Real gold is not afraid of fire

In the Nom script, vang (黃) has two meanings: the color yellow and gold (precious metal). For example: The king's grace is five golden flags /恩𤤰𠄼𦰟旗黄 ( Ly hang ca dao ); I wish I could exchange a thousand gold pieces for them /𠦳黄約対特咍庄 ( Quoc am thi tap cua Nguyen Trai). However, vang (黃) is not a pure Nom word, because it is a borrowed word from the word hoang (黃) in Chinese.

Huang (黃) is a word that appeared in the Shang Dynasty Oracle Bone Inscriptions, its basic meaning is yellow, one of the five colors of ancient times, corresponding to the five elements and five directions. Huang is also used to refer to objects, animals and plants that are yellow or is the abbreviation of the Emperor. As a noun, Huang (黃) is also used to refer to the earth ( xuanhuang : heaven and earth); the elderly ( huangfang or yellow root ); children (during the Tang Dynasty, children 3 years old and under were called Huang ).

According to Professor Mark J. Alves, the word "vàng" in Vietnamese originates from the word " huang" (黃) in Chinese, a word whose ancient Chinese pronunciation is /*N-kʷˤaŋ/ ( Identifying early Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary through linguistic, historical, archaeological and ethnological data , 2016). Of course, ancient Vietnamese people did not read the word "huang" (黃) according to ancient Chinese pronunciation, even in the 1st - 2nd century (pre-Vietnamese - Muong period in linguistics), Vietnamese people still did not pronounce it "vàng" because during this period Vietnamese did not have tones. By the 6th century, according to linguist AG Haudricourt (France), Vietnamese had just begun to have 3 tones (ngang, xuan, sac), at this time there was the possibility of the sound "vàng" appearing, mispronouncing the Chinese pronunciation "huáng" (黃), with the tone being the grave accent (\), that is, the low-pitched tone (trầm bình or Dương bình). Then, in the 17th century, Vietnamese had all 6 tones. Vietnamese people transcribed the Sino-Vietnamese word " hoang" (黃) based on the sound: (h(ô) + (q)uang), read as "hoang" ( Kangxi dictionary ).

In addition to the word "huang" (黃), there is another Sino-Vietnamese word read as " kim " (金), which also means "gold" (metal), a word that appears in the Chinese saying "True gold does not fear fire" (真金不怕火炼) - later shortened to the proverb " True gold does not fear fire" (真金不怕火), Vietnamese people translate it as "True gold does not fear fire". This sentence means that what is right can withstand challenges, the metaphor is about "people with good character and strong will can overcome all challenges". This sentence comes from chapter 115 of the novel "Diêm dương thiên" (艳阳天) by Hạo Nhiên - a famous Chinese writer: "Dark clouds cannot cover the sun, true gold does not fear fire". (The old cloud does not stay in the sun, The true gold does not break the fire/乌云遮不住太阳, 真金不怕火炼).