PART I -- Lecture -- pp. 3-67 -- Kim Trong & Scholar Ma Section                                                    
 WHY STUDY KIEU?  I think the logical place to start is with this passage from Alexander Woodside's 
 "The Historical Background," (xi-xviii) which serves as a preface to the referenced text:

 To the Vietnamese people themselves, THE TALE OF KIEU is much more that just a glorious heirloom from 
 their literary past. It has become a kind of continuing emotional laboratory in which all the great and timeless 
 issues of personal morality and political obligation are tested and resolved (or left unresolved) for each new 
 generation. Western readers who are curious about Vietnam and the Vietnamese may well gain more real wisdom 
 from cultivating a discriminating appreciation of this poem than they will from reading the entire library of scholarly 
 and journalistic writings upon modern Vietnam which has accumulated in the West in the past two decades. (xi)

 Strong words those; I cannot add to them except to say that an understanding of modern Vietnam, and the 
 roles of Americans and Vietnamese in the recent conflict, is one of the aims of this critical thinking course. 
 A powerful idea that we might understand the recent past by going to the beginning of the nineteenth century. 
 I am reminded of Maxine Hong Kingston's comments to me that by studying war today "we are preventing wars 
 a thousand years from now." (PREVENTING WARS A THOUSAND YEARS FROM NOW, May 1994 taped interview 
 with MHK, on reserve in the Open Media Lab of the LRC). I suppose a secondary aim is to assist our Vietnamese 
 (and Chinese in view of the sources of Nguyen Du's work) students to retain an important part of their culture, 
 and to help non-Asian students to understand our fellows.

ORGANIZATION OF THE WORK

 This is fairly straightforward and is illuminated in the introduction by Thong on page xxix. There is a general 
 introduction from pages 3-9 where we meet the Vuong family and the deceased muse Dam Tien, who, although 
 she is only a spirit will eventually speak to Kieu, and who has a real perfume fragrance. The intro. is critical and 
 bears several readings (My recommendation for those of you who are reading this for the first time is that you 
 do a quick read all the way through and then go back and do an analysis in each section, doing a more careful 
 reading and using the wonderful endnotes). It is the detailed introduction to Van and Kieu and young Vuong,
 and it introduces a number of themes that resonate throughout the work. Notice also that there is a god in the 
 work whom Kieu addresses on p.7. On page 9, after the break we meet the "youthful scholar," Kim Trong, 
 who is an admirable first love for Kieu.

 Scholar Ma and his wife, Dame Tu, are very evil characters (not without some comic relief somewhat
 reminiscent of the Thenardiers in LES MIS). Note the commingling of the flower, nature, and sexual
 imagery on pp. 43-45 et. passim.. The melancholy family leave-taking on pp. 47 inspired a playlet put 
 on by my students in Viet Nam in the summer of l998, which was keenly appreciated by the Vietnamese 
 students in their audience at  the University of Forestry and Agriculture in Thu Duc, Viet Nam. 

Pages 49-67 are set in the brothel and involve skullduggery, captivity, mirth--  particularly when Dame Tu hears from Kieu that her husband slept with Kieu.   Keep in mind that Kieu did not at the time know he was already married.   We have a wonderful subplot involving a rogue named So Khanh who   promises to help Kieu escape, but is really in league with Dame Tu, and   finally we meet a young woman, also held captive in the brothel, who   befriends Kieu, Ma Kieu. Dame Tu then offers instruction to Kieu in how   to be a good courtesan, and this leads us to a consideration of an alternate   translation, and the start of Part II, the Thuc Ky Tham section, which begins   on p.67.

 (The alternate translation is a prose translation, KIM VAN KIEU, five copies of which are on reserve 
 in the DeCillis Collection, along with several copies of TRUYEN KIEU, in Vietnamese. If you are really 
 into KIEU, and I hope you will be, check out a copy of the prose translation and compare some of 
 the footnotes. While the superiority of the Huynh Sanh Thong translation will readily become 
 apparent, the alternate translation will shed additional meaning for serious students. :-) The prose 
 translation is published in Viet Nam, is titled KIM-VAN-KIEU. and is translated by Le Xuan Thuy. )

                    KIEU II -- Lecture -- pp. 67-113 Thuc Ky Tham Section 

 In the introduction, pp. xxx-xxxi , Huynh Sanh Thong starts off by saying that "The love between Kieu 
 and the weak willed Thuc eventually matures into a deep attachment, but sexual attraction is its main 
 ingredient. Thuc meets Kieu as a customer of the brothel. Once again the plot evolves based on the 
 departure of a parent, Thuc's father journeying home by "a stroke of timely luck" (67). While the 
 relationship is a sexual one it soon includes music, poetry, and chess.

 Kieu then takes up the notion of her responsibility and Thuc's and urges that there is no future in their 
 relationship given Thuc's attachment to his first wife and she proceeds to forecast all of the doom that 
 will (and does) befall them if they continue. Thuc's argument on p. 71 is that these matter-and Miss Hoan--
 are all far away and she should pay them no heed, and as a measure of his serious intent he buys her 
 out of the brothel, and they live together for 6 months until Thuc's father returns. And here the wrath
 of the father that Kieu had foretold comes home with a vengeance and a trip to the judge.

