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World History Encyclopedia, Era 6: The First Global Age, 1450–1770

By: Dane A. Morrison and Alexander Mikaberidze, Editors
D. Harland Hagler, Coeditor
Jeffrey M. Diamond, Associate Editor
Monique Vallance, Assistant Editor

Vietnam—The Nguyen Lords

At the beginning of the fifteenth century there was a dramatic change in Vietnamese history as the
Ming dynasty occupied Dai Ngu/Viet and ruled it as Ming China's 14th province from 1407. Le Loi's
decade-long rebellion ended Ming Chinese rule in 1428, and his coronation inaugurated Vietnam's
longest-ruling dynasty. Yet less than 100 years after its founding, the Le dynasty was riddled with
trouble and owed its nominal restoration to two increasingly powerful but competing families: the
northern-based Trinh, who essentially held the Le emperors hostage, and the Nguyen, who were
carving out an everexpanding autonomous domain in the south.
The rise of the Nguyen and the Trinh families, both with origins in Thanh Hoa province (in present-
day central North Vietnam), began with the usurpation of the fledgling Le throne by Mac Dang
Dung (r. 1527-1530). Nguyen Kim (1467-1545), a notable court official related to the Le dynasty
through marriage, decided to help restore Le rule; in this he was aided by Trinh Kiem (d. 1570),
his ambitious son-in-law. By the time of Nguyen Kim's death in 1545 (allegedly poisoned by the
Mac), the Le dynasty had set up court at Thanh Hoa, but it was the Trinh family who had begun to
establish themselves as the power behind the throne.
Kim's son Nguyen Hoang (1524-1613) nevertheless continued to cooperate fully in the campaigns
to restore the Le but was acutely aware of his increasingly powerful brother-in-law who was
suspected of killing his older brother. In 1558 Nguyen Hoang thus requested the position of
governor of two southern frontier provinces, Thuan Hoa and Quang Nam, with the aim of being at
a safe distance from Trinh Kiem with an opportunity to build up an alternative power base. After
Trinh Tung (r. 1570-1623) and Nguyen Hoang had dislodged the Mac from Thang Long (present-
day Hanoi) in 1592, the Le dynasty was formally restored, but effective power remained with the
Trinh. In recognition of his services, Trinh Tung was even given the title of king (vuong in Sino-
Vietnamese; chua in Vietnamese), a privilege that his descendants, the Trinh Lords (Chua Trinh),
conveniently retained.
In the face of such ambitions, and having satisfied his filial duties to restore the Le, Nguyen Hoang
retreated to his southern fiefdom. From their capital near present-day Hue he and his descendants,
the Nguyen Lords, would consolidate and enlarge their power base. The southward thrust of the
Nguyen armies integrated the remaining Cham territories and also wrested most of the Mekong
Delta from Cambodia, in the process creating a new southern Vietnamese space that extended to
the Gulf of Siam. Although the Nguyen Lords still recognized the nominal overlordship of the Le
emperors, the Trinh Lords in the north (Dang Ngoai) could not accept that their former allies were
essentially carving out a new autonomous kingdom, called Dang Trong, in the south. In 1627 the
bitter rivalry between the two families came to a head when Nguyen Phuc Nguyen (r. 1613-1635)
opposed Trinh attempts at domestic interference and demands for tribute. During the next half
century the Trinh and Nguyen fought over their differences, until a truce recognizing the status quo
power balance was eventually reached in 1672.
The Nguyen Lords used the ensuing 100 years of peace to further consolidate power in their realm,
and in 1744 Nguyen Phuc Khoat (r. 1738-1765) proclaimed himself king. Yet a sociopolitical crisis
was triggered with the ascension to the throne of a minor, Nguyen Phuc Thuan (r. 1765-1777), as
power actually resided

