An article by author Nguyen Van Hoan (published in "100 Portraits of a Century of National Universities" - 2006) introduces the portrait of Professor Dang Thai Mai - who contributed to building the initial foundation of the Faculty of Literature in Hanoi (now the University of Social Sciences and Humanities - Vietnam National University, Hanoi).
A brief biography of Professor Dang Thai Mai
From 1945 to 1954, Professor Dang Thai Mai served as Director of the Faculty of Literature at Hanoi University. From 1954 to 1956, he held the position of Rector of the Faculty of Literature at Hanoi University. From 1956 to 1959, he was Head of the Faculty of Literature at Hanoi University and Hanoi Pedagogical University. Professor Dang Thai Mai participated in training many generations of literature students. His main research focus was Vietnamese and Chinese literature. His major works include: "Literary Theory" (1944), "The Poetry and Prose of Phan Boi Chau" (1958), and "Vietnamese Revolutionary Poetry and Prose in the Early 20th Century" (1961). His significant contributions to education were recognized and rewarded by the Party and State with the First Class Resistance Medal, the Ho Chi Minh Medal (1982), and the Ho Chi Minh Prize (1996).
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Professor Dang Thai Mai was born on December 24, 1902, in Luong Dien village (now Thanh Xuan commune), Thanh Chuong district, Nghe An province, and passed away on September 25, 1984, in Hanoi. Born into a patriotic scholarly family, classified as "enemy's son" by the colonial government, Dang Thai Mai faced many harsh trials early in life: at the age of six, he had to accompany his grandmother and mother to the Ha Tinh prison camp to visit his father; this dilapidated prison camp was not far from the familiar school where he had previously lived with his father, Deputy Scholar Dang Nguyen Can, who was then the acting school principal of Ha Tinh and later Binh Thuan. He was arrested and sent to Ha Tinh to await a life sentence for "treason by propagating modern education." Taking advantage of this to suppress the anti-tax movement in Central Vietnam, the colonial government exiled him to Con Dao Island for 13 years (1908-1921), and he died one year after returning home. Many other famous scholars were also exiled to Con Dao Island at that time, such as Phan Chu Trinh, Huynh Thuc Khang, Ngo Duc Ke, and Le Van Huan. When Dang Thai Mai was 12 years old, his grandfather, already 75, was imprisoned for three years for supporting the Vietnam Restoration Society. He returned home and died ten days later. This was Dang Thai Giai, a scholar who, while serving as district chief of Yen Dinh, resigned from his position when the officials of Thanh Hoa province surrendered to the French army. His uncle, Dang Thuc Hua, went abroad to Siam to participate in revolutionary activities, joining the Vietnam Youth Revolutionary Comrades Association, and died there in 1931. His aunt, Dang Quynh Anh, also escaped to Siam and only returned to Vietnam in 1953. Throughout her life, living to nearly 100 years old, she dedicated herself to raising her grandchildren so that her comrades could continue their work in the national salvation movement. In that time of separation, family ruin, and national loss, she was fortunate to have her grandmother, a strong and resilient woman, who tirelessly persevered. In his memoirs, Dang Thai Mai wrote: "If my grandmother were no longer here, I don't know how terribly lonely my childhood would have been." For Dang Thai Mai, his grandmother was both mother and teacher. She organized classes at home, found tutors to teach him according to the reformed education program of the Dong Kinh Nghia Thuc school, and especially, she always instilled in her children and grandchildren courage and resilience in life. She herself set an example for her descendants in calmly "debating" with "uninvited guests" such as local officials, village elders, and Western soldiers who often came to the house to question, harass, and threaten. Perhaps due to this special family circumstance, coupled with the studious tradition of his homeland Nghe An and Ha Tinh, and his own intelligence and extraordinary memory, Dang Thai Mai excelled in his studies from a young age. After devouring all the Vietnamese-language books in the rather extensive family library that his grandfather named "Tam Thai Mountain Library," Dang Thai Mai ventured to the Chinese-language bookshelf and was surprised to find that after five years of diligently studying the Analects and Mencius, he could now fluently read Chinese novels such as the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, and