Dream of Red Chamber and Tale of Genji in Vietnam?
From: John Phan
Date: Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 5:14 PM
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Hello everyone:
I am beginning a project on vernacular literatures in Vietnam, and was wondering if anyone knew of any work on the reception of the Dream of Red Mansions 紅樓夢 (also called the Story of the Stone) and/or the Tale of Genji 源氏物語 in Vietnam. There is some material on at least Chinese vernacular novels (tiểu thuyết chữ Hán) in Vietnam in general, but I am not aware of anything that addresses these particular works, or the Japanese novel at all.
Thanks in advance for any tips!
Best,
--
John D. Phan
Ph.D. Candidate
East Asian Linguistics & Literature
Cornell University
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From: Tai, Hue-Tam Ho
Date: Tue, Nov 30, 2010 at 6:29 PM
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
I remember writers we knew discussing and also writing about both the Dream of Red Mansions (Hong Lau Mong) and a Yuan-period drama, Tay Suong Ky; but I don't recall any discussion of The Tale of Genji (this would be in the 60s). In particular, girls were discouraged from reading Tay Suong Ky because its story involved an unsanctioned love affair. Other Chinese texts that were circulating: Jing Pingmei (Kim Binh Mai), Liao Zhai zhi yi (Lieu Trai Chi Di) Moudeng ding (Mau Don Dinh). This would be in the 1960s. I wonder if Vo Phien was one of the participants in these discussions. Some of the works were also serialized in the newspapers.
In the early 20th century, quite a few Chinese historical novels were translated into quoc ngu, including The Romance of Three Kingdoms (Tam Quoc Chi Dien Nghia), The Investiture of the Gods (Phong Than Ban) Eastern Zhou Chronicles (Dong Chau Liet Quoc) The Water Margin (Thuy Hu), Journey to the West (Tay Du Ky).
Does this help?
Hue-Tam Ho Tai
Kenneth T. Young Professor
of Sino-Vietnamese History
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From: David Marr
Date: Wed, Dec 1, 2010 at 1:51 PM
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Interesting, I was just reading about Tran Do's teenage (1938) excitement at reading The Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Water Margin in translation, just before he was tossed into jail. Three Kingdoms crops up repeatedly in memoirs, with some of the characters and policy dilemmas becoming part of Vietnamese political culture. I don't recall a translation of The Dream of the Red Chamber, but check the Bibliotheque National catalog. I doubt if Gengi came on Vietnamese radar at all, unless someone learning Japanese in the early 1940s wanted to get some translation practice.
David Marr
>
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From: Daniel C. Tsang
Date: Wed, Dec 1, 2010 at 3:00 PM
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Worldcat http://melvyl.worldcat.org/title/truyen-ke-genji-t1/oclc/221884178&referer=brief_results
shows a 1991 Hanoi translation of volume 1 of Tale of Genji
Truyện kẻ̂ Genji. T.1
Author: Murasaki Shikibu.
Publisher: Hà Nội : Khoa học kỹ thuật, 1991.
Edition/Format: Book : Vietnamese
Document Type: Book
All Authors / Contributors: Murasaki Shikibu.
Find more information about:
OCLC Number: 221884178
Notes: Nguyên bản tié̂ng Anh : The tale of Genji.
Description: 676tr ; 21 cm.
Responsibility: Murasaki Shikibu.
Dan Tsang
--
Daniel C. Tsang, Distinguished Librarian
Data Librarian
Bibliographer for Asian American Studies,
Economics, & Political Science
468 Langson Library
University of California, Irvine
PO Box 19557
Irvine CA 92623-9557
USA
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From: Tai, Hue-Tam Ho
Date: Thu, Dec 2, 2010 at 3:43 AM
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
My aunt recalls reading from Chinese historical novels to illiterate rural women in the early and mid-1920s. My grandmother had us read from similar novels in the 1960s as her eyesight was failing. Nguyen An Ninh's father was one of the translators of this kind of novels.
I don't recall actually seeing a copy of Hong Lau Mong in translation, but my parents made fairly frequent references to the characters. I did read a copy of Tay Suong Ky. Besides the historical novels, there was a Chinese literary canon drawn up by the literary critic Tan Than (I've forgotten the Chinese for his name) that went under the umbrella of luc tai tu; I do remember a discussion in one of the journals about the different titles he included in his canon and the criteria he used.
