The Han Nom industry is always in my heart

USSH– Associate Professor Dr. Nguyen Van Thinh - former Head of the Han Nom Department - is a teacher who, while studying, working, and even after retirement, is always passionate and enthusiastic "to an excessive extent". His devotion to the field is recognized by all colleagues inside and outside the field and is remembered with gratitude by all generations of students. On the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the establishment of the Han Nom Department (1972-2012), we would like to introduce his feelings and memories about the field, about the fields that he "loved" and devoted himself to.Writing Reminiscences and feelings about the Han Nom industry, but my reminiscences flow endlessly in many directions, just like my work since retirement has never stopped. Perhaps because I have been attached to Han and Nom characters from too early. Although I did not follow the path of imperial examinations, my family has studied for many generations to have enough knowledge of words to cultivate the mind and character, know Hien-Ki, grasp the essence of Chinese medicine, read and understand the Compendium of Materia Medica, Thuong Han Luan or Nam Duoc Than Hieu, Hai Thuong Lan Ong Y Tong Tam Linh of our country's medicine with the aim of curing diseases and saving people. Throughout five generations of practicing medicine (counting from my grandfather, Physician Nguyen Van Mai, whose family temple has passed down the great name Nho y ke the, Xuan phong tai, donated by Noi ngoai truong mon sinh), I soon acquired a small amount of Chinese characters passed down by my maternal grandfather - Vice-Chairman Nguyen Duy Quang (of course, Vice-Chairman bought) and my young grandfather, Physician Nguyen Van Lan; My grandfather, physician Nguyen Van Mai, established his career in Kinh Mon district, Hai Duong province. My father studied Chinese characters, but in his time, Confucianism was in its final stages, and the national language attracted young people. He only encouraged me, but he did not help me directly because he was someone who knew what "learning the sea is like", how much did the words of the Saints and Sages know to dare to be a teacher. Later, I studied Chinese in high school, then university, at the faculty at that time the Chinese curriculum also included Sino-Vietnamese pronunciation. That helped me maintain the habit and passion for learning Chinese characters, reading according to Sino-Vietnamese pronunciation. During the years studying literature at the Faculty of Social Sciences (Lang Dormitory), we still studied Chinese characters taught by Mr. Tran Le Huu - father of Associate Professor Tran Le Sang, and only studied with Mr. Do Van Hi for a few sessions. I still remember many of the lessons he taught, but I don't remember which agency of the Ministry of Culture organized the class, it seems like the Museum Conservation Department. The formal training classes were the post-graduate Han Nom classes opened by the Vietnam Social Science Committee. I was really looking forward to this class, because I graduated in the middle of the anti-American war, in the middle of fierce years, but at that time I had a lot of time in the evacuation area. Once I heard vaguely that the class was about to open, I packed my bags and went to Hiep Hoa district, Bac Giang province, where the Han Nom Institute (Board?) was evacuated. But this class did not officially open until 1973 at Tran Xuan Soan, Hanoi. This class had teachers who were Confucian scholars such as Mr. Do Ngoc Toai, Mr. Tran Duy Von, Mr. Dao Phuong Binh, especially Mr. Le Thuoc, a great scholar of the Nguyen Dynasty, and famous professors from institutes and schools such as Professor Dao Duy Anh, Professor Cao Xuan Huy, Professor Truong Dinh Nguyen... Many professors from Hanoi University at that time also participated in teaching history and literature such as Professor Phan Huy Le, Professor Dinh Xuan Lam, Professor Tran Dinh Huou... After finishing the post-graduate Han Nom class (1973-1975) and returning to work as a lecturer at the Han Nom Department (1980), I have been retired for six years now, but I have been attached to teaching and researching at the School for decades, which can be considered a long time with students, with the School, with the Faculty and with life... Work is still busy, I can't rest even after retirement. But fortunately, the Han Nom major is a major that can be traveled, no matter how hard and tiring, one can always find the good, the beautiful, the inspiring, the spiritual in language and literature to be enthusiastic. Over the past few decades, or at least since the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the Han Nom major (15 years ago), the Han Nom major has been without teachers