Professor Dinh Gia Khanh was born on December 15, 1925, in a family of Confucian scholars in Ninh Binh, his father was a physician (Oriental medicine). He himself came from a background of law. In 1945, the August Revolution broke out, and at the age of eighteen or twenty, Dinh Gia Khanh dropped out of law school to join the revolution. He worked as a journalist, taught English to high school students, and then taught Vietnamese literature at a pedagogical college. In 1956, at the age of thirty, Dinh Gia Khanh became a university lecturer teaching medieval literature (then called ancient Vietnamese literature) and folk literature at Hanoi University - one of the first and most prestigious basic science universities in Vietnam. Along with many other scientists, he shouldered the responsibility of building the foundation of scientific disciplines as well as building the image and prestige of the first university-level training and research institution of the new regime.
Professor Dinh Gia Khanh is famous for his intelligence and erudition. What is special is that in the difficult circumstances of books and scientific information at that time, he "studied hard" with a rare spirit of perseverance and diligence, equipping himself with a "well-rounded" knowledge of languages, literature and culture. Although he was well-trained in English and French, he also learned Russian and Chinese and had a Han Nom knowledge that was among the experts at that time. That foundation helped him to delve deeply and have unique, creative insights that paved the way for his future professional fields. From the perspective of modern education, he is a shining example of the process of "turning the training process into self-training".
He is also famous for his careful attitude, his self-awareness of accuracy and seriousness in science, only writing and speaking about what he knows and knows “thoroughly”. Professor Dinh Gia Khanh’s character as a scientist is also shown in his awareness of not being satisfied with his existing knowledge but always trying to learn, worry, and strive to update himself with new, modern knowledge. Thanks to that, he has overcome the limitations of the times to become one of the typical scholars of the Vietnamese intellectual class – having both a solid and profound foundation in Eastern culture and national culture, and thoroughly absorbing the diverse and rich achievements of Western culture and literature.
People call him “The “dual” professor” because he is a leading expert in both medieval literature and Vietnamese folklore – something that few scientists have achieved in two different specialized fields…
To serve the training work at Hanoi University of Science, Professor Dinh Gia Khanh edited and wrote textbooks that until the early years of the 21st century are still irreplaceable monuments such as "Vietnamese folk literature”, “Vietnamese literature from the 10th century to the first half of the 18th century”. With the book “Vietnamese Literature 10th Century - First Half of 18th Century", for the first time, there is a literary history that systematically addresses the historical development of the Vietnamese medieval literature genre. Since its inception, the book has become a "handbook" for those who teach and learn Vietnamese medieval literature.
As a teacher and researcher, Professor Dinh Gia Khanh soon realized and valued the close relationship between teaching and research. His lectures contained a very high scientific content. The initial textbooks were only for students' study, but many of the issues in them have become condensed monographs such as "Collecting and researching folk literature in Vietnam”, “Brief history of Vietnamese folk literature”. On the contrary, his monographs initially also came from teaching needs like the monograph “Problems of fairy tales through the study of the story of Tam and Cam"Before publishing it as a book for the first time in 1968 (Literature Publishing House), he used the outline of that manuscript to teach the subject to fourth-year students of Literature - Hanoi University of Science. In this monograph, with a comprehensive vision and profound knowledge, Professor Dinh Gia Khanh raised a number of issues about fairy tales of great scientific significance: internationality and national character; the tradition of struggle, the tradition of morality and aesthetics of the nation; the origin, transmission, displacement, transformation and change of fairy tales. To this day, the work remains one of the pinnacles of the country's folk literature research.
Since 1983, Professor Dinh Gia Khanh was transferred to work at the Institute of Folklore Studies as the Institute Director and launched the Folklore Magazine as Editor-in-Chief. In his new position, he had more opportunities to research more deeply into Vietnamese literature and folklore and write "lifetime" works in this field.
“On the way to learn about folk culture" published in 1989 is considered the academic manifesto of the Institute in the early years of its establishment. In this work, Professor Dinh Gia Khanh presented theoretical issues, research history and elements of folk culture. The book is considered a work that achieves high generalization, raising issuestheory and methodologyfor this science, worthy of being the work that laid the foundation for the development of Vietnamese folklore. The book both summarizes the basic issues and opens up for further thinking about issues that the author has not had the opportunity to delve into or has not analyzed all of their subtle, specific aspects: is the composite nature an attribute of all genres of folk culture or not, how is its intensity expressed in the elements of folk culture? And scientifically, this is a book of normative, classic nature for folk culture at that time and long after.
Along with the monographOn the way to learn about folk culture, with articles published in the MagazineFolkloresuch as "The purpose and significance of studying folk culture and arts", "What is folklore?", "The position of folk visual arts in national culture and folklore", "The study of folk performing arts in the integral whole of folklore", "The social and political significance of studying folklore", "Folklore and modern society"..., Professor Dinh Gia Khanh is truly the one who laid the foundation for the study of folklore in our country.
