IBefore you read
At a temple of the Mother on a feast day, before an altar glowing red with lamps and candles, the cung văn singer sits cross legged on a mat, holding a đàn nguyệt, the moon lute, and lightly tapping a bamboo clapper. The lute plays a few opening phrases, then the singing rises, slow and clear in every word: Bóng trăng loan mẫu đơn một đóa, gió lay mành hương xạ thoảng đưa. Beneath a moon that casts the phoenix's shadow, a single peony blooms, the wind stirs the blind, and the scent of musk drifts by. This is the opening of a hymn about Mẫu Liễu Hạnh, the most highly revered figure in Đạo Mẫu of the Four Palaces, the Vietnamese Mother Goddess religion. This page presents the first thirty two lines of that hymn.
Đạo Mẫu has no scriptures in the sense that Buddhism or Catholicism has, and no church that sets an authorized text. The nearest thing to scripture in this religion is văn chầu, the verse hymns that cung văn singers perform before the altar and during hầu đồng mediumship rituals. Each spirit in the Four Palaces pantheon has its own hymn, which tells of the spirit's origins, praises its merits, describes its appearance, and then prays for those attending the rite.
The hymn chosen here is the one sung in worship of Mẫu Liễu Hạnh. Among the Three Holy Mothers (Tam Tòa Thánh Mẫu), the one seated in the middle is Mẫu Đệ Nhất Thượng Thiên, the First Mother, Mother of Heaven, who governs the realm of the sky and whose color is red, and in most temples and shrines of northern Vietnam the First Mother is identified with Mẫu Liễu Hạnh. That understanding is not shared everywhere, and the library's main page on Đạo Mẫu says so clearly. The page title uses the name Mẫu Thượng Thiên, following the usual way temple keepers refer to her, while the hymn itself speaks of Mẫu Liễu Hạnh, calling her Chầu (Lady), Tiên (Immortal), Thánh (Holy One) and Chúa (Sovereign Lady).
This page sets out the text exactly as printed, with a column giving its meaning in plain Vietnamese and an English column translated by the library, followed by line by line commentary and sections on chầu văn, on the legend of Mẫu Liễu Hạnh and on the occasions when the hymn is sung. The library describes and explains, and does not speak for the religion on what is true or false.
Chầu văn belongs to the layer of folk literature that has a written form. The article on the repertoire system from the Vietnamese Institute of Musicology distinguishes two streams: văn bia, hymns that were written down in Hán Nôm characters, and văn miệng, hymns handed down through the memory of cung văn singers. The two streams run side by side and borrow from each other, so the same hymn may circulate in many different wordings depending on the singers' lineage, the region and the teacher who passed it on.
By the first half of the twentieth century, as the romanized quốc ngữ script spread, collections of chầu văn were being printed in quốc ngữ. The book Văn chầu: Các bài văn chầu đủ các vị, printed in 1929, is one such collection, and it survives in the Indochina Collection of the National Library of Vietnam. The hymn to Mẫu Liễu Hạnh in that book opens with four seven syllable lines in Sino-Vietnamese, beginning with the two words thần kim, a common invocation used at the start of many hymns. It is followed by a narrative in the song thất lục bát meter, more than a hundred lines long.
The narrative opens with the image of a peony and the scent of musk, and introduces an Immortal of old from the Moon Palace who comes down to earth, is born into the Lê family in the land of Phủ Dầy, marries, returns to heaven at the age of twenty one, and then comes back to visit her home. The later part moves on to her appearances at Đèo Ngang and Phố Cát, the Jade Emperor sending fairy maidens down to visit her, and the founding of temples, and closes with a prayer for the worshippers. This page excerpts from the first line of the song thất lục bát part to line thirty two, the whole account of her birth at Vân Cát, because that passage forms a thread of its own, tied to the land of Phủ Dầy itself.
The current cung văn version used for comparison is titled Văn Địa Tiên Thánh Mẫu and opens with the words Bóng gương loan. Across these thirty two lines the two versions share the same narrative and the same rhymes, but differ in wording in more than twenty lines, and the commentary notes each difference.
