In this article, I compare Literary Inquisitions befalling in monarchic regimes in Vietnam’s and China’s pre-modern time to find similarities and differences between them. I point out that the numbers and scopes of Literary Inquisitions in China’s monarchic regimes were far more than that in Vietnam’s; however, they largely shared the same motivations of politics, morality, religions, etc. The kings of the regimes usually partially interpreted, even distorted, literary pieces based on their own prejudice; at the same time they had right to judge the literary pieces as well as the life of their authors. Studying those Literary Inquisitions in Vietnam’s and China’s monarchic time in comparison with each other help us understand how the literary and cultural reception operated in Vietnam’s, China’s, and in East Asia’s monarchic regimes in general.

• Phạm Văn Hưng