I had the opportunity to meet Cultural Researcher Thai Huy Bich a few years ago, when I needed to learn some information about the history and culture of Hung Nguyen district. Meeting him in a house with a large garden located next to National Highway 46, knowing that I wanted to learn about Hung Nguyen land, the place that the Japanese once circled in red on a map during the feudal period, then sailed and sailed to trade bustlingly along the Lam River, he laboriously brought out a stack of books - the valuable "capital" that he had accumulated during more than 15 years of his research. Of these, there were 5 books he wrote separately and 2 books he wrote together. Each book left behind great values, many of which were honored with the Literature and Arts Award named after poetess Ho Xuan Huong.
The most impressive is the book “Hung Nguyen Cultural Geography” with nearly 1,000 pages, full of valuable documents that he and Associate Professor Ninh Viet Giao painstakingly compiled and published in 2009. This is considered a “handbook” on Hung Nguyen culture, the result of the “exhausted” efforts in researching and collecting documents, through days of fieldwork, rummaging through archives, in books in libraries... to clarify the cultural and historical values of this land.
And the book “Hung Nguyen Cultural Sediments”, is a collection of articles, exploiting the Han Nom heritage in Hung Nguyen area that he spent a lot of time researching and translating. Providing researchers as well as people who want to learn about Hung Nguyen land with a panoramic view, to the most profound data.
Perhaps cultural researcher Thai Huy Bich is too “famous” in the research community of Nghe An folk culture and literature. But few people know that he came to Han Nom quite late, not to mention “late”. It was not until 2005 when he retired that he had full time to self-study Chinese. Because before that, during the time he studied at Vinh High School (now Huynh Thuc Khang High School), from 1961 to 1964; or 11 long years of holding guns to participate in the war against the US to save the country (1964-1975); then 4 years of studying at the Mathematics Department, Hue University of Education (1975-1979); until he graduated to teach and become an administrative officer, he only knew how to “babble” a few basic strokes of Chinese characters. And there was no method, just self-study through the Chinese language program on the radio or from textbooks that had been photocopied dozens of times until the letters were blurred.
He said that the history of Vietnam in general and Nghe An in particular, was greatly influenced by Chinese culture, especially writing. Hundreds of years ago, the storage of information and knowledge in all fields of nature and society was expressed through this script. In Vietnam, in addition to Chinese characters, Nom characters were also used. When the National Language was born, Chinese characters and Nom characters were no longer widely used, leading to a cultural "break", making it difficult to learn, research or, more accurately, "read and understand" the heritages left by our ancestors. Meanwhile, many clans and families still preserve ancient documents, if they cannot "understand" them, they are just inanimate objects.
This is what motivated him to research and self-study Chinese characters, and then become a researcher, an expert, with many works and articles that deeply research Han Nom documents. “At first, I studied Chinese characters because I wanted to translate my family's genealogy myself, to know my own origin, the historical journeys that my family had gone through, and then I was swept away by the layers and layers of valuable knowledge without realizing it” – Cultural researcher Thai Huy Bich shared.
After retiring, as Chairman of the Association of Former Teachers of Hung Nguyen District, Cultural Researcher Thai Huy Bich, together with the Standing Committee of the Association, registered with the People's Committee of Hung Nguyen District the Project "Collecting Han Nom heritage in Hung Nguyen District" for 2 years, from 2009 to 2011. After the Project was successfully defended, the People's Committee of Hung Nguyen District registered to implement the Provincial-level Scientific Research Project "Preserving and promoting the value of Han Nom heritage in Hung Nguyen District", the implementation period was from July 2011 to July 2013, implemented by the Department of Culture - Information and him.
Since then, Cultural Researcher Thai Huy Bich has begun to exploit the "treasure" of valuable Han Nom documents in Hung Nguyen, then expanded to Nam Dan, Nghi Loc... with more than 40 valuable articles and research papers. In 2015, he was also invited to participate in researching the Han Nom heritage of the Nguyen Huy family - Truong Luu, Ha Tinh; participated in reading woodblocks, translating genealogies and writing 3 papers at domestic and international conferences. By 2019, this heritage was recognized by UNESCO as a "Documentary Heritage of the Memory of the World Program". He also photocopied, stored and translated dozens of steles; hundreds of royal decrees, parallel sentences; hundreds of certificates, large characters, tablets; dozens of family genealogies... becoming the "connector" between the past and the present.
Flipping through the book “Cultural Sediments of Hung Nguyen District” signed by him, I could not help but admire the valuable research and discovery that he had carefully and condensed in each article. That was the journey of many years to find “King Quang Trung’s ancestral home”; exploiting the Han Nom heritage to determine “The origin of patriot Phan Boi Chau”; about “Uncle Ho’s maternal grandmother’s parents”; new discoveries about the life of General Secretary Le Hong Phong; Han Nom heritage about Nguyen Bieu… In addition, there are many works written about famous cultural relics in Hung Nguyen district, such as: Chieu Trung Temple; Hoang Muoi Temple; Phuc My Temple…
The collection, research and publication of Han Nom heritages by cultural researcher Thai Huy Bich have helped to discover many valuable Han Nom heritages preserved in families and clans. That has contributed to clarifying many historical stories. Helping many clans find their roots. Most valuable, thanks to the research of Han Nom documents, in Hung Nguyen, there have been at least 15 more relics recognized as provincial-level historical and cultural relics. In particular, it helps future generations understand the great contributions of their predecessors, thereby deepening the values of human morality, having a profound impact on educating the ideology, qualities and ethics of today's young generation.
At the age of nearly 80, for many people, fatigue is clearly visible on their faces, in their eyes and in their steps. But with Cultural Researcher Thai Huy Bich, I still see in him a full-blown enthusiasm for the Han Nom heritage of his homeland. For years, I can't remember how many families, clans, villages he has visited, and how many genealogies, royal decrees... but the footsteps of the Soldier - Old Teacher - Cultural Researcher Thai Huy Bich still do not want to stop. He does not want those valuable sources of information to be forgotten, misunderstood and buried in his memory.
To him, the books, genealogies, royal decrees, horizontal lacquered boards, parallel sentences... written in Chinese or Nom characters that are being preserved in Hung Nguyen district are truly valuable heritages, contributing to affirming the traditional source and cultural features of the homeland that he and the members of the Hung Nguyen District Former Teachers Association are responsible for opening and promoting.
Saying goodbye to cultural researcher Thai Huy Bich, he humbly said that his contributions were indeed very small, nothing compared to the "big trees" who came before him. To me, he is truly a "connector" and a "pioneer" for spiritual and cultural values to be deeply rooted in society, as General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong himself emphasized at the National Cultural Conference to implement the Resolution of the 13th National Congress of the Party more than 2 years ago on November 24, 2021, that:Faced with new opportunities and challenges, the objective requirement of our country's revolutionary cause is to continue to build, preserve and develop an advanced Vietnamese culture imbued with national identity, which is truly a "spiritual foundation", "development driving force" and "lighting the way for the nation"...
