Hồ Xuân Hương
Hồ Xuân Hương ( Hán tự : 胡春香; * 1772 ; † 1822 ) was a Vietnamese poet. She was born at the end of the Later Lê Dynasty , saw the rise and fall of the Tây Sơn Dynasty, and died at the beginning of the Nguyễn Dynasty . She wrote her poems in chữ Nôm , often referred to as the greatest poet of Vietnam. Her curriculum vitae has many gaps and has always been a controversial topic in literary and historical studies. The content and thoughts of her poems were also very controversial, and accordingly the verdict. Nevertheless, it was undisputed that it created a hitherto unattained peak in Vietnamese literature in terms of form and craftsmanship. The contemporary Vietnamese poet Xuân Diệu calls her the "Queen of Chữ Nôm poetry". Most of her poems have now been lost, only fifty of them have survived. These were compiled in a volume of poetry that was widely used.
Life
ancestry
Hồs life was only very sketchily documented by contemporary reports, so there are many gaps in her résumé. Many of their experiences can only be derived from their works. Her family came from a village in Nghệ An Province . By the time it was born, the Le dynasty was in decline and the land was divided. She was born in what is now Hanoi to a Confucian family. According to the family register, her father was called Hồ Piyan (胡 丕 演, from the family register: 胡 丕 訓 生 從 ， 一名 演 ， 生 女 春香 於 看 春 坊). However, some researchers point out that according to contemporary reports of Hồ's second husband Trần Phúc Hiến (陳福 顯) Hồ became Trần's concubine in 1818, when Hồ was younger than 50. However, according to the family book, her presumed father became Hồ Piyan was born in 1703, which would mean that when she was born, her father was already over 70 years old. Because of this, these researchers questioned whether Hồ Piyan was actually their father. However, the researcher Hoàng Xuân Hãn (黃春 w) proved with the addition of other family books that she was very likely the daughter of Hồ Piyan and one of his concubines.
resume
When Hồ Xuân Hương was born, her family fell apart. Her father died when she was young and she was raised by her widowed mother and raised in poverty. However, she was very smart and received a good education. At 13 she wrote her first poem. She spent most of her life in the place where she was born. She called her house "Guyuetang" (古 月 堂, Hall of the Ancient Moon), where she worked, taught and made friends. In her younger years she had extensive acquaintances and was friends with many writers of her time. During this period she also wrote many Chinese poems, which are summarized in a poetry book (琉 香 記). Because of her extensive acquaintances, some researchers suggested that she was a courtesan at the time .
There was no contemporary record of their appearance. The French author Maurice Durand quoted her poem Jackfruit (菠蘿蜜), in which she compared herself with the externally unattractive jackfruit in that its appearance did not correspond to any particular beauty. In his book Works of Vietnamese poetess Hồ Xuân Hương , published in 1968, Durand also certified a sex-hunger in Hồ's works. On the other hand, Hồ was married twice and was sung about by many, so she must have had a certain attraction. Hs love life and marriage were haunted by misfortune. In her younger years she was in a relationship with some famous writers like Nguyễn Du , but for various reasons she could not marry them. She married twice as a concubine and was widowed twice. The first time she became a concubine of the district chief. She was mistreated by the main woman. After the county head's death, she married the official Trần Phúc Hiến, who also died shortly afterwards. In her poem From a concubine (妾 婦 吟) she told the sadness and pain of her marriage.
Hồ's second husband was an officer and adviser to the provincial governor. After the marriage, she and her husband moved to his official residence on Halong Bay . At that time, her style changed. In the six traditional Chinese poems she described the landscape of Halong Bay. In the official history record Đại Nam thực lục (大 南 實錄) it was reported that H dieser Xuân Hương also actively supported her husband in the government business during this time and was therefore hated by other officials. In 1818 Trần Phúc Hiến was convicted of embezzlement and bribery. He was jailed and executed the next year (1819).
After Trần's death, Hồ returned to Hanoi and took a small house next to the West Lake. Occasionally she was visited by friends, including a former lover, from whom she asked for a preface for her volume of poetry. She lived from teaching. From the poems of that time it could be seen that she had traveled to Vietnam both north and south. Le Yu (黎 瑜) wrote in his article Women (女流) that Hồ died a few years after Trần, but this suspicion was lacking in evidence. The poet Miên Thẩm mentioned in his poem from 1842 that Hồ Xuân Hương was already dead. This is the latest known year that Hồ died.
