Ministry of Education and Training Ho Chi Minh City University of Pedagogy ****** WANG JIA The Influences of Ming Qing Fictions on Southern Vietnamese Fictions During 1900-1930 Summary Of Doctoral Thesis Ho Chi Minh City, 2016 Ministry of Education and Training Ho Chi Minh City University of Pedagogy ****** WANG JIA The Influences of Ming Qing Fictions on Southern Vietnamese Fictions During 1900-1930 Specialty: Vietnamese literature Code: 62 22 01 21 Summary Of Doctoral Thesis Ho Chi Minh City, 2016 This thesis was completed at UNIVERSITY OF PEDAGOGY HO CHI MINH CITY Scientific instructor: Prof., Dr HUYNH ̀ NHU ̛ PHUONG ̛ ̛ Reviewer 1: AP., Dr Trần Nho Thìn Reviewer 2: Dr Phan Thu Vân Reviewer 3: AP., Dr Đoàn Lê Giang The thesis will be defended to the institution-level doctoral thesis reviewer council at Ho Chi Minh City University of Pedagogy Time: .: , (day) (month) (year) This thesis can be found at - Library of Ho Chi Minh City University of Pedagogy - General Sciences Library of Ho Chi Minh City Introduction Rationale and objectives of the study There was a trend of translating traditional Chinese fictions into national language script (chữ Quốc ngữ) in the early 20th century, among which Ming Qing fictions accounted for a significant part Exploring the translation works is necessary and important to clarify the translation and spread situation of Chinese Ming Qing fictions in the early 20th century in Vietnam, especially in southern Vietnam The translation works had a profound effect on the writing practices of southern Vietnamese writers at that time Therefore, examining the relationship between the trend of translating Ming Qing fictions and southern Vietnamese fictions in the early 20th century will contribute to understanding the southern Vietnamese writers’ acception of Ming Qing fictions in the early 20th century In addition, this study also introduces some southern Vietnamese fictions so that readers can have a better knowledge about southern Vietnamese literature Previous studies Previous studies on the influence of Ming Qing fictions on southern Vietnamese fictions during 1900-1930 can be divided into two categories: the trend of translating Ming Qing fictions in Vietnam in the early 20th century; the influence of Ming Qing fictions on southern Vietnamese fictions in the early 20th century A retrospective analysis of previous studies shows that both China and Vietnam have conducted a few research projects about the influence of Ming Qing fictions on Vietnamese literature in general and southern Vietnamese fictions in particular in the early 20th century However, some problems remain unsolved: The research projects in China are too simple, not going deep into the problem Research projects on the literary exchanges between China and Vietnam are still limited to the medieval time period In Vietnam, in spite of the large quantity, many research projects on the trend of translating Chinese fictions only stay in stating the causes of the trend or describing the sales of translated Chinese fictions, absent of comparison between translated and original text They don’t go deep either into the influence of Chinese fictions on southern Vietnamese fictions; especially the adaption phenomenon is studied much less Therefore, we have found that collecting and studying the translation of Ming Qing fictions will be necessary and interesting And the influence of Ming Qing fictions on southern Vietnamese fictions in the early 20th century also remains much to be studied in depth Objects and scope of the study 3.1 Objects of the study The objects of this study are the Ming Qing fictions that had been translated into Quốc ngữ and some prose fictions written in Quốc ngữ in southern Vietnam in the first 30 years of the 20th century 3.2 Tasks of the study The thesis studies the translation of Ming Qing fictions in Vietnam, especially in the South in the early twentieth century, including the causes of the trend, genres, main contents of the translation works, publishing methods, translation styles, etc The thesis explores the influence of Ming Qing fictions on southern Vietnam fictions in the early twentieth century in terms of content and form 3.3 Scope of the study The thesis examines the Ming Qing fictions that had been translated into Quốc ngữ in the first 30 years of the 20th century, mainly focusing on 38 translation works that have been collected At the same time, the thesis examines the Quốc ngữ fictions published in the South in the first 30 years of the twentieth century that were obviously influenced by Ming Qing fictions like historical fictions and martial arts fictions The thesis also studies in depth the adaptation fiction Người bán ngọc by Lê Hoằng Mưu and the original short story Hương Thái Căn cải trang gian dâm mệnh phụ in a short story collection called