Set in the Ly Dynasty of 1000 years ago, Nguyen Quang Vinh takes the audients back in time the first Vietnamese men and women set their feet on the Paracel and Spratly archipelagos known as the Golden Sand Island. The oath is the first of ten books in a series and considered the first fiction novel about the country’s sea and islands.
The topic of seas and islands is very new, a new playground for Vietnamese authors, and I wanted to enter this land. It is not only new and attractive to readers; it’s also a challenge to writers. Through literature and historical documents, the writer want to connect all the historical events so that the readers can understand when Vietnam’s seas and islands came to be, when our sovereignty came to be and the patriotism of forefathers, how they fought to keep the seas and islands for us to have today.
This novel mainly focuses on the Paracel Archipelago, originally called the Golden Sand. The novel uses the name Golden Sand Island and the description matches the Paracel Archipelagos but the series will expand, and the country’s history and the seas and islands will unravel as the series grows. It has been over a thousand years since the Ly Dynasty, and the series will follow this timeline. This is not a history book, but it still follows the timeline of true historical events. From this time line, he finds events related to the seas and islands, so he can give it another, newer story and he can help make this timeline more complete, so readers can see everything that makes up a complete country from the mainland to the seas and islands. Writers can help complete this timeline through literature. With the love for the sea, Nguyen Quang Vinh started searching and writing the series in 2011. Over the past three years, he has read thousands of history documents; even he visited Ly Son Island in 2012 to learn more about the life of people here.
This island is very close to the setting the feelings of this book. During Emperor Minh Mang’s time, Ly Son Island was where the marines departed from after receiving orders from the Emperor. They left their mark there. One thing about Ly Son is the countless nameless graves. These tombs, the bodies of our ancestors mark the sovereignty of our country. In the author’s notes in the novel, he said it seemed like our forefathers were telling him stories and all he had to do was writing them down. He felt like he was retelling the stories of thousands of generations, and each of those bodies, those tombs, was also a border post for our country.
Being famous for many screen plays and movies scripts, Nguyen Quang Vinh is still considered this 5000-page novel to be a greatest achievement in his life. The entire series actually is named The Oath. This oath started from the first oath that Lieutenant General Ly Nhat, the main character in the first book, took when he received the command from the Emperor to defend the Golden Sand Island. When Golden Sand Island was discovered, the Emperor sent out an army led by Ly Nhat, and this was a difficult journey hundreds died and only a few survived. Many wanted to return to mainland, return home, they didn’t want to stay long, and they wanted to leave right after leaving the border post. But Ly Nhat is different, leaving the border post was just one thing, he wanted to stay, to have children, to make a living there and die there. It didn’t matter that there was a thousand people or a hundred, or the people left; they had to defend this land. The oath sworn by Ly Nhat to the Emperor is also an oath sworn by our forefathers to us. This oath will last through generations, and nobody can violate it, insult it, or betray it. This is the main calling of the book, and the message that this book wants to sent to the audience.
Source: VTV4 – VTV.vn
Guide
Tour
Cruise
Flight
Visa
Hotel
Car
Shop
Ads
X
