SPRING AND THE SENTIMENTAL LIFE OF THE VIETNAMESE PEOPLE It has already been ten years since I fled to the South. Every time when the year draws to its end and the Tết comes (Vietnamese New Year's Day) I feel very sad and remember the verses in the novel KIỀU which partly describe my state of mind. "What a pity, the homeland is ten thousand miles away! The soul with the distant cloud is drifting to it." My soul now is in the clouds and is flying to Kinh Bắc (Bắc-Ninh) reputed for its "white rice, clear water and graceful girls". The girls there are very beautiful but they do not have the kind of beauty of the sophisticated heavy with make-up. They have the country ladies' gracefulness with an oval face unframed by a "crow beak shawl", a pink complexion owing to the sun rays, long hair and very attractive eyes that are "as clear as water in autumn". Their beauty is described in a folk song: "Firstly I love your hair, Secondly I love your cordial and gentle voice, Thirdly I love your dimple cheeks, Fourthly I love your teeth that are blacker than jet, Fifthly I love your halter with the amulets, Sixthly I love your hat with long tassels." The country girls of Bắc-Ninh are beautiful especially for their romantic attitude.

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"Hello gentleman who are walking on the highway! Please stop, I have something I like to tell you. Why are you in such a hurry? You would look like my husband". Their boldness intimidates many people who have in their mind the reputation of "Men from Yên-Thế, Cầu-Vồng and the girls from Nội-Duệ, Bắc-Ninh". Speaking of the natives of these regions one can hardly forget to mention Đề-Thám, hero of Vietnamese patriotism and Princess Đặng-Thị-Huệ. And for me presently I do not only remember Bắc-Ninh with its "white rice, clear water and graceful girls" though Confucius has said "I do not know of any man who loves goodness as much as beautiful girls" but also Bắc-Ninh with its ancient and historic relics. Here we have Cổ-Loa with the "Pearl well", Mount Lan-Kha with Vạn-Phúc pagoda (Ten Thousand Happiness Pagoda), Mount Bát-Vạn with its most picturesque landscape, Mount Giám with Queen Ỷ-Lan shrine, the district of Tiên-Du with the fairy tale of "Từ-Thức and Giáng-Tiên", and especially the annual festival at Lim with its singing contests. Every year on the 13th day of the first month in the Lunar Calendar the villagers of Lũng-Giang, Lũng-Sơn, Viềng, Nưa, and Bịu hold a big feast on Mount Từ-Vân at Lim, the first of the five peaks of the Phật-Tích mountain range. From time immemorial the two villages of Lũng-Giang (Lim) and TamSơn have maintained a close and friendly relationship. In the first month of the year the villagers of Tam-Sơn invite the villagers of Lũng-Giang to a big festival. On the 13th day of this month the elderly notables of LũngGiang with young men and girls in the village go to Tam-Sơn for the feasting festival. They are kindly greeted and a copious dinner is given. After dining they hold a singing contest. Taking turn the young men and young ladies of the two villages challenge and answer in songs. The elders listen and praise them when they sing well. People clap hand to encourage the singers and everybody rejoice in a delightful time. The festival lasts till

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the morning. This springtime singing festival is a famed local tradition which with some minor changes is still observed. Thirty years ago I had the opportunity to participate in this lovely festival. It was springtime. A light drizzle had just ended and a warm sun was out. The young men and young ladies, single or married, of the districts of Tiên-Du and Yên-Phong in their best clothes were with me. Though in their best clothes they still kept their natural peasant's bearing. By small groups of five to ten they climbed up the Hồng-Vân mount, entered the Pagoda to perform or watch other people perform the ritual religious service. After this ceremony they moved over to Cầu-Lim market place where they would loiter aimlessly in separate groups of boys and girls. The boys might address to the girls or vice versa but strict rules of decorum and propriety were observed at all times. When one group found another of the opposite sex to their liking and even though it was might consist of total strangers they started to sing. The young ladies offered quids of betel leaves with erica nut, which the young men courteously accepted. In the meantime the singing went on. Usually the boys would sing the challenge first and the girls to reply but sometime it was the young ladies who started the contest. Their voice rose and reverberated over the open countryside. They sang on and on enraptured by the melodious notes, released from their usual inhibitive shyness, free to display their thought and sentiments. They were in their highest moment of inspiration to everybody enjoyment. The lyrics tell of love and passion but the singers always observed the rules of good taste and tried to show the good nature of simple folk. Let us now go into some of the lyrics. The girl (singing): Since we meet here, please take a quid of betel and areca nut. We are friends and we will trade good wishes whenever we come across each other. The boy: A quid of betel and areca nut are unimportant What is important the chance they give us to join each other.

