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(LUẬN ÁN TIẾN SĨ NGỮ VĂN) NHÂN VẬT ANH HÙNG VĂN HÓA TRONG TRUYỆN KỂ DÂN GIAN VỀ THỜI KỲ VĂN LANG ÂU LẠC(LUẬN ÁN TIẾN SĨ NGỮ VĂN) NHÂN VẬT ANH HÙNG VĂN HÓA TRONG TRUYỆN KỂ DÂN GIAN VỀ THỜI KỲ VĂN LANG ÂU LẠC(LUẬN ÁN TIẾN SĨ NGỮ VĂN) NHÂN VẬT ANH HÙNG VĂN HÓA TRONG TRUYỆN KỂ DÂN GIAN VỀ THỜI KỲ VĂN LANG ÂU LẠC
1 INTRODUCTION State-of-the-art and reason behind the choice of thesis topic 1.1 So far, the folktale always have full of vitality, especially the folktale of the first stage of history 1.2 In the treasure of folktale, there is a type of character in the central area of the oldest folktale that is cultural heroes Most recent researchs offer better analysis, discussion and somehow correction for previous theories about cultural heroes in legend and mythology Amongst the novel theories, the life cycle model of cultural heroes proposed by Lord Raglan paves new analysis pathways and angles to understand cultural heroes in folk literature in different cultures worldwide In this thesis, we applied Lord Raglan theory to investigate the structures of archetype and motifs of cultural heroes described in the folktale of Van Lang - Au Lac period in Vietnam We aim to identify similarities as well as special characteristics of these motifs compared with those described for heroes motifs in the folktale of other cultures Our objective is to identify how living conditions, special natural and historical conditions of Van Lang - Au Lac period influence on the structure and characters of cultural motifs in the folktale 1.3 Van Lang - Au Lac period is indeed a “Heroic Age” in the long history of Viet population which displays full of characteristics that Friedrich Engels employed to describe a “Heroic Age” During this Van Lang - Au Lac period, typical motifs of cultural heroes were created, developed within excellent the folktale These motifs passed overal characteristics resembling to those described for heroes in prior mythology but also special characteristics those characterize Van Lang - Au Lac folk literature However, investigation on historical role and vitality of these cultural heroes to the development of culture of Vietnamese and of Vietnam as a nation remains open Thus, in this thesis, we propose to apply novel theories, e.g Lord Ragland theory, for studying heroes’ motifs within folk literature of Van Lang – Au Lac period This thesis is entitled: Cultural heroes in the folktales about Van Lang – Au Lac period Research goals Through the lifecycle structure survey, explains the typical motifs in the structure life cycle of heroic culture in Van Lang - Au Lac period In this thesis, we identified the similarities as well as the orginalities of Heroes motifs in the Van Lang – Au Lac period in the direct and close comparison with the heroes motifs described in the international folk literatures We then discussed the characteristic difference in the function of culture, living area/ living conditions, historical conditions of the community and of the Nation In order to continue confirming separate properties, we identified the vestiges, images of these heroes motifs in the festivals, habits those are conserved to date Through these analyse, we discussed on the evolution, the continuity and the impacts of the Heroes archetype to the modern life of Viet population This thesis targeted to study cultural heroes archetype in the folktale about Van Lang- Au Lac period To this end, following works have been completed: + Collect and classify available literature In each literature review, we focus on the origine of the document, cultural and historical conditions giving creation and development of the cultural heroes + Analyse about antique samples and motifs of cultural heroes + Analyse and weight contribution and vitality of these heroes to the development of culture of Vietnamese and of Vietnam as a nation Sources of literatures referenced in this thesis To study the cultural heroes in the folktale about Van Lang - Au Lac period, we focus on two genres of myth and legend In this thesis, we employed literature that has been edited and printed such as Tuyển tập văn học dân gian (Viện KHXH Việt Nam (2004), Tổng tập văn học dân gian người Việt, tập 4, tập 5, Truyền thuyết dân gian người Việt, Nxb KHXH, HN; Viện Văn học (2001), Tuyển tập Văn học dân gian Việt Nam, Tập – Nxb Giáo dục) Other than these mentioned references, we also use documents wherein folk literatures of different provinces/ towns are selected and edited by regconized interlectuelles like Hong Dieu, Phan Dang Nhat etc Research methodologies Characteristic features; Interdisciplinary methods; Structural methods; Analysis of folk literature methods; Field work methods Main contributions of the thesis In this thesis, we first appreciated results on studying Vietnamese myth, the folktale published by Vietnamese researchers in the past We then introduced novel theories, developed by international researchers for investigating Heroes archetype within folk literature, to study Heroes archetype in Vietnamese folk literarure about Van Lang – Au Lac period In this thesis, we proposed to study these cultural heroes as an archetype, following the theory of antique motif analysis, so thus to find a universal structures/ features to characterize these Heroes We are convinced that this thesis is the first study wherein cultural heroes archetype of the Van Lang - Au Lac period in the folk literature are analyzed and discussed in a systematic and well structured manner In this thesis, we analyzed structures and identified characteristic features of heroes motifs in the Van Lang - Au Lac folk litereature following the life cycle model proposed by Otto Rank, Lord Raglan In this thesis, we identified the similarities as well as the orginalities of heroes archetype in the Van Lang - Au Lac period in the direct and close comparsion with the heroes motifs described in the international folk literatures We then discussed the characteristic difficiencies in the function of culture, living area/ living conditions, historical conditions of the community and of the nation We identified the vestiges, images of these heroes archetype in the festivals, habits those are conserved to date Through these analyse, we discussed on the evolution, the continuity and the impacts of the heroes archetype to the modern life of Viet population Thesis organization This thesis is structured in three main chapters together with Introduction, Conclusion, List of references and Annex - Chapter 1: Overview about research