Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm (

chữ Hán ( , ) are the Chinese characters that were used to write Literary Chinese in Vietnam, Literary Chinese (; ) and Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary in Vietnamese language, Vietnamese. They were officially used in Vietnam after the Red River Delta region ...

阮 Ruan ( zh, c=阮, p=Ruǎn, w=''Juan'', ) is a Chinese surname. The Taiwanese Hokkien version or is transcribed Oán and Ńg in Pe̍h-ōe-jī. The Cantonese language, Cantonese version is romanized Jyun2 in the Jyutping system or Yún in the Y ...

秉謙; 1491–1585) was a

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overseas Vietnamese, Vietnamese people living outside Vietna ...

administrator Administrator or admin may refer to: Job roles Computing and internet * Database administrator, a person who is responsible for the environmental aspects of a database * Forum administrator, one who oversees discussions on an Internet forum * N ...

confucianist 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 ...

, poet,

prophet In religion, a prophet or prophetess is an individual who is regarded as being in contact with a divinity, divine being and is said to speak on behalf of that being, serving as an intermediary with humanity by delivering messages or teachings ...

and later a

saint In Christianity, Christian belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of sanctification in Christianity, holiness, imitation of God, likeness, or closeness to God in Christianity, God. However, the use of the ...

of the Cao Dai religion and of the

new religious movement A new religious movement (NRM), also known as a new religion, is a religious or Spirituality, spiritual group that has modern origins and is peripheral to its society's dominant religious culture. NRMs can be novel in origin, or they can be part ...

known as School of Teaching Goodness.

Biography

Born on the coast in Cổ Am village (which is now part of

Hai Phong Haiphong or Hai Phong (, ) is the third-largest city in Vietnam and is the principal port city of the Red River Delta. The municipality has an area of , consisting of 8 urban districts, 6 rural districts and 1 municipal city (sub-city). Two ...

). As an 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, ranking number one 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 The Mạc dynasty (; Hán-Nôm: 茹莫/ 朝莫) (1527–1677), officially Đại Việt (Chữ Hán: 大越), was a Vietnamese dynasty which ruled over a unified Vietnam between 1527 and 1540, and northern Vietnam from 1540 until 1593. The M ...

court for just seven years until 1542 when he resigned after his official complaints of government corruptions were ignored. He then 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''). 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

Trịnh lords Trịnh is a Vietnamese family name In many societies, a surname, family name, or last name is the mostly hereditary portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family. It is typically combined with a given name to form the full na ...

and

Nguyễn lords The Nguyễn lords (, 主阮; 1558–1777, 1780–1802), also known as the Nguyễn clan (; ), were Nguyễn dynasty's forerunner and a feudal noble clan ruling southern Đại Việt in the Revival Lê dynasty. The Nguyễn lords were membe ...

. Both Trịnh Kiểm and

Nguyễn Hoàng Nguyễn Hoàng (28 August 1525 – 20 July 1613) was a Vietnamese official who ruled southern Vietnam from 1558 to his death in 1613. As the first of the Nguyễn lords, he established a powerful state that contested rule over Vietnam for the ne ...

purportedly sought his advice in their pursuit of power. To the former, he gave the advice of being the real power behind the (restored)

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 ...

. To the latter, he advised building a 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, Khiêm gained a reputation as someone who could foretell the future. Some of his prophecies were of a Delphic nature as they were ambiguous and could be read in several ways. Khiêm was also a poet, composing many poems in Chinese and Nôm that have survived to this day. There is a long poem attributed to him called ''Sấm Trạng Trình'' (讖狀程, The Prophecies of Trạng Trình).Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm,
Sấm Trạng Trình
(Trạng Trình is one of Khiêm's nicknames.) This is the Vietnamese equivalent of the

Nostradamus Michel de Nostredame (December 1503 – July 1566), usually Latinisation of names, Latinised as Nostradamus, was a French Astrology, astrologer, apothecary, physician, and reputed Oracle, seer, who is best known for his book ''Les Prophéti ...

quatrains. It is suggestive, believed to predict future events, and very mysterious. This poem includes the line, "Vietnam is being created" (), an early use of the word

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

. Most cities in Vietnam have named major streets after him.

Modern Cult in the School of Teaching Goodness

The School of Teaching Goodness emerged in the 1990s in the Vĩnh Bảo District, a rural area of the city of

Hải Phòng Haiphong or Hai Phong (, ) is the third-largest city in Vietnam and is the principal port city of the Red River Delta. The municipality has an area of , consisting of 8 List of urban districts of Vietnam, urban districts, 6 Huyện, rural distri ...

. A local carpenter known simply as "Master Thu" claimed to have been visited at night by the spirit of Khiêm, who ordered him to build a shrine in his honor. Thu owned some land, where he built and inaugurated in 1996 a shrine he called Minh Đường Trung Tân (The School of Teaching Goodness). By 2016, it had attracted more than 10,000 visitors, and Thu had organized around the channeled messages of Khiêm a new religious movement with thousands of followers. In 2016, a woman credited with spiritual powers who lived near the shrine claimed to have found Khiêm's coffin buried in her garden. State archeologists took the finding seriously and investigated it. The results were inconclusive, but the fame of the shrine grew as a result of the incident.Quỳnh Trang
"Hội khảo cổ nghiên cứu ngôi mộ nghi của Trạng trình Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm"
''VnEXpress'', January 18, 2017.

References

Sources

* 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 Trần Trọng Kim (; chữ Hán: 陳仲金, Kanji pronunciation: ''Chin Jūkin''; ; 1883 – December 2, 1953; courtesy name Lệ Thần (, chữ Hán: 隸臣) was a Vietnamese scholar and politician who served as the Prime Minister of the sho ...

. ''Việt Nam Sử Lược.'' * Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm, The ''Bach Vân Am Quôc-Ngu Thi Tâp'', Text in Latin script and chữ nôm script, translation in French, Bulletin de la Société des études indochinoises, Saigon, 1974, 312 P. {{DEFAULTSORT:Nguyen, Binh Khiem 1491 births 1585 deaths People from Haiphong Cao Dai saints Vietnamese Confucianists Vietnamese male poets Mạc dynasty Deified Vietnamese people 16th-century Vietnamese poets 16th-century Confucianists Trạng nguyên