CC BY
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НАРОДНАЯ ХУДОЖЕСТВЕННАЯ
КУЛЬТУРА
УДК 398
FOLK PHILOSOPHY AS A CULTURAL SOFT POWER: AN INVESTIGATION OF VIETNAMESE IDIOMS AND PROVERBS
Cao Thao Huong
Hanoi University of Culture, Vietnam, Hanoi e-mail: caothaohuong@gmail.com
In the article the author approaches folk philosophy as a cultural soft power. Specifically, the author explains the concepts and features of folk philosophy, applies the concept of "soft power" in studying the relationship between culture and individuals and understanding the role of folk philosophy in human's perception, attitude and behavior. Idioms and proverbs contain many folk philosophies and represent folk philosophies in the most clear and attractive way. Thus, the article reports a study of Vietnamese idioms and proverbs as data to demonstrate the soft power of folk philosophy. At the same time, the article gives some suggestions to promote the role of idioms and proverbs embedding folk philosophy for the development of humanity, value sytems and behavior adjustment.
Keywords: folk philosophy, cultural soft power, idioms, proverbs, folk culture.
Introduction
The crisis of social ethics and cultural values nowadays is a burning issue in some countries including Vietnam. Rapid changes of economic conditions along with the receipt of a rush of alien cultural elements have resulted in enormous changes of traditional values and human moral issues. Many Vietnamese researchers, managers and social opinions express their anxiety about this issue. Administrative institutions tend to be helpless in restoring the social ethics as well as constructing the national cultural values. National ethics and cultural values, which are made by the administrative documents, laws or by some elites in the society, are not easily recognized and followed by individuals in the community. This is a matter of culture and cultural soft power in the human social life.
Analyzing this issue, it clearly shows the role of culture in stabilizing the spiritual life of individuals in the community. Culture is created by human and at the same time, culture controls human in terms of perception and action. The individuals' perception of their moral life and values is strongly influenced by the cultural environment in which they
are born and raised. In other words, culture is an invisible spiritual power to human and the stability of social life.
The article analyzes culture in general and folk philosophy in particular towards soft power approach. Culture instructs and attracts humans and it is deeply rooted into thinking and perception of humans then controls their actions. Soft power of culture is shown in many contents, including, folk philosophy as one of the typical contents. Folk philosophy is the combination of generalized collective opinions and perceptions of the nature and society that focus on the nature of phenomena. Folk philosophy therefore is also highly persuasive, recognized and followed by individuals in the community naturally and effectively. The philosophy of natural and social laws as well as philosophy of life can be manifested in many aspects such as architecture, customs, beliefs and rituals of communication and etc. In particular, folk idioms and proverbs are considered as "wisdom" to represent the philosophy in a compact, clear and simple manner. Furthermore, idioms and proverbs convey philosophical contents from one person to another, from generation to generation in an extremely effective way. Therefore, it would be remiss to not mention the role of idioms and proverbs in moral and humanity education in sub-communities (e.g., family and school).
The article focuses on some following contents: Definition of folk philosophy and how cultural soft power is expressed through folk philosophy via idioms and proverbs. Thereby, the article proposes some ideas to promote the role of folk philosophy in the contemporary life.
What is a cultural soft power?
Soft power is a concept given by Joseph Nye. He first developed the concept soft power in Bound to Lead, a book published in 19901. He defines soft power as the ability to attract and co-opt rather than by using force or giving money as a means of persuasion. This attraction originates from the perspective of cultural and political values and foreign policies of a country.
According to Joseph Nye, "Hard power can rest on inducements ("carrots") or threats ("sticks")" and soft power - "getting others to want the outcomes that you want - co-opts people rather than coerces them"2. Important factors in soft power are attraction and persuasiveness. Soft power is not merely the same as influence. Influence can also rest on the hard power of threats and payments. And soft power is more than just persuasion or the ability to move people by argument. It is also ability to attract, and attraction often leads to acquiescence. "Simply put, in behavioral terms, soft power is attractive power. In term of resources, soft-power resources are the assets that produce such attraction"3. The concept of soft power is used in many studies of politics, diplomacy, sociology and cultural studies, etc.
