I miss those field trips!

In early 1985, I left the Nghe-Tinh Provincial Party Committee's History Research Board and, because my wife was sick and my children were hungry, I had to transfer to work in Yen Thanh District. Upon my return, I was fortunate to be assigned to collect documents to prepare for writing a history book of the district. In addition, I was also responsible for advising on cultural and artistic work, so I had the opportunity to meet many writers and journalists.

At that time, Yen Thanh district was coordinating with the Nghe - Tinh provincial Literature and Arts Association to build a collection of poems and literature called "On Phan Dang Luu's homeland". I was assigned to guide Tran Huu Thung, Hong Nhu, Phan Van Tu, Canh Nguyen, Nguyen Quoc Anh, Phan The Phiet... to famous landscapes and typical agricultural areas to penetrate reality.

.The district party committee and the district committee reserved two cars to take the delegation on a three- or four-day field trip, going to the base during the day and staying at the district guest house at night to write. During that working trip, when returning to the bases, in every locality, I saw that Mr. Tran Huu Thung was familiar with the local roads and had a deep understanding of each village and each region. At the end of the writing week, most of the writers, poets, and musicians had new compositions about Yen Thanh. Mr. Tran Huu Thung alone had a seven-page memoir "The Old Land of Ours Today" that was very interesting to read and could not be mistaken for anyone else.

After that period, I suggested to the district leaders to invite Mr. Tran Huu Thung and Mr. Le Quoc An to collaborate in helping the district to inventory, describe, and learn about the remaining historical relics in the villages and translate some Chinese documents such as village geography books, steles, genealogies, large characters, parallel sentences... For a new cadre in the industry, having just read a few ancient historical documents written about Yen Thanh, whose Chinese characters were still zero, meeting the poet Tran Huu Thung and Mr. Le Quoc An, two archives, two scholars of the homeland, was like finding gold.

So began the trips to the villages. Far away places were taken by car, the district bus took them there and back, near places were taken by bicycle. At that time, no one in the district had a motorbike. Mr. Thung was still strong, so he cycled around. Following Mr. Thung's suggestion, the first place we went to was Ke Sung village, whose Chinese name was Quy Lang village, Lang Thanh commune, as a trip back to the source. Ke Sung village is an ancient village located at the foot of Bo Bo mountain range, where the places and historical relics mark the first land chosen by the Northern rulers as the seat of Chau Dien, that was the first year of Trinh Quan under the Tang Dynasty, which is 627 according to the Vietnamese calendar, more than 1,300 years ago today.

Ho Hung Dat, the founder of the Ho dynasty, also came here to build a provincial capital to govern a large border area. Then, in the years 664 - 676, Cao Bien, often called Cao Vuong, came here and left legends on the peaks of Dong Huyet and Gam mountain. Coming to Quy Lang, Mr. Thung and Mr. Nguyen Xuan Phau took us to the lim forest, where in 1967, writers and poets from Nghe An held a conference to establish the Nghe An Literature and Arts Association. Mr. Thung also mentioned the location of several rows of seats reserved for Central delegates such as writer Bui Hien, poet Xuan Quynh and other guests.

In Quy Lang, we met many elders and artisans of Quy Lang Cheo village, and recorded many interesting stories about an ancient village typical of the Yen Thanh rice countryside. During the day, we went to Sung Communal House, Thai Thi Liet Temple to read parallel sentences and stele inscriptions, or went to the hamlets to meet the elders. At night, we gathered at Nguyen Xuan Phau's house to talk all night long. Just the story of Quy Lang village was already bustling.

It seems that the land and people of Quy Lang have accumulated many cultural and historical sediments, customs, and personality traits of the Nghe people. No one knows since when, but people here have passed down many stories about Quy Lang people being "so frugal that they are stingy", about Quy Lang girls being famous for being the most beautiful in the region but also mischievous...

In Quy Lang village for a few days, we went to Truc Ha village to visit the tomb of the first-ranked scholar Bach Lieu, saw the tomb of the founder of the entire Nghe An province in a beautiful location, with his head resting on Hon Vong, his feet stretched out towards the East Sea, but saw that the tomb was still simple, "a mound of dirt on the side of the road", Mr. Thung said: "Right now, we are still worried about potatoes and rice grains, we do not have the conditions to renovate it, but when we have the conditions, we will fix it into a place for visitors from all over the country". Entering the house of the patriarch of the Bach family, we saw the royal decree and the tablet of the first-ranked scholar Bach Lieu placed on the rice tray, heard the patriarch say: "The Bach family here is very poor, there are only six households..." Mr. Thung said: "Every branch head is poor".

From the tomb of the first-ranked scholar Bach Lieu to Yen Ma village, Mr. Thung led us to burn incense for the scholar Tran Dinh Phong. The tomb of the old scholar was at the beginning of Yen Ma village, with a doctoral stele, a lotus pond, and many ancient trees. In 1932, when digging a river through here, the engineers at that time, including Mr. Xu-pha-novong, measured far away from the scholar's tomb, so when digging the river, they did not disturb the graves of their ancestors. But in 1976, digging the Vach Bac canal, they aimed right through the middle of the tomb, so they had to dig it up on the hill behind the village. Mr. Thung mentioned: "The digging of the Vach Bac canal, causing the collapse of the Hiep Hoa culvert and the death of more than a hundred young people, was a great crime, but destroying the scholar's tomb was an even greater crime."

