Introducing the work "History and Culture of Vietnam - A Partial Approach"

In 1998, on the occasion of my 65th birthday, with the encouragement and support of friends, family and The Gioi Publishing House, I selected a number of scientific reports presented at domestic and international conferences, arranged them in a reasonable structure and published the book.Find the origintwo volumes. In 2007, the Education Publishing House kindly published a collection of my scientific theses with the titlePhan Huy Le – Vietnamese History and Culture – Partial Approach.

Prof. Dr. Phan Huy Le

This time, I have selected new articles after 1998, including reports in national and international conferences, published and unpublished, as well as excerpts from published books that I am the editor or co-author, and some chapters written by me that are relevant to the book's theme. All of these articles are arranged into the following chapters:

Chapter I: The comprehensive, all-encompassing multi-linearity of Vietnamese history

Chapter II: On the centers of civilization and ancient states in the territory of Vietnam

Chapter III: Historical turning point in the first half of the 10th century

Chapter IV: The transition from the late Tran to the early Le dynasty

Chapter V: Victory and defeat of Tay Son

Chapter VI: Some rural and urban issues

Chapter VII: Thang Long-Hanoi Citadel and the newly discovered Imperial Citadel relics

Chapter VIII: Some historical events and figures

Chapter IX: History, Vietnamese Studies, Oriental Studies

Cultural exchange with the world.

Professor, People's Teacher Phan Huy Le received the Ho Chi Minh Prize for Science and Technology/Photo: VTV.vn

Each published article and chapter is independent of itself or is part of the structure of another book, now separated and re-arranged according to a new topic and structure, of course there are inevitably some overlaps or inconsistencies, the length of the sections is due to the collection of individual articles, not in a proportional ratio. I have carefully re-read and with the help of my daughter, Dr. Phan Phuong Thao, tried to edit to minimize the above limitations, but it is difficult to avoid mistakes, I hope for the sympathy of readers.

Project "Vietnamese History and Culture - Partial Approach"

During more than half a century of researching and teaching Vietnamese history, mainly ancient and medieval Vietnamese history, I have always reminded myself and warned myself to try to keep my pen straight, to be conscious of collecting documents, expanding historical sources and appraising and processing them seriously to reconstruct objective and honest historical pages to the best of my ability. But the more I research and ponder, the more I see that between perceived history and objective history, or simply put, between written history and life history, a significant gap always exists before historians. There are many reasons, not counting those who intentionally distort history, it could be due to lack of documents, unscientific collection, appraisal and processing of documents, it could be due to limitations in professional qualifications and it could also be due to the impact of historical context that deviates the research direction or does not allow the full publication of historical truth. But whatever the reason, historians must respect historical truth and the function of history is to make tireless efforts, not only in the life of a historian but also through generations of historians, to gradually shorten the gap between perceived history and objectively existing history. Only on the basis of objectively and honestly perceived history can we make scientifically based analyses and assessments and draw lessons of high practical value. On the path of working and striving for the function and mission of historical science, the results of each historian's research and discovery are only bricks and stones paving the way towards historical truth.

I consider the articles in this book as some of my recent research results and perceptions as small contributions of a historian on the long journey of history with tireless efforts to gradually improve scientific awareness of the extremely rich and diverse history and culture of Vietnam created by the layers of residents and ethnic groups living on the territory of Vietnam through many arduous and very heroic ups and downs, always lasting with the country and the people.