Nhân vật trong truyện kỳ ảo trung đại việt nam và hàn quốc dưới góc nhìn so sánh tt tiếng anh

VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES KIM KIHYUN CHARACTERS IN THE MEDIEVAL FANTASY STORIES OF VIETNAM AND SOUTH KOREA WITH A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE INFORMATION OF DOCTORAL THESIS OF LITERATURE STUDIES HA NOI - 2019 The Study is completed at: Faculty of Literature, Institute of Social Sciences, under Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences Full name of instructors: 1) Assoc., Prof., Ph.D Le Van Tan 2) Assoc., Prof., Ph.D Vu Thanh Examiner 1: Prof., Ph.D Tran Dinh Su Examiner 2: Assoc., Prof., Ph.D Truong Dang Dung Examiner 3: Assoc., Prof., Ph.D Hoang Minh Luong The Thesis shall be defended against the Academic Doctoral Defense Committee at the Academy of Social Sciences, No 477 Nguyen Trai, Thanh Xuan, Hanoi At ……… hour ……… minute, …… …… , … 2019 The thesis can be found at the libraries of: - Academy of Social Sciences, - National Library of Vietnam, Hanoi INTRODUCTION The urgency of the subject 1.1 It can be affirmed that the formation and development as well as the regression of any literature study in the world alway have a close connection with its genres Thinking about the genre has long become a familiar approach of creators as well as researchers, theorists and literary critics The history of medieval literature of Vietnam and Korea (the Korean concept used by us here covers all of the old Korean peninsula, when there is no separation between two regions as today) is not outside of that rule For that reason, our topic of Vietnam Literature Thesis: “Characters in the medieval fantasy stories of Vietnam and South Korea with a comparative perspectiv ” (베트남 및 한국의 중세시대의 신비로운 문학 작품의 인물들) is an approach of medieval literature, which can explain one of its core issues, the study of characters 1.2 In the picture of medieval literature of Vietnam and Korea, fantasy stories play an important role with an abudant of complexities but also consist of many ideological contents as well as unique values and artistic experiences In the history of medieval literature of both countries, the genre of fantasy stories emerged very early in various historical, divine and genealogical records, and very quickly, it developed into an important character as a genre of medieval narrative At the same time, looking at the genre of fantasy stories, we can see the presence of the authors and their excellent works in both the period and the history of Vietnamese - Korean literature However, until today, there are many things to continue in various studies, researchs in the nominal definition, from the concept of genre to other related issues, especially those with comparative factors such as our research topic to find similarities and differences in the thinking of genre and about the character building of legendary figures in both countries This is also an urgent reason that makes us determined to pursue this topic 1.3 In terms of origin, the genre of fantasy stories in the medieval literature of Vietnam and Korea have a same foreign origin (China), but when being introduced into from many different sources, the authors of both countries have studied this genre in a flexible and creative approach, especially in a way that found a close and intimate connection with historical reality and many aspects of ethnic human beauty There will be many similarities in the way Vietnamese and Korean authors need to use to approach this genre and the art of character buiding, however the national colors, the way of thinking, the beauty of the country and people in both countries, through the genre, reflection and character buidling, also show many interesting differences This is still an unanswered question in many studies of fantasy stories, especially those with comparative factors by presenting the topic of character research in fantasy stories of Vietnam and Korea, we wish to have more clear and comprehensive assessments and judgments to the differences in the contributions of medieval literature authors of both countries in the development of this genre 1.4 Considering the thinking method of medieval art in general and the creating method of fantasy stories in particular, we can see that character building is one of the most important issues While character is the core issue, there are also the perspectives and artistic conceptions of people, ethnicity and the capacities of traditional and cultural elements in Vietnam and Korea Therefore, by studying the mediaval characters in the fantasy stories of Vietnam and Korea, our study shall use many character approachs to survey, evaluate, and thoroughly interpret the above issues 1.5 Being a Korean myself, I really love the people and country of Vietnam By presenting this research topic, I hope to learn more about the literature of Vietnam in general and the history of mediaval literature of Vietnam, especially the genre of mediaval fantasy stories in particular (from the aspect of character) in comparison with the same genre in Korea Our study, in a way, is a message, a bridge for the sustainable friendship between the two countries in history as well as in the era of integration and globalization nowadays Research objective and task 2.1 Research objective By presenting this topic, we aim to clarify some theoretical issues of characters in the mediaval fantasy series of Vietnam and Korea, thereby creating surveys, statistics, and classification of the characteristics of some types of characters in the genre of medialval fantasy; the relationship between these character and their expression of traditional and cultural elements of Vietnam and Korea 2.2 Research tasks Our thesis sets out the following research tasks: (1) Introduce an overview of the researchs on the genre of fantasy stories in general as well as the characters in this genre in particular in the medialval literature of Vietnam and Korea; (2) Conduct survey, statistics, classification and description of some types of characters in the mediaval fantasy stories of Vietnam and Korea; (3) Analyze and interpret the traditional and cultural aspects of Vietnam and Korea from the perspective of the types of characters in mediaval fantasy stories Reseach objects and scope of the study 3.1 Research object The research object of this thesis is the character in the mediaval fantasy stories of Vietnam and Korea under a comparative perspective 3.2 Scope of the study Within the framework of a doctoral thesis according to regulations, based on the theory of fantasy stories in medieval literature of Vietnamese and Korean, the scope of our study shall be as follows: * Mediaval fantasy stories of Vietnam in the following story series: (1) Collection of Outstanding Figures of the Zen Garden (no name), consists of 21 fantasy stories (abbreviation: Thiền uyển tập anh ngữ lục); (2) Viet Realm (Ly Te Xuyen), consists of 40 fantasy stories (abbreviation:Việt điện u linh); (3) Selection of Strange Tales in Linh Nam (Vu Quynh Kiyu Phu), consists of 36 fantasy stories (Abbreviation: Thiền uyển tập anh ngữ lục); (4) Thanh Tong's Posthumous Manuscript (by Le Thanh Tong according to legend), consists of 15 fantasy stories (abrreviation: Thánh Tông di thảo); (5) Collection of Strange Tales (Nguyen Du), consists of 20 fantasy stories (abrreviation: Truyền kỳ mạn lục); (6) Literary Works of Vu Trinh (Vu Trinh), consists of 38 fantasy stories (abrreviation: Lan Trì kiến văn lục); (7) New Genealogy of Legends (Doan Thi Diem), consists of 04 fantasy stories (abrreviation: Truyen ky tan pha); (8) Random Record of Great Changes (Pham Dinh Ho and Nguyen An), consists of 40 fantasy stories (abrreviation: Tang thương ngẫu lục); (9) Strange Record of Rumors (no name), consists of 15 fantasy stories Total: 230 fantasy stories * Mediaval fantasy stories of Korean in the following story series: (1) Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms (Il-yeon), consists of 86 fantasy stories; (2) Musical Canon of Seong Hyeon (Seong Hyeon), consists of 12 fantasy stories ; (3) Collection of Strange Tales (no name), consists of 27 fantasy stories; (4) Tales of Mount Geumo (Kim Si-seup) consists of 05 fantasy stories (abrreviation: Kim Ngao tan thoai); (5) Strange Tales from a Korean Studio (Than Quang Han), consists of 04 fantasy stories; (6) Collection of Three Theories – China History (no name) consists of 09 fantasy stories Total: 143 fantasy stories In fact, in the picture of genre of fantasy stories, there are also many other stories in Vietnam such as Veritable Records of Three Sages (no name), Dream memoir of Southern Man (Ho Nguyen Trung), Quick Records in Spare Times (Vu Phuong De), Random Records in the Rain (Pham Dinh Ho), Random Tales in the Mountain (collected by Dan Son), Poetry Stories of Hat Dong (Nguyen Thuong Hien), Mini Collection of Legends (Pham Dinh Duc), etc, however, due to the capacity and framework of this thesis, we not include these works as reseach subjects Methodology and research methods To complete this study, we have used the following main research methods: (1) Literary learning method and literary approach by genre; (2) Approach to literature from a cultural perspective; (3) Method of comparative literature In addition, in the process of implementing the research topic, we also use a combination of other operations such as: Method of analyzing literary works Statistical – classification method, structural – system method, etc New contribution to the science of the thesis 5.1 Proposing the concept of medieval fantasy stories of Vietnam and Korea with the criteria to identify works in the picture of medieval literature of the two countries 5.2 Survey, catalog statistics 373 fantasy stories of the middle (Vietnam: 230 stories; Korea: 143 stories) from the stories of Vietnam and South Korea, including 03 virtual stories of Korea have not been translated into Vietnamese and introduced in Vietnam (the