Han Thuyen group and marxist model in Vietnam during the period 1940-1945

and France colonials. Besides, the presence of national ideology and culture, particularly 
kindness, sense of independence, self-reliance and community cohesion, plays a direct role in 
regulating all social relationships. “At the same time, the creative reception of Eastern cultural 
quintessence and Western civilization was considered as a necessary factor to develop 
ideological life for the nation” [6, p35]. 
As there were many changes in this historical period, it was inevitable to have many 
ideological tendencies appeared, and even struggled to coexist. According to philosophical critic 
Vu Minh Tam, the main ideologies in this period included: “First, Vietnamese philosophical 
ideology in the early 20th century were regulated by specific historical socio-material conditions. 
Second, the reception of Marxism-Leninism was particularly important. Third, the development 
of national philosophical ideology in this period was a dialectic acculturation process. Fourth, 
Han Thuyen group and Marxist model in Vietnam during the period 1940-1945 
13 
the main content of Vietnamese philosophy in the early 20th century was the issue of national 
independence and social democracy.” As combination of these theories, cultural and literary 
groups in Vietnam followed their different own paths. Tu Luc Van Doan group promoted 
literary and social renovation and criticize backward customs. Tri Tan and Thanh Nghi groups 
also wanted to change social ideology, such as back to the old days or totally Westernization 
following Western civilization. Tri Tan wanted to change social ideology by “reviewing the old 
and knowing the new”, walked on their cultural path by researches, gathering many names in 
both old and new generations of nationalism, such as Nguyen Van To, Hoang Minh Giam, Dao 
Duy Anh. Thanh Nghi group with Vu Dinh Hoe, Dinh Gia Trinh, Phan Anh, promoted 
“understanding matters and consciousness”. They gathered materials and contributed them to 
solve relevant problems of Vietnamese life, for serving a true literature”. Whereas, Hàn Thuyen 
group clearly reflected Marxism ideology on content of their works, focusing on two main 
opinions: one consider human history as a history of evolution and another consider it as a 
history of class struggle. They believed that economic activities – infrastructure, determines 
superstructure or matter determines consciousness, in other words. Via movements and 
influence of important members in Thanh Nghi, Tri Tan and Han Thuyen groups, a common 
feature could be seen during 1941 - 1943. It was “the idea of reviewing and re-conceiving the past 
to reflect on the present, then assess the new and the modern in a more thorough manner” [9]. 
Therefore, a difference of Han Thuyen group was the creatively adoption of Marxism in a 
suitable way with Vietnamese historical context. They did not repeat exactly the old paths or 
mistakes of many other previous Marxism groups. Particularly, typical authors of Han Thuyen 
group such as Truong Tuu and Luong Duc Thiep acknowledged Vietnamese culture in 
“historical materialism” perspective, referring social ideology on historical changes. The way 
Truong Tuu applied historical criticism and Marxist socialism to Confucianism was a typical 
innovation: “In Confucianism, all philosophy and politics are based on this argument: human is 
an animal species living in a society. If there is no society, there is no Confucianism. 
Confucianism is a philosophical system which can only appear in an organized society, or 
further, an agriculture society at the chaotic time of feudal regime towards organized military 
regime” [4]. This flexible adoption of Marxism made people thought that Confucius and Marx 
were like-minded. In other words, Confucius also believed: “Human is an animal species living 
in a society”. “Confucius revised Chinese Classic of Poetry because Confucius found at Chinese 
Classic of Poetry a civil management method. Confucius believed that art is products of 
feelings. Therefore, the beginning point of Confucian education is adjusting human’s feeling 
base” [4]. In Vietnamese Classic of Poetry, Truong Tuu followed closely psychoanalytic theory. 
