Truyền kì việt nam thời trung đại từ góc nhìn huyền thoại (đối chiếu với truyền kì trung hoa thời trung đại) TT TIENG ANH

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING
HO CHI MINH CITY UNIVERSITY OF EDUCATION
--------------------------

HOANG THỊ THUY DUONG

VIETNAMESE STRANGE STORIES
IN THE MIDDLE AGES ACCORDING
TO THE MYTHICAL PERSPECTIVE
(COMPARING WITH CHINESE STRANGE
STORIES ON THOSE DAYS)

FIELD OF STUDY: VIETNAMESE LITERATURE
TRAINING CODE: 62 22 01 21
THE DOCTORAL THESIS SUMMARY
VIETNAMESE LANGUAGE AND CULTURE

SCIENCE INSTRUCTOR:
ASSOC.PROF.DR. ĐINH PHAN CAM VAN

Ho Chi Minh City – 2021


The research has been completed at Ho Chi Minh City University
of Education

Science instructor:
Associate Professor, Doctor Phan Cam Van Dinh
Reviewer 1: Associate Professor, Doctor Quang Truong Le
Reviewer 2: Associate Professor, Doctor Kim Chau Nguyen
Reviewer 3: Doctor Anh Thu Ta

The thesis will be defended in front of the Thesis Assessment
Council at:
…………………………………………………………….
………………………………………………………………………...
at ………. hour…………day………..month…………year………..

Thesis can be found in the library of:
- The National Library of Vietnam
- The Library of Ho Chi Minh City University of Education
- The Library of General Science in Ho Chi Minh City


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INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale of research
1.1 During the twentieth century, mythology became more
popular with various theories referring to the notions of myths.
When researchers reviewed literary works from the mythical
perspective, they would determine the original form and function
of mythical factors in the primitive culture. In particular,
researchers were able to analyze the transformation of the form
and function about mythical elements when they brought them
into literary works.
1.2 The appearance of mythology has ever played an
important part in humans’ lives. Learning about mythical factors
in literary works is to study, analyze and explain why myths have
had the enduring vitality in literature. As a result, the spiritual
culture of people and the nation has been revealed, and the need of

experiencing unique art forms has been highly appreciated.
1.3 The strange stories are a genre of Vietnamese narrative
prose works in the Middle Ages. They were studied individually
from the perspective of sociology, poetics, etc. Therefore,
Vietnamese strange stories in the Middle Ages had to be studied
from various perspectives to expose their special values.
1.4 The strange stories originated from China, and then they
strongly affected on the cultural lives of the Vietnamese people.
The study of Vietnamese strange stories in the Middle Age
according to mythical perspectives is an approach to problems
which have not solved and are a gap in the research topics.
1.5 Studying about the strange stories is an essential content
in the curriculum of general education and higher education in
Vietnam. The deciphering of the mythical elements in the strange
stories will help readers and learners understand more about the


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value of the works. Those things are also consistent with the trend
of integration - integrating related knowledge in each subject and
many subjects in the teaching process at High Schools and
Universities, or Colleges.
1.6 The genre of Vietnamese strange stories was originated
from China. The influence of Chinese strange stories also spread
to other East Asian countries such as Japan and Korea. It is the
regional genre. Although strange stories of East Asian countries
had the same genre, they all revealed the profound national spirit
and cultural distinction of each nation. The researcher identified
and explained the similarities and differences of using mythical

factors from Vietnamese and Chinese strange stories. Regarding to
the strange stories, the researcher will clarify the cultural
interference and the unique cultural values of each country.
For the above reasons, the researcher chooses the topic:
Vietnamese strange stories in the Middle Ages according to the
mythical perspective (comparing with Chinese strange stories on
those days).
2. Purposes and tasks of research
2.1 Purposes of research
The thesis was built to study the presence, origin and
meaning of mythical elements about Vietnamese strange stories in
the Middles Ages. The comparison of mythical factors about
Vietnamese strange stories with Chinese strange stories had
indicated the similarities and differences in the system of the two
countries.
2.2 Tasks of research
The study will be carried out on surveying the overview of
the research context and determining the approachs of the thesis.


