BAN ZHAO’S Nü JIE AND THE DISCOURSE OF “FEMALE INSTRUCTION” IN VIETNAMESE MEDIEVAL LITERATURE

Abstract

Ban Zhao’s Nü Jie (Lessons for Women), written during the Eastern Han dynasty, is regarded as a canonical text that defined moral conceptions of women within the Confucian system in East Asia. The female instruction presented in this work functions as a mirror reflecting the patriarchal ideology that once exerted a profound influence across the region. To clarify the process of cultural adaptation and identify the transformation of gender thought within traditional cultural spaces, this study compares, contrasts, and analyzes the female instruction ideology in Ban Zhao’s Nü Jie with that found in Vietnamese medieval literature. From this, the article points out that, in medieval Vietnam, the female instruction ideology was not only inherited but also indigenized and critically rethought through many representative works. The transformation of female instruction ideology from a dogmatic model into a multidimensional space of expression has contributed to explaining the process by which Vietnamese medieval literature selectively received and creatively appropriated the literary values of foreign traditions.