Vinh Tuy - memories that are not so distant…

(Baonghean) - My village, Vinh Tuy village - a charming piece of land in Vinh Thanh commune (Yen Thanh district). According to Mr. Dao Luong Thien, a respected scholar in the village, the name Vinh Tuy means "a firm support." He said: Imagine the village as a giant; its left hand, the "green dragon," rests on Thap hill, its right hand, the "white tiger," rests on Dot hill, its eyes look towards the "peacock," Dong Tho mountain, its back leans against the "black tortoise," Vinh Tuy cliff, and before it lies the vast Roc Cua lake. It is a place that possesses all the advantages of feng shui: mountains meeting and water converging.

Upon arriving in Vinh Tuy, the first thing everyone wants to see is Vinh Hill, located north of the village, like a wall protecting against the northeast monsoon winds. Bui Duong Lich's book "Nghe An Ky" calls the mountain "Ky Son" (because it resembles a flag). Legend says that initially the hill was called "Hung Son" (Bung Hill), but after a scholar passed by and found the word "Hung" not very auspicious, he changed it to Van Son (Van Mountain), a mountain that embodies the four mythical creatures: dragon, lion, turtle, and phoenix, with many caves. To the east of the village is Van Son Temple, a beautiful place. Sadly, after the land reform until the 1990s, nearly half of the hill was destroyed. During an excavation in 1961, the Nghe An Department of Culture discovered stone axes, bronze artifacts, ancient pottery fragments, and a very large fossilized human skull. In the following years, the Vietnam Institute of Archaeology expanded its search area and found a large number of ancient stone artifacts, in a fairly dense concentration, on the top of Ru Muou hill, located east of Vinh Tuy village.

A view of Vinh Tuy village. Photo: Duc Chuyen

Perhaps in ancient times, Vinh village was also a place where Han Dynasty Taoist priests practiced their faith. Ancient coin jars dating back to the Three Kingdoms period, and even to the reigns of Chinese emperors, are found in abundance in Vinh Tuy, along with folk tales about fairies, women wearing flat hats, white pigs, and golden cows.

According to historical records, the village may have begun to form in the early Tran Dynasty. The village was once very bustling, with silkworm farming and weaving. When I grew up, silkworm farming was no longer practiced, but honey production flourished. The whole village cultivated sugarcane, lush and green; during the cold season, the sugarcane was piled high in mounds, transported by ox carts and winnowing carts, then stripped clean and pulled by people working in the honey-pulling machines. The honey-pulling machines were huge logs, carved with interlocking serrated edges, and pulled in a circular motion by the strength of two buffaloes. People threaded the sugarcane into the machines, pressed it to extract the juice, and the sugarcane pulp piled up, emitting a fragrant aroma. In the evening, the fire blazed brightly, and the whole village gathered to cook the honey. When it was cooked, it was bottled, jars, and pots. The children scraped the remaining thick honey from the pans, and eating it was enough to fill them up. After the honey-pulling, came the tobacco season. The village cultivated vast fields of tobacco. During harvest season, even the smallest households had a few bundles of tobacco, while larger ones had entire yards and gates covered in drying leaves. The villagers hired workers to cut the tobacco, cook it into a paste, inject it to increase the binding and smoothness of the tobacco strands, dry it in the dew and sun, form it into cakes, and put it in jars. Near Tet (Lunar New Year), they would take it to the mountains to sell. Sometimes, just selling a few jars of tobacco was enough to build a large house! Then came the betel nut harvest season. Betel nut trees were planted all over the village, providing cool shade. When the season arrived, they would pick the betel nuts, split them, dry them in the sun and dew until the nuts were dry and crispy, then put them in jars, sealed with banana leaves, and only sell them when the price was right. In their free time, the elderly and the younger generation would take up the craft of weaving baskets, sieves, and other winnowing trays. To create beautiful designs, the villagers would even invite artisans from other places to live with them, mainly to learn their skills. A prominent example among them was artisan Tran Khac Nhoan (1890 - 1984), from Phu Huu village (Nhan Thanh commune), a place famous for its weaving craft, and highly respected by the villagers.