IIThe text, first thirty two lines
The passage below consists of eight stanzas of song thất lục bát, each of four lines in a rhythm of seven, seven, six and eight syllables. The text keeps the exact spelling of the 1929 printing, including words now written differently. The meaning column beside it is the library's gloss, written in everyday Vietnamese so that readers can follow the narrative, not a translation meant to replace the text.
| Verse | Original Vietnamese text | English | Plain Vietnamese paraphrase |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Bóng trăng loan mẫu đơn một đóa | Beneath a moon that casts the phoenix's shadow, a single peony blooms, | Dưới bóng trăng in hình chim loan, một đóa mẫu đơn nở |
| 2 | Gió lay mành hương xạ thoảng đưa | the wind stirs the blind, and the scent of musk drifts faintly by. | gió lay tấm mành, mùi hương xạ thoang thoảng bay đưa. |
| 3 | Có Chầu Nguyệt-diện Tiên xưa, | There is a Lady who of old was an Immortal of the Moon, | Có một vị Chầu, xưa là tiên nữ ở cung trăng, |
| 4 | Lánh về cõi tục, giáng sinh Nam thành | who left for the world of dust and was born in the southern land. | rời xuống cõi trần, giáng sinh nơi đất phương Nam. |
| 5 | Thánh hóa sinh vào nhà Lê thị, | The Holy One took birth in the house of the Lê, | Bà hóa thân sinh ra trong nhà họ Lê, |
| 6 | Cải họ Trần dấu khí thiên hương | then took the name of Trần in marriage, hiding her heaven-sent grace. | rồi về làm dâu họ Trần, giấu đi cái hương sắc trời ban. |
| 7 | Bẩm sinh vẻ có phi phương, | From birth her bearing was unlike any other, | Từ lúc sinh ra đã có dáng vẻ khác thường, |
| 8 | Giá danh đòi một hoa thơm trên đời. | her worth and renown matched the most fragrant flower on earth. | phẩm giá và tiếng tăm sánh với đóa hoa thơm nhất trên đời. |
| 9 | Ngụ thai quê Phủ Dầy, Thiên bản, | She was conceived and born in Phủ Dầy, in Thiên Bản, | Bà thụ thai và ra đời ở quê Phủ Dầy, huyện Thiên Bản, |
| 10 | Phủ Nghĩa Hưng là chốn Sơn nam, | in the prefecture of Nghĩa Hưng, in the land of Sơn Nam. | thuộc phủ Nghĩa Hưng, đất trấn Sơn Nam. |
| 11 | Trẻ thơ chưa biết Thánh phàm, | As a child, none yet knew if she was holy or mortal, | Thuở còn thơ, chưa ai biết bà là thánh hay người thường, |
| 12 | Treo kinh còn vết để làm dấu thiêng. | only a trace called the hanging of scripture remained as a sacred sign. | chỉ còn một dấu vết lạ gọi là treo kinh để lại làm dấu thiêng. |
| 13 | Tuổi thiếu niên cài trâm giắt lược, | Grown to maidenhood, she wore the hairpin and the comb, | Tới tuổi thiếu nữ cài trâm giắt lược, |
| 14 | Giá duyên lành khuê phước một nơi, | and was given in marriage to a blessed house, a good match. | bà được gả vào một nơi có phúc, thành một mối duyên lành. |
| 15 | Gối chăn vừa được quen hơi, | Pillow and blanket had only just grown familiar, | Chăn gối vợ chồng vừa mới quen hơi nhau, |
| 16 | Ai ngờ dưới nguyệt rẽ đôi tơ hường. | when, who could have known, the red thread tied beneath the moon was split in two. | ai ngờ sợi tơ hồng se dưới trăng đã rẽ làm đôi. |
| 17 | Đạo cương thường đương thương đương nhớ | While husband and wife were still deep in love and longing, | Nghĩa vợ chồng đang lúc thương nhau nhớ nhau, |
| 18 | Bỗng hoa hài lại trở gót Tiên, | suddenly the Immortal in her flowered slippers turned her steps back to heaven. | bỗng gót tiên trong đôi hài hoa quay trở về trời. |
| 19 | Giờ Dần mồng ba tháng Thìn, | At the hour of the Tiger, on the third day of the Dragon month, | Vào giờ Dần, ngày mồng ba tháng Thìn, tức tháng Ba âm lịch, |
| 20 | Đôi mươi mốt tuổi rẽ duyên trần phàm, | at the age of twenty one she parted from her mortal bond. | năm hai mươi mốt tuổi, bà dứt duyên với cõi trần. |
| 21 | Ấy ai làm trêu thương gợi nhớ, | Who was it that left those behind in such sorrow and longing, | Ai đã khiến người ở lại thương nhớ đến thế, |
| 22 | Chẳng hay là giang giở vì đâu, | and why it all was left unfinished, no one could say. | chẳng biết cơ sự dở dang là vì cớ gì. |
| 23 | Lương quân ruột rối đòi nau, | Her good husband's heart was tangled beyond measure, | Người chồng ruột gan rối bời biết bao nhiêu, |
| 24 | Mẹ cha nào biết thảm sầu mấy cơn. | and her parents knew more bouts of grief than could be counted. | cha mẹ trải bao cơn sầu thảm không sao kể xiết. |
