CONG HUYEN TON NU NHA TRANG


Literary Embodiment of Social Moods --
Hoang Ngoc Phach's Novel, TO TAM (1925) ©


(This item is drawn from the first half of the original paper written in 1982 entitled: "Love in Literature: From Hoang Ngoc Phach's To Tam to Khai Hung's Nua Chung Xuan", presented at the workshop on Early Modern Vietnamese Literature: Literary Images of Changes in Pre-Independent Vietnam, Harvard University, June 1982.)

Any attempt to use literature as a source of information on the culture and the way of life of a people would seem to have as its basic assumption the often quoted statement that literature is the mirror of society. True as it is, this statement does not quite capture the essence of the relationship between the two. One should not forget that literature does not passively reflect social reality. The relationship is dynamic, not static as suggested by the mirror image. (After all, what we see of ourselves in a mirror is but a pose, a frozen image; not our more natural selves that move and talk) Writers draw their materials from life. But the process of creative writing only begins with the author's digestion of his own experiences and those of others, and continues with his re-arranging them in line with his particular vision. And by this creativity, he may come up with fundamental questions and/or suggest changes or alternatives. On the other side, members of the audience are equally free in their choices of how to read the work, projecting into it particular meanings which reflect their own views of social reality and which may or may not correspond to what the author set out to convey. This dynamic participation of author and audience in the creation and projection of meanings upon a literary work finds an intriguing example in To Tam (Pure Heart) by Song An Hoang Ngoc Phach, which to my mind was one of the first modern novels published in Vietnam.(1)

An on-going issue of contention among some Vietnam literary scholars and critics is on whether To Tam was the very first modern novel. It is argued that if this work has been considered the first of its kind, this is simply because it made an impact on a national scale at the time of its birth due to its treatment of a problematic issue prevalent in the period. Attempts have been made to draw attention to the fact that a southern author, Ho Bieu Chanh, had tried his hand at novel writing from 1912, but his first works were not published until 1922, and then they were circulated only in the Saigon area, where they were popular. Ho Bieu Chanhs name came to be known to the northern literary audience only in 1929 when one of his works first appeared in the weekly women's journal Phu Nu Tan Van (Women's News) in Saigon. Thus it appears that the modern novel took its tentative first steps in the south, years before To Tam made its impressive entrance. (2)

It would seem that the basic question here is how the novel is defined. By common understanding, a novel should exhibit these basic ingredients: it is prose fiction of substantial length; it describes human beings living their lives within a specific social milieu; its narrators and characters speak the everyday language. My contention is that these obvious categories alone are not sufficient to distinguish traditional storytelling from modern novel writing. Such a definition does not take into account more subtle requirements like a creative re-working of experiences in order to crystallize the connecting pattern which makes sense of them, and/or an emphasis on characters and their human condition rather than on unusual happenings. Certainly Ho Bieu Chanhs works show a semblance to the novel: they are sufficiently long; they are set in the time and country of the author; they have a story to tell; the author brings in familiar social activities and local color; and he uses the colloquial language spoken in some part of the south. But the overall structure of each work is not much different from the traditional oral or verse narrative, events following one another in strict chronological order with very rare detours for description of settings, characters and feelings. When present, the description is invariably monotonous, exhibiting no careful choice of details and no variations of sentence structure. At best, one can say that his writing was at the border between storytelling and novel writing. Hoang Ngoc Phachs work, on the other hand, comes closer to a novel, most of all in its attempt to exclusively probe the individuals inner life, itself a departure from classical literary tradition.

To Tam was written in 1922, when the author was a student at the Teachers Training College in Ha Noi. He had it serialized in the bulletin of the College Association, which came out a few times a year. This bulletin ceased to exist before the novel reached its end. Hoang Ngoc Phach then had it published in its entirety in book form in 1925. (3) The novel is centered upon a love story. Love is one of the recurring themes in Vietnamese prose fiction of the 1920s and 1930s. It is, however, not the classical type of love story with all the trappings of age-old celebrated values that justify some brief instances of departure from the watchful eyes of the family, as is presented in many verse narratives of the preceding centuries. Rather, in early modern novels, the theme of love is treated in association with the notion of personal freedom which is seen in terms of the individuals being liberated from the restraints imposed by customs and tradition, to seek gratification of his own private feelings and aspirations.

To Tam begins with Dam Thuys report of the loss of his wallet to the chief of the district where this occurred. When the district chief locates the wallet, he entrusts his nephew Tan in Hanoi to hand it over to Dam Thuy. This introduces Dam Thuy to Tan, his widow mother, and his beautiful elder sister Lan. From then on, Dam Thuy visits them often, becoming very close to both Lan and Tan. Before meeting Dam Thuy, Lan has read his published articles and admired him as an author, and now this admiration grows as they discuss their common interest in literature. Dam Thuy becomes her close friend and mentor, and gives her the pen name To Tam. With time, their friendship turns to love. Already engaged to someone his parents have chosen for him, and knowing that he has no intention to go against the familys decision, discreetly Dam Thuy informs To Tam of his status. But To Tam, maintaining her own conviction that she can love just for loves sake, refuses to let go of her emotions. Ignoring the prospect of an inevitable painful end of their relationship, the two desperately indulge themselves in mutual affection. In the meantime, To Tams mother urges her to accept the proposal of another young man. To Tam keeps avoiding the issue until the mother falls very ill and wants to see her daughter married so that she could die in peace. As a pious daughter, To Tam gives in to her mothers last wish. Not being able to forget Dam Thuy, she becomes ill and dies soon after the wedding. Full of sorrow and regret, Dam Thuy is heartbroken and has to take temporary leave from school. His elder brother points out for him the harmful consequences of his love, and manages to pull him out of despair. (4)

