The article by Professor Phan Huy Le (printed in “100 portraits of a century of National University” – 2006) introduces the portrait of Professor Dao Duy Anh – one of the people who contributed to the construction of modern social sciences and humanities in Vietnam.
A brief biography of Professor Dao Duy Anh
Professor Dao Duy Anh was born on April 25, 1904 in Thanh Hoa and died on April 1, 1988 in Hanoi. His hometown is Khuc Thuy village, Ta Thanh Oai commune, Thanh Oai district, Ha Dong province (now Thanh Oai district, Hanoi). He has made many contributions and dedications in the field of social sciences and humanities, from Language, Dictionary, Culture, Literature to History, Ethnology, Sociology, Historical Geography, Textology... He participated in training many generations of students at the University of Literature. 1945 - 1946: Teaching at Hanoi University of Literature. From 1954 - 1956: Professor at Hanoi Pedagogical University and Hanoi University of Literature. From 1956 - 1958: Professor at Hanoi University of Science, Head of the Department of Ancient and Medieval History of Vietnam. In 1958, Professor Dao Duy Anh transferred to the Ministry of Education, then in 1960 transferred to the Institute of History. In 2000, Professor Dao Duy Anh was posthumously awarded the Ho Chi Minh Prize by the Party and State.
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The first time I met Professor Dao Duy Anh was in 1952, after I graduated from Phan Dinh Phung High School (Ha Tinh) and went to Thanh Hoa to study at the University Preparatory School. Before that, I only knew the name of the scholar Dao through the "French-Vietnamese Dictionary" and "Chinese-Vietnamese Dictionary". I will never forget the lectures of Professor Dao on Vietnamese history at night in the communal house yard or in the yard of private houses in Cau Ke and Du Market (Tho Xuan, Thanh Hoa). To avoid enemy planes, we studied at night, each with a small folding table and a homemade kerosene lamp made from an ink bottle with a cover that provided just enough light to take notes. Professor Dao sat on a high chair, without a lamp, slowly lecturing from his memory. The students looked up and could not see his face, but could only hear his voice through his steady but concise and profound lectures. In 1954, I went to Hanoi to continue my second year of History and Geography at the Pedagogical University. In 1956, after graduating, I was retained as an assistant at the Department of Ancient Vietnamese History, headed by Professor Dao Duy Anh (at that time, it was commonly called
Ancient History Group) as Group Leader. I had the honor to study with him and work under his guidance until he transferred to the Ministry of Education (1958) and then the Institute of History (1960). That was the first step when I entered the profession of teaching and writing History, where the role of the teacher was extremely important in guiding science and shaping the style for a lifetime of science.
Dao Duy Anh was born on April 25, 1904 in Thanh Hoa and died on April 1, 1988 in Hanoi. The Dao family was originally from Khuc Thuy village, Ta Thanh Oai commune, Thanh Oai district, Ha Dong province (now Thanh Oai district, Ha Tay province). Since his grandfather's generation, he moved to Thanh Hoa (Trung Chinh commune, Nong Cong district). After graduating from Hue National School (1923), he did not want to be a civil servant under the colonial government and chose the noble profession of teaching, teaching at Dong Hoi Primary School (Quang Binh). At that time, the patriotic movement was rising vigorously with the sound of the Sa Dien bomb (Guangzhou, China) by Pham Hong Thai in 1924, the movement to demand "amnesty" for Phan Boi Chau in 1925, Phan Chu Trinh's funeral in 1926, and progressive journalism and publishing activities in big cities, which attracted the mind of the young intellectual Dao Duy Anh. At the end of 1925, he was present at the Quang Tri Dong Hoi meeting to welcome Phan Boi Chau on his way from Hanoi to Hue. In 1926, he resigned from his teaching position, went to Da Nang and intended to go to Saigon to live in cultural and political centers to "escape the prison", "find a place with high sky and wide sea" to have the conditions to "expand knowledge" and come into contact with patriotic activities. From then on, he devoted himself to political and cultural activities. On the way to Da Nang, he stopped by Hue to visit Phan Boi Chau who was being held under house arrest at Pho Quang Pagoda (later moved to a house on Ben Ngu slope), went to Quang Nam to meet Mr. Huynh Thuc Khang who was the President of the Central Vietnam House of Representatives. He helped Mr. Huynh found the newspaper