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> NGUYEN BINH KHIEMNguyen Hoang's decision not to contest the Trinh Lords and instead
carve out a fiefdom of his own in the south appears to have been suggested to him by the famous
scholar-official and soothsayer Nguyen Binh Khiem (1491-1585). The son of a mandarin, he topped
the official government examination in 1535 but resigned his position seven years later in protest
against widespread corruption in the Mac dynasty's bureaucracy and court. From the base of his
White Cloud Hermitage in Hai Duong, Nguyen Binh Khiem became an educator, poet, and much
sought after adviser with purported prophetic skills. Thus, apart from Nguyen Hoang, he is also
alleged to have advised the ambitious Trinh Kiem to become the power behind the throne of the
restored Le dynasty rather than to claim it himself.If true, Nguyen Binh Khiem's advice arguably
changed the course of early modern Vietnamese history. By masterminding new political
configurations and dynamics, the highly volatile atmosphere of sixteenth-century Vietnamese elite
politics was defused, and at least intermittently, regicide and further fratricidal were prevented.
Instead, the Le nominally preserved imperial hegemony, whereas the ambitions of the more
dynamic Trinh and Nguyen families were directed onto two separate but occasionally colliding
paths: actual exercise of Trinh power in the north, Dang Ngoai, and the building of an independent
Nguyen domain, Dang Trong, through southward expansion. This essentially bipolar order would
last for two centuries, only to quickly disintegrate when challenged by the Tay Sdn Rebellion.—
Tobias Rettig
with his dominant regent. By then, if not earlier, military complacency seems to have set in;
moreover, the central regions of the Nguyen kingdom were largely uncovered because the
dynasty's military forces were concentrated at the northern border to the Trinh domain, while their
militia forces were based in the Gia Dinh area (which contains present-day Ho Chi Minh City).
These circumstances provided fertile ground for three brothers from Tay Son village to start a local
uprising. They claimed to restore power to Nguyen Phuc Thuan, but the Tay Son Rebellion soon
embroiled the eastern part of the Indochinese peninsula into a three-pronged 30year contest over
political supremacy between the Nguyen, the Tay Son, and the Trinh/Le, which included foreign
interference.
In 1777 the Tay Son pushed the Nguyen southward into the marshy Mekong Delta and wiped out
almost the entire Nguyen family. In 1785 the Tay Son inflicted a severe defeat on Prince Nguyen
Anh (1762-1820), the only survivor. Although Nguyen Anh, who initially had sought refuge in
Bangkok and in the Gulf of Siam, eventually managed to establish a fairly secure operational base
in Gia Dinh in late 1788, his overall prospects still looked extremely bleak.
Hence, the most capable of the Tay Son, Nguyen Hue (1753-1792), who had declared himself
emperor in 1788, unified Dang Ngoai and Dang Trong in 1789 by driving out the Chinese forces
called in by the last Le emperor for protection. Yet Nguyen Hue's premature death in 1792 left in
place as emperor a ten-year old boy incapable of holding the newly created realm together. Within
ten years, well-planned seasonal campaigns and arguably also the military support organized by
French bishop Pigneau de Béhaine (1741-1799) allowed Nguyen Anh to take Thang Long on July
20, 1802, and to establish Vietnam's last dynasty.
—Tobias Rettig
Bibliography
Dutton, George. The Tây Son Uprising: Society and Rebellion in Eighteenth-Century Vietnam.
Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2006.
Li Tana. “An Alternative Vietnam? The Nguyen Kingdom in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth
Centuries.” Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 29(1) (March 1998): 111-121.
Li Tana. Nguyen Cochinchina: Southern Vietnam in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.
Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Southeast Asia Program, 1998.

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Taylor, Keith. “Surface Orientations in Vietnam: Beyond Histories of Nation and Region.” Journal of
Asian Studies 57(4) (November 1998): 949-978.
Yao Baoyun. Contribution à Vhistoire de la principauté des Nguyên au Vietnam méridional, 1600-
1775. Geneva: Éditions Olizane, 1992.

MLA

Mikaberidze, Alexander, Dane A. Morrison, Jeffrey M. Diamond, D. Harland Hagler. "Vietnam—The

Nguyen Lords." World History Encyclopedia, Era 6: The First Global Age, 1450–1770. Santa
Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2011. ABC-CLIO eBook Collection. Web. 23 May 2011.

Select Citation Style: MLA

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