My teacher Nguyen Loc

The curriculum taught by Mr. Nguyen Loc isVietnamese literature in the second half of the 18th century - first half of the 19th century,about 60 periods. When we studied, this textbook was still being written by the teacher. In 1973-1974, I did my thesis (second semester, third year) and graduation thesis (at that time called thesis, recently renamed graduation thesis) under the teacher's guidance. Sometimes he asked me to go to the Institute of Social Science Information (26 Ly Thuong Kiet Street) to give comments and edits to my very immature writings. I saw him diligently processing documents, old books and newspapers, including Han Nom books that were still stored in the Library at that time (I also often met Mr. Dinh Gia Khanh reading books at this address). The bookVietnamese literature in the second half of the 19th centuryby Nguyen Loc was published earlier, in 1974, and volume I of the seriesVietnamese literature in the second half of the 18th century - first half of the 19th centuryIntroduced to readers in 1976, volume II published in 1978 at the University and Vocational High School Publishing House, edited by Mr. Luong Van Dang. Thousands of pages of books written by him and other teachers in the department are typical achievements of more than ten years of research on ancient literature before 1975.

Associate Professor, Meritorious Teacher Nguyen Loc

It must be said that writing a history of Vietnamese literature up to the 1970s was not entirely new. The booksOutlinegoodDraftcompiled by previous researchers in the early 1960s. However, due to many reasons, first of all, the situation of translating medieval poetry and literature in the 1960s was still in its infancy, so the ability to cover literary materials in the above-mentioned books was still limited. Furthermore, the theoretical foundation and methods for researching literary history were not readily available. It can be said that since the mid-1960s, the Faculty of Philology, Hanoi National University had a very correct investment strategy for translating and annotating medieval poetry and literature as well as theoretical books and methods for researching foreign literature. Translations such asOrigin of the novel(Kojinov),Chinese historical novel(Lu Xun),Chinese literary criticism history(Guo Shaoyu),The Heart of Literature(Liu Xie),The art of poetry(Aristotle),Ancient Russian literary poetics(Likhachiov) etc. etc. have greatly supported the research and teaching work of teachers. Mr. Loc and the teachers in the Ancient-Recent-People literature department (and in general, teachers in other departments), by taking advantage of the achievements in translating Han Nom literature, have received the achievements in theory and methods of researching literary history of the world; especially thanks to their tireless work and talent, have completed a set of textbooks on the history of Vietnamese literature that still retains its scientific value and has international stature.

Looking at the number of published works of Mr. Nguyen Loc, it is easy to see that he rarely wrote articles for newspapers or magazines, although very early, in 1957, 1958, onMagazine Literature, History, and GeographyThere were some articles written by him. At that time, he was in his twenties, had not yet gone to university, and was working as a Chinese interpreter at the Central Party's International Activities Steering Committee. Nine years later, he had another article.About character language in The Tale of KieuaboveLiterary Magazine.It was not until nearly 20 years later that he had another post on the website.Literary Magazinediscussing the periodization of literary history. I remember that since I was retained to teach the same subject as the teacher, by chance, I learned that the reason why the teacher rarely published articles in this specialized journal was because of a personal reason in his relationship with a certain dignitary in charge of the journal.

But in misfortune there is luck. Nowadays, our generation of young researchers spends all year round their energy and time on many types of conferences and seminars, so very few of us have large works of academic stature and scale like Mr. Loc's generation. Because we rarely spend time and energy on trivial activities, and because we focus on research, Mr. Loc has left behind several thousand valuable pages. Among the dozens of books that Nguyen Loc has published, we must note five large works of high academic value:Vietnamese literature in the second half of the 19th century(University and Vocational High School Publishing House, 1971, reprinted 1976);Vietnamese literature in the second half of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century(2 volumes, University and Vocational High School Publishing House, 1976, 1978);Tay Son Literature(Nghia Binh Department of Culture and Information, 1986 and reprinted by Social Sciences Publishing House) (collection of Vietnamese Literature, volumes 9A, 9B, 1993);Vietnamese Opera Art(Culture and Information Publishing House, 1994) andHat Boi Art Dictionary(editor-in-chief, Social Sciences Publishing House, 1997). For him, writing about Tay Son literature and Tuong hat boi is not only an academic matter but also a sacred duty of a son of the Central region living in the North.

Reading Nguyen Loc's works, it is easy to see acapacity very delicate and sensitive poetic commentary with theory and method new, modern research. Any author or work within the scope of his research subjects was illuminated by him with new rays of light. Nguyen Loc did not accept the simple, easy-going, somewhat vulgar sociological writing style that some contemporary scholars here and there had. He confided in me about his policy of searching for and highlighting the spirit of an author or work with the inspiration of a critic combined with the ability of a generalist researcher. This writing style seems simple at first glance but is not easy to follow. Mr. Loc often used the image of a rice sifter to compare with his research work. The rice sifter holds a sieve full of rice and chaff with both hands, tilts slightly to one side (the dominant hand is higher than the other hand), rotates it evenly a number of times so that the chaff, some unhulled rice grains and impurities are gathered in the middle of the sieve, then picks them up and discards them, leaving only the rice grains. Then put the rice in a mortar to pound until white, finally pour the rice and bran into the winnowing basket and operate like when sieving so that the bran falls onto the tray and gets clean rice. The researcher also has to do the work of sifting the bran and dregs mixed with the rice to filter out the quintessential rice grains. The ability to distinguish what is secondary, what is bran and dregs, what is the essence and core from a large volume of work is the criterion to evaluate the talent of the researcher. Mr. Loc also often told me about the image of a ball of wool: a good knitter can knit a beautiful woolen sweater from a 5-ounce ball of wool, but a clumsy person will have a ball of wool that is tangled up even though it still weighs 5-ounces but has no shape.