total number of stories translated by us is 40 stories, these stories are translated by us temporarily from the Korean version) 5.3 The thesis is the first scientific work to systematically set and research the characters in the fantasy story of the medieval Vietnam and Korea under a comparative perspective Thereby, the issues of the concept of genre, basic character types, character problems and the expression of traditional cultural elements of two countries in the fantasy story of Vietnam and South Korea have been systematic interpretation, comprehensive and satisfactory The theoretical and practical significance of the thesis - Meaning of reasoning: Interpretation in a relatively satisfactory way of the fantasy series of medieval as well as having quite a comprehensive overview of the issue of character building in this genre, especially the relationship between work expressing the character of the fantasy story mediocre with reflecting the traditional cultural dimensions of the two countries, more or less there is the method of literary thinking of typical authors in medieval Vietnamese literature and Korea - Practical significance: From the concept of fantasy stories, the research topic of the thesis has relatively thorough surveys, statistics, analysis and explanations of character issues, the expression of character type, problem of character expression with the expression of traditional cultural elements to the art methods of building characters in fantasy stories of Vietnam and Korea Structure of the thesis In addition to the Introduction, Conclusion, List of the author's research works related to the thesis topic, References, Appendix, the main content of the thesis is implemented on the following chapters: - Chapter 1: Overview of research topic (18 pages, page to page 26); - Chapter 2: A number of related theoretical issues and foundations of the fantasy genre of medieval Vietnam and Korea (33 pages, from pages 27 to 59); - Chapter 3: Characteristics of some types of characters in the fantasy period of Vietnam and South Korea (47 pages, from page 60 to page 106); - Chapter 4: The expression of cultural dimensions through the image of characters in the fantasy story of medieval Vietnam and South Korea (40 pages, from page 107 to page 146) Chapter OVERVIEW OF RESEARCH SITUATION In this section, we conceptualize the research of the medieval fantasy genre of Vietnam and Korea on two basic contents, which are researches on genre in general and in-depth research on human issues things in particular 1.1 The researches of the fantasy genre of medieval Vietnam and Korea 1.1.1 Studies of fantasy stories of medieval Vietnam The medieval fantasy stories of Vietnam is a unique genre, has a history of formation, movement and development throughout the length of the history of national literature Therefore, right from the beginning, it has attracted a certain interest of contemporary scholars Evidence is the title title, canvas, comment of the grape houses immediately and after the work appears Of course, the visualization of fantasy stories as an independent literary genre has not been adequately addressed as its contribution to the national literary history Some scholars such as Vu Quynh, Kieu Phu, Ha Thien Han, Ngo Thi Hoang, Nguyen Hanh, Tin Nhu Thi, Tran Danh Luu, Le Quy Don, Phan Huy Chu, Nguyen Thuong Hien still keep their names forever along with stories like Linh Nam, Monk, The Apostle, the Legend of the Continent, Lan Literary Antithesis, Nam Ong Luc, The Meritorious Balance The titles of titles, canvases, introduction of the Confucianists In fact, these are just qualities, contemplative contemplations of contemporaries or life after seeing some interesting works or human and social meanings that they are interested in When the literature research department began to form with a professional nature, the researchers of folk literature and medieval literature had a deeper interest and there were also researches and assessments of basic evaluation more about some episodes of typical fantasy stories such as Thanh Tong draft, Legend of the continent, Lan Literary Knowledge, The New Year's tradition Most works such as Vietnamese literature use weak [77], Draft history of Vietnamese literature [253], [254], [255], Vietnamese Literature of the Xth century - the first half of the eighteenth century [123], Vietnamese literature of the Middle Kingdom [167], [169], General episodes of Chinese characters (4 episodes) [187], Vietnamese periodical stories [26], Vietnamese prose medieval prose [162], Vietnamese medieval literature curriculum [279], [280] , Vietnamese medieval literature, research works [343], research and discuss some authors of medieval literature works in Vietnam [248], [250] until the articles, essays, theses, research topics on stories / prose narrative / narrative stories, some issues of the genre of fantasy stories in terms of content and art have been mentioned, although the level of depth is different In the scope of examining the characteristics of the content and art of a work and a periodical volume, we can mention articles such as: "The complex structure of the narrative period in the Legend of the Continent "By Nguyen Kim Chau [18]," Understanding the tendency to compose in Nguyen Luu's continental transmission "[106] and" Guessing Nguyen Dat's identity and the time of composing the Green Legend "[109] by Nguyen Pham Hung, "Various issues related to the Sixth Century" of Kawamoto Kurive [119], "The story of Nam Xuong daughter (Literature 9, Episode 1)" by Nguyen Dang Na [165], "Understanding the States of the United States of Grace" [171] and "The Shadow and Gaps in Literature" [176] by Nguyen Nam, "Transmitting the continent and the expression of thought of Nguyen Du "[59] and" Experiencing the reclusive lifestyle of Nguyen Du through The Tale of the Tale of the First Fairy "[260] by Le Van Tan," Doan Thi Diem and Truyen Ky Tan Pha" by Bui Thi Thien Thai [262] 1.1.2 Studies on the Korean medieval fantasy stories in comparative correlation to Vietnamese fantasy stories Quite similar in many aspects with the genre of medieval fantasy stories in Vietnam, Korean medieval story genre also attracts the special attention of researchers of ancient literary in both countries Firstly, it is necessary to mention the position of the genre In Korean medieval history and literature books, teaching materials as well as Korean literature collection and synthesis books, the genre of fantasy stories is mentioned In Korean literary history, the authors Komisook, Jungmin and Jung Byung Sui appreciate the stories such as Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms by Nhat Nhien, Historical record of the Three Kingdoms by Kim Phu Thuc (the section of Biography) [134, 106] After the sudden appearance of Kim Ngao tan thoai, the Korean fantasy story genre continues developing with many other prominent names such as Than Quang Han with Xí Trai ký dị, Quyền Tất with Chu Sinh truyệnn and Vi Kính thiên truyện, Triệu Vi Hàn with Thôi Trắc truyện and some short stories as well as some other long single stories such as Chronicle of love cavern or Chronicle of paradise cavern, etc However, in a genre of short story such as Kim Ngao tan thoai, most researchers believe that Kim Si -Seup's story collection is the highest peak that no other novelist after his times can achieve In Vietnam, there are articles and research works on Korean classical literature which present relatively plentifully the aspects of fantasy story genre The pure researches on Korean classical literature result from the demand to learn, study and teach Korean language and culture in Vietnam Here are a series of valuable books edited by Phan Thi Thu Hien and her team (Nguyen Thi Hien, Doan Le Giang, Tran Thi Bich Phuong, Vu Thi Thanh Tam, Dao Thi My Khanh, Nguyen Thi Bich Hai, etc): 1) "Collection of Korean classical literature" [95], 2) "Development and identity of Korean classical literature" [93], 3) "Walking in the land of Korean literature" ”[94], 4) “Female ghost’s love story in the East Asian mythical stories (China - Korea - Vietnam - Japan)” [92], 5) “Korean literature teaching material” [91], etc As mentioned above, the genre of novel in general and novel series in particular developed relatively strongly in Korea in the medieval period and its contribution to the development of classical Korean literature was quite significant Therefore, according to the instructions of Toan Hue Khanh, some typical research projects should be mentioned such as 1) Study on Korean classical novels by Ngô Linh Tích (Van Trieu Publishing House, 1986), 2) Study on Korean classical novels by Lý Tương Trạch (Xe-mun Publishung House), 3) Study on love novel composition by Trịnh Tông Đại (Van hoa khai sang Publishing House, 1990), 4) Formation of Korean novels by Chu Chung Diễn (Tập văn đường xuất bản, 1987), etc In general, thanks to these research works, some issues on the influence origins, cultural-social-historical roots, some problems on ideological content and the art of novel series has been, though only initially, discussed From a research perspective of comparing the common issues of Korean fantasy stories/story series to that of Vietnam (through a specific story), the following articles should be mentioned: "The initial comparison of Thính văn dị lục of Vietnam and Sam Seol Gi (Thù dị truyện - KimKi Hyun) of Korea” by Nguyen Thi Ngan [181], "Similarity in historical development of Vietnamese-Korean medieval literature" [234], "Comparion of Humanistic movement in Korean - Vietnamese literature in eighteenth and nineteenth centuries" [235], " Similarity in Korean and Vietnamese novels of Zen masters before fourteenth century" [233] by Nguyen Huu Son, "Extraordinary similarity in Vietnamese and Korean classical literature” by Doan Le Giang [69], “Comparion of New stories told while trimming the wick by Qu You (China) and Geumo Sinhwa by Kim Si – Seup (Korea) and Collection of Strange Tales by Nguyen Du (Vietnam) and the Cà tỳ tử by Arai Rey (Japan)" by B Riptin [12], "Some similarities and differences betweeen two works: Geumo Sinhwa (Korea) and Collection of Strange Tales (Vietnam)” by Le Dinh Chinh [33] etc Through these studies, researchers have come up with overview assessments on the genre’s characteristics and historical-literary position of fantasy stories in the two countries throughout the general development of their literature Along with them, these are surveys to come up with some distinctions of common features and unique differences between Vietnamese and Korean fantasy story genre 1.2 Studies on characters in Vietnamese and Korean medieval fantasy story genre Being the most important issue of the genre, characters and character-related issues are mentioned and mainstreamed by researches in their joint studies on literary works, story series or common issues of the genre In this subsection, for a convenient reference, we also split it into two small sub-sections: 1) Studies on characters in Vietnamese medieval fantasy stories and 2) Studies on characters in Korean medieval fantasy stories in comparative correlation with ones in in Vietnamese medieval fantasy stories 1.2.1 Studies on characters in Vietnamese medieval fantasy stories In this direction, there are studies selecting a character in a story or in one/some story episode Characters in stories and story series such as Truyện Hà Ơ Lơi, Thánh Tơng di thảo, Collection of Strange Tales, Truyen ky tan pha, LGBT, etc are most concerned Many typical studies by Le Si Thang and Ha Thuc Minh [295]; Bui Duy Tan [248]; Tran Dinh Su [241]; Tran Thi Bang Thanh, Bui Thi Thien Thai [265]; Tran Nho Thin [283], [284]; Dinh Thi Khang [120]; Nguyen Phong Nam [212], etc should be mentioned Some other researchers such as Hoang Huu Yen, Doan Le Giang, Nguyen Dang Na, Nguyen Pham Hung, La Nham Thin, Nguyen Huu Son, Doan Thi Thu Van, Dinh Phan Cam Van, Le Van Tan, Pham Van Hung, etc also provide some suggestion on characters and character-related contents and character formation organization in their overview works and studies on the genre of fantasy story/story serie as well as articles about characters in some given stories 1.2.2 Studies on characters in Korean medieval fantasy stories in comparative correlation with ones in in Vietnamese medieval fantasy stories In the perspective of studying characters in Korean fantasy stories or studies comparing them with Vietnamese ones, from the Korean side, according to the instructions of Toan Hue Khanh, there is no specialized work The Study of comparing the Korean-Chinese-Vietnamese novel series through "Geumo Sinhwa", “New stories told while trimming the wick” and " Collection of Strange Tales" performed by Toan Hue Khanh" [117] is a valuable work In Korean historical literature from ancient times to the end of XIX century [134] and Korean classical literature [348], due to the unique feature of the book, most the issues on characters in fantasy stories has not been mentioned In Korean literature teaching materials [91] and The development and identify of Korean classical literature [93], Phan Thi Thu Hien and her research team, when it comes to the issue of characters in story series, just mainly refer to the character content, the art of character formation has not been mentioned consciously The main contribution from this perspective is a series of studies on comparing characters in the two episodes of the famous story series Geumo Sinhwa and Collection of Strange Tales Some of the typical articles should be mentioned such as: 1) "Comparing the type of “people in paradise” in Vietnamese literature with The nine cloud dream (Korea)" [229]; 2) "Similarity in the Korean and Vietnamese Zen monks before the XV century" [233] by Nguyen Huu Son; 3) "The character of female in Geumo Sinhwa and Collection of Strange Tales" by Luu Thi Hong Viet [323]; 3) “Dream - Imagination and desire for love in New stories told while trimming the wick, Geumo Sinhwa, Collection of Strange Tales Tales of moonlight and rain” by Nguyen Thi Mai Lien [148]; 4) “Some similarities and differences between the two works : Geumo Sinhwa (Korea) Collection of Strange Tales (Việt Nam)” by Le Dinh Chinh [33], etc Through the above-mentioned studies, most of the researcher comes up with a common view about many similarities in the reflection and the art of character formation Vietnamese-Korean story series, although the space, time and the độ đậm nhạt ý vị in characters in each country are different Sub-conclusion of Chapter In general, it can be affirmed that the studies and articles on Vietnamese and Korean medieval fantasy stories are quite plentiful with many aspects of the genre such as the origin of the fantasy story concept; the features and characteristics of fantasy stories; the aspects of ideological content, cultural-religious elements in the reflection content of the genre; the art characteristics of the genre, particularly ones on the use of fantasy elements, the interweaving of fantasy elements with real ones, etc have been suggested from single studies to wellorganized and long-term works Concerning the central issue of the thesis - the issue of characters in the two countries’ fantasy stories, the researches are still rare, particularly the comprehensive and systematic comparative ones This is the task set out and initially resolved in this thesis The great inspiration for me, a Korean person, to choose this topic is, on most aspects of the genre, including the issue of character expression, the type relationship of the literature of the two countries Vietnam and Korea in the middle ages are "mostly similar with unconsiderable difference" as mentioned by researches Of course, the specific representation in each country and by each author, in each story episode have their own interesting characteristics Chapter SOME RELATED THEORETICAL ISSUES AND THE BASIS CONSTITUTING THE GENRE OF VIETNAMESE AND KOREAN MEDIEVAL FANTASY STORIES 2.1 Some related theoretical issues 2.1.1 General theoretical basis 2.1.1 Theory of literary character Literary characters are "specific people described in literary works Literary characters may have their own names ( ) or not ( ) Literary character is an artistic unit đầy tính ước lệ, it cannot be identified with real people in life” [79, p.202] Whether the character is a humanized one or a historical figure to be reflected, he or she bears the characteristics of the human notion of the writer Through the character, the writer expresses his reflection and thoughts about people, life and the status of his era Through characters, we can also understand the reflection of social realities, the ideology of the era and the reality of elements in the traditional cultural structure of each nation Therefore, by profoundly studying characters, we will have surveys and descriptions of the combination of Vietnamese-Korean traditional cultural elements in their medieval fantasy stories 2.1.1.2 Theory of literary genre In the medieval literature of Eastern countries in general, of East Asian countries, and of Vietnam and Korea in particular, the system of genres is relatively plentiful with the process of formation, reception as well as constantly changing and moving at the same time with the movement and development of the literary history of each nation The genre is a form factor that is more formal and coherent than other elements of the whole body, so it seems to be "obsolete" in the process of changing and developing 2.1.2 Conception of fantastic things and the genre of fantasy story 2.1.2.1 The concept of fantastic things First of all, in terms of letters, fantasy (in English: fantastic; in Chinese: 奇; in Korean: 기발하다) consist of two components which need to be clarified including strangeness and imagination Basically, researchers agree that: the fantastic things refer to the supernatural things (supernatural; 초자연적인); the impossible things (impossible; 불가능하다) In terms of words, in Vietnamese, strange means unusual, imaginary means unreal A fantastic thing is a strange, unreal thing which cannot be seen in reality Thus, a literary work with fantastic elements is the one in which there is supernatural, strange, fantasy, illusory elements in the formation of story plot, characters or themes, certain ideology or inspiration, etc 2.1.2.2 The conception of fantasy story genre The genre of fantasy story is a part of the fantasy literature in general Fantasy literature includes the literary creations containing fantastic, ghostly and strange elements or unreal events, people, etc Fantasy stories are a form of self-narrative (narrative) literature which uses fantasy elements in organizing the work (one or all of the elements) from building structure, artistic plot, choices for character formation, other events, happenings, circumstances, etc., which contains the properties and nature of the fantastic thing 2.1.2.3 Proposal of the concept of Vietnamese and Korean medieval fantasy stories Fantasy story genre is a kind of medieval narrative prose which is included in fantasy literature in small or medium scale (in terms of page number), with narrative content and/or relatively complete plot; Characters are formed and reflected in the mode of thinking containing fantastic elements The issues of life reality and the people of two nations are represented in works through the use of fantastic things, associated with the method of organizing the structure, plot, types/ kinds of characters, events, circumstances and strange, unusual and extraordinary motif, etc Medieval fantasy stories are associated with fiction and imagination, representing and affirming the sense of autonomy and selfawareness in artistic creation of medieval writers in Vietnam and Korea 2.2 The basis forming the genre of Vietnamese and Korean fantasy stories 2.1.1 Historical and social basis In this section, we generalize