| 25 | Rày Chầu đã cung Tiên đền quế, | Now the Lady dwells in the Immortals' palace, the cassia hall of the moon, | Nay bà đã về cung tiên, nơi đền quế trên trăng, |
| 26 | Biết đâu là trần thế xót xa, | little knowing how the mortal world is left in sorrow. | đâu hay cõi trần người ở lại còn xót xa, |
| 27 | Có phen Tiên cũng nhớ nhà, | Yet at times the Immortal too longs for home, | Có những lúc tiên cũng nhớ nhà, |
| 28 | Có ngày tháng ngự đường xa hiện về. | and on certain days she journeys from afar and appears again. | có ngày từ nơi xa ngự giá hiện về. |
| 29 | Thăm bản quê mẹ cha đất nước, | She visits her native place, her father and mother, her homeland, | Bà về thăm quê cũ, thăm cha mẹ, thăm đất nước quê hương, |
| 30 | Cửa nhà Chầu sau trước mọi nơi, | her own household, every corner of it, front and back. | thăm cửa nhà của mình, trước sau khắp mọi chốn. |
| 31 | Thăm rồi chúa lại ra chơi, | Her visits done, the Lady sets out once more to roam, | Thăm xong, bà lại ra đi ngao du, |
| 32 | Cây cao bóng mát là nơi duyên lành. | to a place of tall trees and cool shade, a place of good affinity. | chọn chốn cây cao bóng mát làm nơi duyên lành để dừng chân. |
IIILine by line commentary
Chầu văn is written in the Vietnamese of the temple and of classical literature, dense with allusions, and many of its words have since changed in meaning or in spelling. Below are the places where today's readers are most likely to stumble, along with how the current cung văn version words them differently.
The two opening lines tell nothing yet. They only set the scene: moonlight, a peony, a stirring blind, the scent of musk, placing the listener in a pure and refined space before the holy figure is named.
The very first words are where the versions differ most clearly. The 1929 printing has Bóng trăng loan, the Nhất Tâm Association version has Bóng gương loan, and some cung văn websites have Bóng giăng loan, giăng being an old way of saying trăng, moon. Read as gương, mirror, it is the round mirror carved with a phoenix on the altar, likened to the Mother's face. Read as trăng, it is the shining moon, foreshadowing the word Nguyệt, moon, in line three. Both readings hold up. The peony (mẫu đơn) was known of old as the king of flowers, a detail that returns in line eight of the current version.
The word Chầu here is an honorific for a female deity. In this hymn, Chầu, Tiên, Thánh and Chúa all refer to the same figure, Mẫu Liễu Hạnh. Chầu văn keeps changing the form of address, partly for the rhyme and partly because each word carries a different shade of reverence.
The printed text has Nguyệt-diện, literally the face of the moon, which can be read as an Immortal with a face like the moon. The current version has Nguyệt điện, the Moon Palace. The words diện and điện differ by a single mark, so one side may be a misprint. The library keeps the printed text and notes the doubt here. Cõi tục is the mortal world, and Nam thành is the southern land. The current version has an entirely different second half: Lánh miền cõi tục phận ưa nam thành, leaving for the mortal realm, her lot drawn to the southern land.
Lê thị means the Lê family. Cải họ Trần means taking the Trần name, an old way of saying that she married into her husband's family. The accounts name her husband as Đào Lang, and some versions call him Trần Đào Lang. The word dấu in the printed text is the old spelling of giấu, to hide, and the library keeps it unchanged. Thiên hương literally means heavenly fragrance, and in classical literature it refers to beauty given by heaven. The line says that she lived as an ordinary person, hiding her immortal origins. The current version opens line five with Kiếp giáng sinh, in the life of her descent, instead of Thánh hóa sinh, the Holy One took birth, and the overall meaning is unchanged.
Phi phương means out of the ordinary. Giá danh means worth and renown. The word đòi in old Vietnamese has several meanings, such as to follow, to match, or many. The library reads the phrase đòi một as ranking first, but the meaning here is not certain. For the end of line eight, the printed text has hoa thơm trên đời, the most fragrant flower on earth, while the current version has hoa Vương khôn bì, meaning that even the king of flowers cannot compare, linking back to the peony of the first line.
