Trịnh Khả ( vi-hantu, 鄭可, 1402 – 1451) close advisor to emperor

Lê Thái Tổ Le is a romanization of several rare East Asian surnames and a common Vietnamese surname. It is a fairly common surname in the United States, ranked 975th during the 1990 census and 368th during the 2000 census. In 2000, it was the eighth-most-co ...

, chief ruler 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 ...

during the 1440s, and founder of the powerful Trịnh family. Đại Việt Thông Sử Page 5

Lê Quý Đôn Lê Quý Đôn (; 1726–1784) was an 18th-century Vietnamese poet, encyclopedist, and government official. His pseudonym was Quế - Đường. He was a native of Duyen Ha village in present-day Thái Bình Province. He is considered one of the ...

reprint 1978 "Hoàng đế được biết Trịnh Khả và Lê Lôi đã từng đi đón tiếp con voi tự nước Ai Lao về, tất nhiên am hiểu tiếng nói và văn tự nước Ai Lao, bèn sai hai Tướng này mang tờ thông điệp sang bảo Quốc Vương nước Ai Lao rằng: "Quốc gia tôi .." __TOC__

Biography

Trịnh Khả, like most of Lê Lợi's chief aids and generals, was from Thanh Hóa Province which is where Lê Lợi was born. During the decade-long

Lam Sơn uprising The Lam Sơn uprising (; vi, Khởi nghĩa Lam Sơn; vi-hantu, 起義藍山) was a Vietnamese rebellion led by Lê Lợi in the province of Jiaozhi from 1418 to 1427 against the rule of Ming China. The success of the rebellion led to the es ...

against the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han peo ...

, Trịnh Khả served as an advisor to

Lê Lợi Lê Lợi (, Chữ Hán: 黎利; c. 10 September 1384/1385 – 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 Vietnam ...

. With victory, Trịnh Khả was elevated to a high position in the new court of Emperor Lê Lợi. Trịnh Khả (and the other councilors) were given the privilege of wearing red silk and were called Hành-khiển. Other members of this new elite were:

Nguyễn Trãi Nguyễn Trãi (阮廌), pen name Ức Trai (抑齋); (1380–1442) was an illustrious Vietnamese Confucian scholar, a noted poet, a skilled politician and a master strategist. He was at times attributed with being capable of almost miraculous o ...

, Tran Nguyen Han, Lê Sát, Phạm Văn Xảo, Dinh Liêt, and Lê Ngan. When Lê Lợi died in 1433, Lê Sát was appointed regent for the young emperor, Lê Lợi's second son,

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 emperor of the Later Lê dynasty from 1433 until his early death nine years later. __TOC__ Biography Lê Thái Tông w ...

. Lê Sát made use of his new power to remove rivals from the government, some were killed (like Phạm Văn Xảo), while others, like Trịnh Khả, were sent away to govern distant provinces of Vietnam. Lê Thái Tông officially came of age in 1438 but found Lê Sát was unwilling to give up his power as regent. Lê Thái Tông looked for political allies and found Trịnh Khả. The new emperor appointed Trịnh Khả to command the Palace Guard. A few months later, Lê Sát was accused of ruling in place of the emperor and with the aid of Khả's guards, Lê Sát was arrested and then condemned to death. Not long after this, Lê Ngan was also removed from power, leaving Trịnh Khả as the main power behind

. Officially, Trịnh Khả was the head of the Administrative Bureau (Chinh-su-vien) but the next four years were filled with intrigue as the various noble families in the court plotted to expand their power at the expense of their rivals. Trịnh Khả came out on top of this fight, being promoted to the position of Imperial Councilor shortly before Lê Thái Tông became sick and died in 1442. With the death of the young emperor, the new heir to the throne was an infant

Lê Nhân Tông Lê Nhân Tông (黎仁宗, 28 May 1441 – 25 October 1459), birth name Lê Bang Cơ (黎邦基) was the third emperor of the Later Lê dynasty from 1453 until his murder in a coup in 1459. He was a grandson of the emperor Lê Lợi. During near ...

. The government was nominally controlled by the boy's mother,

Nguyễn Thị Anh Nguyễn Thị Anh ( vi-hantu, 阮氏英, 1422 - 1459) was a concubine consort, empress dowager of Lê dynasty, mother of the emperor Le Nhan Tong. She was official regent of Đại Việt about 1442 - 1453 during her son's minority, and effectiv ...

(as Dowager Queen and Regent), but she was very young herself. Real power seems to have been wielded by Trịnh Khả along with Nguyễn Xí, Le Thu and two generals: Dinh Liêt and Pham Boi. The government of the oligarchy was not very active but they sent six missions to the Ming Court. Some of the missions were complaints about raids by the Champa kingdom into Vietnam. In 1446, the government launched an attack on the Champa. The campaign was reasonably successful as the Vietnamese army captured the capital city of Vijaya but they lost the city to a counter-attack a year later. This was the forerunner of the 1470 campaign which would destroy the Champa. As the years passed, Queen Nguyễn Thị Anh came into greater conflict with the Trịnh Khả and the other oligarchs who ruled the country. The Queen gained some support from the Confucian scholars who had passed the Imperial examinations and tried to rule much like their Chinese colleges to the north ruled in the Ming imperial system. The nobles in turn tried to limit the power of the scholars and maintain their own control over the government. For reasons lost to history, the Queen ordered Trịnh Khả and his eldest son executed in August 1451. Two years later, upon the official enthronement of Lê Nhân Tông (at the age of 12), Trịnh Khả was pardoned and new lands were given to the Trịnh family. The Trịnh family continued to be a major noble family in Việt Nam. In 1545, a great-grandson named

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 ...

, took control of a large part of Vietnam. His descendants ruled the north for the next 240 years (see 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 ...

for details). Three hundred years later, the Vietnamese officer, Lê Quý Đôn, said of Trịnh Khả he "served the public good, exhausted his virtue (on it), and considered the correction of evil and the presentation of instruction to be his own duty".

References

* This history is based on the doctoral thesis of John K. Whitmore "The Development of the Le Government in Fifteenth Century Vietnam" (Cornell University, 1968). The thesis is mostly concerned with the structure and make-up of the Le government from 1427 to 1471. {{DEFAULTSORT:Trinh, Kha 1451 deaths People from Thanh Hóa province Lê dynasty officials Recipients of Vietnamese royal pardons 1402 births

Biography

See also

References