the main characteristics of the social and history basis of Vietnam and Korea during the middle age as the prerequisites for creating demand and the appearance of the first forms of medieval fantasy story genre The historical and social indigenous beliefs as well as the acquisition of regional and world fantasy literature traditions) have been clarified Chapter CHARACTERISTICS OF SOME TYPES OF CHARACTERS IN THE MEDIEVAL FANTASY STORIES OF VIETNAM AND KOREA Because of the peculiarities of types and to avoid the duplication in content with other sections of the dissertation, the main basis for surveying and dividing our characters is the origin of characters in relation to descriptive ways (there will be two basis types that characters having a magical origin and characters with natural origin; of course these two main types have separate group with their own characteristics) Of course, no matter how apart it is, even if it is separated, it will only have relative meaning The fact that a character can simultaneously be classified into many types is a pratice of art creation in general and the artistic thinking of fantasy writers of both countries in particular 3.1 Type of fantasy character As mentioned in the previous sections, fantasy characters are to show the appearance of characters with magical characteristics and elements They are surrealistic characters with capable, mysterious or miraculous abilities or having different characteristics that ordinary people not have This group consists of characters who may have extraordinary and supernatural origin without any connection with the world; or may be earthly characters but they are apotheosized to become fantasy characters by certain objective or subjective reasons, or they are dead people finding the way to return earthly world to carry out tasks that they did not have a chance to Bảng 3.1 The apperance of fantasy character in the medieval fantasy story of Vietnam and Korea STORY NUMBER OF TYPES OF FANTASY No (Number of story with FANTASY CHARACTER appearance of fantasy CHARACTER Characters with Characters with character) extraordinary earthly origin origin Vietnam Thien uyen tap anh ngu luc 08 05 03 (21 stories) Viet đien u linh tap 29 20 09 (40 stories) Linh Nam chich quai truyen 75 44 31 (36 stories) Thanh Tong di thao 34 32 02 (15 stories) Truyen ky man luc 32 16 16 (20 stories) Truyen ky tan pha 09 09 (04 stories) Lan Tri kien van luc 27 22 05 (38 stories) Tang thuong ngau luc 40 21 19 (41 stories) 11 Thinh van di luc (15 stories) Tổng 230 10 12 266 Korea 176 10 179 02 87 Tam Quoc di su 132 44 (86 stories) 11 Dung Trai tung thoai 05 03 02 (12 stories) 12 Thu di truyen 39 25 14 (27 stories) 13 Kim Ngao tan thoai 42 32 10 (05 stories) 14 Xi Trai ky di 42 38 04 (04 stories) 15 Tam thuyet ky 32 23 09 (09 stories) Total 143 336 253 83 Total: 373 602 432 170 Looking at the above statistics, we can see the appearance of many types of fantasy characters or virtualized characters in the medieval fantasy story of Vietnam and Korea As a severe perception and a specific thinking of the genre, most of the fantasy writer have attended to create this type of character in the world of artistic work The group of character having extraordinary origin accounts for a higher percentage of the group of character with earthly origin and the interesting feature is that even for the characters who have extraordinary origin the fantasy writer still creates a relationship between them and mundane world In other words, when creating fantasy characters with extraordinary origin in specific artistic spaces and times, authors is always conscious of finding the relationship/involvement of such characters with the live of earthly people On that basis, the world of fantasy characters, no matter how mysterious it is, can be affirmed that the medieval fantasy writer still aims to life of human with dreams, ambitions and aspirations for good things This features have some similarities and differences between Vietnam and Korea Among the fantasy characters that appear in the medieval fantasy story of Vietnam, there is a group of characters built to create relationships with ordinary world 3.1.1 Types of fantasy character having little/much relation to the ordinary world The relationships between this type of fantasy character and the world might be less, might be more The characters having little relation to the ordinary world, following our survey, will be supporting characters with a role to reveal, forshadowing what will happen in the life of earthly people We call them earthly prophets (전세계를 예언하는 사람) Their apperance is to perform the function of predicting a good omen/bad omen that will happen to main character of the story (who their role is to carry out main tasks) In many cases, this earthly prophet also instructs human the way how to avoid, disentangle bad omen and how to grasp the good opportunities in their destiny If the type of character who is this earthly prophet only appears once in the evolution of the story, at a higher frequency, the type of characters who have more important role for the main character’s fate is group of fantasy characters capable of intervening, directly impacting on human life We temporarily call this group of people who intervene in the world (전세계를 12 간섭하는 사람) This is something that the previous researchers have mentioned especially on the thesis of Do Thi My Phuong, which has thorough overview, of course only at the medieval tales of Vietnam [212] Basically, the intervention and impact of this character group takes place in two directions: One is to bring peace, help destroy the cruel forces, violence against life, happiness of mortals; the other is in opposite way, the fantasy characters break and trample on human life In medieval fantasy story of Korean, the characters who is earthly prophet not appear frequently Such characters almost not appear in Dung Trai tung thoai, Thu di truyen, Kim Ngao tan thoai, Xi Trai ky di, Tam thuyet ky; In Tam quoc di su, they only are mentioned in several story such as “Kim Duu Tun”, “Vua Hue Cung”, “Nu đai vuong Chan Thanh va Cu Đa Tri”, “Duyen Hoi tranh tieng va Van Thu điem”, “Hai vi su cua nui Bao” Meanwhile, the type of gods, gods of mountain, gods of tree, gods of forest, gods of river, appear densely in Tam quoc di su They are virtual characters with the ability to directly intervene, support people and Korean dynasties in the process of buiding and protecting the government; helping and assisting mandarins and generals in the career of faculties or in the war to protect peace and happiness of local people The interesting things in medieval fantasy stories of Korean is that the God will not always the ultimate Many actions and instructions of this character are also bureaucratic, lack of attention and not directed to human life In Thu di truyen, type of fairy characters having power to intervene in earthly life also appear, for example, the character in Vien Quang story In contrast, Kim Ngao tan thoai, XTKD and TTK story almost not have the type of characters who intervene earthly life Writers focused on creating a different kind of fantasy character that will be discussed below In addition to these two types of fantasy characters, there is another third kind of character which is unique These are fantasy characters who come to the world to “seek for their survival” [212, page.108] Such fantasy characters named character who seek for the world (진세계를 찾는 사람) would like to have a chance to express, clever, communicate, receive help from someone in mortal realm in order to “complete” the aspirations which have not been done (usually known as ghosts) This type of fantasy character also appears in many medieval fantasy stories of Korea In Dung Trai tung thoai, Thanh Hien told “Chuyen ma ba Trinh”; Kim Ngao tan thoai has “Van Phuc tu hu bo ky” story (The games in Van Phuc pagoda) Additionally, it is also possible to mention some cases in other story of Thu di truyen such as “Thoi Tri Vien”, “Tien nu tui hong” hay truyện “Song nu mo” 3.1.2 The type of fantasy characters who are almost unrelated to the world In general, in terms of frequency, this is the group of characters whose appearance are less than the type of fantasy characters having little/much relation to the ordinary world as per our analysis above Considering the role of this character group with structural oganization and the plot, they are mostly supporting characater (if they are the main characters they will only be co-main character; which means there are at least two main characters in the story and one of them will be ordinary people) This type of character is often the owner of surreal realm, either heavenly or geographic We temporarily call this type of Lords of unreal world (초자연적인 세계의 주인) In the medieval fantasy story of Vietnam, this type of character appear in VĐUL, Thiền uyển tập anh ngữ lục but they only mark an memorable point in Thánh Tông di thảo, Truyền kỳ mạn lục, Truyen ky tan pha and Thinh van di luc According to our survey, Thánh Tông di 13 thảo has two most typical story named “Duyen la hoa quoc” and “Truyen la nha thuyen chai”; Truyền kỳ mạn lục has story as “Truyen Tu Thuc lay vo tien”, “Chuyen đoi tung o Long cung”, “Chuyen Pham Tu Hu len choi Thien tao” ; Truyen ky tan pha has the stories as “Truyen nu than o Van Cat” and “Cuoc gap go ky la o Bich Cau”; Thinh van di luc having the “Truyen Loa Đai vuong” is typical In medieval fantasy story of Korea, tTrong truyện kỳ ảo trung đại Hàn Quốc, Lords of unreal world also appear several times in Tam quoc di su, Dung Trai tung thoai but it unclear still Thu di truyen Until Kim Ngao tan thoai and Xi Trai ky di, this type of character appears more clearly and more elaborately 3.2 Ordinary character type Ordinary character type are mostly realistic observations combined with the artistic fictions of fantasy story writers of the two countries And afterall, the primary concern of the story writers