Phan Bội Châu
Phan Bội Châu (former name Phan Văn San), courtesy name Hải Thụ, later taking the name Sào Nam, was born on 26-12-1867, a native of Đan Nhiễm village (now Xuân Hòa commune, Nam Đàn district, Nghệ Tĩnh).
Youth and examinations
As a child he was famed for his intelligence. At six he had already memorized the Tam tự kinh, at seven he understood the classics and commentaries, at eight he was already fluent in the examination style of writing. At thirteen he sat the district examination and came first. At sixteen he came first in the regional examination, so he was also called đầu xứ San. In 1900 he took first place in the Nghệ examination school.
At the age of nine he already had a sense of support for the anti-colonial movement. At seventeen, on hearing news that an uprising movement had risen in Bắc kỳ, he drafted the proclamation Bình Tây thu Bắc. At nineteen, responding to the Cần Vương edict of Hàm Nghi, he organized a band of examination candidates turned soldiers of 60 men who set out to join the cause, but before they could act the enemy had already come to sweep through the village.
Revolutionary activity
After ten years as a teacher, in 1900 Phan Bội Châu formally entered the life of revolutionary activity. He founded the Duy Tân hội (1904), choosing Kỳ Ngoại Hầu Cường Để as its leader, advocating violence and reliance on foreign aid to restore independence. In early 1905 he went to Japan and then returned to launch the Đông Du movement (1905-1908). He wrote many works of revolutionary propaganda such as Việt Nam vong quốc sử and Hải ngoại huyết thư.
Leading the Đông Du movement, Phan Bội Châu organized the Công hiếu hội, gathering 200 Vietnamese students to go to Japan to study politics, science and military affairs. In his final years in Japan he founded associations of an "international solidarity" character, such as the hội Điền, Quế, Việt liên minh (an alliance between the people of Vân Nam and Quảng Tây and Việt Nam) and the hội Đông Á đồng minh.
Around March 1909 the Đông Du organization was dissolved and Phan was expelled by the Japanese government. Returning to take temporary refuge in China for a short while, Phan Bội Châu went to Xiêm to operate. More than a year later, when the Tân Hợi revolution (1911) succeeded, Phan returned to China and founded the Việt Nam quang phục hội. After these patriotic activities, Phan was arrested on 24-12-1913 by the French colonialists, who enlisted Chinese warlords to seize him.
In 1917, when he came out of prison, Phan Bội Châu lived by writing for newspapers in Hàng Châu, working as an editor of the Bình sự tạp chí, but he still did not forget to use the press to propagate against the French and to continue seeking a way to save the country. In mid 1924, following the model of Tôn Trung Sơn's Trung Quốc dân đảng, Phan Bội Châu reorganized the Việt Nam quang phục hội into the Việt Nam quốc dân đảng.
On 30-6-1925, on the road from Hàng Châu to Quảng Châu, Phan Bội Châu was abducted by the French colonialists and taken back to the country. Faced with the strong struggle movement of the people, the French colonialists had to declare him acquitted but forced Phan to go and live in Huế without being allowed to go anywhere.
Final years and legacy
From 1926 onward, Phan Bội Châu was kept under house arrest at Bến Ngự. Although he had to live the life of a "fish in a bowl, bird in a cage", he still wrote poetry and prose to speak of the suffering and humiliation of a people who had lost their country, and of the responsibility of the people toward the country. These are the works: Nam quốc dân tu tri, Nữ quốc dân tu tri, Bài thuốc chữa bệnh dân nghèo, Cao đẳng quốc dân, Luân lý vấn đáp, Lời hỏi thanh niên, Phan Bội Châu niên biểu, Lịch sử Việt Nam diễn ca. These are also the massive scholarly works such as Khổng học đăng, Phật học đăng, Xã hội chủ nghĩa, Chu dịch, Nhân sinh triết học, together with more than 800 poems in Nôm of various kinds, and several dozen phú, văn tế and other miscellaneous writings.