The life and times of Nguyen Trai, hero of the Vietnamese people, poet, soldier and diplomat.
Nguyen Trai (1380-1442) is remembered as one of the great heroes of Vietnamese history. He was a scholar, a military strategist, a diplomat and a polymath. As the founder of poetry in the national language – known as nom – he is also one of the people whose records of the times illuminate our understanding of the past.
Born in Thang Long, now known as Hanoi, his grandfather was the Great Minister Regent Tran Nguyen Dan and a brilliant career beckoned early. Alas, his father was accused of coming from a common family and marrying a royal princess under false pretences and, consequently, was banished to his home village to become a lowly village school teacher. Nevertheless, Nguyen Tran’s genius soon shone through and he rose as a scholar and man of action. From an early age he demonstrated those virtues which are so important to Vietnamese culture: humanism, devotion to the country, selflessness and diligence. The connection between these virtues and the lessons of Confucius are clear.
However, it was through the Vietnamese resistance of Chinese domination that Nguyen Trai achieved his most well-known feats. He had, at the age of twenty, achieved the rank of Head of the Supervision and Censure Office of the Royal Court and was awarded a Doctoral Laureate through his performance in the mandarinate exams. This performance helped to rehabilitate his father, who also received a court position. Yet Dai Viet, the northern Vietnamese state, was crumbling as the power of its ruling Ho Dynasty was trickling away. Chinese expansionism, which had already led to a millennium of colonization of the country, once again threatened. An invasion from the north led to a decade of colonization, during which Chinese rulers attempted to eradicate Vietnamese culture and Nguyen Trai was forced to live in penury. Eventually, armed resistance became a powerful force and Nguyen Trai took up arms to help as best he could. The story of the resistance by the Viets in the mountainous regions, which are said to have thwarted as many as 100,000 Ming troops, followed by the victories culminating at the Bach Dang River are quite well-known. Nguyen Trai described the resistance as “… the hurricane which blew away the dry leaves, and the stubborn ants which caused dykes to collapse.”
What is perhaps less well-known is the persecution of those successful heroes by smaller, jealous individuals who subsequently took power. Nguyen Trai was persecuted for some years for manufactured offences and, despite eventually being proved innocent, lived a life of semi-disgrace for the rest of his life. His powerful verses reflect this change of fortune and he came to reject the blandishments of this world.
