The greatest Vietnamese scholar in the 18th century
Le Quy Don's childhood name was Le Danh Phuong, his pen name was Doan Hau, his pen name was Que Duong, his hometown was Dien Ha village, Dien Ha district, Son Nam town (now Doc Lap commune, Hung Ha district, Thai Binh province). He was born on August 2, 1726 in Bich Cau ward, Thang Long citadel, lived and raised a family here. His father was Doctor Le Trong Thu, pen name Truc Anh, who worked as an official in the Le - Trinh dynasty for more than 50 years, was famous for being an honest and straightforward official, and had a great influence on Le Quy Don's life.
Until now, many people have passed on to each other praises of Le Quy Don's rare talent: at the age of 2 he already knew how to read and write, at the age of 5 he could read many classic poems, at the age of 8 he was able to compose the famous poem "Snake Head, Snake Face", at the age of 14 he had read all the Five Classics, Four Books, history, stories, even Chu Tu, in one day he could write 10 poems without needing to write a draft...
At the age of 17, Le Quy Don took the regional exam at Son Nam school and passed the exam first. That year, he officially changed his name from Le Danh Phuong to Le Quy Don. At the age of 26, he took the Nham Dan examination (1752), and achieved a brilliant record: he was the top scorer in both the regional and royal examinations. From here, he began his career as an official.
Cultural celebrity Le Quy Don is known as the "wisdom bag of the era" - the greatest scholar of Vietnam in the 18th century. With his intelligence and profound knowledge, he left to posterity about 50 valuable books covering most of the contemporary knowledge such as: Philosophy, sociology, history, economics, political science, literature, art studies... Some typical works can be mentioned as: about philosophy there are "Thu kinh dien nghia", "Dich kinh phu thuyet", "Xuan thu luoc luan", "Quan thu khac bien"...; about history there are "Dai Viet thong su", "Kien van tieu luc", "Bac su thong luc", "Le trieu cong than liet truyen"...; about literature there are "Toan Viet thi luc", "Hoang Viet van hai", "Que Duong thi tap", "Que Duong van tap"...; especially about encyclopedia there is "Van Dai loai ngu"...
In 1784, he fell ill and asked to return to his maternal hometown Duy Tien for treatment. He died on June 2 of that year and was posthumously awarded the title of Minister of Public Works.
UNESCO approves recommendation for honor
At the international scientific conference “Le Quy Don: Life and career” held in Thai Binh, Associate Professor, Dr. Nina V. Grigoreva, HSE University, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation, commented that with the contributions and works of scholar Le Quy Don, it shows that he is the leading enlightener of Vietnam.
“Le Quy Don was a mandarin, intellectual and great scientist during the Le Trung Hung period. He lived, worked and wrote in the middle decades of the 18th century, which in world history is called the century of Enlightenment. He was a contemporary of great cultural and scientific figures such as Montesquieu (France), Voltaire (France), Hume (England), Lomonosov (Russia), Rousseau (Switzerland - France), Diderot (France)...”, Ms. Nina V. Grigoreva analyzed.
Professor Shimizu Masaaki, Osaka University, Japan, made a very interesting comparison between the scholar Le Quy Don and the famous 18th century Japanese linguist, the National Scholar named Motoori Norinaga (1730 - 1801).
“Comparing with the research method of a Japanese nationalist, Motoori Norinaga, to determine the similarities and differences between two contemporary scholars in Vietnam and Japan, Le Quy Don was the first Vietnamese to consider language and writing as objects for thinking and perception. He was the first person to propose the Vietnamese language research method in the history of Vietnamese science,” emphasized Prof. Dr. Shimizu Masaaki.
In recent years, the Vietnam Institute of Culture and Arts Studies and the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Thai Binh province have prepared a dossier on cultural celebrity Le Quy Don to propose UNESCO to co-organize the 300th anniversary of his birth in 2026.
On the night of April 10, 2025 (local time), at the 221st Session of the Executive Board of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) taking place in Paris, member countries adopted a Decision recommending the UNESCO General Conference, scheduled to meet in November 2025, to approve the honoring and joint celebration of the birthdays of a number of celebrities around the world, including honoring and joining Vietnam in celebrating the 300th anniversary of the birth of Le Quy Don (1726 - 2026).
The delegation of Thai Binh province, in coordination with the Embassy of Vietnam in France, the Vietnamese Delegation to UNESCO and the Vietnamese Cultural Center in France, successfully organized the Conference "Introducing the Cultural Celebrity Le Quy Don and promoting culture and tourism in Thai Binh province". The conference is part of the efforts to mobilize UNESCO to jointly organize the celebration of the 300th anniversary of the birth of the Celebrity Le Quy Don (1726 - 2026).
Bao Chau
Source: https://baophapluat.vn/vinh-danh-nha-bac-hoc-le-quy-don-post545518.html
![[Photo] Binh Trieu 1 Bridge has been completed, raised by 1.1m, and will open to traffic at the end of November.](https://vphoto.vietnam.vn/thumb/1200x675/vietnam/resource/IMAGE/2025/10/2/a6549e2a3b5848a1ba76a1ded6141fae)
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