Farewell to the learned scientist: Professor, Doctor Nguyen Quang Hong

Professor, Doctor of Science Nguyen Quang Hong. Photo provided by family

Professor, Doctor Nguyen Quang Hong devoted his life to researching Linguistics and Sino-Nom studies. He published many important scientific research works: "Vietnamese Sino-Nom inscriptions, selected and summarized" (1992); Syllables and language types (1994, 2001); "Diary of Dau pagoda" (1996); "Truyen ky man luc giai am, bien va tran ant" (2001, 2019); "Dictionary of Nom script" (2006, A prize for good books awarded by the Vietnam Publishing Association); "Introduction to self-study of Nom script" (2008).

In particular, the "Nom Dictionary" (2 volumes, 2015) is the largest ever with a capacity of up to 2,323 pages, collecting and explaining more than 9,450 different Nom characters, including nearly 3,000 self-created Nom characters that have never appeared in dictionaries and Nom fonts currently in use. This research work was awarded the Ho Chi Minh Prize for Science and Technology by the State in 2022. This is his typical lifetime work.

Experts have assessed that his Nom dictionary not only contains Nom but also a treasure trove of evidence about Vietnamese language, history and culture. There, through the cited examples to clarify the meaning of Nom, people can see famous works of great poets such as Nguyen Trai, Nguyen Du, Ho Xuan Huong, Nguyen Khuyen, Nguyen Dinh Chieu... and also prose works such as "Truyen ky man luc giai am", Cac Thanh truyen (Catholicism), Co Chau Luc (Buddhism)... with many great ideological values left by our ancestors, to traditional cultural practices hidden in ancient folk poems and folk songs.

Professor, Doctor of Science Nguyen Quang Hong, born in 1940, in Tra Kieu, Duy Xuyen district, Quang Nam province (old).

He has held the following positions: Deputy Director of the Institute of Han-Nom Studies; President of the Vietnam Linguistics Association and Editor-in-Chief of the Language and Life Magazine; Member of the State Council of Professors and Chairman of the Council of Professors in Linguistics; Member of the National Cultural Heritage Council.

Professor, Doctor of Science Nguyen Quang Hong passed away at 4:59 p.m. on October 7, 2025 in Hanoi. He was not only a learned scholar, devoted to knowledge, but also a rare person in Vietnam who contributed to shaping the country's Han-Nom studies for many decades. His passing is a great loss to the Vietnamese language and culture research community.

From the bottom of my heart, I admire his great scientific achievements in the field of Sino-Nom Phonetics. I respectfully bow my head to bid farewell to a wise and erudite person, a dedicated scientist who devoted his whole life to literature, to academia and to future generations.

MSc . Vu Hai Son

Source: https://baodongnai.com.vn/xa-hoi/202510/vinh-biet-nha-khoa-hoc-uyen-bac-giao-su-tien-si-nguyen-quang-hong-ff02b0e/