TTLA: Comparing the motif of miraculous childbirth in Chinese and Vietnamese folk tales.

Author's name: Dalian KingSex: Female

Date of birth: 22/06/1987                           Place of birth:Yunnan, China

Decision to recognize doctoral student numberDecision No. 3126/QD-XHNV-SDH, dated December 26, 2014

Changes in the training process:

- Addition of a supervisor and change of the doctoral dissertation title (according to Decision No. 742/QD-SDH of the Rector of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, dated October 28, 2015)

- Adjustment of the title of the doctoral dissertation (according to Decision No. 1802/QD-SDH of the Rector of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, dated June 29, 2018)

- Decision regarding the extension of study period: from January 1, 2018 to November 30, 2018.

Thesis title:Comparing the motif of miraculous childbirth in Chinese and Vietnamese folk tales.

Specialized:FolkloreCode: 60220125

Scientific guidebooks:Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Le Bao, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nguyen Thi Bich Ha

New findings of the thesis

- The thesis presents a broad definition of miraculous childbirth, encompassing all types of unusual births, while the narrow definition refers to a woman giving birth to a child in an extraordinary way. The thesis categorizes miraculous childbirth motifs according to two criteria: the method of induction and the object of induction. Based on the method of induction, the thesis divides miraculous childbirth motifs into six types: ingesting or drinking foreign objects, contact with foreign objects, sensing unusual celestial phenomena, sensing dragons, dream omens, and mixed induction. Based on the object of induction, the thesis categorizes miraculous childbirth motifs into animal induction, plant induction, induction of natural objects, induction of everyday objects, and divine induction.

- The thesis statistically analyzes and provides specific figures on the methods of induction. In addition, the thesis statistically details the frequency of appearance of specific objects in the miraculous birth motif of Chinese and Vietnamese folk tales and offers general observations on the survey results, giving readers a comprehensive view of the miraculous birth motif in Chinese and Vietnamese folk tales.

- The thesis points out similarities in the motif of miraculous childbirth in Chinese and Vietnamese folk tales, such as the frequent occurrence of dream-based summoning; the most frequently appearing animal being the dragon; the frequent appearance of deities and eggs; and a longer-than-normal gestation period. Differences in the miraculous childbirth motifs of China and Vietnam include: "qi" appearing frequently in the Chinese miraculous childbirth motif, and multiple births occurring in a single sac appearing frequently in the Vietnamese miraculous childbirth motif.

- The thesis identifies folk beliefs expressed in the motif of miraculous childbirth in China and Vietnam: animism, fertility beliefs, worship of the sun, moon, stars and celestial phenomena, totem worship, culminating in dragon worship, ancestor worship, and hero worship.

- The thesis highlights the differences in ideology, concepts, and cultural history reflected in the miraculous childbirth motifs of China and Vietnam. The concepts of "yin and yang" and "the five elements interacting and counteracting each other" are evident in the Chinese miraculous childbirth motif, while the concepts of "doing good brings good fortune" and "going to temples to pray for children" are reflected in the Vietnamese miraculous childbirth motif. Imperial and patriarchal cultures are evident in the Chinese miraculous childbirth motif, while the influence of village culture is evident in the Vietnamese miraculous childbirth motif.

- Besides the aforementioned academic contributions, the thesis also makes significant contributions in terms of documentation. It has systematically compiled 120 stories with the miraculous birth motif from China and 143 stories with the miraculous birth motif from Vietnam, creating an appendix and translating the Chinese parts into Vietnamese to provide a resource for researchers comparing Chinese and Vietnamese culture and literature in general, and for those studying the folklore of the two countries in particular.

Further research directions:

ButCompare and contrast the broader meaning of the motif of miraculous birth, such as heaven giving birth to man, earth giving birth to man, animals giving birth to man, plants giving birth to man... in China and Vietnam.

- Explore and decipher the specific objects that appear in the miraculous birth motif in Chinese and Vietnamese folk tales.

Published works related to the dissertation:

1. Wang Dalian (2018), “The motif of miraculous birth in the myths about the origin of humankind of some ethnic minorities in Vietnam”, Journal of Art Education (24), pp. 74-77.

2. 王代莲（2018), 越南感生神话初探, 世界家苑（WORLA GARDEN）（下）（4），P 448-449.

Wang Dalian (2018), “Initial study of the miraculous birth motif of Vietnam”, World Garden Magazine (WORLA GARDEN) (4), pp. 448-449.

3. Wang Dalian (2018), “Some features of the flood story type in modern Chinese literature”, Journal of Chinese Studies (10), pp. 53-58.

4. Wang Dalian (2019), "Some folk beliefs expressed in the miraculous birth motif of China and Vietnam", Journal of Literary Studies (9), pp. 70-80.

5. Wang Dalian (2019), "The motif of miraculous birth from the perspective of historicizing mythology and mythologizing history in China and Vietnam", Vietnam Journal of Cultural Studies (5), pp. 32-38.

6. Wang Dalian (2019), "The motif of miraculous birth in folk tales - differences in the cultural history of China and Vietnam", Journal of Cultural Studies (5), pp. 45-55.

