Nguyen Du

Nguyễn Du, 阮攸 (1766–1820), penname Tố Như and Thanh Hiên is a celebrated Vietnamese poet who wrote in Chữ Nôm, the ancient writing script of Vietnam. He is most known for writing the epic poem Kim Vân Kiều (titled 金雲翹 in Chữ Nôm).

Nguyễn Du was born in 1766 in Tiên Điền village, Nghi Xuân district, Nghệ Tĩnh province, Vietnam. He was the seventh child of Nguyễn Nghiễm, a former prime minister under the Lê Dynasty. He lost his father at the age of 10 and his mother at the age of 13. For most of his teen years, he lived with his brother Nguyễn Khản and later with this brother-in-law Đoàn Nguyễn Tuấn.

At the age of 17, Nguyen Du himself passed an examination and received the tittle of "tu tai", analogous to high school graduate today. In Nguyen Du's time though, this was harder because there where not many people with enough money to learn, and also because the examination handled mostly about politics and literature. About this poet, there are many things to say. His mother was the third wife of his father, was good at singing and composing poetry. And, the truth was that she used to live by singing. At that time, a songstress was considered a bad kind of people. Maybe he inherited a part of his talents from his mother. He loved listening to traditional songs. There was a rumour that, when he was 18, he sneaked out of his house to follow his dream and follow a songstress.

At that time, Vietnam was going through a dark period of its history. The two powerful political families fought against each other while pledging allegiance to the Le dynasty, which was recognized as the legitimate authority. This civil war was finally put to an end by the three brothers, Nguyen Nhac, Nguyen Lu, and Nguyen Hue. Nguyen Du's father was a minister under the Le dynasty, and that meant Nguyen Du couldn't help the three brothers. This was a tragedy of his life. Actually, he knew the three brothers were good, but he just couldn't do anything. One of the three brothers (Nguyen Hue) founded the Tay Son dynasty. The Tay Son shorly fell to the Nguyen dynasty.

In 1802, Nguyen Du secured a military post under the Nguyễn Dynasty, and was promoted to ambassador to China in 1813.

It is necessary to keep in mind this historical and social background in order to understand both Nguyen Du and his main work, Đoạn Trường Tân Thanh (more popularly known as "Truyện Kiều" – The Story of Kieu), based on a work known as "Kim Vân Kiều". The meaning of the title is "the new accents of a heart-rending song". The story is about something very tragedic and sad.

"Kim Van Kieu" was written by an author under the pen-name of 'Thanh Tam Tai Nhan' in the 16th or early 17th century. It was a story about the love between three persons. Thuy Kieu was the older sister of Thuy Van. Thuy Kieu and Kim Trong were in love with each other.They propesed under the moon, but unfortunately they couldn't be together because of their family's problem. Then Kim Trong married to Thuy Van, the little sister... That is the source of 'Doan truong tan thanh'. The source was just about the love but after Nguyen Du read it. He added details and turned it to become a masterpiece. In Vietnam, a farmer who is illiterate can know by heart all of this composition without a mistake. They read it in a singing voice.

Kim Vân Kiều is one among many of his works. Other literary works included: Thanh Hiên thi tập (Poems by Thanh Hiên), Nam Trung Tạp Ngâm (?), Bắc Hành Tạp Lục(?).edit

External links

Nguyễn Du, Our National Poet