The book "Quang Ninh Place Names Past and Present" is 1,032 pages thick, 16x24cm in size, published by Hong Duc Publishing House. This is a massive work, considered a very useful dictionary for looking up names of places, people, rivers, and mountains in Quang Ninh past and present.
To create this book, the group of authors had to collect and research for many years. The idea of writing a book about Quang Ninh place names, past and present, came very early, right after the publication of the Quang Ninh Geographical Records. The authors who initiated the book were folklore researcher Tong Khac Hai (now deceased), Mr. Nguyen Canh Loan, Chief of Office of the Quang Ninh Historical Science Association, and Mr. Nguyen Van Ai, an officer of the Department of Maps, General Staff, Vietnam People's Army. Compared to the first manuscript of Mr. Nguyen Van Ai and the 1996 manuscript, the book "Quang Ninh Place Names, Past and Present" that has just been published has increased the number of pages by about 6 times.
Since 2017, the project has received the participation of members of the Vietnam Association of Vietnamese Traditional Culture, the Quang Ninh Association of Traditional Culture, some officials of the Quang Ninh Museum and officials of the Center for Communication and Culture, the Department of Culture and Information of localities in the province. The members of the book had to conduct hundreds of field trips to the localities to collect and record documents. Each land name, village name, river name, mountain name where they set foot has a great significance in scientific research as well as practical life. Through place names, we can understand more aspects of the formation and development process of Quang Ninh province. The project has also mobilized the collective intelligence of hundreds of people from the localities. The group of authors distributed 2,198 survey forms and counted more than 41 thousand place names of all kinds of land names, river names, mountain names, and village names.
Each place name (entry) summarizes the characteristics of the place name, explaining the meaningful stories surrounding the place name. According to Ms. Phan Thi Thuy Van, Director of the Center for Information, Conservation and Promotion of Cultural Heritage, Quang Ninh Museum, researchers must rely on place names to determine related locations. For example, Doc Dinh, there will definitely be a communal house nearby, or the name of Mieu Rung Nghe, or the name Bai Mieu at Yen Cu communal house, the place name Lung Nghe near Lung Xanh waterfall Uong Bi, the name Nghe Goc Lim near Nam Mau coal mine Uong Bi, Dong Dinh in Phong Du commune (Tien Yen district). Many place names in Quang Ninh are associated with ancient communal houses and temples.
Each place name in Quang Ninh today always contains the imprints of social history, sometimes associated with important events of the nation. Therefore, the process of researchers studying place names is to study cultural history, a noble need of love for the homeland and country. Place names subtly reflect the cognitive process, on the one hand, it is also a measure of the social organization process. Place names are also a huge vocabulary, rich in specific nuances in the language treasure of the nation, and are vivid evidence of the historical depth of the beautiful land of Quang Ninh where we live.
From that data, the editorial board compared it with ancient administrative documents and discovered that our province has over 100 district and commune names that are between 100 and 700 years old. Among them, there are names that are still in use today. Many place names have helped us understand more about the migration and settlement process of the San Diu, San Chi, Dao, and Tay people, opening the way to research the culture of ethnic communities in Quang Ninh.
Once they have that massive data, the authors must embark on an equally arduous process, which is to classify place names and arrange them according to the layout of the manuscript before publishing them into a book. The book "Quang Ninh Place Names Past and Present" consists of 3 parts. Part 1 helps readers become familiar with place names and the process of forming place names. Part 2 provides an overview of Quang Ninh province, analyzing and introducing in depth and systematically the characteristics of events and valuable documents. Part 3 helps readers understand each place name in Quang Ninh, especially those associated with historical figures and events. As for administrative place names of districts, towns, cities, provinces, communes, wards, and towns, the authors have provided readers with the process of formation and development of each place name.
With the rapid urbanization, many new, spacious and modern architectural and traffic works have been built, meeting the needs of socio-economic development and the people's expectations. The authors of the work "Quang Ninh Place Names Past and Present" have provided the place name data bank with additional historical figures, major events, and ancient place names in the area. This is a large work, although it is not a dictionary in the true sense of explaining each entry, it helps readers to look up land names, river names, mountain names, and village names conveniently.
Quang Ninh's landmarks also point out the value of many works that can be exploited for cultural tourism experiences, especially providing information for the younger generation, those who learn and research culture. Therefore, the book has been included in the library of Ha Long University, the Provincial Library and the community library system of districts, towns and cities in the province and has initially received the attention of readers. Ms. Dao Thi Hoai Thu, Head of Reader Affairs Department, Quang Ninh Library, shared: "This is a very useful reference work. We have currently arranged this book in the geographical archive. Readers can go to Quang Ninh Library to look up and borrow to read".
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