                                                         INFORMATION ABOUT THE MASTER THESIS

Author: Vuong Dai LienSex: Female

Date of birth: 06/22/1987                           Place of birth:Yunnan, China

Admission decision for research student number:3126 / QD - XHNV - SDHdate: 12/26/2014

Changs during the training process:

- Supplementing the instructors and changing the title of the master thesis topic (according to Decision No. 742 / QD-SDH of the Rector of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, dated October 28, 2015)

- Adjusting the title of the master thesis topic (according to Decision No. 1802 / QD-SDH of the Rector of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, dated June 29, 2018)

- The decision on the learning extension: from January 1, 2018, to November 30, 2018.

Thesis title:Comparing the motifs of the miraculous birth in Chinese and Vietnamese folk tales

Major:Folk literatureCode: 60220125

Supervisors:Assoc.Prof.Dr. Tran Le Bao, Assoc.Prof.Dr. Nguyen Thi Bich Ha

The new results of the thesis

The thesis has provided the broad concept of miraculous births, which refers to all kinds of unusual births and the narrow concept refers to the woman who gives birth in an unusual way. The thesis has divided the motifs of miraculous birth according to two criteria: method of miraculous conception and subject of miraculous conception. Dividing according to the method of miraculous conception, the thesis has divided the motifs of miraculous birth into 6 types including eating, drinking the strange things, contacting the strange things, miraculous conception of anomaly natural phenomena, miraculous conception of dragons, omen seen in a dream and mixed miraculous conception. Classifying according to the subject of the miraculous conception, the thesis has classified the motif of miraculous birth into the miraculous conception of animal, the miraculous conception of plant, the miraculous conception of natural objects, the miraculous conception of life objects and the miraculous conception of god.

- The thesis has made the statistics and given specific figures about the methods of miraculous conception. In addition, the thesis has also made the statistics of the appearance frequency of specific objects which appear in the motif of the miraculous birth of China and Vietnam in detail and given the general comment about the survey results so that readers have an overview of the motif of the miraculous birth in Chinese and Vietnamese folk tales..

- The thesis has pointed out the similarities of the motif of the miraculous birth in Chinese and Vietnamese folk tales like the omen seen in a dream which accounts for the highest percentage; the kind of animal that appears most times is the dragons gods, eggs are appeared many times; the time of pregnancy is longer than usual, etc. The differences in the motif of the miraculous birth in China and Vietnam are: "spirit" appears many times in the motif of the miraculous birth of China, an egg gives birth for many children appears many times in the motif of the miraculous birth of Vietnam,etc

- The thesis has found out the folk beliefs which are shown in the motif of miraculous birth in China and Vietnam: animist beliefs, fertility beliefs, worship the celestial sun and moon and celestial objects, worship totem, especially, worship dragons, worship primitive ancestors, worship ancestors, and worship heroes.

- The thesis has provided the differences in ideology, conception, the cultural history which is shown in the motif of miraculous birth in China and Vietnam. The concepts of "yin-yang", "the five elements" are reflected in motifs of the miraculous birth of China, the concept of "good things happen to good people", “going to the pagoda to pray deity for a male heir” are reflected in motifs of the miraculous birth of Vietnam. Emperor culture and patriarchal culture are reflected in the motif of the miraculous birth of China, the mark of village culture is reflected in the motif of the miraculous birth in Vietnam.

- In addition to the academic contributions mentioned above, the thesis also had significant contributions in terms of the documentation. There are 120 stories with the motif of the miraculous birth of China and 143 stories with the motif of the miraculous birth of Vietnam have been collected by the thesis, making the appendix table and translated Chinese into Vietnamese to provide a source of material for researchers who compare the Chinese and Vietnamese culture and literature in general and folklore studies of the two countries in particular.

Further research directions:

ButComparing and contrasting the broad meaning of the motif of miraculous birth such as the heaven gives birth to humans, the earth gives birth to humans, animals give birth to humans, plants give birth to humans, ect of China and Vietnam.

- Learning and decoding the specific subjects which appear in the motif of the miraculous birth in Chinese and Vietnamese folk tales.

The published works related to the thesis:

1. Vuong Dai Lien (2018), “Motif of “miraculous birth” in the myth of human origins of some ethnic areas in Vietnam”, Journal of Art Education (24), p. 74-77.

2. 王代莲（2018), 越南感生神话初探, 世界家苑（WORLA GARDEN）（下）（4），P 448-449.

Vuong Dai Lien (2018), “The initial step to learn about Vietnam's miraculous motif of birth”, Gia Uyen world magazine (WORLA GARDEN) (4), p. 448-449.

3. Vuong Dai Lien (2018), “About the flood story in modern Chinese literature”, Journal of Chinese Studies (10), p. 53-58.

4. Vuong Dai Lien (2019), "Some folk beliefs shown in the motif of miraculous birth of China and Vietnam", Journal of Literary Review (9), p. 70-80.

5. Vuong Dai Lien (2019), "Miraculous birth motif from the prespective of historicalization of myths and mythologicalization of history in China and Vietnam", Journal of Vietnamese and Cultural studies (5), p. 32-38.

6. Vuong Dai Lien (2019), "Motif of miraculous birth in folk tales - The differences in the cultural history of China and Vietnam", Journal of Culturology (5), p. 45-55.