying Confucian literature. He said: "If we understand A as literature written by Confucian scholars and written according to the concept of Confucian literature, as prose, poetry, prose, and prose, as East Asian literature... then it is also necessary to clarify the relationship between culture and literature between Vietnam and China, the relationship between Confucianism and Buddhism, Lao-Trang ideology, Vietnamese Confucianists as literary authors, the differences are not small in reality and history between East Asian countries" [49, p. 11]. Tran Nho Thin according to

2 This is a relative milestone. These works were all published after 1986, but in fact many of the articles were published much earlier than this time.

Pursuing the cultural approach, using the method of restoring the cultural life of a certain era, decoding cultural phenomena to solve literary problems. From this perspective, he had some opinions to reconsider the arguments on Confucian literature of Tran Dinh Huou, especially in the division of three Confucian models. In general, this group of authors, although having certain differences, have solved the basic theoretical problems of Confucian literature from this sociological-historical and cultural perspective:

- Objectively examine the relationship between Confucianism and literature in relation to Buddhism and Lao-Zhuang from the historical origin and development process of Confucianism, especially since the time of Confucius in both aspects: What Confucianism has brought and taken away from literature.

- Recognize the influence of Confucianism on Vietnamese medieval literature in a comprehensive and profound way, including its positive and negative aspects. The authors have outlined the appearance of Confucian literature in stages, periods, genres, inspirations, character systems, authors, great works...

In particular, Tran Dinh Huou in the article “Determining the national and the classical as the basis for dividing the history of national literature” [49] mentioned the classical and canonical nature of medieval literature. According to him, “The classical is about form… What is considered classical has both a perfect artistic form and unique content, is general, has a national character, and has a human character” [49, p. 505].

Although these authors have built a fairly systematic theoretical system on Confucian literature in general, many specific issues in it still await to be resolved. Our thesis can be considered a continuation on the basis of these studies with the increase of new approaches to a specific period of Confucian literature.

In the general trend, the issue of Confucian literature has been of interest to many medieval literature researchers. Some notable works that have mentioned this issue can be mentioned: On the individual in ancient Vietnamese literature (1997) by authors Nguyen Huu Son - Tran Dinh Su - Huyen Giang - Tran Ngoc Vuong - Tran Nho Thin - Doan Thi Thu Van, Contributing to establishing a system of concepts of medieval Vietnamese literature (1997) by Phuong Luu, Some issues of medieval literary poetics

The process of moving towards the canonization of Confucian literature in Vietnam from Tran Nhan Tong through Nguyen Trai to Le Thanh Tong - 2

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