and theory - Chapter 2: Structure and life cycle motif of cultural heroes in the folktale about Van Lang – Au Lac period - Chapter 3: Cultural heroes of the Van Lang - Au Lac period in beliefs, festivals, customs and habits CHAPTER OVERVIEW ABOUT RESEARCH AND THEORY 1.1 Overview about the state-of-the-art Indeed, cultural heroes in folk literature of Van Lang – Au Lac period gained great attention of researchers working in the field of Folk Arts and literary criticism Herein, we introduce our literature review focusing on (i) different research directions on motifs of cultural heroes in folklorelogy at global scale, (ii) main and historical discussions on mythology of the Van Lang – Au Lac period Based on the literature review and appreciation of remarkable contributions made by previous researchers, we then try to address in this thesis the remained questions related to cultural heroes motifs in the Van Lang - Au Lac period folk literature 1.2 Overview about Van Lang – Au Lac period in the history of Vietnam 1.2.1 Relevent archives and the definition of Van Lang - Au Lac period The presence of Van Lang - Au Lac period in the history of Vietnam is certificated through stories handled from generation to generation and also through later documents such as in earliest history archives: Đại Việt sử lược, Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư Beside, this presence is also supported by other archives like Việt điện u linh, Lĩnh Nam chích quái, Ức Trai di tập, Dư địa chí, Vân Đài loại ngữ, Lịch triều hiến chương loại chí, Sử học bị khảo… Evidently, archives from China are important references to gain understandings about the Van Lang - Au Lac period in the story of Vietnam Briefly, the Van Lang - Au Lac period is believed to be commenced by the creation of the Van Lang state in the VII century (BC) (ref Viet Su luoc) and ended in the III century (BC) when the AuLac state is reversed The early Van Lang - Au Lac state was created and developed on the basis of DongSon culture when bronze art was developed at the highest level and when Iron art was initiated In the Van Lang - Au Lac period, original Lac Viet communities live in very harmony with Nam Dao, Au Viet population (areas now located in the shouthern China) Thus, the territory of Van Lang state, the same for followed Au Lac state, consists of parts of Quang Dong and Quang Tay provinces (nowday located in Southern China) and Northern Vietnam provinces The southern border of this state was found in the Hoanh Son Mountain (Quang Binh, Vietnam) This territory is indeed consisted with the distribution of vestegies belonged to Dong Son- Viet Co culture 1.2.2 Van Lang-Au Lac as the name As it can be easily seen, Van Lang - Au Lac is composed of “Van Lang” and “Au Lac” names Van Lang: the name initiated from vlang or blang (homonymous words) Indeed, vlang and blang are the terms used for naming the symbolic bird (Chim Viet), the Totem of the Viet population, the original community of Hung kings Au Lac: This term can be understood representing for the united, living in a harmonic style of different population such as Tay Au and Lac Viet (two major branches of multiple Viet population) under the An Duong Vuong Kingdom 1.2.3 Some characteristics of materially culture, society and spirit of the Van Lang - Au Lac period 1.2.3.1 Materially culture In the Van Lang - Au Lac period, a resplendent evolution of Bronze art was recorded At that time, Viet communities achieved certain level in the organization of collective forces for rice cultivation, planting, feeding domestic animals, jewelry creating, pottery creating etc At the same time, Viet population actively reclaimed new virgin soils as the need of the community evolution Viet peoples started to create different weapons for themselves protection and for protecting new reclaimed soils 1.2.3.2 The society The Van Lang - Au Lac period was the time of unification of different populations That time also recorded great contributions of several leaders of the Viet population, who contributed to reclaim new virgin soils, create novel cultural values or guided the Viet population to victory in fightings against foreigner attack Evidently, these leaders were very appreciated by the Viet population Such of great appreciation is still, some how, continued to date The organization of VanLang state followed the typical organization of an antique state: power and leadership was handled from father to son Continuating the development of Van Lang state, the AuLac state was better structured and runned with clearly better organization level We note that such an evolution in structuring and managing the Nation was a need (sometime urgent demand) to reform the Nation when an eventual attack from foreigner force was present 1.2.3.3 Spirit of the population Beside the conservation of some features of the antique beliefs, Viet population in the Van Lang - Au Lac period created new features to enrich their beliefs: Totemism, Church of Ancestors, Materially beliefs, etc Aparently once wants to discuss about the spirit of Viet population in the Van Lang - Au Lac period, a discussion about different Viet festivals is necessary Especially, we can consider festivals related to the commencement or ending of cultivation season/ year as the best examples demonstrating the spirit of the Viet population of that time In this Period, rich valuable folk literature was created wherein several motifs are now considered as reference to gain insights into the evolution of history of Viet Nation 1.3 Overview about the folktale of the Van Lang - Au Lac period 1.3.1 Introduction about the folktale 1.3.1.1 Myths In general, our concept about the myth is the story of the beginning and created the world, it was believed to be true by sacred properties The main character of myths was the gods or heroes They did not act as the usual logic but acted by the logic of the imagination The structure of myth and the details of the story are set in the archetype and symbol 1.3.1.2 Legend In general, we agree that legend is usualy a short story with conventional characteristics and also “local motif” characters Legend describes story with historical facts or events introduced, thus some how legend is a historicalized story These historical facts or events are to describe, by the most convincing manner, the motifs who represents for the popular beliefs as well as living experiences or philosophy of the community 1.3.2 Cultural history bases for creation of the folktale about the Van Lang - Au Lac period Resplendent evolution