is this type of character Of course, in terms of origin, ordinary characters are often mere mortals, however, because of the genre feature and style of writting, these ordinary characters are always placed in relation to the fantasy world Therefore, when conducting the survey, we take the criterion that if these ordinary characters have contact with the fantasy world or not to classify them into two types: 1) Ordinary characters having contact with fantasy world and 2) Ordinary characters not having contact with fantasy world Table 3.2 The appearance of ordinary character type in medieval fantasy stories of Vietnam and South Korea NO VOLUMES (Number of stories with the appearance of ordinary characters) Thiền uyển tập anh ngữ lục (21 stories) Collection of Stories on the Shady and Spiritual World of the Viet Realm (40 stories) Selection of Strange Tales in Linh Nam (36 stories) Thanh Tong’s Posthumous Manuscript (15 stories) Collection of Strange Tales (20 stories) Truyền kỳ tân phả (04 stories) Lan Trì kiến văn lục (38 stories) Random Record of Great Changes (41 stories) Thính văn dị lục NUMBER OF ORDINARY CHARACT ERS Vietnam 100 ORDINARY CHARACTER TYPE Ordinary characters Ordinary who have contact characters who with fantasy world don’t have contact with the fantasy world 18 82 189 75 114 128 69 59 38 28 10 67 37 30 20 17 03 97 48 49 113 66 47 14 (15 stories) Total 10 230 48 800 South Korea 541 28 386 20 414 Memorabilia of the Three 250 291 Kingdoms (86 stories) 11 Dung Trai tùng thoại 57 14 43 (12 stories) 12 Thù dị truyện 82 35 47 (27 stories) 13 Kim Ngao tân thoại 49 13 36 (05 stories) 14 Xí Trai ký dị 18 05 13 (04 stories) 15 Tam thuyết ký 33 07 26 (09 stories) Total 143 780 324 456 Total: 373 1580 710 870 3.2.1 Ordinary characters having contact with fantasy world This group of characters has a large number of ordinary characters who appear in fantasy stories of the two countries Of course, the ratio of ordinary characters to fantasy characters is different in different episodes, and there are also certain differences between the medieval fantasy stories of Vietnamese and South Korea Based on the way, degree and frequency that ordinary characters interact and move between real space and virtual space, we can see some basic forms: 1) Group of characters have contact (transient only) with the fantasy world; 2) Group of intermediate characters (appear longer) in the virtual world in relation to the real world and 3) Group of characters who embark on virtual world 3.2.2 Ordinary characters not having contact with the fantasy world In the medieval fantasy stories of the two countries, a small group of characters is not numerous and throughout story plot and story line, they only play supporting roles, the masses, mere humans who does not know the existence of a magical, miraculous world Of course in which there are also characters with beliefs in spirits, except that they are not developed to experience outside the real world And of course, with the main role of the supporting character, many of them with their appearance have been few in the story line so most of them are quite fuzzy, the number of those who play main characters are few However, in relation to characters who have contact with fantasy world, the characters of this type are indispensable because they are witnesses to other characters in the story who have traveled, contacted, engaged in fantasy world In addition, the emergence of this type of ordinary characters who don’t have contact with fantasy world also shows the perspective and mind set about the reality of the medieval fantasy story writers of the two countries Sub-conclusion of Chapter Through a quantitative survey of typical fantasy story volumes of the two countries and qualitative descriptions, analysis and explanations, in chapter 3, we had statistics, classification and analysis of character types from reference the role of the character to the style of writing The world of characters in the medieval fantasy stories of Vietnam – South Korea is indeed very diverse and rich In relation to the role of characters with writing style, the use of fantasy and real elements, we have clarified many similarities 15 (mainly) and interesting differences (few) of fantasy character types and ordinary character types in fantasy stories of the two countries The character, afterall, is the refraction, the image of people, country through artistic view and the aesthetic conception of each writer and each culture Therefore, through developing characters, writers delivered many thoughts and concerns as well as highly human valued aspirations of life, joy, sadness, life and death, the aspirations, the dreams of happiness and reunion of contemporary people Of course, in addition to the points presented in this chapter, in the structure of character content, fantasy story writers of the two countries also dedicated to many messages of beliefs and culture or in other words, through characters, the readers also see the expressions and aspects of Vietnamese and South Korean traditional culture This content will be presented and solved in chapter of the thesis Chương EXPRESSION OF CULTURAL ASPECTS THROUGH CHARACTERS IN MEDIEVAL FANTASY STORY OF VIETNAM AND SOUTH KOREA 4.1 Characters and dimensions of Buddhist culture 4.1.1 The character and the process of adopting Buddhism, sects and Zen Masters’ stories 4.1.1.1 Characters in medieval fantasy story of vietnam The most comprehensive and systematic fantasy story about the sects and Zen Maters’ stories of Vietnam is Thiền uyển tập anh ngữ lục According to the records, Zen lineage in Vietnam including tributaries: Wu-Yun-T’ung Zen lineage (including 39 stories); Ty Ni Na Luu Chi Zen lineage (including 28 stories) and Ts’ao-Tang Zen lineage (only contains the names of 18 Zen Masters in five generations without specific story content) The book records Zen lineages in Vietnam for about seven centuries, from the end of the 6th century to the beginning of the 13th century The elaborate notes (except for the record of Ts’ao-Tang Zen lineage) showed the profound and comprehensive knowledge of the author that obviously contains respect and religiosity to Buddhism in general and Zen Buddhism in particular 4.1.1.2 The character of medieval fantasy story in South Korea Records of sects as well as stories about monks in medieval fantasy stories of South Korea are much different from Thiền uyển tập anh ngữ lục’s notes because of the nature of the book In relation to Thiền uyển tập anh ngữ lục (Vietnam) which talks deeply about sects and stories of Zen masters, in Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms, the author has broader coverage of the problem with five basic aspects of Korean Buddhism Generally, the fundamental difference is that if in Thiền uyển tập anh ngữ lục, the author only focuses the stories of Zen masters, in Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms, the author has an sufficient and basic view and notes (not all) on the major aspects of Buddhism such as the origin, the process of introduction and absorption of Hoằng dương phật giáo in the country, etc 4.1.2 Character with positive contributions and influences of Zen masters/ Buddhism on the nation 4.1.2.1 The character in medieval fantasy story of Vietnam The contribution of Vietnamese Zen masters can be seen clearly the most in Thiền uyển tập anh ngữ lục, then less in Collection of Stories on the Shady and Spiritual World of the Viet Realm as well as in Selection of Strange Tales in Linh Nam In Thanh Tong’s Posthumous Manuscript, Collection of Strange Tales and some later story volumes, 16 Buddhism is no longer appreciated, even being sarcastic, ridiculed and denied; the cases in which Buddhism being praised are very rare A number of outstanding contributions of Vietnamese Buddhism/ Zen masters are mentioned as follows: to be appointed to hold important duties in bureaucracy and/ or to deal with significant and urgent tasks; make an important contribution in helping the King perform rituals to pray for rain for well crops; Hàng yêu phục hổ, eradicate diseases; help to educate people, to encourage kindness and eliminate evil, to promote, to urge people towards goodness and enlightement and give up bad habits, hatred and delusion to purify the soul, preserve the purity and good personality, etc 4.1.2.2 The character in medeival fantasy story of South Korea In History of the Three Kingdoms, in the “Biographies” section, the record of Buddhism and Zen Masters is few Until Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms, under the eyes of Zen Master Nhat Nhien, the records of Buddhism has become rich As we mentioned above, the role and positive effects of Buddhism in general and Zen Masters in particular on medieval Korean society can be seen in the following basic points: Firstly, as for Vietnam, Buddhism and Zen masters at certain historical periods have been “welcomed” quite warmly, of course there are also ups and downs; Secondly, about the role of Zen Master, in volume 4, the fifth chapter “Nghĩa giải”, author Nhat Nhien also mentioned much and quite elaborately about the influence of Zen masters on contemporary regime as well as on people, etc 4.2 Character and the sides of Lao Tzu - Chuang Tzu culture 4.2.1 Character and the promotion of training, meditation, preservation of xinxing towards seclusion 4.2.1.1 Character in Vietnam medieval fantasy stories Lao Tzu - Chuang Tzu culture or Taoism culture in general, has a profound influence with Vietnam medieval fantasy stories The three stories of Taoism which has the clearest influence are Thanh Tong Di Thao, Truyen Ky Man Luc and Truyen Ky Tan Pha, although the level and savor are different This issue has been carefully analyzed and interpreted 4.2.1.2 Character in Korea medieval fantasy stories Similar to Thiền uyển tập anh ngữ lục, in Tam Quoc di su, most monks have supernatural powers, magic, etc., that mentioned in section 