Literary style
Women awareness
As a woman living in a Confucian environment, Hồ's work showed remarkable womanhood and rebel spirit. At that time the position of women in Vietnam had sunk to a new low. By patriarchal rules such as "Three Consequences and Four Virtues" (三 從 Drei, Three consequences are: Before marriage comes the father, after marriage comes the man, after widowhood comes the son. Four virtues are womanhood, language virtue, appearance virtue and housework virtue) and Chilgeojiak (七出), women's freedom was dramatically restricted. Hồ questioned this social order in which men had absolute power. Hồs image of women was not only that of a rebel, but also included constructive self-positioning. In her works she sang less of the traditional female virtue such as gentleness, obedience or household, but much more of a high goal in life and talents, i.e. virtues that are traditionally considered male. For Hồ the meaning of a woman's life consisted in the following pages: a lofty goal as the value of life and respect for life as the content of life. In her poems, she accused male dominance and thus shocked the Vietnamese society of the time.
Feminine virtues
Hồs image of virtue deviates radically from the former “women without talent are virtuous” or “gentle and obedient”. In her works a confident woman spoke who had set high goals for herself. In the poem An Graf Trần (和 陳侯) she eloquently reported her own ambitions, showed her own expectations and requirements. She was fully aware of her own talent and did not feel inferior because of being a woman. In the words of the heart (抒懷) it became even clearer in the language. However, as a woman in the society of that time, she had to suffer many setbacks despite her ambition, many of her wishes could not be fulfilled. Many of her poems expressed her fight against the traditional gender role , clarified the female view of life and the world. They were full of admiration for the feminine sex and extolled virtues that differ from traditional feminine virtues. They traced the value of female life and gave life a new meaning. She has been described as "the first person in Vietnamese history to fight for feminism ".
Feminine psyche
Hồ not only analyzed and reflected the position of women in society, she also described the female psyche, especially the longing for a romantic love. In words of the heart , Hồ wove the description of the landscape with the thoughts of the protagonist and related the sadness of separation and the desire for love. In betel palm (請 檳榔), she directly expressed the wish to be met with true love by the partner. In jackfruit and pond snails (餡 螺), on the other hand, she used comparisons to depict the female longing for esteem and respect for her beloved and rejection of male disregard and dishonesty. Her volume of poetry clarifies the female perception , while she dialogues with loved ones through poetry, she expressed her desire for an honest love. In her mind the day we swear (誓 曰 有感), she said that she wanted a long lasting love. In her poems to her lover, she expressed her self-esteem, her self-confidence, the careful choice of a partner and, if she had made her choice, the decision to put all her heart into the relationship.
In a chauvinistic society, a woman's desire for perfect love often went unfulfilled. All too often, after the romantic phase, there was disappointment and pain. Hồs poems describe longing as well as fear of disappointment. For example, in the song about the orchid in the courtyard in spring (春 庭 蘭 調), the poet described the longing for her beloved and at the same time worried about love. In Sigh (自嘆), she used very covert language to mourn the pain of an unhappy love. In her farewell poem to her second husband Trần, she admonished him to look after her like flowers. In From a Concubine , she lamented the patriarchal society and the polygyny system that brought women a lot of pain.
Hồ often used comparisons to clarify the female psyche, for example she used duckweed to describe her own fate. Poems like sweet dumplings (湯圓), jackfruit , sea snails or fans (詠 扇) only describe objects on the surface, but they are only used to describe the female body and life. The image of women in these poems differs greatly from traditional female virtues and describes the inner beauty of a woman. For example, with Sweet Dumplings , the inner loyalty of women is sung about despite adversity and being dominated. Jackfruit and pond snails also express the fight against male disregard and clinging to one's life.
Female body and sex life
Hồ gave women back their expressions about their own bodies and sex life. For example, in the three poems Sleeping Girl (晝 寢 少女), Fan and Dreistufiger Hügel (三疊 坡), she imitated the male description of the female body, caricatured this language, illustrated the materialization of women by men. Her courageous and excellent language was a horn for the patriarchal social order and the male image of women as a sexual object. In Portrait of a Virtuous Woman (題 素女 畫像) she went even further and reflected the result of the materialization of women and criticized the neglect of the inner soul of women. In Als Frau (婦女 身分), she extolled the female body as a symbol of mother and creator, and stated the important role women play in the family.
