Writings of Thai Dinh Lan and Dang Huy Tru on the trip “vien hanh lan quoc” (Long travel to neighbour country)

DOI: 10.18173/2354-1067.2020-0022

Abstract

Thai Dinh Lan (1801 – 1859) and Dang Huy Tru (1825 – 1874) were both in charge of Mandarin during the period with massive difficulties (the second half of Man Thanh's reign and the second half of Nguyen Gia Long's reign); they also travelled to neighbour country for short time and wrote poetry about those trips. Since they had different purposes of travelling (Thai Dinh Lan caught a storm while being on his boat ride, then roamed to Dai Nam, Dang Huy Tru twice to go to Guangzhou to take care of the country), the poetic content written in the journey was basically different. However, between the two mandarin - writers who lived in the Nineteenth century of Taiwan and Vietnam, there are many similarities in terms of character, talent, patriotism, political career... In particular, some other similarities about human notions, Confucian ideals, national spirit of harmony... have been expressed in the compositions of their “journey to neighbour country”. The article attempts to show a unique and cultural portrait as well as a separate contribution by Thai Dinh Lan and Dang Huy Tru for the relationship between the two neighboring territories based on the group of works written during the period of residence in neighbour country