Nguyễn Đình Chiểu
Nguyễn Đình Chiểu (1822–1888) was a famous Vietnamese poet, physician and teacher of the 19th century. He was born on 1 July 1822 in Tân Thới village, Gia Định province (now Cầu Kho ward, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City). After he went blind, he took the pen name Hối Trai. The people respectfully called him “Đồ Chiểu”.
Career
In 1843, he passed the Tú tài examination at the Gia Định examination school. In 1849, he went to Huế to wait for the Hội examination when he received news that his mother had died, and he had to return to Gia Định to observe mourning. From weeping for his mother, he fell gravely ill and went blind in both eyes. After the mourning period for his mother ended, he opened a school to teach, worked as a physician treating the people, and began composing poetry and prose.
During his 66 years of life, Nguyễn Đình Chiểu lived by teaching, by the practice of medicine and by writing literature. He left behind many valuable literary works, notably the narrative poems “Lục Vân Tiên”, “Dương Từ – Hà Mậu”, “Ngư Tiều y thuật vấn đáp”, “Văn tế nghĩa sĩ Cần Giuộc”, “Văn tế nghĩa sĩ trận vong lục tỉnh”, along with 10 elegiac poems for Đốc binh Phan Ngọc Tòng.
The narrative poem “Lục Vân Tiên” was his most outstanding first work, consisting of 2,075 lines of verse, exalting moral duty and integrity in human conduct, praising the good and the beautiful and criticising the bad and the evil. The work is regarded as one of the outstanding works of Vietnamese literature, with a deep influence on the folk culture of the southern provinces.
In particular, his funeral orations, especially “Văn tế nghĩa sĩ Cần Giuộc”, made him the opening figure of the patriotic literary current of the second half of the 19th century. Through his works, Nguyễn Đình Chiểu expressed respect for and praise of the peasants as heroes in the resistance war against the French colonialists.
Medical work
Besides literature, Nguyễn Đình Chiểu was also a physician thoroughly versed in medical theory and medical practice, famous for his medical ethics. The work “Ngư Tiều y thuật vấn đáp” is a rich collection of many remedies that he painstakingly compiled, learned and researched.
Final years and honours
In 1859, when the French colonialists captured the citadel of Gia Định, he returned to his wife's homeland in Thanh Ba village, Cần Giuộc district, Long An province, and later moved to a place of refuge in Ba Tri, Bến Tre province. He lived in poverty, using poetry and prose as a weapon to encourage the people to resist the enemy, and resolutely refused to cooperate with the French colonialists.
Nguyễn Đình Chiểu died on 3 July 1888 and rests in An Đức commune, Ba Tri district, Bến Tre province. His tomb lies within the grounds of the Special National Relic Site of the Tomb and Memorial Area of Nguyễn Đình Chiểu, together with the tombs of his wife Lê Thị Điền and his daughter the poetess Sương Nguyệt Anh, a poet, journalist and the first female editor-in-chief of Vietnam.
In 2021, UNESCO honoured Nguyễn Đình Chiểu as a World Cultural Celebrity at the 41st session of the General Conference in Paris, France, recognising his contributions in all three fields of poetry and literature, education and medicine.