It can be said without fear of exaggeration: he was the first person to generalize the basic characteristics of Vietnamese literature from the 18th century to the first half of the 19th century through comparison with previous literary periods with concise, solid, confident, easy-to-remember generalizations: the basic characteristics of literature from the 10th to 15th centuries arenational affirmation;The basic characteristics of literature from the 16th century to the first half of the 18th century areaffirming the feudal state;and the basic characteristics of literature in the second half of the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century arediscover people and affirm true human values. The teacher's arguments are often very clear, concise, and confident, with the confidence of someone who has captured the spirit of the subject to be described. Regarding Ho Xuan Huong, the teacher envisioned her as a poet of women, a satirical poet, and a lyrical poet who loves life; regarding Cao Ba Quat, the teacher generalized him as a poet with courage, a sympathetic and loving soul. The subsections that the teacher presented about Nguyen Du are the result of a process of screening the creative materials of this great poet. He has sharp and concise comments on Nguyen Du's Chinese poetry written on historical topics, clearly distinguishing it from the dry historical poetry of Confucian scholars... In general, Nguyen Loc is one of the few researchers who has the ability to smoothly combine theoretical thinking and the ability to critically evaluate subtle texts. The teacher's writing and teaching style, for me, is a model that I have silently followed for many years on the university podium, unfortunately it is difficult to be like him.

His works are certainly superior in many aspects compared to many doctoral theses today. Unfortunately, due to a rather mechanical policy, in the 1980s, people required teachers to defend their published works to receive a doctoral degree. While most researchers and teachers at the Institute of Literature and the two General Universities and Pedagogical Universities accepted this regulation, my teachers in the same department such as Mr. Tran Dinh Huu, Nguyen Loc, Chu Xuan Dien, Bui Duy Tan absolutely did not accept this formality (Mrs. Hoang Nhu Mai, Nguyen Loc, Tran Huu Ta even invited Minister Tran Hong Quan to the headquarters of the Ho Chi Minh City Literature Research and Teaching Association to question this unscientific way of doing things, unfortunately, it did not change anything). And if you do not have a doctoral degree, you will not be awarded the title of professor. That is the reason why the teachers, a generation of seniors, with so many scientific and training achievements, only stopped at the rank of Associate Professor. I wonder if people will now correct the very formal and mechanical policy of the past with the teachers. But after all, that does not mean much to the teachers, because from the beginning, the teachers had their own choice. Respecting the truth, not the false. I learned that a few years ago, the University of Social Sciences and Humanities in Ho Chi Minh City asked Mr. Loc to prepare a profile to confer the title of People's Teacher, but he did not do it. It seems that Mr. Chu Xuan Dien was the same. We young brothers in the Ancient - Modern - People Department, Faculty of Literature, Hanoi National University such as Tran Ngoc Vuong, Nguyen Hung Vy and I were very lucky to work and study alongside teachers Dinh Gia Khanh, Tran Dinh Huou, Bui Duy Tan, Nguyen Loc, Chu Xuan Dien - serious and self-respecting scientists.

By the way, we must also mention royalties in the past. In short storiesA Hanoianby Nguyen Khai, Mrs. Hien's husband wrote textbooks published between 1946 and 1954, with the money from selling the books he bought two houses in Hanoi. Mr. Loc once confided to me that the royalties from the bookVietnamese literature in the second half of the 19th century, plus the money from selling a bicycle, with a radio-cassette, he was able to buy a two-room apartment on the first floor of building D1, Nguyen Cong Tru apartment complex (before that, his family lived in the school apartment complex in Lo Duc - Cam Hoi alley today). He said that when he moved to Ho Chi Minh City, he transferred that apartment for about five or six taels of gold (not a small amount of money). Nowadays, books are published in quantities of about 500 to 1000 copies, the royalties are lucky to be about two or three taels of gold. From the 1990s until now, Mr. Loc's books have been continuously reprinted. This time, he collected both sets into one very thick volume namedVietnamese literature from the second half of the 18th century to the end of the 19th century,Each edition was printed in 3000 copies (by June 2012, it had been reprinted for the 9th time). I think this is also a partial compensation for the effort that the teacher has put in, although it is not worthy, especially compared to today's billion-dollar scientific topics.

Since Mr. Nguyen Loc transferred to the Faculty of Literature of Ho Chi Minh City University, I have had few opportunities to meet him. I only know that he started participating in social activities. In addition to being the head of the Faculty of Literature, he also founded the Ho Chi Minh City Literature Teaching and Research Association with Professor Hoang Nhu Mai and other teachers. He was also a key member of the founding of Van Hien University - the first private university specializing in social sciences. But with the honest and straightforward personality of a scientist, there were times when he encountered "accidents" in these social activities. Was it a matter of "disgraceful private life" or a matter of the harsh reality of life that a true scientific researcher was not fully aware of? Once when I visited him, I told him: "You can only work in a clean environment." Many times I absentmindedly regret: if only he continued to research and write, we would have received more high-level scientific works.