Our teacher Phan Dang - Phan Hua Thuy!

"Hello everyone, this year I've been assigned by the Faculty Board to be the homeroom teacher for your K10 Literature class. My name is Phan Dang."

It was a morning in late October 1986 when our Literature class, K10, met our teacher. Nearly forty years have passed, and those students, then 18-20 years old, are now approaching 60, having almost completed a full cycle of life. We suddenly realize how fortunate we were to have been taught by him during our university years, and even more so, to have him as our homeroom teacher after the first two years.

Professor Phan Dang (fourth from the right) during a field trip with Literature Faculty students.

In the years that followed, although he was no longer our class advisor, in his new role as Head of the Literature Department, we remained close to him until the very end of our student life. Even after graduation, in many of our professional endeavors, we still had the opportunity to meet him, fortunate enough to receive his profound knowledge about our homeland that few others possessed. Returning to our first class meeting of our student days...

After introducing himself, probably thinking that the students in the class, coming from many different regions, might not have heard his name clearly, the teacher picked up a piece of chalk, stood up, wrote "Phan Đăng" on the blackboard, and then turned to us and said, "Actually, my father's name for me was Đang, not Đăng. When I started school, my teacher heard my name and said, 'Student, let me add the accent mark, your name Đang will be Đăng, it sounds better. But go ask your father if there are any taboos associated with that name, if not, then your name will be Đăng.' I asked my father, and he agreed, so that's how I got the name Đăng that you see on the blackboard."

But I'm not sure if the teacher will change my name. In my class, there was a guy named Le Cu, who was very smart. You probably know him already. Back then, not all parents were literate, so they just named their sons "Cu" and their daughters "Bep." The teacher said to Le Cu: "This student's name is Cu, so let me change it. I'll add a beard, you know. A beard makes the letter U 'Ư', so I'll change it to Le Cu." That friend of mine, whose name was changed to Le Cu, later became very successful.

Why am I telling you these stories? It's so you can see that a name is linked to a person's entire life, but back when I was in school, the teacher could change it to make their students better, more successful, and more admirable. That was the teachers of the past; as for teachers now, especially at the university level, you'll gradually find out.

That first meeting between teacher and students, for some reason, remains as vivid in our memories as if it were just yesterday, even after nearly 40 years. That same day, while discussing the difficulties students would face, not only with food and living expenses, but also with school supplies and textbooks, the teacher recounted: "If you have a notebook to write in, you're lucky. When I was in school, each of us had a wooden tray made by a carpenter at our parents' request. When learning to write, we'd pour sand into the tray, smooth it with our hands, and write each letter on the sand with our finger. We'd write it over and over until we mastered the letter, then shake the tray to smooth the sand again and practice writing another letter..."

Teacher Phan Dang and his work "Hoang Viet Nhat Thong Du Dia Chi" won the National Book Award in 2022.

These past few days, after hearing the news of the passing of our teacher, Mr. Dang, dozens of generations of his students have traveled from many regions to Hue , to his small house by the An Cuu River (Hue) to light incense and bid him farewell. On the Facebook pages of his students, there is an outpouring of sorrow for their beloved teacher.

Journalist Dinh Nhu Hoan, a student of Literature K7 and former Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Nhan Dan newspaper, recalled two teachers in the Literature department: "The Literature students of Hue University back then still remember the saying: 'The virtue of "Virtue" was learned from Teacher Thang, and the humanity of "Humanity" was learned from Teacher Dang." Each student held a unique appreciation for Teacher Dang's concept of "Humanity."

In my class (Literature K10), there was a student named Phan Quang Mười who was injured as a result of the war. When we were preparing for graduation, the professor met with Mười privately and said: "Given your circumstances, finding a job won't be easy. I don't have much to help you with, so let me discuss it with the department and the university. We might try to keep you here and arrange a job for you, perhaps in academic affairs." Although Mười didn't stay in the department with the job the professor could have offered, that kindness, that act of humanity, will stay with him forever. Now, Mười is the head of the administrative department at the Quảng Nam newspaper.

One of the biggest anxieties of our generation of students was probably...hunger. The standard student meal gave rise to terms like "national soup" and "ocean-sized" fish sauce. And to make us even hungrier with those long, drawn-out lectures only intensified the hunger. Luckily, classes with Professor Dang always made us eagerly anticipate them and wish they would last forever! Not only because of the amount of knowledge he packed into his lectures, but also because of his teaching style: serious yet witty, insightful yet down-to-earth, quiet yet impactful.

