Nguyen Thiep (1723 - 1804) was born into a studious family in Mat Thon village, Nguyet Ao commune, Lai Thach canton, La Son district, Duc Quang prefecture (now Can Loc, Ha Tinh). He is one of four figures that academics rank as philosophers in the history of the nation.
From a young age, Nguyen Thiep showed his intelligence, extensive knowledge, deep understanding, and early recognition of human affairs. He studied with his uncle Nguyen Hanh (Nguyen Hanh passed the doctoral exam in 1733) and worked as a Censor in Thai Nguyen, so he soon understood life in the mandarin's arena.
In 1743, he took the Huong exam and passed the Huong exam, was appointed as a Coach and then promoted to District Chief of Thanh Chuong (Nghe An). Becoming an official in a time of turmoil, with the scene of "evil lords, cowardly kings", and constant wars, Nguyen Thiep increasingly revealed his worries about the times and the world, and his hatred of the officialdom.
In 1786, Nguyen Thiep decided to resign from his position, set up camp on Thien Nhan Mountain and began living a life of seclusion under the name La Son Phu Tu. He taught and traveled here and there across Hong Mountain and Lam River. After more than 10 years of teaching among the people, Nguyen Thiep's reputation was spread throughout the country. He was famous for his noble morality and profound knowledge. The whole country admired and respected him as a master. He was also a noble person, living a reclusive life. Lord Trinh invited him to become an official many times, but he refused. Only when King Quang Trung patiently asked for wise men three times did he agree to help.
Nguyen Thiep refused Nguyen Hue's invitation three times. In June 1788, when Nguyen Hue led his army to the North for the second time, reaching Nghe An, he sent Can Tin Marquis Nguyen Quang Dai to bring a letter inviting Nguyen Thiep to a meeting. This time, Nguyen Thiep agreed to help King Quang Trung. Illustration from the Internet.
After the great victory over the Qing army, in 1791, King Quang Trung invited Nguyen Thiep to Phu Xuan to discuss important national affairs. Moved by the sincerity of the king "in cloth and red flag", he agreed to help the king, save the country, and made great contributions to the Tay Son dynasty as a senior advisor to the court, and was completely trusted by King Quang Trung.
Born and raised in the feudal regime, Nguyen Thiep was not bound by feudal ideology and was blindly loyal to the king. When Le Chieu Thong invited the Qing army to trample the country, Nguyen Thiep resolutely broke with the Le dynasty to stand firmly on the nationalist stance and wholeheartedly helped King Quang Trung Nguyen Hue fight the enemy to save the country. The Imperial Doctor Bui Huy Bich (1744-1818) praised:
"... Looking up at the distant mountain hermitage
High mountains, deep forests, blue sky and clouds
Want to visit and ask about the situation
I'm afraid you look down on mortals.
And:
"...The only difference is that he
The seal is returned, the country is satisfied
People pointed to Luc Nien city.
Nam Son mountainside, hiding in the shape of an old man's hermitage.
After Quang Trung defeated the Qing invaders, Nguyen Thiep became one of the scholars most trusted by the king. The king knew that he did not like to participate in politics, so he asked him to handle academic matters and especially assigned him the task of organizing a new education system. Right at the first provincial examination under the Quang Trung dynasty (held in Nghe An in 1789), Nguyen Thiep was appointed as the Chief Examiner and Chief Examiner.
He advised the king to reconcile with the Qing Dynasty to focus on building the country into a prosperous nation. King Quang Trung highly valued Nguyen Thiep's education and character, and appointed him as La Son Phu Tu, calling him a nameless master. The king also trusted him with the task of assessing the virtues and talents of those who had just come to cooperate with the Tay Son Dynasty. More specifically, the king also assigned him the important responsibility of choosing a location to build the new capital of the Tay Son Dynasty in the area between Dung Quyet Mountain, Vinh City, Nghe An. The new capital was named Phuong Hoang Trung Do (1).
King Quang Trung Temple on Dung Quyet Mountain. Photo: internet.
In 1791, La Son Phu Tu Nguyen Thiep reported to the king three matters about the way of being a king. One was how the king should act to become a virtuous king. Two was how the king should make the people submit. Three was how education should be organized to be effective.