Hoan hỷ oan gia in China Research methods To perform the tasks above, this thesis mainly uses the following research methods: historical method, comparative - contrastive method, statistical classification method Thesis contributions Analyzes in depth the trend of translating Ming Qing fictions in southern Vietnam in the 20th century Sets up a bibliography including the Ming Qing fictions that were translated in Vietnam in the first 30 years of the 20th century Studies the influence of Ming Qing fictions on southern Vietnamese fictions in terms of content Analyzes the specific writing styles that southern Vietnamese literature accepted from Ming Qing fictions such as serial structure, narrative art, language, putting verses into fiction, etc Thesis outline In addition to the introduction, conclusion and appendix, the thesis includes three chapters: Chapter 1: The situation of translating and publishing Chinese Ming Qing fictions in Vietnam in the early 20th century (19001930) Chapter 2: The influences of Ming Qing fictions on southern Vietnamese fictions in the early 20th century in terms of content Chapter 3: The influences of Ming Qing fictions on southern Vietnamese fictions in the early 20th century in terms of writing techniques Chapter The situation of translating and publishing Chinese Ming Qing fictions in Vietnam in the early 20th century (1900-1930) 1.1 Overview of Ming Qing fictions During Ming – Qing dynasties, Chinese classical fictions reached the peak; the elements of fiction as subject, structure, writing techniques were fully developed; many masters of fiction appeared such as La Quán Trung, Thi Nại Am, Ngô Thừa Ân, Tiếu Tiếu Sinh, Phùng Mộng Long, Lăng Mông Sơ, Ngô Kính Tử, Tào Tuyết Cần, Bồ Tùng Linh with timeless masterpieces Tam Quốc diễn nghĩa, Thuỷ truyện, Tây Du Ký, Kim Bình Mai, Nho lâm ngoại sử, Hồng Lâu Mộng, Liêu trai chí dị and so on During Ming – Qing dynasties, Chinese writers composed about 2000 fictions written in both classical and vernacular Chinese Many genres of fiction appeared such as "historical romance fiction", "legendary hero fiction", "godevil fiction", "secular fiction", "judical detection fiction", "scholarbeauty fiction","chivalrous fiction" and so on Ming Qing fictions are representative of Ming – Qing literature, and some completed the highest achievement in classical Chinese literature, even contemporary literature is hard to match them 1.2 The spread of Ming Qing fictions in Vietnam before the 20th century Before the twentieth century, Chinese Ming Qing fictions had been spread to Vietnam in different ways Vietnamese envoys to China often took the opportunity to buy many Chinese books back to Vietnam, including Ming Qing fictions The envoys contributed to forming a critical path for the spread of Ming Qing fictions in Vietnam These Ming Qing fictions had circulated and exerted a major influence on the life of literature, theater arts in Vietnam before the twentieth century In his doctoral thesis Nghiên cứu quan hệ truyện Nôm tiểu thuyết Trung Quốc (1974), Trần Quang Huy listed stories written in Nom characters that were influenced by Ming Qing fictions such as Truyện Kiều với Kim Vân Kiều truyện, Truyện kỳ mạn lục với Tiễn đăng tân thoại, Nữ tú tài truyện với Nữ tú tài di hoa tiếp mộc, Nhị độ mai với Trung hiếu tiết nghĩa Nhị độ mai, Tây Du truyện với Tây Du Ký and so on Besides, some stories in Ming Qing fictions were adapted into stage play scripts, helping the Vietnamese people become familiar with many character images in Chinese stories such as Trương Phi, Tào Tháo, Quan Vân Trường and thereby indirectly exposed to Ming Qing fictions, despite the fact that they might not know Chinese or Nom characters In this way, the main content and characters in some Ming Qing fictions were arguably familiar to the Vietnamese people 1.3 The translation of Ming Qing fictions in Vietnam during 1900-1930 According to Professor Nhan Bảo, from 1900-1960 in Vietnam, 316 books were translated from Chinese fictions (republications excluded), and according to Thư mục văn học Sài Gòn Nam Bộ từ 1866-1930 by Bùi Đức Tịnh, only in the South were 135 Chinese 11 Chapter The influences of Ming Qing fictions on southern Vietnamese fictions in the early 20th century in terms of content 2.1 The influence on the notion of fiction The notion of fiction in Vietnam has been deeply influenced by China since the medieval time In the early twentieth century, though writers were still influenced by Chinese literature, the increasing exposure to western literature acquainted them with the notion of "roman" of France At that time, the notion of fiction was reflected in essays discussing the fictions or articles on fiction criticism scattered in newspapers 2.2 The influence on the perspective of writing The trend of translating Chinese fictions in the