 The father turns them into a judge and it here that Kieu must make a moral choice, choosing to accept
 punishment for her deeds, or return to the brothel. She replies with grace "I shall endure the thunder 
 of the law" (75). Here she is beaten as Thuc is forced to watch. Thuc's pain is so intense that the Judge's
 heart is moved, and he shows mercy and orders a wedding. (I am reminded of Shakespeare's Portia in 
 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE dispensing justice and mercy in a European society, that is younger than 
 the Asian societies here. Where is this in American literature?)

 Old Thuc's heart is softened also BUT they still have, as Kieu has also foretold, Miss Hoan to deal with--
 and her mother!! Miss Hoan is one of the strongest characters in the novel, physically violent and with 
 a malicious cunning that guarantees that Kieu will be punished sorely for her deeds. On Kieu's urging 
 Thuc returns to his wife (79) and we see, especially on p. 83 his weak will that Thong started us off with. 
 His refusal to reveal his relationship with Kieu which was the purpose of his journey shows how weak 
 he is and we as reader experience the dramatic irony of knowing what Miss Hoan knows and what her 
 intent is. 

In a brief vignette on pp. 84-85 we meet Miss Hoan's mother and get   some insight into why the daughter is so mean--the mother graciously   accedes to a scheme that involves kidnap, bondage, and public torture  (Hell hath no fury. . .as Shakespeare tells us).    What follows next is the dramatic subplot of the kidnapping and burning   of Thuc and Kieu's apartment complete with the planting of an unclaimed   corpse which provides more torture for Old Thuc who has to oversee the  funeral of what he believes to be Kieu.   Young Thuc returns and consults a psychic--the importance of fortune telling is one that we Westerners   do not appreciate--indeed in Viet Nam fortunes are told by the text of  THE TALE OF KIEU itself.   And the psychic correctly foretells the plot"when you two stand face to face again,/how strange, you   will avoid each other's eyes!" (89).

 On p. 91 we meet another young girl (cf. Ma Kieu in Part I) who befriends and advises Kieu who is now 
 in the service of Miss Hoan, and the Buddhist notion of karma/justice/responsibility is repeated "Perhaps 
 you must atone for some past sin" (91). But she then continues "but malice [Miss Hoan] brought you here,
 and not pure chance" (91). This text is so rich you can almost stop anywhere and do a textual analysis--
 which is also why the Vietnamese fortune tellers can randomly select any line and tell a fortune from it.

 Eventually Miss Hoan softens--although this becomes a necessary plot point for what is to follow--but not 
 before continuing her own plot to humiliate her husband and Kieu by having Kieu wait in them and play 
 music for them together. Miss Hoan finally lets up a bit on p. 99 and grant Kieu's request to become a Nun. 
 Conveniently there is a shrine in the garden that Kieu can be cloistered in, just close enough for Thuc to
 sneak over to, which he does, all of the time observed by his wife. But the reunion of Thuc and Kieu is 
 quite beautiful and Kieu merely asks his help in her escape. She is willing to forego their own happiness 
 and leave him with Miss Hoan. But alas, Miss Hoan has overheard it all, and Kieu is left no choice but to 
 escape. Like Valjean leaving the Bishop of Digne's house, she takes the silver as she goes.

 We next meet the character of Giac Duyen who would make for an interesting paper. I am still not sure 
 what to make of her. A prioress, she instructs Kieu in what nuns are supposed to do and all is well until 
 a pilgrim sees the silver and identifies it as Miss Hoan's . Kieu confesses and Giac asks a neighboring family 
 to provide shelter for Kieu. Alas, "Dame Bac soon proved a colleague of Dame Tu" (109) and Kieu is back 
 in a brothel again. I remain confused by the apparent marriage to Bac Hanh (whose first name means 
 "false") but he is a parallel to Scholar Ma. Indeed the # of times that Kieu is married is a mystery to me. 
 I hear various reports from 2-9 and a textual examination must be aided by more cultural expertise than
 I possess. Perhaps some of our students have some answers.

 The final line worth mentioning in this section "O Great Potter's Wheel, how you treat womanhood (112) 
 certainly sums up one of the major themes of this work, and reminds me of Maxine Hong Kingston's 
 vignette in CHINA MEN called "On Discovery." So much for Thuc Ky Tham and Miss Hoan--though 
 we shall see them again. Time to turn our thoughts to Kieu's next great love, the soldier Tu Hai.

 Giac Duyen takes her leave with a promise of a reunion within five years guaranteed by another seer, 
 Tam Hop. And in that five years Tu Hai is victorious in many battles, accompanied by his first lady, Kieu. 
 The partnership is taken advantage of by Lord Ho Ton Hien whose entreaties convince Kieu to convince
 Tu Hai that Ho will be an ally, not an enemy. Alas, the end of Tu Hai, because of Kieu's actions (I am 
 reminded of The Moor of Venice & Desdemona, but in that case it was the Moor who was convinced 
 of the wrong thing). We have already noted the powerful death of Tu Hai, and Kieu is once again in 
 captivity, this time playing "Cruel Fate" on her lute for Lord Ho.