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Then the main features of myths and the representation of myths
in Vietnamese literature will be analysed. Finally, Vietnamese
strange stories in the Middles Ages according to the perspectives
of mythical thinking and mythical expression art compared with
medieval Chinese strange stories will also be analysed.
3. Subjects and scopes of research
3.1 Subjects of research
The subjects of research are the mythical elements in the

strange stories of Vietnam and China in the Middle Ages.
3.2 Scopes of research
The researcher will conduct a survey on Vietnamese strange
stories of the Middle Ages in the text which is Collection of
Chinese characters' novels of Vietnam, Volumes 1 and 2, (Tran
Nghia, The World Publisher, 1997). The collection consists of
Thanh Tong di thao (The manuscript of Thanh Tong - Le Thanh
Tong?), Truyen ki man luc (The collection of strange stories Nguyen Du), Truyen ki tan pha (The new collection of strange
stories - Doan Thi Diem), Tan truyen ki luc (The new strange
stories - Pham Quy Thich), Truyen ki trich luc (Incomplete
recording of stories and autographs - No name), Van nang tieu su
(Collection of legends - Pham Dinh Duc), and Lan Tri kien van
luc (Literary works of Lan Tri - Vu Trinh).
Besides, the researcher will also survey on the Medieval
Chinese strange stories which will be analysed according to the
strange stories of the Tang dynasty, short novels of the Ming
dynasty as Tien dang tan thoai (New stories told while the light
went off of Cu Huu), and the Thanh dynasty with Lieu trai chi di
(Strange stories are written in the temporary house of Bo Tung
Linh).


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4. Methods of research
The methods of research will be used as (1) mythological
criticism, (2) historical and social criticism, and (3) poetics
criticism.
5. New contributions of research
- The thesis specified, gave statistics, classified mythical

elements about strange stories of Vietnam and China. Besides, it
applied mythical theory to expain, analyze the morphology and
semantics of those elements.
- The thesis identified and analyzed the similarities and
differences about morphology and semantics of myths in the
strange stories and mythical stories. Then, the thesis analyzed
popular culture, the imprint of the times, and the writers’
creativeness in inheriting the mythical elements.
- The thesis identified, analyzed, and explained the
similarities and differences about morphology and semantics of
mythical factors in the strange stories of Vietnam and China. From
that, the thesis pointed out the cultural interference and the unique
values of each country.
- The thesis is the first work to be conducted to identify and
analyze the mythical elements about Vietnamese strange stories
comparing with Chinese strange stories in the Middle Ages. The
thesis can be used as a reference in the process of researching and
teaching medieval Vietnamese literature at university.
6. Organization of thesis
The thesis consists of six main parts which are table of
contents, introduction, the four chapters, conclusion, references
and appendices.


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CHAPTER 1. OVERVIEW OF THE RESEARCH
SITUATION ABOUT VIETNAMESE STRANGE
STORIES IN THE MIDDLE AGES AND THE
APPROACHS

OF THE THESIS
1.1 OVERVIEW OF THE RESEARCH SITUATION ABOUT
VIETNAMESE STRANGE STORIES IN THE
MIDDLE AGES
When studying the topic of the thesis: Vietnamese strange
stories in the Middle Ages according to the mythical perspective
(comparing with Chinese strange stories on those days), the
researcher based on the content and the art of narrative works in
Vietnam from the 10th century to 19th century and the genre
division of the previous researchers. From that, the researcher
determined the scopes of the survey about typical Vietnamese
strange stories in the Middle Ages, including the following main
works as Thanh Tong di thao (The manuscript of Thanh Tong - Le
Thanh Tong?), Truyen ki man luc (The collection of strange
stories - Nguyen Du), Truyen ki tan pha (The new collection of
strange stories - Doan Thi Diem), Tan truyen ki luc (The new
strange stories - Pham Quy Thich), Truyen ki trich luc
(Incomplete recording of stories and autographs - No name), Van
nang tieu su (Collection of legends - Pham Dinh Duc), and Lan
Tri kien van luc (Literary works of Lan Tri - Vu Trinh).


