Society

Mathematician...love the Tale of Kieu

Tien Dong • March 1, 2025 12:45

Although he is a mathematician, Dr. Nguyen Huy Viet has an endless passion for Truyen Kieu. To him, mathematics is the precision of reason, and Truyen Kieu is the vibration of the soul - two seemingly different worlds that complement each other in a miraculous way.

Study Math but love Kieu

On the first day of the new year of At Ty 2025, deep in a coffee shop nestled in the heart of Vinh city, I had the opportunity to meet Dr. of Mathematics Nguyen Huy Viet, on the occasion of his return to his hometown to celebrate the traditional New Year with his family. Although he has settled in the Czech Republic for many years, his passion for national culture is always flowing in him. Notably, not only is he a talented mathematician, but he also has a deep passion for the Tale of Kieu.

Over a cup of hot coffee, in a space filled with the scent of my hometown, I sat listening to him passionately talk about mathematics and literature. It seemed like two strange worlds but they intersected magically in the soul of a person. And behind the dry numbers was a heart heavy with national culture, with each verse of Kieu.

Born in 1948 in Hung Tan commune (now Thong Tan commune) - a land rich in tradition of mandarin examinations in Hung Nguyen district, from a young age Nguyen Huy Viet had his father read Kieu verses to him, which created in him a deep love for this literary masterpiece.

Although he was passionate about the Tale of Kieu since childhood, Dr. Nguyen Huy Viet's educational path during his youth had nothing to do with that work. During his years studying at the village school, he was selected to join the specialized Math class of Nghe An (from 1965-1966). After winning the second prize in the North's Math competition, he was admitted to the special Math class at Hanoi University to continue his studies for 2 years (1966-1968). In 1968, he also won the third prize in the North's Math competition.

After graduating from high school, from 1968 to 1974, he went to study abroad at Minsk University (former Soviet Union) and graduated with an excellent degree. Notably, he was a rare person who, during the 5 years of studying here, passed 25 national exams with points, he achieved the maximum score (5 points). In 1975, he returned to Vietnam and worked at the Vietnam Institute of Mathematics.

In 1982, Dr. Nguyen Huy Viet was sent to the Soviet Union for a 3-month internship and was then retained as a graduate student at Lomonosov University, one of the leading universities in the Soviet Union (now Moscow State University - Russian Federation). In 1985, he successfully defended his doctoral thesis and continued to return to Vietnam to work at the Vietnam Institute of Mathematics.

From 1988 to 1990, Dr. Nguyen Huy Viet joined a group of educational experts working in Algeria. During his time away from home, the verses of Kieu that his father read to him as a child became his close "friends", helping him ease his homesickness. When night fell, in the silence of a foreign land, he searched his memory, reciting each verse of Kieu as if to hold on to a bit of his hometown soul. And just like that, each verse of poetry permeated his mind, and he knew Kieu by heart without even realizing it...

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When we grow up, mature and experience life, we can understand the verses of Kieu more deeply. If when we were young, we only felt the Tale of Kieu through its rhymes and plot, then when we have experienced all the ups and downs of life, we will feel each word as if it touches our very soul...

Dr. Nguyen Huy Viet

Using Math to Study the Tale of Kieu

For Dr. Nguyen Huy Viet, at first his passion for The Tale of Kieu was simply a sympathy for the pain, the realities of life, the desire for freedom and the helplessness before the fate of the characters. But gradually he became more and more passionate about researching The Tale of Kieu, considering this work not only a literary masterpiece but also a mirror reflecting the human soul through each stage of life, a unique treasure of language and culture.

In particular, in 2019, during a trip back to Vietnam, he happened to participate in the "Readers of Kieu" Contest organized by the Vietnam Kieu Studies Association on the occasion of the 255th anniversary of the birth (1765-2020) and the 200th anniversary of the death (1820-2020) of the great poet Nguyen Du. Although this contest gathered more than 60 contestants nationwide to participate in a period of 18 months, with 4 rounds in 4 provinces and cities across the country, Dr. Nguyen Huy Viet won the "Special Excellence" prize.