The love of this young couple is craftily placed by the author in a context not seen in Vietnamese literary tradition until that time. Traditional verse narratives in nom (demotic script) depict the emotional involvement of young couples, with and sometimes without the knowledge and consent of the parents of both partners. In either case, the two lovers come to the relationship with the intention of making it a long-term commitment. Their love is always conceived in relation to marriage, no matter how much time or how many obstacle stand in their way. In To Tam , the love affair does not develop along this traditional line. When Dam Thuy begins to fall in love with To Tam and detects her reciprocal affection, he is conscious that there cannot be any future for their involvement. He explains his thoughts to his friend, the narrator:

I was both happy and sad seeing the expression of her love. Without my explaining it, Im sure you understand my joy, the selfish joy of having won the heart of a woman; my sadness on the other hand came from my conscience. I was afraid that this love affair would hurt her, would bring her much unhappiness as I could not consider marriage with her, and it was very likely that she was not aware of that fact.

You may know that my parents have chosen a mate for me, the girls family having been in close association with mine for three years now, waiting for the marriage to take place when Im through with my studies. This match is unalterable, first of all because her parents are my parents old friends, and secondly, the rules of my family are very strict. Ive strong feelings for my family. To me, the family is sacrosanct, and everything connected with it appears sacred.
(TO TAM, p. 38)

To Dam Thuy, the question of conflict between love and filial duty does not arise. There is no contest which sees him wavering between marrying the one he loves and observing his parents decision which contradicts his hearts desire. Rather, the second choice is clearly seen as the only course of action for him from the beginning. As a filial son who values the family as a sacred institution, he has no hesitation in submitting himself to the dictate of its rules, one of which is absolute obedience to the parents. In this case, moreover, his disobedience would very likely entail a loss of face or of honor for his parents who then cannot fulfill their promise of alliance with the girls family; and this in turn certainly would damage their long-standing friendship, another human social relationship highly valued.

Safely and contentedly steering himself away from any possible confrontation with his family, Dam Thuy faces an inner conflict having to do with his personal feelings for To Tam alone:

Such was my situation, my heart longing for her while my reason urging me to forget her, to make her stop loving me so as to spare her agony later. Finally I had no choice but listen to my head. But to think about it carefully, it was because I was so sincerely and truly in love with her that my heart and my head were in such intense conflict.
(TO TAM, p. 40)

Dam Thuys genuine belief in the truthfulness of his feelings may account for the ease with which he slides into the relationship which demands nothing but what his heart alone can give. At first, as his reason dictates, he attempts to call To Tams attention to the solid barrier already existing between them. He writes her a note telling her that he cannot visit her family on the following Sunday as usual, for he has to see his future father-in-law about some business. Even before he has a chance to find out how To Tam takes this bit of information, a special circumstance prompts her to confess her love for him and Dam Thuy to acknowledge it. Part of her letter, which arrives shortly after the declaration of love, puts the finishing touch to the framework of their involvement:

My love for you is truthful. I only know that I love you, and I dont care to think of other facts surrounding your life. Therefore, the letter you wrote me the other day was not different from any other letter. My only regret is that Im bothering you and may cause concern to the one who will be married to you. The matter of your imminent marriage was known to me not long after I had become acquainted with you. Ive always been conscious that my life has no definite course, my love is hopeless; but since Ive fallen in love with you, Ill just continue to do so, depending on our mutual affection to sooth my heart, while leaving the future to the will of fate.
(TO TAM, pp. 46-47)

What Dam Thuy has considered a deterrent is thus no barrier to To Tams love. This does not mean that she ignores his imminent marriage or challenge its validity. She in fact acknowledges its solid reality and sees herself as an unwitting intruder. But what she also says is that Dam Thuys betrothal to another woman is irrelevant to her, simply because marriage is not considered a condition for her love. To Tam practically suggests that their feelings for each other alone matter. It should be noted, however, that she is not so unconventional as to come to the relationship without any thought of marriage. When she states “my love is hopeless”, she can only refer to the fact that they cannot marry each other; her love is not hopeless in the sense of being unrequited, for by the time this letter is written they have expressed their mutual attraction. One entry of her diary, which Dam Thuy reads after her death, attests to the fact that the dream of a lifetime commitment was very much in her mind until she realized it was not possible.

Since I compelled myself not to dream of marriage with you, Ive continued to love you, resolving to maintain this hopeless love for the rest of my life; and when the end comes, Ill be content with the mere thought that Ive known love and faithfulness.
(TO TAM, p. 91)

The story in essence centers around this idealistic stand made by To Tam and the constancy of her love regardless of the pressure of circumstances. By saying nothing to contradict her wish, Dam Thuy is more than a willing partner in this emotional adventure. After the declaration of love, which soon is detected by To Tams family, Dam Thuy is too self-conscious to resume his regular visit to her house. They write each other instead, but this indirect communication soon proves to be inadequate.

