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NGUYEN Nam, “A Treasure Long Forgotten…” Page 1

A TREASURE LONG FORGOTTEN:

Arthur Chéon’s Cours de Chữ Nôm
Rediscovered at Keiō University and How to Study It
by NGUYEN Nam*

Introductory Remarks

Chữ Nôm 𡦂喃, or “Vietnamese demotic script,” is a Chinese-character based writing system
designed to transcribe Vietnamese language. Widely used in medieval and early modern
Vietnam until the abolition of the civil service examination in 1919 and the full triumph of
the Romanized Quốc ngữ, Nôm script was transmitted from one to another generation
through empirical tutoring. However, the Nôm writing system had to wait until the
beginning of the 20th century to see the emergence of its first textbook written on the basis of
modern linguistic concepts coming from the West. The Cours de Chữ Nôm (Textbook on
Chữ Nôm; hereafter CDCN) by French linguist educator Jean Nicolas Arthur Chéon is the
first ever composed modern textbook on Nôm script. Believed to be long lost (Đào, 9), this
seminal work has never enjoyed adequate attention from scholars that it deserves.
Fortunately, the rediscovery of CDCN from the collection of Emile Gaspardone (1895-1982)
preserved at Keiō University’s Shidō Library (慶應義塾大学附属研究所 斯道文庫) allows
us a rare opportunity to assess this groundbreaking work.1 A preliminary scrutiny of the
composition of CDCN in the sociopolitical and cultural settings of its time reveals that this
work can teach us not only about the Nôm script, but also the French colonial government’s
language policies, preexisting Vietnamese multiscript textbook models prior to Chéon’s
compilation of CDCN, or a wide array of subjects, ranging from Vietnamese rural lives,
folktales, popular beliefs to the rise of Vietnamese modern fiction. The scholarly life of
Chéon also helps us to appropriately locate the CDCN within his sociolinguistic heritage. Of
no less importance, the rediscovered textbook furnishes us with a chance to reconstruct
Chéon’s another work supplementary to CDCN that now remains missing. Finally, the long-
overdue research on CDCN allows the continuity of the Nôm studies tradition initiated by
Professor Chen Ching-ho 陳荊和 (1917-1995) at the Keiō Institute of Cultural and Linguistic
Studies in 1970.

Arthur Chéon: A French “Orientalist” in Colonial Vietnam

Arriving in Cochinchina as a young intellectual at the age of 25, Arthur Chéon (1857-1928)
would build up his long educational career over there. Brebion’s Dictionnaire de Bio-
Bibliographie Générale provides us with the following information about Chéon – the
“Orientalist,”

Born May 25, 1857 in Sorcy-Bauthememont, in the Ardennes. Orientalist. He arrived in

Cochinchina in 1882 as a teacher at the Chasseloup-Laubat College and, consequently,
engaged in a thorough study of the languages used in Indochina, particularly that of

* Founding Faculty Member of Fulbright University Vietnam, and Harvard-Yenching Institute’s associate. This
essay is part of a research project funded by Japan Foundation – Asia Center, carried out at Keio University
(Japan) from June 01 to August 31, 2018. I hereby would like to express my genuine thanks for this generous
support.
1
This work has not been catalogued yet.
 NGUYEN Nam, “A Treasure Long Forgotten…” Page 2

Vietnamese and Chinese characters. Appointed as a professor of Vietnamese at the

College of Interpreters during its creation in Saigon in 1885. Under the auspices of
Antony Landes [Director of the College of Interpreters at that time], who had appreciated
the power of his work, he was called to Tonkin [to serve] as an interpreter of the General
Government in October 1887. Appointed Administrator of Native Affairs (July 14,
1893). He was Chief of Staff to the Superior Resident Fourès (…) in 1896, and Chief of
the Department of Indigenous Affairs. First class administrator on April 1st , 1905, he
was retired on July 1 of the same year.
(Brebion, 72; unless noticed, all translations in this paper are mine)

