Studying Sino-Vietnameseprose stories, including legendary stories, a part of national literature, will contribute to understanding the literary and cultural heritage of our nation.
The study of Vietnamese legendary stories still has many different opinions, which have greatly influenced the right and proper identification of appearance and achievements of the legendary work according to its genre characteristics.
Therefore, it is necessary inthe endeavor to delve deeply the systematic study of the literary heritage array which still has these issues, then analyzing and evaluating more scientifically, aiming to reconstruct the appearance and to point out the distinctive artistic features of Vietnamese medieval legends.
Legendary stories are one of the literary genres very attractive to readers not only because of its fictional elements but also in the rich topics and progressive thought, especially the stories of the medieval period of Vietnam. With the wide amplitude of reflection and reception inherent in the form of narrative prose, the works of this period actually recreate the real picture and sketch images of life through beliefs, souls, emotions, etc., of Vietnamese people.
The study of the genre of legends in general and medieval legends of Vietnam in particular only really flourished after 1975.The concentrated, diverse and rich research works: translation, concepts, content, art, etc., really describe many issues behind the magic curtain of legend.Not stopping at a limited scope in the country, along with the policy of opening since 1986, the medieval legends of Vietnam has "crossed the border", placed in relation to the legend of the Chinese literary area. From there, we have a comprehensive, deeper view of this genre, especially the unique identities only found in medieval legends of Vietnam, unmistakable with other countries in the region.
Inheriting the previous works, we have introduced a general and comprehensive concept of the legend genre based on acquiring the achievements, plus the awareness of individuals, we conceive that legendary stories in the genre of classical Chinese narrative prose, originated from the stories of the gods, monstrosities and monsters in folk. When introduced into Vietnam, the legend only retains the form of genre,while the content is entirely written by Vietnamese authors based on the inheritance of the national culture and the rich imagination of the story-writer. Works of this genre always have many elements of fantasy and myth, but the content of thought is directed towards real life. The world in which the authors make their stories is considered a replica of the real world. All these magical, miraculous creations are not outside the purpose of upholding people's dreams and aspirations in contemporary society. We also offer criteria to help determine the legend genre. The first criterion of the story is in the "bizarre" element shown in the story content.This factor manifests itself in the form of anthropomorphism and miraculousness. The second criterion is established in the factor "fictional".The art of fiction manifests itself primarily in depicting character images. The third criterion is established through the composition method. The author's role in the legend often plays as the person behind the character, controlling all characters' words. We also gave explanations to determine the most developed stage of the Vietnamese medieval legends. From the collected works, recorded, edited from folk stories and historical stories, religious stories such as "Việt điện u linh tập", "Lĩnh Nam chích quái lục" to "Thánh Tông di thảo" to Nguyễn Dữ's culminating work "Truyền kỳ mạn lục" in the XV-XVI centuries, is an enduring, tireless development process of author generations. Unfortunately, by the end of the nineteenth century, the legend, along with some other types of medieval literature, was no longer developed and had been "forced to die", forever retreating to the past since the literary thinking of the Vietnamese has moved to modernist thinking due to the influence of Western culture and literature. Although the magic element is still used in other types of literature such as fictional literature, myth ical literature, but in essence it is different from the legend.
Following the development process of legends of the medieval period in Vietnam, it can be seen that hidden within the works is a clear mark of folklore, especially spiritual-cultural elements. On the basis of indigenous beliefs, Vietnamese people have incorporated spiritual elements in all three Confucian - Buddhist - Taoism religions to enrich their beliefs. Spiritual elements in Vietnamese medieval legendssuch as the beliefs of Mother worship and the image of women, issues: death, dreams, omens, prayers, ghosts, reincarnation, etc., are expressed in a very rich, diverse and vivid way, even containing advanced humanistic ideals of the era. Legendary stories really prove that this is a genre that has completed the historical mission entrusted by the era, reflecting the spirituality of the medieval Vietnamese. Thereby, it can be seen that the cultural values, in the inadvertent flow of time, still do not fade,forming the habits and customs of the nation. These cultural elements are deeply rooted in the folk beliefs of the Vietnamese people, for posterity and the world seeing the bride of the Vietnamese soul. These are the unique and outstanding values of the legends in Vietnamese literature in particular and in the Chinese literature area in general.
Expressive art of Vietnamese medieval legends is rich and diverse. Fiction and bizarre play a central, mainstream and throughout role in the construction of legendary stories. The anthropomorphization and miraculousness make the character image both real and virtual. The supernatural worlds, the Heaven, the Hell, and the Aquarium, make the time and space of the legend escape from reality. The escape, the fiction is like sending the mind, the emotions of people into a supernatural world, out of social reality, which is too much suffering, injustice and tears. In other words, it is an indirect reflection on society, getting rid of the government's control. Besides, the folk element, namely folk motifs, provided the legend plot, reflection art, especially in the early days when this genre was newly formed.
Besides, we have put Vietnamese legends in the context of East Asian legends stories to consider. We find that the Vietnamese legends really have a lot of influence from the legends of the countries in the region, especially the Chinese legends with the great shadow of "Tiễn đăng tân thoại". However, besides understanding development factors, similarities in poetry, etc., Vietnamese legends have their own unique creations in terms of content and art, creating distinct colors in the context of exchanges and acculturation with the literature of countries in East Asia. Patriotism, humanitarian thought, world affairs inspiration, the image of a talented, virtuous and beautiful woman, and the influences from Vietnamese culture and folklore are the points that make that difference, because literature is the ideology, sentiments, imbued with the culture of each nation. These differences have created a unique flavor for each art literary garden of each country, and, in part, contribute to the regional and global riches of literature.
With this article, we hope to contribute a part in building a complete appearance for Vietnamese medieval legends in the context of "multilateral, multi-faceted" as it is today. As a result, the teaching and learning work on this literary genre at all levels is also focused and more convenient.
MinhLDK