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1.1.1 Studying Vietnamese strange stories in the Middle Ages
from the perspective of genre
1.1.1.1 Naming
For the strange stories, researchers had various ways of
naming and classifying them; however, the term "strange stories"
has been used by the majority of researchers.

1.1.1.2 The process of formation and development
The strange stories have been existed according to a genre
including beginning stages, developing stages, and regressive
stages.
1.1.1.3 Characteristics
Vietnamese strange stories shaped the genre of both content
and art. They were often written to be true to daily lives of
characters with love between men and women. In general, no
matter whom writers wrote about, they always brought the
‘strange’ things to the readers.
1.1.2 Studying Vietnamese strange stories in the Middle Ages
from the perspective of works
As the best works of Vietnamese strange stories, Truyen ki
man luc (The collection of strange stories - Nguyen Du), and
Thanh Tong di thao (The manuscript of Thanh Tong - Le Thanh
Tong ?) are mentioned or analyzed the most in many articles,
books, and theses.
1.1.3 Studying Vietnamese strange stories in the Middle Ages
from the perspective of comparision
The comparison of Truyen ki man luc (The collection of
strange stories - Vietnam) and Tien dang tan thoai (New stories
told while the light went off - China) has been of most interest to


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many researchers. The comparisons showed that Vietnamese had
ever preceived foreign literature flexibly and creatively.
1.1.4 Studying Vietnamese strange stories in the Middle Ages
from the perspective of folklore

Some researchers confirmed that the strange stories had ever
thought to have a close relationship with folklore and religion.
1.2 The approachs of the thesis
The researcher mainly applied structural theories,
anthropological theories, and psychoanalytic theories about myths
in order to study about mythical concepts in strange stories. The
researcher only focused on applying the theories to help discuss
about myths. In addition, the research also applied the theories of
structuralism: the conception of mythical structure of C.L. Strauss;
anthropological theories: the conception of animism of E.B.Tylor
to identify and analyze the characteristics of thinking, art of myths
and the presence of myths in Vietnamese strange stories in the
Middle Ages. The research applied psychoanalytic theories
(especially the conception of C.G. Jung) to study archetypes and
emotional experiences in Vietnamese strange stories in the Middle
Ages.
The researcher used the concepts of poetic theories to model
the works and analyze the elements in the myths and in strange
stories of Vietnam and China in the Middle Ages.


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CHAPTER 2. MYTHS AND THEIR PRESENCE IN
VIETNAMESE LITERATURE
2.1 Myths
According to the notions of some previous researchers,
myths can be defined as ancient folk stories telling about gods,
characters, natural and social phenomena that were the first
appearance of humans.

“They are stories about the gods, the adored
characters or related characters to the gods, about the
generations appeared in the early times, participating
directly and indirectly in the creation of the world as well as
the creation of its factors – nature and culture”
(Bui Manh Nhi, p. 74,
2012)
This research was conducted to study mythical elements
existed in the mythical stories.
2.2 Mythical thinking
2.2.1 Homogeneity of categories
As surveying myths of Vietnam and China, the research
realized that mythical thinking has the homogeneity of elements in
pairs of categories, and the most typical ones are between nature
and supernature; human and supernature; human and nature,
beginning – cause.
2.2.2 The inclusion of archetypes
The archetypes are the symbols of origin, enduringness, and
universality, so myths contain a variety of archetypes, including
both natural and social archetypes.


