Dream memoir of Southern Man ( vi-hantu, 南翁夢錄, link=no, Vietnamese : ''Nam Ông mộng lục'') is a memoir written by Vietnamese

official An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority, (either their own or that of their ...

Hồ Nguyên Trừng Hồ Nguyên Trừng (chữ Hán: 胡元澄, pinyin Hu Yuancheng; also known as Lê Trừng, ; 1374? – 1446?) was a Trần dynasty, Vietnamese scholar, official, and engineer in exile in Ming dynasty, China. He was the oldest son of Emperor Hồ Q ...

during his exile in Ming dynasty in the early 15th century. __TOC__

History

(or Lê Trừng) was the eldest son of Hồ Quý Ly who was the founder of the Hồ dynasty, and a renowned military inventor of Việt Nam for his innovation in making cannons and warships. After the defeat of the Hồ dynasty by the army of the Ming dynasty, Hồ Nguyên Trừng was captured in

Hà Tĩnh Hà Tĩnh () is a city in Vietnam.Atlas of the World', Oxford University Press, 2011, p. 236. It is the capital of Hà Tĩnh Province, and lies in the North Central Coast region. It is located on National Highway 1A. The Vietnamese capital Hanoi ...

in 1407 and transferred to China. He was pardoned and granted a position of supervisor in the military industry of the Ming. He was eventually promoted to Deputy Minister of Industry in the imperial court of the Ming dynasty. At the end of his life, Hồ Nguyên Trừng decided to write his memoir to express his nostalgia about his homeland Đại Việt. The memoir was first published in China in 1442. Later ''Nam Ông mộng lục'' was brought back to Vietnam by the Vietnamese ambassador Lê Quý Đôn and had a considerable significance on the historiography and literature of Vietnam. In the foreword of the book, Hồ Nguyên Trừng wrote that he wanted to recite the stories that he had known in order to praise exemplary figures in history and provide those stories for readers. ''Nam Ông mộng lục'' is considered the first memoir and one of the earliest novels văn ngôn in the history of

Vietnamese literature Vietnamese literature ( vi, Văn học Việt Nam; chữ Nôm: 文學越南) is the literature, both oral and written, created largely by the Vietnamese. Early Vietnamese literature has been greatly influenced by Chinese literature. As Literary Chin ...

. However, Hồ Nguyên Trừng was not aware of the fact that his work belong to a new fictitious genre of literature instead of simply as an historical text.

''Nam Ông mộng lục'' is arranged in 31 chapters (''thiên mục''), each chapter is a story about a Vietnamese legend or a historical figure of the Lý or Trần dynasty that Hồ Nguyên Trừng considered typical of Vietnam. Today only 28 chapters remain while 3 chapters were lost. The subjects of the memoir come from relatives of the author, emperors and princes of the Trần dynasty, to famous scholars, priests and physicians. Following is the table of contents of ''Nam Ông mộng lục'': From its contents, ''Nam Ông mộng lục'' shows an important influence of Buddhism and Taoism during the reign of the Lý and Trần dynasties.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nam Ong mong luc Ming dynasty literature Vietnamese books 1442 books History books about Vietnam

History

Contents

References