The Prostitute Character - For the First Time in Medieval Vietnamese Literature, a Lower Class Character Officially Entered Literary Life, As a

The family and clan is to take the first wife, or the wife. The biggest purpose is to continue the family line and must give birth to a son, in fact, the woman is a "production" tool, a female child to give birth. Taking a wife is arranged by the father, who to marry, the date and time, even in the relationship with the wife, one must observe the rites, respect each other like soldiers. Therefore, this relationship is completely devoid of love. In addition to the wife, the talented man can also take a concubine. The concubine is not the main wife, does not have the responsibility to give birth to a son, so etiquette does not interfere deeply, as long as the man likes it, asks the opinion of his parents, or the wife, he can marry. This type of relationship more or less has free love, because it is the man's choice. But this relationship still requires marriage and in essence is a master and slave relationship. It is a "natural" relationship, in which the slave serves the "natural" needs of the master. Therefore, it cannot be said that there is love, after all, it only solves the problem of men's "nature". Only, the relationship with a prostitute, a geisha is a relationship with free love, because it is voluntary from both the actor and the prostitute, especially in the relationship between the actor and the geisha, it is a very special relationship. It may sound strange at first, but in traditional society, it is a reality. Talented people have two diseases: Talented but arrogant and sympathetic to people in the same situation. Talented people are very easy to fall in love and sympathize with people who are also talented and in the same situation as them. The talent of the actor and the art of the geisha combined together to create a great harmony. On the other hand, this relationship is the most equal relationship in ancient society, because the actor and the geisha only fall in love with each other based on the only criterion: the actor must be talented, rich in emotions, the geisha must have art. This criterion is the most equal spiritual and cultural criterion. From that mutual respect, their relationship went from soulmate to soulmate, from soulmate to soul mate and finally soul mate. The special love, the only free love in traditional society arose from criteria different from tradition. This is the reason for us to justify why Nguyen Du wrote about Thuc Sinh and Thuy Kieu so affectionately. Or we also understand more deeply the story between the actress and Nguyen Cong Tru that we just mentioned above. Along with the development of the growing needs of society, especially the urban class, the Confucian intellectuals were the core, Ca Tru went from folk, singing at the communal house to singing at the royal house. Singing at the royal house was singing due to the needs of noble families, hiring actresses to sing, in which the most famous in Nguyen Du's time was his brother: Nguyen Khan. Singing at the communal house and the royal house were heavily sacred, because

served the rituals. Hat cua quyen served the entertainment needs. If hat cua quyen did not pay attention to the lyrics, hat cua quyen paid great attention to the lyrics. Therefore, Confucian scholars were no longer satisfied with the old lyrics, and composed new lyrics for ca tru themselves. Hat noi was born and developed in this atmosphere. Duong Khue wrote a song noi for the actress Pham.

The night is deep and full of memories of youth;

Angry at the Red Army, jealous of the Red Army. Through the sun and rain, how many springs have passed? But the makeup is also like this. I wonder if the guest knows or not: Do you feel sorry for the talent but also regret the talent?

(Duong Thieu Tong - Duong Khue and Duong Lam's mood)

Maybe you are interested!

The song " Tai Tinh" by Nguyen Cong Tru helps us understand more about the atmosphere of that era.

The world does not resent talent and love,

The scenery is not so good. I drink wine and write poems to dispel my sorrows.

It's so nice to have pink swallows! When you're pleased, your eyes and eyebrows move.

Enough of the ten thousand more intense, The debt of love and romance cannot be denied, The fate of understanding should be followed forever.

Thousands of people advise you not to be surprised, men come to this place

Thinking about it, who is the one who is being influenced? Whoever said that I am being influenced, I will accept it all.

In this world, the scene is so fake, it is not in vain to give up your talent.

Commenting on the general origin of the image of the courtesan Vuong Thuy Kieu, Mr. Tran Nho Thin said: "If we pay attention to the cultural events of this period, we can easily see that

see, in fact, the problem of talent and fate being different (understanding talent cannot be separated from love) has deep social roots. This is a real phenomenon of Vietnamese society from the 18th century onwards, associated with the phenomenon of the female geisha appearing as a large social class. There is no doubt that Kieu's talents are reminiscent of the talents of the female geisha of ancient times. Kieu's life and talent are very similar to the life and background of a female geisha. The philosophy raised in the Tale of Kieu about "talent and fate being different" must have originated from Nguyen Du's long-term observations and reflections on the fate of the female geisha that he had the opportunity to witness in his own family, in the way his half-brother Nguyen Khan treated them, and then he encountered them somewhere on the road of life" [52, p. 295].