His intellectual life in Vietnam proved to be very productive: besides his linguistic research
and textbook compositions, Chéon also translated a number of Vietnamese traditional plays
as well as Chinese literature, and published them mainly in the Bulletin de la Société des
Etudes Indochinoises (A full bibliography of his works available in Cordier 1915, 2309-2311,
and 2332-2333; and Brebion, 72-73). Well-versed in classical Chinese, Nôm script, and quốc
ngữ - the three writing systems practiced in early modern Vietnam, Chéon was acclaimed by
his contemporaries as a “remarkable connoisseur of Vietnamese language” (Goloubew, 665).
George Cordier highly praises Chéon, emphasizing on his contributions to the studies of Nôm
script, “To my knowledge, Chéon remains the only European who has dealt with the Nôm
characters, and, as a result of his research, we acquire the principal rules that presided over
the formation of this demotic writing.” (Cordier 1935, 118). Undoubtedly, Chéon stands out
as the pioneer in Nôm-character textbook writing, but it may be an exaggeration to conclude
that he is “the only European” working on the script. Besides European missionaries such as
the Italian Girolamo Majorica S. J. (1591-1656) or Francisco de Pina (Zwartjes, 292), there
exist quite a few Western scholars who also mastered Nôm, and even compiled its
dictionaries. Among them, French “Orientalist” Abel des Michels (1833-1910) is a
noteworthy figure who introduced Nôm into his Vietnamese multiscript language
teaching/learning materials.

Des Michels’ Vietnamese Language Multiscript Teaching Model

Although trained in law and medicine (conferred a medical doctor degree in 1857), Abel des
Michels took a turning point in his career with Vietnamese language, starting with a teaching
position at the Ecole Annexe de la Sorbonne (School Annex of Sorbonne) in 1869 (des
Michels, 1869a). In the same year, he published two books Dialogues en Langue
Cochinchinoise Publiés à l’Usage des Commerçants et des Voyageurs (Dialogues in
Cochinchinese Published for the Usage of Traders and Travelers; des Michels, 1869b) and
Huit Contes en Langue Cochinchinoise Suivis d’Exercices Pratiques sur la Conversation et
la Construction des Phrases Transcrits à l’Usage des Elèves du Cours d’Annamite (Eight
Tales in Cochinchinese Language Followed by Practical Exercises on Conversations and
Phrase Constructions Transcribed for the Use of Students in the Vietnamese Course; des
Michels, 1869c). These two textbooks employed different linguistic materials. Based on the
Dictionarium Anamitico-Latinum, Des Michels extracted the “Dialogue between the Captain
of a Ship and a Cochinchinese” from Taberd’s Dictionarium Latino-Anamiticum (Latin-
Vietnamese Dictionary), transcribed it into Nôm script, and made it into the Dialogues
Cochinchinese. According to Des Michels, this work was composed based on “the most
usual words and phrases most familiar to the Vietnamese” and the texts were transcribed into
Nôm script (Des Michels called it “Cochinchinese characters”) because the Nôm-transcribed
texts would be a great help to their readers as indicated in the “Notice to Readers”,
 NGUYEN Nam, “A Treasure Long Forgotten…” Page 3

Extreme rarity, or rather the absolute lack of written texts in Cochinchinese

characters, has led us to publish these dialogues with the original signs of writing
used in the Annam, instead of limiting ourselves, as it is generally done, to Latin
writing.

The absolute lack of Annamese texts in figurative characters makes these various
publications indispensable for anyone who wants to undertake the study of the
language of Cochinchina.

