The story of 'Simcheong', which appeared around 18th~19th century, and Vietnamese story of 'Thoai Khanh Chau Tuan' represent both Korea and Vietnamese' 'Hyo,' or filial piety. Both stories have their significances due to the fact that as the people re...
The story of 'Simcheong', which appeared around 18th~19th century, and Vietnamese story of 'Thoai Khanh Chau Tuan' represent both Korea and Vietnamese' 'Hyo,' or filial piety. Both stories have their significances due to the fact that as the people realize their nations' consciousness, instead of using the widespread Chinese writing, both stories were created using their own languages: Korean Hangeul, and Vietnamese Chu Nom. Also, Korea's 'Simcheong' and Vietnamese's Thoai Khanh Chau Tuan are well fitted to extract the idea of 'Hyo' which is melted inside of underpinning cultures of both nations. The two stories have motives of 'blindness and enlightment' and they are still performed in performing arts stages.
This research is to compare and contrast the idea of 'Hyo' from the two different stories through comparative analysis.
Before the actual comparison between the stories, I compared 'Hyo' between Korea and Vietnamese's classical literatures in chapter 2. I concluded from the comparison that both in Korea and Vietname, 'Hyo' meant the filial duty that is done from the children to their parents. Yet in Korean literatures, an unfilial child becomes filial whereas in Vietnamese's literatures, the unfilial gets punished at the end of the stories. Korean story emphasized the 'Hyo' that is done by sacrificing oneself; either parents or a child whereas Vietnamese story emphasized the strong bonds of the family relationship through 'Hyo.'
In chapter 3, the stories and the backgrounds of history for both stories were introduced. The author of 'the story of Simcheong' is not known but it was created with pure Korean writings, Hanguel, during the late "Choseon Dynasty" and it was handed down by 'Pansori'; a Korean traditional long epic song. So it is also called the 'Pansori novel.' the 'Pansori novels appeared as the nation's consciousness grew through the common people so it is evaluated as the most valuable literatures that can represent the minds and ideas of common people.
The original tales that directly or indirectly influenced 'the story of Simcheong' has been discovered widely here and abroad.
The author and the actual date of writing of Thoai Khanh Chau Tuan are not exact but it seems that this story, based on a tale, was recorded in 18th~19th century when the Chu Nom literatures were widespread. Chu Nom literatures appeared as Vietnamese people's consciousness grew when there was a political chaos in Vietname around 19th century. In Chu Nom literatures, there are 6·8forms and 7·7·6·8forms Chu Nom novels and 'High Wind' which imitates the form of Korean poems, ‘Dangryul Chu Nom Poems’and 'Folk songs'
Thoai Khanh Chau Tuan belongs to Truyen Nom bin dan genre which is composed of 870lines and 6·8forms Chu nom novels. Also Thoai Khanh Chau Tuan is being made to be performed in various performing art stages until now. And Cai Luong is the most famous play.
Cai Luong used the southern region's folk songs and the music that was influenced by French romantic-music. It was also influenced by French stages, equipments, and lights.
In chapter 4, the comparison was done in terms of story lines, characters, backgrounds, compositions, and topics of two stories. and in chapter 5, I tried to find the similarities and differences of "Hyo" from two different stories. The results are as follows.
First, both Simcheong in 'the story of Simcheong' and Thoai Khanh in the ‘Thoai Khanh Chau Tuan’ showed filial piety for parents but they differed that Simcheong was for parents whereas Thoai Khanh was for parents-in-law
Secondly, Simcheong and Thoai Khanh 's 'Hyo' were actions that sacrificed oneself for their parents. Yet, Simcheong's 'Hyo' was different from Thoai Khanh ‘s because Simcheong sacrificed her body to save her father but Thoai Khanh sacrificed in order to make strong bonds and good relationships for her family.
Third, when we look at the reasons for the sacfices, it was for fixing her father's disability to see in 'the story of Simcheong' and it was for reunion of husband and mother-in-law in Thoai Khanh Chau Tuan
In fourth, when implementing the sacrifices, it was her whole body and life that was scrificed in 'the story of Simcheong' whereas in Thoai Khanh Chau Tuan she sacrificed only her arm and eyes to protect her mother-in-law. Two stories have big differences on the purposes of 'Hyo;filial piety' because one was to save her own father by killing herself and one was for reuniting the strong bonds between family members even if it means sacrificing one's body parts.
After all, the 'Hyo' in Korean traditional 'story of Simcheong' emphasized the absolute sacrifice for the parents whereas Vietnamese Thoai Khanh Chau Tuan showed that 'Hyo' was placed as a necessary component of ethics to live harmoniously and peacefully with family members. As you can see the 'Hyo' in Korea is to serve the parents constantly with absolute sacrifice whether or not the parents are alive. However, Vietnam's 'Hyo' is as the "three duties before woman dies" which emphasize on the relationship bonds between the family members. If we understand the different concepts and ideas of 'Hyo' between two nations, we would be able to solve the multi-cultural family, especially Korea-Vietnamese couple, problems and help the social issues aroused by the problems.