The Legend of the Tang Dynasty. He then began reading the new books by famous and emerging authors of that time, such as Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao, Tan Sidong, and Yan Fu. From 1915 to 1928, Dang Thai Mai left his home school in his remote hometown to attend public schools in the city: Vinh Primary School, Vinh Higher Primary School, and Hanoi Indochina Teacher Training College. A vast horizon opened before Dang Thai Mai; a new horizon of cultural knowledge and life experience. Fortunately, he met exemplary teachers such as Lê Thước, Lê Ấm, Bùi Kỉ, etc., who instilled in him a love for national literature, as well as a passion for Western literature, especially French literature. Later, as an adult, he often criticized the French-Vietnamese school for only training passive executors, but he still expressed deep gratitude to some French professors at the Hanoi Teacher Training College, such as Professor Milon. Professor Houlié taught him the method of analyzing a literary work and inspired him with new directions for research and exploration. He also met many good friends such as Nguyễn Sĩ Sách, Trần Phú, Trần Mộng Bạch, Ngô Đức Diễn, Tô Quang Phiệt, Hồ Tùng Mẫu, Đào Duy Anh, Phạm Thiều, Cao Văn Thỉnh, Phạm Văn Đồng, Võ Nguyên Giáp, etc. He also had contact with some senior revolutionary figures like Ngô Đức Kế and Lê Văn Huân. During his time at the Teacher Training College (1925-1928), Hanoi was ablaze with movements demanding amnesty for Phan Boi Chau and commemorating Phan Chu Trinh. He participated in the founding of the Phuc Viet Society, later renamed Hung Nam, and finally the Tan Viet Revolutionary Society. The Tan Viet Society disintegrated, and he was sentenced to one year of suspended imprisonment. This disintegration led to political polarization within the Tan Viet Society, but most members shifted to socialist ideology. In 1928, Dang Thai Mai graduated from the Hanoi Teacher Training College. The colonial government, seemingly wanting to show leniency towards the descendants of "privileged" families, even those with prior convictions, appointed Dang Thai Mai as a professor at a prestigious high school at the time: Hue National High School. However, in his hometown, the Nghe An - Thinh Hoa Soviet broke out. The French colonialists unleashed a brutal crackdown, bombing even peasant demonstrations. In Hue, Dang Thai Mai, in charge of the Red Relief work, was immediately arrested. A student, who later became Professor Tran Dinh Gian, recounted: "Teacher Mai will forever leave a profound memory in my mind. One morning at Hue National High School, while he was giving a lecture, secret police raided the place and arrested him. He only nodded in greeting, and then, with his usual serious demeanor, he got into the secret police's car." Another student, Vu Thuan Nho, who later became Deputy Minister of Education, recalled: “In the 1930-1931 school year, I studied Vietnamese literature with Mr. Mai at Hue National High School. I will never forget his essay. The topic was: ‘Oh gourd, have pity on the pumpkin, though they are of different kinds, they share the same vine.’ We, the students in the class, who had joined the Red Student Association, understood that he wanted to inspire us to think about our compatriots and our patriotism. But he didn't grade or return the essay. Because we were arrested. Suddenly, one morning, standing behind the bars of the prison cell at Phu Doan (Hue), looking out at the courtyard, I saw him standing there. He was arrested a week after us. We felt sorry for him being exiled, and through some common criminals, we asked them to convey our regards and express our wish to continue studying with him. About 15-20 days later, we received a tightly bound package of documents: A collection of Victor Hugo's poems published by Hachette. We read and memorized one poem after another. We remembered and kept reciting the line: "Ceux qui vivent ce sont ceux qui lutten" (Those who live are those who struggle). Dang Thai Mai was imprisoned for a year and dismissed from his professorship. In 1932, he went to Hanoi to teach at the Gia Long private school. In 1935, he, along with Phan Thanh and Hoang Minh Giam, founded the Thang Long school. This famous private school was the cradle that ignited patriotism in students and prepared future cadres for an independent Vietnam. In 1937, after the Popular Front's victory in France, the Indochinese Democratic Front was established in Vietnam. Many leading Party cadres escaped from imperialist prisons and began working openly. Comrade Truong Chinh came to Hanoi to directly supervise the Party's journalistic activities.
