Introducing the work Luc Van Tien in color

Prof. Dr. Pham Quang Minh - Rector of University of Social Sciences and Humanities delivered the opening speech (Photo: KL)

Attending the ceremony were: Professor Phan Huy Le, Honorary President of the Vietnam Association of Science and History; Professor - Doctor Pham Quang Minh - Rector of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities; Professor Michel Zink, Permanent Secretary of the French Academy of Inscriptions and Letters, along with representatives of the French École Française d'Extrême-Orient in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, and a large number of lecturers and students of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities.

Speaking at the Ceremony, Professor - Doctor Pham Quang Minh, Rector of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities expressed his honor to welcome Professor Michel Zink, Permanent Secretary of the French Academy of Inscriptions and Letters, on the occasion of his visit and work in Vietnam to attend the Launch Ceremony of the work Luc Van Tien.

Professor - Doctor Pham Quang Minh said that in 2011, during a visit to the French Institute Library, History Professor Phan Huy Le (University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Hanoi) was introduced to some valuable documents, including a manuscript with extremely fresh, unique and delicate illustrations, although it was made more than 100 years ago. Professor Phan Huy Le was extremely surprised to discover that this was the famous Vietnamese work Luc Van Tien that had been kept in this library for more than a century without anyone knowing about it.

This illustrated manuscript of the story Luc Van Tien was born from the idea of ​​a French Navy artillery captain named Eugène Gibert at the end of the 19th century, when he was in Vietnam. Fascinated by the famous literary work of poet Nguyen Dinh Chieu, he organized the implementation of a handwritten manuscript of this famous poem in both Nom and French scripts with illustrations by a Vietnamese named Le Duc Trach between 1895 and 1897. When he returned to France in 1899, Mr. Gibert donated this work to the French Institute Library and it has been kept there until today. After a period of collaborative research by French and Vietnamese scholars, the French School of the Far East (EFEO) decided to publish this manuscript in two volumes, divided into three parts: part one (volume one) is the illustrated poem, part two (volume two is Gibert's annotations and part three is the printed version of the poem). This is one of the first Vietnamese literary works in the 19th century published in three languages: Vietnamese, English and French; thereby contributing to widely promoting it to readers around the world to better understand the meaning of this work.

Professor Michel Zink, Permanent Secretary of the French Academy of Inscriptions and Letters, highly appreciated the contribution of Professor Phan Huy Le in discovering the value of the work Luc Van Tien displayed at the French Institute Library.

 Professor Michel Zink, Permanent Secretary of the French Academy of Inscriptions and Letters, speaks (Photo: KL)

Reviewing the formation and development process of the French Academy of Inscriptions and Letters, Professor Michel Zink said that, with a tradition of research on the history of language, philology, and archaeology, over the past centuries, the Institute has regularly collected sources of documents from many countries, including Eastern countries, including Vietnam. It can be said that the work Luc Van Tien is one of the famous works, representing Vietnamese literature, displayed at the French Institute Library. The publication of the work "Luc Van Tien" in French has contributed to helping French readers better understand its meaning as well as have more love for Vietnamese literature.

Sharing his memories of visiting France in 2011 and discovering the manuscript of the work Luc Van Tien in color, Professor Phan Huy Le said that the manuscript was handwritten with the content of "History of Luc Van Tien" illustrated by Le Duc Trach and presented to the Institute by French Navy artillery captain Eugene Gibert who worked in Hue (Vietnam) on May 26, 1889. In the manuscript, there are verses of Luc Van Tien in Han Nom, surrounded by illustrations of Vietnamese folk paintings, clearly reflecting the content of each poem. The manuscript has many colors. “Realizing that this is a valuable work, I would like to research and study it and wish to cooperate with the French School of the Far East to publish this work. In 2016, with the consent of the Institute, this work was published in 2 volumes with the original in Han Nom script and the Vietnamese version translated into French and English, including notes by researchers,” said Professor Phan Huy Le.

On this occasion, Vietnamese and French speakers also shared and discussed with delegates and students about the long-standing origin, discovery process as well as the special historical, cultural and linguistic values ​​of the Luc Van Tien project./.

Khanh Lan