Combative and sharp irony
Hồs poems have a bold and very sharp language. Some researchers believe this is related to her life and the time she lived in. Although Hồ was incredibly talented, her life was riddled with setbacks. At a young age she grew up in poor circumstances. Later love and marriage were all unhappy. The humiliating position and oppression pained her and made her angry, and at the same time stimulated her discontent and fighting spirit. She also lived in a very troubled time. After the establishment of the Tây Sơn dynasty, its second emperor, Nguyen Hue, carried out many courageous reforms, which also caused a brief spiritual revival.
Mockery of the feudal system
Hồ used her pen to reveal the suppression of female emotions and humanity. She boldly described the ugliness and hypocrisy of the feudal marriage system and castigated the feudal rites and superstitions. She longed for free love and enjoyment of life and fought against traditional chastity . For them, free marriage was an ideal and the system of appropriate social classes an affront. With this she expressed the hidden, very own wish of the people.
Especially for the sanctimonious protectors of feudal morality, Hồ saved no irony. Because of this, she is seen by some as the creator of Vietnamese satirical poetry. Especially the poems written in chữ Nôm are full of satire. The cave of Xiangji (香 積 洞) and lustful monks , for example, sharply criticize the monks of a Buddhist shrine. Outwardly they were living saints, preaching morality, but in secret they were doing immoral things. The poems mocked the monks' hypocrisy and criticized the superstition of the people. The already mentioned poems Sleeping Girl , Fan and Three-Step Hill were also a masterpiece of irony. She mimicked the language men used to describe women's bodies, but in doing so made masculine dominance ridiculous and criticized the downgrading of women as sex objects. In Portrait of a Virtuous Woman , she describes a picture superficially, but between the lines she makes it clear that the male society sees a woman only as an object with an outer surface, but without any inner life.
Precisely because she uncovered the weak point of the Confucian upper class, she was strongly attacked and defamed by the same. Nevertheless, her poems remain popular with the people and have survived to this day. Many later Vietnamese poets mimicked their satirical style.
Language art
For her poems, Hồ used the Lü () format, which is very strict in form. Each line of a poem consists of exactly seven characters, each poem has exactly eight lines. Hồ was able to develop this strict form to an almost perfect perfection. Although she was very careful to follow all forms, her poem was very nice to read, you did not have the feeling at all as if the poet had to use a particularly difficult and unusual form of language in order to comply with the format. At the same time, her poems remain easy to understand and have full aesthetic beauty. She also used a language derived from folk songs and national epic.
Vernacular
Hồs poems often include vernacular proverbs and folk songs. In From a concubine , for example, she skilfully used the Vietnamese proverb “If there is something sweet afterwards, it doesn't hurt to eat something before” (有 甜頭 不怕 吃苦頭) in the fifth and sixth sentences. With this she expressed that the fate of a concubine is only bitterness and nothing sweet. In Pregnancy Without a Husband (無 夫 懷 子) she alluded to a Vietnamese proverb according to which “pregnancy with a husband is nothing unusual, but pregnancy without a husband brings an unusual birth” (有 夫 懷 子 世间 常事 ， 无 夫 而 孕 方能 生 巧).
Puns
Hồ often used the peculiarities of the Chinese characters in her poems and thus formed very humorous and ironic puns. In the poem Pregnancy Without a Man , for example, she wrote in the third sentence that the sign heaven (hat) has never had a head. 天 with a head becomes a sign 夫, which means husband. In the fourth sentence she spoke of Weiden 柳, this symbol has the same pronunciation in Vietnamese as 了, the symbol 了 with a slash is 子, meaning son, both sentences are puns to say that the woman already has a son before marriage gave birth.
Ambiguity
Another characteristic of Hồs poems is the use of ambiguous sentences and words. Regardless of whether she describes people, things, landscapes, temples and monks, activities and work or folk customs: In her poems, multilayered meanings and allusions can always be discovered. Her poems about things, in particular, always make one think of sex or women's bodies. Fan , jackfruit , marsh snail, and three-tiered mound all have enigmatic characters in which the characteristics of the connection between yin and yang, between men and women, and female sexual organs emerge. For example, the poet describes the small bumps on the surface of a jackfruit , and that if you rub it (and cause small cracks), a white juice comes out of it. She describes the properties of the female sexual organ through the natural properties of a fruit . In Three Steps Hill she alluded to the sexual act. This second layer in Hồs poems often contains content that is an affront to the Confucian worldview and moral concept. From a feminist point of view, Hồs had “spoken the truth through a detour” with her linguistic ability, which at the time was the only means by which the poet could express herself.