Dang Thai Mai, having diligently studied since childhood, possessed a solid foundation of knowledge. However, deep down, he harbored a fervent wish: to write without freedom of thought! To meet the demands of the revolution, at nearly 40 years old, he began writing. His first articles were written in French and published in newspapers of the Indochinese Communist Party in Hanoi, such as *Le Travail* (Labor), *Rassenlement* (Gathering), *Eu avant* (Forward), and *Notre voix* (Our Voice). He translated Le Van Hien's *Kontum Prison* reportage and wrote several short stories and essays published in the columns "Little Arrows" and Phan Thanh. Some of these works were translated into Vietnamese and included in "Anthology of Vietnamese Literature," volume 35 (1983). In 1938, he participated in the founding of the Society for the Propagation of the National Language, working alongside prominent figures such as Vuong Kiem Toan, scholar Nguyen Van To, a scientific collaborator of the French School of Far Eastern Studies, and Bui Ki, his former teacher at the Hanoi College of Education. In 1939, a close friend of his, Phan Thanh, a representative of the Indochinese Communist Party running for election to the Central Vietnam People's Assembly, unfortunately passed away suddenly. The Party immediately nominated Dang Thai Mai to replace him, even though he was not yet a party member; he was not admitted to the Party until September 1949, and the person who introduced him was his friend from the same hometown, Ho Tung Mau. This demonstrates the Party's trust in him. On this occasion, the weekly newspaper "Our Voice" of the Indochinese Communist Party, issue 24, dated July 28, 1939, introduced him as follows: “Dang Thai Mai likes to repeat a quote by Thomas Mann: 'I was born for leisure rather than martyrdom.' He doesn't dare compare himself to the author of 'European Warning,' whose greatness surpasses even the greatest minds of our time, but perhaps, even considering the disparity in proportion, he still sees the fate of Thomas Mann and his own as somewhat similar; he was born for learning, for his students and children, but the country's circumstances pushed him into the political arena… “That seemingly gentle, slender man knows nothing of fear, at least not for him. In that respect, he truly is a son of Nghe An, but fortunately, he is tempered by Western humanism.” The years of the Popular Front and the subsequent years of World War II were a period of intense activity for Dang Thai Mai: meetings, writing articles, editing papers, and proofreading, yet he still ensured all the daily tasks of a teacher were carried out with a high sense of responsibility. One student – Dao Thien Thi – who later became the Minister of Labor, recalled: "He often stayed up very late, grading papers and preparing lessons meticulously." Ho Truc, one of the students who lived in his house and later became the Deputy Minister of Education, recalled a saying of his: "I don't mind grading papers late at night; as long as I can read a few good sentences from you all in the quiet of the night, it's like a person in the desert finding a refreshing pool of water." In 1944-1945, Dang Thai Mai fell seriously ill and had to stop teaching to recuperate in Sam Son (Thanh Hoa). The Party's National Salvation Cultural Association secretly sent him the Cultural Outline drafted by Comrade Truong Chinh. Based on the spirit of this document, he wrote "Introduction to Literature," published in 1944. This was the first literary theory book in our country that addressed some fundamental issues of literature and art in the light of Marxism-Leninism, such as the relationship between politics and literature, between content and form, typicality and individuality, between national identity and the international character of literature... During this time, he also translated works by Lu Xun and Cao Yu and introduced Chinese literature to our country. From a young age, Dang Thai Mai was familiar with Chinese literature, but it was the literature of Han Fu and Tang Shi. When he first heard names like Chen Duxiu, Mao Dun, Guo Moruo, Lu Xun... Dang Thai Mai felt a huge gap in his knowledge of Chinese literature. Dang Thai Mai had also studied Chinese characters from a very young age, but those were the characters of the Four Books and Five Classics; To understand and translate Lu Xun's satirical and profound prose, Dang Thai Mai had to learn vernacular Chinese from a Chinese artist who had "fled to our country during the war." Dang Thai Mai's introduction of modern Chinese literature to Vietnam, as Professor Truong Van Chinh rightly observed, was a "pioneering" act, opening a path to uncharted territory. In 1945, the August Revolution succeeded. On September 2nd, 1945, President Ho Chi Minh read the Declaration of Independence, giving birth to the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Immediately afterward, reactionary imperialist forces, under the guise of Allied forces disarming the Japanese fascists, invaded our country: in the North, Chiang Kai-shek's army, followed by a horde of Vietnamese reactionaries of all kinds; in the South, the French Expeditionary Force, hiding behind the British army, landed in Saigon and immediately opened fire, starting the war. Faced with this critical situation, the Provisional Government, on the one hand, prepared for a general election to elect a National Assembly to adopt a Constitution and establish a constitutional government; on the other hand, it focused on combating famine and illiteracy and perfecting the newly established