Soft power can be understood as the direct impact between the two sides: the affecting (power carrying) party - party A and the affected party - party B. Hard power is the way party A imposes and forces party B meanwhile soft power is manifested in the willingness of party B before the influence of party A.
From Nye's concept, many authors have referred to the soft power of culture. The concept of soft power of culture is referred to as a key word of cultural diplomacy, in which this community affects other communities. That means the soft power of culture of community A affects the community B. This power can be actively used by the community A, but sometimes promotes itself. For example, ancient Rome and Greece are the cases.
1 Nye, Joseph (1990), Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power, New York: Basic Books.
2 Nye, Joseph, Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics, PublishAffairs, New York, 2004, pp 5.
3 Nye, Joseph, Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics, PublishAffairs, New York, 2004, pp 6.
Rome won over Greece on the battlefield (military) but was strongly "Hellenized" in the field of culture. It is seen that from the aspect of soft power, there are many interesting things. In this article, the author discusses another aspect - the soft power of culture with its subject matter, the power of culture for the human being - the creative community and its ownership.
Cultural soft power refers to the influence and dominance of culture over the perceptions and behaviors of individuals. Each individual is a member of the collective that creates culture, but also the object affected by culture. Each individual is born and nurtured in a certain cultural environment. Culture and ethics are passed down from previous generations to future generations through the families and society.
Culture is a man-made product, distinguishes between humans and animals, humans and pure nature. In other words, people live in two alternate environments, including the natural environment available, and the cultural environment created by them. This cultural environment is made up of many individuals and generations in the process of adaptation to natural and socio-historical conditions. Therefore, the cultural environment has its own history, is not completely dependent on the subjective will of human. As result, each community has its own cultural environment, which creates its identity to distinguish one community from another.
The cultural environment is made up of many individuals and generations in the course of a long history. By chance, the creative achievements of the previous generation are inherited or even dependent on by the next generations. Cultural atmosphere is around the human being where people breathe daily, hourly, covering the most common daily activities. In a certain aspect, culture is imposed on individuals, a "natural" imposition, in which individuals in the community have almost no choice or arrangement. However, the imposition of culture is not rigid but, in general, individuals in the community recognize previous cultural creations as evident. Right from the birth, individuals have been raised in such cultural atmosphere, their cognitive development, behavioral habits and spiritual beliefs... are also driven by such atmosphere through social institutions such as family, village, learning environment, public opinion, books, art... In the case of an ordinary person, from the birth, he has obviously used the voice of the community, complied with community communication conventions; dressed, ate, built, married, joined the festival...in the way his ancestor had done. Also, it's easy for him to have the same supernatural beliefs as the others. It can be said that each community has its own culture. Thus, in addition to the general psychological phenomena of humankind, each community has its own psychological characteristics; philosophy of life, world view and habits to express its own characteristics, differing from other communities.
There are some basic factors causing the individual to be controlled by soft power of culture as:
- Perception of the world and perspective of life that the individuals receive from their cultures
-Personal habits are formed in the cultural environment.
-Public opinions are based on cultural norms recognized by the majority.
The soft power of culture, for individuals in particular and for the community in general, is enormous. However, culture does not always have absolute power over man. Under certain circumstances, individuals of group of individuals will feel the imposition of culture on them is no longer appropriate and seek to counteract such imposition, thereby leading to the phenomenon of "depower". Therefore, in history and literature in many countries, we can encounter stories of people, who fight against the old laws, prejudices or views, promote the "new" before being accepted by the mass. In many cases, the protest is a
process full of tears. The two-way relationship between the power of culture over human and human's change in culture is always parallel. People are influenced by the cultural environment, and also change the face of culture.
There are several factors that promote depower of cultural soft power over the individual:
-Individuals/individual groups have new cognition
-The changing socio-historical conditions make culture change accordingly
When the socio-historical conditions are not mature, some individuals have new cognition but cannot change the mass, and there is a spiritual rebellion of the minority against the power of culture.