Of course, the procedure of Nôm transcription was based on Pigneaux and Taberd’s
dictionaries as Des Michels emphasized the importance of these works through the “Speech
delivered at the opening of the Cochinchinese class at the Sorbonne's annex school”,

His work [i.e., Pigneaux’s dictionary], taken over by his successor, Mgr. Taberd,
bishop of Isauropolis, was considerably increased by him, and published at
Serampore under the auspices of the East India Company. It is the most complete
work we have on the subject, and the only dictionary in Annamese characters.
Enriched with a grammar, a Latin-Annamese dictionary, dialogues, a Cochinchinese
poem and several other additions, it constitutes almost, on its own, a complete
teaching body. (Discours, 41)

The Eight Tales was actually the Nôm transcriptions of quốc ngữ texts from Trương Vĩnh
Ký’s Cours Pratique de Langue Annamite (Practical Course of Vietnamese Language;
Trương, 1868). In order to reproduce the “primitive texts of the eight tales and the exercises
that follow them” into “figurative characters” (i.e., Nôm script) “as closely as possible in
word for word” (“Avis aux Lecteurs,” des Michels, 1869c) in the textbooks, des Michels
relied mainly on the Dictionarium Anamitico-Latinum (Vietnamese-Latin Dictionary) by
Pigneaux and Taberd (Taberd, 1838a).

Two years later, des Michels served as a professor of Vietnamese in the Ecole des Langues
Orientales Vivantes (School of Living Oriental Languages) for more than two decades, from
1871 to 1892. Unceasingly he compiled a series of textbooks of Vietnamese language.
Continuing to use the “Dialogue between the Captain of a Ship and a Cochinchinese” from
Taberd’s Dictionarium Latino-Anamiticum (Latin-Vietnamese Dictionary), Des Michels had
it printed as a multiscript publication and re-titled as Dialogues Cochinchinois 冊問答
(Cochinchinese Dialogues), indicating that, “this book [is] designed to familiarize students
with the essence of Vietnamese language” (des Michels, 1871). In the next year (1872), des
Michels published another book called Chrestomathie Cochinchinois – Truyện Chơi Văn
Chương 傳制文章 (Cochinchinese Chrestomathy), in which he translated into French twenty
tales chosen from Trương Vĩnh Ký’s Chuyện Đời Xưa (Tales of Times Now Past), and also
transcribed the original quốc ngữ texts into Nôm (des Michels, 1872). It is worth
mentioning that in 1877, des Michels compiled a dictionary titled Chữ Nôm An Nam – Petit
Dictionnaire Pratique à l’Usage des Eleves du Cours d’Annamite (Vietnamese Nôm Script –
A Small Practical Dictionary for the Usage of Students in Vietnamese Language Course, 60
pages). The lexicon of this dictionary might have come from the above-mentioned books
printed during the period from 1869 to 1872. Together, the textbooks and the dictionary form
an unprecedented imperative landmark in the history of teaching Vietnamese outside
Vietnam through a multiscript system.
 NGUYEN Nam, “A Treasure Long Forgotten…” Page 4

Figures 1 and 2: Front cover and first page from Abel des Michels’ Chữ Nôm An Nam – Petit Dictionnaire
Pratique à l’Usage des Elèves du Cours d’Annamite (1877)

During his time at the School of Living Oriental Languages, des Michels transcribed two
famous Vietnamese narrative poems, Lục Vân Tiên Ca Diễn (Nguyễn, 1883) and Kim Vân
Kiều Tân Truyện (Nguyễn, 1884), from Nôm into quốc ngữ, and simultaneously translated
them into French. Unlike his previously published textbooks that taught vernacular
Vietnamese language through proses reproduced in Nôm, des Michels’ Lục Vân Tiên Ca
Diễn and Kim Vân Kiều Tân Truyện bring their Vietnamese-language learners to a new level
by introducing them to indigenous Nôm texts of literary Vietnamese verses. A few years
later, des Michels returned to vernacular Vietnamese prose with his publication of Contes
Plaisants Annamites – Chuyện Đời Xưa 傳代初 (Vietnamese Pleasant Tales), in which he
translated completely seventy-three tales from Trương Vĩnh Ký’s collection, and furnished
his readers with the reproduced Nôm texts of those tales (des Michels, 1888). Noteworthy is
that in the same year (1888), G. Dumoutier made public his Manuel Militaire Franco-
Tonkinois (French-Tonkinese Military Manual) that was “adopted by the General Staff of the
Occupation Division of Indochina for native troops.” This language-training manual supplies
a conversation between a French officer and a Vietnamese soldier, in which the latter is asked
whether if he knows how to read and write Chinese characters, Nôm script, quốc ngữ, or
whether if he can speak French (Dumoutier, 1888, 44-45). Obviously, multilingualism and
multi-literacy became not only needed for native troops, but also recommended for French
officers. This explains des Michels’ efforts in training his contemporaries in Nôm script to
serve the French colonial government’s needs.