These two lines carry the clearest place names in the excerpt. Ngụ thai means to lodge in the womb, that is, to be conceived and born there. Phủ Dầy is the vernacular name of the area now known as Kim Thái commune, Vụ Bản district, Nam Định, by their familiar names, home to the complex of Tiên Hương temple, Vân Cát temple and the Mother's tomb. Thiên Bản is the old name of Vụ Bản district. The district once belonged to Nghĩa Hưng prefecture (phủ Nghĩa Hưng), and Nghĩa Hưng prefecture belonged to Sơn Nam province (trấn Sơn Nam). The word phủ in line ten is an administrative unit of former times, different from the phủ in Phủ Dầy, which is a place of worship of the Mother. The current version has Phủ Dày and quán Sơn nam, quán here meaning native place.
Line eleven says that while she was small, no one yet knew whether she was holy or mortal. The current version has chưa biết duyên phàm, that is, too young yet to know of earthly bonds. The two wordings give two different meanings: one says that others had not yet recognized her, the other that she did not yet know the ways of the world.
Line twelve is the hardest line of the excerpt. The printed text has Treo kinh, with treo meaning to hang, and the current version has Đeo kinh, with đeo meaning to wear. The library has not found a reliable explanation of this phrase, so the meaning column only follows the words closely, and readers should treat this as an open question.
Cài trâm giắt lược, wearing the hairpin and the comb, pictures a girl who has reached the age of putting up her hair with a hairpin, that is, the age of marriage. The word giá 嫁 at the start of line fourteen is a Sino-Vietnamese word meaning to give in marriage or to marry, not giá in the sense of price. Khuê phước can be read as a blessed maiden's chamber. The current version has Kết duyên lành quê phước một nơi, forming a good match in a blessed place. Khuê and quê sound alike, so one side may have been written down by ear. Line thirteen in the current version reads Tuổi tới niên.
Tơ hường is tơ hồng, the red thread, an old form still found in Nôm literature. A Chinese legend tells of an old man under the moon, Nguyệt Lão, who ties a red thread around the feet of those destined to become husband and wife. Dưới nguyệt rẽ đôi tơ hường means that the bond tied by heaven has been split in two. The current version has sảy nơi tơ hồng.
Hoa hài are flower embroidered slippers. Trở gót Tiên means that she turned back to the realm of the Immortals. Chầu văn does not use the word death for a holy figure. Her leaving the mortal world is told as a journey home, placed at the very moment when the love between husband and wife was still warm. Line seventeen in the current version is simpler: Đạo vợ chồng còn đang thương nhớ, husband and wife still deep in love and longing.
This is the only point in time given in the excerpt, and the two versions agree word for word, differing only in capitalization. Giờ Dần, the hour of the Tiger, runs from about three to five in the morning. Tháng Thìn, the Dragon month, is the third lunar month, because when months are named by the earthly branches, the first month is the month of Dần (Tiger), the second of Mão (Cat), and the third of Thìn (Dragon). She left the mortal world at the age of twenty one.
This date matches the legend as summarized by the Vietnam Encyclopedia, that in her birth as Lê Thị Thắng she died on the third day of the third month at the age of twenty one. It is the origin of the saying tháng Tám giỗ Cha, tháng Ba giỗ Mẹ, in the eighth month the Father's death anniversary, in the third month the Mother's, where the Mother is Mẫu Liễu Hạnh.
Lương quân is an old term a wife used for her husband, literally good husband. The printed text has ruột rối đòi nau, the current version has dạ rối đòi nao. The word nao in the current version makes the meaning clear: đòi nao means how very much. The word nau in the printed text may be an old spelling or a misprint of nao, and the library does not have enough evidence to say for certain, so it keeps the word unchanged.
Line twenty four in the current version opens with Xuân huyên instead of Mẹ cha, mother and father. Xuân stands for the father and huyên for the mother, a familiar figure of speech in Nôm verse tales. These two lines center on the grief of those left behind, telling a very human story in the middle of a hymn of worship.
Rày means now. Đền quế, the cassia hall, is the Moon Palace, after the allusion in classical literature to a cassia tree growing on the moon. The current version has Rầy Thánh đã cung Tiên Nguyệt quế, where the words Nguyệt quế, moon cassia, make the idea of the Moon Palace clearer and link back to Nguyệt điện in line three.
