Mạc Đăng Dung (

chữ Hán Chữ Hán (𡨸漢, literally "Chinese characters", ), Chữ Nho (𡨸儒, literally "Confucian characters", ) or Hán tự (漢字, ), is the Vietnamese term for Chinese characters, used to write Văn ngôn (which is a form of Classical Chinese ...

; 莫登庸; 23 November 1483 – 22 August 1541), also known by his

temple name Temple names are posthumous titles accorded to monarchs of the Sinosphere for the purpose of ancestor worship. The practice of honoring monarchs with temple names began during the Shang dynasty in China and had since been adopted by other dynas ...

Mạc Thái Tổ (), was an emperor of

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

and the founder of the

Mạc dynasty The Mạc dynasty ( vi, Nhà Mạc / ''Mạc triều''; Hán Nôm: 茹莫 / 莫朝) (1527-1627), as known as House of Mạc ruled the whole of Đại Việt between 1527 and 1540 and the northern part of the country from 1540 until 1593, and ...

. Previously a captain of the imperial guard (Praetorian Prefect equivalent) of one of the

Lê dynasty The Lê dynasty, also known as Later Lê dynasty ( vi, Hậu Lê triều, chữ Hán: 後黎朝 or vi, nhà Hậu Lê, link=no, chữ Nôm: 茹後黎), was the longest-ruling Vietnamese dynasty, ruling Đại Việt from 1428 to 1789. The Lê ...

emperors, he gradually rose to a position of great power. Mạc eventually deposed the last Lê monarch, executed Lê Chiêu Tông and Lê Cung Hoàng, and became a monarch himself.

From bodyguard to emperor

The Ming's ethnic Vietnamese collaborators included Mac Thuy, whose grandfather was

Mạc Đĩnh Chi Mạc Đĩnh Chi (; 1272–1346) was a renowned Vietnamese Confucian scholar who was the highest-scoring graduate in the palace examinations at the age of only twenty-four. He served three Trần dynasty emperors—first Trần Anh Tông until 1314 ...

, who was a direct ancestor of Mạc Đăng Dung. He was born Mạc Đăng Dung (莫登庸) on 23 November 1483 (Quý Mão in the

sexagenary cycle The sexagenary cycle, also known as the Stems-and-Branches or ganzhi ( zh, 干支, gānzhī), is a cycle of sixty terms, each corresponding to one year, thus a total of sixty years for one cycle, historically used for recording time in China and t ...

) at the village of Cổ Trai, Nghi Dương district (modern Kiến Thụy, part of

Haiphong Haiphong ( vi, Hải Phòng, ), or Hải Phòng, is a major industrial city and the third-largest in Vietnam. Hai Phong is also the center of technology, economy, culture, medicine, education, science and trade in the Red River delta. Haiphong wa ...

city) as a fisherman's son. Mạc Đăng Dung got his start as a bodyguard to the Lê Emperor

Lê Uy Mục Lê Uy Mục (chữ Hán: 黎威穆; 5 May 1488 – 1 December 1509), also called Lê Tuấn (黎濬), was the eighth emperor of the later Lê dynasty of Vietnam. He was the second son of Emperor Lê Hiến Tông and the elder half-brother of hi ...

. Mạc Đăng Dung was a military man who rose through the ranks. After a series of political crises that made both Lê Uy Mục and his successor

Lê Tương Dực Lê Tương Dực (Han: 黎襄翼; 16 July 1495 – 8 May 1516), birth name Lê Oanh (黎瀠), reigned from 1509 to 1516, was the ninth emperor of the later Lê dynasty of Đại Việt. The only primary account of his life and reign was the Đạ ...

assassinated, Mạc Đăng Dung continued to gain power and rank in the military. With the enthronement of the young emperor

Lê Chiêu Tông Lê Chiêu Tông ( 黎昭宗, 4 October 1506 – 18 December 1526; also called Lê Y, 黎椅 or 黎譓) was an emperor of the Lê dynasty of Vietnam who ruled from 1516 to 1526. He was the son of Lê Sùng and nephew of the preceding king ...

in 1516, a power struggle in the court, along with Trần Cao rebellion lead the country to the level of a civil war. From 1516 to 1520, the warlords of Nguyễn Hoàng Dụ and Trịnh Duy Sản,

Nguyễn Kính Nguyễn () is the most common Vietnamese surname. Outside of Vietnam, the surname is commonly rendered without diacritics as Nguyen. Nguyên (元）is a different word and surname. By some estimates 39 percent of Vietnamese people bear this s ...

and

Trần Cao Trần Cảo (陳暠, d. after 1525) or Trần Cao (陳高), was an early 16th-century Vietnamese rebel leader. Cảo born in Dưỡng Chân, Thuỷ Đường (present day Thuỷ Nguyên, Hải Phòng).Thien Do ''Vietnamese Supernaturalism: Views ...

were fighting for power. Mạc Đăng Dung initially led the forces loyal to King Lê Chiêu Tông against the warlords, he eventually defeated the warlords and gained enough power to force Lê Chiêu Tông to abdicate in 1522 and illegally promote the Emperor

Lê Cung Hoàng Lê Cung Hoàng (黎恭皇, 26 July 1507 – 15 June 1527), born Lê Xuân, was the last emperor of the Later Lê dynasty of Vietnam. He reigned from 1522 to 1527. Lê Cung Hoàng was put on the throne by the powerful general Mạc Đăng Dung in ...

to the throne. Lê Chiêu Tông fled the court with the support of the warlord Trịnh Tuy to

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 Hanoi and 1560 kilometers (969 miles) north of Ho Chi Minh City. Thanh ...

where he fought against Mạc Đăng Dung until being captured in 1526. In 1527, Mạc Đăng Dung had both Lê Chiêu Tông and Lê Cung Hoàng killed. He then proclaimed himself the new emperor of the Mạc dynasty.

