Vietnamese cultural marks in forecasting methods (Survey in Vietnamese Medieval Narrative Prose)

Abstract

The prediction methods in Vietnamese Medieval Narrative Prose mostly had Chinese origin since Vietnam was not the homeland of the I Ching (Yi Jing), horoscopes, physiognomy, fortune telling, astrology, interpretation of dreams,... When using forecasting methods in life and in literature, Vietnamese people in general and writers in particular not only received the forms but also certainly were influenced by the ideology from the basis, the principles to the ways of explanation (based on the theory of Yin and Yang, Five elements, Unity of heaven and man, Microcosm of human body, Induction of heaven and man, Destiny of heaven,...). On the surface, we could only see the Chinese "identity" of Vietnamese forecasts. However,  if we look beneath these "icebergs", we would realize that Vietnamese medieval writers just borrowed the forms and models to create predictions. In fact, the forecast systems were deeply marked by agricultural culture that could manifest in several aspects: 1. The high frequency appearance of female factors and water factors. 2. Animal and plant systems that represented agricultural culture. 3. The richness of spells and magic associated with Vietnamese traditional culture, legends and history.