At this contest, he not only memorized the Tale of Kieu so well that he could read it forward and backward skillfully, but also answered many of the judges' difficult questions correctly. He also knew in detail the verses that had different versions in different printed versions. He was also the one who discovered that the Tale of Kieu had a verse "Giac Duyen heard and was shocked", repeated twice.

Most notably, he found a list of more than 500 Kieu monologues (a monologue that Nguyen Du only used once) and memorized them. To the point that if someone read out a word, he could immediately read out a pair of six-eight verses containing that corresponding word in the Tale of Kieu.

The passion for Truyen Kieu has also prompted Dr. Nguyen Huy Viet to spend time researching and discovering special things about this masterpiece. Also in 2020, his book of more than 300 pages "70 new records discovered in Truyen Kieu and some statistics" was published by Thanh Nien Publishing House. The book is a synthesis of interesting discoveries, contributing to enriching the research treasure of the works of the great poet Nguyen Du. This book later won the Special Prize at the Good Book Contest on Nguyen Du and Truyen Kieu in the period 2011-2022.

In "70 new records discovered in Truyen Kieu and some statistics", Dr. Nguyen Huy Viet not only immersed himself in Truyen Kieu as a literature lover, but also approached this masterpiece with the mindset of a mathematician. He used the matrix theory of modern mathematics to research and exploit the content and artistic value of Truyen Kieu.

The unique point of the book lies in the fact that he applied matrix theory to research, analyze, and make statistics, thereby discovering new records in Truyen Kieu. He established the "Kieu's six-eight matrix" to find special verses in terms of linguistics, such as the three six-eight verses 1151, 2005, 2109 containing the fewest consonants with only 5 consonants per verse, or the three six-eight verses 27, 1401, 2809 possessing a record number of consonants of up to 19 consonants per verse...

In addition to “70 newly discovered records”, his book also has interesting contents such as “Luc bat Kieu Dong Soi”, “The Numbers 2 Associated with Kieu’s Life”, “Prime Numbers and The Tale of Kieu”, “Luc bat Kieu Dong Sized” and hundreds of questions and riddles about this work. In addition, he also devoted many pages to expressing his opinions about the characters in The Tale of Kieu and sharing memories with people who share the same passion.

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Euclid had a theorem about prime numbers around 300 years BC, so it cannot be affirmed that Nguyen Du, a learned man living in the 18th-19th century, did not know anything about prime numbers. So who knows, maybe Nguyen Du chose to write exactly 1,627 pairs of six-eight verses as a prime number so that Truyen Kieu would become "indivisible"...

Dr. Nguyen Huy Viet

With the unique combination of mathematics and literature, Dr. Nguyen Huy Viet not only sheds light on many special aspects of The Tale of Kieu, but also brings a new perspective, proving that numbers and verses can completely go together, complement and enrich each other's value.

Not only is he a researcher of Truyen Kieu, Dr. Nguyen Huy Viet has also made significant contributions to the dissemination and preservation of the cultural value of this work. Although he is currently residing abroad, he has become a core member of the Nghe An Kieu Studies Association. Whenever he has the opportunity, he participates in seminars and workshops on Truyen Kieu, sharing his discoveries and knowledge with the literature-loving community. His articles and research works are not only highly appreciated by the academic community, contributing many new perspectives on Truyen Kieu, but also inspiring many generations who love this work.

In the conversation with Dr. Nguyen Huy Viet, I suddenly thought that Mathematics and The Tale of Kieu seemed to be in two different worlds, but they blended naturally in him. Whether he was wandering in a foreign land or returning to his homeland, he still lived with his passion for The Tale of Kieu. And perhaps, to him, each verse of The Tale of Kieu was not only poetry, but also a breath, a memory, a beat of a heart always turning to its origin...