Folklore
Hồs poems contain very popular elements. Many Vietnamese refer to their poems as "very Vietnamese". She not only used the Vietnamese chữ Nôm for her poems, but also used the vernacular. But her Chinese poems are also full of Vietnamese traditions.
Vietnamese folk custom and everyday life
Betel palm , jackfruit , sea snails, and sweet dumplings are all traditional Vietnamese foods. Betel palm describes how in Vietnam betel palm is eaten with mussel flour and betel pepper . The betel palm has a reddish fruit juice and is seen in Vietnam as a symbol of kinship, love and marriage. Betel palm and betel pepper is a popular folk tale. They symbolize the love of young people, which is why there is also the saying in Vietnam that "Eating the betel palm is only the beginning of the story". With betel palms, the poet expressed her wish for a fulfilled love in a realistic way.
In the other poems mentioned above, too, the poet uses local foods to express her own opinion about love and sex when describing the matter. Hồ was able to describe the characteristics of a thing in a few words and, based on that, express her own thoughts and opinions. The connections between the different strata were often surprising and yet deeply anchored in Vietnamese folklore. In Sweet Dumplings , the poet took up the round shapes, the white and soft surface and the sweet core of the popular dish in order to express her desire for a true love in a moving way. Marsh snails, on the other hand, lived in grasses and streams; you first have to remove their lid to get to the meat. The poet used these two qualities to describe the social environment of women, as well as to express the desire of women not to be used by men as playmates but to be respected.
landscape
Some of Hồ's poems describe Vietnam's unique landscapes and express the poet's love for her homeland. The five traditional poems about Halong Bay, for example, were in Chinese, but describe the unique landscape there. The fifth and sixth movements of The Land of Water and Clouds (水雲 鄉) each describe how the rocks on the horizon are sometimes visible and sometimes hidden in the evening rain, and how the morning fog slowly clears. Two sentences have harmoniously combined the landscapes of the bay at different times and different weather conditions and thus create a holistic aesthetic feeling in the reader. The house by the sea (海 屋 籌) describes Halong Bay from different angles. The last two sentences express the poet's pride for her fatherland and a true national pride. Xiangji Cave, written in chữ Nôm, describes the relics of the Buddhist sanctuary, its unique natural beauty, and the unusual creation of nature.
City life
Hồs poems also express the awareness of the city dwellers and reflect the Vietnamese city culture. For example, it describes many urban amusements and games. An example of this is the poem Die Brunne (水井). These poems characterize the everyday life of the Vietnamese and are full of aesthetic beauty. Hồ's poems vividly describe the society in which she lived, using traditional Vietnamese languages. It describes the popular sex organ worship particularly well, reflected the custom of the people. It is said that Hồ's poems are "the most Vietnamese and popular".
Description about relationships between the sexes and female bodies
Many works by Hồ describe relationships between the sexes. The poems about things and landscapes in particular often contain descriptions about sex and the female body. Some also describe love between the sexes and mutual feelings. For example, the poem Married Stone (夫妻 石) describes a sight in Thanh Hoá , and describes the stones as an old loving couple. The poem contains romance and humor. It expresses the poet's longing for a long and fulfilled ideal love. In the last two sentences the poet expressed her understanding for young people who long for love. Three-step hill superficially describes a beautiful hill, but it contains allusions to sex and horns the mountaineering "gentlemen" who regard women as sexual objects.
Use of similarities
Hồ often used a very graphic comparison between the female body and sex with other objects. For example, in Schlucht (空谷) she compares the female sexual organ to a canyon. The last two sentences describe the empty echoes and reflect the woman's desire not to be neglected and understood in intersexual relationships. In Broken Drum , she complained about the mental and physical abuse of a licentious husband. The last two sentences lament the sexual abuse of women and express the sad situation of women. As mentioned above, other poems mimick male spelling to criticize men's prejudice. Hồ was the first female poet in Vietnamese history to focus on writing from the perspective of a woman.