Sixth, the appearance of the female geisha and prostitute is a common phenomenon in the countries of the same culture as China and Japan. In China, it is called a prostitute, in Japan, it is called Geysa. Thus, it can be affirmed that the female geisha character is a character with a typological nature, Kieu is a type of this character, in Vietnam, it is called a geisha or prostitute. Evaluating the appearance of this new type of character, Mr. Tran Nho Thin wrote: “In short, the female character in Vietnamese literature from the end of the 18th century to the 19th century went through a process of movement from noble women of the upper class of society such as the soldier's wife, the palace maid, the women in the talented and beautiful novels such as Dao Tien ( The Tale of the Fairy ), Quynh Thu ( The New Mirror ), Tran Kieu Lien (Phan Tran ) to the female geisha. The inspiration of the unfortunate beauty, the incomparable fate and talent at first was not very clearly expressed through the soldier's wife, the palace maid, but finally gathered into the female geisha and the female geisha. From Thuy Kieu, a talented woman who became a courtesan - to the female singers in Duong Khue's singing at the end of the 19th century, there is a connection. That connection is the sympathy and understanding of the authors around the talented fate of the female singers" [52, p. 298]

Seventh, recently when conducting research on Ca Tru, music, culture, and literature researchers, although not yet found a reliable source of historical data, but based on the characteristics of Ca Tru lyrics being similar to Vi Dam lyrics, most researchers have come to acknowledge that the "native" of Ca Tru is Nguyen Du's homeland of Vi Dam singing in Nghe Tinh: "With such easily recognizable common characteristics, is it true that Nghe Dam singing is similar to Ca Tru?"

have the same cultural motherland. And is it a coincidence that the densest density of legends about the origin of Ca Tru is in Nghe An and not elsewhere: the legend of Dinh Le and Bach Hoa establishing the group of geisha, about the birth of the Dan Day (this legend is not found anywhere else), about the lullaby. Right in the lands that gave birth to these legends, there are two very famous names about singing, Nguyen Khan and Nguyen Cong Tru. With Nguyen Cong Tru, singing has reached its peak and until now, no one has been found to perfect singing besides him. And is it a coincidence that in other lands that also have legends about the origin of Ca Tru, there has not been a famous name about Ca Tru composition before or at the same time as Nguyen Cong Tru. There must be a strong enough Ca Tru environment to create and give birth to such famous Ca Tru authors”[1, p. 397]. Thus, the land of the female singer's headquarters, the half-brother Nguyen Khan - a "player" who was also a skilled player and had a lot of merit, a mother who played the guitar and sang well, the family atmosphere of Ca Tru and female singers was full, surely the talented Nguyen Du knew quite a few "sisters" (it is not by chance that there is an anecdote about Nguyen Du that we just mentioned above), at the age of 12, he witnessed the death of his mother who played the guitar and sang well, on the road of life he met many female singers, Cam, on his way to the embassy he met talented and beautiful girls with short lives (Tieu Thanh), especially he met the tragic Kieu, all the images, the spiritual obsession from the mother, the tragic fate of the female singer, the female singer, from the humiliating life of singing and playing in society (the singer and the singer were of no class) condensed into Nguyen Du, forming a famous beauty - prostitute - female singer in the literary world - prostitute Vuong Thuy Kieu. Each sentence and each word of Nguyen Du seemed to haunt the reader, from the heartbreaking song of the female singers ( That it was so good or, Listening to it, how bitter and painful it is to swallow ), from his own contemplation, the misfortunes of the mother, Miss Cam, and Tieu Thanh kept groaning in the Tale of Kieu . Each verse of Kieu is like the voice of Kieu - a geisha, rising up, along with the sound of Nguyen Du's drums like a hell on earth, sometimes clear, sometimes dim. Each sound of Kieu's zither seems to reach into the intricate corners of the reader's mind, it has a magical attraction and sacred obsession. The elite of talented people, together with the nurturing of the family bloodline and the cultural quintessence of the sacred land and people, have created the Kieu verses as they are today.