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The girl: With this quid of betel and areca nut I want you to understand me fully. I wish to know whether there is something we do not agree. The boy: The quid of betel and areca nut is a token of love. I hope that we will become husband and wife. Quids of betel and areca nuts were offered and accepted, and they resumed singing. The boy: Darling do you know any city that has five gates? What are the six rivers that join together? What river has a double streams, one turbid, one limpid? What mount is calabash shaped? And where does the Mountain Spirit reign? Which temple is the most sacred in the province of Thanh-Hóa? Where do you find a city built by angels? Where there is a great deal of water and gold? Where can you find a lot of trees? Who obtained a bagful of copper from the Chinese Court? Where is the Milky Way? What country is reputed for velvet? Who taught us how to build houses? Who carried stone trying to patch the sky? Who fought the flood to make his people happy? The girl: My friend, the citadel of Hà-Nội has five gates. The six tributaries of Lục-Đầu River meet the flow on to the sea The River Thương is one half limpid, one half turbid. Mount Tản-Viên is shaped like a calabash. And it is there where the Mountain Spirit reigns. Most sacred in Thanh-Hóa province is the temple of Sòng. Lạng-Sơn is the city built by angels. Clouds are in the sky, water in rivers and gold in mountain. Mount Hương-Tích has many grottes. 4

In the forest we will find a lot of trees. Khổng-Minh-Không was the one given a bagful of copper by the Chinese Emperor. The Milky Way is in the sky. China is reputed for its velvet. Hứu-Sào taught us how to build houses. The Goddess Nữ-Oa tried to patch the sky with stones. Emperor Đại-Vũ fought the flood to make his people happy. Gradually they switch to the subject of love. The boy: How many months is there the spring? How many early hours are there in a day? The girl: There's three months in the spring. In the day there is only one early hour. The boy: Now allow me to ask this question. Has anyone entered your garden of roses yet? The girl: There is a path leading to my roses garden, But no one has entered it yet. Their song echo over the wide country. The higher they got the lovelier they became. The party who lost the contest had to invite to other home for a big dinner party. The two groups of boys and girls enjoyed each others' company and after dinner parted at the gate of village or at the foot of the Mount. They went on singing to the last minutes of parting time. The boy: Who guides the boat in its harbour? Who matches me with you?

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The girl: As we have an engagement, Let us love each other with all our heart. The boy: Who is going home by that way? Who will ride the horse ? Who will take the umbrella? The girl: The horse already has its rider, And the umbrella its owner. Finally the boys said goodbye to the girls in the loveliest words. She who goes home by that way, Let me send you my love. I will send it to your very own bed, I will send it to your room. The above lyrics roughly describe what songs consist of in a singing contest. It is a genre of folk literature in the Vietnamese countryside, performed with feeling and for art's sake, free of any aim at personal interest. It is a genre frequently found in agrarian peoples but regretfully has now fallen into disuse in most other countries. There are many hypotheses about its origin. According to Nguyễn-ĐônPhục writing in the Nam-Phong magazine. "Under the dynasty of the Lý the daughters and sons of Court officials participated in singing contests organized to entertain the King. They were later imitated by country folks". However, one can never by certain about its origin. Singing contest is also known as "feast song". From the following folk poem we know that in the old days festivals were celebrated throughout the countryside in the spring. In the first month of the Lunar year, we stay home for Tết. The second month is for chess playing and gambling. And the third month is the time for festivals.

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Nguyễn-Đổng-Chi in his "Cổ Văn Học Sử" Literature) gave this explanation.