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2.3 Mythical art
Myths showed the features of mythical art such as building
characters, motifs, space and time.
2.4 Mythical presence in Vietnamese literature
2.4.1 Folklore
Narrative genres of folk literature such as legends, heroic

epics, and fairy tales are the profound inheritance of mythical
thinking and poetics. In particular, they have inherited the
concepts of animism, totemism from myths.
2.4.2 Written literature
Regarding to Vietnamese literature in the Middle Ages,
transforming from mythical elements into literary works was
recognized the most through the stories of "gods, demons, heroes"
and strange stories. Therefore, the myths were reflected in them
both content and art. For the literary works of the twentieth
century, the inheritance of myth was most evident in short stories
and novels after Renovation Period (1986). They did not only
show the mythologization of religious characters, but they also
expressed the problem of deciphering the myths - having holy
explanation of many historical and cultural characters and events.
The mythical motifs, illusory and spiritual time and space of
myths were also inherited in modern literary works to reveal more
clearly the real life and inner of people. For Chinese literature,
mythical elements also had various expressions in literary works
in each historical period.


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CHAPTER 3. VIETNAMESE STRANGE STORIES IN THE
MIDDLE AGES - VIEWING FROM THE MYTHICAL
THINKING (COMPARING WITH CHINESE
STRANGE STORIES ON THOSE DAYS)
3.1 Divinising folk characters
3.1.1 Historical characters
According to the survey results, 11/104 strange stories

showed the divinization of historical characters among typical
Vietnamese strange stories. The writers of strange stories seeing
the extraordinary in specific people, bestowing them with ultimate
authority, creating a shimmering halo for the characters had
deified historical characters. The honoring of historical characters
showed that humans were aware of loving and believing in those
characters, and being proud of traditional values of the nation. The
survey results also showed that typical strange stories of China
hardly expressed inspiration to honor historical characters.
Instead, Chinese strange stories were mainly interested in strange
loves and strange dates of humans in daily lives. The typical
inspiration of Chinese strange stories was worldly inspiration, and
in fact, Chinese strange stories were the works of urban culture.
3.1.2 Religious characters
According to the survey results, 16/104 Vietnamese strange
stories and 30/118 Chinese strange stories showed the deification
of religious characters, and most of them were monks and Taoists
who could foretell, transform and eliminate demons. They
replaced the image of the cosmic tree to do the task of connecting
heaven and earth, keeping in touch with the gods to protect human
beings. The deification of religious characters manufested love


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and respect for humans who had wisdom, noble feelings and
extraordinary actions.
The deification of folk characters expressed the
homogeneity of the categories of humans and supernatures in
mythical thinking.

3.2 The rebirth of archetypes
3.2.1 God archetype
According to the survey results, 44/104 Vietnamese strange
stories and 46/118 Chinese strange stories showed inspiration to
honor the gods. Gods of things and phenomena in nature have still
existed such as a god of rain, a god of lightning, a god of wind, a
god of river, a god of sea who are belived to be manifesting and
transforming by controlling natural phenomena. In addition to the
gods representing the forces of nature, there were various other
gods, (including fairies). In strange stories; many talented,
virtuous, honorable characters also became gods. Therefore,
human's attitude towards the gods is one of admiration, awe, and
gratitude.
3.2.2 Demon archetype
According to the survey results, 39/104 Vietnamese strange
stories and 55/118 Chinese strange stories were written about
demonic characters. These characters included ghosts; goblin
animals, plants and objects. Because of some cultural differences,
the most typically miraculous character of Chinese strange stories
was the fox; however, it was hardly ever mentioned in Vietnamese
strange stories. On the other hands, characters written in
Vietnamese strange stories were of great personality. Demonic
characters mentioned many times in strange stories made the
shaping of strange stories in particular and written literature in