early twentieth century had brought both positive and negative impacts on southern Vietnamese literature On the positive side, the trend stimulated inspirations of southern Vietnamese writers in writing Vietnamese history and stories On the negative side, many works at that time didn’t break the serial structure frame, traditional in Chinese fictions 2.3 The influence on the interpretation of history There is a “telling historical stories as a folk art” tradition in Chinese literature Writers consciously used historical romance fictions to interpret history and popularize the knowledge of history Therefore, history and historical figures have become important topics in Chinese classical fictions In the early twentieth century, historical romance fictions were 12 widely translated and published in southern Vietnam and were popular among readers Chinese Ming Qing historical romance fictions spread and were well-received in the South both in width and depth The writers were aware of the role of historical fictions For this reason they wrote on the subject of history to make Vietnamese people know their own history They hoped that these works could evoke Vietnamese national pride when their country was invaded by French colonists With this in mind, in the first three decades of the twentieth century, some southern Vietnamese writers had written fictions telling stories of Vietnamese people and society They include: Phan Yên ngoại sử tiết phụ gian truân (1910) by Trương Duy Toản, Nặng gánh cang thường (1928) by Hồ Biểu Chánh, Việt Nam Lê Thái Tổ (1929) by Nguyễn Chánh Sắt, Việt Nam anh kiệt (1926) and Việt Nam Lý trung hưng (1929) by Phạm Minh Kiên, Giọt máu chung tình (1926) and Gia Long tẩu quốc (1930) by Tân Dân Tử 2.4 The influence on the perception of education Vietnamese medieval literature was influenced by the notion of "writing is for conveying doctrine" By the early twentieth century, this notion was still affecting the writing perspective of southern Vietnamese writers When writing fictions, they "always put didactic and moralistic teachings of humanity and morality in the first place in their works" We can say that the perception of education was expressed quite clearly in southern Vietnamese fictions in the early 13 twentieth century, especially the traditional moral concepts such as “loyalty, filial piety, chastity, righteousness", "three cardinal guides and the five constant virtues" In particular, “loyalty” was considered as an important topic and was most elevated in historical and martial arts fictions Here, "loyalty" meant not only loyal to the monarch, but also to the nation and patriotism 2.5 The influence on the perception of characters In Chinese classical fictions, especially historical romance fictions and magic hero fictions, the characters were often divided into two groups: the positive and the negative Positive characters are representatives of justice, of traditional moral codes; negative characters are representatives of crafty or treasonous figures The fiction theme is expressed through the conflicts between positive characters and negative characters With the traditional notion “writing is for conveying doctrine" in mind, Chinese writers placed the expectation of teaching people traditional moral codes on positive characters by their language and behaviours The perception of characters mentioned above may also be found in southern Vietnamese fictions in the early twentieth century In historical romance fictions and chivalrous fictions often appeared two types of characters: positive and negative The writers made a clear distinction between the two types, without any confusion By behaviours, dialogues and monologues of the characters, the writers expressed the notion of moral education and evoked patriotism of the people 14 Summary The trend of translating Ming Qing fictions in the early twentieth century has stimulated the aspirations and inspirations of Vietnamese writers At that time Vietnamese people loved reading Chinese Ming Qing fictions, knew well Chinese history stories and heroic figures but were not familiar with their own history That being the case, many Vietnamese writers felt very painful They were aware of the need of writing fictions to arouse the national spirit As Bằng Giang wrote, " Phạm Minh Kiên, Tân Dân Tử, Hồ Biểu Chánh couldn’t stand the paradoxical situation that Vietnamese people just translated books and praised heroes of someone else but neglecting heroes on the Vietnamese land" Therefore, writers began to write fictions about the Vietnamese people and Vietnamese stories In the process of writing, they had learned and received a lot from Chinese fictions including the perspective of writing, the interpretation of history, the perception of education and the perception of characters Chapter 15 The influences of