Tạ Chí Đại Trường, also

pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

Trần Trường Thanh or Dai-truong Ta-chi (21 June 1938 – 24 March 2016), was a Vietnamese writer and historian.

Biography

Tạ Chí Đại Trường was born on June 31, 1938, in

Nha Trang Nha Trang ( or ; ) is a coastal city and capital of Khánh Hòa Province, on the South Central Coast of Vietnam. It is bounded on the north by Ninh Hoà town, on the south by Cam Ranh city and on the west by Diên Khánh District. The city had ...

city, but his hometown in

Bình Định province Bình Định (平定) was a former northern coastal province in the South Central Coast region, the Central of Vietnam. It borders Quảng Ngãi to the north, Phú Yên to the south, Gia Lai to the west and the South China Sea to the ea ...

. His father was a bachelor of Annamese

imperial exams The imperial examination was a civil service examination system in Imperial China administered for the purpose of selecting candidates for the state bureaucracy. The concept of choosing bureaucrats by merit rather than by birth started early i ...

, Mr Tạ Chương Phùng, who participated in the independent movement in the 1940s and 1950s, then joined in the Caravelle club. Tạ Chí Đại Trường had a cousin named Tạ Chí Diệp (1936 - 1963, a

senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...

from the Đại Việt Nationalist Party), who was eliminated through the form of tying by President

Ngô Đình Diệm Ngô Đình Diệm ( , or ; ; 3 January 1901 – 2 November 1963) was a South Vietnamese politician who was the final prime minister of the State of Vietnam (1954–1955) and later the first president of South Vietnam ( Republic of ...

's secret command at Chí Hòa Prison in summer of 1963. Mr Tạ Chí Diệp was scholar Tạ Chương Phùng's nephew, a very close comrade of President Ngô when they joined the moverment of national revolution about 1940s. It is known that Tạ Chí Diệp and Trương Tử An ( Trương Tử Anh's younger brother) were found dead almost at the same time in two different locations (Nhà-Bè River and Chợ-Quán Hospital), even though they were close comrades. This death is considered by Tạ Chí Đại Trường as the collapsed signal of the Ngô Family regime. He graduated from the University of Saigon (Viện Đại-học Sàigòn) with an MA in history in 1964 then taught history in Vietnam and published ''Lịch Sử Nội Chiến Việt Nam 1771-1802'' (Saigon 1973), before being enrolled in the

Army of the Republic of Vietnam The Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN; ; ) composed the ground forces of the Republic of Vietnam Military Forces, South Vietnamese military from its inception in 1955 to the Fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. Its predecessor was the ground forc ...

. Its manuscript was awarded the 1970 National Awards for Scholastic Art and Writing, at the subject of History (Giải Văn-học Nghệ-thuật Toàn-quốc, bộ môn Lịch-sử) by President

Nguyễn Văn Thiệu Nguyễn Văn Thiệu (; 5 April 1923 – 29 September 2001) was a South Vietnam, South Vietnamese military officer and politician who was the Leaders of South Vietnam, president of South Vietnam from 1967 to 1975. He was a general in the Repub ...

. Tạ Chí Đại Trường was demobilized in 1974 with the rank of

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader or highest rank officer of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police depa ...

. He remained in

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

after the collapse of the Republic of Vietnam in 1975, and was sent to a re-education camp from 1976 to 1981 by new government. He emigrated to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

in 1994 as a H.O. person. However, since the early 2000s, Tạ Chí Đại Trường returned to

Saigon Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) ('','' TP.HCM; ), commonly known as Saigon (; ), is the most populous city in Vietnam with a population of around 14 million in 2025. The city's geography is defined by rivers and canals, of which the largest is Saigo ...

to live with relatives because he did not feel comfortable settling abroad. He has shifted to researching traditional

culture Culture ( ) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and Social norm, norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, Social norm, customs, capabilities, Attitude (psychology), attitudes ...

in the

Northern Vietnam Northern Vietnam or '' Tonkin'' () is one of three geographical regions in Vietnam. It consists of three geographic sub-regions: the Northwest (Vùng Tây Bắc), the Northeast (Vùng Đông Bắc), and the Red River Delta (Đồng Bằng Sôn ...

and has many long visits here.

Hanoi National University Vietnam National University, Hanoi (VNU; , ĐHQGHN) is a public university, public research university, research university system in Hanoi, Vietnam. The university system has 10 member universities and faculties. VNU is one of two Vietnam's nat ...

even invited him to speak and welcome him as a

head of state A head of state is the public persona of a sovereign state.#Foakes, Foakes, pp. 110–11 "

he head of state He or HE may refer to: Language * He (letter), the fifth letter of the Semitic abjads * He (pronoun), a pronoun in Modern English * He (kana), one of the Japanese kana (へ in hiragana and ヘ in katakana) * Ge (Cyrillic), a Cyrillic letter cal ...

being an embodiment of the State itself or representative of its international persona." The name given to the office of head of sta ...

. He was awarded the 2014 Phan Châu Trinh Culture Award, at the subject of research. Tạ Chí Đại Trường died at his home in

on March 24, 2016.

Works

Poetics

Together with Liam C. Kelley he criticised the authenticity of the Hùng kings claiming that they were later invented and that their supposed

historicity Historicity is the historical actuality of persons and events, meaning the quality of being part of history instead of being a historical myth, legend, or fiction. The historicity of a claim about the past is its factual status. Historicity deno ...

had no basis in reality. Tạ Chí Đại Trường claimed that the government of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam was unwilling to challenge the current narrative of the Hùng kings because of the adulation that the country had received in light of the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

by foreigners that admired the communists' struggle that caused it to promote the previously vague myth of the Hùng kings to become a national legend taught unquestionably to the Vietnamese people as it's a powerful origin myth, making any critical discussion about the Hồng Bàng Clan tense.

Books

;Vietnamese *Lịch sử nội chiến Việt Nam từ 1771 đến 1802 (1973) *Thần, người và đất Việt (1989) *Một khoảng Việt Nam Cộng Hòa nối dài (1993) *Việt Nam nhìn từ bên trong (with author Nguyễn Xuân Nghĩa, 1994) *Những bài dã sử Việt (1996) *Những bài văn sử (1999) *Bài sử khác cho Việt Nam : Sơ thảo (2009) *Người lính thuộc địa Nam Kỳ (1861–1945) (2014) *Chuyện phiếm sử học (2016) ;English *Human Gods in the Land of Vietnam, Culture and Information (2006) *God of Man & Land of Vietnam (2022) *Vietnam Tay Son Dynasty, History of Civil War 1771–1802 (2022)

References

External links