of the Dong Son culture, e.g with great technological achievement in Bronze art, provided great social bases for the early creation of an united state for the Lac Viet, Au Viet, Nam Dao and Australoid populations Unification leading to creation of the Van Lang - Au Lac State was an urgent need, a kind of critical condition for these populations Creation of the Van Lang - Au Lac State evidently marked a historical evolution of these populations: from nature depending and un-organized life to the period of technical evolution when they were able to created bronze, iron objects, as efficient tools and as powerful weapon From that onward, people tried to control some periodic natural phenomenon: raining, flood, drought etc Excel in some fightings against these natural events made that people somehow felt prounds of themselves Thus Van Lang – Au Lac period was the period of heroes, of nationalism and of creation of legend within the mythology 1.3.3 Typical features of the folktale in the about the Van Lang - Au Lac period In the early created the folktale of the Van Lang - Au Lac period, because of the myth philosophy and pride of population on their achievement, motifs of heroes of community with having characters of myth ancestors were created The folktale in this period described also stories with historical (people or acts) and national features The central motifs in these folktales are heroes who created cultural values for community or even society, organized the society Other motifs were the gods of religions, the gods who protect the agricultural cultivation lies and farmers, etc It is worth noting the presence of the folktale where the border between conventional legendcy and mythology was not evident In fact, in these stories, the characteristics of mythology seem to be introduced even though they still described important issues of the society and/ or of the Nation In conclusion, thankful and veneration of the Viet population in regard of Heroes, who contributed to the early days of the Nation, are the main direction lines of the the folktale of the Van Lang - Au Lac period 1.4 Overview about cultural heroes in the folktale 1.4.1 Concepts of cultural heroes We are convinced that cultural heroes in the folktale are the gods who created cultures to each community Thus, the heroes are someone who reclaimed new soil, created tools for the agricultural cultivation, for more comfortable life, initiated a profession and then handled it to the selected people of a community, etc Heroes can be also leaders of the community and society who proposed new structure, organization of the society, proposed rules and laws for the best management of the community 1.4.2 The origin and explanation about cultural heroe characters Indeed, researchers studying folk literature are trying to attacking several difficult aspects related to origine of heroes in the folk the folktale A possible approach is to identify the general reason for the creation of these motifs Another approach is via identification of historical origine of the heroes: the facts or events happened in the past decided the creation of the heroes Several researchers in other hand are convinced that the heroic acts of the heroes as described in the folk literature are actually the way the population characterized and symbolized natural phenomenons (climate, astronomy etc) observed Thus, in such cases, heroes represents the hyper powers of the Sun, Moon, Planets and Stars In parallel, other researchers try to analyse the characteristics of Heroes motifs in order to make a link between these motifs in the folk literature with the evolution of the population, community and society representing in the evolution of different aspects such as social values, beliefs as well as reactions or behaviors of the population in regard of a given fact or event Most recent fidings suggest that Heroes motifs in the folktale and Mythologies of different nations over the world have quite similar characteristics and these motifs seem to be fitted in a universal story structure Most of the researchers thought that cultural heroic characters were popular and a part of the folktale At the same time, they said that in fact has found a relative stability life cycle model of those heroes in the different cultures In summary, we can notice, the cultural hero character is the symbol of what most brilliant that people can achieve The symbols of cultural hero characters are the expressed honor of man for God's world 1.4.3 Classification of heroes motifs in the folktale In this thesis, we adopted the main points within the classification theories proposed by Wilhelm Schmidt and Heilbringer Van Deur for grouping cultural Heroes motifs in fundamental groups Indeed, Wilhelm Schmidt proposed classifiting cultural Heroes motifs into five fundamental groups while grouping these motifs into four groups was classification system proposed by Der Heilbringer Van Deursen Actually, we adopted in a selective manner these theories and paied our great attention in the most important factor: the the folktale of the Van Lang - Au Lac period being available as the object for this thesis study We then proposed to group the Heroes motifs descibred in the Van Lang - Au Lac the folktale in following five (05) groups: (1) Cultural heroes who are ancestors of the populations, creators and foundators of the communities and/ or of the nation (2) Cultural heroes are gods conquering the nature and natural hyper powers (3) Cultural heroes are creators creating novel cultural values to the community and/ or society and making essential contribution to the civilization (4) Cultural heroes are gods protecting the argicultural population (5) Cultural heroes are actual leaders guiding the communities/ nation in the fighting against foreigner attacks/ occupation 1.5 Overview of theory - Theory of archetype analyses - Theory of litteratury analysis, type and motif theory - Theory of structures - Theory of cultural anthropology In particular, the thesis applies the theory of Raglan, launched 22 points of the life cycle of cultural heroes CHAPTER STRUCTURE AND LIFE CYCLE MOTIF OF CULTURAL HEROES IN THE FOLKTALE ABOUT VAN LANG - AU LAC PERIOD Indeed, the folktale tells about the heroes in folk literature gain great attention of researchers The scholars have summarized and modeled the main events of the life and career of this particular character type The research indicates that the cultural hero is an archetype and that has left many traces in the category of folk literature, especially