Pham Dan Que - a respected Kieu scholar

(Baonghean.vn) - If we say that a literary or artistic work is an “encoding”, then reading, appraising, and interpreting the work is a “decoding”. The more valuable the work is, the higher the level of “encoding”, the more complicated and at the same time extremely interesting the “decoding”.

The work Truyen Kieu by the great poet Nguyen Du is a typical example. Truyen Kieu has a long history of reading and studying by many generations at home and abroad. Poet Luu Trong Lu was right when he wrote in the book Walking among the pages of Kieu (1995): “Truyen Kieu is an endless thing. Yesterday, it belonged to Pham Quy Thich, to Chu Manh Trinh... “Thousands of willows tremble with ripples of love”. Today, it belongs to us. Tomorrow, it belongs to you. And forever, it belongs to mothers, sisters, and children. Truyen Kieu will reconnect the values ​​of youth”.

Pham Dan Que

Works of Mr. Pham Dan Que

Among those who are passionate about Kieu, who have worked hard to approach Nguyen Du and his masterpiece, The Tale of Kieu, with more than 40 years and dozens of published books, readers must reserve an honorable place for Kieu scholar Pham Dan Que.

Originally a math teacher, in 2013, Pham Dan Que turned 74 years old. Since the 90s of the last century, this author has paid attention to learning about Kieu culture, gradually discovering the unique things of the Tale of Kieu. So in 1991, he published his first two books: The Tale of Kieu compared and Commentary on Kieu, Kieu's verses, Kieu divination. The collection of Kieu, Kieu's quotes, Kieu riddles and many anecdotes about the Tale of Kieu were compiled and published in books in 1994 and 2000. In the direction of comparative literature research, he also has the Tale of Kieu and Kim Van Kieu story (2000) which helps readers clearly see the genius of Mr. Nguyen, from a Chinese plot he created a masterpiece in the national six-eight verse form.

Studying the history of the reception of the Tale of Kieu is also very interesting, because the reception of a literary work always bears the mark of the times and the subjective creativity of the appraiser. The two books The Tale of Kieu and the 19th century Confucian scholars (1994), The Tale of Kieu in the 20th century newspapers (2004), compiled by Pham Dan Que in the same direction, were published exactly 10 years apart. Reflecting the unique features of the Tale of Kieu, he also has two more books: The Tale of Kieu read backwards and The Tale of Kieu after the Tale of Kieu, both published in 2002. The art of the Tale of Kieu, everyone acknowledges as extremely unique, Pham Dan Que continues to delve into this complex, delicate field through 3 books: Understanding the allusions of the Tale of Kieu (2000), On the artistic techniques in the literature of the Tale of Kieu (2002), and The world of the characters of the Tale of Kieu (2005). In 2005, at the request of the Vietnam Records Center VIETBOOKS, the book The Tale of Kieu and the records was published. These two books published in 2005 are considered a great effort by Kieu scholar Pham Dan Que on the occasion of the 240th anniversary of Nguyen Du's birth, which is also the 200th anniversary of the Tale of Kieu...

Great news for all those who love Nguyen Du and the Tale of Kieu: At the end of 2013, the General Assembly of UNESCO voted to honor 93 celebrities, including Nguyen Du. And at the 37th session, November 2013, UNESCO officially recognized Nguyen Du as a cultural figure of humanity! Perhaps, to prepare for this event that has been longed for for many years, in the third quarter of 2013, Kieu scholar Pham Dan Que published another book, the book Poem on Kieu and the unique way of writing reversible poetry. Previously, after the publication of the poem “Kieu Nuong Cua Phat” by Pham Dan Que, there was an opinion that there could be up to 1464 different ways of reading it, all of which have meaning. In the book just published by the Education Publishing House, Pham Dan Que increased the number of ways of reading it to 1728 ways according to different criteria. All are ancient poems, of which at least 23 are in the seven-word eight-line form, following the rules of Tang poetry.

In Vietnamese medieval literature, Truyen Kieu and Nguyen Du are the favorites of writer Dang Thai Mai (1902-1984). Through valuable articles about Truyen Kieu in 1955 and 1965, Dang Thai Mai assessed Nguyen Du as the greatest classical poet of our country, Truyen Kieu is the most glorious success, the greatest masterpiece of ancient Vietnamese literature. Because of the infinite content, ideology, philosophy, art and scope of influence of Truyen Kieu, collecting, understanding and researching both Nguyen Du and Truyen Kieu is an infinite work of successive generations based on existing achievements.

Here, alongside other scholars, Kieu scholar Pham Dan Que has set milestones that have been recognized by many readers. Many of his works on the Tale of Kieu, as some mentioned above, have been continuously published, reprinted, and supplemented by central and local publishing houses to meet the reading needs of many audiences... However, he is still not satisfied with himself. Responding to the Dai Doan Ket newspaper (online newspaper, July 27, 2009), Pham Dan Que confided: "15 consecutive years of writing 15 books on the Tale of Kieu, also corresponds to 15 years of Kieu's wandering. But thinking back, I am still not satisfied with my works because it is difficult to research all aspects of the Tale of Kieu."

When the reading culture in our country is alarming and deteriorating, I think that his series of works on the Tale of Kieu is a successful phenomenon. He achieved 3 records up to 2013: The author with the most books written about the Tale of Kieu; the author with the most research books on Kieu culture; and finally, the author who found the most ways to read the poem "Kieu Nuong Cua Phat". Indeed, Pham Dan Que deserves to be honored like that!

Nguyen Van Hung