Ca dao, the folk poetry of Vietnam, is a treasure
trove of the nation’s cultural heritage. Within its plain
yet heartfelt verses lie the sentiments of ordinary
people toward their homeland, villages, romantic love,
as well as the knowledge of agricultural practices and
life experiences passed down through generations. Ca
dao embodies spiritual values, moral principles, and
aesthetic sensibilities that contribute to shaping the
cultural identity of the Vietnamese nation.
The aesthetic values in ca dao are expressed
through the ways rural people perceive the beauty
of nature and landscapes, as well as their ways of
praising or critiquing the virtues and flaws of human
character. These values are also reflected in the tastes
and preferences evident in everyday life. As a form
of traditional lyrical folk expression, ca dao does not
aim to articulate abstract aesthetic theories; instead,
it conveys, oft en unselfconsciously, the aesthetic
experiences of ordinary people through call-and-
response songs (hát đối đáp) between men and
women or simple rhyming verses about the lives of rural laborers. Exploring these aesthetic experiences
allows us to discern a distinctive aspect of Vietnamese
aesthetics, which constitute an integral part of the
Vietnamese character and way of life.
Vietnamese aesthetics are not only expressed
in ca dao but also evident throughout the broader
cultural activities of the people, particularly in artistic
creation. Yet traditional folk creations in general,
and ca dao in particular, may be regarded as a cradle,
one of the primordial sources from which the shared
aesthetic values of the Vietnamese community have
arisen. Therefore, exploring Vietnamese aesthetics
through ca dao is an essential endeavor in the
process of studying the characteristics and historical
development of the nation’s aesthetic thought.
Th e essays in this modest book represent
only preliminary outlines of the above topic. I hope
that further studies will follow this direction, paving
the way for a comprehensive work on Vietnamese
aesthetics to be accomplished in the near future.
I sincerely look forward to the insights and
contributions of those who share this interest and of
my esteemed readers.