Letters could not mollify our desperate longing for each other. It seemed necessary for us to be in each others company, to talk and hear each others voice and laughter before we could have peace of mind.
(TO TAM, p. 49)

Expressed as such, in terms of the simple need to feel each others presence, their longing is emotional, not sexual. The author makes this clear by showing how the two fulfill this need. Several times they go for a stroll in the outlying areas around Ha Noi, her brother Tan acting as her chaperon. In summer, when her mothers health is failing, the elder ladys doctor suggests that she spend some time of rest at Do Son, a popular seaside resort. The mother wants her children to accompany her, and Dam Thuy is asked by Tan to join them. Once there, To Tam and Dam Thuy arrange to meet alone on the deserted beach one evening and early the next morning, enjoying nature and each others company. During these occasions, whether they are walking or sitting side by side for hours, a physical distance between them is consciously observed. Dam Thuy does notice her physical attractiveness, but his appreciation is similar to an artists rapture in contemplating beauty.

That natural face on a tall delicate body presented me for the first time with an awareness of the kind of refined beauty which appears sacred.
Its curious that theres the kind of sensuous beauty which evokes passion; and yet theres also the kind of beauty that one adores and respects as one would a female angel in a painting hung in a church.
(TO TAM, p. 26)

Perhaps this exalted view of her beauty explains his ability to maintain a non-sexual relationship with To Tam.

While kidding around and teasing her, I discreetly watched the warm expression of her innocent love, and contemplated the masterpiece of nature that was this young woman herself.
(TO TAM, p. 51)

By this absence of sexual desire, it can be said that the two live up to the terms of their idealistic relationship. In the traditional world where chastity is the key virtue expected of women, sex is sanctioned by marriage only. Since marriage has no role to play, sex has no part in their love relationship either. And if the question of physical attraction ever arises, it is overwhelmed by other significant ingredients. In the words of Dam Thuy:

If two people love each other because they have the same disposition and thoughts, because they admire each others behavior and sentiments, because of the interesting discussions and nice letters they exchange between themselves while physical beauty is only an added advantage, they can refrain from sexual desire.
(TO TAM, p. 59)

Thus, their relationship boils down to a mutual attraction of two compatible persons who understand and respond to each others emotional needs, who have the same values and interests. We are told that To Tam is a young woman of a romantic heart, who wallows in melancholy sentiments. She has a passion for literature, and Dam Thuy observes that she prefers poems that sing of pain and sorrow. This apparent delight in the beauty of sadness may very well have later facilitated her acceptance of her “hopeless love”. But to begin with, it is this passion for literature that draws her to Dam Thuy whose poetry and prose touch her heart. In a similar fashion, Dam Thuys love for her evolves from his pleasure in finding in her, most of all, a receptive and understanding friend. During his regular visits to her house, he often has the opportunity to express his view and his analysis of literature, To Tam being always the attentive audience. His ego is no doubt boosted when she eagerly reads all he has written, absorbs his explanations of modern literature, and has him read and edit her own writing. In return, his being with her gives him better appreciation of “womens nature and education”, in his own words, for she shares with him some surprising insights into matters of psychology and morality.

With their love characterized essentially as a union of the spirit as such, it is conceivable that the demands of external reality are of small importance to them. The circumstances help make feasible this disregard . For one thing, Dam Thuys family as well as that of his fiancee are not in Ha Noi to constantly remind the two lovers of his separate commitment. The romantic settings of their secret rendez-vous -- tranquil country and deserted beach-- bearing no resemblance to the bustle of the real world where there fate lies, all serve to intensify their oblivion.

Sitting still to contemplate nature together, we felt in our hearts a gentle dreamy sensation, probably not different from the feeling of elation and intoxication that a medium must have sitting in front of an altar completely engrossed in the smoke and fragrance of burned incense and joss sticks. That overwhelming sensation made us imagine there were only the two of us in the whole world. All the petty mundane affairs, complicated painful circumstances, cries and laughter, fame and wealth prevalent in the city had disappeared from our consciousness.
(TO TAM, p. 56)

Perhaps more symbolic is the fact that from the time they step into this relationship, they are hardly referred to by their real names. Only on two occasions is To Tams real name mentioned, once by her mother and her uncle, and another time by the maid, which is only suitable because to these people she is Lan and no one else. But in so far as the two are concerned, they are always To Tam and Dam Thuy. They think of each other, and address each other by their pen names, which appropriately connect them to the world of dreams and imagination, not the day- to-day world of real living.

This wishful neglect of reality at times gets the better of Dam Thuy, who, with strong feelings, begins to dream about a future with To Tam. It is she who stops him from being carried away by reminding him of his fiancée and the future already charted out for him. She keeps her part of the bargain, separating their love from Dam Thuys imminent marriage, the two existing on different levels of consciousness. This is not difficult to do at the moment when the thought of his life separate from her is just exactly that, a thought. His wedding is to take place only when he has finished his studies; therefore its pressure is not felt as long as he is still a student. One would imagine, moreover, that having been aware of this fact from the beginning, To Tam has also come to terms with it, and thus in a fashion may be more prepared to face it when it comes. The same ease cannot be seen in her handling of the pledge to live her love faithfully and let fate take care of the rest. A future entrusted solely to the workings of fate is such a vague and elusive image to grasp, unlike the concrete reality of Dam Thuys circumstance which stares her in the face while giving her plenty of time to get used to. Consequently, she is less than sufficiently prepared to accommodate her love to the events of her life which fate has chosen to put in her way.

