Professor Hà Văn Tấn – A Scholar of Profound Knowledge
With around 250 research works in history and archaeology to his name, Professor Hà Văn Tấn was awarded the Ho Chi Minh Prize (2nd round) in 2000.
A Rising Star at Twenty
Born in Tiên Điền, Nghi Xuân, Hà Tĩnh (the same village as the great poet Nguyễn Du), Hà Văn Tấn graduated with a bachelor’s degree in history in 1957 at the age of 20, becoming one of the youngest lecturers at Hanoi General University.
It must have taken the discerning eye of Professor Đào Duy Anh to entrust Hà Văn Tấn with the difficult and demanding task of editing and annotating Dư địa chí, a 15th-century geographical work by Nguyễn Trãi written in classical Chinese and later translated into Vietnamese chữ Quốc ngữ by Confucian scholar Phan Huy Tiếp.
Though labeled as “annotations,” the section spans 115 pages—four times the length of the main text (38 pages). That’s because annotating the text meant identifying the historical and present-day locations referenced in the work, requiring extensive knowledge of Vietnamese geography over the centuries. To do this, one had to consult nearly every geographical document on Vietnam written by both Vietnamese and Chinese authors.
Researcher Nguyễn Vinh Phúc, who attempted a preliminary survey, found that in the process of writing these annotations, Hà Văn Tấn had read 30 Chinese classical texts and 16 Vietnamese ones—all in their original classical Chinese. These included Shui Jing Zhu, Han Shu, Hou Han Shu, Shu Zhi, Nan Shu Zhi from Chinese historians, as well as Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư, Khâm định Việt sử Thông giám Cương mục, An Nam chí lược, and others from Vietnamese sources.
In his article Mr. Hà Văn Tấn as I Know Him, Nguyễn Vinh Phúc wrote:
“The author’s mastery of classical Chinese is astounding! As the French classical poet Pierre Corneille once said: ‘True worth does not wait upon age!’”
In the same annotations, Hà Văn Tấn also identified several textual errors in Dư địa chí that had been introduced by later copyists.
According to Professor Phan Huy Lê, during a faculty meeting of the Department of Ancient and Medieval Vietnamese History, Professor Đào Duy Anh commented on Hà Văn Tấn’s debut work (editing and annotating Dư địa chí):
“Very meticulous and rigorous. I’m very pleased and have full confidence in the author.”
Praised by Scholars Hoài Thanh and Hoàng Xuân Hãn
Another significant work by Hà Văn Tấn that stirred public attention was The Resistance Against the Mongol Invasion in the 13th Century (co-authored with Phạm Thị Tâm), published in 1968.
Literary critic Hoài Thanh wrote a glowing review in a major Hanoi newspaper, praising the book as a serious historical work full of new discoveries, and so compelling that it rivaled a great novel.
From Paris, Professor Hoàng Xuân Hãn also commented on the new insights brought forth by the book.
To write it, Hà Văn Tấn consulted nearly a hundred books written in a wide array of scripts and languages: chữ Quốc ngữ, chữ Nôm, classical Chinese, Russian, English, French, German, Japanese, and Polish. He even studied a Persian chronicle by the 13th-century historian Fazl Allah Rasid ud-Din from Tehran.
Thanks to that Persian historian, we now know that as early as the 13th century, the victory of Giao Chỉ (ancient Vietnam) over Tugan (Thoát Hoan), forcing him to flee to Lukin-fu (present-day Long Hưng Prefecture, Jiangxi, China), was known as far west as Asia Minor. The historian from Hamadan near Tehran recorded it in his Persian-language chronicle using an ancient script that is difficult for any contemporary Vietnamese to decipher or understand.
Shortly before his passing, President Hồ Chí Minh read this very book and asked to learn more about its two authors: Hà Văn Tấn and Phạm Thị Tâm.
More recently, in May 2006, in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the University of Indochina, this acclaimed work by Hà Văn Tấn and Phạm Thị Tâm was awarded a special prize by Vietnam National University, Hanoi.
A Scholar of Sanskrit and Buddhist Studies
Historian Phan Đại Doãn recalled:
“During the wartime evacuation in Vạn Thọ, Đại Từ District, Thái Nguyên Province, when Mr. Tấn was not yet 30, I often chatted with the witty scholar Trần Lê Hữu. One day, I asked him: ‘Sir, what do you think about us young scholars?’ He replied: ‘I’ve studied and sat for imperial exams, but I must admit—I deeply admire Tấn’s command of classical Chinese!’”
One of Hà Văn Tấn’s other influential works in historical scholarship was his article From a Recently Discovered Buddhist Pillar (973 AD) in Hoa Lư, published in issue No. 76 of the Historical Research Journal (1965) when he was just 28.
The pillar was an eight-sided stone column with Han characters engraved on each face. Due to the stone’s softness and centuries underground, parts of the text had eroded and become illegible. Hà Văn Tấn meticulously restored and transcribed the characters, published them with Sino-Vietnamese phonetic renderings, and—more challengingly—reconstructed the original Sanskrit, since the Han characters were merely phonetic renderings of the Sanskrit sutras.