After his coronation as Emperor in 1788, Quang Trung issued the Edict on the Establishment of Education, a document drafted by Ngo Thi Nham. This edict emphasized the importance and urgency of education as follows: “Building the country, taking education as the top priority, finding the way to govern peacefully, and recruiting talented people as a matter of urgency. Previously, many changes occurred in all four directions, the education system was not improved, the examination system gradually declined, and talented people became increasingly scarce. The world is in a state of order and chaos, which is a cyclical process. However, after chaos, it is even more necessary to revive and rectify, establish education, and conduct examinations. That is the large-scale transformation of chaos into order.”
Thus, according to Quang Trung, rebuilding the nation is synonymous with building a new governing apparatus, but the human resources needed for this are extremely lacking. Therefore, education as a source of human resources for the governing system is vital to rebuilding the nation. In short, Chieu Lap Hoc continues to consider education as a way to become an official.
With the “Learning Law” that he mentioned in the Memorial to King Quang Trung, three things about governing the country, Nguyen Thiep put learning at a higher level: learning is not only to achieve social status but first of all to become a moral person. He wrote: “A jade that is not polished cannot become an object; a person who does not study does not know the Way. The Way is the common sense to follow to become a human being. Those who study learn that. In our country, Vietnam, since its founding, learning itself has long been lost. People only compete to practice the way of studying for fame and profit, forgetting the teachings of the three bonds and five constants.”
La Giang Phu Tu, Lam Hong Di Nhan and La Son Phu Tu are 3 of the many nicknames that people often use when talking about Nguyen Thiep. Among them, La Son Phu Tu is the most frequently used and familiar nickname, used by King Quang Trung to call him. Illustration from the internet
The “Three Bonds” (Humanity, Righteousness, and Integrity) and the “Five Constants” (Humanity, Righteousness, Propriety, Wisdom, and Trust) are basic moral principles related to good behavior and proper conduct in society and daily life. Possessing these qualities, each individual will contribute to creating a stable, law-abiding and harmonious society, which in turn will positively impact the prosperity and sustainable development of the nation.
Nguyen Thiep emphasized the importance of ethics in learning because he understood the two-way interaction between ethics and learning. On the one hand, ethics creates conditions for learning to become more valuable and meaningful, while learning spreads and demonstrates ethics. On the other hand, ethics makes learners understand that learning is not only to accumulate knowledge for themselves, but also to share and convey knowledge to the surrounding community, which in turn has the effect of spreading learning. In short, learning and ethics support and promote each other, bringing cohesion in the community and society, thereby contributing to building a united and prosperous society. With such a way of posing the problem, Nguyen Thiep also shaped the importance of learning in creating positive changes in the community and thereby demonstrating the social vision of Phu Tu.
Nguyen Thiep's educational viewpoint helped the Tay Son Dynasty reform education: "Good education will bring many good people, many good people will lead to a righteous dynasty and a well-governed world". According to Nguyen Thiep, learning needs to be practical. "People who do not study do not know the way", he believes that people go to school only to learn that. He also believes that learning during the Le - Trinh period no longer maintained the above basic principles, "people only compete to learn literature, aiming for fame and fortune, completely forgetting the study of the three bonds and five constants", which leads to the situation of "mediocre kings, flattering subjects, the country is ruined and the family is ruined". All social evils come from impractical educational approaches. Nguyen Thiep also proposed to expand the pedagogical sector to a comprehensive level, including both literature and martial arts (2).
Regarding teaching methods, he took primary education as the foundation, from which he expanded the teaching of the Four Books, Five Classics, and historical works. “Learn widely and then summarize concisely, and apply what you learn. Only by doing so can we train talented people, and the country will be stable thanks to that... Good education will bring many good people, and with many good people, the dynasty will be upright and the world will be well-governed” (3). From this, it can be seen that Nguyen Thiep always emphasized moral education in teaching.
At that time, King Quang Trung wanted to invite La Son Phu Tu to stay in Phu Xuan to teach him in order to revive the country's education, but Nguyen Thiep returned to his old school and continued a series of educational reforms according to the king's suggestion.
The king listened to Nguyen Thiep's words in the Luan Hoc Phap. On August 20, 1791, the king issued an edict to establish the "Sung Chinh Thu Vien" and invited him to be the Director. After that, the king continued to issue an edict to establish schools, encouraging communes to open schools, those who passed the previous exam had to retake the exam, and those who used money to buy degrees had to be revoked.