He adopted the idea that literary composing was just a flourish of sexual feelings in a form that 
could not be ethically and legally unimpeachable. On the basis of adopting the combination of 
Marxism and psychoanalysis, Truong Tuu had a similar criticism type with one Western 
Marxism – Freudo-Marxism. Truong Tuu could be the first person proving that Marxism 
criticism theory could be combined adequately with modern Western theory. All 
abovementioned quotes and arguments of Truong Tuu led to the conclusion: “We have a 
Vietnamese Classic of Poetry, which is as valuable as Chinese Classic of Poetry. Our 
responsibility is to record it, revise it, explain it, as Duke of Zhou recorded, Confucius revised 
and Zhu Xi explained” [4]. 
Vietnamese Society of Luong Duc Thiep and Vietnamese Classic of Poetry were symbols 
of modern Marxism. Both started from analyzing agricultural economy to point out typical 
features of social structure and Vietnamese people. To affirm a unique “Vietnam”, Luong Duc 
Thiep highly appreciated local features such as community-based organization model, 
household economic model based on women’s business capacity, ancestral worship. Luong Duc 
Thiep did not deny the impact of Chinese culture on Vietnamese culture. However, via his 
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14 
analysis, he proved that such impact was only superficial and Vietnamese characteristics were 
still maintained, community-based culture were still considered as a root. Furthermore, Luong 
Duc Thiep, as well as his contemporary intellectuals, indicated that Confucianism influenced 
national spirit, caused somewhat backwardness of the nation in comparison with the human 
evolution. He believed that it was the root cause of the lagging and conservativeness of Vietnam 
in that situation. 
Hence, Marxist model in Vietnam that Han Thuyen group created was a Marxist critical 
theory which was suitable with real context of An Nam in the 40s of the 20th century. Its 
objective was “study the infrastructure and superstructure of Vietnamese society”. Authors of 
Han Thuyen group proved that Vietnamese culture intertwined but not assimilated or depended 
on China, governed by France or any other countries. It was a Vietnam of precious poetry – 
“Should see through its true nature, and should understand the unique social situation of 
Vietnam to understand the Anti-Confucianism movement in Vietnam poetry – national Classic 
of Poetry” [4] a Vietnam with ancestral worship beside Confucianism, Buddhism, foreign- 
infused religion, a Vietnam of rice culture, of community-based activities, of women’s position. 
2.3. From Marxism to literary freedom 
As abovementioned, Han Thuyen group promoted renovation of Vietnamese culture. The 
opinion of free composing could be seen thoroughly in works of Truong Tuu, including literary 
criticism, novels, researches, writings: “For the last thousands years , Vietnamese society still 
had potential secret conflicts between individual and family. Since being too rational, 
Confucianism suppressed natural human feelings. Many family rituals and customs – the root of 
society – restrained personal development. Though how deep a literary criticism was, Truong 
Tuustill adopted Marxism systematically. It was social research via literary works. He read Tố 
Tâm not only for enjoyment but also for study of hidden messages behind the words. He pointed 
out the love for freedom of Hoang Ngoc Phach via analyzing The disease of the century in a 
novel. Similarly, when criticizing Tan Da and Nguyen Khac Hieu, Truong Tuu “opened by a 
theoretical introduction, which author was an individual person versus personal psychology, 
moral ego, personal consciousness and factors contributing to the formation of such individual” 
[8]. Following that theoretical introduction, Truong Tuuhad a sophisticated research on 
Vietnamese society in the early 20th century, when Tan Da had his talent developed. Especially, 
it should be noted about which levVu Trong Phung, Truong Tuu began with a very important 
argument that writers were not distinctive characters but just special individuals. This clearly 
expressed the psychological characters of a class. 
