Lan Khai - Who opened the way to the world of forest

HNUE JOURNAL OF SCIENCE DOI: 10.18173/2354-1067.2017-0028 Social Sci., 2017, Vol. 62, Iss. 5, pp. 16-21 This paper is available online at LAN KHAI - WHO OPENED THEWAY TO THEWORLD OF FOREST Tran Manh Tien The Faculty of Philology, Hanoi National University of Education Abstract. In medieval literature in, the image of the mountainous people is blurred, thanks to the literary innovation of 1930-1945. Forest story was born with the names of many writers such as Lan Khai, Luu Trong Lu, TChya, Thanh Tinh, Nguyen Tuan, Ly Van Sam... In it, Lan Khai was dubbed as Forest Writer. He wrote about nature, customs and mountain people very attractive. He praised beauty and goodness, condemned the forest destroyers, killed wildlife, robbers ruined human happiness. All are written in bright and poetic language. Keywords: Lan Khai, Forest, mountain, story, nature, customs, ethnic, people, killed, love, language, death, life. 1. Introduction For a long time in medieval literature in Vietnam, the image of life and people in mountainous areas was blurred, but in the period 1930-1945 the artistic innovation, the story of the forest was born, marking a new leap of modern Vietnamese literature associated with names such as Lan Khai, The Lu, Luu Trong Lu, TChya, Thanh Tinh, Nguyen Tuan, Ly Van Sam etc [8]. They brought many new paintings of the world of the forest, welcomed many readers. The journey into the “deep world”, Lan Khai (1906-1945) was dubbed the Forest Writer of the new literature [9]. 2. Content In The post, a young man who wanted to pursue a career in writing in Tao Dan Magazine No. 6 of 1939 wrote: “I grew up in the mountains so I often stand alone in front of a thousand colors. That, my heart wonders wondering what to say a lot”. It is a flashback of the literary “karma” of a writer, showing that the sensitivity of an artist’s soul to the environment at an early age, together with a deep cultural background, for the formation of the special Forest Story of Lan Khai. Living close to nature, sticking to the customs and language of ethnic minorities, so Lan Khai’s familiarities are as strange to other writers. The “sacred forest” in his writings appears to be all-encompassing, where the vigorous, enduring vigor of all the flora and fauna. They just lean on each other and race together to survive. Lan Khai has discovered the vivacious features of that colorful Received date: 10/1/2017. Published date: 3/5/2017. Contact: Tran Manh Tien, e-mail: tranmanhtien56@yahoo.com 16 Lan Khai - who opened the way to the world of forest world through the eyes of a writer, bringing the natural world closer to the human. Through the works such as Lo Hno, Late night forrest, The Call of the deep forest, Suoi Dan, The footprint of the horse on frost, Hong Thau, Money loses power, The strawberry wings, The top of the God mountain, The white flag in the fog etc. . . all show that Lan Khai has created the second natural world with art. It is the world of fresh flowers: “Croong flowers blossoming red”, “Roach flowers like a giant torch burnt under the blue sky” [6]; “The peach blossom from a hundred buds” [5]... There are also filled with beautiful emotions, when dawn up the “blue sky, sunshine over the things like Silkworm silk, with the image: “bright stars like shining tears”. The natural sound in the world sounds with the “screams” of the “birds of the thousand singing songs”, “the wind whispering through the leaves, the wind running on the tree”, “Wind winds in the darkness of the forest”... About the stream, when “around the Jelly table as a light music” at “running smoothly through the gap of reed leaves and mingled, murmured to the reeds to hear the stories brought from strange places” [5]... Each of the natural paintings in the Story of the forest contains the soul. In the “sacred forest” world there are floods, wild animals, robbers and corpses, destroying the peaceful life of the people. The dark, dull, hungry, cold, fake, are enemies of beauty and good. But, above all, the image of the boys, the girls, the gentle workers, the brave, loyal, altruistic, talented and beautiful, living in harmony with nature, connecting with the community and they aspire to freedom in opposition to the dark forces, they always stalk and loot the happiness of the people through the story such as Late night forest, The call of the deep forest, Money loses power, The strawberry wing, Suoi Dan, The footprint of the horse on frost, The top of God mountain etc... The story of Lan Khai’forest also shows that in the natural world there are many obstacles and mysteries, people do not understand all, so the need to continue the journey of discovery. Many pages of books written about the mountain, we see writers as incarnations in the grass, flowers and birds, into their own custom, cluttered portraits and personal fate. He was called Forest Writer by his