Being one of the beauties in town, educated, excellent in domestic arts, and coming from a well-off family, To Tam is sought after by many young men. She declines all the proposals, explaining that she would like to stay single and serve her widow mother until her brother gets married and his wife can take over the care of the household. This general answer soon proves to be unsatisfactory to her mother, when a particular young man comes into the picture. B. is a man with a promising future. More importantly, he earns the approval of To Tams mother because his parents are old acquaintances of To Tams late father. To Tam is thus placed by the author in a situation similar to that of Dam Thuy, having her mate chosen for her based on factors unrelated to her personal feelings. At this point in time, the pressures is probably no more than her mothers expressed wish of seeing her accept this particular proposal. Not wanting to carry the burden of guilt in seeing her love for him spoil her life, Dam Thuy tries to persuade To Tam to honor her mothers wish. His eloquence meets with her reassertion of her emotional commitment to him:

“Being in love with you, I cant love anyone else, and I dont wish to. I will not marry someone I dont love, as Im afraid Ill only bring unhappiness to him.”
(TO TAM, p. 61)

When Dam Thuy hints at the idea of eloping with her to an unknown place, To Tam resists the temptation. Among the reasons she has against this suggested solution is her concern for his fiancee and especially for his future.

“You cant waste your future for my sake. For a man, being faithful in love alone does not suffice.”
(TO TAM, p. 63)

The traditional double standard, especially with regard to emotional loyalty, which To Tam seems to have internalized, may explain why she feels receptive to the idea that Dam Thuy can love her and still content himself with marrying someone else, but fears that her constancy to him will prevent her from being a good wife to another man. Not wanting to elope with him, she is once again consistent with her promise of not allowing her love to burden his life.

In the mean time, the pressure on To Tam to accept B.s proposal grows with the constant visits of the go-between. Her mother openly expresses her displeasure with her rejection of this desirable match, and this begins to affect To Tam. Learning of her agony, Dam Thuy writes her a letter repeating and elaborating his advice that she should obey her mother in order to secure a future for herself which he himself cannot give. The last part of his letter is of interest:

In the days to come, when basking in the bliss of your marriage, if you ever remember me, you only need to think to yourself that because I love you, I sincerely want you to enjoy such happy moments. Your thoughts of me will be proof enough of your faithfulness, and Ill be happy with just that.
(TO TAM, p. 69)

Here Dam Thuy is re-defining faithfulness to release To Tam from her pledge. She responds to this letter with her silence. But the fact that she still does not change her mind clearly indicates that this latest attempt of his at persuasion is to no avail. Her mothers illness is then the turning point. When all the best doctors in town have been consulted and there seems to be no hope for her recovery, the wish of the elder woman apparently at deaths door becomes almost sacrosanct. Time is not on her side and To Tam gives in. Her mother arranges with B.s family to have the wedding take place immediately.

It appears that To Tam has thought of staying single as the most sensible way to go on nurturing her love. She seems not at all prepared for this sudden turn of events that gives her no choice and insufficient time to adjust. Since her wedding is to occur before that of Dam Thuy, she may feel she is the one who betrays their love. The last letter she writes him after their final meeting touches upon this:

My dearest, being torn between love and filial duty, Ive chosen to obey my mother who is seriously ill … I humbly bear the blame for being unfaithful; but please find in your noble heart no cause to bother about my insignificant fate.
This is my farewell letter bearing my very last words to you. From now on, if you dont hear from me, its because life doesnt allow it. As long as I live, Ill continue to think of you; and Ill be hurt very much if you doubt that.
(TO TAM, pp. 74-75)

In point of fact, if there is any shade of doubt at all in Dam Thuys mind, it should disappear completely when he reads her diary which begins on the day of their last meeting, or three days before her wedding. Covering the period of 39 days between this day and the day before she dies, the diary records a tormented soul which inflicts bodily damage, making her too weak to resist the attack of tuberculosis. Above all, this personal record demonstrates a heart-rending faithfulness to her promise, and shows her constantly thinking of Dam Thuy. The closeness she feels toward him is evidenced most poignantly by the form of her diary. To Tam does not write it in first person looking inward, talking to self. Instead, all the time she addresses Dam Thuy directly, sharing with him her intimate thoughts and feelings while living a dull life as a married woman. In this manner, the communication continues at least in her own mind. Given the situation, perhaps this is the only way left to keep her love intact and herself sane:

My love, Im quite exhausted now. Im feeling very weak when writing these lines; but I still need to write, because I will not be able to rest if I dont.
(TO TAM, p. 100)

In the last entry, she says that sensing the approach of death, she gathers together Dam Thuys letters and presents with a view to returning them to him. However, she chooses to keep his photo with her so as to feel that he can see her off part of the way to the world beyond. We are not told how she thinks she can manage that, when she must have known it is inconceivable that her husbands family will bury with her the memento from the other man found on her dead body. This does not seem to be the real issue, however. What matters, as the author tries to show, is To Tams last thought which once again betrays her constancy to Dam Thuy. She has indeed lived her love and known faithfulness as she has pledged.

