Giải âm

Giải âm (chữ Hán: 解音) refers to Literary Vietnamese translations of texts originally written in Literary Chinese. These translations encompass a wide spectrum, ranging from brief glosses that explain individual terms or phrases to comprehensive translations that adapt entire texts for a Vietnamese reader. Works translated into Vietnamese include Chinese classics, such as the Analects (Luận ngữ uớc giải; 論語約解), as well as native Vietnamese Classical Chinese literature, such as Truyền kỳ mạn lục
Tân biên Truyền kỳ mạn lục tăng bổ giải âm tập chú
新編傳奇漫錄增補解音集註).

Etymology

The term giải âm (解音) literally meaning 'to explain sounds.' It refers to translations of Literary Chinese texts into Literary Vietnamese, with an emphasis on preserving the original syntax while providing Vietnamese equivalents for the Chinese characters.

Âm (音) is a clipping of the term quốc âm (國音; "national pronunciation"), which was used to refer to the Vietnamese language.

Translations of texts can be referred to by several terms, including:

* giải âm (解音)
* diễn âm (演音)
* ước giải (約解)

Another related term, giải nghĩa (解義), literally meaning 'to explain meaning,' refers to translations that prioritize conveying the meaning of the text without adhering to the original word order. This approach places greater emphasis on semantic meaning of the source text.

* giải nghĩa (解義)
* diễn nghĩa (演義)
* thích nghĩa (釋義)

History

The earliest extant Vietnamese text with bilingual translation i
Phật thuyết đại báo phụ mẫu ân trọng kinh
(佛說大報父母恩重經), dated to the fifteenth century. This text features an Old Vietnamese translation alongside the original Classical Chinese. The Vietnamese translation uses obsolete vocabulary and linguistic features that were characteristic of the period, providing valuable insight into the development of the Vietnamese language at the time.

Another notable translation work is Quốc ngữ thi nghĩa (國語詩義; 1396) which was written by Hồ Quý Ly (胡季犛; 1336–1407), it was a translation of the Classic of Poetry (詩經) into Vietnamese. It was lost during the Fourth Era of Northern Domination.

The excerpt about Hồ Quý Ly's work from the Complete Annals of Đại Việt (Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư; 大越史記全書):Books continued to be translated into Vietnamese well into the Nguyễn dynasty, with notable examples such as:

Thượng dụ huấn điều sao bản giải âm
(上諭訓條抄本解音; 1834) - A giải âm translation of Huấn địch thập điều (訓迪十條), a set of ten moral and disciplinary principles issued by Emperor Minh Mạng (明命) in 1834.
* Chư kinh diễn âm (諸經演音; 1900) - A diễn âm translation of several Buddhist sutras such as Amitābha Sūtra (阿彌陀經), Cause and Effect Sūtra (因果經), etc.
The preface of Chu dịch quốc âm ca quyết (周易國音歌訣; 1815) states,

The preface of Tứ thư ước giải (四書約解) written by Lê Quý Đôn also states that the spoken languages in Vietnam and China differ thus the need for translations was necessary:

Examples

An example of simple vernacular glossing can be found in Tam thiên tự giải âm (). In this text, the Chinese characters are organized into four-character verses, with their equivalents in chữ Nôm provided in smaller print alongside.

In comparison, comprehensive translations such as the one found in Lễ ký đại toàn tiết yếu diễn nghĩa (), a translation of the Book of Rites (),

In this example, the Classical Chinese term, (a humble word for "I"; literally "person of few irtue) is translated into Vietnamese as (a person of little virtue; ). The rest of the sentence is translated with its equivalent word. The Classical Chinese sentence reads as "I heard it", while the Vietnamese sentence reads "This person of little virtue heard that sound"

A prominent line from Classic of Filial Piety (; ),

Chưng

() is an obsolete Vietnamese particle (inside Vietnamese translations) commonly used to translate Classical Chinese terms such as: , , , , etc. , originally used pronominally gained additional functions as a result of exegetical translation of Literary Chinese.

Washizawa outlines the meanings of the particle chưng as follows:

Subject-Predicate modifier

Here, the Classical Chinese structure A 之 B becomes 蒸 B A (similar to Modern Vietnamese, B genitive A).

Preposition

Sentence initial particle

Thửa

Thửa (所) is an obsolete Vietnamese particle used to translate Classical Chinese terms such as: 其 kỳ, 所 sở, 厥 quyết, etc.

Demonstrative

This function of the word acts similarly to English the or that.

Pronoun

In this example, thửa is being used as a pronoun to refer to his words.