ability to observe nature as a biologist. He knows mountain people about their place of residence, language, costume, furniture, labor, psychology, life, fun, beliefs, festivals, funerals, weddings, time, etc. . . of each ethnic community from the North to the Central Highlands as an ethnographer. For example, in terms of residence, the Mong people prefer to live on the top of a mountain; Tay people are in the valleys; Dao people like to live on the hillside... He turned these rich realities into lively custom paintings. At the same time, writers such as The Lu with the story Gold and Blood, Luu Trong Lu with the story Foresters, TChya with the story Tiger god, Vu Trong Phung with the story Hunting monkey, Nhat Linh with stories “forest orchids”, Nguyen Tuan with the story On the top of Non Tan, Thanh Tinh with the story Finding Tram trees, Ly Van Sam with the story Kon tro etc... are written about mountain, but none of them have strength and knowledge of mountainous areas such as Lan Khai, so in their works are also isolated from the nature and habits of mountain people. In memoirs of Ms. Ha Minh Kim - wife of Lan Khai writer, said: “In his youth, where there are forests and ethnic minorities, that there are Lan Khai, he knows many languages and ethnic groups. He translated many of their folk literature into Vietnamese”. At the time, many writers featured Lan Khai’s Forest Stories. In the newspaper LOA (1935), Truong Tuu wrote: “Lan Khai - the artist of mountain” is “elder” in the world of the forest, like a banyan tree in the middle of a large field” [8;3]. In the book The modern writer (1942), Vu Ngoc Phan considers Lan Khai’s Forest Stories as a new literary genre: “Reading Lan Khai, people see novelists bring people into the deep forest, led People are intimately entangled 17 Tran Manh Tien in the families of the ethnic minorities and show strange identities... ” [8;965]. After 1945, writers interested in mountain life had to enter the mountainous world and the habits of ethnic minorities to create new works such as: Northwest story (To Hoai), The country stands up (Nguyen Ngoc), Forests moving (Mac Phi), Silver coin (Ma Van Khang), Salt of the forest (Nguyen Huy Thiep), The old house by the stream (Cao Duy Son), etc... Lan Khai’s Forest Stories show the humanistic view of nature, the country and its people. The environmental problem of the 30s of the xx century has been deeply described by him, contributing to the erosion of the complexity of many people, who once viewed the mountain as “acred forest and poisonous water” and the world of ghosts and demons. Where there are beasts such as bears, tigers, poisonous snakes in contrast with humans, but on the contrary of Lan Khai, nature is a beautiful world in harmony with humans. In the stories: Suoi Dan, The call of the deep forest, The footprint of the horse on frost, The top of the god Mountain, Hill of God, he condemned the burning of forests and killing animals. The deforestation will become poor; Hunters who hunt animals are lost to love and happiness. The Call of the deep Forest, depicting a young man’s repentance: “Hunting is a cruel way of expressing cruelty, for it is a game of sowing grief” [3;7]. Do not trample on the life and beauty of nature! That is the deep idea of Lan Khai. In Forest Stories, bright natural images are always close to honest people and in opposition to tyranny. With the view of Lan Khai, nature makes people beautiful and people can beautify nature. Besides the poor and backward, mountainous people still have the potential of beauty and cultural quintessence need to preserve. The collection of folk poetry and folk tales such as Mountain wind and moon (1933), Blue Songs (1937) belonged to the Bana, Gia rai, Mong, Dao, Tay, Nung, Cao Lan ethnic groups by Lan Khai in the early twentieth century, he was the early writer to recognize the “treasure” of the Vietnamese ethnic minority community. In addition, Lan Khai’s Works of mountainous cultural studies show that a writer’s insight into the cultural potential of the nation contributes to the creation of new spiritual values. At the same time, the dark forces have always sought to divide the people of the lowlands with the people of the mountain, thise people with other ethnic groups to break the community solidarity since ancient times, so people have made ethnic ambiguous sentences: Kinh people say: good Kinh people; Tay people say: beautiful Tay, or marriage has a sentence: Get Tay to lay out his son, the Kinh to lay out the monkey... Lan Khai has a deep vision of the factors that connect the community of the Vietnamese people, they share a common source of history. Ethnic groups are different in terms of language and customs, but they are united with the same desire for freedom and happiness. In Forest Stories, the reader always catches the couple’s affair, they differ in ethnicity but poetic. In the Late night forest Tay girl called