Researcher Phan Dang (Phan Hua Thuy)

Hometown: Dong Ha, Quang Tri

I studied at the Faculty of Literature, Hue University of Education.

Training at Harvard University (USA)

Lecturer at Hue University of Education, Hue University of Science, and the Vietnam Buddhist Academy in Hue.

* Printed books:

- Poetry and prose of Nguyen Cu Trinh

- Poems and Prose of Emperor Tự Đức, Volumes I and II (edited)

- Poems and Prose of Tu Duc, Volume III, - Tu Duc's Sacred Decree on Self-Study and Interpretation (transcription, annotations, introduction)

- Dai Nam Hoi Dien Su Le (co-edited and compiled)

- Hoang Viet Geographical Gazetteer (translation, annotations, introduction)

- Hoang Viet Nhat Thong Du Dia Chi (translation, annotation, introduction, first edition - 2005)

- O Chau Can Luc, along with Van Thanh (translation, annotation, introduction)

- Vietnamese Sino-Vietnamese texts (University textbook)

- Vietnamese Historical Narrative (transliteration, annotations, introduction)

* Several co-authored works and numerous scientific research papers and presentations both domestically and internationally.

Two years ago, when Professor was awarded the A prize for his work "Hoang Viet Nhat Thong Du Dia Chi" at the 5th National Book Awards in 2022 (organized jointly by the Ministry of Information and Communications, the Vietnam Publishers Association, and the Voice of Vietnam Radio on the evening of October 3, 2022 in Hanoi), his students everywhere joyfully shared the good news, calling to inform their fellow alumni of the faculty.

After the awards ceremony, Le Thanh Ha (from the Literature class of K13 - now the Director of Thanh Nien Publishing House in Hanoi) invited the teachers to a late-night meal, and then Ha sent her friends heartwarming photos of the teachers and students together that night in a corner of the old town. It was just sharing the joy with the teachers, but I could sense in those photos so much warm affection unique to students who, through their teacher, had chosen the path of literature!

Observing the areas of research and translation by Professor later on, besides the field of Buddhist culture, in which he was always highly respected by experts in that field, the story of national sovereignty in ancient texts always interested him. When he translated the book "Hoang Viet Nhat Thong Du Dia Chi" by Le Quang Dinh, which is considered the first geographical treatise of the Nguyen dynasty, written right after Emperor Gia Long's coronation.

The work holds immense significance for the nation-building and the establishment of the Nguyen dynasty. The vast territory stretching from South to North, as described in the book, symbolizes Vietnam's power and strength during that period. At the book launch in Hue, the professor explained that because it is a geographical work, it contains numerous place names, personal names, and names of local products, written in both Chinese and Vietnamese characters, making translation quite challenging.

But for us, his students, we understand that, with his knowledge and expertise, his translation of classical Chinese and Vietnamese texts was powerful enough to create an authentic document affirming the nation's territory, while also demonstrating the independence and cultural heritage of a self-reliant nation in the early 19th century—this was his silent contribution to the Fatherland.

Not only was there the book "Hoang Viet Nhat Thong Du Dia Chi," but the teacher was also diligently translating many other books related to national sovereignty, maritime and island sovereignty, etc., but he never managed to complete them. Those aspirations remain unfulfilled in the ancient manuscripts in the small attic of his small house. From that attic, looking across the river, the An Dinh Palace is reflected in the An Cuu River, its waters clear and sunny.

Venerable Phan Dang spoke at a seminar on Buddhist heritage in Quang Tri province, held at Sac Tu Pagoda, Trieu Phong district.

With the passage of time, after countless trials and tribulations in life, and after traveling countless miles, we may not remember all the poems our teacher taught, or the works he painstakingly crafted. But surely, we, his students, will still remember the image of a modern-day scholar and all the other bittersweet memories that are not always easy to recount.

Good fortune is something not everyone experiences in life. And if there is one stroke of luck that will continue to influence generations of Literature students like us, it is that we were fortunate enough to LEARN from our teacher—a capitalized word for "Learn"—because he not only taught us academics, but he was the most vivid embodiment of what we often say today: "Personal teaching."

And we borrow the words of a senior colleague mentioned at the beginning of this article when remembering our teacher: "Learning from him wasn't just about academics, but also about learning how to be a good person. So many generations of students followed him, becoming upright, honest, righteous, and disdainful of wealth. And he became a towering mountain in each of us. Now, that mountain has disappeared forever!"

Le Duc Duc

Source: https://baoquangtri.vn/thay-phan-dang-phan-hua-thuy-cua-chung-toi-189480.htm