What is folk philosophy?
There are many common points between folk philosophy and polymath philosophy. Both mention the common generalized problems of nature and the social laws. However, folk philosophy is not as systematic, theoretical and scientific as polymath philosophy. While the philosophy is a scientific subject with academic and objective nature, folk philosophy is a product of folk wisdom drawn from real life, with relatively empirical and objective nature. Folk philosophy is unsystematic with sporadic existence and mentioned and applied in specific cases.
Folk philosophy is relatively objective because in some cases, folk philosophy contains idealistic elements. Some phenomena are identified based on the belief of the whole community and tacitly admitted by the community. For instance, in Vietnamese idioms and proverbs, there are a lot of sentences representing the philosophy of human life in relation to the law of causality as: One good turn deserves another; Curses (like chickens) come home to roost, etc.
Folk philosophy has some characteristics as follows:
- Unsystematic. Folk philosophy is a product of many people, in different times, in various fields, thus, it has content related to discrete and unsystematic fields.
- Rational (persuasive). There are two reasons for the persuasiveness of folk philosophy: Firstly, folk philosophy analyzes in depth issues of the nature and laws of the phenomena and therefore is more or less scientific and objective; secondly, folk philosophy is the essence screened and tested by the collective and therefore consistent with the perspective and sentiment of the majority.
- Presenting in a simple and intelligible manner the contents of deeply generalized nature. As a product of folk wisdom, the beneficiaries are also majority in the community, so the folk philosophy is simple, easy to understand, and easy to remember. On the contrary, a philosophy can only be folklorised, passed down orally, has a wide influence in the community when it is presented simply and appropriately to the majority.
- Often expressed through images and symbols close to human habitats. For example, Vietnam has many rivers and canals, so the image of "waterways" is very familiar, associated with many activities of people. In idioms, proverbs, we can find many images of waterways conveying philosophical contents, such as
Idioms and proverbs in Vietnamese Idioms and proverbs in English Meaning
Con nuac con tat Still have water, still bail4 (Where's there's life, there's hope) Although there are only a few opportunities, do not give up
Song co khuc, nguai co luc River has many different parts, man has ups and downs in his lives (Every day is not Sunday) Everything as well as human beings have prosperity and decadence
Nguai co luc vinh luc nhuc, nuac co luc duc luc trong Man has ups and downs in his lives, water changes itself (between clear water and muddy water) (A flow will have an ebb)
Ma nha nuac, nuac nha ma Rice relies on water, water relies on rice Nature as well as humans cannot live alone
Cha thay song ca ma nga tay cheo Never funk at rowing boat because of seeing the billow Do not disheartened when meeting difficulties and challenges
Nguon duc thi dong cung duc Source is opaque, the flow is similar People who are of an inferior origin/nature are hardly pure
Nuac noi thi beo noi Water rises, duckweed rises People change according to circumstances
- Contagious and easily spreading in community life orally.
- Associated with cultural elements such as beliefs, customs, architecture and folklore, etc.
- Relatively stable. This feature is governed by the rationality of folk philosophy. Because the content expresses the nature of things and phenomena, the folk philosophy is stable, less varied by external conditions. However, folk philosophy only has relative stability because of the folk philosophy changes as the social life, psychological perspective, and people's ideas changed significantly. When traditional philosophy is no longer appropriate to the community, it will be replaced by new philosophy.
Folk philosophy through Vietnamese idioms and proverbs
Vietnam has more than 50 ethnic groups, each of them has a great deal of separate idioms and proverbs. The article only focuses on survey on idioms and proverbs of the Kinh (Viet) ethnic group because this group accounts for a high percentage in the country. This article examines Vietnamese idioms and proverbs collected in two books:
- Dang Hong Chuong, Dictionary of Vietnamese idioms and proverbs, Culture and Information Publishing House, Hanoi, 20075.
- Nguyen Tran Tru, Idiom and proverb brief explanation, Culture and Information Publishing House, Hanoi, 20086.
