Realist Sensibility in the Chinese Poetry of Nguyen Dynasty Royal Poets

The royal poets of the Nguyen Dynasty, living in the 19th century—a period marked by intense historical upheavals and the flourishing of literature in both Chinese and Nom scripts—offer a rich subject for study. Examining the realist sensibility in their Chinese poetry involves dissecting both natural and social realities. Natural reality encompasses a diverse spectrum of nature, ranging from majestic and sublime, sometimes harsh and perilous, to familiar, simple, and romantically beautiful. Social reality is depicted through two contrasting portraits: the idealized vision of society and the actual, often turbulent, societal conditions. This analysis highlights the role of realist elements in shaping and reflecting the poets’ consciousness. Exploring the realist sensibility of nature and society also allows us to uncover profound humanistic values in court poetry—values that transcend the boundaries of status and class in old society, particularly in the works of royal poets like Tung Thien and Tuy Ly. This study surveys the content of a selected corpus of Chinese poetry, limited to a microcosm of 90 poems, employing four traditional methods in rotation: literary analysis, literary history, comparison, and quantitative statistics. This approach helps dismantle stereotypes and lift the veil obscuring the true personas of historical figures faded by time.