Ming Qing fictions on southern Vietnamese fictions in the early 20th century in terms of writing techniques 3.1 Serial structure At the end of the transitional period of the 19th century and the early 20th century, serial structure had been commonly accepted by the southern Vietnamese writers They used the structure to write historical fictions, martial arts fictions or detective fictions However, the southern Vietnamese writers did not confine themselves by serial structure They sought to simplify it, thereby creating a serial structure that carried Vietnamese characteristics In Chinese Ming Qing fictions written in serial structure, the main contents of each chapter (hồi) were summarized at the beginning of the chapter, known as couplet chapter titles (hồi mục) Southern Vietnamese fictions written in serial structure had adopted this writing style, especially from Ming fictions The couplet chapter titles were written in a simple and unadorned way but still showed explicitly the important details of each chapter In the fictions written in serial structure, the writers also made some changes to couplet chapter titles For example, they used Roman letters I, II like most western fictions to replace "Chapter (Hồi thứ…)” Southern Vietnamse writers at that time consciously tried to get rid of the impact of Chinese classical fictions and the limitations of serial strucutre Instead they boldly learned and wrote in western literature’s structure, thus making their works step onto the modern way 16 3.2 Narrative art As a result of the trend of translating Chinese Ming Qing fictions in general and historical romance fictions in particular, narrative art of Chinese classical fictions had been accepted deeply by southern Vietnamese writers in terms of narrative time and narrative rhythm Due to the “storytelling” nature, Ming Qing fictions were different from western literature Linear narration was the most common way of storytelling in Ming Qing fictions In southern Vietnamese fictions in the early twentieth century, especially those on historical themes, linear narration was also an important narrative method Traditional narrative art in Chinese classical fictions such as chronological narration, interweaving narration, predictive narration were widely used in southern Vietnamese fictions In addition, southern Vietnamese fictions also used fast and slow rhythm in narration as in Ming Qing fictions, making the fictions more lively and interesting Through the analysis above, we can see that southern Vietnamese fictions in the early twentieth century shared many similarities with Chinese classical fictions in terms of narrative art Especially in the southern Vietnamese historical fictions in the early twentieth century, traces of Chinese classical fictions can be seen more clearly In our opinion, for the purpose of popularizing history knowledge, infusing moral codes, evoking patriotism, the writers had to choose a way of narration that Vietnamese readers could find easy to accept And because of the widespread influence of Chinese historical 17 romance fictions in Vietnam, linear narration had become familiar to Vietnamese readers Therefore, it is understandable that southern Vietnamese writers chose the traditional way of linear narration to write historical fictions 3.3 Language When writing fictions, southern Vietnamese writers in the early twentieth century paid much attention to use colloquial language to make them more understandable for readers But the influence of the Chinese language was still able to be traced in literature works, such as antithesis sentences, idioms, verses, Chinese literary allusions 3.3.1 Antithesis sentences By the early 20th century, antithesis sentences were still used quite widely in southern Vietnamese fictions In the works of Nguyễn Chánh Sắt, Lê Hoằng Mưu, Phạm Minh Kiên, Tân Dân Tử, Hồ Biểu Chánh all appeared antithesis sentences Antithesis sentences were used when depicting landscapes, personalities of characters, psychological activities, and expressing emotions through scenery 3.3.2 Borrowing Chinese idioms and sentences Although southern Vietnamese writers paid attention to use colloquial language, works in the early twentieth century still "remained a clear trace of language in Chinese fictions" Southern Vietnamese fictions in the early twentieth century still used many Sino-Vietnamese words; borrowed many idioms and sentences from China It is clearly reflected in the works of Nguyễn Chánh Sắt, 18 Phạm Minh Kiên Vietnamese writers tried their best to absorb, vietnamize Chinese words and sentences to enrich the Vietnamese language treasury This is arguably a prominent feature in southern Vietnamese fictions in the early twentieth century 3.3.3 The phenomenon of borrowing plots and characters from Ming Qing fictions In addition to borrowing