Dua Phan, who loves Dao boy the name Mai Kham very clear, experiencing the storm, but they reached the highest peak of love before the end of their life. In Suoi Dan story tells of the intense love of an Kinh boy with a Tay girl in the village creating a very poignant love affair. Two painters Kinh people in Hong Thau coupled with two red Dao womens still make up the family and give birth to children. Nhan Nhi in “The top of God mountain” is a beautiful Tay girl, she loves a man, who named Tuyet Han, he is a virtuous and talented Dao man is the most poetic love story. In the strawberry wing, the affair between Mai Kham boy of the Bana tribe with the Pengai Lang girls of Giarai tribe is the most beautiful love history between the mountains of the Central Highlands. Their love has transcended family and ethnic 18 Lan Khai - who opened the way to the world of forest hatred, against greed and crime, towards peace and goodness. With many vivid literary images, the writer has helped readers remove the barriers between mountainous people and people of the delta and other ethnic groups in Vietnam. Lan Khai’s Forest Stories shows that, no matter where we are, every nation is the same, every human being has a desire for free love and a happy life. Poverty, injustice is everywhere, but people can make life better when they realize themselves. People want happiness not only to protect themselves but also to protect nature, because humans are part of that world. If we behave well with nature, nature offers us many sources of happiness. Through lively literary images, Lan Khai’s perception of man and nature has given readers wisdom and belief in life. The story of mountain forests has developed with many different names such as stories, ghost stories, myths, horror stories... Lan Khai’s Forest Stories of different sizes and capacities such as novels, short stories, medium story. There is a kind of customary, a kind of history and a kind of transmission. The mythical short stories of the contemporary period are called the Strange story in the forest: Stranger, Ghost of the Flow, The Flow of the Ma family, Double Duckling. Old woman Tigers, The top of God Mountain. . . They carry traces of fairy tales formed from three main sources: Lan Khai’s childhood absorbed from the mother; Literary epitomies from the father; The mountainous stories of ethnic minorities, he collected from the journeys in the world of the forest [4]. . . These are mysterious stories, such as the image of a woman in a short story called “Stranger” described as “eyes like white rabbits”, “mouth laughing like heartburn, sharp teeth like cat teeth, going in the air... The stories Ghost of flow, The flow of the Ma family, Old woman Tigers evokes the chaotic life of humans and animals in the mythical era. The story The Cow under the sea tells of the monsters of the Dragon King on the land was killed, Dragon King immediately raised water to revenge the villagers. The story of Double Duckling, says that a Kinh man married a Tay girl to be his wife, but fell victim to the lowland, he did not return, his wife used magic for him to destroy the bloody force to death [4]... Lan Khai’s fanciful stories have magical elements in the middle literature such as Liao Trai by Bo Tung Linh (China) and Ancient story by Nguyen Du (Vietnam), Legend in Vietnamese folk tales. These are the myths and horror that are both real and virtual to meet the entertainment needs, arouse the curiosity of readers, outside the real purpose of Lan Khai. In addition, Lan Khai also has some historical short stories such asWater Wave of Lo River (1935), Mr. Doi’s Conspiracy (1941), speaking of miserable circumstances when the country is lost, the family disperses. Forest novels are works that combine romance and reality, sometimes interfering with the magical elements that make the story more “flavors of the forest”. Through the writings of Lo Hno, Late night forest, The footprint of the horse on frost, The Call of the Deep Forest, Suoi Dan, Money loses power, The white flag in the fog, Hong Thau, Nung Ti Ao, The strawberry wings etc... have shown that Lan Khai is a writer who has found a unique way for his novels in complex polyphony. Although the plot is simple, characters are not many, but the material is very rich. Besides, he also has some novels such as The woman in the war, The top of the God Mountainous, In the fire smoke, The white flag in the fog etc. . . They are historical novels, but it Is the history of the mountains and forests, so the mountainous material is no less lively. In general, the stories about mountainous areas such as Lo HNo, Nung Ti Ao, Late night forest, Suoi Dan, Money loses power, Strawberry wing, The top of the God 19 Tran Manh Tien Mountain, Lan Khai is often associated with beautiful and romantic life, but has suffered many calamities in different circumstances. In Late night forest, the couple are in love with