Honoring the scholar Le Quy Don

The greatest Vietnamese scientist in the 18th century

Le Quy Don's childhood name was Le Danh Phuong, courtesy name Doan Hau, nickname Que Duong, originally from Dien Ha village, Dien Ha district, Son Nam town (now Doc Lap commune, Hung Ha district, Thai Binh province). He was born on August 2, 1726 in Bich Cau ward, Thang Long capital, lived and raised a family here. His father was Doctor Le Trong Thu, nickname Truc Anh, who spent more than 50 years as an official under the Le - Trinh dynasty, was famous for being an honest and straightforward official, and was a person who had a great influence on Le Quy Don's life.

Until now, many people have praised Le Quy Don's rare talent: at the age of 2 he already knew how to read and write, at the age of 5 he could read many classic poems, at the age of 8 he was able to compose the famous poem "Snake Head, Snake Face", at the age of 14 he had read all the Five Classics, Four Books, history, stories, even Chu Tu, in one day he could write 10 poems without needing to write a draft...

At the age of 17, Le Quy Don took the Huong exam at Son Nam school and passed the exam as the first prize winner. That year, he officially changed his name from Le Danh Phuong to Le Quy Don. At the age of 26, he took the Nham Dan exam (1752), and achieved a brilliant golden record: he was the top scorer in both the Hoi and Dinh exams. From here, he began his career as an official.

Cultural celebrity Le Quy Don is known as the "wisdom bag of the era" - the greatest scholar of Vietnam in the 18th century. With his intelligence and profound knowledge, he left to posterity about 50 valuable books covering most of the contemporary knowledge such as: Philosophy, sociology, history, economics, political science, literature, art studies... Some typical works can be mentioned as: on philosophy there are "Thu kinh dien nghia", "Dich kinh phu thuyet", "Xuan thu luoc luan", "Quan thu khac bien"...; on history there are "Dai Viet thong su", "Kien van tieu luc", "Bac su thong luc", "Le trieu cong than liet truyen"...; on literature there are "Toan Viet thi luc", "Hoang Viet van hai", "Que Duong thi tap", "Que Duong van tap"...; especially on encyclopedia there is "Van Dai loai ngu"...

In 1784, he fell ill and asked to return to his maternal hometown Duy Tien for treatment. He died on June 2 of that year and was posthumously awarded the title of Minister of Public Works.

UNESCO approves recommendation for recognition

At the international scientific conference “Le Quy Don: Life and career” held in Thai Binh, Associate Professor, Dr. Nina V. Grigoreva, HSE University, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation, commented that with his contributions and through his works, scholar Le Quy Don showed that he was the leading enlightener of Vietnam.

“Le Quy Don was a mandarin, intellectual and great scientist during the Le Trung Hung period. He lived, worked and wrote in the middle decades of the 18th century, which in world history is called the Enlightenment century. He was a contemporary of great cultural and scientific figures such as Montesquieu (France), Voltaire (France), Hume (England), Lomonosov (Russia), Rousseau (Switzerland - France), Diderot (France)...”, Ms. Nina V. Grigoreva analyzed.

Professor Shimizu Masaaki, Osaka University, Japan, made a very interesting comparison between the scholar Le Quy Don and the famous 18th century Japanese linguist, the National Scholar named Motoori Norinaga (1730 - 1801).

“Comparing with the research method of a Japanese nationalist, Motoori Norinaga, to determine the similarities and differences between two contemporary scholars in Vietnam and Japan, Le Quy Don was the first Vietnamese person to consider language and writing as objects for thinking and perception. He was the first person to propose the method of researching Vietnamese in the history of Vietnamese science,” emphasized Professor, Dr. Shimizu Masaaki.

In recent years, the Vietnam Institute of Culture and Arts Studies and the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Thai Binh province have prepared a dossier on cultural celebrity Le Quy Don to propose UNESCO to co-organize the 300th anniversary of his birth in 2026.

On the night of April 10, 2025 (local time), at the 221st Session of the Executive Board of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) held in Paris, member countries adopted a Decision recommending that the UNESCO General Conference, scheduled to meet in November 2025, approve the honoring and joint celebration of the birthdays of a number of celebrities around the world, including honoring and joining Vietnam in celebrating the 300th anniversary of the birth of Le Quy Don (1726 - 2026).

The delegation of Thai Binh province, in coordination with the Vietnamese Embassy in France, the Vietnamese Delegation to UNESCO and the Vietnamese Cultural Center in France, successfully organized the Conference “Introducing the Cultural Celebrity Le Quy Don and promoting culture and tourism in Thai Binh province”. The conference is part of the efforts to mobilize UNESCO to jointly organize the celebration of the 300th anniversary of the birth of Celebrity Le Quy Don (1726 - 2026).

Bao Chau

Source: https://baophapluat.vn/vinh-danh-nha-bac-hoc-le-quy-don-post545518.html