On May 27, 2011, at the meeting of the Academy of Inscriptions and Fine Arts - part of the French Academy, Professor Phan Huy Le was elected as a Foreign Correspondent Academician. He is the first Vietnamese professor of social sciences to receive this honor.
Professor Phan Huy Le was elected to the "armchair" position (fauteuil) previously held by VS Francisco Rico (Spain). The official announcement was sent to historian Phan Huy Le on July 5, 2011. The Academy of Inscriptions and Fine Arts (Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Letres), founded in 1663, is one of the five Academies of Science under the French Academy (Institut de France) of the French Republic. This is also one of the oldest and most prestigious Academies of the French Academy. The Academy of Inscriptions and Fine Arts is an Academy of Humanities, researching the fields of archaeology, history and philology from ancient times, the Middle Ages to the Classical period in the vast historical space from Western Europe to the Far East. Professor, People's Teacher Phan Huy Le was born on February 23, 1934 in Thach Chau commune, Loc Ha district, Ha Tinh province. He is a descendant of Minister, diplomat Phan Huy Ich, scholar Phan Huy Chu, Minister - culturalist Phan Huy Vinh. His father Phan Huy Tung (1878- ?) (passed the Hoi Nguyen exam and became a third-class doctor in the Quy Suu exam - 1913), a Minister of Justice of the Nguyen Dynasty, was famous for his integrity, virtue, kindness, and love for his children and grandchildren. His mother was from the Cao Xuan family with a long tradition of mandarin examinations with famous people: Cao Xuan Duc, Cao Xuan Tieu, Cao Xuan Huy... In 1956, after graduating with a bachelor's degree in History - Geography from Hanoi Pedagogical University, Professor Phan Huy Le worked as an assistant trainee at the History Department, Hanoi University of Science, under the guidance of the famous Professor Dao Duy Anh. He was assigned by Professors Tran Van Giau and Dao Duy Anh to write lectures and undertake the tasks of real experts. Only two years later, the young teacher Phan Huy Le, only 24 years old, was assigned to be the Head of the Department of Ancient and Medieval Vietnamese History and continuously held this important position for decades.
Professor Phan Huy Le was particularly interested in socio-economic history. In the early stages of his research career, his first publications were mainly related to agriculture, rural areas and farmers. When the US imperialists escalated their bombardment of the North, conscious of his responsibility to the nation's destiny, Professor Phan Huy Le turned to researching the resistance wars against foreign invaders and major battles in history. The works "Lam Son Uprising"; "Tradition of building and defending the country of the Vietnamese people", "Some strategic decisive battles in the history of the nation", "Bach Dang victory in 938 and 1288"... became typical military history works. After the country was reunified, he continued to summarize the history of resistance against foreign invaders. In about 15 years from 1975, he wrote more than 80 works of this type. The total number of works on the history of resistance against foreign invasion is 120, accounting for 27% of the total 445 works he completed. From 1975 to 1999, in addition to research on the history of resistance against foreign invasion, he researched 114 works on socio-economic issues. Typical of this topic area are "Land regime and agricultural economy in the early Le Dynasty", works written on the Tay Son peasant movement, the land registers of Ha Dong, Thai Binh, Hanoi, the Vietnam genealogy research program, books, and topics on socio-economic forms, socio-economic structures, Vietnamese villages in the Northern Delta region... Since the 1980s, in parallel with the above two topics, Professor Phan Huy Le expanded his research to the field of culture and tradition with about 20 works in a period of 5 years. His total number of works in this field is up to 104. Besides, he also devoted his efforts to many local historical works, especially the history of Thang Long Imperial Citadel and Hanoi. Professor Phan Huy Le also played a particularly important role in summarizing the country's history with the number of works up to 107 and many typical works such as "History of Vietnam from 1406 to 1858", "History of the feudal regime of Vietnam" volume II (1960) and "History of the feudal regime of Vietnam" volume III (1961). The book History of Vietnam volume I written by him with Professor Tran Quoc Vuong in 1971 is considered the first general history of the new regime... In the independent scientific project at the State level to build the 4-volume "History of Vietnam" book series, Professor. Phan Huy Le is both the editor and the main author of Volumes I and II, which are considered the highest summary of the historical period from its origin to the mid-19th century. Following the history of the country in all four major areas, but in each field, Professor Phan Huy Le has reached the pinnacle of expertise with a massive number of works up to hundreds of works. Besides, he is also the one who built two new important and famous majors of the University of Social Sciences and Humanities - VNU Hanoi: Oriental Studies and Vietnamese Studies. For generations of students, Professor Phan Huy Le is a teacher who devotes much effort to imparting knowledge to generations of students. He is known as one of the "Four Pillars" of modern Vietnamese history as honored by many generations of students: "Lam - Le - Tan - Vuong" (professors Dinh Xuan Lam, Phan Huy Le, Ha Van Tan, Tran Quoc Vuong). From 1988 to present, Professor. Phan Huy Le has been the President of the Vietnam Historical Association for many years. He also holds key leadership positions or is a member of many National Councils such as the National Council for directing the compilation of the Encyclopedia Dictionary, the National Council for Science and Technology Policy, the Central Council for Theory, the Council for Science and Training of Hanoi National University, the State Council for Professor Titles, the National Council for Ho Chi Minh Prize and State Prize, the National Council for Cultural Heritage... Professor Phan Huy Le was awarded the title of Professor (1980), Meritorious Teacher (1988), People's Teacher (1994); State Prize (2000), Fukuoka International Asian Cultural Prize, Japan (1996), the French Government's Academic Palm Medal (2002).
