Nursery rhymes in history

(VHQN) - Ancient Confucian scholars used the term “phong su” to refer to folk songs and nursery rhymes that originated from ancient historical stories. In phong su, many nursery rhymes were created to be sung by children to spread stories of the times. Over time, the intention was lost, leaving only simple lyrics or lyrics associated with children's games.

First page of the Chinese version of the book Vietnamese History. Photo: PHU BINH

“Chi chi, branch, branch, the nail blows fire, the horse breaks the rein, still entangled with the five emperors, planning to find them. Hide and seek… hit”. Everyone knows this song that keeps the rhythm for the childhood game of “hide and seek” (there are different versions of both the lyrics and the game using this nursery rhyme - BT).

Researchers have pointed out that “the nail that blew the fire” refers to the gunshots of the French colonialists exploding at the Da Nang seaport. “The broken horse” refers to the story of King Ham Nghi abandoning the throne and going to the Tan So - Quang Tri base to proclaim the Can Vuong proclamation against the French.

From there, the hypothesis that "the five emperors are still alive" refers to the changes in the Hue court after King Tu Duc's death: in four months, three kings were established: Hiep Hoa, Duc Duc, Kien Phuc; then King Dong Khanh was established after the French colonialists "planned to find" and captured King Ham Nghi and exiled him to Algeria.

The song “Heaven and hell are on both sides, the wise will rely on the foolish, the foolish will suffer. At night, lie down and think of God and remember the Father, recite prayers according to the Father of the soul. The soul must keep its soul, until old age and death, it can go to heaven” is associated with a game. Two children put their arms around each other to make two gates to test the agility of the other children; whoever is quick enough to get through the gate of heaven is happy, whoever is slow must go through the gate of the dark hell.

A corner of the semi-mountainous countryside in Quang Nam. Photo: NGO QUANG TUAN — A corner of the semi-mountainous countryside in Quang Nam . Photo: NGO QUANG TUAN

At first, it was a game created for children in Catholic neighborhoods, but later, its original purpose faded and it became widely popular, and children everywhere played it. "Heaven - Hell" only served as two gates to test children's joy - they played without knowing the original intention of spreading religious beliefs in the song's content.

A Vietnamese Confucian scholar in the early 20th century collected 100 folk songs in the Central region and then sought to explain their historical and cultural origins in the book “Vietnamese Folk Songs” (author: Tieu Cao Nguyen Van Mai - handwritten copy in Chinese characters with the code VNT19 kept at the Saigon Archaeological Institute since 1955; translated by Ta Quang Phat; published by the Saigon Department of Culture in 1972). In this collection, there are many very old folk songs whose origins the author, when explaining, have some places with quite clear hypotheses, while others are still vague and doubtful.

“ In the morning, I went down to bathe in the Eastern sea, stepping on a dragon that emerged in nine sections. I was excited/ The chaos of dragonflies was like chaos of golden hairpins, one side opened the door, the other side let me in. I was excited/ Hello snakes, where are they going? Stroking the tiger's beard. I was excited ”. These three sentences belong to chapters 18, 19, 20 in the above-mentioned book, and were commented by author Nguyen Van Mai as “all being joking songs of cowherds, but the meaning is unclear” (ibid., pp. 72 - 74).

However, he later speculated: “These three chapters mean that when Dinh Tien Hoang was still a shepherd, he played with the children, made battle formations to fight the enemy, and made the children sing.

Chapter 18 is like the Dragon Battle, chapter 19 is like the Butterfly Battle, chapter 20 is like the Snake Battle, because it has been a long time since ancient times and now the system no longer exists. Nowadays, every time the cowherds gather in the fields to herd their buffaloes, they sing these songs, so I wrote them down to ask the gentlemen" (ibid., p.75).

“Hey Nuoc Nuoc! The moon has risen, the water has risen. Row across the canal, set out five or three baskets. Hopefully, the heavens will help, catching whales and whales. The money is full of the holes, three or four baskets of rice”. This nursery rhyme is associated with the game of diving and chasing on the river, and was explained by the author of “Vietnamese Phong Su” as an allusive account of an old fisherman named Trang who secretly dived across Thi Nai lagoon to bring a letter from Vo Tanh (who was being surrounded by Tay Son troops in Quy Nhon citadel) to Lord Nguyen Anh, who was stopping his boat at sea to come to the rescue. Vo Tanh advised the Lord not to save him but to take this opportunity to attack and capture Phu Xuan.

Nguyen Anh listened and captured the northern capital of the Tay Son Dynasty. This decisive victory laid the foundation for the establishment of the Nguyen Dynasty. Later, when King Gia Long summoned him to pay his debt, the old fisherman asked for nothing, only wanting to enjoy his daily fishing career.

Recently, there has been a controversy about the legend of Phi Yen and her son - the concubine of King Gia Long (mother named Ram and son named Cai) being the starting point of the nursery rhyme "The wind carries the mustard plant to heaven, the Vietnamese coriander stays behind to endure bitter words".

But, more than 100 years ago (1914 - 1920), author Tieu Cao Nguyen Van Mai said that this sentence was written by a concubine of the late Later Le Dynasty named Nguyen Thi Kim to express her feelings; it later became a popular nursery rhyme.

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