Line twenty six can be understood in two ways: up in the Immortals' palace she little knows that the mortal world is still in sorrow, or, who could know the sorrow of the mortal world. The current version has Dễ xui lòng trần thế xót xa, easily stirring sorrow in mortal hearts. The meaning column follows the first reading, because it connects with the next line, that even an Immortal at times longs for home.
The last stanza of the excerpt tells of her return to the mortal world to visit her home. Bản quê means native place. In line thirty the printed text has Cửa nhà Chầu, the Lady's own household, while the current version has Cửa nhà chồng, her husband's household, making it clear that she also visits her husband's family. Line twenty nine in the current version has quê hương huyên, again using the word huyên for mother.
Line thirty two is the most notable point of divergence. The printed text has Cây cao bóng mát là nơi duyên lành, a place of tall trees and cool shade is a place of good affinity, while the current version has Đồi Ngang, Phố Cát là nơi duyên lành, naming outright two places that in the printed text appear only many lines later. The library's excerpt ends here.
IVChầu văn, the cung văn singers and the moon lute
The hymn on this page is not read. It is sung. To understand why chầu văn lyrics take the shape they do, with much repetition, constantly changing forms of address and every line neatly rhymed, one has to understand the kind of music they live in. Vietnamese people call this art form by several names, hát văn, chầu văn and hát chầu văn, and the singers are called cung văn.
Three styles of hát văn
The Vietnamese Institute of Musicology's article on the repertoire system of hát văn in mediumship divides hát văn into three forms. Hát văn thờ, worship singing, is sung before the altar as an offering to the spirits, usually on a feast day, that is, the day of birth or of passing of that spirit, and needs no medium. Hát văn hầu, mediumship singing, is sung during a hầu đồng ritual, following each giá, each spirit invited to manifest. Hát văn thi, competition singing, is sung in contests held at major festivals. The same article notes that today people mainly know only the two principal forms, worship singing and mediumship singing.
The hymn to Mẫu Liễu Hạnh on this page belongs to both of the first two styles. In worship singing, the cung văn may sing the whole hymn from beginning to end before the Mother's altar. In mediumship singing, the hymn is usually sung only in part, because each giá has its own length and the cung văn must follow the pace of the ritual.
Competition singing still lives on in the form of the chầu văn singing contest at the Phủ Dầy festival, described in a later section.
The cung văn singer
The cung văn is not a singer providing accompaniment to a ritual. In a mediumship session, the singers lead the rhythm of the whole ceremony, watching the medium's movements in order to change melodies and hymns in time. The website of the Nam Định Department of Culture describes the cung văn as someone who sings well, knows many melodic styles and plays instruments. The Institute of Musicology's article also names people who composed new hymns in the twentieth century, such as Phạm Văn Kiêm, born in 1921, died in 1998. The body of chầu văn has therefore never been closed at any one point in time.
The moon lute and the ensemble
The main instrument of hát văn is the đàn nguyệt, the moon lute, a two stringed instrument with a round body like the moon, a long neck and high frets. The lead cung văn usually plays the moon lute while singing. The website of the Phú Thọ Department of Culture lists the basic ensemble as one moon lute, one đàn nhị fiddle, one small drum, one pair of small cymbals (cảnh) and one clapper (phách). The clapper and drum keep the beat, while the moon lute plays the introduction, supports the voice and links the lines together.
The melodies
A hymn has no fixed melody. The cung văn chooses from a set of làn điệu, melodies, also called lối hát, ways of singing, and sets the words to them. The same lục bát line can be sung to one melody or another depending on its place in the hymn and in the ceremony. The website of the Phú Thọ Department of Culture records fourteen melodies in hát văn:
A chanting style not tightly bound to the beat of the clapper, often used at the opening. The Sino-Vietnamese lines placed at the start of hymns, such as the four lines that open the hymn to Mẫu Liễu Hạnh in the 1929 book, are the kind of lines usually chanted in this style.
Two metered melodies, common in worship singing, when the cung văn sings before the altar without a giá of mediumship.
Phú Bình, Phú Chênh, Phú Nói and Phú Rầu. One family of melodies with different moods, as the word rầu, sorrowful, in Phú Rầu suggests. Passages full of longing, like the excerpt on this page, are where the Phú melodies find their use.
Two melodies named in the list, used more or less often depending on the cung văn lineage and the type of hymn.
A melody with an even beat, common in mediumship singing.
The name is usually explained as linked to Cờn temple in Nghệ An. This melody appears in many giá.
Melodies that listeners recognize easily by their faster, more driving rhythm, often heard when a giá moves into its dance.