state apparatus. With the principle that resistance must go hand in hand with nation-building, and nation-building requires talented people, on October 10, 1945, President Ho Chi Minh signed Decree 45 establishing a new committee, the Faculty of Literature, alongside the Medical, Science, Political Science, and Fine Arts committees. The committee's task was to train secondary school teachers and research specialists in social sciences and humanities such as Philosophy, Sociology, Literature, History, and Geography. Decree 7 of November 1945 by the Ministry of National Education appointed Dang Thai Mai, then serving as the General Inspector of Secondary Education, to concurrently be the Director of the Faculty of Literature at the University. The professorial council included: Nguyen Duc Nguyen (also known as Hoai Thanh) of the Faculty of Vietnamese Literature; Dang Thai Mai, Department of Chinese Literature; Nguyen Manh Tuong, Department of Western Literature; Cao Xuan Huy, Department of Eastern Philosophy; Nguyen Van Huyen, Department of History. In addition, the following were invited to lecture on special topics in the Literature program: Dao Duy Anh, Nguyen Huy Bao, Cu Huy Can, Ngo Xuan Dieu, Tran Van Giap, Tran Khanh Giu (also known as Khai Hung), Pham Duy Khiem, Bui Ki, Nguyen Dinh Thi, Doan Phu Tu. During this time, Dang Thai Mai was also appointed to the Constitution Drafting Committee chaired by Ho Chi Minh and was elected as a National Assembly representative in the general election on January 6, 1946. At the first session of the First National Assembly (1946-1960) on March 2, 1946, President Ho Chi Minh nominated him to the position of Minister of Education of the Resistance Coalition Government, introducing him as follows: Dang Thai Mai is "a person who has been active in the national education cause for many years and is someone the nation can trust to fulfill the task if education is entrusted to him." After the outbreak of the resistance war, Dang Thai Mai was appointed Chairman of the Thanh Hoa Provincial Resistance Committee (1947-1948), Professor at the Faculty of Literature, Inter-regional Zone IV (1950), Director of the Education Department and Director of the Inter-regional Zone IV University Preparatory School (1951-1953). In 1954, after recovering from illness in Nanning (China), Dang Thai Mai was appointed Rector of the Faculty of Literature (1954-1956), headquartered on Le Thanh Tong Street, Hanoi. In 1956, the Faculty of Literature and the Faculty of Science were merged to form the University of Hanoi. Dang Thai Mai was appointed Head of the Literature Faculty for both the University of Hanoi and the University of Education until 1959, when he transferred to become Director of the Institute of Literature under the Vietnam Social Sciences Committee and President of the Vietnam Union of Literature and Arts. Throughout his life, Dang Thai Mai worked in many fields, but his longest and most specialized career was as an educator. He taught in both public and private schools during the French colonial period. After the August Revolution of 1945, he specialized in teaching literature at the university level. Regardless of his position and even during periods of declining health, he always devoted himself wholeheartedly to his teaching duties, even when only one or a few students sought his guidance on a specific issue. Dang Thai Mai taught with profound knowledge and also set an example in life and work, first and foremost a model of studiousness, a thirst for new knowledge, and a constant effort to gather information to keep up with the times. In his eulogy, poet Huy Can said: Dang Thai Mai taught with the passionate heart of "a missionary." Writer Nguyen Dinh Thi called him "the caretaker of green beds," likely referring to his contribution to training young writers, from the Resistance Culture class in Quan Tin (Thanh Hoa) to the Nguyen Du Writing School in Hanoi. Dang Thai Mai was very passionate about foreign literature, especially the Renaissance, Shakespeare, Don Quixote, Lu Xun... but it can be said that his heart remained with Vietnamese literature. He told his students: I study foreign literature to return to Vietnam, to understand our national literature correctly. He studied the literature of the Ly-Tran dynasties, Nguyen Trai's "Chinh Phu Ngam" (Lament of the Warrior's Wife), Nguyen Dinh Chieu's "Prison Diary," To Huu's poetry, and especially, it can be said that he poured not only his intellect but also his heart into his two research works, "The Poetry and Prose of Phan Boi Chau" and "Vietnamese Revolutionary Poetry and Prose in the Early 20th Century (1900-1925)," drawing not only from painful memories but also from faith and hope related to a tragic period in the history of his homeland, country, and family. His memoir, completed towards the end of his life, should also be mentioned. Attentive readers of this "Memoir" may regret that he did not manage to complete Volume II, having become a significant witness to a period of increasingly resounding victories for our nation. However, Volume I of "Dang Thai Mai's Memoir" has reached a wider audience, as the author intended to burn it before his death if he was not satisfied, rather than "printing it" and bothering readers! In the realm of research and writing, he was also very demanding of himself, and always had high and strict standards for his students. He truly deserves the prestigious awards named after the person he admired throughout his life: the Ho Chi Minh Order and the Ho Chi Minh Prize for social sciences and humanities.
