Famous person of the six provinces of the South: Tran Phong Sac, an excellent village teacher

In the book Tan An in the past (published in 1972), author Dao Van Hoi wrote: "Decades ago, there were few people who did not know the name of Confucian scholar Tran Phong Sac, translator of dozens of Chinese stories."

The famous translator

"That year, I was a student at Tan An Provincial School. Every night, after dinner, my brothers and I did our homework and studied until 8 o'clock. Then our father took out a book by Tran Phong Sac that he had just borrowed that afternoon. My brothers and I took turns reading, and the whole family lay down to listen. The neighbors also came to listen, and it was 10 o'clock when we turned off the lights and went to bed," Mr. Hoi said.

Also according to author Dao Van Hoi, before 1918, the biggest school break started at the end of December of the solar calendar and resumed in March of the following year. Except for the first grade (now 5th grade) preparing for the Primary School exam, the rest from the second grade and below, the school principal ignored it and let the teachers and students take a break from mid-December before going home to prepare for Tet. A class of thirty or forty students, only a few dozen went to school for formality and early in the morning, the teacher asked them to write a dictation essay, read a few French and Vietnamese lessons. In the afternoon, the teachers chose a few students in the class who could read Vietnamese fluently and then took turns reading Chinese stories by Tran Phong Sac.

The two stories "Tiet Dinh San conquers the west" and "Anh hung nao tam mon giai" were translated by Tran Phong Sac (1872 - 1928) - PHOTO: HOANG PHUONG

PHOTO: HOANG PHUONG

Thanks to good Chinese Tran Phong Sac's translations were very good because he had the soul of a poet. Occasionally, he also inserted into the translation an octave or quatrain poem that sounded pleasant to the ear. For example, in the book Phong Than , he ended the preface with four lines of poetry like this: " The night of Tran Trieu is clear and calm, how many moments have passed / Phong Than's interpretation explains the western sentiment / Beauty, talent, and rules are fully displayed / Written to advise and fulfill this wish ". The first four words of the four lines of poetry were written by Tran Phong Sac.

At that time, most of the Chinese stories by translator Tran Phong Sac were published by the printing house Joseph Nguyen Van Viet. In the newspaper Phu Nu Tan Van (July 10, 1930), the urgent notice section of the owner of the printing house J. Nguyen Van Viet had an advertisement: "If you buy the stories to read, please ask for the names of Tran Phong Sac, Nguyen An Khuong and Nguyen Chanh Sat, the famous translators of this Southern region, so that you will not make mistakes in the stories and make incorrect corrections."

Funny for appearance

Talking about appearance, author Dao Van Hoi described his teacher: "Tran Phong Sac was ugly, he had a big head of hair, dark skin, and severe squinting. When he went to teach, he wore a faded scarf, an old long tunic, a black umbrella, and very shabby shoes."

Announcement from J.Nguyen Van Viet Publishing House: "Tran Phong Sac, Nguyen An Khuong and Nguyen Chanh Sat are famous translators in the South" - PHOTO: HOANG PHUONG

Regardless of rain or shine, he still walked from home to school every day, always carrying books in his inner pocket. At that time, the government appointed him to teach Ethics to students from Grades Five to Two (Grade 1 and Grade 4 now). Students called him the "mischievous" teacher (morale) or the fire ogre, because in class, if a student was too playful, he would give him a fiery slap on the head and a zero, which students at that time called... a rotten duck egg!

Tran Phong Sac was quiet and unsociable. During break time, the teachers gathered to chat, while he sat alone in class reading. At nearly 40 years old, he married a country girl. His house was in the crossroads hamlet, Binh Lap village (now Tan An city, Long An ). In front of his house was a wooden fence, which he whitewashed and wrote Chinese characters all over the wooden planks. In 1916, the crossroads hamlet was hit by a fire, burning down hundreds of houses. His house was separated by a small canal so it was not affected.

Luc Tinh Tan Van and Nong Co Min Dam are two newspapers that Mr. Tran Phong Sac often collaborates with - PHOTO: HOANG PHUONG

According to author Vo Van Nhon, Tran Phong Sac's real name is Tran Diem, born in 1872. In 1902, he collaborated with Mr. Canavaggio's Nong Co Min Dam newspaper, Tran Chanh Chieu's Luc Tinh Tan Van (1907) and started his translation and writing work. Also according to Vo Van Nhon, Nguyen An Khuong, Nguyen Chanh Sat and Tran Phong Sac were evaluated by Phu Nu Tan Van newspaper as "famous translators of the South, of which Tran Phong Sac was the most famous translator". Tran Phong Sac alone translated 29 Chinese novels. Some of the typical novels he translated at that time include: Binh San Lanh Yen Toan Ca (1904), Tam Ha Nam Duong (1906), Phong Than Dien Nghia (1906), Tiet Dinh San Chinh Tay (1907), Thuan Tri Qua Giang (1908), Tay Du Dien Nghia (1909) and Tuy Duong Truyen (1910)...

Translating books is for fun.

According to author Bang Giang, Tran Phong Sac has a total of 59 books; of which he is the co-author of 11 works. In addition to translating Chinese stories, he is also the author of four ethics textbooks. However, he does not write and translate books for profit.

Pham Van Cuong Publishing House introduces a number of stories translated by Tran Phong Sac - PHOTO: HOANG PHUONG

Perhaps that is why, despite having a huge fortune in published books, he remained a poor teacher all his life. His student, author Dao Van Hoi, commented bitterly that he was a person "who had talent but no life, who spent his life making the publishing house rich, had no surplus, and died poor".

It is said among the people that although he did not know how to play the instrument, he had a special talent for composing songs based on the instrument's notes. In addition to the book Cam ca tan dieu , he composed many cai luong plays whose themes were mostly drawn from Chinese stories such as: Dac Ky enters the palace, Khuong Hau suffers injustice, Hang Vo bids farewell to Ngu Co, Nguyet Ha seeks her husband, Nguyet Kieu becomes a monk, Tram Trinh An, Quan Cong falls in Ha Bi, Tam Tang appears in the world ... all published by Xua Nay from 1927 to 1929. (to be continued)

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/nhan-vat-noi-tieng-nam-ky-luc-tinh-tran-phong-sac-thay-giao-lang-xuat-sac-185250629220654145.htm