categories the 10 folktale Thus, based on the theoretical research on the cultural hero and on the research on the movement of the the folktale characteristics in the folktale about the Van Lang - Au Lac period, we analyzed and finding the tructure of typical motifs culture heroes in the folktale about Van Lang Au Lac period 2.1 Life cycle structure of heroes in the folktale about Van Lang – Au Lac period 2.1.1 From archetype of culture heroes in the mythology to novel structure with typical chracteristics in the folktale about Van Lang - Au Lac period 2.1.1.1 Archetype of culture heroes in the Mythology Carl Jung (1875-1961) was pioneer of the investigating archetype approach He proposed that collective unconscious is the highest level of the people mind which decides destiny of each individual in the community but also of the community or society He was able to point out the typical motifs in the folk literature whose stories describe experiences, knowledge and philosophy of a population in a given time but these values are universal and can be regconized by other populations irrespectively their living times or living territory These typical motifs are named archetype in the literature These archetypes are found to be repeated along with the human evolution history Typical archetype include: Personal – Shadow – Anima – Animus; Mother – Spirit – Rebirth – Trickster – Father – Dead – Water , especially the Heroes archetype 2.1.1.2 Structure of cultural heroes archetype Indeed, cultural heroes archetype, being gained great attention as one of the most important topics in the studying folk literature, is a great demonstration for the periodicity in the mythology thoughts In the book The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell proposed to group antique Heroes archetype following his adventure and glorious feat of arms In the monograph Mythology - The Voyage of the Hero David Adams Leeming discussed that the whole life of heroes, somehow being quite strange, resembles very much to a great voyage with periodic characteristics Thus, D A Leeming proposed to split the stories into eight (08) portions corresponding to important events occurred in the life of the Heroes 11 Remarkable contributions to studying antique Heroes archetype in folk literature were made by Raglan, reported in the The Hero: A Study in Tradition, Myth and Drama wherein he discussed for the first time the famous 22 points model This model is widely accepted by folklorist world wide because of its exceptional generality Thus, Raglan model is considered as a perfect model about the life cycle of Heroes The role of this model in studying Heroes life cycles in the folktale somehow is similar to that of V.IA.Propp model (with 31 functions and character groups) in the folktale 2.1.1.3 Antique model characteristics conserved in the heroes archetype in VanLang - AuLac period In the folktale, the heroes are created as representators of the population so heroic achievements of there heroes are actualy the sum of all contributions, achievements of the population These heroes motifs are described as the ancestors of the population and thus hold the most representative values of the population Indeed, the folktale contain characteristic features of the mythology The central conflicts in these stories are most of the time between the agricultural population and the nature This is in shape contrast with later folktale wherein the central conflits are between the populations or nations It created just after mythology, folktales in the Van Lang - Au Lac period therefore conserved characteristics of antique heroes archetype, who are cultural heroes 2.1.2 Investigating life cycle structure of cultural Heroes through some selected folktales in Van Lang - Au Lac period In this thesis, following heroes were selected for investigating life cycle structure of cultural heroes archetype employing Raglan model: Lạc Long Quân; Tản Viên Sơn Thánh; Thánh Gióng; Thánh Mẫu Thượng Ngàn; Út Soi; Vua Bà; Chử Đồng Tử; Lang Liêu; Hồng Phủ Thiều Hoa; Ơng Đống; Lý Ông Trọng; Câu Mang; Hùng Vương; An Dương Vương; Cao Lỗ It was found that in most of the cases, fundamental features of Raglan model are presents However, we found that, in very shape difference compared with the heroes archetype in the folktale of orther nations wherein family tree of these heroes are well described, Van Lang – Au Lac period focus in describing about the contributions, achievement and glorious feat of arms of the heroes rather than their origine This 12 typical characteristic is obivious in the folktale created in the Au Lac period wherein points to 10 in Raglan model, used to describe the mystic appearance and/ or mystic family tree of the heroes as usually found in the Western the folktale, are no longer evident We note that these points are somehow visible in the folktale created in the Van Lang period, the prior of Au Lac period in the history of Viet nation Absence of these features provides more human characters to heroes, bringing these heroes closer to the actual life of the population This is a clear indication that achievement and feat of arms of the heroes motifs in the Van Lang - Au Lac period is not just those of an individual but those of the whole community, population We aim to identify similarities as well as special characteristics of these archetype compared with those decribed for heroes archetype in the folktale of other cultures Our objective is to identify how living conditions, special natural and historical conditions of Van Lang - Au Lac period influence on the structure and characters of cultural archetype in the folktale 2.2 Discussion on some typical motifs of life cycle of heroes in Van Lang - Au Lac period 2.2.1 Heroes motifs relevant to mystic origine of appearance and childhood, characteristics in life cycle of cultural hero (points 1-9 in Raglan model) 2.2.1.1 Mystic orgine of heroes Mystic orgine of heroes with typical motifs: A510 Origin of the culture hero (demigod) A510.1 Culture hero as god A510.2 Culture hero reborn A511 Birth and rearing of culture hero (demigod) A511.1.4 Magic origin of culture hero A511.1.4.1 Origin of culture hero from bursting stone A511.1.5 Culture hero son of mortal (half-mortal) father A511.1.8 Culture hero son of animal A511.1.9 Culture hero born from egg In this motif, Heroes are described with mystic orgine of apprerance However, beside stories wherein heroes are descendants of an elegant family as usually found in mythology, some stories wherein heroes are given birth by a Mother of