Having thus lived her emotions to the full -- both in joy and sorrow -- To Tam in the end looks back and admits that she was wrong. This reflection on her love life is found in the last entry of the diary:

I would like to advise young women who share my sentimental inclinations that they should not walk the path I have tread. In order to enjoy gentle happiness in marriage, they will have to be mindful of the reality of life. Romantic dreams are like sweet wine which, while delicious and fragrant, have destructive effects.
(TO TAM, p. 101)

While her death is used as the resolution of the love story, the proper denouement seems to come with these last words of To Tam, which mark her recognition of the meaning of her experience. She suffers because she allows herself to be carried away by love and romance without taking into account her very real life circumstances.

The novel could have ended with the last page of To Tams diary which contains this clear message. But the author adds a final chapter as a closure for all that has transpired, in which Dam Thuy is shown depressed with guilt and regrets, and his elder brother elaborating on the lesson learned from this painful love adventure. The brother blames Dam Thuy for having gone too far in exploiting literature and romantic thoughts for the excitement of love without considering the full extent of its devastating effects on a woman like To Tam who is so impractical as to bank too much on the gratification of emotions alone. In essence, his comments reconfirm what To Tam has noted and the reader may have gathered from the tragic ending, that unrealistic emotional involvement leads only to pain. It also echoes the authors intent as stated in the preface where he carefully declares his simple wish to realistically expose the pathetic experience of this young couple, with a view to warning other young people against indulgence in romantic love “outside the circle of life”. The argument goes that “what is unusual is surely not lasting”, causing injury to oneself and pain to another person, creating trouble for the family and society. (TO TAM, pp. XI-XIV)

That the author deems it necessary to spell out the moral teaching of To Tams story may be seen as a reflection of his mindfulness of his role as of an educator/moralist. It should be remembered that Hoang Ngoc Phach created this work while attending the Teachers Training College in Ha Noi. He was then also contributing articles to Nam Phong, a review whose focus was on the matter of education. (5) Stating a moral lesson at the end of the work also indicates the influence of the literary tradition that Hoang Ngoc Phach inherited. In general, verse narratives of the previous centuries conclude with a moral statement. In this case, however, the didactic purpose made clear twice within the work itself -- in the last words of To Tam, then in the speech of Dam Thuys brother -- in addition to a lengthy explanation of it in the preface, would seem to suggest that the author has overdone it. The repeated declaration of his prior noble intent gives us the feeling that he himself might have had the uncomfortable suspicion that the completed work failed to say exactly what it purported to convey.

Armed with his professed intention, Hoang Ngoc Phach set out to construct the fictive world accordingly. The relationship between To Tam and Dam Thuy can be seen doomed from the outset, given the fact that when they meet, he is already committed to another woman. For To Tam to carry on an emotional attachment to him without bothering about the question of matrimony is indeed “unusual” or “unrealistic” in a culture where the ultimate end of courting is marriage. Equally unrealistic is her imagination that she can stay single to keep her love for him intact when she must have known she cannot ignore the primary concern of all parents, which her mother states succinctly:

“One has to consider marriage for ones children when they have grown up. Ill give her in marriage to the most suitable man.”
(TO TAM, p. 66)

The mothers grave illness and her supposed last wish leading to To Tams predictable choice between filial piety and personal commitment, and most importantly the agony she suffers having her connection with Dam Thuy cut short, all these factors have a part to play in showing the futility of romantic love. Furthermore, the choice of the character B., a man seemingly of no fault who also cares for To Tam and who can no doubt provide her with a secure future, in contrast to Dam Thuy who will eventually leave her and go on with his own life, does nothing to make To Tams hopeless love more justifiable. It can be said, thus, that these elements of the story support the meaning which the author wanted to project into the work, namely a warning against romantic involvement.

However, there are details that seem to dilute the intended message. To begin with, the stern brother of Dam Thuy, while chastising him for having been preoccupied with love at the expense of other proper concerns, does not sanction against love itself.

“My brother concluded by saying that it was not a bad thing that I loved To Tam, as surely I loved her truly, at times so passionately.”
(TO TAM, p. 104)

The brother's sympathetic comment might very well have been that of the reader. Even if the message stated in the preface is in the readers mind when he begins to explore the story, it soon gets lost in the process. The novel has no complicated plot to divert his thoughts from the heart-throbs of the protagonists. In fact, the bulk of the work is devoted to the description of their love. First of all, the two find bliss in this involvement that is blameless in the sense that it is innocent, devoid of any sensual pleasure that society can frown upon. Dam Thuy confesses to the narrator:

“One would think theres nothing more pleasant in life than to stand beside a beautiful young woman who shares your feelings and ideas, and together with her contemplate nature peacefully.”
(TO TAM, p. 57)

But instead of this inner happiness in the company of the one he loves, Dam Thuy is shown to have quite a different relationship awaiting him:

“I confess to you that I only feel respect, not love, for the woman my family has chosen for me, as I know nothing of her disposition and I havent even seen her face clearly. I respect her simply because I respect my family. I consider my future wife as a precious object that my family will give me, but I havent found it in my heart to love her, and to me shes but a stranger.”
(TO TAM, p. 39)

One can hardly blame Dam Thuy for having ignored a relationship which does not exist in favor of one that is real and gratifying.

