Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm

Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm (Chữ nho: 阮秉謙, 1491 – 1585) was a Vietnamese administrator, educator, poet, sage and is a saint of the Cao Dai religion. He is referred to by several names: Hanh Phu, Bach Van cu si (White Cloud Hermit) and Trạng Trình.

Born on the coast in Cổ Am village (which is now part of Hai Phong). At adult, he studied knowledge from the second-rank doctor Lương Đắc Bằng and passed the official government examination at the fairly late age of 44 in the exams of 1535. However, he passed the exam with the number one rank in the country. This was a period of great instability in Vietnam which may explain why he took the exam at such a late age. He served in the Mạc Dynasty court for just seven years till 1542 when he resigned after his official complaints of government corruptions were ignored. He returned to his native village and opened a school. Among his students were Phùng Khắc Khoan (diplomat), Lương Hữu Khánh, Nguyễn Dữ (author of Truyền Kỳ Mạn Lục).

Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm became a person much sought after by many leaders during that time of upheaval, civil war, the Mạc collapse, and the rise of the Trinh Lords and Nguyen Lords. Both Trịnh Kiểm and Nguyễn Hoàng purportedly sought his advices in their pursuit of power. To the former, he gave the advice of being the real power behind the (restored) Le Dynasty. To the latter, he advised building the base of power in the undeveloped south. Both men followed these suggestions, resulting in a political and military division of Vietnam that would last for 200 years. As a result of this sage advice, Nguyen Binh Khiem gained a reputation as someone who could foretell the future. Some of his prophicies were of a Delphic nature as they were ambiguous and could be read in several ways.

Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm was also a poet, composing many poems in Chinese and Nôm that survive until the present. There is a long poem attributed to him called Sấm Trạng Trình, which is the Vietnamese equivalent of the Nostradamus quatrains, in other words, suggestive, believed to predict future events, and very mysterious. Some of them have been proved to be right.

Further reading

* Ta Ngoc Lien "Renowned Vietnamese Intellectuals: Nguyen Binh Khiem", The Gioi Publishers, 2004.
* Nguyễn Huyền Anh. "Việt Nam Danh Nhân Từ Điển."
* Phạm Thế Ngữ. "Việt Nam Văn Học Sử."
* Trần Trọng Kim. "Việt Nam Sử Lược."