CONFRONTING CHINA: PREMODERN VIETNAMESE DISCOURSES CHALLENGING THE CENTER-PERIPHERY PREJUDICE

DOI: 10.18173/2354-1067.2025-0006

Abstract

The paper elucidates the national complexities embedded in Vietnamese intellectuals’ political, cultural and literary discourses concerning the pre-modern VietnamChina relations. These complexities manifest through a dualistic tension between centrifugal and centripetal forces: pride in the nation’s cultural heritage while acknowledging the profound influence of Chinese culture; admiration and aspiration for achieving exemplary heights from the center, juxtaposed with caution, distance, and resistance to the center’s attractive and diffusive impact on the periphery; externally recognizing the asymmetrical correlation between the celestial empire and the peripheral states, yet internally asserting independence and autonomy. Investigating these expressions of dualistic resistance remains relevant for understanding the development of national consciousness in Vietnamese intellectual history and literature