idioms, sentences from the original text, there was also a phenomenon of borrowing plots from Ming Qing fictions in southern Vietnamese works in the early twentieth century The purpose was to describe something or to make a metaphor The plots and characters in Tam Quốc were widely used by writers in the works like Việt Nam Lê Thái Tổ, Việt Nam anh kiệt … Borrowing plots and characters from Ming Qing fictions to describe events or characters in southern Vietnamese fictions in the early twentieth century made the stories more vivid, closer to readers, because Vietnamese people were acquainted with such characters through translated and published Chinese works The phenomenon again demonstrated the deep level of acceptance of Chinese literature in general, Ming Qing fictions in particular by southern Vietnamese writers and readers 3.4 Verses in the fictions Beginning from legendary hero fictions of the Tang Dynasty, the phenomenon of bringing verses into fictions had come into being When they developed into Ming Qing fictions, this writing method became widespread Verses, lyrics appeared in almost every fiction 19 The phenomenon of bringing verses into southern Vietnamese fictions was also quite common In the process of accepting the influences of Chinese Ming Qing fictions, the writers not simply imitated but combined them with the characteristics of Vietnam poetry The verses in the fictions were usually composed in Vietnamese traditional six-eight (lục bát) form 3.5 The art of creation and adaption: a case study of the fiction Người bán ngọc Based on the research project of Võ Văn Nhơn, the foreword that Lê Hoằng Mưu wrote for the fiction Người bán ngọc, as well as our deep examination of the text of Người bán ngọc and Chinese short fictions collection Hoan hỉ oan gia of the Qing Dynasty, we can confirm that Người bán ngọc borrowed and re-created the content of Chapter from Hương Thái Căn cải trang gian dâm mệnh phụ in Hoan hỉ oan gia The author turned a short fiction with mere 7920 words into a 183-page fiction In the fiction Người bán ngọc, Lê Hoằng Mưu did not change much in terms of structure, main characters of the story Hương Thái Căn cải trang gian dâm mệnh phụ, but only changed the time from the end of the Ming Dynasty to "the Republic of China"(Trung Huê dân quốc); relocated from Yangzhou (Dương Châu) to Suzhou (Tô Châu), and changed the characters’ names Meanwhile, to enrich the contents of the story, the author created some other characters In Người bán ngọc, the author paid attention to describe characters’ psychology, a writing style very different from Chinese Ming Qing fictions, bearing traces of western 20 fictions In these ways, this fiction was a blend of Asian and European arts, making readers feel fresh and attractive Compared with the short story Hương Thái Căn cải trang gian dâm mệnh phụ, the content of Người bán ngọc was richer and more attractive The characters were more vividly portrayed too Summary Through our study on the text of southern Vietnamese fictions in the early twentieth century, we find that serial structure in Chinese classical fictions was widely used in southern Vietnamese literature at the time In the works of this period, the writers preferred borrowing Chinese words, idioms as well as plots and characters in Ming Qing fictions to increase the language vitality, or quoting Chinese verses, sentences to enrich the content Along with accepting the influences of Chinese Ming Qing fictions’ writing techniques, southern Vietnamese writers in the early twentieth century were also influenced by western literature Through the research of writing techniques of southern Vietnamese fictions in the early twentieth century, we can reach the conclusion that while heavily influenced by Ming Qing fictions, the writers had gradually divorced from their influence and tried to adopt? some modern writing techniques The writers absorbed the essence of Chinese and western literary art in their writing activities This had contributed greatly to the modernization of Vietnamese literature in the early 20th century 21 Conclusion Through our study on the trend of translating Ming Qing fictions and the situation of writing southern Vietnamese fictions during 1900-1930, the following conclusions can be drawn: First, in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, to gradually eliminate the influences of Chinese culture in general, Chinese characters (chữ Nho) in particular, French colonists vigorously promoted the policy of popularizing chữ Quốc ngữ But few books were originally written in chữ Quốc ngữ, so the French supported translating Chinese classics and Vietnamese books written in Hán Nôm script Under the support of the French authorities, a series of Chinese classics and Ming - Qing fictions had been translated into Quốc ngữ Because