12

general. Demonic characters had the same lives of thought,
emotion, and action as complex as humans. Particularly, there

used to be demonic characters (usually female) in strange stories
who were searching of free and intense love. When humans met
with demons, they were frightened; however, they were loved and
empathized.
3.2.3 Water archetype
According to the survey results, 34/104 Vietnamese strange
stories and 20/118 Chinese strange stories were written about the
water archetype. In the strange stories, the water archetypes such
as clouds, rain, rivers, seas, ponds, lakes, lagoons, and creeks were
mentioned many times. In the strange stories, water archetype still
retained the original meaning as in the myths. It was the source of
life, purification, and rebirth. Humans’ experience in water was
also reflected in the belief that there were worlds where water
could bring humans a better life. The water archetype did not only
show the humans’ experience, but it also discreetly reflected the
people's attitude towards the social reality at that time.
3.2.4 Night archetype
According to the survey results, night archetype occured
with the same frequency in Vietnamese strange stories (55/104
stories) and in Chinese strange stories (53/118 stories). Night was
a sacred time – a time when supernatural forces often appeared in
the mundane world. Fantasy characters helped mundane
characters (mainly schoolboys) fulfilled their dreams of love,
fame and assets. Fantasy characters also borrowed the night to
search for lovers and friends in the mundane world. Night was the
time when the unconsciousess, aspirations, and strong personality
of the characters were revealed the most.


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In general, Vietnamese and Chinese strange stories inherited
mythical thinking in the direction of expanding and mundaneizing
the characters and archetypes of myths. Since then, the characters
and the archetypes became close to humans’ lives.


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CHAPTER 4. VIETNAMESE STRANGE STORIES IN THE
MIDDLE AGES - VIEWING FROM THE MYTHICAL
ART (COMPARING WITH CHINESE STRANGE
STORIES ON THOSE DAYS)
4.1 Mythical motifs in Vietnamese strange stories in the
Middle Ages
4.1.1 Epiphany motif
The epiphany of the god was mentioned in 42/204
Vietnamese strange stories and in 43/118 Chinese strange storiess.
Gods could transform into things, phenomena or incarnate in the
form of humans in front of other individuals. The gods often
manifested themselves through dreams to support humans,
especially students. Besides, the epiphany in a dream also satisfied
the personal desires of the gods such as requests for worship,
lawsuits, couple reunions. Therefore, the epiphany in strange
stories was really earthly.
4.1.2 Transforming motif
Making a survey about Vietnamese and Chinese myths, the
researcher realized that the transforming motif consisted of two
main forms as (1) the form of an object that turned into a person,
and (2) the form of a person that turned into an object. The two

forms of transformation appeared in 46/104 Vietnamese strange
stories and in 57/118 Chinese strange stories. The subject of the
transformation had not needed the help of supernatural forces.
Moreover, the transforming characters were all for very mundane
reasons such as searching for lovers or soul-mates. The swift
transformation of fantasy characters created both a real thing and
non-real thing of the strange stories.


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4.1.3 Conquering death motif
The motif of conquering death appeared in 23/104 typical
strange stories of Vietnam and in 44/118 typical strange stories of
China. Its appearance in Chinese strange stories was more
common than in Vietnamese one. One of the most important
reasons was that influence of Taoism became very popular in
China. It had ever created a spiritual fulcrum for people that lives
could be eternal after death. Besides, the motif also expressed the
thought of encouraging good things and punishing evil ones advising people to live honestly in order to be deified or rewarded
with longevity.
4.1.4 Strange marriage motif
Motif of strange marriage appeared in 21/104 Vietnamese
strange stories and in 42/118 Chinese strange stories. In these
works, the love relationship between people and fantasy
characters was not to give birth to extraordinary characters like in
mythical stories, and it only helped satisfy the incident feelings of
humans. The love between a couple was the only happiness of
humans. However, only fantasy characters were the strongest ones
who could seek their love, and strange dates and fantasy

characters were the only ones who brought love. According to the
motif of strange marriage, the author discreetly expressed humans’
attitude towards the reality of life through a new and surreal form.
4.2 Mythical space in Vietnamese strange stories in the Middle
Ages
4.2.1 Co-existence space of real and non-real world
According to the survey, the co-existence of the real world
and the non-real world in Vietnamese strange stories was 21/104.
With romantic inspiration, the Chinese strange stories appeared


