Nguyễn Trãi (阮廌),

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 ...

Ức Trai (抑齋); (1380–1442) was an illustrious Vietnamese

Confucian Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China, and is variously described as a tradition, philosophy, religion, theory of government, or way of life. Founded by Confucius ...

scholar A scholar is a person who is a researcher or has expertise in an academic discipline. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researcher at a university. An academic usually holds an advanced degree or a termina ...

, a noted

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

, a skilled

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

and a master

strategist A strategist is a person with responsibility for the formulation and implementation of a strategy. Strategy generally involves setting goals, determining actions to achieve the goals, and mobilizing resources to execute the actions. A strategy ...

. He was at times attributed with being capable of almost miraculous or mythical deeds in his designated capacity as a principal advisor of

Lê Lợi Lê Lợi (, chữ Hán: 黎利; 10 September 1385 – 5 October 1433), also known by his temple name as Lê Thái Tổ (黎太祖) and by his pre-imperial title Bình Định vương (平定王; "Prince of Pacification"), was a Vietnamese peopl ...

, who fought against the Ming dynasty. He is credited with writing the important political statements of Lê Lợi and inspiring the Vietnamese populace to support open rebellion against the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...

rulers. He is also the author of "Great Proclamation upon the Pacification of the Wu" ( Bình Ngô đại cáo).

Biography

Early life

Nguyễn Trãi originally was from

Hải Dương Province Hải Dương was a former province in the Red River Delta of northern Vietnam. Its name derives from Sino-Vietnamese "ocean sun", though the modern province is in fact landlocked. Located in the Northern Key Economic Region, Hai Duong Provin ...

, he was born in 1380 in Thăng Long (present day

Hanoi Hanoi ( ; ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Vietnam, second-most populous city of Vietnam. The name "Hanoi" translates to "inside the river" (Hanoi is bordered by the Red River (Asia), Red and Black River (Asia), Black Riv ...

), the capital of the declining

Trần dynasty The Trần dynasty (Vietnamese language, Vietnamese: Nhà Trần, chữ Nôm: 茹陳; Vietnamese language, Vietnamese: triều Trần, chữ Hán: ikt:朝ikt:陳, 朝wikt:陳, 陳), officially Đại Việt (Chữ Hán: 大越), was a List ...

. Under the brief

Hồ dynasty The Hồ dynasty (Vietnamese: , chữ Nôm: 茹胡; Vietnamese: ''triều'' ''Hồ'', chữ Hán: wikt:朝, 朝wikt:胡, 胡), officially Đại Ngu (; chữ Hán: 大虞), was a short-lived List of Vietnamese dynasties, Vietnamese dynasty cons ...

, he passed examination and served for a time in the government. In 1406,

Ming The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of China ruled by the Han people, t ...

forces invaded and conquered Vietnam. Under the occupation, the Ming China attempted to convert Vietnam into a Chinese province and ruthlessly quashed all rebellions.

War of independence

In 1417, Nguyễn Trãi joined a rebel leader named Lê Lợi, who was resisting the occupation from a mountainous region in Thanh Hóa Province south of Hanoi. Nguyễn Trãi served as the chief advisor, strategist and propagandist for the movement. The war of independence leading to the defeat of the Ming and the inauguration of the

Lê dynasty The Lê dynasty, also known in historiography as the Later Lê dynasty (, chữ Hán: 朝後黎, chữ Nôm: 茹後黎), officially Đại Việt (; Chữ Hán: 大越), was the longest-ruling List of Vietnamese dynasties, Vietnamese dynasty, h ...

lasted from 1417 to 1427. From 1417 until 1423, Lê Lợi conducted a classic guerilla campaign from his bases in the mountains. Following a negotiated truce, Lê Lợi, following the advice of Nguyễn Chích, led his army to the southern prefecture of Nghệ An. From Nghệ An, Vietnamese forces won many battles and gained control over the whole part of Vietnam from

Thanh Hóa Thanh Hóa () is the capital of Thanh Hóa Province. The city is situated in the east of the province on the Ma River (Sông Mã), about 150 kilometers (93 miles) south of capital Hanoi and 1560 kilometers (969 miles) north of Ho Chi Minh Cit ...

southwards. The Ming sent a series of military reinforcements in response to bolster their positions. In 1426, the army of a Chinese general named Wang Tong arrived in the

Red River Delta The Red River Delta or Hong River Delta () is the flat low-lying plain formed by the Red River and its distributaries merging with the Thái Bình River in Northern Vietnam. ''Hồng'' (紅) is a Sino-Vietnamese word for "red" or "crimson". T ...