The uses of each melody described above are only a general sketch, because each cung văn lineage uses the melodies in its own way, and the sources do not fully agree on the number and names of the melodies.
The song thất lục bát meter in this hymn
The website of the Phú Thọ Department of Culture records that old hymns are mostly written in lục bát, song thất lục bát, seven syllable lines and four syllable lines. The hymn to Mẫu Liễu Hạnh in this excerpt is in song thất lục bát, the Nôm verse form familiar from the Chinh phụ ngâm (Lament of the Soldier's Wife) and the Cung oán ngâm khúc (Lament of a Royal Concubine). Each stanza has four lines: two lines of seven syllables, one of six and one of eight.
Take the first stanza as an example. Bóng trăng loan mẫu đơn một đóa has seven syllables, Gió lay mành hương xạ thoảng đưa has seven, Có Chầu Nguyệt-diện Tiên xưa has six, and Lánh về cõi tục, giáng sinh Nam thành has eight. By the rules of the form, the last syllable of the first seven syllable line rhymes with the fifth syllable of the second, here đóa with xạ. The last syllable of the second seven syllable line rhymes with the last syllable of the six syllable line, here đưa with xưa. The last syllable of the six syllable line must in turn rhyme with the sixth syllable of the eight syllable line. Here the two versions part ways: the 1929 printing has giáng sinh Nam thành, where the sixth syllable is sinh, which does not rhyme with xưa, while the current version has phận ưa nam thành, where the sixth syllable is ưa, a rhyme that follows the rule. Chầu văn is folk literature passed through many hands, so its rhymes are loose in places, and each recopying sometimes tightens them. The Institute of Musicology's article calls the principle of linking rhymes between one line and the next thượng tùy hạ tiếp, the upper line leads and the lower line follows on.
Thanks to the regular rhythm of four line stanzas, the cung văn can stop or continue at the end of any stanza and the hymn still feels whole, and that is one reason chầu văn is easily shortened or lengthened to suit the ceremony.
From national heritage to UNESCO inscription
The chầu văn ritual of the Viet people was added to the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2012, according to the website of the Phú Thọ Department of Culture. According to the text of the UNESCO decision, the worship of the Mother Goddesses of Three Realms was added to Vietnam's National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2013.
At the eleventh session of the Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, held in Addis Ababa in 2016, UNESCO adopted Decision 11.COM 10.B.37, inscribing Practices related to the Viet beliefs in the Mother Goddesses of Three Realms, in Vietnamese Thực hành Tín ngưỡng thờ Mẫu Tam phủ của người Việt, on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The text of the decision describes the three Mothers as representing heaven, water, and mountains and forests, names Liễu Hạnh as the Mother of the World, and lists the elements of the heritage as daily worship, the hầu đồng mediumship ritual, festivals such as the Phủ Dầy festival, costumes, music and dance, and transmission among temple keepers, ritual masters, mediums and musicians. The decision states that the practice dates from the sixteenth century.
The music of the cung văn is thus part of what was inscribed.
VMẫu Liễu Hạnh in legend and in the historical record
The thirty two lines above tell the story of a human life: birth, marriage, early death, and a return to visit home. Listeners to chầu văn understand this as the earthly life of an Immortal. Readers of history ask when and where the story was recorded. Both ways of looking are legitimate, and this section places them side by side without mixing them.
According to the legends and the oral tradition among worshippers of the Mother, Mẫu Liễu Hạnh was originally a daughter of the Jade Emperor. The Vietnam Encyclopedia summarizes that she broke a jade cup in the heavenly court and was banished to the mortal world. She descended to earth several times, and the accounts do not agree on the number of these descents or on her name in each.
According to the Vietnam Encyclopedia's summary, in her first birth she was Phạm Tiên Nga, who never married and was known for her filial piety. In her second, she was born in 1557 as Lê Thị Thắng, married Đào Lang, had two children, and died in 1577 on the third day of the third month, at the age of twenty one by the traditional Vietnamese reckoning. In her third descent she appeared in Thanh Hóa. Many other accounts merge or reorder these descents, and some call her birth at Vân Cát her first descent to earth.
The chầu văn passage on this page matches her birth into the Lê family: born at Phủ Dầy, married into the Trần family, returning to heaven at the age of twenty one on the third day of the Dragon month. Worshippers of the Mother revere her as one of the Tứ Bất Tử, the Four Immortals of the Vietnamese, and the only woman among the four. In most temples and shrines of northern Vietnam she is revered as Mẫu Đệ Nhất Thượng Thiên, the First Mother, Mother of Heaven, at the head of the Three Holy Mothers. In the understanding of worshippers, the Mother is close and loving toward her children, and those attending the rites speak to the Mother as her children.