On moonlit nights, the villagers would gather around Rộc Cửa to enjoy the breeze, admire the moon, and tell folk tales. Perhaps few villages at that time had as many talented storytellers as my village. Anh Đỗ, Anh Lễ, and Anh Tuất were among the best storytellers, but the most outstanding were the tales of Mr. Truyền Triện – a master of humor and charm. After laughing at the stories, they would turn to reciting poems by Mrs. Cát and the late Cuổn, two famous "folk poets" of the village. If the late Cuổn was lyrical: "Our village is truly bustling / With a virtuous woman, a dragon has just been bestowed / Looking up, one sees the shadow of a dragon / Clouds cover two rows of turtles on all sides / In the evening, in the middle of Vĩnh Tuy land / Inside the temple, outside the well, elephants kneel on one side / Thanks to the grace of the late high official / Peace and prosperity will last for a thousand years"; then Mrs. Cát was satirical: "Having turned the chopsticks of the kitchen / United lips and spoons / But cheeks are separated / Eat well and win"...

But most impressive of all are the drum performances on moonlit nights! The overall director of the opera is veteran Tran Xuan Linh, who is credited with reviving village opera, and is both the director and choreographer.

Over a decade later, one afternoon while I was dozing off, a segment of a traditional Vietnamese opera, performed by People's Artist Dam Lien, unexpectedly played from my neighbor's transistor radio. It woke me up; "My husband... the waves crash against the Tung Gate/ The land and water are our meaning, our love..." The song tore at my heart, tears streamed down my face. I remembered Mr. Tran Xuan Linh, before he passed away, his deep concern that the opera troupe was truly "dead," dead because of the dark side of the market economy, because of the chaos of the world. Almost all the talented actors of the village from those days had left; Who would revive the village opera? Or would it simply be a thing of the past?... Then I suddenly felt afraid, afraid that the villagers and future generations would no longer know how to tell stories, sing folk songs, and forget the art of opera... But perhaps that cultural source will not be lost, because my village is a village of studious people, a village of "teachers" (to speak without permission), with a large number of teachers from kindergarten to university level; On November 20th, Tet holiday, my village was filled with students returning to fulfill their duty of "respecting their teachers"; famous figures from the past such as Mr. Cu, Mr. Han, Mr. Tong, and later teachers like Mr. Duan, Mr. Phiệt, Mr. Lien, Mr. Tran The, and in later generations, Mr. Tran Long, Mr. Dao Luong Thien, Mr. Tran Tat Cang, Mr. Tran Tieu... including Dr. Dao Hieu (Mining and Geology University), Dao Khang (Associate Professor, PhD, former Head of the Geography Department, Vinh University); Associate Professor, PhD Tran Viet (Water Resources University)...

...In short, it's a village of teachers, a village with many people working in journalism, poetry, literature, and painting; so many artists, yet the village still lives peacefully; perhaps that's why the village also has many things that are difficult to do elsewhere: such as pioneering the writing of the village history and the history of the secondary school; gathering the village's poetry and literature; restoring and renovating temples, pagodas, and shrines; the Co Da Temple and Vinh Tuy Pagoda (Van Son Tu) are two important spiritual projects built mainly with donated money... It seems that in every era, the people of Vinh Tuy have always been more prominent than others: During the agricultural collectivization movement in North Vietnam in the 1960s, Vinh Tuy and Vinh Thanh stood out brilliantly, having welcomed President Ho Chi Minh on December 10, 1961, when he visited the Vinh Tuy kindergarten, went to Mrs. May's house, and praised exemplary individuals...

Then, between 1972 and 1982, the Nghe An Department of Education also took land from Con Ram, where Vinh Thanh Secondary School was located, and developed it into a model village of Bac Ly - Cam Binh in Nghe An province, so that later the village produced a series of PhDs, associate professors, engineers, doctors, artists, etc.

I fondly remember the scent of molasses, the aroma of green tea, the stories of folk tales, the smell of betel nuts, and the moonlit nights spent by the pond, filled with laughter and the sounds of theatrical drums. Oh, Vinh Tuy – a “steadfast pillar” for generations of people to rely on; Vinh Tuy, an ancient village – a “village connecting villages across our Vietnam!”

Tran Ngoc Khanh

(Vinh Thanh Secondary School - Yen Thanh District)