3.1 so here we didn’t mention it anymore Dung Trai Tung Thoai has no stories mentioning about it Until the introduction of Thu di truyen, Kim Ngao tan thoai, Xi Trai ky di and Tam Thuyet ky, the influence of Taoism become more apparent In which, Kim Ngao tan thoai and Xi Trai ky di are more apparent than the others 4.2.2 Character with magic, spell Associated with Taoism, the story content of spell, magic of the characters who are Taoists is also mentioned in the Vietnam and South Korea medieval fantasy stories, although the level and color are different 4.2.2.1 Character in Vietnam medieval fantasy stories When proceeding a very careful examination, we can see that the manifestations of magical talent in the most powerful level of the Zen masters in “Thiền uyển tập anh ngữ lục” and some stories in “VĐUL”, “Thiền uyển tập anh ngữ lục” are also the little influence from magical Taoism After examinating Truyền kỳ mạn lục story, 07/20 stories has the character as Taoist In “Lan Trì kiến văn lục” series, Vu Trinh, the 17 author, wrote a complete story about a Taoist named Pham Vien In “Truyen ky tan pha” series, at the end of the two stories named “Truyen nu than o Van Cat” (Story about the fairy in Van Cat) and “Bich Cau ky ngo”, the mystery magic, and the magic of character are mentioned, and they were used in the good activities, etc It can be seen that in the Vietnam medieval fantasy stories, Taoism culture colors are quite strong, especially in Thánh Tông di thảo, Truyền kỳ mạn lục, and Truyen ky tan pha, partly in Lan Trì kiến văn lục 4.2.2.2 Character in South Korea medieval fantasy stories The mantra, spell are mentioned in some stories in “Tam Quoc di su” series (not count the stories about monks as we mentioned) and the most of them have the mix between Taoism and Buddhism In “Dung Trai tung thoai” and “Kim Ngao tan thoai” series, this content is almost hardly mentioned; but in “Thu di truyen” and “Tam thuyet ky” series, there has a representational story, “Thuat Ba Gia” in “Thu di truyen” series, which told about the God who cast a magic making Thuat Ba Gia overslept in the temple, therefore cannot meet the prince So, the colour and spirit influence of Taoism with Vietnam and South Korea medieval fantasy stories are quite obvious But in Vietnam medieval fantasy stories, they are deeper, more obvious, and opulent than South Korea 4.3 Character and the sides of Confucianism culture 4.3.1 Character and the promotion of student, studying spirit and imperial examination In chapter 3, we mentioned a little about Confucianism students character, and in here, we are going to discuss more carefully about them in order to praise and promote their temperament and virtue on their pursuit of Confucianism studying and imperial examination 4.3.1.1 Character in Vietnam medieval fantasy stories In Confucianism culture, the thing seems to be obvious that the characters are all male and this type of character is reflected closer to real life by the authors Looking back at the whole process of formation and development of the genre, the Confucianism student character appeared in previous works such as Thiền uyển tập anh ngữ lục (Tran The Phap), Việt điện u linh (Ly Te Xuyen), Thiền uyển tập anh ngữ lục or Tam To thuc luc, etc And when they appear in the work, they primarily are described with praising manner in order to set an example and record merits (we will discuss in other chaper/ or subchapter) But until the introdution of Thánh Tông di thảo (rumor said it belongs to King Le Thanh Tong) and especially Truyền kỳ mạn lục, then Lan Trì kiến văn lục (author: Vu Trinh) and Truyen ky tan pha (author: Doan Thi Diem) the Confucianism student characters appear more with more diverse and complex ideology as well as reflect the higher artistic level of the authors than before 4.3.1.2 Character in South Korea medieval fantasy stories In “Dung Trai tung thoai” series, there are two stories, “Chuyen tinh cua Anh Sinh” (Love story of Anh Sinh) and “Giac mo cua ba nho sinh va giai mong” (The dreams of three students and explaining), in which we can find the Confucianism student picture somewhere but not be clear In “Thu di truyen”, basically, the Cofucianism student character doesn’t appear But in all of five stories of Kim Ngao tan thoai, it is appeared the Cofucianism student character In which, in our opinion, the story of “Say ruou toi choi den Phu Bich” (Get drunk and come to Phu Bich temple), “Cau chuyen o chau Viem Phu phuong Nam” (The story in Viem Phu province in the Southern), and “Truyen di du yen tiec o Long cung” appear the knightly and gently Cofucianism student who basically has good virtue, hard-working, hard-studying, and the aspiration becoming the good mandarin, but 18 in the end, their ideals come true or not is another matter The Cofucianism students mentioned herein are Hong, Phac and Han student 4.3.2 Character and the promotion of the enlightened kings and greatcontributions mandarins 4.3.2.1 Character in Vietnam medieval fantasy stories The character type of enlightened kings and great-contribution mandarins are mentioned very much and early in Vietnam medieval fantasy stories Almost these characters appearing in “Việt điện u linh” are real character in Vietnam history who lived in the Chinese domination of Vietnam period and XIII, XIV and XV centuries In “Thánh Tông di thảo”, firstly we want to remind that the story teller is a king in the peace period, who always hide the name in many stories (he always call himself as “ta” (a pronoun to show the power and rank, usually used by a king or great mandarin) to tell the story) In “Truyền kỳ mạn lục” of Nguyen Du, the enlightened king and mandarins don’t appear so much because the reality in that period has many malice and trouble The author perpecstive of politics is also primarily critical So that some characters in this type is mainly from the previous centuries We can mentione some names such as Hang Vuong, Ho Tong Thoc, old mandarin with the last name of Pham in “Cau chuyen o den Hang vuong” (The story at Hang Vuong Temple); Bach General in “Chuyen nguoi nghia phu o Khoai Chau”; Ho Han Thuong, Truong cong in “Chuyen doi dap cua nguoi tieu phu o nui Na” (The conversation with the woodcutter in Na mountain); Ho Quy Ly in “Chuyen bua tiec dem o Da Giang” (The story of night party in Da Giang), etc The type of kings and mandarins who were promoted in Lan Trì kiến văn lục, Tang thương ngẫu lục and Thinh van di luc are quite much; but almost of them is mandarins (The kings were not mentioned so much) But the difference with Thánh Tông di thảo, Truyền kỳ mạn lục and Truyen ky tan pha is that in almost cases, these mandarins is main character of the story and their name is take to name the story, etc 4.3.2.2 Character in South Korea medieval fantasy stories In the series of Thanh Hien, the king, mandarin and general characters almost don’t appear, except for one case which is Thi trung Khuong Ham mandarin in “Khuong Ham Tan and su ho” And in “Thu di truyen” and “A Dao” story lightly mentioned about the kings such as Vi Trau King, Nguyen Tong King; the story of “Thoi Tri Vien”, “Thien Duc Vuong”, A Dat La King in “Chang Dien Dieu, nang Te Dieu”, etc Until Kim Ngao tan thoai, Xy Trai ky di and Tam thuyet ky, the king, mandarin and general characters who were promoted appeared in some stories, but not much compared with Vietnam stories We can mention some name in Kim Ngao tan thoai such as Diem La King in “Nam Viem phu chau chi”; Long King in “Long cung yen luc”; Queen (Flower King) in Xy Trai ky di; the mandarins in “An Bang mong du luc”; the Chancellor (girl’s father) in “Ha sinh ky ngo truyen”; Thoi Tri Vien in “Thu di truyen” and the related stories; Thien Duc King in “Chi Quy”, “Thien Duc Vuong” and “Thien Duc Vuong biet ro ba chuyen”; the King in “Thuat Ba Gia”; Not Chi King in “Truyen A Dao”, etc In Tam thuyet ky, we also can mention about the furious five in “Ngu ho dai tuong ky” and the father in “Tam tu vien tong ky”, etc In general, the king, mandarin and general characters who were promoted in South Korea medieval fantasy stories are not appeared so much compared with Vietnam stories The number of stories is not as same as Vietnam, and the number of king, mandarin characters is not as same as, either This shows less influence on Confucianism ideology for Korean authors than in Vietnam 19 4.3.3 Character and the promotion of the exemplary and righteous women 4.3.3.1 Character in Vietnam medieval fantasy stories The women characters appear densely in Vietnam medieval fantasy stories The first exemplary women in the medeival narrative is My E in “Hiep chinh Huu thien Trinh liet chan Manh phu nhan” story in “Việt điện u linh” series My E character also was told in “Truyen ba phu nhan trinh liet My E” (Thiền uyển tập anh ngữ lục of Tran The Phap) In “Thiền uyển tập anh ngữ lục”, the women characters were promoted such as Hai Ba Trung in “Truyen hai ba Trinh linh phu nhan ho Trung” or Man Nuong in “Truyen Man Nuong”, etc In Thánh Tông di thảo, the exemplary and righteous women characters aren’t appeared so much, such as the wife of Thuc Ngu in “Truyen la nha thuyen chai” or the gatherer girl in “Truyen chong de”, etc Until Truyền kỳ mạn lục and Truyen ky tan pha, the women characters appear more and become the main of many stories In which, the representative of the women characters who have good virtue is Nhi Khanh in “Chuyen nguoi nghia phu o Khoai Chau” and Vu Thi Thiet in “Chuyen nguoi gai Nam Xuong” Meanwhile, with Mrs Doan Thi Diem, the woman is the center of the whole story of Truyen ky tan pha And after Doan Thi Diem, in the remaining stories of fantasy which is TLKVL and Tang thương ngẫu lục, the exemplary women or good virtue women still continue to be mentioned (but in Thinh van di luc, there is no appearing of the exemplary women) In Lan Trì kiến văn lục, the women characters apeear in “Ca ki ho Nguyen”, “Cau chuyen tinh o Thanh Tri”, “Phu nhan Lan Quan