The process of Vietnamizing Chinese poetics in Vietnamese poetry till the beginning of the 20th century

Abstract

Chinese poetics was present throughout the Vietnamese poetry historyand played an orthodox role in Vietnameseliterature until the beginning of the 20thcentury. However, this role did not destroy the Vietnamese poetics, but always stimulated the internal dynamicsin the national  poetry. The structure andprosody of Chinese poetics has been Vietnamized in two ways: 1)  by changingthe line of verse, mixing  seven word with six word lines. 2) by  hybridizing syntagms, like in Ca trù songs. At the beginning of the 20th century,Chinese poetics lost its orthodox role in the poetry’s structure and prosody. With the influence of French new poetry and the resurrection trend  of thenational cultural identities,  the processof Vietnamizing  Chinese poetics took a comprehensive boost. All the strict ruleand prosody of Chinese poetics lost their hold in many ways: by elasticatingthe line s of verse, by enlarging the cantos, or by changing the tone rules, etc., and wereeven replaced by  contrary soundsor parodical forms.The Vietnamese cultural identitiesparticularly the popular Vietnamese poetry , are the inner forces to revitalize the traditional values of Vietnamese nationalpoetry in its interactions with differentpoetry traditions in its modernization process.