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this co-existence in many works (35/118 stories). The space coexistence of realms in Vietnamese and Chinese strange stories was
mainly the co-existence of (1) the earthly world and the celestial
world; (2) the earthly world and the fairy world; (3) the earthly
world and the aquatic world; and (4) the earthly world and the
hell.
4.2.2 Co-existence space of sacred center and secular periphery
In the Vietnamese strange stories, 59/104 stories contained
co-existence space of sacred center and secular periphery, and the
ratio was 49/118 in the Chinese strange stories. Temples,
hermitages, caves, mountains, forests, abandoned houses, river
wharfs, mounds, tombs were the sacred center in Vietnamese and
Chinese strange stories. Therefore, the co-existence space of
sacred center and secular periphery was most obvious in the
appearance of worship construction in the living space of people.
4.3 Mythical time in Vietnamese strange stories in the Middle
Ages
4.3.1 Co-existence of synchronic time

According to the survey, 23/104 Vietnamese strange stories
and 7/118 Chinese strange stories referred to ritual time. It was a
time when there was spiritual power, and it could create the
meeting between humans and supernatural forces even for a
moment. Therefore, humans lived with both mundane time and
sacred time - the time of ritual practice.
4.3.2 Co-existence of diachronical time
There were 35/104 in the Vietnamese strange stories and
39/118 in the Chinese strange stories mentioned time of
diachronical co-existence (real and karmic reincarnation time). It
showed that humans were aware of thinking of the ancestors and


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the previous generations. It also made the works to diachronically
expand the amplitude of time and the scope of reflecting humans’
life. Besides, it had the function of promoting good things and
punishing evil things while humans created their own destiny.
The motifs of mythical space and time helped the strange
stories to expand the amplitude of reflection in various aspects.
The writers inherited mythical elements, and they also modifed
them to be in accordance with the meaning of the strange stories
as well. Therefore, the works had both the illusory color of the
myths and the closeness to human life.
CONCLUSION
Although the strange stories were not valued as much as
poetry and other prose genres, they had achieved remarkable
results. They had strongly reflected humans’ lives with magical
and delicate penmanship. In addition, there were a relatively large

number of works, and many people were interested in reading
them. As a result, they had become very popular and had been of
great importance. It could be said that the strange stories in the
Middle Ages were one of the important narrative genres in
literature of Vitenam and China. Recently, when the science of
myths had been formed, the researcher wanted to choose a new
method to learn much about the strange stories in Vietnam.
1. As one of the typical genres of narrative prose in the
Middle Ages, the strange stories were paid much attention to by
many researchers. Because of the genre characteristics of
medieval literature, they were called by different names by
researchers, authors, and introducers. Although they were
originated from China, the Vietnamese strange stories had their
own lives with their beginnings, brilliant development,


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improvement and integration with other genres. They were always
works written about the nation and Vietnamese people, and they
were the products to combine the ability of the writers’ writing
and had an influence by folklore and culture of Vietnam. Although
a number of researchers mentioned, analyzed, and explained the
mythical elements about Vietnamese strange stories in the Middle
Ages, there has not been a work to systematically study about
Vietnamese strange stories in the Middle Ages according to a
mythical perspective.
The researcher mainly applied structural theories,
anthropological theories, psychoanalytic theories on the mythical
issues to study myths in the strange stories. In addition, the

researcher also used the concepts of poetic theories to model the
works and analyze the elements. After the process of applying
theories of mythical criticism to study medieval Vietnamese
strange stories comparing with medieval Chinese strange stories,
the reseacher found that the inrush of mythical factors in the
strange stories did not only show the mythical thinking of the
authors in particular and people in the Middle Ages in general, but
they also created a change about the form of presenting them.
2. When conducting a survey on myths, the researcher
found mythical feelings of humans about themselves, nature,
supernature and real life. That was the concept of animism,
loneliness in front of the endless universe; however, humans were
small, and humans’ lives were limited. As a result, it was shown
specifically through the characteristics of mythical thinking - the
homogeneity of elements in pairs of categories: humans - nature;
nature - supernature; humans – supernature; beginning – cause;
and the inclusion of archetypes. The conceptions have been kept