the popular class were also created 2.2.1.2 Childhood of cultural heroes In this stage, these motifs appear: A511 Birth and rearing of culture hero (demigod); A527.1 Culture hero precocious A511.2 Care of culture 13 her; A511.3 Education of culture hero; A511.4 Growth of culture hero; A511.4.1 Miraculous growth of culture hero We note a strange phenomenon that there is an absence (or very limited description) of the childhood in the life cycle of heroes, either in Van Lang - Au Lac period or in the folktale of orther nations over the world Raglan proposed that stories of hereos are actually those about the evolution of life cycle of these heroes Each evolution steps is marked by a rite In the Van Lang - Au Lac period, childhood of heroes is absent or less described However, we know about the majorty rite of the Viet population and that can be considered as the sign marking the end of childhood of individuals (so a heroes) and the commencement of a glorious life of the heroes The absence of childhood is also likely consistent with the fact that Viet population focus on the actions of the heroes when the challenges are presents to them but not on the heroes themselves Thus, their mystic origine of appearance, their activities in the childhood are not really essential 2.2.2 Heroes motifs relevant to the achievements of the Heroes in the life cycle of cultural hero 2.2.2.1 The achievements of Heroes are ancestors, creators of the population and of the nation The folktale described presence of heroes who are ancestors, creators of the early populations These motifs appear: A515 Pair of culture heroes;A530.1 Culture hero completes work of creator; A538 Culture hero builds raths Lac Long Quan, Au Co, Hung Kings, etc are such Heroes created in the Van Lang – Au Lac the folktale They were believed to be the creators creating the very first values of culture and initiators of the civilization of Viet populations 2.2.2.2 The achievements of heroes are gods conquering the nature These motifs appear: A531 Culture hero (demigod) overcomes monsters; A531.1.1 Culture hero banishes demons; A531.2 Culture hero banishes snakes; A531.4 Culture hero conquers sea monster A1415 Theft of fire Mankind is without fire A culture hero steals it from the owner These heroes are created with glorious achievement in conquering the nature type: flood fighting, conquering novel virgin soils (in the mountains, near to the rivers, etc), fighting against wide animals etc 14 2.2.2.3 The achievements of heroes are pioneers of the organization of the society, creators of popular beliefs These motifs appear: A541 Culture hero teaches arts and crafts; A541.1 Culture hero invents and teaches the Irish language; A545 Culture hero establishes customs; A530 Culture hero establishes law and order; A546 Culture hero establishes social system… These heroes were those who initiated or significantly contributed to the civilization of the population These stories are just highlited an important role of the cultural heroes: building up a succees community and in larger scale, a sucees nation 2.2.2.4 The achievements of heroes are gods protecting the agricultural population These motifs appear: Motif A541.2 Culture hero as god of agriculture These heroes are created with powers to protect the agricultural population and their daily activities, to teach new profession and skills to the population, type rice cultivation, domesticating wide animals etc 2.2.2.5 The achievements of heroes who protect the living territory of the community These motifs appear: Motif A536.1 Culture hero (saint) defends Ireland against foreign invasions These heroes are those who protect the living territory of the community or nation or who lead the community to victory in the fighting againt foreigner attacks Indeed, these Heroes are representative for the martial spirit of the population 2.2.3 Heroes motifs relevant to the death and transforming of heroes (points 18-22 in Raglan model) These motifs appear: A565 Dying culture hero The culture hero teaches people how to die by dying himself; A566 Culture hero returns to upper world; A566.1 Return of mortal reincarnation of celestial being to the country of the gods after his mission has been accomplished on earth; A566.2 Culture hero ascends to heaven guided by blind ancestress; A570 Culture hero still lives; A571 Culture hero asleep in mountain; A571.1 Culture hero still alive in hollow hill; A572 Culture hero still keeps watch over earth; A572.1 Culture hero still resides in the zenith; A580 Culture hero (divinity) expected return Divinity or hero is expected to return at the proper time and rescue his people from their misfortunes; A581 15 Culture hero (divinity) returns; A581.1 Culture hero returns and assists mortals; A581.3 Culture hero returns to prove power of saint… We note that in the folktale about Van Lang – Au Lac period, the death was usualy not described as an event at the given moment when the heroes died The death of heroes was mentioned in the acts of the subsequent generation via population beliefs, church of these heroes Also because of this reason, in the folktale about Van Lang – Au Lac period usualy ended by describing the becoming genies of these heroes These genies continue to protect population, therefore the heroes are motifs continuing to be in the mind of the population from generation to generation CHAPTER CULTURAL HEROES OF THE VAN LANG - AU LAC PERIOD IN BELIEFS, FESTIVALS, CUSTOMS AND HABITS 3.1 In Folk Religion (Popular Religion) 3.1.1 There is an evident link between popular religion and the folktale about cultural heroes in Van Lang - Au Lac period In Vietnamese popular religion, folk literatures wherein cultural hero archetype is created are usually putted/ written in plain verses These popular verses are most of the time played in special events of the community like festivals or religious events Polupar verse is indeed an effective mean to handle Vietnamese folk literature from generation to generation It can be considered to be the religious home for heroes motifs and therefore the folk literature At the same time, the folk literature provides spirit and artitics values for the plain verses 3.1.2 Tracking vestiges of cultural heroes motifs within some selected popular beliefs 3.1.2.1 Agriculture-based popular beliefs and vestiges of the gods protecting the world of agriculture - Tranditional beliefs Tranditional beliefs in Vietnam are presented in two forms: church genital of both men and women and behavioral church mate Thus, traditional beliefs appreciate