Associate Professor Tran Dinh Huou - the man who "came to modernity from tradition"

Researcher Lai Nguyen An, who played a key role in the publication of the book, was a student of the 9th cohort of the Faculty of Literature, Hanoi University. He recounted: Of the many subjects he studied in his fourth year (1967), he was most interested in the Confucian and Taoist thought presented by Professor Huou. With his serious study habits, he took 130 pages of his 13x19 cm notebook to record the professor's lectures in shorthand. As time passed, by the 1980s, he gradually became aware of Professor Huou's new academic ideas, such as the assertion that the entirety of medieval Vietnamese literature could not be considered from a theoretical realist perspective, or his assessment of Vietnamese literature in the first thirty years of the 20th century as a process of literary system transformation, from the pre-modern to the modern literary system, from a genre system consisting of poetry, prose, and rhymes to a genre system including modern poetry, drama, novels, and criticism... He began to actively participate in academic activities where Professor Huou gave presentations. After his death, he realized even more that there were many things he should have asked Professor Huou but hadn't had the opportunity to. And he suddenly remembered Professor Huou's lecture notes from the winter of 1967 in a remote lecture hall in the evacuation area of ​​Dai Tu, Thai Nguyen. In the 1990s, some books based on students' notes also appeared, such as...Chinese Sociological History(Social Sciences Publishing House, 1994)ButLectures by Professor Dang Thai Mai for the 1965-1968 Chinese Studies class, bookHistory of thought before Mars(Social Sciences Publishing House, 1995) lecture notes by Professor Tran Duc Thao from 1956-57. The way he compiled those books inspired him to work on Tran Dinh Huou's lecture notes more than twenty years ago. He found all six cassette tapes recording lectures on Confucianism and Confucianism in Vietnam at the Institute of Culture and Arts, 1991, and combined them with the notes of critic Nguyen Hoa - who directly attended those lectures. Thus, the work was born.

Associate Professor Tran Dinh Huou (1926-1995)

The influence of professors on students' academic thought manifests itself in many different forms. However, Professor Tran Dinh Huou's influence on students like Lai Nguyen An and Nguyen Hoa took a rather rare form: his academic ideas and viewpoints, over time, have been re-evaluated with increasing depth. His lectures, decades later, have been meticulously compiled into books by his students. Such cases are rare in academia and in university practice in Vietnam today. This event acknowledges Professor Tran Dinh Huou's significant influence on many generations of students and across a wide academic sphere. Researcher Lai Nguyen An, a former student, naturally calls him "teacher," and critic Nguyen Hoa, who didn't formally study his subjects at university but only attended his lectures at the Institute of Culture and Arts, also addresses him as "teacher." The combination of teacher and scientist in him is a harmonious and seamless blend.

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Professor Tran Dinh Huou's research and teaching career was diverse, demonstrating the erudition and intellect of a true scientist. After his death, the Education Publishing House printed his works.Tran Dinh Huou AnthologyIt consists of two volumes, each containing nearly a thousand pages printed in 16x24 cm format. Volume 1 is dedicated to studies of philosophy and the history of thought, while Volume 2 is for studies of literature.

His scientific career began with the study of the history of Eastern philosophical thought, and he then used this perspective to analyze Vietnamese literature in the pre-modern and modern periods. He made significant contributions to the fields of history of thought and philosophy, as well as literature. Many dissertations and articles have been written researching his scientific legacy, and further in-depth studies are needed to uncover the profound layers of scientific thought within this legacy.

What are the lessons learned from Professor Tran Dinh Huou's career? We want to discuss lessons that may be useful for the younger generation of lecturers and researchers currently continuing their research and teaching careers at the Faculty of Literature, University of Social Sciences and Humanities.

Currently, we are actively adopting many theories and research methods from around the world, especially from the West, in researching and solving problems in Vietnam. The current generation of young researchers has favorable conditions to receive many Western theories. This is very healthy. Throughout his life, Professor Huou also adopted theories and methods from abroad. We know that Professor Huou was deeply influenced by his work.West and EastThe work of Academician NI Conrad is very famous. It is a comparative study of Western and Eastern culture, philosophy, and literature, addressing extremely important issues such as the Renaissance in Western and Eastern culture, the existence of realism in Eastern literature, and the historical conceptions of ancient Eastern and Western historians… But Professor Hượu, despite his admiration for Conrad, chose to stand firm on the reality of Vietnam to solve Vietnamese problems; general theories from foreign practices were only for reference. For example, during the romantic revolutionary period, many people called for the eradication of Confucian remnants in Vietnam with the simple idea that it was necessary to sweep away old philosophical and moral ideas to pave the way for the complete triumph of socialist ideology.