Not only considered authors as a reflection of social voice of typical class, Truong Tuualso 
modelized the mechanism, in which society and class affected and formed individuals. In such 
mechanism, there were roles of family and family education as the intermediate factors between 
society and individual. According to Truong Tuu, each person’s personalities were products of 
education and family’s socio-economic circumstances. “It is special that the way Truong Tuu 
accessed to the theory was via Western, which was different from other Communist intellectuals 
who selected Soviet Union and China. Therefore, theoretical dogmatic and devotion were not 
observed in Truong Tuu’s work but there were always combinations and references to many 
different theories, following a suitable outline set by the writer. Such tendency created 
unexpected combination, such as between Plékhanov and Freud in his work on Nguyen Cong 
Tru. This theoretical bias tendency resulted in the three most important work of Truong Tuu: 
The tale of Kieu and era of Nguyen Du, Nguyen Cong Tru’s psychology and ideology, and 
Vietnamese Classic of Poetry” [7]. 
In addition to Truong Tuu, Luong Duc Thiep was also a typical example. He adopted social 
Marxism approach in developing arguments. He emphasized that every economic forms defined 
Han Thuyen group and Marxist model in Vietnam during the period 1940-1945 
15 
an equivalent political form, and when economic infrastructure changed, the political 
superstructure also changed. Therefore, in Vietnamese society, by analyzing features of 
agricultural economy, Luong Duc Thiep gradually indicated some features of social, political 
and ideological structure of Vietnam in history. Based on Vietnam real context, Luong Duc 
Thiep observed caste problems in Vietnamese traditional society. To make it clear, he used 
Indian society with “castes” but not only classes (defined by economic factors in Vietnam 
traditional society). The 20th century should be a century without distinction of class or levels, 
patriarchy or matriarchy – all should be equal. Human was able to freely express themselves and 
their demands. Broadly speaking, the culture of a nation must also be its own indigenous culture 
and was not dependent on any other nations. Vietnamese culture was not like Chinese or Indian 
ones. It was a different culture, which was suitable with geographical location and living 
environment of Viet people [3]. 
Authors of Han Thuyen group were influenced by Marxism but not applied it as a cliché. 
They promoted freedom in both literary criticism and life and adopted Marxism in a creative 
and flexible way. Therefore, by affirming indigenous culture of the nation, Han Thuyen 
encouraged freedom that both individuals and the nation should affirm their impression. 
3. Conclusions 
It can be seen that Han Thuyen authors in general and Truong Tuu, Luong Duc Thiep in 
particular adopted Marxism thoroughly in their works, proving that infrastructure determines 
superstructure or matter determines consciousness, in other words. Though there were many 
changes during establishment and operation of Han Thuyen group, its strong impression on 
social life of the 40s in Vietnam was undeniable. Many valuable literary and cultural works 
were published as evidences for the success of Han Thuyen at that time. 
Han Thuyen always promoted freedom in literature and social activities with objective of 
renovating Vietnam culture. How was that culture? It was indigenous culture of “Vietnam”, 
which was learnt from widening new perspectives and comparing with old social ideology 
(feudalism, Confucianism, etc,). It was a culture, which learnt from human evolution, absorbed 
Western civil ideology and adopted suitably with the nation’s real context, with Eastern culture 
while still in line with the spirit of Eastern Asia. Truong Tuu found the cross between 
Confucianism and Marxism and pointed out the great role of Vietnamese Classic of Poetry in 
folksongs. Whereas, Luong Duc Thiep expressed the unique features of Vietnamese spirit, 
which was not mixed or assimilated with Chinese of Indian. Vietnamese has their own religion. 
It was not Confucianism - Chinese national religion, Buddhism – Indian dependent religion. 
Vietnam had ancestral worship, which was closed with South-Eastern Asia indigenous culture. 
Moreover, Vietnamese had their own customs related to rice culture, their own distinctive 
architectures and their community-based mechanism, which were suitable with the size of the 
nation. The 40s of the 20th century with many historical changes was also the period for 
Vietnamese to find and affirm its true nature. Han Thuyen, on one hand, proved the 
intertwinement of the nation with other culture in the region and over the world. On the other 
hand, it clarified original and traditional features of Vietnam culture from the past to present. 
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