Questions in Nguyễn Du's classical Chines poetry - a portrait of an unstable world

Abstract

Question is one of the popular sentence types in Nguyễn Du's three collections of classical Chinese poetry. Questions performed many functions and expressed different psychological states of the poet, such as doubts, worries, fatigue, dissatisfaction, and indignation, among other things. Questions were associated with his journey of finding self and releasing hidden personal thoughts, finding peace in an unknown space and time, finding a distant and illusory soulmate, and re-evaluating life's values. They reflected his insecurity in an unstable world.