After establishing the “Sùng Chính Library”, Nguyễn Thiếp proposed specific and scientific cultural and educational reforms. Nguyễn Thiếp devoted himself to translating Chinese books into Nôm for teaching and popularizing them among the people to implement educational reforms and train talented people. On the one hand, he helped King Quang Trung have documents to prepare for deciding on new regulations on studying and examining, including Nôm in the curriculum and examinations; on the other hand, he prepared textbooks in Vietnamese to implement the new educational regulations.
The work of the Sung Chinh Institute was of great significance in laying the foundation for the educational reform of the Tay Son Dynasty. Nguyen Thiep's greatest contribution was to implement King Quang Trung's policy of promoting Nom script, making Nom script the official script of our country. He translated many important books from Chinese characters into Nom script, such as the books: Elementary School, Four Books (including 32 volumes) and the books of Poetry, Book of Documents, Book of Changes... into Nom script to prepare new regulations on studying and taking exams under the Tay Son Dynasty.
In September 1792, King Quang Trung suddenly passed away, all of La Son Phu Tu's concerns for his educational career were interrupted; all of his efforts were also unfinished. After destroying the Tay Son dynasty, Nguyen Anh treated the Tay Son followers extremely brutally. However, Nguyen Anh still had a certain respect for Nguyen Thiep, and wanted to invite Nguyen Thiep to help the court, but he refused. Nguyen Thiep returned to Thien Nhan, continuing to live a reclusive life as before, not caring about worldly affairs. Two years later, on December 25, Quy Hoi year (1804), he passed away in his hometown, to the infinite sorrow of the scholars and studious people.
La Son Phu Tu Nguyen Thiep made many contributions to King Quang Trung in the following areas: First, he agreed with King Quang Trung on the opportunity to fight the Qing army (the "lightning speed" strategy was proposed by him. He also affirmed in advance that King Quang Trung would win). Second, he took the position of Director of the Sung Chinh Institute, directed the translation of Chinese books into Nom, contributing to making Nom the main language of our country at that time. Third, he proposed to King Quang Trung a progressive education policy, emphasizing political studies, teaching ethics in schools, and carrying out educational reforms to help attract talents for the country. With his profound understanding and profound knowledge, he was honored as one of the most outstanding teachers of the feudal period.
“Mat Thon Nguyen family genealogy” written by Nguyen Thiep, later continued by his descendants, became valuable material for Professor Hoang Xuan Han to write the book “La Son Phu Tu”. Photo: internet.
At that time, Nguyen Thiep was honored by the people as Phu Tu, with a great reputation. Although he did not have a high position in the imperial examinations, he only taught and then retired to live in seclusion, but he was still famous throughout the country and was respected by the people. His reputation was due to his noble qualities, his upbringing, and his contributions to the cause of culture and education. The ideas about education that he specifically mentioned in his work Luan Hoc Phap still have value today, because they are heartfelt words representing many common concerns of many Vietnamese people.
At the beginning of the memorial, Nguyen Thiep wrote: “The ink is not bright without grinding, the person who does not study does not know the way”. This shows that he had mentioned the purpose of studying early on. Studying to know the way clearly, then people will know how to treat people around them kindly, must determine not to study to seek fame and profit, not only study for oneself, study to “establish virtue”, “establish merit”, to support the king and help the country; from there, have responsibility for the homeland and the country. More importantly, education focuses on ethics to create people with virtue, with knowledge who know how to do things for the common good, useful for the community, for the country.
He criticized the way of learning for personal gain. That is the way of learning in form, learning by heart, learning by rote, learning without understanding the nature of the problem, learning without knowing how to apply knowledge to life, not knowing how to promote the effect of learning in practice and conduct in life. Learning like that only has a false reputation but no substance. Learning only to pass exams, gain reputation, degrees, ranks, be respected, to become an official, to be leisurely, to have many benefits, glory and wealth for oneself and one's relatives... and that way of learning has led to the consequence of "flattery", hating upright, honest people, talented people. The morals and ethics in society are cracked, the pillars of the country are shaken... These are the contents that we are struggling to overcome today. According to him, to learn effectively, there must be a method. That is, we must learn systematically; Learning a lot and knowing a lot but must grasp the core, learning must go hand in hand with practice: "Learn widely and then summarize it concisely, follow what you learn and do it". Nguyen Thiep focused on learning ethics as well as on labor. In the poem Son Cu Tac, Nguyen Thiep wrote:
Reading and plowing are better than anything else in this world.
When it floods, we rest, when it dries, we act.
Don't learn by doing. Think broadly.