Although the question of how des Michels taught the Nôm script to his French students
remains unknown, all of des Michels publications discussed above stand out as the evidence
of his Vietnamese multiscript teaching, of which Nôm script is an integral part. The
existence of these materials also discloses how well French functionaries were prepared
linguistically before their dispatches to Vietnam.
 NGUYEN Nam, “A Treasure Long Forgotten…” Page 5

Figure 3: Abel des Michels and his Vietnamese multiscript teaching/learning materials

Arthur Chéon’s Cours de Chữ Nôm as Part of His Multiscript Vietnamese Language
Teaching Model

Unlike des Michels who taught Vietnamese in France, A. Chéon came to the French colonial
territory, studied and taught on the ground the written and spoken languages practiced in
Vietnam (including classical Chinese, Nôm script, Vietnamese and ethnic dialects). Four
years after his arrival in the country, Chéon compiled his first textbook of Vietnamese
language called Cours d’Annamite (Vietnamese Language Course) for “the usage of
European students of Saigon’s College of Interpreters” in 1886 (Chéon, 1901, “Préface,” I).
Based on this foundation, it would take him almost other ten years to come up with the most
comprehensive Vietnamese language textbook ever written until that time, entitled Cours de
Langue Annamite (Course of Vietnamese Language), printed in 1901 in Hanoi, and reprinted
in 1904 in both Vietnam and France (Brebion, 72). Consisting of more than six hundred
pages, Chéon’s seminal work was highly praised by his contemporaries. French missionary
and scholar Léopold Cadière (1869-1955) regarded it as a landmark in Vietnamese studies,

Everything is ready for use in Mr. Chéon’s Cours de Langue Annamite. It is also
permissible to present oneself to the public with confidence, when one can say like the
author, “It is nearly ten years since this course was started. This is only the development
of the Cours d’Annamite composed in 1886.” This long practice, this slow preparation
that allow many modifications, many retouches, are one of the surest guarantees of the
value of a work. I have no doubt that the appearance of Mr. Chéon’s Cours [de Langue
Annamite] is a landmark in Vietnamese studies. It is by the publication of works of this
value that we will hasten the scientific knowledge of the Vietnamese language so
neglected until now.
 NGUYEN Nam, “A Treasure Long Forgotten…” Page 6

(…) From now on Mr. Chéon’s course will be, for anyone who wants to use it, a clear
and reliable guide. It will present numerous examples to the student’s eyes, it will
explain the rules of syntax as they present themselves, and it will give a great deal of
information which would be vainly sought elsewhere; finally, at the same time when
directing the beginner’s first steps, it will [also] allow those who want [to use] it to
acquire a thorough knowledge of the Vietnamese language. (Cadière, 196-197).

At the end of his Cours de Langue Annamite, Chéon also included an “Order Fixing the
Examination Program for Earning Bonuses for the Knowledge of Oriental Languages” signed
by Paul Doumer – the Governor General of Indochina on September 26th of 1900, in which
knowledge of Chinese characters and Chinese language was a plus for “officials, employees
or agents of local services.” (Chéon, 1901, 628-629). This helps to explain the existence of
another textbook by Chéon, in which Chinese characters is taught as part of Vietnamese
language.