Tran Dinh Huou argued that this was a naive way of thinking that did not accurately reflect the reality of Vietnam: “Confucianism was born and existed in close connection with an economic, political, and social mechanism, the most concentrated manifestation of which was the autocratic Eastern state. That mechanism chose Confucianism, on the one hand, outlining the path of development, and on the other hand, creating a way of life. Conditioned within it, people were not only forced to adapt but also chose Confucianism themselves, living as specific types of people: kings, officials, clerks, powerful figures, gentry, Confucian scholars, petty peasants… As long as that mechanism and social environment did not fundamentally change, people would automatically adapt to it, living according to the old types of people, still thinking and living in a Confucianized way. Some people consider themselves to have shaken off the influence of Confucianism, vehemently condemning it, but still living and thinking very “Confucian”. But in reality, Confucianism not only remains, but new ideas from outside are also Confucianized; in some places, Confucianism…” Even if a religion is considered to have been wiped out, it still has the potential for rebirth. In both his studies of the history of thought and his research on medieval and modern literature, Tran Dinh Huou firmly stood on the reality of the nation, "looking at reality in a historical, complete, and clear way," researching and analyzing that reality to propose scientific methods of response. Although in the historical past of Vietnam in particular, and East Asian countries in general, Confucianism (as a philosophical or religious doctrine, an ethical doctrine, or a socio-political ideology) was not the only one, it is clearly the most important doctrine, holding the position of the most enduring and long-lasting orthodox ideology, contributing primarily to the distinctive features of the culture of the entire region. Therefore, not understanding it correctly and deeply also means not understanding the true nature of its existence in a comprehensive view of the entire historical past.

Therefore, his works on the history of thought alsoimbued with a spirit of practical service.

The cover of the book "Confucianism and Vietnamese Literature in the Modern and Medieval Periods" by Associate Professor Tran Dinh Huou - a scientific work awarded the State Prize for Science and Technology in 2000.

In his literary studies, Tran Dinh Huou also firmly established himself on the ground of Vietnamese literary practice. While many colleagues chose the theory of class struggle to analyze literary characters, the theory of realism to evaluate literary works, and the social structure based on the mode of production to explain the transformation of Vietnamese literature from the feudal to the modern era, etc., Tran Dinh Huou truthfully described the socio-cultural reality of Vietnam.

Tran Dinh Huou was primarily interested in the various types of people in Confucian society: kings, officials, clerks, powerful figures, gentry, Confucian scholars, and petty peasants… To analyze these types of characters, he often classified them according to criteria. This is a new point and a contribution of his compared to other Vietnamese authors in interpreting the culture of Confucianized society. From a political perspective, he reduced the diversity of these types of people to two categories: emperor and subjects. All were subjects, and the emperor's position was sacred. This perspective emphasizes the autocratic nature of the social model and helps decipher many phenomena of medieval Vietnamese thought and culture. To see the rich and complex nature of the Confucian scholar archetype in reality, and the influence of these archetypes on literature, he distinguished three types: practicing virtue, reclusive, and talented. This approach avoids the rigid and simplistic view compared to classifying people according to class criteria.

Associate Professor Tran Dinh Huou is a leading expert in the history of Eastern philosophy, the history of thought, and the history of Vietnamese literature and culture.

The meaning of the concept of "reality" in medieval literature is still often misunderstood as simply depicting reality or truth. Tran Dinh Huou meticulously deconstructed the meaning of these concepts of truth and reality: "When comparing words and ideas, writing and heart, the reality they speak of is honesty with the heart, not with the scene." Simply put, the truth and reality that Confucian scholars spoke of were the authenticity of moral character. To express pro-people ideas, the writer himself must have genuine love for the people; to speak of noble character, the poet himself must possess character. Regarding the social imagery in medieval literature, he wrote, "Society is no longer life itself, but human relations, order, and the ways of the world. People are merely models of morality according to established norms… Reality is forced to lose its vitality and transforms into models, symbolic objects to speak of the Way."

Regarding the modernization of literature, Tran Dinh Huou conceived it as a transformation of the literary system from the pre-modern to the modern literary system, from prose and poetry to poetry, drama, and novels in a new style influenced by the West.

Looking back at his career, not all problems were completely solved, and not all the theses he put forward were perfected. However, the important lesson is that research should be for practical purposes, and based on practical experience. The cultural and literary realities of our nation are rich and diverse, and no existing foreign theory is perfect for application.

Another lesson, in our opinion, that is very important for today's young generation is the unwavering academic integrity of Professor Tran Dinh Huou. Temporarily, during the period from the 1960s to the 1970s, Professor Huou suffered certain disadvantages because his new and unique academic ideas were not widely shared or understood by the research community. But he quietly continued his work, never changing the path he had chosen. Ultimately, science prevailed. Professor Bui Duy Tan once said: "There were works by Professor Huou that were not published while he was alive, but after his death, every word was published." Professor Tran Dinh Huou's academic views were eventually widely accepted by society. Not only were his former students compiled into books, not only was a collection of nearly 2000 pages of his work published, but the Ministry of Education included it in the reformed curriculum.Literature 12an excerpt from the bookFrom tradition to modernitytitleLooking at the national cultural heritage.From high school students to university students and researchers, Professor Huou's research philosophy has been spreading. This is a source of pride for us, his students, and for us, his future colleagues.

June 2015