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up to now when science seemed to have enlightened everything.
The most noticeable existence of myth is a mythical stories, so it
also had some artistic features, and the most typical feature was
the art of building characters, motifs, space and time. Myths
casted its shadow into literature as proving the permanence of the
spiritual cultural sediments of human. In Vietnamese and Chinese
literature, the representation of myths became very diversified in
both folklore and written literature. The representation of myth in
literature was not only in mythical thinking, but it was also in

mythical art. In general, the return to myths - to folklore - was the
process by which a literary work was returning to the spiritual
world and the unconscious world of people through a form of
"strangeization" full of mystery.
3. In terms of thinking, the strange stories had inherited
myths to express the inner world of people and the nation.
Through the process of conducting surveys on the strange stories,
the researcher found that they had deified characters of history and
religion. For this reason, it expressed the homogeneousness of
categories between human and supernature in mythical thinking. It
was strongly expressed in the strange stories, but it was not in
mythical stories. Historical characters had been deified, and they
possessed the same supernatural powers as gods. After their death,
they still supported humans’ lives. They existed in endless space,
eternal time like the gods in myths. In addition to historical
characters, the strange stories also represented religious characters
who were monks and Taoists. They replaced the image of the
cosmic tree in mythical stories. They were believed to have many
special powers to connect humans and gods. Besides, they could
directly help humans or ask gods to support them. The authors of


20

the strange stories and their readers had deified historical
characters - seeing the extraordinary in specific people, endowing
them with supreme power, creating a shimmering halo for the
characters. The honoring of historical characters showed that
humans were aware of loving and believing in those characters,
and being proud of traditional values of the nation. The deification

of religious characters indicated love and respect for those who
had wisdom, noble feelings and extraordinary actions. The
religious characters in the strange stories had reflected the
influence of religion on the Vietnamese and their aesthetic
sentiments.
The strange stories were an inspiration of the experience to
archetypes. The most typical ones in the strange stories were the
god, demon, water and night. In Vietnamese and Chinese strange
stories, archetypes became closer to humans’ lives. Researcher
C.G.Jung said that myths contained archetypes - symbols of the
collective unconscious. E. Cassirer's symbolic theory or L.L.
Bruhl's theory of primordial consciousness… also confirmed that
the symbols was the core sign of myths. As a result, the strange
stories inherited the archetypes in myths in the direction of
experience; the forms and meanings of archetypes had been
expanded and secularized. However, humans’ emotions were still
a complex when experiencing archetypes: they were empathetic,
grateful, attached, scared, but they were also frightened and selfconscious. The archetypes did not only contribute to affirming the
genrestyle of the strange stories, but they also created a deep
sympathy in the hearts of readers when revealing the instincts and
mysterious hidden corners of the humans’ soul.


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4. In terms of expressing methods, the strange stories
inherited the myths to expand the range of reflection, create a
multi-meaningful voice for the stories. According to E.W.Count,
because of the relationship of origin and similarity, myths and
literature described the same "mythical grammar". Surveying the

strange stories of Vietnam and China, the researcher found that the
strange stories inherited some mythical poetic elements.
Representation was the mythical motifs, space and time. Mythical
motifs in the strange stories such as epiphany motif,
transformating motif, conquering death motif, strange marriage
motif. Mythical motifs had been mundane, helping the strange
stories express life in a form of shimmer and fancifullness. In the
strange stories of Vietnam and China, the mythical space was coexistence space of real and non-real world, co-existence space of
sacred center and secular periphery. The mythical time in the
strange stories was time of synchronic co- existence and time of
diachronical co-existence. The space and time of co-existence
proved that the strange stories were the interweaving of the virtual
and the real, the sacred and the mundane. Therefore, humans
could escape from reality which was full of pain and tears.
Besides, humans thought that they had sacred space and time.
They believed that they were supported and protected when
encountering the opposites and pains of life. Time and space of
co-existence helped the stories to expand the range of reflections
in various directions. The characters were free to move mentally
and physically. In general, the elements of mythical poetics were
used as a new form of reappearance of reality in the strange
stories, so they could create multi-meaning for the stories.