Figures 4 and 5: Jean Nicholas Arthur Chéon (1856-1928) and his Cours de Langue Annamite; courtesy of
http://ardenneaparis.free.fr/index_js.htm?H=600;W=800;M=%27AAP_MenSorcy.htm%27;P=%27sorcy/aver
tir.htm%27

Chéon’s Recueil des Compositions Données aux Examens de Langue Annamite et de

Caractères Chinois (Collection of Compositions Given at Vietnamese Language and Chinese
Character Examinations) was printed in 1899 in Hanoi. A number of governmental orders
related to Vietnamese language and Chinese character examinations introduced at the
beginning of the collection help to clarify the order signed by Doumer in 1900 cited above.
For instance, the order signed by the Resident General Paul Bert on August 9th, 1886 states
that,
 NGUYEN Nam, “A Treasure Long Forgotten…” Page 7

Any French Protectorate official who passes a practical examination of the Vietnamese
language or the Chinese language will receive an annual allowance of two hundred and
fifty francs all the time he is employed by the Protectorate if he passes the exam with the
mark “passable,” and five hundred francs if he gets the “good” mark. (Chéon, 1899b, I).

Twelve years later, in another order signed by Paul Doumer on June 13th, 1898, regarding
written and oral tests of proficiency in Vietnamese language, there is an article numbered 7
that reads,

In these tests, Vietnamese texts are in Latin characters. However, candidates who are
able to read the chữ Nôm (Vietnamese characters) will receive a twenty-point advance
which will count towards the ranking. (Chéon, 1899b, VII).

These orders showed that under the French Colonial Government’s language policies,
knowledge of Vietnamese language (including reading skills of quốc ngữ, Chinese and Nôm
scripts) could benefit French officials significantly during their service in the
colonial/protectorate. Also noteworthy is that this book presents a petition claiming
innocence and denouncing the corruption of local officials written in Nôm and given in the
tests. (Chéon, 1899b, 60). This evidential example reveals not only French officers’ levels of
understanding Vietnamese and fluency in Nôm, but also the fact that this demotic script had
been taught to and learned by French functionaries in Vietnam.

Figures 6 and 7: A. Chéon introduced a petition written in Nôm script, accompanied by a transcription in
Romanized quốc ngữ in his Recueil des Compositions Données aux Examens de Langue Annamite et des
Charactères Chinois au Tonkin (1899)

In addition to the Recueil des Compositions briefly presented above, in the same year (1899),
Chéon also published another work titled Recueil de Cent Textes Annamites Annotés et
Traduits et Faisant Suite au Cours d’Annamite (Collection of 100 Vietnamese Texts
Annotated and Translated [into French], and Following the Course of Vietnamese Language).
In the “Advertissement” printed at the beginning of the book, Chéon announced the
 NGUYEN Nam, “A Treasure Long Forgotten…” Page 8

upcoming publication of his Cours de Langue Annamite, and pointed out the mutual
relationship of the Vietnamese language textbooks he had compiled up to this point,

To meet the desire of the candidates for Vietnamese language and written Chinese
examinations, and in order to give to those who study these languages for their own use
or satisfaction, the possibility of measuring their strength, we have just published a
compendium, with translation, of compositions given to these examinations.
This collection [i.e., Recueil des Compositions Données aux Examens de Langue
Annamite et de Caractères Chinois], which contains more than fifty texts, already offers
serious elements of study. Nevertheless, it is not enough for a complete preparation.
The Cours de Langue Annamite, by the same author, published by our [printing] house,
includes, besides the lessons – an important part, all of application, and [is] constituted
by one hundred texts which present, at the same time as a certain variety, a grading to
facilitate the course of studies. Rolling on the most diverse topics: petitions, complaints,
tales, legends, descriptions, etc., they contain a very wide vocabulary.
(…) These Cent Textes [Hundred Texts] were to appear only with the Cours de Langue
Annamite of which they are the natural complement, but to satisfy a large number of
people who expressed their regret of not having this part of the book in hand now, we did
not hesitate to print it out [apart]. (Chéon, 1899a, “Advertissement”).

