Discoveries about the first-ranked Doctor Phan Thuc Truc

(Baonghean.vn) Phan Thuc Truc's original name was Phan Duong Hao, nickname Cam Dinh, born in 1808 in Phu Ninh village, Van Tu commune (now Khanh Thanh commune), Yen Thanh district, Nghe An province, in a family of Confucian scholars. In the Dinh Mui examination year (1847), he passed the Dinh Nguyen Tham Hoa exam (passed the exam with the title of Tham Hoa). In 1848, he was appointed by King Tu Duc to the Cabinet (ie the King's Secretariat), and later was appointed to the position of Kinh Dien Khoi Cu Tru (an official position always at the king's side).

In 1851, King Tu Duc sent him to Bac Ha to find old books that were left. In 1852, after completing his mission, on the way back to Hue, he fell seriously ill and died suddenly. King Tu Duc was very sad and mourned him with the four words "Highly educated, pure and virtuous". Although he only lived to be 44 years old, he left behind many valuable works such as: Quoc su di bien (history), Dong Thanh huyen thong chi (geography), Cam Dinh thi tap (poetry), Cam Dinh van tap (literature)...

In mid-May 2011, more than 20 scientists from Hanoi visited and burned incense in front of the church and mausoleum of Phan Thuc Truc, and interacted with officials and people of Khanh Thanh commune. The next day, in Vinh city, the Nghe An Folk Arts Association in collaboration with the Phan family in Khanh Thanh organized a scientific seminar to evaluate the life and career of Phan Thuc Truc.

Speaking at the conference, Associate Professor Ninh Viet Giao - Chairman of Nghe An Folk Literature and Arts Association emphasized: "The content of the works of Phan Thuc Truc, some domestic and foreign books and newspapers have introduced but only scratched the surface, not going into the deep content, rich mood in the works of the master. All of his works are still a "wild forest", full of valuable potential.

More than 40 scientific reports were sent to the organizing committee. Scientists spoke, debated, and evaluated the cultural celebrity Phan Thuc Truc enthusiastically. We would like to summarize some of the following opinions:

About the National History Di Bien

- Phan Thuc Truc, the third-ranked scholar, is an outstanding talent. First of all, he is a great scholar and also a learned historian. The representative work Quoc su di bien is considered a "tin su" (a reliable history), supplementing many important events and helping a lot in researching and referencing the history of the Nguyen Dynasty in the first half of the 19th century (Associate Professor - Doctor Vu Duy Men - Institute of History) - Quoc su di bien by Phan Thuc Truc is worthy of being an important history for scholars to read and look up when learning about the early period of the Nguyen Dynasty... In the work Quoc su di bien, there are many events, characters, and phenomena that Phan described in a detailed and truthful manner (Dr. Nguyen Huu Tam - Institute of History).

- National History Di Bien has not only historical value but also literary value. The author has captured the images of a number of vivid characters that literary researchers can exploit (Professor Nguyen Hue Chi - Institute of Literature).

About the Cam Dinh Poetry Collection

- In the past, when talking about Phan Thuc Truc, people often thought of his reputation as a historian and rarely thought of him as a talented poet. But recently, thanks to the careful research, publication and exploitation of his literary heritage, the image of a poet with an important position in the history of national literature has been increasingly revealed (Dr. Nguyen Thanh Tung - Faculty of Literature, Hanoi National University of Education).

- He died early at the age of 44, but left behind a considerable literary career. The publication of Cam Dinh Thi Tap was a meaningful event, not only for the Phan Thuc family in Yen Thanh but also an important event, contributing to enriching the multifaceted picture of Vietnamese medieval literature in general, and the picture of Nguyen Dynasty literature in particular (Dr. Dinh Tri Dung - Faculty of Literature - Vinh University).

- The first time I looked into the gate of Cam Dinh Thi Tap - even though it was just a poetry anthology - I caught a glimpse of a colorful and fragrant flower garden. What caught my eye and attracted me right away was a cluster of flowers, or more precisely, poems mourning for his wife by the great scholar Phan Thuc Truc (Professor Nguyen Dinh Chu - Hanoi National University of Education).

- Cam Dinh Poetry Collection is not only a manifestation of an open poetic soul, a noble heart of a poet, but also a great lesson for us in today's turbulent life (Nguyen Thanh Tung - Nghe An Folk Literature and Arts Association).

About the Cam Dinh literary collection

- The stele inscriptions recorded in the Kim Thach Di Van Tap were collected by Cam Dinh Phan Thuc Truc when he was on a business trip to the Northern and Central regions. This further proves that Phan Thuc Truc actually went to the North to collect documents to write history. The documents he copied were quite reliable, the content of the documents was diverse and rich, and had a certain value in researching Phan Thuc Truc's writing career as well as other historical events and famous people he mentioned (Associate Professor, Dr. Dinh Khac Thuan - Institute of Han Nom).

- Along with Quoc su di bien, Cam Dinh van tap and Dien Chau Dong Thanh district thong chi, Tran Le ngoai truyen are valuable historical documents supplementing the country's history and literature (Dr. Nguyen Thi Oanh - Institute of Han Nom).

On the journey to find old books among the people (1851-1852)

- With the responsibility of carrying out the king's assigned task of finding precious books among the people, he deserved to be the pioneer in collecting books and building the jade platform "Tang Thu Lau" for the Hue royal court and for the Vietnamese Library industry (Dao Tam Tinh - Director of Nghe An Library).

General assessment

- It was not until after his death until today that posterity admired Phan Thuc Truc's talent and noble character. During his lifetime, many of his colleagues praised him. Doctor Truong Quoc Dung (1797-1864) considered him a pure apricot blossom: Bach hoa dau thuong nhat chi mai (a branch of apricot blossom is above a hundred flowers). Doctor Do Tong Quai (1804-1863) admired him as a talented person, who passed the Royal examination: Nhat giap chan tai huu Tham hoa (A talented person who passed the first class also won the title of Tham hoa) (Associate Professor, Doctor Nguyen Minh Tuong - Institute of History).

- With his contributions to the national culture, Phan Thuc Truc deserves to be called an outstanding Han Nom writer of the Nguyen Dynasty, his life and career will forever be honored by posterity (Associate Professor - Doctor Trinh Khac Manh - Director of the Han Nom Institute).

- A solid name in both fields: literature and academia, as a poet with Cam Dinh Thi Tap and as a historian in Quoc Su Di Bien. Both, up to today, have been collected, translated, researched, introduced and published in full thanks to experts at the Han Nom Institute with the cooperation of the family and clan (Professor Phong Le - former Director of the Vietnam Literature Institute).

The works that the master left for the world and the country are truly rich, profound and valuable. From 1852 until now, 159 years have passed, and most of those works have been "sleeping soundly" in the forest of books in Hue Library, Far East Archaeological Library in Hanoi, Saigon, Hong Kong Library, Taiwan, Paris, Han-Nom Library, family libraries... Suddenly, by some chance, in 2009, the Institute of History translated and published the National History Di Bien. Seeing that there was no Chinese version, at the Institute of Han-Nom, Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thi Oanh organized a re-translation and introduced it more clearly and completely. This time, there were careful annotations from the translation team and a part printed in full Chinese. Associate Professor, Dr. Nguyen Thi Oanh also translated the master's Chinese poems, which were later edited by Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Thi Bang Thanh, but only the Cam Dinh Thi Tap was available, and the Cam Dinh Complete Works will be published in the near future!

PBH