People's voice, held the position of Editorial Secretary. In late summer 1926, he joined the Vietnam Revolutionary Party, later changed its name to Tan Viet Revolutionary Party (July 1928) and he became the Party's General Secretary. Also in 1928, he founded Quan Hai Tung Thu, with the collaboration of progressive intellectuals such as Vo Liem Son, Tran Dinh Nam, Phan Dang Luu... publishing popular books to familiarize readers with scientific thought and historical materialism. During its short existence until July 1927, this Publishing House published 13 publications, in which Dao Duy Anh compiled or translated the books "
History of economic theories", "
Women in action", "
Human history", "
What is religion?", "
What is society?", "
What is ethnicity?". Those were the first works of scholar Dao with the goal of spreading Marxism and progressive scientific thought, contributing to the political and cultural struggle movement at that time. He took the nickname
Guardian StoneHe compared himself to a Tinh Ve bird, vowing to spend his life holding rocks to fill the vast ocean of knowledge. In July 1929, Dao Duy Anh was arrested by the colonial government and was not released from prison until early 1930. From then on, he realized that "
"not having enough talent and courage to take on the difficult and arduous work assigned by the revolution" and "choosing the path of cultural activities that contribute to restoring the vitality of the nation that was being eclipsed under colonial rule". In terms of ideology, he also has a clear orientation: "
I determined for myself that I must try to bring the light of Marxism to exploit the cultural capital of the nation and choose the good things to contribute to the cultural reform of the country.The first field of science and culture that Dao Duy Anh was interested in was
LexicographyHe completed and published two dictionaries: "
Chinese - Vietnamese dictionary" (1932), "
French - Vietnamese dictionary" (1936). These are not only very necessary tool books for research, meeting the requirements of cultural and scientific development at that time, but also through words and political concepts, the author intended to include progressive and scientific explanations according to the Marxist perspective and modern ideological trends. Dao Duy Anh is a lexicographer who laid the foundation for modern Vietnamese lexicography. Since 1938, he has moved to the field of culture and literature. The published research works are "
Vietnamese cultural history outline" (1938), "
Confucian criticism of minor laws"
(1938), "
Chinese History Outline" (1942), "
Essay on Kim Van Kieu" (1943). Work "
"Outline of Vietnamese Cultural History"by Dao Duy Anh and his work "
Annam civilization"
(La Civilization Annamite, 1944) by Nguyen Van Huyen are scientific works that laid the foundation for the formation of modern Vietnamese cultural studies based on the spirit of science and nationality. The scientific field that Dao Duy Anh devoted the most effort to was
History. This scientific orientation was determined by him right after being released from prison in 1930 and he prepared very carefully. He thought "
We must concentrate on studying history because only with a complete understanding of national history can we filter out which are traditional elements and which are foreign elements." and "
After getting out of prison, I decided to concentrate on studying history.". He also realized that the necessary luggage to enter this field of science was a broad knowledge base of world history, Eastern and Western history and many related fields of social sciences such as Philosophy, Economics, Ethnology, Sociology, etc., especially historical methodology and historical documents. From Bao Dai Library, the Library of the Society for the Study of Ancient Capital (Société des Amis du Vieux Hue) in Hue, Long Cuong Library of the Cao family in Thinh My (Dien Chau, Nghe An) and many private libraries, he hired to copy and buy many valuable books, building for himself a fairly rich Han Nom bookcase including many books of Vietnam and China. He spent a lot of time traveling to the noble families and clans from Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Ha Tinh to Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh to collect historical documents. In 1938, he went to Hanoi to meet Nguyen Van To and the Tri Tan group to prepare for publishing the "
Historical Library"and the set "
"Literary Library", but work had to stop because of World War II. In historical methodology, he studied the book "
"Introduction to History"(Introduction aux Études Historiques) by Charles Seignobos belongs to the school of positivism and refers to research experiences expressed through valuable scientific works of French, Chinese, Japanese scholars, especially works written from the Marxist perspective of Chinese scholars such as Guo Moruo, Lu Zhenwu... He especially values the appraisal of historical materials and in this aspect, he tries to apply the achievements of the teaching method of the Han Dynasty economists, the research method of the Ming and Qing Dynasties combined with the modern textual method of the West. On that basis, he began his historical career by translating and annotating.