Not only serving as the supplementary materials for the Cours de Langue Annamite, the one
hundred texts presented in this collection also stand out as socio-cultural and anthropological
documents in their own right. Cadière treasures the Recueil de Cent Texts dearly, as for him,
this work means more than just a sourcebook for language learning,

Mr. Chéon, moreover, printed apart a Recueil de Cent Textes Annamites. Texts and
examples are “thoughts and writings in Vietnamese,” says the author. One cannot believe
what a delicate pleasure one feels in reading these small stories, these vulgar queries,
acts of sale or purchase, and even simple sayings. This is the Vietnamese language as it
is spoken everywhere, in the market, in the courts, on the plank during the long rainy
days. It is no longer the Vietnamese language of poems, stuffed with Chinese
expressions, literary allusions more or less understood, nor the Vietnamese language of
books of religion, copied almost literally on the models of the West. What a profit will
be earned by the serious student who reads these texts carefully with a pen in hand,
completing, modifying slightly if necessary the many notes of the author! These notes
are a real treasure. Everything is there: linguistic remarks, statements of grammatical
rules, etymological parallels, traits of manners, folklore, historical explanations. I said
that any printed course is a bit like a lifeless body. Mr. Chéon wanted to remedy this
defect, and he succeeded to a certain extent. I do not doubt that many readers who would
have been put off by the pure and simple study of a text are retained, captivated by the
charm they find in reading the notes. They are eminently suggestive. (Cadière, 197).

However, readers of the Recueil de Cent Textes Annamites can also find some precious pieces
of modern Vietnamese literature hidden in this collection when excursing through the texts.
 NGUYEN Nam, “A Treasure Long Forgotten…” Page 9

Figures 8 and 9: As an integral part of the Cours de Langue Annamite, Chéon’s Recueil de Cent Textes
Annamites furnishes its readers with an abundant source of readings on a wide array of topics, ranging from
petitions, complaints to tales, legends, or descriptions, accompanied by erudite notes from the author.

The collection’s hundredth text called “Thầy Lazarô Phiền” (Lazaro Phiền) has been
identified as a “conte modern” (modern story) by French scholars of Chéon’s time (Cordier,
1915, 2332), or highly valued as “the first Western-style short story” of Vietnam by
contemporary scholars within and outside the country (“Vietnamese Literature,” Britannica
Academic).2 This novella was written by a Vietnamese Catholic educator by the name of
Nguyễn Trọng Quản (1865-1911), and printed in Saigon in 1887. The fact that this literary
work was quickly included in the Recueil de Cent Textes Annamites indicates its popularity
around that time. Also remarkable is that Chéon furnishes readers with an almost full French
translation extensively annotated of the novella; one would have to wait for thirty-five years
later to read the full French translation published in 1934 by the novelist’s son – Nguyễn
Trọng Đắc.

2
For a contemporary reading/interpretation of the novella, see Nguyễn-Võ, 685-692.
 NGUYEN Nam, “A Treasure Long Forgotten…” Page 10

Figures 10-14: Nguyễn Trọng Quản and his novella Lazaro Phiền; French translation of the novella by
Nguyễn Trọng Đắc; Lazaro Phiền collected in Recueil de Cent Textes and Chéon’s French translation of the
novella.

Based on its contents, there is no doubt about the importance of the Recueil de Cent Textes
Annamites in early history of Vietnamese studies led by French scholars. It is worth
mentioning that this original work plays a double role in Chéon’s Vietnamese multiscript
textbook project: it serves as a supplement to the Cours de Langue Annamite on the one hand,
and lays out as the foundation for a new course titled Cours de Chữ Nôm on the other hand.
Although the relationship between the Recueil de Cent Textes and Cours de Chữ Nôm shall
be discussed in detail below, what has been examined above allows us the possibility to
reconstruct Chéon’s complex of Vietnamese-language multiscript textbooks reflected in the
following diagram.

