This paper examines the historiography about the fourteenth-century princess Huyền Trân within the new discourses and narratives of historical and literary revisionism and an awareness of the political and cultural needs of contemporary Vietnam. Official histories from the fifteenth century onward criticized Huyền Trân’s marriage to the Cham king Chế Mân (Jaya Sinhavarman III) to gain Champa lands. She was also excoriated for her alleged elopement with Trần Khắc Chung as a widow. By the eighteenth century moral condemnation began to give way to sympathy for her woman condition, and under French colonialism the legend of Huyền Trân took on more complex nuances in romantic literature. During the renovation period after 1986, Huyền Trân reappears even more vibrantly in literature, music, theater and tourism. The story of Huyền Trân-Khắc Chung, forced into marriage with Chế Mân, and the elopement that ended in tragedy become the dominant chord in more creative historical narratives and in the arts. Even the embellishment of the happy relationship between Huyền Trân-Chế Mân can serve as allegory of a contemporary solution to geopolitical complexity and sensitivity of recent times. The decision by the widowed Huyền Trân to become a nun can also be seen as a corollary of the Buddhist renaissance supported by the state. And Huyền Trân in literary and artistic creations since 1986 inevitably becomes a model heroine closely tied to national issues.