Another example using 厥 quyết,

Nominalizer

Here thửa being used as a nominalizer which acts similarly to modern Vietnamese sự or điều.

Place

Translations of vocabulary

Here are some translations of function words (Vietnamese: hư từ; 虛詞), these words may contain obsolete vocabulary that is not used in Modern Vietnamese. Some of these words may be written with different characters as chữ Nôm was never standardised.

Notable giải âm texts

* Chỉ nam ngọc âm giải nghĩa (指南玉音解義) - earliest existing Literary Chinese - Vietnamese dictionary, has two prefaces both in Vietnamese and CC.
* Tứ thư ước giải (四書約解) - a translation of the Four Books, complied by Lê Quý Đôn (黎貴惇).
* Thi kinh giải âm (詩經解音) - a translation of the Classic of Poetry.
* Ngũ kinh tiết yếu diễn nghĩa (五經節要演義) - a translation of the Five Classics totalling 12 volumes, translated by Bùi Huy Bích (裴輝璧).
* Thi kinh đại toàn tiết yếu diễn nghĩa (詩經大全節要演義) - a translation of the Classic of Poetry.
* Thư kinh đại toàn tiết yếu diễn nghĩa (書經大全節要演義) - various translations of the chapters from the Classic of Documents.
* Lễ kí đại toàn tiết yếu diễn nghĩa (禮記大全節要演義) - a translation of the Classic of Rites consisting of 4 volumes.
* Dịch kinh đại toàn tiết yếu diễn nghĩa (易經大全節要演義) - a translation of the I Ching, translated by Phạm Quý Thích (范貴適).
* Xuân Thu đại toàn tiết yếu diễn nghĩa (春秋大全節要演義) - a translation of the Spring and Autumn Annals consisting of 6 volumes.

Âm chất giải âm
(隂騭解音) - a translation of Wenchang Wang's work, 陰騭文 Yīnzhìwén.

Đại Việt sử ký tiệp lục tổng tự
(大越史記捷綠總序) - a summary of the history of Đại Việt with Vietnamese commentary.
* Tam giáo nhất nguyên giải âm (三教一原解音) - a translation of Tam giáo nhất nguyên (三教一原) written by Trịnh Tuệ (鄭穗).
* Tử vi đẩu số giải âm 紫微斗數解音 - a translation of the Ziwei doushu methods used for divination.

Gallery

File:Tam tự kinh giải âm diễn ca.jpg, A page from Tam tự kinh giải âm diễn ca 三字經解音演歌, shows the original text of Three Character Classic (三字經) alongside the Vietnamese giải âm translation (top) and Vietnamese poetic translation (diễn ca 演歌; bottom) in lục bát verse.
File:Kinh Xuân Thu.jpg, A excerpt from Sơ học vấn tân 初學問津, 是謂春秋 (Thị vị Xuân thu; That is called Spring and Autumn Annals): 意浪經春秋 (Ấy rằng Kinh Xuân Thu).
File:Page of Phật thuyết đại báo phụ mẫu ân trọng kinh.png, A page from ''Phật thuyết đại báo phụ mẫu ân trọng kinh'' 佛說大報父母恩重經 which shows text in Literary Chinese alongside an earlier form of ''chữ Nôm'' representing Old Vietnamese pronunciation. Some double phonetic characters (chữ kép) are used to represent the consonant clusters in Old Vietnamese.
File:A page of Cổ Châu Pháp Vân Phật bản hạnh ngữ lục 古珠法雲佛本行語錄.png, Cổ Châu Pháp Vân Phật bản hạnh ngữ lục 古珠法雲佛本行語錄 featuring the original Classical Chinese text and Vietnamese translation.
File:A page from Thái Tông hoàng đế ngự chế Khoá Hư Tập 太宗皇帝御製課虚集.png, Thái Tông hoàng đế ngự chế Khoá Hư Tập 太宗皇帝御製課虚集, a translation of Khóa hư lục 課虚錄, a work by Trần Thái Tông (1218–1277).
File:A page from Địa Tạng kinh giải thích Hoa ngôn 地蔵經解釋華言.png, Địa Tạng kinh giải thích Hoa ngôn 地蔵經解釋華言, a Vietnamese translation of the Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva Pūrvapraṇidhāna Sūtra.

See also

* Chữ Nôm
* ''Kanbun''
* ''Gugyeol''
* Idu
* Tự Đức thánh chế tự học giải nghĩa ca

Notes

References

* {{citation , surname=Handel , given=Zev , title=Sinography: The Borrowing and Adaptation of the Chinese Script , year=2019 , postscript=. , publisher=Brill , isbn=978-90-04-38632-7

Vietnamese language
Translation
Classical Chinese