Ambiguity
In feudal patriarchal society, the description of sex was a taboo . Women were all the more not allowed to write about it. That is why Hồ uses ambiguous and complex sentences to express her protest against it. At the same time she expresses the female consciousness, passion and joy in her own body. This selection of topics was very progressive for the time. Broken Drum , treasure woman (實女), pregnancy without a husband , of a concubine use all a very courageous speech. In addition, they mock the male language to protest against violence and polygamy, affirm the desire of women for sexual pleasure and the right and freedom to give birth.
It is for this very reason that it is condemned by established critics in literary history. Her poems are often defamed as pornographic. Modern literary critics see it very differently.
Hồ's poems are not only an indictment against the patriarchal society, they are full adoration from birth, expressing respect and care for life. They show the poet's understanding of the meaning of life and her longing for beauty and love and joie de vivre. And they represent the poet's understanding of birth, life and relationships between the sexes.
Mixing with Chinese culture
Although Hồ's poems were very popular, many Chinese influences can be found there.
format
In her poems, Hồ uses the Lü format and the Vietnamese chữ Nôm based on the Chinese characters. With Hồ the chữ Nôm Lü poems reached their peak. Because of its strict form, a very good understanding of Chinese is essential for the Lü poems. The perfection of her poems confirms her knowledge of Chinese.
Chinese folk tale
Thematically, Hồ is also influenced by the Han culture. Many elements come from Chinese mythology, legend and history. In the 40 traditional chữ Nôm she used elements from the Han culture in eight places. In her later volume of poetry, elements of Han culture are cited in 17 places. In the five Halong Bay poems even in 23 places. Two of her poems are entitled Questions on the Moon (問 月), here she uses the Chinese saga of Chang'e , Jade Bunny and Sweet Scented Blossom , who live on the moon . In the first of the ten An Graf Trần poems, she quotes the story of Sima Xiangru , who conveyed his love to Zhuo Wenjun with music , as well as of Cai Wenji , who wrote her famous poems after returning to China from the Xiongnu region, and several others Elements from Chinese literature. In other poems, she quoted Tao Yuanming directly , such as in the poem Sleeping Girl . In Chrysanthemum (詠 菊花), she clearly expresses her admiration for Tao and his character. In her Halong Bay poems, she used works by Zhuangzi , elements from Chinese mythology, and stories from writers. With these elements, the poet expresses her own feelings and wishes, gives her poems aesthetic beauty, and also reflects her extensive knowledge of Chinese history and literature.
Chinese novels
Chữ Nôm literature is a folk literature; many authors of chữ Nôm literature translate the trivial novels from Chinese into chữ Nôm. Hồ took up the themes of these trivial novels from the Ming dynasty , varied them boldly and thus formed many unique poems.
Chinese religions and philosophies
Hồ was also influenced by the traditional Chinese philosophies and religions Confucianism, Daoism , Buddhism and the amalgamation of the three religions, and the poet also mixed the traditional Vietnamese culture.
Confucianism
After its introduction in Vietnam, Confucianism spread and became an important part of traditional social philosophy. Hồ lived in a troubled time when the influence of Confucianism weakened and was even criticized. Your attitude towards Confucianism is complicated. Above all, she took up ideas from Confucianism, according to which a person should use his talents for the state and society. So she wrote in words of the heart about her own ambitions. In The House of Idleness (詠 閑居) she expresses compassion and care for the people in need. Even in her love poems, thoughts about the situation of the state and the people sometimes emerge.
Buddhism
In H war's time, Buddhism was the most common religion in Vietnam. Hồs poems reflected this zeitgeist. The cave of Xiangji contains satire about the sanctimonious monks, but at the same time expresses deepest Buddhist beliefs and glorification. She first described the cave and its uniqueness and the mysteries of the Buddha, then the many believers who burn incense there and pay homage to the Buddha, as well as their own homage to Buddha. In another poem she expresses her admiration for devout, highly respected old monks who live in asceticism. The state of Buddhism in Vietnam at the time is also reflected in Hồ's poems. In troubled times, the morality of the monastic orders also declines. Some monks did not actually enter monasteries to attain enlightenment, others left later. Both in The Cave of Xiangji and especially in Shameless Monk (淫僧), Hồ described this phenomenon with sharp satire. Even so, Buddhism remains a popular belief. Believers often make pilgrimages to shrines to light incense sticks and seek salvation. Due to the decline of the monasteries, however, the rituals became noticeably simplified, and this is also expressed in Hồ's poems. Therefore her poems are also a description of the development of Buddhism in Vietnam.