But why in the trend of writing novels about talented men and beautiful women like Hoa Tien, Phan Tran … did Nguyen Du choose the type of female character? Explaining Nguyen Du's motive, he

Tran Nho Thin said: “The two traditional characters of Oriental literature - the soldier's wife and the palace maid - were chosen as the breakthrough point of the humanist movement, because they provided the reason for poets to speak out, lament, and lament the broken happiness of couples, and to raise their voices passionately praising the desire for earthly happiness. But in the cultural and social life, the characters of courtesans and geishas, the typical red-faced women, appeared and became more and more popular. Perhaps that is why, by the time of Nguyen Du, the two traditional characters mentioned above were no longer attractive. Nguyen Du turned to another subject. He had a whole group of works on the subject of red-faced women with ill-fated fates: he wrote about Duong Quy Phi, Tieu Thanh, about Cam Dat Long Thanh, the girl who played the zither in La Thanh, the girls who "risked their youth to trade moon and sell flowers" ( Afternoon kiss ) and Dam Tien, Kieu. In the richness of talented but unfortunate female characters, despite the presence of some upper-class women such as Yang Guifei, we see a clear focus on the image of the courtesan - the geisha" [52, p. 294].

Thus, based on the above reasons, in our opinion, choosing the character of a courtesan or a geisha as the subject of "bloodshed" is an inevitable choice of Nguyen Du.

Thus, Kieu has the marks of a beauty but more concentrated, Kieu is a prostitute - a geisha. Kieu also has talent and beauty like Dao Tien and Tran Kieu Lien, but Kieu is no longer purely a beauty but has changed to a new type of character, a geisha - a geisha: "Nguyen Du was not bound to the talented and beautiful atmosphere of Hoa Tien and So Kinh Tan Trang or Phan Tran but turned to the ingenious problem of the country's cultural reality which is increasingly urgent". [52, p. 300].

3.1.3. The character of the courtesan - For the first time in medieval Vietnamese literature, a lower-class character officially entered literary life, as the central literary character of the era.

Characters of courtesan origin have appeared in both Chinese and Vietnamese literature. As in part one, the section on the origin of beauties, we have presented the viewpoint of Chinese scholars that the original form of beauties is ancient courtesans. In Vietnamese literature, the short story Nghiep Oan by Dao Thi also mentions

to this type of character. But this character is not the main inspiration in Truyen Ky Man Luc . Therefore, it cannot be considered the central literary character of the era, and has not officially entered literary life. On the other hand, by the end of the 18th century, characters such as palace maids, soldier's wives, and beauties appeared, all of whom were upper-class characters with clear aristocratic colors. The palace maid character was a beautiful girl selected to enter the palace to serve the king, a character "protected" by the king. Of course, the employer was the king. Thus, more or less the palace maids had aristocratic colors, joining the upper class. Palace maids, in essence, were "high-class prostitutes", because they only served one person, the king. The character was a soldier's wife, that is, a wife whose husband went to fight on the battlefield. This type of character had quite clear aristocratic colors. This character more or less hoped that her husband would achieve fame and wealth: ( Thanh Lien Mong Tien De Rong ). “A courtesan is a type of woman who sells her beauty and talent for money.”[41, p. 13]. Unlike court ladies, courtesans serve all those with money. Yet Kieu - a courtesan who was an important literary figure in the late 18th and early 19th centuries in Vietnam - officially stepped up to “usurp the throne” of “court ladies, soldiers’ wives and beauties” . Evaluating the literary period in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, researchers have made new discoveries such as: discovering that this was a “humanist movement (anti-feudal, discovering and exploring about people), or from the perspective of the type of Confucian author, the concept of “talented Confucianist” shows that the characteristics of talented Confucian authors are talent and amorous, from the perspective of cultural anthropology, discovering that this was a period that took natural, ordinary people as the subject of expression. But if we approach it from the perspective of public reception, or the psychology and reaction of the times, we see that this is the period when the public has confirmed, received, and accepted a new type of character, the lower class officially entering literary life, that is, the courtesan, the geisha. Obviously, this is a sensitive character, so it has created a disturbance in the reception of the public (the movement to comment on, praise, and evaluate Kieu is extremely lively, and there are many conflicting opinions, creating an extremely vibrant literary atmosphere). This proves that for the first time in the history of our country's literature, the courtesan has been officially confirmed, and a "passport" has been granted to a type of "vile" character to step onto the literary stage. Kieu was officially "canonized" (the word used by Duong

Ngoc Dung) from here. Opening the right source, finding the right vein, emphasizing the right place, Nguyen Du created a great harmony of society. Based on the social characteristics, the characteristics of Nguyen Du's writing, we believe that the couple of talented men and beautiful women, the central character of beautiful women appearing from Hoa Tien , is just an excuse for Nguyen Du to bring to the literary world the character that we call a sensitive character - a prostitute, because it is a hot spot of society . It opened wide the door for the later female singers, female singers, geisha, and female servants to appear and occupy a key position in the literary world and become a new subject not only in literature but also in the culture of the era.