He then analyzed the meaning, bridging languages, cultures, and centuries with scholarly precision.
Professor Hà Văn Tấn in 2000, Recipient of the Ho Chi Minh Prize
It is well known that Sanskrit (and Pali) is an ancient language of India—so archaic that today, even most Indians can barely read it. Only highly trained scholars can hope to understand it. Hà Văn Tấn, however, managed to learn it on his own, quietly studying Sanskrit through German texts from the age of 20!
Mastery of Classical Chinese, Sanskrit, and Buddhist Studies
On Professor Hà Văn Tấn’s linguistic expertise and deep knowledge of Buddhist studies, scholar Nguyễn Vinh Phúc shared a fascinating anecdote. During his visits to temples and shrines around Hanoi, when encountering difficult Han characters on horizontal panels or couplets, Mr. Phúc often turned to “his erudite young friend” for help—and always received clear, accurate explanations.
“I often came across characters like lục thức (six senses) and bát thức (eight senses) in couplets,” Phúc recounted. “So I asked him about the difference.”
“The lục thức (six senses),” Hà Văn Tấn explained, “refers to the six basic faculties in Theravāda Buddhism: eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, and mind. Mahāyāna Buddhism adds two more: mạt-na and a-lại-da. Mạt-na comes from the Sanskrit māna, meaning intuitive self-awareness, similar to apperception in Western philosophy. A-lại-da (Sanskrit: ālaya) means ‘storehouse’ and can be seen as a form of phenomenology in Buddhist philosophy.”
Phúc then asked about a peculiar temple in Thịnh Yên market, Hanoi—Chùa Vua (King’s Pagoda)—which houses only a statue of Đế Thích (Indra), not the usual pantheon.
“This is an example of Indra worship,” Hà Văn Tấn replied. “Đế Thích, or Indra in Sanskrit, along with Brahma, were ancient Vedic deities later integrated into the Buddhist pantheon. In Vietnamese temples, statues of these two gods are often placed beside the statue of the infant Buddha (Cửu Long). Indra is lord of Trāyastriṃśa Heaven in the Desire Realm, and Brahma is ruler of the Great Brahmā Heaven in the Form Realm. Their status as divine kings explains their depiction in royal attire—robes and crowns.”
He added, “In Vietnam and some Mahāyāna countries, separate worship of Indra persists. Hanoi has Chùa Vua, Hưng Yên has Đế Thích Shrine in La Chàng (Ân Thi) and Liêu Hạ (Mỹ Văn). In Japan, the deity is known as Taishakuten and also worshipped independently.”
Thanks to his extraordinary memory, Hà Văn Tấn could easily read and comprehend texts in seven foreign languages.
Tracing the Indigenous Origins of Đông Sơn Culture
Although Hà Văn Tấn achieved great success in historical studies, it was his contributions to archaeology that earned him the Ho Chi Minh Prize. His book In the Footsteps of Ancient Cultures clarified key issues about pre-Đông Sơn cultures such as Gò Mun, Đồng Đậu, and Phùng Nguyên, proving their indigenous origins.
This was no easy task. Prior to Hà Văn Tấn, several prominent foreign scholars had argued that the magnificent Đông Sơn culture was not of Vietnamese origin. For example:
- O. Janse traced it to nomadic peoples from the Eurasian steppes.
- B. Karlgren suggested it stemmed from the Huai River Valley in China.
- R. Heine-Geldern believed it was created by the Tokharians, who allegedly migrated to Vietnam after a long journey from the shores of the Black Sea!
Hà Văn Tấn firmly disagreed with these theories. But disproving them was far from simple. It required decades of fieldwork, collecting tens of thousands of solid archaeological facts, and mastering the most advanced research methodologies to form airtight arguments.
In a series of scientific articles, Hà Văn Tấn convincingly demonstrated that Đông Sơn culture developed directly from earlier indigenous cultures already discovered by Vietnamese archaeologists. Preceding Đông Sơn was the Gò Mun culture; before Gò Mun was Đồng Đậu; and before Đồng Đậu was Phùng Nguyên.
Some of his key publications include:
- The Phùng Nguyên Culture and the Origins of the Vietnamese People
- The Phùng Nguyên People and Symmetry
- From Phùng Nguyên Ceramics to Đông Sơn Bronze Drums
In these works, accompanied by detailed illustrations, Professor Hà Văn Tấn—then Director of the Institute of Archaeology—showed that the vocabulary and syntax of Phùng Nguyên ceramics mirrored those found in Đông Sơn bronze artifacts. The “language” of this material culture lies in its visual motifs and decorative patterns.
A Lifelong Teacher and National Educator
Having dedicated over 50 years to teaching, Professor Hà Văn Tấn was honored with the title People’s Teacher by the Vietnamese government.
Sadly, in recent years, he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage. Though his memory has since recovered, his ability to work and contribute further to science has been greatly limited.
Ham Chau
Original link: http://hoasymanhquynh.org/con-re-cua-hoa-sy-ngo-manh-quynh-giao-su-ha-van-tan.html