. However, Vietnamese forces were able to cut supply lines and control the countryside, leaving Chinese presence totally isolated in the capital and other citadels. During this period, Nguyễn Trãi sought to undermine the resolve of the enemy and to negotiate a favorable peace by sending a series of missives to the Ming commanders. In 1427 the Ming emperor

Xuande The Xuande Emperor (16 March 1399 31 January 1435), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Xuanzong of Ming, personal name Zhu Zhanji, was the fifth emperor of the Ming dynasty, reigning from 1425 to 1435. He was the son and successor of ...

sent two large reinforcing armies to Vietnam. Lê Lợi moved his forces to the frontier, where they confronted and utterly defeated Chinese reinforcements in a series of bloody battles, most notably the battle of Chi Lăng-Xương Giang. Wang Tong sued for peace. The numerous Chinese prisoners of war were all given provisions and allowed to return to China. Nguyễn Trãi penned a famous proclamation of victory.

Later life

After the war Nguyễn Trãi was elevated by Lê Lợi to an exalted position in the new court but internal intrigues, sycophantic machinations and clannish nepotism meant he was not appointed regent upon the emperor's death. Instead that position was bestowed upon Lê Sát, who ruled as regent on behalf of the young heir

Lê Thái Tông Lê Thái Tông (黎太宗 22 December 1423 – 28 August 1442), birth name Lê Nguyên Long (黎元龍), was the second king of the Later Lê dynasty from 1433 until his early death nine years later. __TOC__ Biography Lê Thái Tông was ...

. At some point during the regency of Lê Sát, having found life at court increasingly difficult, Nguyễn Trãi retired to his country home north of

in the tranquil mountains of Chí Linh, where he enjoyed poetry writing and

meditation Meditation is a practice in which an individual uses a technique to train attention and awareness and detach from reflexive, "discursive thinking", achieving a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state, while not judging the meditat ...

. Today, visitors can visit this site where a large

shrine A shrine ( "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: ''escrin'' "box or case") is a sacred space">-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ...: ''escri ...

of remembrance, covering from the foot of the mountain to the top is erected to honour the national hero. The site of Nguyễn Trãi's house still exists, however only the tiled floors remain original. Close by is an ancient Buddhist temple, which has stood there several centuries before his time.

Death

Nguyễn Trãi's death resulted from a scandal involving the young emperor, Lê Thái Tông, and the wife or concubine of Nguyễn Trãi, named Nguyễn Thị Lộ. Early in 1442, the young emperor began an affair with Nguyễn Thị Lộ. This affair continued when the emperor visited the old scholar at his home. Not long after having left, Lê Thái Tông suddenly became ill and died. The nobles at the court blamed Nguyễn Thị Lộ for the young emperor's death, accused them of regicide and had both, along with most members of their extended families, executed. Twenty years later, Lê Thái Tông's son, emperor

Lê Thánh Tông Lê Thánh Tông (黎聖宗; 25 August 1442 – 3 March 1497), personal name Lê Hạo, temple name Thánh Tông, courtesy name Tư Thành, was an emperor of Đại Việt, reigning from 1460 to 1497, the fifth and the longest-reigning empero ...

officially pardoned Nguyễn Trãi, saying that he was wholly innocent in the death of Thánh Tông's father. He was given the posthumous noble title the Count of Tán Trù.

Legacy

According to Loren Baritz ("Backfire: A History of How American Culture Led Us Into Vietnam and Made Us Fight the Way We Did", 1985), Trai set down the Vietnamese strategy against the Chinese in an essay. This essay would prove to be very close to the Communists' strategy of insurgency. Specifically you must, "subordinate military action to the political and moral struggle...better to conquer hearts than citadels." Most cities in Vietnam have named major streets after him.

