FEUDAL ATTITUDES AND POLICIES TOWARDS NOM SCRIPT IN MORAL CATECHISM IN TEN ARTICLES (HUẤN ĐỊCH THẬP ĐIỀU DIỄN NGHĨA CA) BY TU DUC

Abstract

It is necessary to study the social functions of Nom script in order to understand the language policies of Vietnamese medieval administrative bodies. The official documents which announced that the dynasty’s policy was normally composed in Chinese script. However, they had to be translated into Nom script and popularized in the vernacular. This behavior enabled Nom script, which had been considered as an unofficial script, to deliver moral and official messages from the feudal administrations. In this article, we show that Moral Catechism in Ten Articles (Huấn địch thập điều) by King Tự Đức helped to increase the social functions of Vietnamese. Especially, the use of Nom script in popularizing official messages also promoted the composition of Nom literature, enriching and strengthening Vietnamese literature written in the mother tongue.