3.1.4. The role of courtesans in literature and national culture.

3.1.4.1. The new literary characters of the era stimulated the birth of a new literary genre, which was the birth of the singing genre - ca tru.

In fact, this is a search for a new genre to suit a newly emerging audience, and a new spiritual need. Talking about the birth of the three genres of Ngam Khuc, Nom poetry, and Hat Noi, Mr. Nguyen Duc Mau said: “Ngam Khuc, Nom stories, and Hat Noi were born at close intervals, proving that these genres cannot replace each other in expressing their issues, and at the same time proving that each genre only meets a certain need of history and spiritual life. The characteristics of these three genres show that from Ngam Khuc, Nom stories to Hat Noi is a development process of Vietnamese urban literature” [61, p. 692].

The Chinese talented man and beautiful woman novels are the process of perfecting the novel genre, breaking the old novel thinking. In essence, it is a search to escape the constraints of Chinese historical literature. This is an internal search based on the existing genre. Searching in an introverted form. (See also the section on narrative model, the meaning of narrative studies of talented man and beautiful woman novels in this thesis). Vietnamese literature in this period tends to search for new genres (extroverted), aiming to most perfectly express the new aesthetic needs of the era. In Vietnam, talented Confucian scholars are those who have made great contributions to the creation of new literary genres of the nation. "If the Ngam Khuc expresses a lonely and sorrowful person searching for his lost values, then the Hat Noi poetry form, a popular form in Ca Tru, expresses a talented person who escapes the constraints, escapes the cliché, escapes the world, fame and fortune, and grasps the present moment of joy" {81; p. 188}. The bottom line is, together

With the emergence of talented Confucian scholars, and the development of Ca Tru singing from folk to urban, from singing at communal houses to singing at the government offices, the genre of spoken singing also went along with that development. Talented Confucian scholars and nobles were intelligent people, singing for fun, for enjoyment, different from the solemn and sacred singing in the royal court and communal houses, they paid attention and valued poetic lyrics, not satisfied with the available lyrics but took a step further to compose new lyrics for their children to sing. From here, spoken singing was transformed. A typical example was Nguyen Khan, the eldest half-brother of Nguyen Du. It was here that the characters of courtesans and actresses demonstrated their silent but extremely important role: if the talented mandarins were the ones to compose new spoken singing lyrics, in fact they were just dead lyrics, it was the actresses and actresses who breathed life into them, making them come alive. It is not an exaggeration to say that the female singers, the female singers, and the prostitutes are people who, intentionally or unintentionally, for a living or for the sake of singing, have devoted their entire lives to supporting this unique form of Vietnamese music and entertainment. In short, it can be said that the survival of singing and ca tru is in no small part due to the female singers and the female singers.

If we look at the need to satisfy the true love between the talented and the beautiful, from Hoa Tien - "sudden achievements" (Tran Dinh Huou), to Truyen Kieu (poetry story) and then to Hat Noi, then in Hat Noi the love between the talented and the beautiful achieves perfect harmony. There the actress (beauty) and the official (talented) are truly in harmony, are tossed about, supported, and blended into a kind of "crazy love", "sacred attraction". Hat Noi when expressed through the voice of the actress, the drum of the talented and the person holding the beat, it is truly "an aesthetic crossroads: here gathers 3 lines of beauty (the beauty of art, the beauty of beauty, the beauty of the heart of a soul mate)" [1, p. 557] The soul of Hat Noi is the ambiguous, flirtatious, playful, flirtatious, elegant, ethereal, the intrigue, the harmony, the harmony, the crazy love and indispensable is a truly free love. In our opinion, it can be summed up in one word "play". Talking about the nature of this kind of love, Pham Quynh has a rather unique view: "That is the intrigue between a mandarin and a female singer, the mandarin knows it and the female singer also knows it, who is wrong? If you want to call it love, then call it, if you want to call it fate, then call it, call it to make it more elegant, but in the end it is still a matter of "water and duckweed, why be careless". Love is not easy to cause, fate is not