As for what scholars have been able to establish, the earliest text telling the story of Liễu Hạnh that researchers usually cite is the tale Vân Cát thần nữ (The Goddess of Vân Cát) in the collection Truyền kỳ tân phả (New Collection of Marvelous Tales) by Đoàn Thị Điểm, written in the eighteenth century. The Vietnam Encyclopedia also mentions later sources such as the Tiên phả dịch lục by Kiều Oánh Mậu. The dates 1557 and 1577 mentioned above belong to the layer of legend, not to chronicle history.
The historian Olga Dror, in her book Cult, Culture, and Authority: Princess Liễu Hạnh in Vietnamese History, published in 2007, traces the figure of Liễu Hạnh through many different kinds of texts, and shows that each era and each group retold her story according to its own concerns.
The 2016 UNESCO decision states that the worship of the Mother dates from the sixteenth century. That is an estimated date based on legends, royal decrees of recognition and stele inscriptions, as the library's main page on Đạo Mẫu notes.
Set within that picture, the hymn printed in 1929 is a piece of evidence in its own right. It shows how, at the start of the twentieth century, the cung văn singers of the northern delta told the story of the Mother, in what words, and which details they stressed. In the excerpt, the hymn gives a whole stanza to the grief of her husband and her parents, a very human detail set in the middle of a story about an Immortal.
The distinction to keep, in one sentence: what the hymn tells, from her immortal origins in the Moon Palace to the hour of the Tiger on the third day of the Dragon month, is the religion's own account of its holy figure, while what historians can establish is the history of the texts that tell of her, from Đoàn Thị Điểm's tale in the eighteenth century to the chầu văn collection printed in 1929. Both layers have value, but they are two different kinds of value.
VIWhen and how the faithful hear it sung
Chầu văn differs from scripture in that ordinary people rarely recite it themselves. The faithful listen to the hymns and know them by heart, but the one who gives them voice is the cung văn. So the question of when this hymn is read is really the question of on which occasions the cung văn sing it.
The most important occasion is the Mother's feast in the third lunar month, around the third day, the Mother's death anniversary according to the legend. The cung văn sits on a mat before the Mother's altar and sings the hymns of worship to the Mother, and the hymn to Mẫu Liễu Hạnh may be sung in full on this occasion. Those attending sit or stand behind, listening with palms joined.
A mediumship session proceeds from the higher ranks of spirits to the lower and opens with the rank of the Mothers. According to the general description on the library's main page on Đạo Mẫu, the Mothers usually only descend without the veil being lifted: the medium stays covered with a red veil, does not dance, and does not remain long as in the lower giá. Because the Mother's giá is short, the part of the Mother's hymn the cung văn sings at that moment is usually shorter than the full hymn.
The Phủ Dầy festival season falls in the third lunar month. According to the Nam Định Department of Culture, every year on the fourth day of the third month a chầu văn singing contest is held at Tiên Hương temple and Vân Cát temple, where cung văn perform old hymns and new ones.
At temples of the Mother in the middle of cities, such as Phủ Tây Hồ in Hà Nội, worshippers come regularly on the first and fifteenth days of the lunar month, not only in festival season. Phủ Tây Hồ is a place where hầu đồng and chầu văn are performed, as the library's page on Phủ Tây Hồ describes, so worshippers there have occasions to hear hymns to the Mother outside the festival season of the third month.
Chầu văn is also sung on stage, in programs presenting cultural heritage and in competitions. In those settings the words may stay the same but no longer accompany an act of worship.
Differences between places and lineages
No hymn to the Mother is sung the same way in every temple. First, there is the choice of hymn: though all worship Mẫu Liễu Hạnh, one place sings the Bóng gương loan hymn and another sings a different one. A cung văn website, under the title Bóng giăng loan, gives seven syllable lines opening with the words Xe phượng từ vâng sắc Ngọc Hoàng, the phoenix carriage, obeying the Jade Emperor's decree, which shows that under one and the same name different places may sing different words. Second, there is the wording: each cung văn lineage keeps its own teacher's version. Third, there is the melody: with the same words, each cung văn may choose melodies and switch between them at different points.
The library records these differences to help readers understand what they hear, and does not give guidance on ritual. Which hymn to sing, and how to sing it, is a matter for each temple and each cung văn lineage.