Cong”, “Nguoi gai Trinh Liet o Co Trau”, “Nguoi dan ba trinh tiet o Thach Than”, “Thap Bao An”; and in Tang thương ngẫu lục it is in “Liet phu Doan phu nhan”, “Ba vo thu ong Nguyen Kieu” In general, they are all women who have good, gentle, naive, faithful and compassionate virtues and willing to take death to prove Many of them have left very emotional aftertaste for readers 4.3.3.2 Character in South Korea medieval fantasy stories The exemplary women characters in Confucianism ceremony also appear in South Korea medieval fantasy stories, but not as much and diverse as Vietnam In Tam quoc di su, there have a little appearing of that women character but in basically it is still in faint The author of “Dung Trai tung thai” also didn’t build this type of character In “Thu di truyen”, the exemplary women characters appear in some stories but still in short We can take “Song Nu truyen” for example, in which the two girls spirit when appariting, told Thoi Tri Vien about their virgin In “Cuong phong pha thuyen”, there is a appearing of women named Bao Khai in Tan La period In Kim Ngao tan thoai, the model of virgin and goodvirtue women is generally not pure, meaning still mixing the negative points, and in the end, the emotional aspect and the liberation of women's needs are higher than the content about virtue Although, we can mention about the girl with surname of Ha in “Cuoc choi Hu bo chua Van Phuc” or girl with surname of Thoi in “Truyen Ly sinh ngo trom qua tuong” In addition, in “Xy Trai ky di”, it is also possible to mention that the girl under the grave was rescued and then with Ha student to be a couple in the story of "Ha sinh ky ngo truyen" 4.4 Characters and aspects in indigenous cultures of Vietnam and South Korea Vietnam and Korea as well have experienced a thousands-of-year history Over many ups and down, event, prosperity and decadence as a common sense, the two countries have, step by step, formed, developed, accumulated and retained, from generation to generation, their own material and spiritual values of culture In addition to selectively acquiring foreign religious and belief theories such as Buddhism, Taoism (Tao - Trang) and Confucianism, Vietnamese as well as Koreans have created their multi20 colored indigenous cultures And such expressed aspects will be partially reflected through a system of typical characters in medieval fantasy stories Such issues as characters associating with belief of spiritual things or Ancestor worship and with Tutelary god one in medieval fantasy stories of Vietnam and Korea have been mentioned However, because of regulated size of the Thesis and capacity of foreigner in deeply reading Vietnamese stories, in the following presentation, we only generally mention to pergormance of indigenous culture without making division in each performance in the system of medieval fantasy stories in the two countries 4.4.1 Characters and indigenous culture in medieval fantasy stories of Vietnam Originating from characteristics of civilization associating with the development of wet rice agriculture, production, seeding, cultivation and even breeding depending much on the weather, Vietnamese people from early to medieval time are very respectful to nature They appreciate and rely on nature, weather, land and climate, etc As a result, in the image of Vietnamese people, animism The Vietnamese believes in the existence of a supernatural, invisible force wirh ultimate power, controlling the happiness of human The force including God of Mountain, God of River, God of Forest, God of Ocean, God of Plant, God of Rock, God of Soil, etc., have appreared in many fantasy stories It could be considered to stories about origin of Vietnamese nation through icons of Lac Long Quan and Au Co in “Story of Hong Bang family” and series of stories about fish monster, fox monster, Dong Thien Vuong, plant monster, Crossoptilon, golden turtle, God of Tan Vien Mountain, two gods in Long Nhan, Nhu Nguyet, God of Bach Hac River, God of Vong Phu Mountain, etc in Lĩnh Nam chích quái ngữ lục It is a world of imortal sould, a supernatural world with great souls and powers, which can support to the success of people in life as well as in the construction and protection of the country There are typical stories such as “Story of Tan Vien mountain” or in “Story of General Cao in Vu Ninh”, “Story of Bach Hac River God”, etc In general, the world of characters in Lĩnh Nam chích quái ngữ lục is a world of god with fanciful colors, sparkling amongst historical facts and Vietnamese belief of natural devotion, from the birth of Vietnamese people to the gods of nature presenting in mountains and rivers In Collection of Stories on the Shady and Spiritual World of the Viet Realm with 27 stories, all of them are about about merits, the achievements of 27 gods worshiped in temples This atmosphere overflow all stories of Lĩnh Nam chích quái ngữ lục as well as those of Collection of Stories on the Shady and Spiritual World of the Viet Realm abovementioned and and scattered all over the fantasy series later Such notion is also the reson for believing in fate, horoscopes in Vietnamese traditonal beliefe, etc Thus, it can be affirmed that such fundamental aspects of Vietnamese indigenous beliefs as animism, natural worship; the belief of human worship has been quite clearly reflected through a number of medieval fantasy stories in Vietnam as we have analyzed above 4.4.2 Character and indigenous culture in medieval fantasy stories of Korea On beliefs of animism, natural worship, they can be frequently found in stories of Legends and History of the Three Kingdoms (LAHOTK) The world in LAHOTK belongs to dynasties, lords of different generations and talented generals in different historical times and periods In there, prosperity and decadence of dynasty; selecting historical characters is bring intervention and magical actions of gods, arrangement of heaven and earth, fate Like the Vietnamese, Korean people, over the past time as well as today, they always believe in the world of gods existing in parallel with the real world Beliefs of animism and human worship as well as other good customs and practices, therefore, can be 21 found in Legends and History of the Three Kingdoms and a couple of fantasy stories in later period Worships, sacrifices, magic, sorcery, etc., are mentioned in “The jade belt given by god” [p 80-81]; in “Tân La biệt ký” [p 105], etc Fortune-telling, phisiognomy and astrology, misfortune, etc., is also mentioned in “Thái Tông Xuân Thu công” [p 9899], etc Praying for children is also mentioned in “Hien ThanhKing” [p 319], etc Fantasy stories in Dung Trai tùng thoại, there is nothing special in this content, so we not discuss it any more And in Thù dị truyện, images of human gods and gods, ghosts are found in some stories Belief of pray and worship, asking for intervention and help of gods is also mention Typically, “A Dao story” tells about a character namely Hac Ho Tu; story of “Hurricane destroys boats” also mentions to praying and worship of Bao Khai, etc “Vien Quang story” mentions about a dream of warming from an immortal to tell the bhikkhu to move the tent to another place because of blocking the way of god, otherwise God will plead guilty, etc The remaining, stories after Thù dị truyện is Geumo Sinhwa, Xý Trai ký dị and A tale of three ( Tam thuyết ký), manifestation in term of belief in Korean indigenous tradition does not frequently appear and is emphasized Sub-conclusion for Chapter It can be affirmed that, through the images of characters, we can take a quite clear view on manifestations, aspects of Buddhism, Tao - Trang, and Confucianism cultures and indigenous culture overflowing in many fantasy stories/ story volumes of Vietnam and Korea In spite of difference in deep level, taint of each story and story volume as well as in each period of genre development, and part of difference between Vietnam and Korea, generally, similarities continue to be the key feature of this content in the image of character types Indigenous culture in Buddhism such as history of introduction process of Buddhism (this is more clearly revealed in Korean medieval fantasy stories), on contribution and positive effect of Buddhist zen master/ monk for country and nation; indigenous cultures of Taoism (Tao - Trang) such as heightening practice, nurture, preservation of personal character, aiming to recluse life; issues of magic, talismans; indigenous cultures of Confucius such as heightening Students, scholar’s probity and system of former competitionexamination; heightening clear-sighted king, mandarins with merits; examples of heroine; indigenous cultures of Vietnam - Korea such as belief of animism; belief of ancestor and tutelary god worship was reflected in a relatively vivid manner in fantasy stories of the countries Based on investigation and description, we have carefully presented these contents in chapter Characters represented for image of people in a country receiving and expressing such beautiful foreign indigenous culture (Indian culture through case of Buddhism; Chinese culture in case of Taoism Confucius), accompanying with indigenous culture The path of introduction and coexistence, the promoting positive points of foreign culture in Vietnam and Korea at medieval time, no matter how it takes, clearly, the points remained and reflected in fantasy stories are extremely remarkable We consider it a very interesting, meaningful level when intensively investigating the characteristics in content of characters in medieval fantasy stories of Vietnam - Korea CONCLUSION Through the study, it can be conformed one again that, medieval fantasy stories of Vietnam and Korea are rather rich, with a process of quite early formation and development, on the basis of acquiring national folklore traditions, as well as quintessential from of legend and strange monster stories in East Asian literature, fantasy 22 stories of Vietnam and Korea