Not every idiom and proverb contains contents about folk philosophy. There are sentences only showing the attitude, evaluation of the quality of things and phenomena or
4 Bail: a work on Vietnam rice farm. People bail water from water channel to their rice field. One or two people use a kind of apparatus called "g&u tit nuac" to do that.
5 Dang Hong Chuang (2007), Tu dien th&nh ngu, tuc ngu Viet Nam, NXB Van hoa thong tin
6 Nguyen Tran Tru (2008), Th&nh ngu, tuc ngu lugc giai, NXB Van hoa thong tin, Hi Noi
simply the experience of daily life. The survey on Vietnamese folk philosophy shows the basic content groups including the philosophy of values, moral philosophy, philosophy of life, philosophy of public opinion, philosophy of development law, philosophy of social relations, philosophy of law of supply and demand and last but not least philosophy of human nature:
- Philosophy of values:
+ The nature is more valuable than the appearance: Beauty dies and fades away but ugly holds its own; Handsome is as handsome does; A costume does not make a monk; etc.
+ The value of harmony and conformity: Small cat japdeut a small mouse of their own; Every Jack has his Jill; to do anything successfully requires appropriate tools and methods; people adjust themselves to fit his living environment
+ The value of family love: Behind every great man, there is a great woman; Love your siblings as you love yourself (bothers are like hands and feet)
+ The value of family order and discipline: A torn piece of paper still needs to keep a
boder
+ The value of honest attitude: Honesty wins cleverness
+ The value of trust: lost thing is easy to find, lost trust is never found; Fool me once, shame on you; Chose promise, chose due
+ The value of labor: property produced by ourselves are sustainable while property earned through gambling may be lost easily; the more you study the more noble you become, the harder you work the more property you have; he who would have fruit must climb the tree;
- Moral philosophy:
+ Law of causality: One good turn deserves another; He who eats salty will be thirsty; Che fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge; Curses like chickens come home to roost, One good turn deserves another;
+ Lifestyle with virtues: Curses (like chickens) come home to roost, destiny is beaten by faith; you can succeed with virtues; human determination will overcome destiny + Doing good things: Kind hearts are more than coronets
- Philosophy of life:
+ Perseverance and persistence: While there's life, there's hope; Many a little makes a mickle; Every little helps; When one door shuts, another opens
+ Will: There's will, there's way; Never say die; Diligence is the mother of good
fortune
+ Learning: A man becomes learned by asking questions; Travelling forms a young
man
+ Do not be afraid to fail: Never give up; No arrogance in victory and no defection in defeat; Failure is the mother of success
+ Speak carefully: Put one's money where one's mouth is; Think today and speak tomorrow; words kill;
+ Prepare for the future: Save for the rainy day;
+Conduct in treating people: There is great force hidden in a sweet command; Anger and haste hinder good counsel; A bad compromise is better than a good lawsuit; + Prepare carefully for everything: Better safe than sorry; + Do not look down the poor nor trust the rich + Taking care of the dead is the upmost responsibility
- Philosophy of public opinion:
+ Public opinion has the power to change the facts: all reporting the same kills the
monk
+ Public opinion tends to make the problems more serious: You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours
+ The more crowded the group is, the more complicated its public opinion becomes: More people more words
-Human nature:
+ No one is perfect: To err is human
+ One's heart is unpredictable: Before you make a friend eat a bushel of salt with
him
+ Be cautious when using human resources: It is important to use a person with his strong points
- Philosophy of social relations:
+ Harmony in giving - getting in the social relations: You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours
+ People and things do not live independently but have intimate relationships with each other: Claw me, and I will claw thee
+ Organizations and associations have an important role: A life without a friend is a life without sun
- Philosophy of law development:
+ The world is always growing and evolving: When the bamboo is old, bamboo sprouts appear"
+ The development takes place under sinusoidal (up and down) shape: A flow will have an ebb
+ Factor promoting the development: Right place, right time and right person;
- Philosophy of the law of supply and demand: Wholesale of fabrics in case of a bumper crop, wholesale of rice in case of a poor crop.