Tran Thuyet, Le Khanh Xoa, Dinh Trong Thanh (former Head of the Department), Nguyen Duy Chinh, in the Faculty of Literature, Associate Professor, People's Teacher Bui Duy Tan; teachers of the school and institute include Associate Professor Dang Duc Sieu, Dr. Hoang Van Lau... Regarding those respected teachers, it is time for us to organize a record of them. The Han Nom major first needs to respect the spirit and content of the words of the orthodox religion, drinking water and thinking of the origin, opening the foundation for learning. I also lived in the Department during the period of separation, addition, affirmation of existence or non-existence, how to exist, how… Many happy and sad stories, many challenges, not to the extent of stormy seas, but also clear enough, temperament, courage and love for the profession. I have written a number of stories related to the profession, but the scope of the article is limited, so I will try to cut out a few sketches to send to readers on the occasion of the Department's anniversary. Regarding calligraphy: In folklore, there is a proverb "Good literature and good writing", which is really a high requirement for students, an assessment of the ability of a Confucian scholar - ancient intellectuals were not only good at literature but also wrote correctly and beautifully. Only then could they hope to pass the imperial examinations, join the team of civil mandarins to govern the country. Calligraphy - the art of writing was born and developed based on the characteristics of the Chinese script itself - a type of block script, basically pictographic (in fact, justification is also a form of pictographic), based on the flexible diversity of strokes, character forms and the above requirements. There is also a folk saying: "First character, second painting, third ceramic, fourth wood", among these four types of art products, characters are ranked first, perhaps not only because of the rhyme of the language, there must be another reason, the art of calligraphy is a very special art of writing, expressed by very special strokes, the depth of the characters is its meaning; moreover, with a soft brush, with thick black ink, expressed on rough white paper, the writer must use a combination of hand movements, breath to regulate and adjust the power, energy and spiritual power. It can be said that the texts on the stele and inscriptions of the Ly Dynasty, the number remaining until now is not really much, but most of them show a level of Chinese calligraphy created, written and engraved by Vietnamese people reaching a high level of calligraphy art in the early period of the history of independent and autonomous Vietnamese culture. We can put that achievement in the overall picture of the history and achievements of Vietnamese calligraphy. From Ly to Tran, Ho, Le, Trinh, Mac, Tay Son and Nguyen, in addition to the stele texts, we can also find them in religious, historical, cultural relics, in horizontal lacquered boards and parallel sentences, and in the Han Nom literature archives... with a larger number of handwritten texts than printed texts, and a richer variety of writers. During the time teaching at the Han Nom Department, we also discussed calligraphy activities and the creation of ancient literary genres such as Han and Nom parallel sentences, but because of limited time, calligraphy teachers were also very rare. In which the concept of calligraphy and the creation of ancient literary genres is really obscure in the general concept of the Han Nom Department. That, also has the inevitable lead to or not being properly respected, so by our own way we have found a way to gradually bring calligraphy activities into the Han Nom Department. We started by inviting Mr. Le Xuan Hoa, a veteran calligrapher, to participate in teaching calligraphy in the sessions where we taught Han Nom during the Le Dynasty. The work was carried out at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities and Nguyen Du Writing School - where we were invited to teach. We spent a little time learning calligraphy and often did it at the beginning or end of the class. Fortunately, at this time, Mr. Le Xuan Hoa was still healthy and moved very quickly. He was very enthusiastic in the lectures, and the students were very lively. I can never forget the strong figure and silver hair of Mr. Hoa among this young class of Han Nom students. The lecture was a poem or a paragraph, I often gave it to him in advance to write on paper and then photocopy it to distribute to students. In class, he wrote on wind paper, photocopy paper and at the same time taught how to write strokes and characters. I really did not expect that calligraphy would be so attractive to students of Han Nom major and future writers. Mr. Hoa only did it for a few courses