reach the top quality in term of art with medieval legend story And while in Vietnam, medieval fantasy stories more and more tend to be shorter (excepting for Truyen ky tan pha of Doan Thi Diem), with increase in reality factor which is, according to researchers, like the opening for the modern kind of short story in late of XIX century and the early of XX century, in Korea, fantasy stories more and more tend to be longer and novelized in genre This is a quite interesting point that we have only initially pointed out, in case of being able to continuously study, conclusions with scientific significance for the specialization of comparative literature will certainly be provided Through investigation and description, the world of characters fantasy stories of Vietnam and Korea is very rich and diverse From various objectives in research approach, researches can statistics, classify, describe, and assess types of characters from reference on gender, occupation, class, level in society, nature, quality or nature of character, etc And, of course, each way of classification will provide us with different view on different aspects of that world in order to understand the inner depth of the content and art aspects of each work, each story volume as well as the history of it genre Selecting classification associating to nature of fantasy stories, in this Thesis, we conducted adequate analysis and description on two types of characters: the first one is fantasy character and the other is literal character Among of them, the first type linked to the literal world and the second one linked to fantasy world account for largest quantity, at the same time, it also recognizes the most basic contributions, reflecting the most unique systems of artistic thinking of writers There is also no completely clear boundary or gap between these two types, but basically, whether it is literal or fantasy character, all of them are featured and pulled strings with confide, desire on the way of world, about time as well as personal confidences There is a logic, in spite of being not complete between the world of characters in fantasy stories and their choice for life, from doing religious work to recluse life, retiring from mandarinate in writers, most typically, of Nguyen Du of Vietnam and Kim Si-seup or Than Quang Han of Korea Thanks to advantage gained from recluse life, the writers were more facilitated in reflecting, featuring a number of characters leaving this world of dust, who seek for, experience living spaces and lifestyle different from normal life at that time Also, by the perspective of the recluse, the two countries’ writers had opportunities to more clearly express their personal wills and opinions, especially the criticisms to the contemporary political affairs and their aspirations to change, constantly dreaming of the best social “order” in the cognitive capacity of every fantasy author in the countries Characters in literary works, for medieval narrative works in general and medieval fantasy stories in particular, whether they are developed from a real person or fantasy creature, they are always closely linked to and vividly expresses the issues of people and nation Through characters in fantasy stories, we can see bright and dark colors, beauties and fine traditions of people at that time, traditional culture of Vietnam and Korea as well This is the highlight focused on description and interpretation by the thesis Accordingly, aspects and manifestation of from Buddhist, Tao - Trang, Confucius and indigenous cultures as well of the two countries have been analyzed quite carefully For Buddhist culture, issues such as introduction process into Vietnam, Korea, short stories about zen masters/ monks; contribution made by zen masters/ monks for feudatory dynasties, institutions of political affairs as well as for the society of Buddhism analyzed For Tao - Trang culture, such manifestation contents as practice, nurture, preservation of 23 personal character, aiming to recluse life; issues of magic, talismans were also thoroughly analyzed For Confucius culture, the thesis focuses on exploiting and describing some manifestations of heightening students, scholar’s probity and system of former competition-examination; clear-sighted kings, generals, mandarins with merits to country; examples of heroines, for illustrate For the traditional of indigenous culture, contents on belief of animism, ancestor and tutelary god worships are also clarified In general, by characters in medieval fantasy stories, many traditional indigenous cultures of the two countries have been vividly featured, described as the best manifestation of people in each nation The depth of characters is on expression of about the beauty from quality, soul of the national people, which is like the quintessence gained from cultures of the two countries over many old years In Vietnam, up to now, only Kim Si-seup has been widely known above all others with the translation of Geumo Sinhwa written by Toan Hue Khanh and Ly Xuan Chung In Korea, readers have just only known about Geumo Sinhwa with the translation by Toan Hue Khanh recently The views and visualizations about medieval fantasy stories of Vietnam and Korea, therefore, will be not adequate and comprehensive Through searching and selecting documents three legend story volumes before and after Geumo Sinhwa namely Thù dị truyện, Xý Trai ký dị and A tale of three (Tam thuyết ký) and temporarily translating into Vietnamese, we would like to provide a more comprehensive view about Korea medieval fantasy stories within this thesis In the future, after successfully defending the thesis, we look forward to widely publish the translation to readers as well as to the medieval literature researchers of Vietnam At the same time, we also wish to have enough capacity in Vietnamese, as well as cultural and literary knowledge, to translate and publish some medieval fantasy stories of the country for introducing them to Korean readers currently Through this work, it should think that, the view and understanding about Vietnamese and Korea medieval fantasy stories amongst researchers of the two countries in particular, the readers of the two countries in general will be more adequate and comprehensive Based on that significance, the results of this work will be a considerable encouragement for us to pursue our study and research work during our time in Vietnam, making partially contribution of individuals to the process of promoting and connecting the friendship, the cultural exchange which is increasingly profound of the people in Vietnam - Korea in the current context of integration and globalization The thesis of “Characters in the medieval fantasy stories of Vietnam and South Korea with a comparative perspective” will be a suggestion for some further research directions as follows, if researchers are Vietnamese, they must read fluently Korean (or ancient Chinese) and if they are Korean, they must fluently read Vietnamese (or ancient Chinese) to make further contributions to the specialized field: - Selecting one or two fantasy stories of writers in the countries and making deep comparison in similarities and differences in featuring characters in terms of both ideological content and art; - Studying and comparing similarities and differences in art thinking method of genre and/ or art method in developing characters of medieval fantasy stories (or legend stories) of Vietnam and Korea; - Studying and comparing similarities and differences in national manifestation of Vietnam and Korea in medieval fantasy stories (or legend stories) of Vietnam and Korea, based on selecting some most typical story volumes 24 LIST OF PUBLISH PAPERS RELATED TO CONTENT OF THESIS 1) Kim Ki Hyun (2017), “Model of serious woman in Collection of Strange Tales of Nguyen Du”, Scientific Journal of Tan Trao University, vol 06 (September), p 17-21 2) Kim Ki Hyun (2017), “Model of non-traditional woman in Vietnamese and Korean legend stories (Case study of Collection of Strange Tales by Nguyen Du and Geumo Sinhwa of Kim Si-seup” (co-authors), Journal for North-east Asian Studies, vol (199), p 71 - 78 3) Kim Ki Hyun (2017), “Further discussion about character namely Tu Thuc in Tu Thuc weds fairy wife story of Nguyen Du” (co-authors), Science magazine, Vinh University, vol 46, 2B, p 50-55 4) Kim Ki Hyun (2017), “Character type of students in Vietnamese and Korean legend stories (Expressed through Collection of Strange Tales by Nguyen Du and Geumo Sinhwa of Kim Si-seup) (co-authors), Science magazine of Sai Gon university, vol 28 (53), p 3-11 5) Kim Ki Hyun (2017), “Character type of Taoist hermit and retired scholar in Collection of Strange Tales by Nguyen Du” (co-authors), Science magazine, Ho Chi Minh City University of Education, vol 14 (8), p 28-37 6) Kim Ki Hyun (2017), “Sexual discourse in Collection of Strange Tales by Nguyen Du and Geumo Sinhwa by Kim Si-seup” (co-authors), Proceedings of the National Linguistics Workshop in Vietnam under integration and development context, vol 1, Dan Tri Publishing House, p 927-936 7) Kim Ki Hyun (2018), “Comparative research on character type of recluse Confucian scholar in Tu Thuc weds fairy wife story and Being drunk then going to Phu Bich temple”, Science magazine, Hanoi Metropolitan University, vol 22, p 35-43 ... “Truyen Loa Đai vuong” is typical In medieval fantasy story of Korea, tTrong truyện kỳ ảo trung đại Hàn Quốc, Lords of unreal world also appear several times in Tam quoc di su, Dung Trai tung thoai... prominent names such as Than Quang Han with Xí Trai ký dị, Quyền Tất with Chu Sinh truyệnn and Vi Kính thiên truyện, Triệu Vi Hàn with Thôi Trắc truyện and some short stories as well as some other... Literature, Institute of Social Sciences, under Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences Full name of instructors: 1) Assoc., Prof., Ph.D Le Van Tan 2) Assoc., Prof., Ph.D Vu Thanh Examiner 1: Prof.,