Sharing with "Folklore of Lien Tri village"
(Baonghean)I was fortunate to have Mr. Phan Ba Ham, a folk culture researcher, let me come into contact with the work "Folk Culture of Lien Tri Village", Labor Publishing House, in 2011, when the authors were "conceiving" to build an outline to collect documents and write the manuscript.
When I learned that Mr. Phan Ba Ham and Mr. Nguyen Tam Can compiled this book, I was very happy because with his extensive knowledge after many years of collaborating with Associate Professor Ninh Viet Giao to compile books on fairy tales, folk songs, folk games, culinary culture... of Nghe An, after continuously receiving two Ho Xuan Huong awards for the books "Literary feelings and discussions" (encouragement prize) "Folklore writers of Nghe An" (Category C), now joining hands with teacher Nguyen Tam Can, a diligent collector who has written dozens of articles about Lien Tri village, Phan Ba Ham has chosen a topic that he is passionate about.
Bach Ma Temple of Lien Tri village. Photo: Ho Cac.
Choosing the folk culture theme of a village, Lien Tri village (Lien Thanh commune, Yen Thanh), an ancient village with many historical and cultural vestiges of thousands of years, Phan Ba Ham and Nguyen Tam Can have combined the general and the particular, the macro and the micro. Since the Ly dynasty, when Ly Nhat Quang came to reclaim Chau Dien, he stopped at this land. This is also the place where the people rose up to fight under the flag of General Nguyen Vinh Loc against the invasion of the Ming Dynasty in the Lam Son uprising. This is also the place where the Van Than and Can Vuong uprisings against the French stood. This is also a studious homeland, the hometown of two bachelors, 28 students - bachelors, one of the two villages with the most successful people in Tong Van Tu. This is the hometown of many modern intellectuals, including three poets: Phan Van Tu, Nguyen The Ky, Dang Hong Thiep, whose poems have become songs that have lasted through the years such as "the bridge connecting the happy shores", "the lotus ponds of the village still have the fragrance forever".
Because of their passion for science and love for their homeland, the two men traveled to libraries, to relics, to meet witnesses... using their small pensions to buy train and bus tickets to go here and there to collect documents. Wherever they knew there were documents, they went. Sometimes, to learn about a historical figure, they had to go to the place where that person was imprisoned to learn in detail. When they encountered Han Nom documents, they had to rely on Confucian scholars in the district and province to translate them. If they didn't have money to pay, they would buy some gifts to reward the translators. When they had gathered almost enough documents, they diligently sifted through the sand to find gold to compile them for several years. After completing the manuscript, the two authors sent it to the Nghe An Folk Arts Association and the Vietnam Folk Arts Association, then anxiously waited. A few months later, I received a dispatch from the President of the Vietnam Folklore Association informing me that the work "Folklore of Lien Tri Village" was evaluated as one of the high-quality academic works of national caliber and was printed by the association to send to major libraries across the country.
The two authors were paid royalties for more than 50 books to use as gifts for their hometown and friends. When the books arrived in Yen Thanh, they were personally given to me by the two authors. I read them in one sitting and found them to be a precious book. The book is 300 pages thick, bound in a formal hard cover, with two main parts: Lien Tri land and people, Lien Tri village folk culture and an appendix with some works written about Lien Tri village. The cultural documents are presented in a systematic and relatively accurate manner, demonstrating the academic ability and high sense of responsibility of the authors. Together with the volumes "Dien Chau Phu Chi" by Phan Thuc Truc, "Thanh Khe Xa Chi" by Dr. Tran Dinh Phong and some books that have won high prizes in recent years, this book is a quality scientific work. However, it should also be added that if the authors had chosen to add more stories of a ghostly nature, spiritual legends surrounding the relics of Bach Ma temple, Lien Tri communal house, Bau Chem, Vu Giang river wharf... including happy and sad stories of the collectivization period, it would have been more interesting.
Writing about the folk culture of Lien Tri village also requires selecting a few works by authors who are children of the village but represent an entire cultural region. It is not by chance that in the stories of people from the countryside who went to the city during the opening period, Nghe An people in Hanoi and other cities often joke about an anecdote of an old farmer: "My house is near the Lien Tri cotton tree". It is known that after "Folk Culture of Lien Tri village", the two authors have just completed two books "Trang Son village rich in cultural traditions", "The soul of Phu Ninh village". Congratulations to Phan Ba Ham, who has passed the age of 75 and is still lucid, following the path that the founder of Dinh Nguyen Tham Hoa Phan Thuc Truc chose. Congratulations to teacher Nguyen Tam Can, who is at the peak of his career, continuing to cooperate with Phan Ba Ham to compile new works for the homeland and country.
Ngo Hien Anh