the Vietnamese people were no stranger to Ming Qing fictions like Tam Quốc, Đông Châu liệt quốc, Tây Du Ký…, the Quốc ngữ translations of Ming Qing fictions were warmly welcomed Since not many books were written in chữ Quốc ngữ in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century period, this gap had become a favorable land for the emergence of the trend of translating Ming Qing fictions in the early twentieth century Second, the trend of translating Ming Qing fictions began in the South with the appearance of the Quốc ngữ translation of Tam Quốc chí tục dịch, posted on the first issue of Nông Cổ mín đàm on 1-81901 During 1900-1930, according to our incomplete statistics, there were 136 translations of fictions (republications excluded) from 72 Ming Qing fictions published in Vietnam, among which 94 22 translations of Ming Qing fictions appeared in the South The original Chinese versions of some of these translations are still not found Maybe they are lost in China It's a very interesting topic that researchers later should pay attention to In the first 30 years of the twentieth century, there were 56 translators engaged in translating Ming Qing fiction in both southern and northern Vietnam, among whom Nguyễn Chánh Sắt (translated 19 works), Trần Phong Sắc (translated 17 works) and Nguyễn An Khương (translated 11 books) were three most prolific translators Third, the translation works of Ming Qing fictions were welcomed and favoured by the Vietnamese people Among all the Ming Qing fictions that had been translated and published in Vietnam in the first three decades of the 20th century, many had different translated versions such as Tam Quốc diễn nghĩa, Đông Châu liệt quốc and so on Many fictions like Tây du diễn nghĩa were reprinted more than once The printing quantity of these translation works could not be underestimated, for example Phi long diễn nghĩa was printed 4000 copies at one time Publishers competed in translating and publishing Ming Qing fiction to make money In the first 30 years of the twentieth century, mainly genres of Ming Qing fictions were translated into Vietnamese According to our statistics, legendary hero fiction (18 works) and historical romance fiction (17 works) were two most translated genres Fourth, the trend of translating Ming Qing fictions in the early twentieth century played an important role in the birth of Quốc Ngữ 23 fictions in the early twentieth century This trend had stimulated the inspirations of southern Vietnamese writers They were not satisfied with the phenomenon that people knew more about Chinese history and heroic figures than those of Vietnam The writers were conscious that they should write historical fictions telling Vietnamese history and Vietnamese people to help people know more about the history of their own country and to foster their national pride Therefore, the trend of translating Ming Qing fictions became a catalyst for southern Vietnamese writers to write fictions Fifth, the writing style of Ming Qing fictions had a profound effect on the works of southern Vietnamese writers The techniques of Chinese Ming Qing fictions such as serial structure, narrative art, antithesis sentences, putting verses into fictions had significant influence on southern Vietnamese fictions in the early 20th century In the works of Nguyễn Chánh Sắt, Phạm Minh Kiên, Tân Dân Tử, Hồ Biểu Chánh, Lê Hoằng Mưu, the use of serial structure, antithesis sentences, Chinese idioms and verses could be found Southern Vietnamese writers also preferred to use the modified and vietnamized words, idioms, sentences and verses from China in their works, bringing more vocabulary into the Vietnamese language In the early twentieth century, while under the influence of Chinese Ming Qing fictions, Vietnamese writers were also influenced significantly by western fictions, especially French fictions The simultaneous influences of Chinese Ming Qing fictions and western fictions led to an integration between eastern and 24 western cultural elements in many southern Vietnamese writings at that time The adaption fiction Người bán ngọc of Lê Hoằng Mưu was a typical example Sixth, through our study on translations of Ming Qing fictions and southern Vietnamese fictions in the first 30 years of the early twentieth century, we find that despite many studies on the phenomenon of translating Chinese fictions in the early twentieth century have been done, the amount of in-depth comparative studies between different translation versions are rare, and there are still some translation works without definite origins Collecting and making comparative studies of these Ming Qing fictions will help us learn more about the market of translation works in the early twentieth century period, about the cultural exchanges between China and Vietnam at that time, and most