Liêu Hữu Phương (Chữ Hán: 廖有方; Chinese pinyin: Liào Yǒufāng; Wade–Giles: Liao4 Yu3-fang1), Chinese name Liao Yuqīng (fl. 9th century), was a poet and government official of the Tang dynasty during the early 9th century AD.
The Tang imperial system allowed for some promotion by merit and could even be strikingly trans-ethnic. At this time, however, Confucianism ideas had very little impact on the indigenous people of North Vietnam. A Tang official wrote dismissively in 845: "Annan has produced no more than eight imperial officials; senior graduates have not exceeded ten."[2]
In 815, Liêu Hữu Phương took a 1,450-mile journey from Hanoi to Chang'an, the capital of the Tang dynasty, to take the Tang imperial examination, but he failed. He then took a trip to Shu, modern-day Sichuan Province, to visit a fellow student.[1] In the next year, he again participated in the civil service examination and passed it. He was appointed as a librarian at the imperial court.[2]
His poems are now lost; his On a Stranger’s Coffin: A Poem Engraved on the Occasion of Burying a Scholar at Baoqe in Quan Tang Shi is the only preserved one and the oldest extant poem written in Chinese by a Vietnamese.[3]
In the tenth year of Yuanhe (815), I failed the examinations [at Ch’ang-an, the T'ang capital in northern China]. I traveled in the west and came to the Baoqe district. There I was surprised to hear the sound of someone groaning. I inquired about that person's distress. He replied: "I have coiled through many examinations but have not yet found favor." Then he knocked his head on the floor. I talked with him for a long time. His replies were prompt and bitter. Unable to say more, he suddenly leaned to one side and died. I immediately sold my horse to a village notable and bought a coffin for his burial. Alas, I did not even know his name! I took a path through the mountains and sadly laid him to rest. Later, I returned with an
inscription:
Alas, the gentleman died; reduced to extremities, he abandoned the world.
How many rules weary the heart; brush, ink, the examination yard.
But briefly acquainted, I offer a little sadness,
Without knowing where his family’s village stands.
Kornicki, Peter (2017), "Sino-Vietnamese literature", in Li, Wai-yee; Denecke, Wiebke; Tian, Xiaofen (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Classical Chinese Literature (1000 BCE-900 CE), Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 568–578, ISBN0-199-35659-9
Taylor, Keith Weller (1983). The Birth of the Vietnam. University of California Press. ISBN978-0-520-07417-0.
