A Rare Colorful Illustrated Album of Vietnam in the 19th Century: Lục Vân Tiên cổ tích truyện雲僊古跡傳" (the Legend of Lu Yunxian)
Keywords:
Lục Vân Tiên cổ tích truyện雲僊古跡傳, Nguyễn Đình Chiểu阮廷炤, Eugene Gibert, Lê Đức Trạch黎德澤, colorful illustrated album and manuscript.Abstract
In 1851, Nguyễn Đình Chiểu阮廷炤 (1822-1888) wrote the poem Lục Vân Tiên Truyện (The Legend of Lục Vân Tiên-陸雲僊傳), then in 1895, French officer Eugene Gibert asked the court painter Lê Đức Trạch黎德澤 to paint it. In 2016, Vietnam and France edited and published the manuscript in photocopies. This rare version named Lục Vân Tiên cổ tích truyện (Lục Vân Tiên Fairy Tale-雲僊古跡傳) is full of picture illustrations. It was an outstanding colorful illustrated autobiographical narrative poem, which Nguyễn Đình Chiểu recounted his life in the first person by a rhyme style. The narrative outline is full of lyrical elements, which can be linked to the earliest source of "poetic autobiography" in China: Qu Yuan's "Li Sao"(屈原的”離騷”). Furthermore, the tone of this narrative poem version is to celebrate traditional, classical and moral values, and to spread the core Confucian beliefs of loyalty, filial piety, and human nature. This autobiographical poem text, with extensive illustrations, full of the vigor and vitality of pre-modern culture, provides a rich discussion on the poetry and art of Vietnam within the 19th and 20th centuries, and are the integration of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, material civilization, and aesthetic insights.
Classification number
Sino-Nom Studies
Downloads
Published
References
Nguyễn Đình Chiểu, (2016). Lục Vân Tiên cổ tích truyện雲僊古跡傳. Volume 1-Illustrated manuscript edited by Pascal Bourdeaux & Olivier Tessier. published in partnership with the Agence Universitaire de la Francophonie. (ISBN 978-604-68-2920-1).
Nguyễn Đình