“Vietnamese folk culture in the context of Southeast Asian culture” published in 1993 is a typical research work not only for the field of folklore but also for the field of regional studies and comparative culture. Here, readers identify Vietnamese folklore in the cultural space of Southeast Asia through the process of creation and cultural exchange and acculturation. Regarding the value of this book, as Associate Professor Phan Ngoc has assessed: “This is the first work to provide a view not only of folk culture but also of Vietnamese culture in general in the context of Southeast Asian culture. It helps people interested in Vietnamese culture and Southeast Asian culture to see the common basis as a premise for research on each cultural phenomenon in this region and in each country. This is especially useful for those who are used to seeing culture statically and narrowly. It provides readers with a new, broader and, therefore, deeper approach…”.
“Vietnamese folk culture with the development of Vietnamese society" is another work of research on folk culture in a chronological direction. The author delves into the meaning and effects of folk culture "for finding methods to promote social development, contributing to preserving and promoting the cultural identity of the Vietnamese people.”. The pages he wrote about villages, village conventions, village festivals, and indigenous beliefs are not completely new issues, but are presented clearly with flexible, evidence-based, and convincing analysis.
Professor Dinh Gia Khanh also has many contributions in the field of translation and research of Han Nom authors and works such as:Viet Dien U Linh, Linh Nam Chich Quai, Thien Nam Ngu Luc, Lam Tuyen Ky Ngo, Poetry and Literature of Nguyen Binh Khiem, in-depth studies of words and meanings in The Tale of Kieu...
Another outstanding scientific work with a clear personal mark of Professor Dinh Gia Khanh is the organization of the compilation of the series "Anthology of Vietnamese Literature” (literary section written from the 10th century to 1945) consists of 42 volumes. He was the one who had the initiative and idea to initiate this massive literary book series, the largest book series in the history of compilation and publishing in Vietnam from the past to the present. Holding the responsibility of Chairman of the Editorial Board, Professor Dinh Gia Khanh gathered a group of hundreds of scientists, translators, and researchers to compile, select, and summarize ten centuries of literature with tens of thousands of pages of writing, hundreds of authors into more than 40 volumes. This is a highly scientific and elaborate book series that was conducted over 20 years, starting in 1978 and ending in 1998.
Professor Dinh Gia Khanh was also the first person to propose and organize the basic investigation of folk culture in localities and organize the compilation of the Folk Culture Geographical Records of provinces and districts. As the Director of the Institute of Folk Culture, he organized the collection and compilation of the "Folk Culture Geographical Records of Nghe Tinh", published in 1995, was the co-editor of the book "Folk Culture Geographical Records of Thang Long - Dong Do - Hanoi" published in 1991, and was the author and editor of the book "Cultural Regions of Vietnam" published in 1995.
In the field of literature and folklore research, Professor Dinh Gia Khanh is not only the one who builds and summarizes theoretical viewpoints and directly conducts the above research projects, but is also the one who founded the research organization, established the press agency, built and trained the research staff, oriented and built the system of topics.
With nearly 30 years (1956-1983) as Head of the Department of Vietnamese Folk - Classical - Modern Literature at the Faculty of Literature, Hanoi University of Science, Professor Dinh Gia Khanh proved himself to be a manager with a strategic vision in building the department. He considered the department an academic unit, not an administrative unit. Therefore, he focused on writing textbooks, building a system of specialized documents and training young staff. He organized and managed science not by orders or imposition, but with the vision and heart of a pedagogical and erudite scientist.
As the Director of the Institute of Folk Culture Studies (1983-1987 term) and the founder of the Folk Culture Journal, Professor Dinh Gia Khanh not only had works of a methodological nature in researching new fields of study but also paid great attention to building generations of highly qualified researchers with a passion for science, thereby gradually building the scientific reputation of the Institute. In addition, he held the position of General Secretary of the Vietnam Folk Arts Association (from 1982 to the end of 1984); was a member of the UNESCO Advisory Committee for Southeast Asian Cultural Studies and a member of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Literature and Arts Association (from 1984).
With his outstanding contributions in training and scientific research, Professor Dinh Gia Khanh was awarded the title of professor quite early in 1980; was awarded the First Class Labor Medal by the President and was awarded the first Ho Chi Minh Prize for Science and Technology in 1996.
Professor, People's Teacher, Labor Hero Vu Khieu - a contemporary friend - once wrote a pair of parallel sentences for Professor Dinh Gia Khanh: "Collecting the quintessence of thousands of books - Passing on to disciples from all over the world". With all his valuable contributions to the national culture, Dinh Gia Khanh deserves to be a cultural figure with many great contributions, contributing to the awareness of Vietnamese culture and Vietnamese people.
Author:Thanh Ha
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