Emperor Minh Đức

Mạc Đăng Dung proclaimed himself the new emperor of Vietnam under the name Minh Đức. Using ruthless methods, he forced the Lê officials to recognize his dynasty and he murdered the members of the Lê family who still remained in the north including the deposed emperor Lê Cung Hoàng and his mother. Some government officials committed suicide rather than acknowledge Mạc Đăng Dung as emperor, others fled south and joined the resistance. Another rebellion was launched, this time under the leadership of

Nguyễn Kim Nguyen Kim (; 1468–1545) was a Vietnamese statesman who was the ancestor of the famous Nguyễn Lords who later ruled south Vietnam (and much later, all of Vietnam). During his rule, the war with the Mạc dynasty started. Nguyễn Kim claim ...

and his son-in-law

Trịnh Kiểm Trịnh Kiểm (1503–1570) ruled northern part of Vietnam from 1545 to 1570. Trịnh Kiểm was the founder of the Trịnh lords or House of Trịnh who ruled Dai Viet while a succession of figurehead Later Lê emperors took the role as puppet g ...

. In 1533, Nguyễn Kim installed

Lê Trang Tông Lê Trang Tông (, 1515 – 9 March 1548) was the 13th emperor of the Later Lê dynasty and the first of the Revival Lê dynasty.《歷朝憲章類誌》卷二十一·禮儀誌·太廟殿奉事各位。 His enthronement marked the re-establishment ...

, a son of Lê Chiêu Tông who were exiled to Laos, to restore the Lê throne. From

, the restored Lê dynasty began its resistance against the Mạc. Appeals from the Trịnh and Nguyễn were made to the Chinese Ming court to send in an army to remove the usurper. However Mạc Đăng Dung, using submissive behavior and bribery, managed to obtain a temporary recognition of his rule from the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

in 1528. In 1529 Mạc Đăng Dung abdicated in favor of his son,

Mạc Đăng Doanh Mạc ( Hán tự: 莫) is a Vietnamese surname. The name is transliterated as Mo in Chinese and Mua in Hmong language. It is also of Gaelic origin, meaning son, used as a prefix in many Irish and Scottish surnames e.g. MacDonald, and MacG ...

Retirement and rule again

Mạc Đăng Dung lived on as a retired emperor while his son had to deal with the continuing revolt by the Trịnh and the Nguyễn. His son was not the equal of his father and as a result of several defeats, he lost control of the provinces south of the Red River. In 1533, the Nguyễn-Trịnh army conquered the Winter Palace and proclaimed Lê Trang Tông the rightful ruler of Vietnam. Adding to the problems of military defeats, an official Chinese delegation determined that Mạc Đăng Dung's usurpation was not justified and so, in 1537 a very large army was dispatched to Vietnam under the pretense of restoring the Lê family to power. In the summer, with the Chinese invading the north, Dung's son Doanh died and so Dung resumed his former position as emperor. The Ming Chinese threatened Mạc Đăng Dung with an invasion of 110,000 men ready to invade Vietnam from Guangxi in 1540. Mac succumbed and caved in to Chinese pressure and accepted the bitter demands the Chinese made, including crawling barefoot in front of the Chinese, giving up land to China, downgrading the status of his polity from a country to a chieftaincy and giving up official documents like tax registers to the Ming. The Chinese accepted him as ruler over a part of Vietnam while he claimed to accept Lê rule over the southern part of Vietnam. But the Nguyễn and the Trịnh refused to accept this division and so the war continued in the south. Mạc Đăng Dung died in 1541 and ''de facto'' authority was transferred to his grandson

Mạc Hiến Tông Mạc Hiến Tông (, ?–1546), birth name Mạc Phúc Hải (), was the third emperor of the Mạc dynasty of Annam from 1540 to 1546. He was born in Cao Đôi village, Bình Hà district (present day Nam Tan, Nam Sach District, Nam Sach, Hai Du ...

. Despite the Chinese recognition and his rule over much of Vietnam, later Vietnamese historians question the legitimacy of his reign. The usurpation by Mạc Đăng Dung split the kingdom, with the Mạc dynasty reigning in the north, and the Lê dynasty continuing in the south, supported by the

Trịnh lords The Trịnh lords ( vi, Chúa Trịnh; Chữ Nôm: 主鄭; 1545–1787), formal title Trịnh Viceroy (; ), also known as Trịnh clan (鄭氏, ''Trịnh thị'') or the House of Trịnh, were a noble feudal clan who de facto ruled Northern Viet ...

and the

Nguyễn lords Nguyễn () is the most common Vietnamese surname. Outside of Vietnam, the surname is commonly rendered without diacritics as Nguyen. Nguyên (元）is a different word and surname. By some estimates 39 percent of Vietnamese people bear this su ...

References

Works cited *Coedes, G. (1962). ''The Making of South-east Asia''. London: Cox & Wyman Ltd. *Dardess, John W. (2012)
''Ming China, 1368-1644: A Concise History of a Resilient Empire''
Rowman & Littlefield. . Retrieved 7 August 2013.

External links

– with historical context

– not completely reliable {{DEFAULTSORT:Mac Dang Dung Year of birth uncertain 1483 births 1541 deaths Mạc dynasty emperors Vietnamese retired emperors People from Haiphong 16th-century Vietnamese monarchs Vietnamese monarchs Founding monarchs