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5. The strange stories were the regional genre. As other East
Asian countries: Japan, South Korea, North Korea, Vietnamese
literature had acquired the strange stories from Chinese literature,
especially from Tien dang tan thoai (New stories told while the

light went off of Cu Huu). When studying Vietnamese strange
stories in comparision with Chinese strange stories from a
mythical perspective, the researcher realized the frequency,
morphology and semantics of the mythical elements in the strange
stories of Vietnam and China had similarities and differences
through specific statistics. This proved that Vietnamese strange
stories in the Middle Ages expressed the values of Vietnamese
culture besides their acquirement and influence. Although the
strange stories of East Asian countries shared the same genres of
the strange stories, they revealed the deep national spirit and
cultural differences of each nation. Vietnamese strange stories
affirmed their personality with patriotic thought and worldly
inspiration. Historical characters who had devoted themselves to
the great cause of the country were deified and transformed into
immortal gods - expressing the strong national pride of the strange
stories. The strange stories were associated with the situation of
the countries and humans, reappeared the real life of Vietnamese
people.
In the endless flow of time, the value of myths and folklore
had never fallen into oblivion. Regarding to the myths and the
original spiritual elements of humans, the strange stories did not
only affirm the personality of the genre, but they also created a
deep sympathy in the readers' soul.


LIST OF PUBLISHED ARTICLES AND SCIENTIFIC WORKS
RELATED TO THE THESIS THEME
1. Hoang Thi Thuy Duong. (2016). Decoding night time in "Lieu trai
chi di" of Bo Tung Linh from the mythological perspective. Ho
Chi Minh City University of Education Science Journal of

Science, 5, 84 – 90.
2. Hoang Thi Thuy Duong. (2016). Some typical motifs in "Lieu trai
chi di" of Bo Tung Linh from the mythological perspective. Can
Tho University Journal of Science, 46C, 7-14.
3. Hoang Thi Thuy Duong. (2017). "Truyen ki man luc" of Nguyen
Du from the perspective of archetypal criticism, Proceedings of
the scientific conference for graduate students and PhD students
in the academic year 2017-2018 (p.41-51). Ho Chi Minh City: Ho
Chi Minh City University of Education Publishing House.
4. Hoang Thi Thuy Duong. (2018). "Truyen ki man luc" of Nguyen
Du from Sigmund Freud's theory of the personal unconsciousness.
Can Tho University Journal of Science, volume 54, No. 3C,
216 – 222.
5. Hoang Thi Thuy Duong. (2018). Characters in strange stories of
Vietnam and China from the perspective of mythological cricism.
Duy Tan University Journal of Science and Technology, 5,
25 – 32.
6. Hoang Thi Thuy Duong. (2018). Researcher Le Tri Vien's point of
view on the world's perception of medieval people: the application
of understanding "Thanh Tong di thao". Le Tri Vien – the talented
music score (p.81 – 91). Ho Chi Minh City: Ho Chi Minh City
University of Education Publishing House.
7. Hoang Thi Thuy Duong. (2019). Read Vietnamese and Chinese
strange stories from the point of view of complex thinking of
Edgar Morin. Proceedings of the international conference: East
Asia – literary research and education issues (p.85 – 90). Ho Chi
Minh City: Culture and Arts Publishing House.
8. Hoang Thi Thuy Duong. (2019). Myths in Vietnamese and Chinese
strange stories and the expression of Vietnamese cultural values.
Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference:

Researching and Teaching Vietnamese and Vietnamese Studies in
Universities (p.130 – 138). Hanoi: Hanoi National University
Publishing House.