Author ｜
Che-ting Chang
Abstract ｜
In 1407, the Ming Dynasty in China included Vietnam as part of the Chinese territory. Before the inclusion, Vietnam had been independent for 468 years. For Vietnam, the integration into China had created a great impact. My research centers on the historical novel Hoàng việt xuân thu《皇越春秋》and refers to relevant historical data to investigate Vietnamese views of Confucian ethics and zhonghua 中華. My research discovers that, like China and Japan, Vietnam in the Ming dynasty prioritized public interest over private interest while looking for ways to meet both. In addition, the author of the historical novel Hoàng việt xuân thu advocates Vietnamese subjectivity and expresses “an awareness of themselves as Chinese.” Lợi Lê, on the other hand, held the view that, though culturally speaking, Vietnam was part of China and paid tribute to China, it was on equal terms with China and was politically independent. Fu Huang considered the Ming China as the center of the world and thought that the newly incorporated territory had to be culturally changed from a barbaric area into a civilized area through saint enlightenment. To sum up, the author of Hoàng việt xuân thu, and the two characters Lê and Huang perceive the relationships between China and Vietnam in three different ways. The author of Hoàng việt xuân thu, through the depiction of the novel characters, expressed how Vietnam is eager to compete with China and expressed a sense of superiority: the author even considered Vietnam is more authentically Chinese than China. Lê proposed that culturally speaking, Vietnam is one member of the Chinese family, but politically, Vietnam is an independent country: actually, Vietnam, as the southern dynasty, is equal with China as the northern dynasty. Finally, Huang regarded Vietnam as part of the Chinese world, politically, and culturally. Though the textual analysis and comparison of the three different viewpoints, one can detect the difference and diversity in the views of zhonghua between Vietnam and China.
keywords ｜
Vietnamese classical Chinese novel, historical romance, Hoàng việt xuân thu《皇越春秋》, views on zhonghua, Confucianism