(History of Ancient

"In Spring, on feast days, having leisure to spend, boys and girls meet for music, dance, games and flirting with songs. Singing contests at Lim and Nghệ-Tĩnh are held for this purpose". Spring festivals and singing contests is not a strictly Vietnamese custom but is practiced in all Asian countries. Granet and Maspero of the Far East Asia Archaeology School have made a thorough research into this ancient custom of Asia. Particularly Maspero has made a report on the spring festival at the village of Nghĩa-Lộ, Yên-Bái. The spring festival is celebrated in March or April before the rain season and farming time. The meeting takes place at the sacred place of Thẩm-Lệ, where no one dare go for fear of profaning the supernatural beings. The young men and young girls enter the grotto and the singing contest begins. They came from far away villages. The girls are the first to move into the grotto where they align themselves to wait for the young men. The latter torch in hands parade in front of the girls. When a young man recognizes his sweetheart among the girls he will stop and start singing. The young girl will sit down if she agrees with the man. Otherwise she will keep standing and the young man has to leave her. If both like each another torch will be put out and they begin singing love songs. The young man calls out: Darling my love, let's join hand, Shoulder against shoulder. Please come near me ! Even though I might not be as handsome and talented as other people, Don't leave me, Don't get away from me, Till you get married. With modesty the girl answer the call of the man. She afraid of public criticism. She is not pretty enough to be his wife.

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The girl: Darling I am so afraid of public criticism. The young man: You are beautiful like a flower. I have already made up my mind to share the same roof with you. The girl: I am nothing but a girl, and our fate has been decided by Heaven. If we do not become husband and wife, It will only me who suffer bad reputation. The young man: Heaven and Earth! Till may be last day I won't forget you. Since we meet here, let's love each other. In the future life you will be water and I a fish to be with you. You will be a rice field and I a rice plant... You will be melon vine and I a bamboo tree, You will dangle around me. You will be a doe in the forest, and I a stag to be near you. Moved by these passionate professions of love the girl answer: Who can prevent a bird from perching on a branch? A man from having a wife and you from marrying me, So let's be husband and wife. They call and answer by turn, become more and more familiar, and finally cease to sing, and . . .! Many authors agree with the following interpretation of the spring festival at Thẩm-Lệ: "If the festival were not organized the harvest would be poor. It is at this time when the boredom of winter has gone that sexual intercourses take place between boys and girls. They are aimed at stimulating the expansion of the warmth of spring. Owing to this impulsion the seasonal cycle of the year begins its march and the soil become fertile. Like all ritual religious 8

ceremonies in China, the spring festival at Thẩm-Lệ also has religious connotations. It aims at regulation the changes in Nature and especially at helping the spring to act in a favourable way toward farming". _( " Religions in China ", Paris 1950, by Henry Maspero, p. 165 ) Spring festival in Asia all have the effect of releasing relationship between male and female from the restraints of customs which are strongly under the influence of Confucian principle that "Intimate relationship between men and women is forbidden". They are the only opportunity for young men and girls to meet freely. This practice in China is recorded in the Book of Verses (Thi Kinh): "The sea gulls are the Hà river. Lovingly the male and female call out to each other. The gentle young men and lovely young girls are well paired". In Việt-Nam thirty years ago this same custom was observed in spring festival such as the one at Lim with its singing contest. It was also very common in the mountainous regions of South China, Tibet and Japan. The common characteristics of these festivals are: 1. The songs are challenges and answers made between the boys and the girls. 2. The singers challenge the opposite party to solve a riddle or express love between the sexes. 3. In these festivals romantic sentiments are highly exalted leading to sexual love and marriage. 4. The singers must belong to different villages or different clans in strict observance of the rule of exogamy, or collective marriage between the clans. Students of Asian culture should take note of the fact that the cycle of activities in all Asian countries begins in the spring through these festivals with sexual undertone. Sexuality is here regarded as the energy necessary for the Creation. 9

"From the inner labouring of the universe are created all things, from the union of male and female are born all things". Thus the cosmology of Asia is based on the male and female principle. In his book entitle " Annam Chí Nguyện " the Chinese author Cao-HùngTrưng described spring festivals in ancient Việt-Nam as follows: "The land was scarcely populated. The people walked barefooted. Only the aristocrats wore shoes and travelled on sedan chairs. In the first three days of the Lunar Calendar year they all prepared copious meals as offerings to worship their ancestors. Boys and girls after a period of purifying abstinence would go to pagoda to worship Buddha. They would organize games such as swinging, singing and dancing, playing with the shuttle cock, tugging, ect... The winner would drink wine, the loser water. "The ninth of the first month is the birthday anniversary of the King in Heaven. They all went out sightseeing and worshipping in temples. "The third of the third month is Thượng Tị day. They offered food and drink to their ancestors. The mandarins and officials rejoined in wine drinking parties. "The 8th of the fourth month id the Buddha bathing day. They burned incense to the Buddha and offered fruit and flowers to their ancestors. "On the 5th day of the 5th month they went out picking special leaves and flowers to preserve and use as medicinal herbs. " On the 15th day of the 7th month they fashioned dummies with paper and burned as votive offerings to their ancestors, or performed rituals and made offerings to the wandering souls. Boat racing were organized in some villages. "In the eighth month farmers offered animal sacrifice to propitiate the gods of rice field and land, said prayers, displayed idols. On this occasion they also organized games or went to pagoda praying the Buddha for support.

