Chinh phụ ngâm
poem in Chinese
The Chinh phụ ngâm ("Lament of the soldier's wife", 征婦吟) is a poem in Classical Chinese written by the Vietnamese author Đặng Trần Côn (1710–1745). It is also called the Chinh phụ ngâm khúc (征婦吟曲), with the additional -khúc ("tune", 曲) emphasizing that it can be performed as a musical piece not just read as a plain "lament" (ngâm, 吟).
The Chinese-language poem was translated into vernacular chữ Nôm by several translators including Phan Huy Ích and Đoàn Thị Điểm. It was also translated into Japanese, English, French and Korean languages. The first eight lines of the poem along with the music composed by Professor Võ Văn Lúa were adopted as the national anthem of the Autonomous Republic of Cochinchina from 1946 to 1949.
“Chinh phụ ngâm” enters the record as poem in Chinese. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Chinh, ngâm and poem can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Chinh phụ ngâm” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Chinh, ngâm and poem provides the most credible route into that argument.
Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated May 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5101054. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1710, 1745, 1946 and 1949.
Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
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The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.
Three-step research path
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Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Chinh phụ ngâm” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.