I came across a Vietnamese newspaper from the late 1930s-early 1940s called the “Tràng An Báo.” This name is interesting.
“Tràng An” is usually written now as “Trường An” and comes from “Chang’an” 長安, the name of the Han Dynasty capital, a city that continued to serve as the capital of various other Chinese dynasties, including the Tang.
Perhaps because the city served so long as an imperial capital, its name eventually became synonymous with the word “capital” and one can find it in Chinese writings where its use does not literally mean “Chang’an” but simply “the capital.”
It is undoubtedly in this sense that the name was chosen for this newspaper. “Tràng An Báo” can thus be translated as “Capital News” or the “Capital Newspaper.”
What is interesting, however, is to think about how different Vietnam is today. I cannot imagine anyone in Vietnam today naming anything “Tràng An,” except perhaps a Chinese restaurant. . . Times have changed.
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You can still see this couplet being used quite frequently nowadays:
Chẳng thơm cũng thể hoa nhài
Dẫu không thanh lịch cũng người Tràng An
It seems to me that the proud Hanoians love to use this couplet to prove their “elegance”, and the rest of the country like to use it to make fun of them for being the opposite!
Someone on Facebook mentioned that Trang An is used a lot in Nguyen Dynasty poetry. I’m not sure if it was common before that point to use Trang An to refer to Hanoi, or if it is a literary practice that became popular during the Nguyen. Whatever the case may be, Nguyen poets liked to use the term to prove the elegance of themselves and their capital – Hue. 🙂
“Trang An ” means “capital ” ; I’m begging for pardon but there is much more to it . For VN literati , Chang An evokes the ” glory and splendor that was ” Tang China , and more precisely Tang poetry ; poetry that has the brilliance of ten thousand suns , The VN literati yearned to revive those halcyon days and to create such masterworks which are seen by some as the acme , the apotheosis of East Asian and human culture .
Everybody has heard of the most famous Tang emperor , Ming Hoang m whose 40 year- reign ushered the apogee of Tang dynasty and started its decline and of his notorious concubine Yang kwei fei . Ly tai Po wrote many poems about her . One of these poems : Thanh bình điệu kỳ 1 清平調其一
雲想衣裳花想容，
春風拂檻露華濃。
若非群玉山頭見，
會向瑤臺月下逢。
Thanh bình điệu kỳ 1
Vân tưởng y thường, hoa tưởng dung,
Xuân phong phất hạm, lộ hoa nùng.
Nhược phi Quần Ngọc sơn đầu kiến,
Hội hướng Dao Đài nguyệt hạ phùng.
She had an infatuation with lychee fruits which grow only in the south ; regular horse convoys brought them to her
from the distant southern regions among whom Si chouan , Yunnan and Annam
The poem Quá Hoa Thanh cung kỳ 1 過華清宮 speaks of this anecdote
過華清宮其一
長安回望繡成堆，
山頂千門次第開。
一騎紅塵妃子笑，
無人知是荔枝來。
Quá Hoa Thanh cung kỳ 1
Trường An hồi vọng tú thành đôi,
Sơn đính thiên môn thứ đệ khai.
Nhất kỵ hồng trần phi tử tiếu,
Vô nhân tri thị lệ chi lai!
One has a whiff , an inkling of the good life of the Chang an nobiliity through this poem
長安夜遊
鳳城連夜九門通，
帝女皇妃出漢宮。
千乘寶蓮珠箔卷，
萬條銀燭碧紗籠。
歌聲緩過青樓月，
香靄潛來紫陌風。
長樂曉鐘歸騎後，
遺簪墮珥滿街中。
Trường An dạ du
Phụng thành liên dạ cửu môn thông,
Đế nữ hoàng phi xuất Hán cung.
Thiên thặng bảo xa châu bạc quyển,
Vạn điều ngân chúc bích sa lung.
Ca thanh hoãn quá thanh lâu nguyệt,
Hương khí tiềm lai tử mạch phong.
Trường Lạc hiểu chung quy kỵ hậu,
Di trâm lạc thuý mãn nhai trung.
Another famous poem from Li Po Tử Dạ thu ca 子夜秋歌
子夜秋歌
長安一片月，
萬戶擣衣聲。
秋風吹不盡，
總是玉關情。
何日平胡虜，
良人罷遠征？
Tử Dạ thu ca
Trường An nhất phiến nguyệt,
Vạn hộ đảo y thanh.
Thu phong xuy bất tận,
Tổng thị Ngọc quan tình.
Hà nhật bình Hồ lỗ,
Lương nhân bãi viễn chinh?
Tang poetry should be considered as ” world mankind cultural heritage ”
To be fully appreciated , Tang poetry should be recited in Tang pronunciation ; saying Tang poems in Mandarin is discordant
An undocumented assertion : it is said that the Han viêt pronunciation is the most similar to the Tang one ;
To enjoy Tang poetry , it is advised to Chinese , Japanese and Korean people to try Han viêt tone