the creation and growth of nature and of peoples in the Nature At the historical creating field of the Nation (dat To), Oai Vuong and Dinh Thien Tich are believed being heroes with 16 magical life-giving power Actually, the creation of these heroes motifs is to address to the Gods community`s wishes of an enriched nature as well as to remind members of the community about their responsibilities and their roles for giving new lies, thus for the evolution of the community - Natural cult beliefs Church of the Sun God Several vestiges have been found to evidence the Church of the Sun God in the Vietnamese beliefs Beside the Sun, Vietnamese peoples church also some birds which are believed to characterize for Sky, Haven (or just somehow above living world) This church has a direct relationship to the “Cau tanh” ceremony Indeed, Au Co is a cultural heroes motif in the folk literature who was created with original characters of the Fairy family (dòng Tiên), thus with the characters of the Sun and birds as in the Vietnamese immagination Church of Water: Most of the communities located near to the rivers and on the coast church the Water God Together with this church are religious and community activities related to the life on Water such as “Ruoc nuoc” festival, “Đua thuyền”, “Bơi chải” competition Church of Mountain: Gods represent the mountains are widely churched at different regions, communities in Vietnam In the Vietnamese beliefs, Gods representing mountains display giantlike characters, which are borrowed from the motifs of Giants in the Mythology Church of Rice Church of Rice started in the Vietnamese beliefs likely at the same time with the starting of rice cultivation It represents strong belief of agricultural population in the “Rice Soul” It was also a great respect of the population in regard of the community leaders who made great contribution in identifying wright rice plants and teaching the rice cultivation method 3.1.2.2 Totemism, Ancestors church: Heroes motifs are created from Ancestors and society creators - Totemism Indeed, people are usualy believed that their community has a secret and special link to a specimen, sometime specimen is just product of 17 people imagination Even though, the belived specimen is considered to be Totem of their community, a kind of natural and creating power protecting their community Viet people consider themselves as descendants of “Dragon Father and Fairy Mother” The Dragon – Fairy mating represents definition of old Viet people about their origine: from two large communities one representing Sun-Fairy-Mountain-Birds and the orther representing Water-Dragon-River The most representative produts of SunFairy-Mountain-Birds community are Ngoc Lu drum, stories of TanVien mountain gods, Ancesting Birds the folktale On the other hand, water festival, legend about dragon, tortules are characteristic cultural products of the Water-Dragon-River community - Ancestors church Viet people practice Ancestors church in the largest meaning: church of ancestors who were creators of the Viet community and Viet`s nation At the largest border, thus Viet national community, Viet people church “vua Hung” At the same time, at smaller scale than national scale, Viet people trust and church creators of protectors of their own communities: village, family etc Actually, church of “Thanh hoang” (creator or protector of the village) or “ong khai canh” (the creator of the village) were developed on that concept of local beliefs Interestinglly, “Thanh hoang” can be an actual people who contribute to create, develop and/ or teach a profession to the village/ community 3.1.2.3 Church of heroes of the Nation and Vestiges of immortal heroes Church of heroes of the Nation is a special belief practice of Viet people The heroes of the nation are usualy actual leaders of the community, of the nation who guide the people in the extrem circumtances, sometime being decisive to the existence of the community/ nation such as: facing to the natural disasters, fighting with forgeinal attack/ occupation etc Thus, Viet people church Heroes of the community/ nation as a mean to appreciate the best valeurs, the most representative valeurs of their community and the Nation By practicing church of heroes, Viet people also want to handle the best values and send their best wishes to their next generation 18 3.2 Cutural heroes of Van Lang – Au Lac period in festivals 3.2.1 Overview Tranditional festivals are actually great museum for archieving cultural values of the community and of the Nation Inded, understanding about cultural Heroes motifs of folk literature of Van Lang - Au Lac Period still can be gained at the modern time via analyzing tranditional festivals at some acient fields of the Van Lang - Au Lac state 3.2.2 Vestiges of Heroes Motifs in some selected festivals 3.2.2.1 Va temple Festival and Son Tinh Va temple churches Saint Tan Vien, who is the saint of BaVi Mountain and is believed to be the protector of the Hong river delta In the Va festival, activities showing great contributions of the Saint Tan Vien to the community and the Nation: protecting agricultural production and farmers, protecting fishing profession and fishmen, culture creating, teaching Viet people to customize tools etc, are played 3.2.2.2 Gióng temple festival and Saint Giong Giong temple festival (also called Giong Soc Son festival or Giong Phu Dong festival) is a belief practise of the community to church and thanks Saint Giong, an immortal heroes of the nation In the festival, Saint Giong is described through playing plain verses and folk literatures as a hero with power of making raining, controlling lightling, thunders etc The festival activities also show Saint Giong contribution to guide the nation to the victory in the fighting again An kingdom (Chinese) attack 3.2.2.3 Chử Xá festival and Chử Đồng Tử Population at Chu Xa village consider Tet (lunar new year festival) festival as the end of the agriculture cultivation year After the Tet, they practice Chu Xa village festival to thanks the acsentor of their community: Sait Chu Dong Tu Saint Chu Dong Tu, belonging to Taoism in Vietnam, was described to be the founder of the Chu Xa village, creator of the profession (rice cultivation) being continued by the population in the village In the festival, Saint Chu Dong Tu is clearly described as a Water God It can be noted that, most of festivals were created as the belief platform where agricultural population address their wishes and thanks natural hyper powers: Sun, Water, orther climate