VIICommon misunderstandings
Chầu văn sits between ritual, music and literature, so it is easily seen through the lens of one of the three while the other two are forgotten. The five points below are the ones the library meets most often.
It does not. Đạo Mẫu has no church that sets an authorized text. Even within the thirty two lines on this page, the 1929 printing and the current cung văn version differ in wording in more than twenty lines. What is kept is the narrative and the rhyme, not every word.
The word Chầu has two uses. It is the name of a rank of spirits, the Tứ Phủ Chầu Bà, the Ladies of the Four Palaces, who stand below the rank of the Mothers. But within the lyrics, Chầu is also a general honorific for the female deity being sung. The hymn on this page calls Mẫu Liễu Hạnh Chầu, which does not mean that she belongs to the rank of the Chầu Bà. As for the word chầu in the name chầu văn, it is usually understood as chầu hầu, to attend upon, that is, singing in attendance on the spirits.
In most temples and shrines of northern Vietnam the two names are identified, and many pages about Đạo Mẫu say so. But that understanding is not uniform: some places regard Mẫu Liễu Hạnh as a separate figure who descended to earth, distinct from Mẫu Đệ Nhất Thượng Thiên on the throne of the Three Holy Mothers. This page uses the name Mẫu Thượng Thiên following common usage and states that difference clearly.
Mediumship singing is only one style. Worship singing before the altar needs no medium, and according to the Institute of Musicology's article it is one of the two principal forms that remain today.
In this hymn, the prayer for the worshippers comes only in the last few lines. Most of the hymn is narrative and description, and the thirty two lines on this page contain no petition at all. Reading chầu văn as a Nôm verse tale is a valid way of reading it, alongside hearing it as words of worship.
?Quick Questions
What is the hymn to the Mother of Heaven
It is a verse hymn sung by cung văn singers in worship of Mẫu Đệ Nhất Thượng Thiên, the First Mother, Mother of Heaven, who heads the Three Holy Mothers and who in most temples and shrines of northern Vietnam is identified with Mẫu Liễu Hạnh. The hymn on this page is the hymn to Mẫu Liễu Hạnh, opening with the line Bóng trăng loan mẫu đơn một đóa, also written as Bóng gương loan, in the song thất lục bát meter. It tells of the Mother's immortal origins, her birth in the land of Phủ Dầy, her marriage, her return to heaven at the age of twenty one and her return to visit her home.
Which version is the text on this page based on
On the book Văn chầu: Các bài văn chầu đủ các vị, printed in 1929 and held in the Indochina Collection of the National Library of Vietnam, through the transcription on phuday.com. Each line was compared with the current cung văn version titled Văn Địa Tiên Thánh Mẫu from the Nhất Tâm Association. The two versions share the same narrative and rhymes but differ in wording in more than twenty of the thirty two lines, and every difference is noted in the commentary. The meaning column and the English column were prepared by the library.
Are Mẫu Thượng Thiên and Mẫu Liễu Hạnh the same
In most temples and shrines of northern Vietnam they are regarded as one: Mẫu Liễu Hạnh is revered as Mẫu Đệ Nhất Thượng Thiên, who governs the realm of the sky, whose color is red, and who sits in the middle of the Three Holy Mothers. But this understanding is not uniform, and some places distinguish the Mother on the throne of the Three Holy Mothers from the Immortal who descended to earth as Mẫu Liễu Hạnh. The library records both understandings and does not choose between them.
What does the line Giờ Dần mồng ba tháng Thìn mean
Giờ Dần, the hour of the Tiger, runs from about three to five in the morning. Tháng Thìn, the Dragon month, is the third lunar month, because the first month is the Tiger month, the second the Cat month and the third the Dragon month. The line says that the Mother left the mortal world in the early morning of the third day of the third month, at the age of twenty one, matching the legend as summarized by the Vietnam Encyclopedia. This is the origin of the saying tháng Tám giỗ Cha, tháng Ba giỗ Mẹ, the Father's death anniversary in the eighth month and the Mother's in the third, and the reason the Phủ Dầy festival season falls in the third lunar month.
Is chầu văn inscribed by UNESCO
UNESCO did not inscribe chầu văn on its own, but inscribed the Practices related to the Viet beliefs in the Mother Goddesses of Three Realms on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2016, under Decision 11.COM 10.B.37 at the session in Addis Ababa. The text of the decision lists music, costume, dance and the hầu đồng ritual among the elements of the heritage. Before that, the chầu văn ritual had been added to the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2012.