French ORIENTALIST – Section 1
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Prof. Assoc. Dr. in History HUNG NGUYEN MANH1
Today, the Vietnamese people no longer see, even the silhouette, of the french colonialists on the vietnamese land. They might be seen only through old pages of books of history or through research works such as the Bulletin de l’école Française d’Extrême-Orient (Far-Eastern French School), the Bulletin de la Société des Études Indochinoises, Bulletin of the Society for Indochinese Studies), the Bulletin des Amis du Vieux Huế (Friends of Old Huế Bulletin), or the Publication de I’Institut Indochinois pour l’étude de l’homme (publication of the Indochinese Institute for the Study of Man)…, or through research documents on the material, cultural, and spiritual life of the vietnamese people which those french colonialists had left behind. Among such documents, some of them not only confirmed the presence of many french scholars since almost one hundred years, but also affirmed the existence of many Roman Catholic priests and missionaries since many past centuries, through many research works on “The mission of Jesuits in Tonkin”(*), as well as on the big progress achieved in the conversion of atheists to Roman Catholicism from 1627 to 1646”.
All those priests and missionaries had not only set foot in the deltas of South and North Vietnam, but they had also gone deep into mountainous areas, such as the cases of the Rev. Father SAVINA2 who studied the ethnic minorities in the Northern mountainous area and in the Sino-Vietnamese frontier area; the Rev. Father CADIÈRE3, who besides the subjects relating to the society, language, and folklore of the Vietnamese – had also made researches on the history of the Chams; or the case of the Rev. Father DOURISBOURE4 who made researches on ethnography. There’s also the Rev. Father ALEXANDRE DE RHODES5 who had compiled the Dictionarium Annamiticum Lusitenum et Latinum – Rome 1651.
There were, at that time, not only the missionaries and scholars, but also the tradesmen. Though very busy with their business, they were still present in the North to write their relations such as the case of TAVERNIER6, or that of SAMUEL BARON7 (an Englishman) who had made descriptions of the land he visited. They also paid much attention to the political and social situations, as well as to the customs and habits, the geography, and the history of the language in the places they had visited.
But, as a special feature, there were french administrators who not only took care of the administration, but had also saved much time for carrying out research works such as the case of Sabatier who studied the customary law and the saga of the Ede tribe, LANDES8 who paid special attention to vietnamese folk-tales and language, and CORDIER9 – although he was a custom officer, had worked as a translator for the Indochinese Ministry of Justice and had taught Vietnamese and Chinese to the french officials. As for the Air Force captain CESBRON10, he had wanted to elevated vietnamese legends and fairy tales up to the skies.
There was also the police superintendent DAYOT11 who translated ĐỒ CHIỂU’s poem12 LỤC VÂN TIÊN into french, giving all his attention to each verse, each word… Among the many french researchers, the most famous ones were the following people: G. DUMOUTIER13 – an archaeologist, ethnologist and orientalist – employed by the Governor General as his interpreter, MAURICE DURAND14, the well-known author of the work entitled “Vietnamese Popular Imagery”. PIERRE HUARD15 who had written the so commonly known book entitled “Knowledge of Vietnam”, and more recently, we have had PHILIPPE LANGLET,16 a doctor in history, who had taught Literature at the former Saigon University, and had translated the “Khâm Định Việt Sử Thống Giám Cương Mục (1970)” (Authorized History of Vietnam) and used it as a thesis for obtaining his Doctor degree. Today, not many people from that generation still survive. They have simply ceded their places to other Russian, Japanese, American orientalists… Depending on the researching viewpoints, which might be either materialistic or idealistic, dialectical or metaphysical… the Vietnamese studies are displayed before their eyes with new elements.
However, after going through all the documents left behind as mentioned above we haven’t met with any french researcher whose name is HENRI OGER16! Maybe, we ought to read an article by PIERRE HUARD, carried out on the Bulletin de l’école Française d’Extrême-Orient and entitled “Henri Oger, the pioneer in Vietnamese technology” (Figure 72). The contents of this article might somewhat throw light on this frenchman.
… be continue in Section 2 …
NOTE:
◊ French ORIENTALISTS – Section 2.
NOTES:
(*) Region governed by Lord Trịnh from Đèo Ngang to North VN.
15: PIERRE HUARD – The pioneer in Vietnamese technology – Henri Oger (1885-1936?), B.E.F.E.O, Tome LVII – 1970 – pp. 215-217.
BAN TU THU
07 /2020