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From: Nguyen-Vo, Thu-Huong
Date: Thu, Dec 2, 2010 at 12:02 PM
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Dear John,
I don't know of works on the reception of Hồng Lâu Mộng, and the Tale of Genji, but while working on 19th/early 20th cent lit in the South have come across writings about and translations into quốc ngữ of Chinese novels. Nguyễn An Khương (nguyễn an ninh's father) as HTHT says translated many into quốc ngữ such as Tam Quốc Chí, Hậu Tam Quốc Chí, Vạn Huê Lầu, Thủy Hử, Phản Đường Diễn Nghĩa, Tàn Đường Diễn Nghĩa... He collaborated with other translators like Nguyễn Chánh Sắt, Trần Phong Sắc, and others. The first Tam Quốc Chí in quốc ngữ was run from first issue of Nông Cổ Mín Đàm (I don't think Cornell has a complete set, you can access the first 150 issues on sachxua.net). I would imagine there might be conversations in these early quốc ngữ periodicals that discuss Hồng Lâu Mộng. Professor Võ Văn Nhơn at NU at HCMC studies this period.
The Hồng Lâu Mộng I read as a teenager in the US was the RVN version that was censored for sexual content.
I didn't come across any mention of Tale of Genji in that period.
nvth
ucla
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From: Tai, Hue-Tam Ho
Date: Thu, Dec 2, 2010 at 12:46 PM
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
I've looked up Tan Than; his name was Jin Shengtan and he lived in the early 17th century, so he would not have encountered Hong Lau Mong. but his list of six works of genius (luc tai tu) included Zhuangzi, Li Sao, Shiji, Du Fu's poems, Romance of the West Chamber and Water Margin (from Wikipedia). So these would have been well known to pre-20th century Vietnamese literati.
Hong Lau Mong does not seem to have been as well known as Chinese historical novels and the Tale of Genji not at all.
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From: Tuan Hoang
Date: Thu, Dec 2, 2010 at 12:53 PM
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
John probably knew this already, but there was a book of criticism by Nguyen Khanh Huy on Hong Lau Mong, Thuy Hu, Tam Quoc Chi, and other great Chinese works (Saigon: Khai Tri, 1959; republished by Hanoi: Van Hoa, 1991). If there were any criticism on HLM alone, they would have appeared in journals and magazines, as Thu-Huong suggested.
The translation Thu-Huong mentioned is a translation by Nguyen Quoc Hu`ng (Saigon: Chau Duong, 1969). It was reprinted in the U.S. after 1975 and widely available in local libraries. I remember seeing a copy in the public library of the small city in Minnesota where my family settled in the 1980s.
It's worth looking into if this translation was the first published in Vietnamese. It is somewhat unusual. Translations of other Chinese prose epics had occurred years before, even decades. Why was it so late? I am curious if this was the case of translations of HLM in other countries.
I speculate that economics played a role. There was probably no lack of available Vietnamese translators, and it's possible that HLM was translated long before 1969. But publication might be prohibitive due to the cost of printing: hence the late date. Nguyen Quoc Hung's translation ran at least 10 volumes: a lot more pages than most other works. Publishers must have weighed heavily the potential for sales, especially before 1945.
A related factor could be readership. I think it's safe to say that HLM was not the most exciting story to read. For sure, not as exciting as the historical epics. Even in comparison to dramatic epics, the plot is stale next to, for an obvious example, the "scandalous" Kim Binh Mai. I suspect that most Vietnamese - most Southeast and East Asians? - learned the details of HLM from the Chinese TV adaptation than from the book.
~Tuan Hoang
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From: Tuan Hoang
Date: Thu, Dec 2, 2010 at 1:00 PM
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
If true that there wasn't a translation of Tale of Genji before 1990, what might have been reasons behind? Understandably, Japanese classic literature did not remotely have the bearing that Chinese literature did, but still... An analogous case is French lit vs. English lit during the 20th century: there weren't many translations of English novels and poetry, comparatively speaking.
~Tuan Hoang
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From: Tuan Hoang
Date: Thu, Dec 23, 2010 at 8:53 AM
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
John and all: While looking at the journal Thanh Nghi, I saw a couple of articles about HLM and other Chinese novels in #8 and 9 (1942). Check out also Vuong Hong Sen, the Sino-Vietnamese classicist, who might have written about HLM in one of his books.
Holiday cheers,
~Tuan Hoang