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Lê Quý Đôn

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Lê Quý Đôn was a highly influential Vietnamese scholar from the 18th century. He was a polymath, which is a person who excels in many different fields of study. His expertise spanned poetry, history, philosophy, and science. He is also remembered as a prolific encyclopedist. An encyclopedist is a writer who collects and organizes vast amounts of knowledge into structured volumes. Because of his massive output, he is considered one of the most important thinkers of the early modern period in Vietnam.

His intellectual work followed a rigorous process of documentation and classification. He authored at least 40 different series of works. These series included hundreds of individual volumes. He focused on creating comprehensive records of the world around him. This involved writing chronicles to track historical events over time. He also composed many volumes of poetry to express complex ideas. His method often involved organizing information into topical modes, which means grouping facts by their specific subjects.

Lê Quý Đôn produced several distinct types of scholarly works. One major type was his encyclopedic compilations. His most famous encyclopedia is called Vân đài loại ngữ, or Classified Sayings. This work consists of 9 volumes and remains a landmark in Vietnamese science from the Confucian era. Another type of work was his historical writing. He wrote the Đại Việt thông sử, which is a 30-volume history. This work contains many important documents regarding the Lê dynasty. He also wrote the Phủ biên tạp lục, or Frontier Chronicles. These 6 volumes provide a detailed description of the Nguyễn territories in the Thuận Hóa and Quảng Nam provinces.

Lê Quý Đôn's life was shaped by the political landscape of his time. He was born in 1726 in Duyên Hà village, located in the present-day Thái Bình Province. He lived during the reign of Emperor Lê Hiển Tông. At this time, Vietnam was divided between the Trịnh lords in the north and the Nguyễn lords in the south. After a scandal involving his son, Lê Quý Kiêt, Lê Quý Đôn was ordered to serve as an official south of the Linh Giang River. As a member of the Trịnh bureaucracy, his goal was to help restore civil government in southern regions. He worked to help reincorporate territories controlled by the Nguyễn lords back into the northern government's authority.

Throughout his career, he held many high-ranking positions. He served in the ministries of war, finance, and public works. He also acted as the rector of the National University at the Văn Miếu in Hanoi. In 1760, he traveled to China to serve as an ambassador. During this trip, he demonstrated his incredible memory. While traveling with Qing officials, he saw a Chinese poem carved on a stone palette. When an official tested him, Lê Quý Đôn recited the entire poem word for word in Chinese. This feat earned him great respect from Chinese scholars.

His genius was evident even in his childhood. A famous story describes how he responded to a scholar named Vũ Công Trấn. The scholar tested him with a poem title that criticized laziness. In a very short time, the young Lê Quý Đôn composed an exquisite poem in the thất ngôn bát cú form. This is a specific style of poetry with eight lines of seven syllables each. He cleverly embedded the names of different snake species into every line of the poem. This showed his ability to use complex wordplay and wit at a very young age.

Today, the legacy of Lê Quý Đôn is preserved through many modern institutions. His name is used for many major streets in cities across Vietnam. Many schools carry his name, including the Lê Quý Đôn Technical University in Hanoi. There are also many "Gifted High Schools" named after him in various provinces. In Saigon, the Lê Quý Đôn High School is a well-known landmark that maintains its original 1874 architecture. His influence even extends to the sea. A large Vietnamese sail training ship, the HQ-286 Lê Quý Đôn, was built in 2015. This ship is 65.0 meters long and has a sail area of 1,395 square meters.

Statue of Le Quy Don
Statue of Le Quy Don
STS Le Quy Don 1
STS Le Quy Don 1
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