Nguyen Khuyen (1835-1909), childhood name was Thang, also knowns as Mien Chi, branded Que Son, borned in his mother’s hometown, moved to his father’s hometown in Vi Ha village, also called Va village to live when he was 8 years old (now belong to Trung Luong commune, Binh Luc district, Ha Nam provinc)...
After 20 years of studying and attending examinations, he top 3 big examination: Huong, Hoi & Dinh. From there, he was honored “Tam nguyen Yen Do” (Yen Do's first-rate graduate in three times). For more than ten years of participation in politics, he worked at the Department of National History and the Ministry of National Households in Hue royal court; he was appointed Governor of advance education, district governor in Thanh Hoa, Quang Ngai, he then retired at the age of fifty (1884) and passed away in his hometown...
About writing, Nguyen Khuyen used both Han and Nom letters, composed “Duong luat”, “Lục bat”, recitatives, literature books, oration, couplets, memoirs and translated his own poetries from Han to Nom letters. The number of his works so far has been collected more than 800 poetries, more than half of them has been published. In terms of genre forms, Nguyen Khuyen remained loyal to the Duong luat poetry and did not have any special innovation. However, he had made the difference, and reached the height of artistic expression lyrical voice, the voice of an affordable graduated, an honorable mandarin in a normal life, became the first poet of “Vietnamese villages” (Xuan Dieu).
Imbued with Confucian ethics, but Nguyen Khuyen didn’t talk much about being thankful for the King or the country and he also didn’t care much about his mandarin career. Living amid the chaos, Nguyen Khuyen still had his mindset toward his hometown; he shifted all the topic system, themes, characters, and scenes to his idyllic hometown. It can be said that the education environment had forged him into an orthodox Confucian of the country. But the reality of the country in more than 20 years by the end of his life, especially after retiring, made up his mind, not only bewildered in life but also felt sorry for the nation and the people living in it.
As a Confucian, Nguyen Khuyen was helpless seeing the French invaded the country. No longer able to participate in the battle because of poor health, he had consented to return home to conserve his dignity: Ten years of traveling on a road - now returned fortunate that we are still (End of Spring lamentation). Being far away from a half Western, half Asian politics, he made sarcasm toward the topsy-turvy carnival, wanted to wake the “humane” in every human being: Praise the one who created this fun - so much fun this much infamy (Western festival). However, before the technical strength of the West, Nguyen Khuyen was stunned with the new reality, he criticized even the ways lead to social movement. He said both the mining; road instruction broke the "dragon circuit", that life is no longer peaceful as before. Maybe it's the cost of the era of colonization, the colonial-semi-feudal era that Nguyen Khuyen had sensed with a lot of skepticism. Going further, he expressed his patriotic through poems, praised from Dong Thien Vuong, Hai Ba Trung to Tran Hung Dao, Chu Van An, Nguyen Trai ...
Back to his hometown, Nguyen Khuyen still expressed his satirical voice mingled with lyrical. On the other hand, he satirized the greedy officials, the hypocrisy, but he had compassion with the poor. From the depth of the heart, Nguyen Khuyen distilled voiced profound poetry, mocking the “Dr. Paper”, “Stone statue”… and the useless of the examination paths; Think of myself, abhorrence myself - Also have a stele and a yellow banner (Tu trao)… More than anything, Nguyen Khuyen missed his old friends, the farmers, the simple life. He attached to the old garden, specially, it can be said that 3 poems: Fishing in Autumn, Drinking in Autumn, Versing on Autumn had reached the peak of this poetry form, praising the rural viallge scenes of Vietnam.
People don’t remember much about “Tam nguyen Yen Do” as a Master and a Mandarin but will forever remember Nguyen Khuyen as a poet. Nguyen Khuyen’s poems really represent for Vietnamese’s souls and the taste, the manner of the South East Asia. You may say that he was the last delegate for a true Confucian poet, a “big cannon” ending the poetry medieval.