There are a number of comments drawn on folk philosophy via idioms and proverbs as follows:
Firstly, folk philosophy mentions many aspects from general issues such as the law of development, supply and demand rule, public opinion and social relations to the issues related to individuals such as ethics, values and lifestyles.
Secondly, the philosophy in folk idioms and proverbs is practical and applicable. Idioms and proverbs expressing the lifestyle philosophy, values and ethics account for a large number with diverse contents. This is the group most commonly used in real life and controlling human behavior. The communities use idioms and proverbs as a tool to teach their members and remind themselves. Idioms and proverbs play a significant role in shaping the perspective on life and regulate the behavior of human beings.
Thirdly, the expression of philosophy of idioms and proverbs is short, concise and simple with highlights on the core issues.
Fourthly, a philosophy can be expressed by many idioms and proverbs. Conversely, an idiom or proverb can also be used in many situations. The reason is that idioms and proverbs use specific images and objects close to human to talk about these issues of generalized nature. Because of using the specific to describe the general, idioms and proverbs have high applications and can be used in many situations of the same nature.
For example, many idioms and proverbs convey the same content:
Idioms and proverbs in Vietnamese Idioms and proverbs in English Meaning
Cha chung không ai khoc No one cry for a common father Public jobs are done and cared by no one
Lâm sai không ai dong cûa chùa Too many monks, no one closes the pagoda gate
Lên voi xuông cho Up to elephant, down to dog (the whirligig of life) Everything as well as human beings have prosperity and decadence
Sông co khuc, nguài co luc River has many different parts, man has ups and downs in his lives (Every day is not Sunday)
Tâm co lua, ruông co mùa There are good and poor crop seasons (on silkworm farm and rice field)
Co chi thï nên A will man will be successful (A mouse in time may bite in two a cable) If there is will, there will be a success
Nguài co chi ât phài nên, nhà co nên ât phài vùng A will man will be successful, a good substructure will make a durable house (where there's a will there's a way)
Co công mài sât co ngày nên kim Practice makes perfect
For example, a saying has many variants used in different situations, conveys different messages:
Idioms and proverbs in Vietnamese Idioms and proverbs in English Meaning
Môt lài noi, môt goi vàng A word, a golden packet Words are precious like gold
Môt lài noi, môt goi tôi A word, a packet of sins A speech at inappropriate time, in the wrong place can leave unexpected consequences
Môt lài noi, môt doi mau One word, one blood Words can cause hatred
Words are worth a vow
Fifth, the attraction of idioms and proverbs lies in language arts (rhyme, catchy, catchy). This feature results in the vitality and the ability to spread widely among people of idioms and proverbs.
Soft power of the attraction in terms of perception
There is a close relationship between perception and behavior. Behavior is controlled by perception and attitude. Soft power is clearly manifested through the impact of culture on human perception and human attitude. Meanwhile hard power of social institutions often imposes behavioral standards and ignores transformation of human perception, soft power of culture focuses on perception. Through perception, culture indirectly governs the behavior of individuals. The attitude and behavior of human are consistent with their perception. Cultural soft power dominates and instructs human perception.
It is impossible not to mention folk philosophy together with perception because it is a part of the combination that expresses a deep perception of humans in an extremely simple and rustic way. A philosophy can only become a folk philosophy when it is tested by the community hence it is also the essence of collective perception. In addition, folk philosophy is presented in a simple and easy to understand way, therefore it also has strong spread. If folk philosophy is the essence of a large group of individuals and governs the attitude and behavior of such group, it can easy convince and admit new individuals through rationality and attraction in its expression. In other words, the essence of human perception makes up the core of folk philosophy as well as its attractions to humans. Therefore folk philosophy is also regarded as a cultural soft power.
Folk philosophy has strong attraction which offers soft power for folk philosophy. This soft power was strongly promoted in the past while polymath culture just had influence on a few members of population. Looking back on Vietnam's traditional society, when Vietnamese people resided in closed village communities, by which methods were their moral and cultural values formed and maintained? In feudal times, the majority of people lacked formal education (only those learning to pursue mandarin examinations); social ethics and human values were shaped and developed through folklore as customs and local laws, conventions, family education, idioms, proverbs and public opinion, etc. In particular, word of mouth is an extremely important communications method.