Books don't need to be many, the important thing is that they are good. (4)
Nguyen Thiep's ideology has linked learning with practice, learning to apply to life hundreds of years before us today. This is a progressive, unique viewpoint that goes beyond the framework of Confucianism. His teaching of morality is mainly to help people improve themselves to build a clean, progressive life. He taught like that, and lived like that himself. Many of his viewpoints have similarities with our Party's viewpoints on education today. This is clearly shown in Resolution No. 29-NQ/TW dated November 4, 2013 of the Party Central Committee on fundamental and comprehensive innovation of education and training, meeting the requirements of industrialization and modernization in the conditions of a socialist-oriented market economy and international integration. That is, developing education and training is to improve people's knowledge, train human resources, and foster talents. Shift the educational process from mainly equipping knowledge to comprehensively developing learners' capacity and qualities. Learning goes hand in hand with practice; theory is linked to reality...
La Son Phu Tu Poetry Temple - Nguyen Thiep in Kim Song Truong Commune (Can Loc). Photo by Thien Vy
La Son Phu Tu - Nguyen Thiep, although passed away 300 years ago, his reputation will forever be respected. Because he always maintained the noble spirit of a Confucian scholar - a teacher. His thoughts were not only in line with the times but also in line with the world, always aiming to benefit the country and the people. Phu Tu was also an example of studiousness - tirelessly learning and tirelessly teaching.
During the years of living in seclusion on Bui Phong - Thien Nhan mountain, he taught many successful students, brought education and wanted to change education for the entire Tay Son period. The viewpoints and ideas such as focusing on moral education in schools, learning combined with practice, determining the right purpose of learning... of Phu Tu still have certain values for the development of the country's education in the current situation. His enthusiasm and ideas are good values for future generations to learn and follow.
To continue promoting his values and thoughts in the field of education, contributing to the development of Ha Tinh education in the general development of the province, it is necessary to:
Firstly , promote the propaganda about the life, career and important contributions of La Son Phu Tu Nguyen Thiep to the history, culture and education of Vietnam in general; to the homeland and people of Ha Tinh in particular, especially emphasizing the role and progressive views of Nguyen Thiep towards the cause of education. Continue to promote positive values, suitable for the current period.
Second , effectively inherit and creatively apply the progressive educational viewpoints and thoughts of La Son Phu Tu Nguyen Thiep on education to the educational development of Ha Tinh in the current period such as learning methods, determining learning goals, enhancing moral education in schools...
Third , consistently implementing the viewpoint on fundamental and comprehensive innovation of education and training, meeting the requirements of industrialization and modernization in the conditions of a socialist-oriented market economy and international integration is clearly shown in Resolution No. 29-NQ/TW dated November 4, 2013 of the Party Central Committee.
Nguyen Thiep is a shining example of knowledge and morality for many generations in Vietnam. He is the only person who was honored as "Phu Tu" by both the king, specifically Emperor Quang Trung, and the people. Nguyen Thiep is also the only case in our country's history that all the contemporary monarchs, from Lord Trinh Sam, Emperor Quang Trung Nguyen Hue, Emperor Canh Thinh Nguyen Quang Toan to Lord Nguyen Anh, respected and implored to help govern the country. Notably, Nguyen Hue sent him letters and edicts 7 times and met with him 4 times. As the supreme advisor to Emperor Quang Trung in both wartime and peacetime, Nguyen Thiep was truly a national teacher. It was in this position that Nguyen Thiep made great and outstanding contributions to the nation and people of Vietnam in many fields, especially in education.
Inheriting and promoting the progressive views on education of La Son Phu Tu Nguyen Thiep, the Party Committee and people of Ha Tinh continue to strive to comprehensively develop the province's education, contributing to promoting socio-economic development and ensuring national defense and security of the whole province in the current period.
(1) According to the Dictionary of Vietnamese historical figures.
(2) Article: Nguyen Thiep - A teacher determined to reform education by author Duong Tam, posted on vnexpress.net, November 19, 2018.
(3) Author Duy Tuong: https://cand.com.vn/Tu-lieu-antg/La-Son-phu-tu-Nguyen-Thiep-va-dai-thang-mua-xuan-nam-Ky-Dau-1789-i418667/; posted on January 30, 2017.
(4) Excerpt from the poem Son Cu Tac, book La Son Phu Tu - Hoang Xuan Han, 1952, page 59.
Nguyen Xuan Hai
Deputy Head of Provincial Party Committee's Propaganda Department
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