remarkably, will probably assist the search for lost fictions in China It is very meaningful to both Chinese and Vietnamese literature This is a topic with much room worth exploring for researchers Therefore, the role of Ming Qing fictions in the process of formation and development of southern Vietnamese fictions in the early twentieth century cannot be denied; an insight into this problem will contribute to assessing southern Vietnamese fictions more objectively and accurately 25 List of the author’s works related to the thesis 2.Wang Jia (2011), “Tình hình dịch thuật xuất bản tiểu thuyết Minh Thanh (Trung Quốc) ở Việt Nam đầu thế kỷ XX (1900-1930)”, Tạp chí Khoa học Trường Đại học Sư phạm Tp Hồ Chí Minh, số 32 (66) [...]... writing, they had learned and received a lot from Chinese fictions including the perspective of writing, the interpretation of history, the perception of education and the perception of characters Chapter 3 15 The influences of Ming Qing fictions on southern Vietnamese fictions in the early 20th century in terms of writing techniques 3.1 Serial structure At the end of the transitional period of the 19th... Ming Qing fictions was one of the motivations for the writers to produce the Vietnamese people’s own literary works 11 Chapter 2 The influences of Ming Qing fictions on southern Vietnamese fictions in the early 20th century in terms of content 2.1 The influence on the notion of fiction The notion of fiction in Vietnam has been deeply influenced by China since the medieval time In the early twentieth... historical fictions telling Vietnamese history and Vietnamese people to help people know more about the history of their own country and to foster their national pride Therefore, the trend of translating Ming Qing fictions became a catalyst for southern Vietnamese writers to write fictions Fifth, the writing style of Ming Qing fictions had a profound effect on the works of southern Vietnamese writers The. .. translating Ming Qing fictions in Vietnam in the early twentieth century had thus been formed 1.5 The characteristics of the trend of translating Ming Qing fictions in Vietnam during 1900- 1930 The trend of translating Ming Qing fictions in Vietnam started in the South in the early twentieth century In the first 20 years, 67 translation works of Ming Qing fictions appeared in the South while only Phan... enrich the content Along with accepting the influences of Chinese Ming Qing fictions writing techniques, southern Vietnamese writers in the early twentieth century were also influenced by western literature Through the research of writing techniques of southern Vietnamese fictions in the early twentieth century, we can reach the conclusion that while heavily influenced by Ming Qing fictions, the writers... in the fictions Beginning from legendary hero fictions of the Tang Dynasty, the phenomenon of bringing verses into fictions had come into being When they developed into Ming Qing fictions, this writing method became widespread Verses, lyrics appeared in almost every fiction 19 The phenomenon of bringing verses into southern Vietnamese fictions was also quite common In the process of accepting the influences. .. fictions In addition, southern Vietnamese fictions also used fast and slow rhythm in narration as in Ming Qing fictions, making the fictions more lively and interesting Through the analysis above, we can see that southern Vietnamese fictions in the early twentieth century shared many similarities with Chinese classical fictions in terms of narrative art Especially in the southern Vietnamese historical fictions. .. bibliography of Ming Qing fictions that were translated into Quốc ngữ (1900- 1930) The bibliography includes 136 works (republications excluded) translated from 72 Ming Qing fictions The publication time of 12 translation works among them remain unclear 1.4 The causes that lead to the trend of translating Ming Qing fictions in Vietnam in the early twentieth century To implement the assimilation policy, the French... the trend of translating Ming Qing fictions: according to our incomplete statistics, 56 Vietnamese translators contributed to the translation of 9 Ming Qing fictions in 30 years Mainly 6 genres of Ming Qing fictions were translated into Quốc ngữ during 1900- 1930: historical romance fiction, legendary hero fiction, scholar-beauty fiction, chivalrous fiction, secular fiction and god-evil fiction Legendary... from their influence and tried to adopt? some modern writing techniques The writers absorbed the essence of Chinese and western literary art in their writing activities This had contributed greatly to the modernization of Vietnamese literature in the early 20th century 21 Conclusion Through our study on the trend of translating Ming Qing fictions and the situation of writing southern Vietnamese fictions