We can better imagine the soft power of folk philosophy through the following diagram:
~ Observation----Cognition
Experience Views/Attitudes
Behavior ____Cognition
Views/Attitudes
Man created folk philosophy, but then folk philosophy came back to govern human life. Man has observed, experienced from the real world to draw natural and social laws, develop their own cognitions and opinions, and generalize them into folk philosophy. On the contrary, the folk philosophy, with its attractiveness, is easy to spread in and influence the community. Meanwhile, human behavior is governed by cognitions and views. Thus, the folk philosophy indirectly governs human cognition and behavior.
Promotion of the role of idioms and proverbs in the contemporary life
When hard power is helpless in building values and promoting social humanism, it is time for soft power to show its power. Meanwhile, as mentioned above, the philosophy of Vietnamese idioms and proverbs is characterized by its favor of application. The philosophy of life, humanity, value identification and reflection has specific environments and
circumstances. As a result, it is possible to promote soft power of idioms and proverbs on human perception and behavior.
However, an assessment of the current Vietnam society, especially the burgher society, there are a number of advantages and difficulties in promoting the role of folk philosophy of idioms and proverbs.
There is a shift from agricultural economy to market economy resulting in less leisure time to people than ever before. People in modern society are encountering a shortage of time for communicating. Most of their time is spent for work, learning and basic needs of the human body. Parents and children have less time talking to each other. Many urban families do not know their neighbors let alone communicating, talking and sharing as the old time. Meanwhile, the vitality of idioms and proverbs relies on the word of mouth method. When the time to talk and communicate between individuals is limited, it is difficult to convey the philosophy of idioms and proverbs.
Besides difficulties as mentioned above, have some advantages. If in traditional societies, idioms and proverbs were scattered in real life, through personal memories; meanwhile nowadays, idioms and proverbs are collected in several books. This is the data warehouse for research and promoting the role of idioms and proverbs in the contemporary society. Besides, idioms and proverbs themselves have their own attraction. The philosophy is conveyed in such a deep and compelling manner while being expressed extremely simple and easy to understand and remember.
Based on the above-mentioned advantages and disadvantages, some authors have proposed to use soft power of idioms and proverbs in orientation of behavior and social ethics adjustment as follows:
- Include folk philosophy of idioms and proverbs in school education. School education is an important information channel to orient behaviors and social ethics for young children. Idioms and proverbs are easy to remember, easy to understand and very suitable for inclusion in school education. But to do this, first of all, it is required that teachers are aware of the importance of conveying folk philosophy of idioms and proverbs to their pupils. In Vietnam, idioms and proverbs have been included in teaching contents for pupils, for example, through the spelling exercises, calligraphy practice and lectures on folklore, etc. However, it is also necessary to promote further by introducing idioms and proverbs containing contents of folk philosophy in subjects such as ethics and civic education so that such subjects will be more interesting, lively, catching and easily absorbed. The actual activities of pupils can also be organized on certain themes and topics associated with idioms and proverbs that contain folk philosophy. Thereby creating good habits for pupils and helping them to have a positive attitude in other similar activities.
- Promote folk philosophy of idioms and proverbs in the media. It has been practically proved that media has promoted folk philosophy of idioms and proverbs very effectively. It is required to promote humanity and good lifestyle through a number of programs, particularly useful programs that effectively include idioms and proverbs in conveying the messages. For example, the "pair of loving leaves" by organized by 24h Motion News Center and broadcast on Vietnam Television. This program successfully applied the philosophy "The leaves protect tattered ones" of the Vietnamese. This is the philosophy of humanity enhancing sharing with difficulties and helping disadvantaged persons. In each issue, the program reflected a difficult situation in need of help to find donors. The people in need of helps and helpers are a pair of loving leaves.