at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, while at Nguyen Du Writing School the duration was shorter. Later, I encouraged senior students to guide junior students, and good writers to guide new learners. Therefore, groups were gradually formed, sometimes even called classes, attracting students outside the major. There were many years of summer activities, Han Nom major students conducted Han Nom instruction for high school students in the suburbs of Hanoi organized by local high schools or the Children's Palace. We and representatives of the school attended the opening and closing ceremonies of the classes. There was a time when calligraphy activities were bustling with writing groups of courses 40, 41, 42... typically Master Nguyen Quang Thang (currently working at the Institute of Han Nom Studies), Nguyen Van Nguyen, Master Pham Van Anh (Institute of Literature), Nguyen Duc Dung then Nguyen Dat Thuc (Heritage Department), Dr. Tran Trong Duong, Dr. Nguyen To Lan, Master Pham Van Tuan, CN Nguyen Van Thanh... (Institute of Han Nom Studies). Students who stayed at the School to teach Han Nom were often people with good calligraphy skills such as Master Dinh Thanh Hieu, Dr. Nguyen Tuan Cuong. It can be said that these were people with "good writing skills". They wrote together and organized a number of calligraphy exhibitions and displays, with the theme of Respecting Teachers on Vietnamese Teachers' Day November 20, Tet - Spring, Welcoming the New School Year... The Han and Nom calligraphy manuscripts on wind paper were mounted on scrolls or written on colored paper and cardboard and placed in glass frames. Following that trend, many exhibitions were held at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, increasing the appeal of the Han Nom Department. Later, calligraphy activities went deeper to serve the study and promote the beauty of the Han Nom heritage, and at the same time, this activity also went beyond the framework of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, spreading to provinces with Han Nom cultural traditions such as Hai Duong, Hung Yen, Hue. Since the Han Nom Department combined with the Calligraphy Club of UNESCO Vietnam, the calligraphy activities of the Han Nom Department have received support from both the University of Social Sciences and Humanities and the UNESCO Association. The Department welcomed 2 calligraphy delegations from mainland China, each delegation had over 50 members, each with a few works to display at the University. Staff and students of the Han Nom Department and many other departments in the University had the opportunity to enjoy the calligraphy of many contemporary Chinese calligraphers; especially the Calligraphy Group led by calligrapher Duong Trung Tu, Vice President of the Beijing Calligraphy Association, belonging to the school of Tu Bei Hong, with more than 70 calligraphers from the capital Beijing, cities such as Shanghai, Shenzhen, provinces such as Guangdong, Guangxi, Inner Mongolia; in the group there was veteran calligrapher Trinh Kinh Dai, descendant of poet Trinh Ban Kieu. The group presented many calligraphy paintings to the National University (the Information Center - Library of the National University currently preserves these valuable calligraphy paintings). Calligraphy activities were also carried out well when the Department of Han Nom received investment attention from the National University, Hanoi and the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in the Han Nom Studies Development Project. During these two years, the Director of Hanoi National University, the late Professor and Academician Nguyen Van Dao, directly directed the project implementation in Hue city, which we identified as a typical Han Nom cultural area (except for some months when Hue was interrupted by heavy rain and floods, forcing the transfer of activities to Hai Duong - also one of the Han Nom cultural areas with the most scholars and Han Nom writers). With this project, the Han Nom Department was first equipped with rooms, facilities, machinery, and materials. Priority was given to Han Nom reference materials, including the Trung Hoa Van Hoa Thong Dien set of nearly 100 volumes, which is valuable for reference on many issues of national institutions, culture, education, and customs. Later, the Han Nom Department built a national-level project on the Protection and Exploitation of Hue Han Nom Culture. The project continued to implement calligraphy activities such as printing New Year greeting cards, composing parallel sentences on topics through calligraphy and literary composition to promote Han Nom knowledge, the beauty of Han Nom culture in the Industry and in the School. During the implementation of the project "Hue Han Nom Culture", together with the