Hồs poems are also influenced by Zen Buddhism and mix Zen philosophy with Vietnamese developments. For example, the poem Fischerlieder (棹 歌聲) written in Chinese describes the landscape of Halong Bay, but also expresses the joy of meditation. By describing the pictorial landscape, the poet comes to an inner explanation and gave the poem a higher level of enlightenment in which the scenic beauty and the literary beauty are united. In the spring hall (遊 看 春 庭) the poet described the visit to a historical place and from this visit she recognized the constant changes in the world and at the end of the poem reached the enlightenment of nirvana. Hồ's poems clearly show the influence of Zen Buddhism.
Daoism
In many of Hồ's landscape poems one can read the near-natural Daoist thoughts. In a poem, she described a remote house, the poet mixed the joy of a flying buzzard into the description and thus sat herself and the reader outside the world described. In the Am Westsee commemorates friends , the poet wrote about a trip to the Westsee. She thought of former friends and that both her feelings and the landscape remained unchanged. The Taoist, remote atmosphere was felt everywhere in the texts.
The belief in gods of Daoism is also reflected in Hồ's poems. For example, in a Halong Bay poem, she described the play of colors at dusk and then thought of the legendary crystal palace and caves inhabited by gods. In the Land of Water and Clouds , she quoted texts from Zhuangzi and expressed her admiration for Daoists. At the end she described how much she would like to go out in a fishing boat to find a piece of paradise for herself, to hide from the world and to devote herself to meditation . The entire poem combines a description of the landscape and a legendary world of gods and was permeated by Daoist philosophy.
Mixing of religions
Some of Hồ's poems also express the idea of blending the three religions. For example, in the Halong Bay poem The Green in the Eyes (眼 放 青), the poet first described the unique stones and thought of the writers who passed the official exams and their immortal works. Then her thoughts began on the unique divine powers that had formed the stones, and finally on the sermons of the high monks. The poet has thus masterfully mixed the three religions in a single poem. Hồ thus masterfully combines realism with romance.
criticism
Hồs works are complex and ambiguous. At different times, by people of different origins, they were judged very differently. Some people even change their judgment about it in their lifetime. Today her struggle against the feudal social order, her reflection on the life of the common people and her feminist thoughts are highly appreciated. The American poet John Balaban , who translated Hồs poems into English, remarked: “Hồ Xuân Hương was an important figure in her day, but even today her works are widely used. This is not only because she skilfully combined the high art of literary tradition with early street language, but also because many of her poems still contain current topics such as feminism. ”On the other hand, precisely because of her ambiguous sexual description, she will also criticized by many. Traditional Confucian literature in particular demonizes their works. Hồ's works in Vietnam have always been the subject of controversy. A never-ending debate has been going on since the 1960s and is known in Vietnam as the "Hồ Xuân Hương phenomenon".
Criticism of sex description
Since the poems of Hồ challenged the traditional patriarchal society, which broke taboos and addressed topics of sexual love, as it courageously expressed its own desire for love and was not ashamed, it has long been considered by the prevailing opinions as "pornographic" and " primitive "downgraded. She is referred to as the shame of Vietnamese literature, as the polluter of the ideal image of women. For a long time it was excluded from the Vietnamese literary tradition. Even today, a poet who writes too much about sex love and sex is hardly accepted in Vietnam. And many literary critics today still avoid addressing the hidden layer in their poems, or using very confused language to cover up this poetry. Some researchers judge Hs literary successes positively as well as her anti-feudal attitude, and at the same time condemned the unorthodox content that does not fit into traditional moral concepts. Some researchers even believe that the description of sex in their work destroys aesthetics.
Other researchers note that the complexity and ambiguity is a characteristic of Hồs poems. They note that Hồs ambiguity is neither pornographic nor primitive, but is their unique way of expressing the subject of sex love and satire towards the society of the time. This was their only means of rebellion. The Vietnamese researcher Nguyễn Ðức Bình wrote in the magazine Văn Nghệ (literature) that Hồ was not just a feminist, but a courageous fighter against the bigotry of society.
Antifeudal awareness
It is now widely recognized that elements of anti-feudal awareness appear in Hồ's work. In this sense, Hồ Xuân Hương remains a lonely voice in Vietnamese literature.
