The tale of Kieu

¶ … Tale of Kieu -- an epic of family obligations, ideal love, and morality

The Tale of Kieu" is often described as Vietnam's classic epic poem, defining the morals and values for that Asian nation. It was highly influenced by Confucian philosophy of filial obedience, and obedience to the divine order of harmony, and to obey the divine order's chosen leadership. It also has a strong Buddhist influence in its conclusion, as it stresses the sadness and inevitability of the material world, even when confronted with Confucian loyalty and goodness, as embodied in the actions and person of the primary female protagonist Kieu.

The poem centers on the story of a young daughter of a fine Vietnamese family named Vuong Thuy Kieu, hence the title of the poem. The narrator of the poem presents Kieu as very beautiful as well as very learned for a woman, despite Confucian philosophy's lack of stress upon this value (as opposed to obedience) in females. However, the intellect of the protagonist is traced directly to the fact that she is of such a well-educated family, a family that has carefully instilled their parental values of learning and knowledge in their daughter. The young woman is in love with a young man, Kim Trong. Kim and Kieu are betrothed.

The plot, however, soon goes awry, for all the obedience, goodness, and learning in the world cannot prevent a great disaster falling upon Kieu's family -- proof again of the Confucian philosophy that obedience of the individual is not enough, when the heavenly and harmonic order is amiss because of an evil leader. This unwarranted evil also underlines the theme of Buddhism's belief in the amorality of the material world, where suffering rather than the recognition of human goodness is often the reality of earthly human existence. Because of a corrupt leader, the girl's father and brother are imprisoned, through no fault of her own or their own.

This event presents the virtuous Kieu with a dilemma between supporting herself and preserving her virtue and obligation to marry Kim as a good and chaste woman. In order to solve her family's problem, she sells herself as a whore -- her family obligation comes before her pleasure and love, as well as her potential obligation to another family. In doing so, she is even aided by a Vuong family friend, the administrator Chung. When Kieu is sold to the Scholar Ma her father known as Old Vuong is released from bondage. But before she marries the Scholar Ma (who already has a bad-tempered wife named Dame Tu), Kieu enlists Van to promise to fulfill her original marriage vow to Kim. Still, already the reader is alerted that this will be complicated. Kieu is entering into another marital obligation to a family in a fashion that, as a woman, removes her from her original obligations and vow to Kim. This also highlights the theme of the inability of the real world to reward good, for Kim is now split between three competing sets of obligations -- to her first betrothed husband, to her family, and now to the bonds of the Scholar Ma.

The text does not 'reward' her in material terms for this choice of filial piety or of loyalty to Kim. In essence, the fact that the ruling powers of the material world are evil and has evilly imprisoned the girl's father creates a rift in the heavenly order makes it impossible for Kieu to be a good wife to Kim and a good daughter. Because of this impossible decision mandated by her society of feudal and parental obligations, the girl sees catastrophe after catastrophe fall upon her head. Under the watchful eye of Dame Tu, she acts as a singer, concubine, and servant in a local house of pleasure, but is cheated even out of her meager earnings, because of her trust and high birth that deprives her of the 'street smarts' necessary to succeed in such a rapacious environment.

Once one of the primary societal obligations is undone, when Kieu's father is imprisoned, a chain of cosmic events is set into motion. It becomes impossible for the rest of society to function well, and in a moral and orderly fashion. Kieu is good, beautiful, and talented, but because of a terrible twist of fate (showing the story's Buddhist influences) a rift is created in the ruling societal order (a catastrophic occurrence in Confucian thought). She is thus condemned to her immoral and imperfect fate, a fate she does not deserve. Despite her best and good intentions and good characters, she cannot enjoy a happy life, as she desires.

The heavenly significance of Kieu's story, which extends beyond her family, is highlighted by the persistent existence of the Vuong family's deceased muse and former servant Dam Tien. As a spirit voice, Dam Tien counsels, guides, and provides some much-needed comfort to Kieu during critical junctures of the girl's struggle. Dam Tien's presence underlines the persistence and necessity of filial obligations and the connection between the individual self and the collective, ancestral past -- but the 'lower' nature of the living status of Dam Tien also shows a greater affection and respect for members of the poor serving classes and social order than is evident in some Confucian ideas about the need for deference in the social hierarchy.

Of course, the primary interest for many readers is the romantic relationship between the star-crossed and originally betrothed lovers Van and Kieu. But the morality of the tale denies the pair full happiness and the full delights of marital bliss. At first, Kieu refuses to marry Kim because she feels that she has become an unclean woman, and will dishonor him, despite her earlier vow that the two would be together in eternity, despite her vow before marrying the Scholar Ma.

An additional complication, of course, is that Kim is now married to the good woman Van, even though she is not as esteemed in Kim's estimation as Kieu. Kim marries Van because he believes Kieu has committed suicide. This is Kieu's second apparent attempt at suicide during the course of the poem. Over and over, the theme of the wheels of fate determining human destiny, rather than the human will is stressed -- Kim and Kieu are condemned never to be together permanently in body, but their souls are conjoined in eternity. Kim even dreams before his marriage to Van that Kieu will be saved from her supposed demise.