National Workshop on Preserving and Promoting Han Nom Heritage in Hue, we held an exhibition of rare Han Nom documents and calligraphy in Hue, and partially supported the funding for a number of works such as: Vo Cu by Dr. Nguyen Thuy Nga, the translation of the poetry collection of Emperor Minh Mang translated by Han Nom researcher Phan Thuan An, and the calligraphy collection written by Hue calligrapher Nguyen Phuoc Hai Trung. The project also brought 3 groups of students to Hue for graduation internship, 20 graduation theses, 6 Master's theses of the Han Nom Department to research Hue relics and Nguyen Dynasty documents... With all the activities and achievements of the Nom Department mentioned above, we have created conditions for calligraphy - a unique and attractive art form to attract society and pave the way for many of its Han Nom activities. In the calligraphy activities of the Han Nom Department, we cannot forget the cooperation activities between the University of Social Sciences and Humanities - UNESCO CALLIGRAPHY CLUB VIETNAM and the Taipei Traditional Calligraphy Association, chaired by Professor Phan Khanh Trung. The initiator of this cooperation was veteran calligrapher Le Xuan Hoa, the cooperation was implemented and maintained by the University of Social Sciences and Humanities. The cooperation programs over the years have done a lot of work related to fostering knowledge of calligraphy and enjoying calligraphy. Taiwan has sent delegations to visit and exchange calligraphy in Vietnam 4 times. Vietnam also sent a calligraphy delegation led by VNU to visit and study calligraphy in Taipei. During the four visits to Vietnam, the Tradition Calligraphy Delegation coordinated with the University of Social Sciences and Humanities - VNU to conduct an exchange between calligrapher Le Xuan Hoa and Professor Phan Khanh Trung at the Temple of Literature - Imperial Academy, and three times to conduct a calligraphy training program at the Temple of Literature - Imperial Academy and the University of Social Sciences and Humanities; the School's Board of Directors and the Taipei Calligraphy Association jointly issued certificates to students. The Tradition Calligraphy Association and the UNESCO Club jointly issued certificates to members of the Tradition Calligraphy Association whose works participated in exhibitions in Vietnam. In this section, there are a few highlights: - Associated with Han Nom script is Han Nom calligraphy - a special art of writing. It not only has cultural significance but also scientific significance because studying and translating classical literature also requires decoding the script, which is difficult to read such as: hanh, le, trien, especially thao; therefore, it is difficult to separate calligraphy operations in the process of recognizing scripts. - The calligraphy movement not only aroused love and inspiration for the art of writing at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, but also extended that spirit to the entire Han Nom industry. - That movement has created a number of good calligraphers, if further trained, they can become calligraphers. I am very happy that the Han Nom Department has included calligraphy in the official curriculum, which is an affirmation of the position of this subject in the system of subjects of the Han Nom Department. Regarding compositions in the ancient literary genre: In the Han Nom heritage, the literary heritage accounts for a large quantity, in literature training, Han Nom is also given priority. With the characteristic of literature being a product of figurative thinking, closely associated with the genre of medieval literature, in research, translation and teaching, we always pay attention to the parallel characteristics in these genres. We focus on familiarizing ourselves with parallel sentences because parallel sentences are the smallest unit for making parallel forms such as poetry, prose, funeral orations, etc. Of course, making these genres is difficult to set up in Han Nom training today, because the goal of studying Han Nom is mainly to research heritage and translation, only at a certain point, when Han Nom practitioners have to solve cultural problems such as composing parallel sentences, large characters for new relics, making inscriptions for newly cast bells, then that work becomes urgent. Who can do it instead of Han Nom scholars? On the other hand, when translating parallel literary genres, in order to convey the content and artistic quality, translators cannot help but pay attention to translating according to genre. To do that in the study of students as well as in the research of cadres, it is necessary to spend time to learn and practice the genre, first and foremost the parallel sentences. Perhaps one of the teachers in the early