Bac hanh Tap Luc (Travels to the North), a collection of poems in Chinese, was composed by Nguyen Du during the time he led Vietnam's diplomatic corps to China in 1813-1814. That is the first piece of work in the history of Vietnam literature vividly, particularly and copiously reflecting the real condition of contemporary Chinese society. For the first time in history, Nguyen Du told us about a China which is vast but not flat, beautiful but bumpy, about a glorious but tragic tradition, about a populous but poor, resigned and painful country, especially, about a decadent feudalism full of absurdity and lack of vitality when it was no longer able to help people realize basic human rights that they deserve to enjoy. "Things witnessed" by Nguyen Du in China would affirm what he witnessed in Vietnam, a model of decadent feudalism which was too old and outdated
it helps us clearly understand his thought of "disillution" "demythologization" and "desinicization" to the feudal system in general and the ideal China model in particular.