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"At the end of the year as the New Year's Day was coming those who have money should spend them all for sumptuous offerings to their ancestors, fired firecrackers, enjoyed themselves in banquets held parties that lasted till morning. Even the poor would meet in the family on the eve of New Year's Day. Such were the customs of the native of the land". _( " Annam Chí Nguyện ", E.F.E.O. , Hanoi 1931, p. 208-213 ) This is the historical record of New Year celebration in ancient Việt-Nam thousands of years ago when it was known as Giao-Chỉ. These customs are preserved in folk songs such the following: "The first month we stay home to enjoy Tết. In the second month we play chess and gamble In the third month we organize festivals. In the fourth month we grow bean for our sweet cake. In the fifth month we celebrate Đoan-Ngọ Day. In the sixth month we buy and sell longan. On the fifteenth day of the seventh month we celebrate Wandering Soul Day. In the eighth month we lit lanterns to celebrate the Autumn Moon Festival. Then comes the ninth month when we buy and sell persimmon. In the tenth month we deal in paddy and cotton. And finally when the eleventh and twelfth months come all is completed and well done". In Asian agrarian countries all activities, spiritual, intellectual, material, artistic, political and religions are based on the cosmological concept of Yang and Yin, or the male and female principle. Yang and Yin are different from the concept of matter and mind. They are two aspects of the experience of life, two attitudes in dealing with things and men, and two rhythms harmonious in one eternal entity. On the contrary in the concept of mind verses matter there are two static views of the intellect, two abstracts that are distinct and opposing to each other, one is the negation of the other. They cannot proceed in harmony like the Yin and Yang. Needham a famous scholar in Chinese culture in a lecture in Paris in 1947 has made this comparison between the cosmology of East and West.

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"It is certain that the atomic concept was first known to the Greek but as far as the concept of wave movement is concerned I can prove it has its origin in China. It is so because the action of Yin and Yang are always described as consisting of two phases, one very low, the other very high, one going up while the other going down. That is exactly the concept of wave movement. The theory of atoms conceived as something indivisible is native of Greece or India, while the wave movement conceived as something fluctuating up and down is strictly a Chinese concept". Speaking of wave movement we think of wave on the sea. The wave rises we have the image of Yang and when it lowers we have that of Yin. Yang and Yin are comparable to two phases of the wave. They are constantly moving from one side to the other or vice versa. They differ from the mind and matter concept because what is matter is not mind and what is mind cannot be matter. Lengthy exposition and reasoning could only obey the meaning of this flexible and universal cosmology of Asian society. To understand it fully it is better that we get into the spirit of Tết celebration in the agrarian society of ancient Việt-Nam, to join our peasants in their Tết, spring festivals and pilgrimages. In spring when the water is limpid in the streams, the warm sun disperses the cold fog and farm works are over, boys and girls meet on the slope of some verdant hill or by the side of a stream. The girls would take the Southern side of the meeting place and the boys the Northern side. Then the boys would sing the challenge and the girls to answer, responding to each other in the same way as the element come into resonance in the wave movement. "These sounds of same frequency would come into resonance with each other, people of same spirit would seek each other" (Book of Change). "A flock of white cranes fly together. Our two parties of boys and girls will now sing. We will sing loud and merrily. So that in the end we could match in happy couples. Let us raise our voice. The boys sing first and the girls will follow". 12