For her part, To Tam also feels only respect for her husband, and in return for his affection she can only think of offering the services of a servant. In contrast, the pages of her diary speak volumes for the sincerity of affection given to the person of her choice. One entry reads:

I received your letter this afternoon, a heart-rending letter which I have read and re-read until it was all crumpled. My dearest, youre so sweet and your words so gentle that my heart is rent by sorrow. Youve won all my feelings and captured my soul; why did you sow in the bottom of my heart such a profound love that makes me long for you and suffer like this?
(TO TAM, p. 89)

Another entry betrays her constant thought of Dam Thuy:

I sat up and looked through the glass window towards your school: I saw only rooftop after rooftop and rows of trees with branches stripped of leaves. Perhaps you never imagine that theres someone sitting alone weak and sad, longing for you. Do you have any medicine to help me forget you so that I can sleep just for a little while?
(TO TAM, p. 93)

The contrast is thus obvious between happiness in a romantic albeit hopeless love and the lack of bliss in a traditional marriage arrangement. Connected to this is the fact that her mother begins to recover from her illness only a few days after To Tams wedding, which seems to make unnecessary her forced submission to duty. The reader is left with a feeling that injustice has been done, with To Tam being virtually blackmailed to marry B. and to sever her relationship with Dam Thuy. Knowing where their hearts lie, both Dam Thuy and To Tam nonetheless bow to the decision of their families. A desperate suggestion of rebellion, i.e., Dam Thuys thought of eloping, is instantly crushed. It is precisely because To Tams pain results from her pious obedience, not from her deviance from the norm, that one can hardly place the blame squarely on love, as Hoang Ngoc Phach unwittingly shows. Finally, and perhaps most poignantly, love receives another boost at the most critical point, which to my mind is found on the last page of To Tams diary. After having warned other young women not to follow in her footsteps, and having bid farewell to Dam Thuy, she ends it with the following:

In the future, when for me the incense has burnt out and the smoke has spread thin into the air, if you ever pass by the place of my final rest, please write on the bark of a tree, on a rock or on a wall these words:
THIS IS THE GRAVE OF AN UNFORTUNATE WOMAN WHO DIED OF LOVE
(TO TAM, p. 101)

Whatever warning she has given earlier certainly pales beside these words in capital letters which symbolically enshrine her love. To the reader, her final words sound like an elegy which brings love into sharp focus. In this light, love appears to be a serious matter to reckon with, not at all a frivolous affair of the heart one can easily dismiss. Some other details of the work reinforce this impression. The story is set in Ha Noi, a developing urban area at the time where young women like To Tam were allowed to step outside the family surroundings. After having finished primary school, To Tam helps her mother run the household and take care of the family business in the silk trade. Not having to hide herself behind the curtains of her own room as did her female predecessors, To Tam must have ample opportunities to meet and interact with outsiders. The result is an inevitable meeting with someone she likes, not necessarily someone her family has chosen for her to grow into affection with. And this will possibly, and naturally, lead to the kind of relationship experienced by To Tam and Dam Thuy, which in turn will entail conflict of opinion with regard to freedom of choice. The discussion between To Tams mother and her uncle indicates that the traditional practice is beginning to be questioned.

She had an uncle working in Ha Noi who was zealous in advancing changes. Hearing of the difficulty related to the matter of her marriage, the uncle talked to her mother.

“If Lan doesnt agree, you shouldnt pressure her. Do you want to see them hate each other later because shes forced to marry against her will?”
(TO TAM, p. 66)

When the mother firmly states that it is her responsibility to see to it that her children marry well, and that To Tam cannot keep on rejecting all the proposals, the uncle speaks his mind:

“In this modern age, let her marry whoever she loves. If its her own choice, shell have to bear whatever the result turns out to be, having nobody else to blame for it.”

“How can I know the man shell agree to marry? A pious child has to obey her parents. I want to give her in marriage to a suitable person. What parents would not want whats best for their children? Theyre young and inexperienced, and they know nothing of human nature to choose wisely. We cant let them marry whoever they choose; as one says, passion can bewitch you, and only when you wake up to reality do you realize youve been laughed at.”

“But if shes not satisfied with the match, shes hurt now and shell have a troubled life later.”

“Shes not agreeable now, but shell have to be so after theyve lived together.”

“Its impossible! That only works with some people. Lan is quite different from other girls.”
(TO TAM, pp. 66-67)

Defending the new concept of individual freedom of choice, the uncle expresses some doubt about the application of the same traditional practice in a changing world. To Tams inability to grow content with the arranged marriage certainly proves his point. In fact, Dam Thuys observation of new social environments and the uncles arguments seem to point to To Tam as a victim of circumstances more than of her own passion.

Thus, measured against the elements of the plot which support the professed message, those which do not seem to carry more weight. Aesthetically, the reverse proportions considerably weaken the unity or coherence of the work. Hoang Ngoc Phach spends the major part of the novel singing the couples idealistic love, and in the process seems to have lost sight of his original intention of asking people to stay away from it. We may have here a case in which the authors imagination perceives more than his ideology would allow. The artist in him seems more liberated, looking beyond the didactic purpose not only to show how captivating and gratifying the experience of love must appear, but also to transmit an awareness of it as a growing trend one cannot afford to ignore. It is reported that the novel, the first of its kind, was well received, especially by the urban young. A witness recounted: “I remember that we were going to school when we read To Tam in 1925. We read it and felt so sad that tears came to our eyes; we often recited the verses in the novel and thought they were perfect.” Shortly after the books appearance, a few young women, disappointed with unfulfilled love, committed suicide by jumping into West Lake and Truc Bach Lake. Members of the older generations blamed this on the negative influence of To Tam . (6) Obviously, the audience of his time did not absorb Hoang Ngoc Phachs message, seeing only the beauty that To Tams love embodies.