Figure 9: A. Chéon’s Vietnamese multiscript teaching/learning materials

Cours de Chữ Nôm and Its Textual Foundation

 NGUYEN Nam, “A Treasure Long Forgotten…” Page 11

Although it remains unknown about the exact time of the composition of Cours de Chữ Nôm,
there is one thing for sure: it must have taken shape after 1899 due to its textual relationship
with the Recueil de Cent Textes. In his Bibliotheca Indosinica, Henri Cordier offers a
description of Chéon’s course on Nôm as follows,

Cours de Chữ Nôm comprising (1) The formation of Chữ Nôm and elementary
vocabulary by categories; (2) Analysis of Chữ Nôm of the Cent Textes; and (3)
Transcription in chữ Nôm of the Cent Textes of the Cours d’Annamite (…) pp. 120 +
116. (Cordier, 1915, 2310).

Based on Cordier’s description and on the Cours de Chữ Nôm (120 pages) now preserved at
Keiō University’s Shidō Library, one can conclude that the third part (transcription in in chữ
Nôm of the Cent Textes, 116 pages) is still missing. However, thanks to the reestablishment
of the relationship between the Recueil de Cent Textes and Cours de Chữ Nôm, the missing
part of the Nôm course also can be reconstructed. Based on the Recueil de Cent Textes and
the analysis of Nôm script in Cours de Chữ Nôm, the first two texts of Chéon’s hundred texts
transcribed into Nôm have been restored and appended to the end of this paper.

Because of its crucial roles in Vietnamese studies during the French colonial period in
general, and in the history of Nôm studies in particular, the rediscovery of Chéon’s Cours de
Chữ Nôm from Shidō Library calls for an urgent and comprehensive research on this work.
Such a research to be conducted under the sponsorship of Keiō University will be the
continuity of a tradition of Nôm study initiated almost fifty years ago at the university. In
1970, then visiting Professor Chen Ching-ho published the first ever-compiled-in English A
Collection of Chữ Nôm Scripts with the Pronunciation in Quốc ngữ at the Keiō Institute of
Cultural and Linguistic Studies under the auspices of Harvard-Yenching Institute.3 This
international scholarly collaboration now can be continued and developed with a new project
that studies Chéon’s Nôm course. Such a preliminary research should consist of the
following contents,
(1) French colonial government’s language policies and Vietnamese multiscript
teaching/learning model;
(2) Chéon and his socio-anthropological and linguistic heritage;
(3) Anthropological and literary aspects of the Recueil de Cent Textes transmitted into
Cours de Chữ Nôm;
(4) Nôm script analyzed through Chéon’s modern linguistic concepts; and
(5) A reconstruction of the hundred texts transcribed into chữ Nôm.

3
Léon Vandermeersch’s necrology “Chingho A. CHEN” fails to list this work in Chen Ching-ho’s
bibliography. (See Vandermeersch, 10-17).
 NGUYEN Nam, “A Treasure Long Forgotten…” Page 12

Professor Chen Ching-ho and his work A Collection of Chữ Nôm Scripts with the Pronunciation in Quốc-
ngữ (1970). This seminal collection was compiled at Keiō Institute of Cultural and Linguistic Studies,
Keiō University, under the auspices of Harvard-Yenching Institute.

APPENDIX

1
Đơn xin ban ơn
Dân tôi ở tỉnh Sơn Tây, huyện An lãng, châu Tàm xá, đến lạy Quan thống sứ đại thần
soi xét cho dân chúng tôi; kẻo dân tôi ở về tỉnh Sơn tây thì đàng xa lắm; châu ở ba mặt giáp
Sông cái, một mặt gần tỉnh Hà nội, huyện Thọ xương, đất Tam bảo.
Như có việc quan cần phải lên tỉnh Sơn tây cùng đồn Vĩnh yên, thì đàng xa phải đi
mười hai tiếng đồng hồ, mà về tỉnh Hà nội thì chỉ có hai tiếng đồng hồ mà thôi.
 NGUYEN Nam, “A Treasure Long Forgotten…” Page 13

Xin quan lớn coi xét trong cái địa đồ cho dân chúng tôi sáp về tỉnh Hà, thì việc quan
mọi điều được mau chóng lắm.
Ấy là chúng tôi cảm ơn muôn phần, muôn lạy.
Ngày mồng một tháng chạp năm Đồng Khánh thứ hai.
Lý trưởng Đặng văn Tiến
Hương mục Phạm văn Hợp
Dịch mục Lê văn Tuyển ký
(Chéon, 1899, I-II)

