A distant look…

Mr. Huynh Thoan (grandson calls Mr. Huynh "grandfather") is preserving Mr. Huynh's Memorial House. Photo: T.Viet

Listen to the wind from Son Ve peak

Mr. Huynh Thoan (the person who is maintaining the Huynh Thuc Khang Memorial House) still has a bright, wide smile, his eyes are sharp as if teasing the approaching age of 82. His house is across the street, right next to the Huynh Thuc Khang Memorial House.

He said, "Oh my gosh, you've just moved in. When I built my house, it was after 2016. This 300m2 ^plot of land was given to me by the government in exchange for the 2,000m2 ^{of land} taken from the memorial house. Long story...

He opened the door of the Huynh Memorial House. The wind from Son Ve peak blew down, through the walls and the threshold. The table where he and I sat drinking tea had a small sign “Recording in the guest book”, looking straight at the gate. He said that a year ago, a long time ago, Tien Phuoc district suggested that the gate should be moved down to the lower part of the house, meaning that the entrance would not be right in the middle of the house, but I said no, that’s how it was in the past.

When he saw me off, he stood at the gate with me and told me about the legend of Son Ve peak, where there is a stone table for fairies to play chess and a well that never dries up.

I looked at the mountain and blurted out: “You are right not to change the gate. The ancient Confucian scholars, like Mr. Huynh, knew feng shui and numerology like the back of their hands. The gate faces the lowest depression of the mountain, as if the mountain vein ran here, stopped in front of his house to rest, and then continued. According to feng shui, this is a useful place. According to people, it is to go straight to the highest point of the mountain, which means the house's bright path is blocked…”.

He said: "I heard my father say when he was alive that he told his children and grandchildren that the feng shui of our house was very good."

Last will and testament

Once, he showed me the will that Mr. Huynh left for his descendants. It was a will that Mr. Huynh translated from the original Chinese characters, written in Hue on September 11, Quy Mui year (1943).

Ten handwritten pages, saying many things, but the part about worshiping and preserving this incense house was handed over to Mr. Toan (Mr. Thoan's father, Mr. Huynh called him grandfather) to preserve and worship. Mr. Toan had passed away, now it was Mr. Thoan's turn, and he was already that old...

“So what are you going to do?” I asked Mr. Thoan. Just me and him in the silence of the house. “Before my father passed away, I made a certificate that I was his only son, as a precaution.” “Did Mr. Toan give me any instructions?” “The old man said I must take good care of the house, no matter how difficult it is.”

Then he pondered: “I have kept the house, even though it is a memorial site, a special national relic managed by the State, I understand, but currently the house and land papers here are in my name, managed by my family. I have a wish, to inherit it for my son”. “Are you worried?”. “I am not worried, and I have great confidence that my descendants will preserve the will of our ancestors. To tell you the truth, I dreamed that Mr. Huynh did not see it, but my father kept seeing it, he told me to keep the house”.

He said he wasn’t worried, but I read the somewhat earnest message of the wishes that had been sent and passed on. The family tradition was still there, at least in his house, many times I witnessed him hiding to one side when some important guests came to visit Mr. Huynh’s shrine. Some people came to pay their respects, some people finished burning incense, then left. I tried to observe the movement, to see if he would say anything. Absolutely nothing. The usual silence and calmness of a homeowner who was too used to the bustling atmosphere of incense smoke.

One day, on a bus passing by, I saw him standing pensively looking out at the mountain, and it awakened in me the vastness of someone who knew every brick of this place, the place that gave birth to a great hero for the country of Vietnam...

Keep the family heirloom

I told him that taking care of this house is not just a matter of turning the lights on and off, cleaning, and keeping an eye on the sun and rain. “Yes, it is my grandparents’ house. I am their descendant, burning incense on their altar every day, not as a guardian of the relic. This is our family heirloom. Taking good care of it is fulfilling our filial piety to our ancestors.”

I know quite a lot about the so-called relic owner in this house, and the government finally acted in a way that created a warm relationship between both sides. Mr. Thoan said that one of his wishes was to have a shrine to Mr. Huynh's parents right in the memorial house, on the left and right of the house, but he was not allowed to, and the government, in the support plan for him to build the house he is living in, also had a sum for him to take care of that. Well, that's it.

I looked at him, and met his distant gaze again. Unexpectedly, he said: “Why bother keeping this house? I am comfortable, even if I am no longer here. I have experienced all the hardships of a farmer’s life. Fortunately, I have 6 children who are properly educated, have a good job and a full house. I have no more worries.”

Well, I hope you don't worry, as future generations always have a broad perspective on culture and its values, not to mention this is the birthplace and upbringing of Mr. Huynh, a man who worked for the people all his life with a spirit of steel...

Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/voi-voi-mot-cai-nhin-3157126.html