Seven years after the novels appearance, Thieu Son, one of the first literary critics, looked back at the controversy which To Tam had generated and offered his own evaluation. After having noted that the work was known throughout the country from north to south, that many people bought, read and enthusiastically received it but nobody dared to openly express his appreciation of it in the moralistic atmosphere at the time of its birth, he went on praising the noble sentiments of To Tam and the truthfulness of her love. Most interesting is his observation concerning Hoang Ngoc Phachs achievement: “He dwells on love to the full extent until the reader is completely fascinated by it, then he kills off the protagonist to point out: Love is harmful, dont play with it if you dont want to destroy yourself. But the impression of the reader is different. To Tam dies because she is unfortunate enough to be placed in such a difficult situation; the poetic flavor of the kind of love which the author fully explores with psychological insights does not necessarily lead to death … Since we know To Tam well and see her state of mind when she leaves this world with her faithful love, we appreciate her more, love her more and cannot but realize the deplorable impact of the ethical system in our society.” (7) Thieu Son wrote this at the time when one witnessed a growing number of urban young greatly influenced by Western culture and education, who began to question the validity of traditional customs and practices. From this distance in time and atmosphere, he could see more clearly the social meaning embedded in To Tam which surpassed its sentimental appeal to the more cautious audience several years earlier. The blame was no longer on love itself, but on outdated social mores that failed to accommodate its desirable and inevitable development. In view of this, we may say that the contending views in Hoang Ngoc Phach which projected such different meanings into the novel evolved from his personal background and the social climate at the time of writing.

Hoang Ngoc Phach was born in 1898 and grew up in a period when his society was still steeped in the Confucian tradition which by no means came to an end with the abolition of the civil service examination system in Tonkin in 1915 and the official reinforcement of modern Western education in 1918. As such, the pervasive impact of tradition on him cannot be discounted. In the Confucian order, literature was viewed as having the primary function of conveying moral lessons. When the novel was written, the author was being trained to become a teacher whose task is not different from that of the traditional writer. In addition, as mentioned earlier, he was writing for Nam Phong, thus under the influence of Pham Quynh. Pham Quynh, founder and editor of the review, was advocating a synthesis of Western and Eastern cultures. The idea was to import scientific and technical knowledge while maintaining the national essence represented by The Tale of Kieu , a narrative poem created by Nguyen Du in the early part of the nineteenth century, and to safeguard traditional values like the family, among other things. All these conditioning factors explain the moral lesson forced on the work at the end of its lengthy sympathetic exposition of the freedom of love.

At the same time, the prevalent romantic air that enveloped the story of To Tam and its tragic end could be seen as a product of a cultural trend that concerned educators like Pham Quynh had no power to stop. After the loss of national independence, there came signs of disintegration of traditional society. Lack of unity among the scholar gentry was clearly marked with the revolutionaries either dead or living in exile, the intellectuals either collaborating with the French or seeking solace in cultural activities. All this created despair and emptiness in the mind of the people who wanted to forget and to be consoled. The novel provided an escape. Translations of Chinese novel appeared first. Then people educated in French translated Western fiction. The audience seemed to be addicted to those novels that depict tragic love affairs with all the elements of love, longing, despair, death which could move them to tears. Pham Quynh himself, while having some reservation about the creation of Vietnamese novels on the subject of love which he deemed not helpful to the morality of society in general and of women and young people in particular, included the translation of some very sad and romantic Chinese novels in his review Nam Phong. (8) In fact, the influence of foreign novels on To Tam has been well noted. (9) One theory maintains that the novel echoes two late Chings novels by Tu Tram A (Xu Zhenya) entitled Yu li hun and Hsueh hung lei shih. In the first novel, the heroine is trapped in an illicit love affair from which the only possible escape is suicide, and the sad contemplation of her hopeless situation leads her to sickness then to death. (10) In the second novel, the romantic heroine wants to end her hopeless love by matching up her lover with another woman; but her love refuses to die, she is stricken with despair and dies coughing blood in her sickbed. To Tam, because of her filial piety and her concern for Dam Thuys life, agrees to marry someone else; but her deep love persists and torments her soul to the extent that she ends up in sickness then in death. The parallel is hard to miss. Another theory declares that To Tam is patterned after La Dame aux Camlias by Alexandre Dumas the Younger. (11) The similarity in form is rather striking. This French novel begins with Armand Duval, the narrator, relating to the author the painful love affair between himself and Marguerite, a kept woman. It ends with Armands showing the author the diary which Marguerite asked her faithful friend to give him after her death. But the similarity ends there. The content of the work is another matter. To Tam is a different kind of woman, and the world of her love is quite separate from that of Marguerite. There is no doubt that all these novels exerted great influence on the shaping of To Tam. Yet, why Hoang Ngoc Phach should choose to imitate this kind of novel has to be explained in terms of the literary taste of the period as explained earlier.