phenomenon type thunders, lighting etc who offer them conditions required for a good 19 cultivation season/ year With evolution time, heroes of the community and/ or of the Nation were created and imagined to represent for the natural hyper powers At our time, we can notice festivals are more as the platform for playing folk literatures describing the great contribution to the community or to the Nation of the heroes rather than as the platform for praying to natural hyper powers It will likely continue to evoluate by that way in the future as now people understand relatively well the natural phenomenon and therefore there is little room remained for natural hyper powers In the shape contrast, globalization raises question of nationalism In that context, heroes of the nation will certainly have important role to play in the natural culture and in the belief of people 3.3 Cultural heroes in population habits 3.3.1 Viet population habits: an overview Habits of Viet population keep evoluted together with the movement of the society With evolution time, some habits have been adjusted, changed, or even disparated if they are no longer suitable to the cultural evolution and ecomomical conditions at a given time In the shape contrast, some habits keeps continued, being adapted to the changes and developed to be common rules or even laws those are accepted and respected by the community These habits, usually representing great positive facets of the community, have sustaible values and will have long life within the community 3.3.2 Heroes motifs in some selected polupar habits 3.3.2.1 Habits of agricultural population and their Heroes protecting At the commencement of each cultivation year, argricultural population practices “xuong dong” festival in memory of Hung Kings, considered to be the pioneers of the Nation and of the agricultural cultivation culture In the “Xuong dong” festival, daily activities of farmers and of the agricultural cultivation life are played via folk literatures, folk arts etc The Viet population not only respects the pioneers of the agricultural cultivation culture, but alos agricultural products which feed them daily Thus, in the Tet festival, Viet population made “banh chung”, “banh day” from rice, bean, and porc meet These special cakes, in the past only made in the Tet and other special festivals or events of the Viet family or community, are used to church ancestors and to share to members of family, community 20 “Cuop bong” and “cuop ken” are other festival activities, practiced at X, Y, with meaning to memory Dinh Thien Tich and Oai Vuong, the Heroes pioneering culture and knowledge for the agricultural population These activies played in the spring festival also express wishing of wealthiness and happiness of the agricultural population 3.3.2.2 Habits related to life cycle of Heroes being Ancestors or Creators of the community - Habits marking the majority Under Hung Vuong kingdom, habits to make the majority of young men (le dinh) are quit several and somehow challenging Competitions to express potentials of individuals are organized in the community Success of these competitions makes the majority of individuals As a signature for this important event in the life of each invidual (man), tattoo is made either with helps or by individual himself Indeed, images of Father Lac Long Quan and Mother AuCo, ancestors of the Viet people and of the Nation, are appreared during these important habits marking the majorty of each man, meaning each son of the nation - Habits of tranditional marriage ceremony In the Van Lang - Au Lac period, new features were introduced into the organization of family, the building block of Viet community and Viet Nation Thus, new habits are created during the marriage ceremory In the Viet population, the marriage is not just the contract between two individuals but it is commencement of a strong relationship between two families, two communities Marriages between Lac Long Quan and Au Co, Son Tinh and Mi Nuong, Chu Dong Tu and Tien Dung are indeed initiated in this sense: creating strong relationship between two families, two communities Futhermore, Viet population considers marriage is the unique mean to giving birth the next generation, to develop the communities As consequence, they consider marriage as a community event rather than just limited in the context of two individuals Symphonic habits such as “gia coi don dau”, “trai chieu”, expressing actual realistic wishes (phon thuc) of the agricultural population, are actually practiced during the tranditional Viet marriage ceremory These habits are the actual acts remining the groom and the bride about their important duties to the family and the 21 community: giving birth of babies These habits are also the best wishes of the family and the community to the new couple - Habits in the burial rites Viet people considered that actual life is just a step of people life cycle Once a people dies he/ she prepares to get into a new life, perhaps in a new form of life or in a new place somewhere Indeed, Viet people believed that Heroes of the community or of the Nation will be with them, protect them after they died Church of Heroes are actualy in this sense since Viet peoples trusts Heroes after they died as the Saints And because of this philoshophy, Viet people practiced several important habits during the burital rites 3.3.2.3 Habits relevant to the community life and heroes being creators of the community “Hai loc dau xuan”, with meaning of gathering of shoot in the first day of the year, initiated by Hung Kings is an act that Viet people practiced wishing the best wishes to the family, community and also to the Nation “Ket cha” is a habit, initiated by Saint Son Tinh, to create relationship between a communities living on/ near the river/ the coast with a community living in the mountain Indeed, this habit represents the mindset and philosophy of Viet people: living together and living with the Nature Living together, the strong supports from communities are proved to be the keys for Viet population against attack from northen populations “An trau” (betel chewing) is another valuable tranditional habit of the Viet agricultural cultivation population This habit is belived to be initiated in the Hung kingdom In this act, areca-nut and betel leaf, natural products being available to Viet population, with different smell, tastes are mixed up and chewed which issued a beautiful red product at the end This habit clearly shows up the open mind of Viet peoples: Ready to accept the