One thing I still remember is that when our group was visiting the ruins of the mausoleum of the mandarin, when we heard that the poet Tran Huu Thung had returned, a group of Yen Ma villagers came out to see the poet. In that large group, there was Mr. Tran Dinh Cu, the mandarin's great-grandson, who insisted on inviting us to visit the mandarin's garden. On the way, we followed Mr. Cu to Yen Ma village. The mandarin's garden was quite large, located on the hillside, and had been divided into three or four families since the land reform period. Mr. Cu treated us to a meal of boiled sweet potatoes and green tea.

He told the story of the old mandarin leaving behind a collection of Chinese books that filled five rooms of the house. At the end of 1954, the reform group came to stay here. It was so cold that they burned the books for a month. The captains said that they were burning all the feudal landlords' remains, so they burned and destroyed everything. My mother stole a copy of "Thanh Khe Xa Chi", and now her children and grandchildren have asked to send it to the district as a document. Hearing Uncle Cu say this, Thung's eyes welled up with tears. That day, when we left the old mandarin's house, we left quietly, no one said a word to anyone...

Just leisurely going from village to village, I collected more materials. There were also times when I picked up some funny folk songs that old farmers read to us, we laughed so hard our stomachs hurt. Thinking it was just for fun, Mr. Thung told me: "Remember to write it down in your notebook, it's pure gold. Our farmers in the past had a very hard life, only by being funny, humorous, and telling lies could we withstand storms, hunger and hardship...". Then he read the folk song out loud: At times like that, I saw Mr. Thung's eyes squinting and smiling mischievously.

Once, passing through Xuan Dao village, Phu Thanh commune, he read the sentence "Eat Thu Phu, f...Xuan Dao", then he explained: Thu Phu village, Dien Thai commune, Thu Phu people eat well, work well. Thu Phu people eat more than a kilo of rice at a time but dig the ground as much as three or four other villagers. Xuan Dao people heard that "that group" is very strong, has the custom of early marriage, giving birth to many children. Girls at 13/14 years old are married. Also thanks to giving birth to many children, especially boys, during the Can Vuong movement, Xuan Dao village established a team of young men named Xuan Nghia Hoi, commanded by Mr. Vuong Thuc, who joined Nguyen Xuan On's army. In the past, our country fought strongly with Hoan Dien soldiers, and Hoan Dien soldiers were mostly farmers' children.

Going on field trips with Mr. Thung, we saw that he was simple and honest, so we indulged him, taking care of each cup of good wine and each bowl of bitter tea. He went to help the district for months, and when he returned to repair his mother's house in Dien Minh, the district officials wanted to pay him a little money and give him a ton of lime, but he refused. I followed him back to Dien Minh, secretly giving the money to Mr. Nguyen Trung Phong, the author of the play "The Girl of the Lam River" who was the foreman of the house repair, and asked Mr. Phong to give it to Ms. Phuong, Mr. Thung's wife.

After a few days at home, he came back again. He said that he could not rest at home without finishing his work. That was Mr. Thung's personality, whatever he helped someone with, he would do it day and night, doing it thoroughly, but not everything went smoothly. One time, I arranged for Mr. Thung to translate documents at the house of the seniors of the Hoa Thanh commune. At that time, it was the 6th Congress, the Party advocated renovation but the commune was still poor, the people were still hungry, there were no shops, visitors to the commune had to arrange meals in advance before they could eat. That day, I went to the commune first and arranged to cook at Mr. Phan The Phiet's house. We made an appointment to work with the commune at 8am, but we waited until after 12pm and still did not see Mr. Thung and Mr. Phau come down, so we saved some food for them and ate first so that the commune people could work in the afternoon.

After dinner, I waited for a long time, until 4 pm when I saw Mr. Thung and the others slowly cycling down. Mr. Thung whispered: "We had an appointment to work at 8 am, but we passed by the District Cultural House, Nhat Tan invited us in to give us some feedback on the new song about the Dinh River, there was a bottle of good wine, the musicians and singers just arrived here. It took us all day to get here, two kilometers, please understand. Let's do it at night." I had to smile, what could I do? Phan The Phiet told me: "That's the real Tran Huu Thung...".

Field trips with Mr. Thung helped me understand more about the land and people of Yen Thanh. Combined with the documents I had collected several times, in 1989 I finished writing the book History of Yen Thanh District. On the day the history book was printed, the district invited Mr. Tran Huu Thung, Nguyen Xuan Phau, Canh Nguyen, Phan Van Tu, Le Quoc An... to attend the book launch party. Mr. Thung was given a white cloth by the secretary...

Now, late winter 2010, the country is prospering thanks to innovation, remembering Mr. Tran Huu Thung, the poet, the Art scholar who has become an "old man", now I rewrite the story of history, looking back at his photo I see him squinting and smiling.
Dai Lai Creative Camp, 2010.

N.D.T