單吀頒恩
民碎於省山西, 縣安朗, 洲蠶舍， 𦥃𥛉官統使大臣𤐝𪹾朱民眾碎；[口＋矯] 民碎
𧗱省山西辰塘賖𡗋； 洲於𠀧𩈘夾滝丐，沒𩈘𧵆省河内, 縣壽昌,坦三寶。
如固役官勤𦓡沛𨖲省山西共屯永安辰塘賖沛𠫾𨑮𠄩㗂銅壼、𦓡𧗱省河内辰只固
𠄩㗂銅壼𦓡催。
吀官𢀲（𥋳）𪹾𥪝丐地圖朱民眾碎插𧗱省河、辰役官每調特𣭻眾𡗋。
意羅眾碎感恩𨷈分、𨷈𥛉。
𣈜夢沒𣎃臘𢆥同慶次𠄩。
里長鄧文進
鄕目范文合
役目黎文選記

2
Đơn khiếu oan
Bẩm lạy quan lớn,
Tên con là Hứa-kính-Toản ở làng Phạm-xá, tổng Phạm-xá, huyện Chí-linh, phủ Nam-
sách, tỉnh Hải-dương, xin quan lớn thương soi xét cho cha con tên là Hứa-đức-Mẫn được
khỏi sự oan khổ này.
Vì cha con đã già hơn sáu mươi tuổi: khi các quan đi tuần tập kéo vào làng con khám
soát, không thấy người gian nào, đồ lạ gì cũng không thấy. Các quan lại kéo ra ngoài đồng,
bắt được một cái bao có mười viên đạn cát tút, thì các quan lại kéo vào bắt cha con và sáu tên
kỳ mục làng con giải về tỉnh, giam cầm khổ sở lắm hơn bảy tháng nay.
Vả lại cha con xưa nay là người hiền lành; chỉ biết làm ruộng mà thôi, không biết vì
đâu mà hoá ra tội này.
Cho nên con đến sấp mình xuống dưới chân quan lớn, xin quan lớn mở rộng lòng
thương soi xét như mặt giời mọc lên phá các sự tối tăm đi, cho các loài dưới đất này được
nhờ sự sáng, mà tha cho cha con thật là kẻ oan khổ lắm.
Muôn lạy quan lớn.
Hứa Kính Toản bái
(Chéon, 1899, II-IV)

單呌冤
禀𥛉官𢀲，
𠸜𡥵羅許敬纂於廊范舍、縂范舍、縣至靈、府南策、省海陽、吀官𢀲傷𤐝𪹾朱
吒𡥵𠸜羅許德敏特塊事冤苦尼。
爲吒𡥵㐌𫅷欣𦒹𨑮𣦮：欺各官𠫾巡緝撟𠓨廊𡥵勘刷、（空𧡊𠊛奸芇）、（徒）
邏（咦共空𧡊）。各官來撟（𠚢外垌）、扒特沒丐包固𨑮圓（彈𪶼卒）辰各官來撟𠓨
扒吒𡥵吧𦒹𠸜耆目、監禁（擒）苦楚𡗋欣 𣎃 。
 NGUYEN Nam, “A Treasure Long Forgotten…” Page 14

𡲤吏吒𡥵𠸗 羅𠊛賢𫅜；只別爫𪽣𦓡催、空別爲兜𦓡化𠚢罪尼。
朱𢧚𡥵𦥃挹𨉟 𠁑蹎官𢀲、吀官𢀲𨷑𢌌𢚸傷𤐝𪹾如𩈘𡗶木𨖲破各事最沁𠫾、朱
各類𠁑坦尼特洳事𤎜、𦓡他朱吒𡥵寔羅几冤苦𡗋。
𨷈𥛉官𢀲。
許敬纂拜

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