Huỳnh Thúc Kháng (

chữ Hán ( , ) are the Chinese characters that were used to write Literary Chinese in Vietnam, Literary Chinese (; ) and Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary in Vietnamese language, Vietnamese. They were officially used in Vietnam after the Red River Delta region ...

: ; 1 October 1876 – 21 April 1947), courtesy name Giới Sanh, pen name Mính Viên (also written as Minh Viên), also known as Cụ Huỳnh (lit: ' Great-grandfather' Huỳnh), was a Vietnamese anti-colonial activist, statesman and journalist, most notably serving as Acting President of Vietnam and President of the Annamese House of Representatives. He was born in Tiên Phước District in Quảng Nam Province, the same district from which Phan Châu Trinh hailed. Huỳnh went on to top the imperial examinations in 1900. Along with Phan Châu Trinh and Trần Quý Cáp, Huỳnh led the , for which he was imprisoned in Côn Đảo island by the French colonial authority from 1908 to 1919. He was elected to the House of Representatives of the French protectorate of Annam and served as its President from 1926 to 1928. In 1927, he founded the

Huế Huế (formerly Thừa Thiên Huế province) is the southernmost coastal Municipalities of Vietnam, city in the North Central Coast region, the Central Vietnam, Central of Vietnam, approximately in the center of the country. It borders Quảng ...

-based '' Tiếng Dân'' newspaper, which gained prominence among the Vietnamese

intelligentsia The intelligentsia is a status class composed of the university-educated people of a society who engage in the complex mental labours by which they critique, shape, and lead in the politics, policies, and culture of their society; as such, the i ...

at the time but was shut down by the colonial authority in 1943. Following the

August Revolution The August Revolution (), also known as the August General Uprising (), was a revolution led by the Việt Minh against the Empire of Vietnam from 16 August to 2 September 1945. The Empire of Vietnam was led by the Nguyễn dynasty and was ...

, he participated in the Việt Minh-led

coalition government A coalition government, or coalition cabinet, is a government by political parties that enter into a power-sharing arrangement of the executive. Coalition governments usually occur when no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an ...

as an

independent Independent or Independents may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Artist groups * Independents (artist group), a group of modernist painters based in Pennsylvania, United States * Independentes (English: Independents), a Portuguese artist ...

and was appointed Minister of Home Affairs on 2 March 1946. From 31 May to 21 October 1946, he was the Acting President of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (and ''

ex officio An ''ex officio'' member is a member of a body (notably a board, committee, or council) who is part of it by virtue of holding another office. The term '' ex officio'' is Latin, meaning literally 'from the office', and the sense intended is 'by r ...

'' Acting Prime Minister) while Hồ Chí Minh was negotiating in France. In 1946, Huỳnh came back to Quảng Ngãi to lead the fight against the French in the 5th Interzone. Though he died on 21 April 1947 under suspicious circumstances, it was most possibly from a fatal illness he had contracted during his time there and was buried atop the , a prominent landmark of Quảng Ngãi.

Works

* ''Thi tù tùng thoại'' (The collection of Poems in Prison) a collection of poems composed by Huỳnh Thúc Kháng and his comrades in Côn Đảo prison between 1908 and 1921, first published by Tiếng Dân newspaper in 1939. * ''Phan Tây Hồ tiên sinh lịch sử'' (The history of sensei Phan Tây Hồ) published in 1959 by Anh Minh publisher.

Legacy and memory

Most cities in modern Vietnam have named major streets after him. In 2013, he was

posthumously Posthumous may refer to: * Posthumous award, an award, prize or medal granted after the recipient's death * Posthumous publication, publishing of creative work after the author's death * Posthumous (album), ''Posthumous'' (album), by Warne Marsh, 1 ...

awarded the Gold Star Order, the highest honor of Vietnam.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Huynh, Thuc Khang 1876 births 1947 deaths People from Quảng Nam province Vietnamese nationalists Vietnamese Confucianists Presidents of Vietnam Prime ministers of Vietnam