In line with the newness in content, the form and style of To Tam also exhibits a bolder departure from the tradition of story telling. The most obvious deviation is in the overall structure of the work. Classical plot development in traditional verse narratives which consists of three stages -- meeting, separation, reunion -- does not apply here. The novel begins with a meeting that promises no future, and ends with an irrevocable separation that cancels out the last stage. This is not in keeping with the literary tradition which values a generous rounding off of the story that sees the protagonists happiness accommodated in some fashion. There is also no statement of truth or thesis at the beginning of the work itself which is then illustrated by the story that follows, as is seen in traditional verse narratives. Instead, the lesson is separately included in the preface, which could very well be added as an after-thought to give the traditionalist-educator in Hoang Ngoc Phach a sense of completeness or to release him from any possible moral sanction. What must have been quite new to the Vietnamese general audience of the time is the very simple plot with the absence of suspense and complicated tricky situations; and perhaps most fascinating is the probing of the individuals inner life, the subjective consciousness. To those familiar with the modern novel of the West, there is nothing unique about Hoang Ngoc Phachs use of diary, letters and first person reflection upon experience to directly expose the psychological make-up of the characters, the dark side of their emotions. (12) But in his time, he was probably the first to experiment with this technique. As an experiment, the work has its weakness. Very often we can see the intrusion of the author into the stream of the fictive world with a lengthy and unnecessary explanation of life and human nature. With regard to the style of the novel, we can see more clearly the tension between literary tradition and imported literary devices. The most clear-cut break from tradition is that the novel is in prose. Aside from that, in general it follows the style developed by Nam Phong which draws literary materials largely from the literature in nom, and uses the language of The Tale of Kieu and of folklore. Dialogues are few and more realistic in the sense that they stay close to the colloquial everyday speech. The same can be said of the language used to narrate events. When the work deals with the two lovers emotions, the style becomes ornate. The diary, which is essentially an extension of To Tams verbal communication with Dam Thuy, is generally written in simple loose sentences except for a few instances when she stops relating daily occurrences and begins to reflect on her thoughts and feelings. The more lyrical tone in these instances is but a fraction of the highly florid style of the letters which they exchange, in which a great deal of ornament is added, especially clichés, allusions, figurative language, folk idioms. We also see direct quotations from The Tale of Kieu , folk poetry and Chinese classics. There is elaborate balance in many sentences: clauses of equal length, parallel and antithetical thoughts expressed in parallel sentence structures with rhymes that call to mind the traditional couplet form. This kind of parallel construction gives the sentences a rhythmic melodious flow. To readers nowadays, the ornate style seems to make the letters less than sincere, the feeling not coming directly from the heart but borrowing from literary sources. In this respect, the diary, rather melodramatic though it seems at times, offers more to which the audience can relate. On the other hand, the style of the letters may be appropriate to convey the romantic unreal nature of their love.

In the last analysis, Hoang Ngoc Phachs vision, conditioned by his personal background and the social climate, would not allow him to endorse love, and he could portray it only as a beautiful dream one should not attempt to put into practice. However, this conscious restraint seems to have been overshadowed by his imagination and perhaps even his unconscious desire for change or modification, so that the end product did not turn out exactly as what he had originally set out to create. It is clear that the attraction which the work gives to happiness based on mutual affection and understanding of two compatible partners is by no means blotted out by To Tams death which marks a rather arbitrary ending. The ambivalence of the author with regard to the subject matter is matched by a mixture of the traditional mode of expression appropriate to lofty thoughts and ideas and a new realism that calls for a style approximating current colloquial language. By itself, each style seems to serve its function. As one of the first experiments with a new form to express a new content, the novel had its merit.

Even as it was given its due in its own time, this novel can now be appraised as a useful document to social scientists, if only because its author managed to dramatically bring to light the conflict of values experienced by many but not then talked about openly, and because the audiences reception of it betrayed a changing direction of social moods concerning that conflict.


NOTES:

  1. Song-An was the pen name of Hoang Ngoc Phach. He is usually referred to by his real name.
  2. See, for example, Cao-thi Nhu-Quynh and John C. Schafer. “Ho Bieu Chanh and the Early Development of the Vietnamese Novel,” The Vietnam Forum 12 (Summer-Fall 1988).
  3. Pham The Ngu, Viet Nam Van Hoc Su Gian Uoc Tan Bien -- Van Hoc Hien Dai 1862-1945. Saigon: Quoc Hoc Tung Thu, 1965, p. 358.
  4. Hoang Ngoc Phach, To Tam, 15th edition. Saigon: 1971.
  5. Pham The Ngu, Viet Nam Van Hoc Su, p. 132
  6. Pham The Ngu, Viet Nam Van Hoc Su, pp. 365-366.
  7. Thieu Son, “A Readers Comments,” in To Tam, op.cit. (Reprint of an article published in a Saigon journal in 1932).
  8. Pham The Ngu, Viet Nam Van Hoc Su, pp. 323-324.
  9. Maurice M. Durand & Nguyen Tran Huan, Introduction la Littrature Vietnamienne. Paris: Editions G. P. Maisonneuve et Larose, 1969, p. 158.
  10. Perry Link, “Traditional-style Popular Urban Fiction in the Teens and Twenties,” in Goldman M., ed. Modern Chinese Literature in the May Fourth Era. Harvard University Press, 1977.
  11. Pham The Ngu, Viet Nam Van Hoc Su, p. 359.
  12. This may be a direct borrowing from La Dame aux Camlias. Marguerites diary is also like a letter addressed to the lover expressing her longing for him.
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