each other, but the village ranger has sought to undermine their love. In order to preserve the dignity of love, couples have committed suicide together with a sharp knife [2]. In Money loses power, the couple fell in love, unlucky girl’s father died, but the poor guy has no money for his father’s funeral lover. So the village ruler used his money to do it in accordance with custom, then he shall take her as his wife. Young couple have together hiding in the jungle like animals, when police hunt, both of whom committed suicide with a shotgun. Tragedy of love often arises from the darkness of backward customs with the power and crime of the deep forests. In Suoi Dan, the writer described the passionate affection of a handsome Kinh man with a beautiful Tay woman, but she did not overcome her own tragedy: She does not love her old lover and she does not dare to betray her new lover. Desperate for the future, this woman used poisonous leaves to finish her life [5]. The women in the Hong Thau and, The top of The God Mountain, they love and wait for our husbands to death as “rock like a woman waiting for her husband”. The woman in The call of the deep forest is so innocent, dazzled by the glory of the young man, lost the old love, but when the awakening back to the world of mountains. The footprint of the horse on the frost is a dark picture of the Mong people in ancient society, because of the dark life, the deadlock leading to the incestuousness of the family, because of poverty the woman becomes a commodity for the ruler [6]. The backward customs of people, greed and crime of the ruling class are the source of tragedy for the honest people. The fascination of the forest stories shows in the harmony of nature with humans. Lan Khai was the first writer to successfully create the world of nature, customs and people of the mountains with fresh paintings in modern Vietnamese literature. He brought to his writing pages the essence of poetry and music. In Lo Hno, there is a paragraph depicting the body of the young woman TSi Doa, immersing herself in a fountain in the midst of a green forest, is a picture full of a feeling that expresses harmony between the wonderful feats of humanity with the magic of nature [1]. Or the description of the mood of Nhan Nhi girl remember the lover in The top of The God Mountain with rich soul melodies, causing the readers also restless, sobbing. The name Suoi Dan is not only the name of the village but also the endless love of nature has given to everyone. In The Wing with the mulberry tree, the love between Pengai Lang girl (Gia rai’Ethnic) and Mai Kham man (Ba na’Ethnic) became more alive with Gia rai folk melodies, melting into the singing of the girl making the mountains of Tay Nguyen more romantic. It can be said that Lan Khai ’s pen touched every corner of the stream, to every blade of grass, leaves, stamens, song of birds, in which the deepest is the human mood before nature wild life and humanity as life lived. The harmony between reality and romance with the media has contributed to making the book more attractive.Western scientific knowledges, such as Darwin’s theory of evolution, Hyppolyte Ten’s theory of humanity influenced Lan Khai’s artistic vision in describing the natural world and exploring the life of ethnic minorities. In addition to talent and rich capital, success in Lan Khai’s works also absorbed the influence of world literature to create new art paintings of the world of the forest. The forest stories has long attracted readers not only in abundant content, but also in the ability to use the artistic language of the penchant of Lan Khai pen in sketching the lively picture of the world of the forest. The folk songs of the compatriots of ethnic minorities in Viet Bac and the Central Highland are intermingled. His writings show 20 Lan Khai - who opened the way to the world of forest many words that are rich in formality and expressiveness, sentences that contain a lot of light, color, sound, smell and taste, suggesting new sensory fields. Comparisons of companionship create poetic beauty in fiction and short stories. 3. Conclusion From the journey in the world of the forest to becoming a famous writer in the national literature, Lan Khai has nearly 30 years of attachment to life and mountain people with the heart of the enthusiasm of a great talent. Lan Khai’s Forest Stories is a crystallization of his extensive culture, which includes the quintessence of national traditions and the quintessence of Western culture with Chinese culture, he created a second world - the forest world in the art of deep human values. REFERENCES [1] Lan Khai, 1933. Lo Hno. Ngo bao from. No. 1857-1905. [2] Lan Khai, 1935. Late night forest. The Loa, from No.94-111, every Thursday. [3] Lan Khai, 1939. The Call of the Deep Forest. Semi-circular, No.45. [4] Lan Khai, 1940. Forest Stories. Tan Dan Publishing House. [5] Lan Khai, 1941. Suoi Dan.