Miscellaneous Notes on Border Defenseof Le Quy Don and researched ancient Vietnamese history from prehistoric times, ethnic origins to Dong Son culture, resistance against Qin, Au Lac country... After the August Revolution in 1945, Professor Dao Duy Anh was invited to teach History at Hanoi University of Literature, along with other universities and colleges opening on November 15, 1945. He was a member of the National Cultural Congress Campaign Committee (1946). During the resistance war against France, he worked in the Literary and Artistic Association of Inter-Zone IV. In 1950, he was invited to Viet Bac to be the Head of the History - Geography Department of the Department of Literature and Art, Ministry of Education. In 1952, he returned to Thanh Hoa to teach at the University Preparatory School. In 1954, after peace was restored, he returned to Hanoi to teach at the Pedagogical University and the University of Literature. In 1956, Hanoi University was established, he was appointed as Head of the Department of Ancient Vietnamese History, taking care of training and scientific research. The time working at the Faculty of History, Hanoi University until 1958, was only more than 2 years. But this was the time when Professor Dao Duy Anh focused all his efforts on the field of History and achieved the highest efficiency. With the materials accumulated over many years, along with his reflections and some manuscripts prepared during the years of resistance, now having the conditions to supplement, update information and refer to related scientific works of foreign countries, he conducted many very basic research topics on Vietnamese history, especially on ancient and medieval history such as the issue of historical divergence, ethnic origin, the issue of slavery, feudalism, the formation of the Vietnamese nation... Professor Dao Duy Anh completed the old draft and published two sets of textbooks: "
History of Vietnam"
(1956) and "
Ancient Vietnamese History" (1956). Soon after, he added and rewrote it as "
Ancient History of Vietnam" (1957) includes 4 volumes: "
Origin of the Vietnamese people", "
The issue of An Duong Vuong and the Au Lac state", "
Bronze culture and bronze drums of Lac Viet"
,"
Transitional period to feudalism". In the years 1957 - 1958, he continued to publish"
The formation of the Vietnamese nation" (1957) and rewrite "
History of Vietnam from origin to 19th century"
(2 volumes, 1958). It is rare to see an expert complete and publish so many scientific works in such a short period of two years. During these two years, Prof. Dao Duy Anh also made great efforts to build a long-term database for the History Department and Hanoi University of Science. He purchased valuable Chinese books, hired people to copy Vietnamese historical books and Han Nom documents, collected foreign sources of documents written about Vietnam, and planned to translate necessary documents for students to refer to. Besides the Department of Ancient and Medieval Vietnamese History, there was a translation team consisting of senior Sinologists and a Cartography team. Also during these two years, Prof. Dao Duy Anh participated in training 3 courses of students of the Faculty of History, Hanoi Pedagogical University and Hanoi University of Science (1954 - 1958), the first generations of historians of the independent Vietnamese university system, many of whom became professors, associate professors and played an important role in the development of the country's modern history. In 1958, Professor Dao Duy Anh transferred to the Ministry of Education, then in 1960 transferred to the Institute of History. From here, he stopped teaching at the university and focused on a field suitable for the new working conditions while still continuously contributing to the country's academic foundation. According to the assignment of the Institute of History, he edited and annotated many valuable books that were translated into Vietnamese such as "
Chronicle of the Dynasties"
,"
Dai Nam Thuc Luc"
,"
Miscellaneous Notes on Border Defense", "
Complete Annals of Dai Viet", "
Dai Nam Nhat Thong Chi"
,"
The Essentials of Military Strategy and Tiger Camp", "
Gia Dinh citadel information", "
Nguyen Trai Complete Works"
Also during this time and after his retirement (1965), he compiled a number of works such as "
Vietnam through the ages" (1964), "
Dictionary of Kieu story" (finished in 1965, published in 1974), "
Nom script, origin, structure and development" (1975), translated and annotated "
Lock the hex" (1974), "
Department of" (1974), "
Fairy Flower Story" (1978), "
Nguyen Du's Chinese Poetry" (1988), "
Book of Poetry"
(unpublished), "
Tao Te Ching and Lao Tzu's Doctrine" (unpublished). At the end of his life, he wrote a memoir"
Remember this afternoon"
(Completed in 1974, published in 1989). On the long journey from 1928 until his death, Professor Dao Duy Anh left behind a huge legacy with many works in many fields from Dictionaries, Languages, Cultures, Literature to History, Archeology, Texts, Ethnology, Historical Geography. He was an erudite scholar with encyclopedic knowledge of social sciences and humanities, with a tireless spirit of scientific work expressing a passion, a great ambition and an extraordinary determination. Above all, he was a great historian, a great culturalist with pioneering research works that laid the foundation for the formation of modern Vietnamese history and cultural studies. In 2000, Professor Dao Duy Anh was posthumously awarded the Ho Chi Minh Prize for two works "
Ancient History of Vietnam"and "
History of Vietnam from its origin to the 19th century". Prof. Dao Duy Anh was present at the Faculty of Letters since its establishment (in 1945), and then at the University Preparatory School in Thanh Hoa (from 1952) and the Faculty of Letters, Hanoi Pedagogical University and Hanoi University of Science (from 1954 to 1958). He was one of the professors who contributed to the establishment of the Faculty of Letters, that is, the modern social sciences and humanities of the School and the country. Writing this concluding line, before my eyes appeared the image of the beloved teacher in the last years of his life with his silver hair, white beard, high forehead and intelligent, kind face imprinted with a life of diligent scientific work with many hardships. The mark and example of Prof. Dao Duy Anh forever left in the minds of generations of students and historians the spirit of self-study, self-research, the enthusiasm for accumulating knowledge and constantly supplementing and updating, the awareness of searching and discovering in academia. Talking about his career, we cannot fail to mention Mrs. Tran Thi Nhu Man, his life partner and also his devoted secretary who collaborated and helped him very effectively in completing his scientific works.