days of the Han Nom Department was Mr. Nguyen Dinh Thang. He paid great attention to teaching and collecting parallel sentences. In his Han Nom bookcase, I saw collections of collected parallel sentences, including parallel sentences from Catholic churches. I also often received parallel sentences to celebrate the spring, to give to friends, including sentences about human conduct. I remember at the 25th Anniversary of the establishment of the Han Nom Department 15 years ago, he wrote an essay about storing books and reading books, an essay with many parallel sentences. He also wrote a couple of parallel sentences in Chinese characters to display with many other parallel sentences. Many parallel sentences that the teacher gave me have marked the journey from the days of studying in the Literature class of Course 8 to the years of working together on the topic "Han Nom Culture in Hue", full of emotions and academics. For the Han Nom major, the period of composing parallel sentences and large characters for the four altars of Emperors Ly Thanh Tong, Ly Nhan Tong, Le Thanh Tong and Vice-Chancellor of the Imperial Academy Chu Van An at the back hall of the Thai Hoc Temple of Literature - Imperial Academy in Hanoi was a difficult task and brought many memories. The University of Social Sciences and Humanities was assigned by the Department of Culture, Hanoi People's Committee to carry out this work in less than a year to be in time for the 990th anniversary of Thang Long - Hanoi. The school established an executive board including administrative representatives, organizations, the Faculty of History, the Faculty of Literature, and representatives of the Han Nom Department. A plan was outlined to collect documents about the four famous people at the relics and documents; Send invitations to many agencies and individuals nationwide to participate in composing; organize seminars after receiving creative works sent from various places..., arrange a standing room for the secretariat to exchange and receive opinions... under the direct guidance of the Principal. An important step is to establish a Scientific Council to evaluate and select parallel sentences and large characters for each altar. The Council has invited members who are professors and associate professors of the two departments of Han Nom and Ancient Literature from the University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Hanoi Pedagogical University, University of Foreign Languages, Institute of Han Nom Studies, Institute of Literature. The selection was conducted at two levels: School level and City level, the selection method was based on the Council's discussion, analysis and then voting. As a result, out of 100 parallel sentences and nearly 100 large characters sent from various places, only 4 pairs of parallel sentences and 4 large characters were selected, of which 3 parallel sentences and 3 large characters were composed and established by the Han Nom Department. Before being engraved, the parallel sentences and large characters were exhibited for a period of time to collect comments from many interested scientists. Later, the Han Nom Department also participated in composing parallel sentences and large characters for relics in Hanoi and other provinces. Completing the above tasks is only the effort of each individual and each group. This needs to be realized in the training program of the Department in order to have a force, thereby having connections, maintaining long-term and creating cultural habits. In general, in the cause of national cultural revival and development, many historical, cultural and religious relics that have been restored, including newly built ones, all require a Han Nom script system, including the national language to write large characters, parallel sentences, steles, bells, etc.; meanwhile, the generations who are knowledgeable about Han Nom to do this work have gradually disappeared. Therefore, the Han Nom Industry, with a deep awareness of the necessity of Han Nom culture in modern life, needs to train people with the ability to undertake the above difficult work. In reality, spontaneous products of calligraphy and literary composition have appeared in relics in all regions. These new documents often contain many errors in Han Nom language and calligraphy, thus reducing the cultural value of the relics. This situation seems to have not been addressed by cultural managers, and there is no regulation for composition to be included in cultural and historical relics. I hope that the Department of Han Nom and the University of Social Sciences and Humanities will pay more attention to training the next generation and building up the force, in order to complete the cause of preserving and promoting Han Nom culture, for today and for the future.