Family

Nguyễn Trãi had five wives (or concubines) and seven sons. Wives/concubines: * Lady Phạm Đỗ Minh Hiển * Lady Phùng Thành * Lady Nguyễn Thị Lộ * Lady Phạm Thị Mẫn * Lady Trần Anh Minh Sons: * Nguyễn Khuê (Lady Trần's) * Nguyễn Ứng (Lady Trần's) * Nguyễn Phù (Lady Trần's) * Nguyễn Bảng (Lady Phùng's) * Nguyễn Tích (Lady Phùng's) * Nguyễn Anh Vũ (Lady Phạm's) * Forefather of a Nguyễn family's branch in Quế Lĩnh, Phương Quất, Kinh Môn District, Hải Dương Province. (Lady Lê's) Notable descendants: *

Nguyễn Thiện Thuật Nguyễn Thiện Thuật (阮善述, 1844–1926), courtesy name Mạnh Hiếu, was a Vietnamese people, Vietnamese revolutionary leader, who commanded armed forces during the anti-colonial struggle. As a high-ranking official under the Nguyễn ...

* Nguyễn Văn Cừ

Work

Being both a military tactician and a poet, Nguyễn Trãi's works varied in many areas ranging from literature, history, geography, ceremony and propriety; many of them were missing after his execution. Most of his poems that survive until today were collected in ''Ức Trai Thi Tập'' (Ức Trai's Poems Collection) by Dương Bá Cung, printed in 1868 under Nguyễn dynasty. His poems, written in both ancient Chinese (Hán) and Vietnamese (Nôm), were highly regarded by notable philosophers, poets, and politicians in Vietnamese history. In 2010, Vietnamese poet Nguyễn Đỗ and American poet Paul Hoover published the first collection of Nguyễn Trãi's poetry in English translation, titled ''Beyond the Court Gate: Selected Poems''. The collection reflects Nguyễn Trãi's metaphysical contemplation of tiny details in everyday life, but at the same time set him apart from

Li Po Li Bai (, 701–762), also pronounced Li Bo, courtesy name Taibai (), was a Chinese poet acclaimed as one of the greatest and most important poets of the Tang dynasty and in Chinese history as a whole. He and his friend Du Fu (712–770) were t ...

's uses of extreme imaginary and formal poetic rules. Nguyễn Trãi's poems demonstrate wit, humility, and a conversational tone, and express his personal perception and experience. An example of Nguyễn Trãi's writing is his poem ''To a Friend'' (Traditional Chinese: 記友, Sino-Vietnamese: ''Kí Hữu'', Vietnamese: ''Gửi Bạn''), as translated and edited by Nguyễn Đỗ and Paul Hoover:
記友
半生世路嘆屯邅，
萬事惟應付老天。
寸舌但存空自信，
一寒如故亦堪憐。
光陰焂忽時難再，
客舍凄涼夜似年。
十載讀書貧到骨，
盤惟苜蓿坐無氈。
''To a Friend'' ''
''My fate naturally has many twists and sharp turns,''
''So in everything I trust in the wisdom of Heaven.''
''I still have my tongue—believe me, I am able to talk,''
''Even though I'm still poor and, as we know, pathetic.''
''Never to return, the past flies too quickly and the time is short,''
''But, wandering in this cold room, the night is far too long.''
''I’ve been reading books for ten years, but I'm poor from clothes to bone''
''From eating only vegetables and sitting without a cushion.''

References

* *''Beyond the Court Gate''. Selected poetry of Nguyen Trai, edited and translated Nguyen Do and Paul Hoover (Counterpath Press, USA, 2010) * https://web.archive.org/web/20120113060121/http://www.zolandpoetry.com/reviews/2011/v2/TraiFreemanDoppelt.html * http://media.sas.upenn.edu/pennsound/groups/XCP/XCP_223_Hoover_11-17-10.mp3 * http://www.thienlybuutoa.org/LichSu-VanHoa/biography-NguyenTrai.htm * https://ecommons.cornell.edu/bitstream/handle/1813/13117/Wolters_TranVietnam.pdf?sequence=1

Footnotes

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nguyen, Trai 1380 births 1442 deaths Victims of familial execution People from Hải Dương province Lê dynasty officials Vietnamese Confucianists Vietnamese male poets Lê dynasty writers Lê dynasty poets People who have received posthumous pardons 15th-century Vietnamese poets