Linguistic reviews
Balaban notes in his article About Ho Xuan Huong that Hồ combined the aesthetic literary form with earlier vernacular. She used the chữ Nôm used by the urban population instead of the Chinese preferred by the upper class and was able to express the popular feeling much better. Her works have high literary values and artistry, but are nevertheless understandable for the townspeople. So she managed to write poetry for both the higher and the lower educated classes. The language of Hồ is said to be highly skilled and humorous, full of folklore and courageous.
Other reviews
In a poem, Hồ justified her separation from a lover by saying that she did not want to prevent him from serving for the state. This is taken by some as an occasion to reproach H nicht for ultimately being unable to separate from the Confucian notion that the good of the individual must be sacrificed for the good of the community.
souvenir
- In Ho Chi Minh City there is a street named after Hồ Xuân Hương.
- In Seeà Lạt , an artificial lake is named after her.
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r The poems of Hồ Xuân Hương and the female consciousness by 陳竹 灕 (Chinese; PDF; 1.3 MB)
- ↑ a b Vietnamese Ancient Literature ( Memento of the original from April 22, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Chinese)
- ↑ Vietnamese-Chinese cultural exchange during the Qin dynasty ( Memento of the original from November 12, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (Chinese)
- ↑ a b Hồ Xuân Hương (Chinese)
- ↑ a b c Hồ Xuân Hương - the greatest Vietnamese poetess ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Đại Nam thực lục: 其 小妾 春香 能 文 、 政事 ， 時 稱 才女 ， 參 協 協 常 使 干預 外事 ， 守 容 素 忌 之。
- ↑ Đại Nam thực lục: 安 廣 參 協 陳福 顯 私 收 民 錢 ， 贓 至 七百 緡 ， 事 發。 帝 曰 ： ： 『貪 黑 不 不 誅 ， 何以 勸 廉？』 命 城 臣 治 其罪 ，。 坐 死 死Phúc Hiến had asked the people for money, up to 700 coins. The matter became known. The emperor said, “If bribery is not sentenced to death, how can we fight corruption?” The city minister was ordered to sentence Trần and was executed .)
- ↑ a b c John Balaban, About Ho Xuan Huong, American Poetry Review, Sept / Oct 2000 Vol. 29 / No. 5 ( Memento of the original from June 14, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h 余富兆 (Yu Futao), 《越南 古代 女性 文學》 (Ancient Vietnamese Female Literature), 《东南亚 纵横》, Feb. 1999, pp. 18–24
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k 謝娜菲 (Nafei Xie), 《越南 詩人 胡春香 詩歌 意蘊 之 探析》 (An analysis of the poems of Hồ Xuân Hương) ， 《廣西 師範 學院 學報 （哲學 社會 科學 版）》 (Guangxi Teachers' College Academic Newspaper), April 2007, Volume 28, 2, 102-107
- ↑ a b 羅 長 山 (Luo Changshan), 《胡春香 題 下龍灣 詩五首 譯注 與 評介》 (Note on the five Halong Bay poems by Hồ Xuân Hương), 《廣西 教育 學院 學報》 (Academic Newspaper of the Guangxi Teachers' College ) 2000, 4
- ↑ a b c d e f g h 謝娜菲 (Nafei Xie) 《略論 越南 女詩人 胡春香 的 儒 釋 道 情結》 (About Confucian, Daoist and Buddhist philosophy in Hồ Xuân Hương's poems), 《廣西 師範 學院 學報（哲學 社會 科學 版）》 ((Academic Newspaper of the Guangxi Teaching College)), 2004, Volume 1, 25.1, pp. 102-107
- ↑ a b c 謝娜菲 (Nafei Xie), 《解讀 越南 詩人 胡春香 詩歌 中 的 漢 文化 基因》 (The Han cultural elements in Hồ Xuân Hương's poems), ， 《廣西 師範 學院 學報 （哲學 社會 科學 版）》 ( Guangxi Teachers' College Academic Newspaper), 2007, 7, Volume 29.4, Pages 77-80
- ↑ a b Balaban's translation
Web links
- Literature by and about Hồ Xuân Hương in the catalog of the German National Library
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hồ Xuân Hương |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | 胡春香 (Chinese) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Vietnamese poet |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1772 |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1822 |