 And it appears that Kieu marries again (135), forced into it by her captor! And then we start back to the
 beginning with Kieu communicating with Dam Tien, lamenting her fifteen years of suffering under the 
 cruel "wheels of fate" (137). The next part starts with Giac Duyen and the seer Tam Hop weighing the 
 balance of Kim's actions "When judged for her past sins, Kieu must be charged/ with reckless love,
 but not with wanton lust" (139). Tam Hop continues:

 "She caused one death, but saved ten thousand lives./She knew right thoughts from wrong, 
 fair deeds from foul./ Whose merits equal her good works in truth?"(139).

 Let's go back for a minute back to the opening stanza of the poem:

A hundred years in this life span on earth/
talent and destiny are apt to feud./
You must go through a play of ebb and flow/
and watch such things as make you sick at heart/
Is it so strange that losses balance gains? /

 There is both the conflict of talent & destiny (individual actions versus fate) and the notion, explained 
 in note 5 that "losses balance gains" refers to a "Chinese adage, which makes the common observation
 that no one is perfect or enjoys complete happiness, [which] has a Vietnamese equivalent in a folk saying:
 '[who] gets this loses that'" (169).

with many days ahead, you shall fulfill/
your great past love, reap future happiness./ (141)

 But what happened to Kim Trong, Kieu's great past love whom we last saw in Part I?

  (Their leave-taking is captured in another piece of lacquerware in the DeCillis Collection,
  which depicts Kieu and Van, Kim and young Vuong, Kim's horse and the mountains he
  will journey beyond. The next piece shows Kieu lamenting the absence of Kim. The third 
  piece shows Kieu playing her pear shaped lute form Thuc, and the fourth Tu Hai, noted above)

 Kim had come back to the awful news of Kieu's departure and the plot summary in lines 2775 et. ff. is worth noting,
 but I will not summarize nor quote it here. Kim takes care of the family and sends emissaries looking for Kieu, and to 
 assuage his grief, the family arranges for him to marry Van, which you will recall Kieu had asked Van to do. On page
 149 Van dreams that she will be reunited with Kieu, and Old Do, a clerk whom we have not met before, summarizes
 Kieu's life. This summary leads Kim to find Thuc to get the rest of the story, which continues to the top of p. 153 at 
 which Kim's supposed death by drowning in the river is reported. 

So the family makes an altar to Kieu, it is discovered by Giac    Duyen, and we have arrived at the final resolution of the plot   for the next 14 pages (remember that half are in one  language, half in another-- effectively 7 pages of resolution.)   There is little merit in my summarizing this portion. It should  be read carefully to be appreciated. Note, though, the solution   of Kieu's marrying Kim, but not sleeping with him-- she lives as   a nun, because she has lost her chastity. He continues to live   and have children with Van. Note also that the family thanks   Buddha for the reunion.

Of Kim and Kieu:  "Of love and friendship they fulfilled both claims--/  they shared no bed but joys of lute and verse/ . . .  Their wishes all came true since fate so willed,/  and of two lovers marriage made two friends./ (165)  [and I hope you the EWRT 2 students have enjoyed these pages of verse.]   Of the story:  "This we have learned: with Heaven rests all things./  Heaven appoints each human to a place./  If doomed to roll in dust, we'll roll in dust;/  we'll sit on high when destined for high seats./. . .  In talent take no overweening pride,/  for talent and disaster form a pair./  Our karma we must carry as our lot--/  let's stop decrying Heaven's whims and quirks./  Inside ourselves there lies the root of good:/  the heart outweighs all talents on this earth./ (167)  and finally the concluding lines  May these crude words, culled one by one and strung,  beguile an hour or two of your long night./ (167)

 My wish for you is the same as the author's. I hope you enjoy your study of this great work. Like all 
 great works of literature it returns to you what you invest in it, and you should return to it ten years 
 from now to measure your own change. Its words will still be the same.

  Please use the LISTSERV or FORUM -I will post the lectures there also which is a password protected 
  area--to agree/disagree/comment. I have gotten responses so far ranging from "I could not put this book  
  down" to "it is an immoral book that should not be taught in our class." I very much appreciate the  
  comment about morality since this is a critical thinking course, and whether I agree with that opinion is not 
  so important as whether YOU do. Later in the course I want us to consider the morality of American actions 
  and Vietnamese actions in the war. This is kind of like the CLIFF'S NOTES. Now it is up to you to think 
  critically. What are YOUR thoughts?  --  JKS
   

 Musashi-bo Benkei and Tu Hai: 

Japanese and Vietnamese Heroes, Dying Standing Up

P.S. I really enjoyed reading THE TALE OF KIEU (although it was pretty tough to understand!) 

:-) RESPONSE: IF IT WERE EASY IT WOULD PROBABLY NOT BE GOOD.