The flock of white cranes is the very image of the agrarian community. The two parties, one male and the other female, is the image of primitive division of labour. They are segregated but remain harmonious, responding to each other, matching in couples in the Yin and Yang pattern where two elements differ in tendency but work together in the direction. The spirit of spring celebration in Vietnamese agrarian society is friendliness' love for life, optimism and unity. All Vietnamese are aware of a beautiful custom practiced during the Tết season that requires everybody to refrain from committing " evils " such as quarrelling, fighting, slandering, bad temper, borrowing money or asking for settlement of debts. It is believed that " Let bygones be bygones " even between the deadliest enemies during the Tết season would bring good luck to both parties. There is a saying which runs " the bitterest grudge will be forgotten in the Tết season ". This is probably the vestige of friendliness of the primitive community. In the agrarian primitive society of the old days friendliness and cooperativeness were observed throughout the year and not just during the Tết season only. " Hello calabash, do love me pumpkin. Though of different species we both grow on the same latticework". Calabash and pumpkin are thought to be different in the manner male differs from female, Yin from Yang, but they take their root in the same source of Yin - Yang of the agrarian society, of the agrarian cultural environment. The activities fluctuate in unison with the periodic change of Nature. "Fertility in spring, maturity in summer, fruit-bearing in autumn, withdrawal in winter". Thus the society of men individually or collectively is timed with rhythm of seasonal change. The sentimental and intellectual life adjusts itself to the seasonal rhythm. That is the so-called "Closed circuit of Change" which are first sight might be taken to be a sterile repetition. Actually the closed circuit refers to the Whole, the Absolute, but in the particular and relative change is the rule. This evolution is more accurately described as a spiral rather than a closed circle. This belief in progress taking place in spa 13

riling evolution implies a profound conception of life in agrarian communities where authoritative change is continual but qualitative constancy is the rule, with one transcendental aspect of unity and permanency and one existential aspect which is moving perpetually. This belief is the source for the agrarian people of an optimistic outlook toward life in spite of so much hardship and danger such as flood, drought and wars which sometimes threatened to engulf the entire nation. Owing to this optimist toward life, Vietnamese thinkers have always expressed hope in the face on the most difficult circumstances imposed on our people throughout history. Hoàng-Quang a famous author living in the darkest period of our history, the end of the Lê dynasty, managed to remain optimistic in his poem entitle "Hoài Nam Khúc": "At the end of this black winter the warm drizzle of spring will come. In spite of all turbulences peace will prevail in the end". Ngô-Thời-Sỹ (1726-1780) in his well-known poem dealing with his poverty maintained the same in flinching hope in a better future as ruled by the above "law" of cyclical change. "I often heard they say 'After Winter will Spring', all difficult situation will strengthened itself up in the end ; sunny days will follow rainy days, inevitably". The concept of evolution expressed in the analogy "Fertility in spring, maturity in summer, and fruit-bearing in autumn, withdrawal in winter" though very popular in agrarian societies is transmitted down the ages mainly through the media of folk-songs and folk stories. Only in the I Ching (Book of Change) is it recorded under the systematic form of a philosophy in which the seasonal periodic change is the source of "life perpetually renewed" and the "infinitely great virtue of the universe is life". Life is to the farmer something miraculous and mystic. "The farmer who plaints rice in the same manner as if he is performing some magic or religious rituals. His action does not bring immediate results. In a given weather condition and depending on the positioning of some stars in the 14

sky he begins to work the soil an extraordinary kind of work of which the result could not be seen immediately. Into the prepared soil he buries some seeds which are edible and as food can support his own body. Once these traditional works have been accomplished he will wait. He protects the cultivated patch of land with fences and prevents animals to interfere with the development of those seeds. In a few months he will gather a result which is many times more than what he sowed". _ (René de Hetrelon, "Essai sur l'origine des différences de mentalité entre L'Occident et L'Extrême Orient", France-Asie ). This is the basis of Asian belief in the perpetual life implied in the seasonal periodic change. This belief in life as the origin of the universe is not limited to areas east of the Himalaya but also common to the people living west of it, that is in India with its culture of the forest. These people are primarily nomadic but they too believe in life. "Everything has sprung from immortal life and is vibrating with life, for life is immense". _ ( R. Tagore, " Sadhana " ) But in India the periodic recurrence of life is believed to be the metempsychosis cycle of " Birth, aging, sickness and death " that belong to the animal kingdom, rather than the recurrence of seasonal change of the vegetal kingdom. But whether it is vegetal or animal, man or nature, all must start with life. Life is everything, physiological, psychological and spiritual : life is unity, individual, society and the universe. It is a process of development and expansion rather than stagnation, therefore the fundamental principle of things existing.

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