differencies to build up a better community As “an trau”, “hat xoan” (Xoan folklore singing) is still conserved up to date “Hat xoan” takes part of folk art where stories about Hung kings and other heroes of the nation are played The historical values of “hat xoan” are not only inside the lyris but also in the choregraphy of singers wherein daily activities of argriculture population are symbolized and played 22 CONCLUSION Van Lang - Au Lac period was a time of refulgent revolution of Viet civilization In this period, history was covered by mystic features of the mythology, by the midle-period culture However, remove of these mystic coverages, history appears with simple and primitive nature Through archaeological findings and history archives, it can be convinced that Hung Vuong and An Duong Vuong dynasties are the bases and the actual initiation of independent feudal states followed in the Viet history In the Van Lang - Au Lac period, folk arts were developed at very high levels Several the folktales describing about heroes of this period were created, enriched and handled from generation to generation Some of these the folktale are conserved till to date Van Lang - Au Lac period, representing the early civilization of Viet population when enormous challenges, was being confronted, was a great setting for the creation of Heroes The great setting even made that some characters of latter times were symbolized and introduced into the same group with heroes, genies of the Van Lang - Au Lac period Among different groups of the folktale, that describing about cultural heroes somehow displays an universal value, meaning less communitarism oand local dependence Indeed, universal model or structure such as the life cycle of heroes model can be employed to describe heroes motifs in the folktale of different nations In the the folktale, mystic origine of appearance of the heroes, hyper powers of creation, of conquering the nature, the relationship between heroes, population and the nature etc are all included In this context, in this thesis, we examined cultural heroes in the folktale about Van Lang – Au Lac period as an archetype, being central cultural motifs Because of the continuity of the antique motifs during the culture evolution without any freezing periode, we are convinced that by studying these motifs we could be able to understand the evolution of the popular thoughts from mystic to religious beliefs, from the church of nature to the church of people (heroes) with mediorced and symbolized tendencies Cultural heroes are typical motifs that can be found universally in the folktale of different nations These motifs represent understanding of the 23 population about the nature, life, history etc as well as represent aims of the population in conducting genious actions such as conquering virgin soils, confronting the nature etc Our analysis and discussion in this thesis were made based on the recent theories successfully employed for investigating the cultural heroes in mythology, legend of different nations Especially, we took the life cycle model proposed by Otto Rank, Lord Raglan as a key reference By applying these models, we identified the universal as well as special characteristics of heroes motifs in Van Lang - Au Lac period legend in comparison with those described in the folktale of other nations From this finding, we discuss these typical characteristics in function of given civilization, cultural space, history of nation etc We proposed new discussions, new angles to discuss about cultural heroes who seem to be very well known and discussed in the previous studies contributed by other researchers In the current globalization, special cultural characteristics of different nations seem to be less and less evident In this context, identification of the early cultural characteristics in order to give back to the population the original beliefs and life styles is being focused in several countries, especially in developed and developing countries Studying the cultural heroes motifs in the folktale is therefore valuable Indeed, the cultural heroes motifs are not limited within the context of the legend where these heroes are created These heroes are present in different facets of the folk culture at our modern time We studied these motifs also with the aims to point out that these Heroes motifs were actually not just death copies of the early days of the nation but they were being evolved with the evolution of the society This thesis also showed that some original values of the heroes motifs are no longer evident in our modern days Even, some original values have been changed in the bad way making these heroes motifs somehow far from the understanding of the major part of the population As clear demonstration, some beliefs or festivals have been drastically changed and become too strange to to the tranditional culture So, it is urged to identify the real original values, practices, beliefs and festival activities relevant to the Heroes motifs in the early legend 24 In this thesis, we focused not only to identify the original values of the early days but also the evolution and the values added during after the long evolution period We propsed that the capabilities of opending and accepting new cultural values leading to the unification of different cultures, beliefs in cultural heroes motifs are actually the key force of Viet population This was also the main reason for the continuos present and evolution of the heroes motifs in the long history of Viet population 25 LIST OF PROJECT OF AUTHOR ANNOUNCED RELATING TO THESIS Dang Thi Lan Anh (2013), New discoveries about Son Tinh - A Culture hero in the legend during the period of Van Lang – Au Lac, Journal of Science N0 25/2013, Hanoi Pedagogical University N02, p.3 – p.10 Dang Thi Lan Anh (2013), Ancestors - Creators - Cultural Heroes, Lac Long Quan and Au Co, Journal of Science N0 27/2013, Hanoi Pedagogical University N02, p.3 – p.9 Dang Thi Lan Anh (2013), An Duong Vuong - A Culture hero in the legend during the period of Van Lang – Au Lac, Folklore Light Source, N0 (47), p.32 – p.37 Dang Thi Lan Anh (2014), Discoveries about some culture heroes in the legend during the period of Van Lang – Au Lac, Journal of Science and Education N0 02(30)/2014, Hue University’s College of Education, p.5 – p.13 Dang Thi Lan Anh (2015), Application of interdisciplinary research method in studying cultural heroes in legends during Van Lang – Au Lac period, Journal of Science and Technology, The University of Da Nang N0 10 (95), p.31 – p 35