- Children's book publication is one of the channels to help children get access to the folk philosophy in very close way to our ancestor's practice. Comic books and picture books
telling meaningful stories can be integrated and exemplified by appropriate idioms and proverbs. Thereby, children will easily remember and absorb more contents.
- To encourage parents to spend more time with their children and help parents realize the role of perception and behavior orientation of idioms and proverbs. That parents spending time to talk with their children will help create an environment for "word of mouth" - the basic conditions for conveying philosophy of life from generation to generation.
Conclusion
The advantage of folk philosophy over moral lessons and polymath philosophy is that folk philosophy is expressed in simple, easy to understand, relevant to the majority. The vitality of folk philosophy also lies in its ability to spread. All the violent and coarse imposition is helpless in the construction of values, morals and good lifestyle for people. That goal can be achieved only by the impact on perception, with the "attraction" of soft power. In the trend that humane and ethically good life is in danger of the rush change of the socioeconomic life, folk philosophy increasingly shows its soft power.
Folk philosophy is the essence of the community with a clear and vivid manifestation via idioms and proverbs. Idioms and proverbs in Vietnam feudal society (when the majority of people did not have chance to go to school and were illiterate) played a key role in maintaining social stability, promoting the good lifestyles and qualities of human. Soft power of folk philosophy was promoted very effectively in the past. In the contemporary society, facilitating idioms and proverbs containing philosophical contents to reach lots of people, especially young people will help to build and strengthen humanistic, ethical and beautiful lifestyle in the society. In the modern society, where the word of mouth culture is gradually shrunken, fewer people spend time together, it is necessary to exert influence on the educational environment (schools), media and publishing so that folk philosophy can reach people. Only by creating such conditions can enable folk philosophy with its natural attraction to affect people's perceptions. Since then, it has dominant influence on the behavior and actions of human.
Folk philosophy research with the approach of cultural soft power can be expanded in many other aspects, such as in architectural philosophy, philosophy of cultural communication, philosophy of culture culinary, cultural philosophy in family culture. Folk philosophy in idioms and proverbs can also continue to be developed in a comparative study between Vietnam and other countries to find the similarities and differences.
References
1.Nye, Joseph (1990), Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power, New York: Basic Books.
2.Nye, Joseph, Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics, PublishAffairs, New York, 2004, pp. 5.
3.Dang Hong Chuong, Dictionary of Vietnamese idioms and proverbs, Culture and Information Publishing House, Hanoi, 2007.
4.Nguyen Tran Tru, Idiom and proverb brief explanation, Culture and Information Publishing House, Hanoi, 2008.
НАРОДНАЯ ФИЛОСОФИЯ КАК «МЯГКАЯ КУЛЬТУРНАЯ СИЛА»: НА ПРИМЕРЕ ВЬЕТНАМСКИХ ИДИОМ И ПОСЛОВИЦ
Као Тхао Хыонг
Ханойский университет культуры, Ханой, Вьетнам e-mail: caothaohuong@gmail.com
В данной статье автор определяет народную философию как «мягкую культурную силу»; разъясняет основные понятия и особенности народной философии; понимание ее роли в поведении человека, его отношении к себе и к миру. Народная философия широко признана, убедительна и сопровождает каждого члена общества естественно и эффективно. Философия естественных и социальных законов, а также философия жизни может проявляться в обычаях, верованиях и ритуалах. В частности, для понимания философии, народные идиомы и пословицы рассматриваются как «мудрость» и подаются в компактной, простой и ясной форме. Кроме того, идиомы и пословицы являются эффективным способом передачи философского содержания из поколения в поколение, от одного человека другому. Автор отмечает огромную роль идиом и пословиц в воспитании нравственности в суб-сообществах (например, в семье и школе). В статье представлены примеры вьетнамских идиом и пословиц, составляющих «мягкую культурную силу» народной философии. Автор отмечает большую роль идиом и пословиц в системе человеческих ценностей, поведении и развитии человечества в целом.
Ключевые слова: народная философия, «мягкая культурная сила», культурные ценности, мораль, поведение.
