I’m Vietnamese, and I’m ashamed to admit I don’t know much about the country’s history prior to the Vietnam War. My parents were born in the mid-50’s, so their lives were very much affected by the war, as well as all their stories. They’ve also been out of school for too long to really remember much of the history.
So my first question is about Vietnamese history in general. I don’t know much and I’d like to learn more. If anyone could recommend some good books or has information he or she would like to share, I would greatly appreciate it. I’ve looked for books around here, but almost everything I see is about the War from an American point of view.
My next question is about Musashi Miyamoto. My boyfriend recently opened my eyes to the wonderful Tushiro Mifune, who starred in the Samurai trilogy about Musashi. How much of these movies are based on factual events, and what was this man’s life like? He’s quite an interesting character, from the little that I know about him.
Thanks in advance to all the Dopers who will help me fight my ignorance
I just read Musashi, the novel by Eiji Yoshikawa that the movies are
based on. It was first serialized in 1935-39. The English translation
I read (Kodansha, 1981; Charles S Terry, trans.) is very entertaining.
There’s a lot of historical detail in the novel, but I get the
impression that the stuff about Musashi is mostly made up-- it’s got a
morality-play feel to it.
Well, he was a great swordsman duelist, and is known to have used inventive, almost ingenius tactics in battle. He founded a double-sword school.
He came out of a relatively low Samurai position, and took part on the losing side of the battle of Sekigahara. He later traveled around Japan fighting and lookng for an employment as a general, demanding pay he felt was suitable for his skill. This being the Tokugawa era now, no one wanted to pay for an expensive general, so he never found it.
He is known to have developed his two-swords style after fighting a Kusari-Gama wielder. The Kusari-Gama (Kusari-Kama) is a sickle attachted to a chain with a metal ball on one end. The other warrior would entangle his opponents weapon with the the chain and ball and then kill them with the sickle.
Musashi took two swords and then was able to strike at the man when he tried to entabgle Musashi’s sword.
Musashi alsoi had a legendary duel with Sasaki Kojiro, a renowned swordsman in his own right. Musashi stayed up late and got drunk the night before, leading to a huge hangover. On the way to the duel (being really headachy) he forgot his sword. SO he cut down an oar to size while in the boat. Sasaki was reportedly enraged by Musashi, and when Sasaki attacked, he was brained by the oar.
Musashi lived a life something like a wild man, never combing or cutting his hair (and not being too keen on bathing, either). So he was a nutty wild man running around Japan, killing skilled warriors. Later in life he retired to a cave, sort of like Buddhist, but he wrote “The Five Rings” instead of peaceful Buddhist thought.
Thanks Ice Wolf for the links. Hopefully there are English translations of those books…I’m a tad bit illiterate. I can read about half of a Vietnamese newspaper, but I’m not sure I could handle reading a book, let alone a history book. Sigh…must get to work on that.
What is “The Five Rings”? So far I’ve only watched the first movie in the Samurai trilogy. If Musashi really was a somewhat of a wild man, Tushiro Mifune seems perfect for the role. In the movies I’ve seen with him so far, he’s always unkempt.
“A Book of Five Rings” by Miyamoto Musashi is his book of philosophy and strategy. It is similar to Sun Tzu’s “Art of War” except that the former focuses on individual combat and the latter on large scale strategy. There are many English translations available but beware the ones that are billed as “Japan’s answer to a Harvard MBA” or somesuch. Many of them are not straight translations and try to shoehorn Musashi’s insights into a completely different context.
I think I’ll have to make a trip to Barnes and Noble tonight and look around (this way, I have an excuse to buy myself a caramel frapp :)). Hopefully I’ll be able to find either the book on Musashi’s life or A Book of Five Rings. Any recommended translations? I’ll keep micco’s warning in mind of course, since I don’t want to end up with a book that isn’t true to what Musashi wrote.
I’ve tried looking at all the bookstores around here for English books on Vietnamese history, but to no avail. Even when I try to search online, I run into lots of war-related material.
As long as the books I find are in English, I could probably muddle my way through them a few times, then finally understand them. It may take me a lot longer than usual to finish reading, but I don’t think slowing down is such a bad idea.
Just a suggestion, lilbtagna – try extending your search for history texts to that of Indo-China, rather than just Vietnam. It does seem that the Vietnam War has swamped out most other historical references to the area, but looking at the wider region might help in sourcing texts.
lilbtagna: Much to my frustration I have yet to come across a good, solid volume in English that covers Vietnam, and only Vietnam, from the 10th century to the early colonial era. If you find one, let me know:). As Ice Wolf notes, trying to search for such a volume in a normal manner is difficult, as the vast number of volumes on the Vietnam War tends to drown everything else out.
For pre-10th century North Vietnam ( what would become the kingdom of Dai-Viet that was the pre-cursor to modern Vietnam ) I can recommend Keith Taylor’s The Birth of Vietnam ( 1991, University of California Press ). But that might be a bit more esoteric than you care to pursue.
In general, if you’re up to spending the $ ( though they’re cheaper than most Cambridge Press stuff ), you can now get in a 4-volume paperback set, The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia, or even the individual volumes separately ( they’re chronological - I is to c.1500, II is 1500-1800, III is 1800 to WW II, IV is post-war ). They contain a serious of survey essays that focus on the region ( none on specific countries ) and are mostly pretty decent.
Another more inexpensive route is the english translation of George Coedes’ old classic, The Indianized States of Southeast Asia ( reprint 1975 by University of Hawaii Press ), which among other things covers Champa ( the “Indianized” state that was centered in South Vietnam ) up to about the 15th century when it was finally absorbed by Dai-Viet. It’s an old book ( written in the 1940’s, revised in 1964 ), but a fair bit of it still holds up. It’s still in print, far as I know ( just checked - yep, Amazon has it ).
There are also a book or two on pre-WW II anti-colonial resistance in Vietnam ( the famous Black Flags et al. ), but I can’t seem to find the one I have on my shelves right now. Should be easy enough to search for that, though.
Ice Wolf, that’s a pretty good idea. I’ve run a search a couple times with “Indo-China,” but I usually find lots of things that I’m not looking for, or information just on China. I probably need to devote more time into really looking around. Silly college and the SDMB are absorbing all my time these days.
Wow, thanks so much Tamerlane. I was actually hoping to find something on just Vietnam in English, but I’m afraid it might be impossible. I mentioned wanting to find some books to my mom today, and she said that the most pain-free way to go about it would be to learn to read Vietnamese. :smack: Again, school and this message board don’t leave me with much time. Perhaps I’ll make myself sit down this summer and become literate.
