Ancient Vietnamese life through the lens of Vuong Hong Sen, Huynh Tinh Cua, Truong Vinh Ky

Collecting many stories passed down through the generations, the 3 books: Jokes of the Old Friends by author Vuong Hong Sen, Stories to Relieve Sadness by Huynh Tinh Cua and Stories of Old Times by Truong Vinh Ky reflect the customs, ways of thinking, and speech of our country in the past - especially in the South, carrying lessons on human relations and bringing profound laughter.

The works are printed in elegant hardcover, with a classic presentation style and traditional folk illustrations by artists Dang Van Long and Lam Chi Trung.

Đời sống người Việt xưa qua lăng kính Vương Hồng Sển, Huỳnh Tịnh Của, Trương Vĩnh Ký- Ảnh 1. — The book series has just been published by Tre Publishing House.

Jokes of the Old Friends by author Vuong Hong Sen includes 203 stories, compiled from 43 books and documents in both Vietnamese and French, many of which are now out of print.

Scholar Vuong Hong Sen is a person who reads a lot and collects a lot of documents, so the valuable points in this book are the comments, originals, references, and explanations of words, not just the content of the story.

For example, in the article "The Worry of Writing" , originally translated from the French version, he posted three French essays below the Vietnamese version for readers to easily compare and contrast. Or like in the article "Hiding the Plow" , he posted both the Southern and Northern versions. In the article "Drinking Wine with Cups ", he meticulously added explanations about "jackfruit seed cups", "buffalo eye cups", "good cups, military cups, and serving cups"...

Đời sống người Việt xưa qua lăng kính Vương Hồng Sển, Huỳnh Tịnh Của, Trương Vĩnh Ký- Ảnh 2. — Scholar Vuong Hong Sen

Đời sống người Việt xưa qua lăng kính Vương Hồng Sển, Huỳnh Tịnh Của, Trương Vĩnh Ký- Ảnh 3. — When he passed away, culturalist Vuong Hong Sen donated his collection of antiques (a total of 849 artifacts) to the state.

With Truong Vinh Ky's Old Stories , consisting of 74 stories, readers can see some familiar stories, such as Mr. Cong Quynh, Intelligence is better than strength, The fool went to buy a duck... besides new stories, painstakingly collected by the author about how to live and behave in life.

In "Chuyen doi xua" one can see the rarity of collected stories and the language of that time. In particular, this book was originally written by Truong Vinh Ky for "children to practice reading Quoc Ngu, and also for foreigners who want to learn Annamese, to read and practice understanding". Regarding the language, he also assessed himself: "People who use this book to learn the language will find it useful, because the way of speaking is pure Annamese, with many words and sentences that are commonly used".

Meanwhile , Huynh Tinh Cua's "Story to Relieve Sadness" stands out for keeping the original Southern words and writing style that the author used at the time of writing this work. The book includes 112 stories, adapted from Chinese stories or stories that happened during his time. This helps readers approach and understand more about the language of the newly discovered land in the second half of the 19th century.

The work was written in a colloquial language to suit the intelligence and awareness of the Southern people at that time. The stories here are not meant to entertain, but are gentle, subtle stories used as life lessons, with the last paragraph or last sentence of each story often being a profound conclusion.

The three cultural figures Vuong Hong Sen, Truong Vinh Ky, and Huynh Tinh Cua have contributed to preserving the Vietnamese language and soul; and the publication of these three works is also for that noble purpose.

Vuong Hong Sen (1902 - 1996) was a culturalist, scholar, and antique collector. He had a deep understanding of the South and was highly respected in the historian and archaeologist community in Vietnam. Most of his works were written in the form of memoirs and research. When he passed away, he donated his house (Van Duong Palace) and his collection of antiques (a total of 849 artifacts) to the state, with the hope of establishing a museum.

Huynh Tinh Cua (or Huynh Tinh Cua or also known as Paulus Cua) was born in 1830 (some documents say 1834) in Phuoc Tuy village, Phuoc Hung Ha commune, Ba Ria province (now Ba Ria - Vung Tau ), was a famous journalist, cultural and linguistic researcher of Vietnam from the second half of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century. He made outstanding contributions to the research and dissemination of the National Language in the early stages in Southern Vietnam. He died on January 26, 1908 (some documents say 1907).

Truong Vinh Ky (1837 - 1898) was named Truong Chanh Ky when he was young, later changed his middle name to Truong Vinh Ky, pen name Si Tai, was a scholar, linguist, educator and cultural researcher of Vietnam in the 19th century. He left behind more than 100 works on literature, history, geography, dictionary and translation... For the press in Vietnam, he is considered a pioneer because he founded the first newspaper written in Quoc Ngu - Gia Dinh Bao .

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