Tay Son Dynasty

Origin of the Tay Son The name of "Tay Son" is used in many ways referring back to the period of peasant rebellions and decentralized dynasty established between the eras of the Le and Nguyen dynasties. Sometimes the name Tay Son is used to refer to the leaders of this revolt, as "the Tay Son brothers", while sometimes it is used as the name for war, such as "the Tay Son Uprising" and finally it is used sometimes to referr to the rule of the brothers in an innovative government "Tay Son dynasty".

Background History During the 18th Century the country now called Vietnam was under the symbolic rule of the officially revered but politically ignored Le Emperor. Real power was actually in the hands of two warring feudal families, the Trinh of the North who controlled mostly the Emperor and the Nguyen in the South. Both sides fought each other for control of the nation, both pretending to be loyal to the Le Emperor, but both trying to control him. Nguyễn (阮) is the most common Vietnamese family name. ...

This was a time of great suffering for the common people. The huge numbers of peasants were held like slaves by a very small number of wealthy landlords. The Confucian mandarin bureaucracy was corrupt, oppressive and at one point had degrees simply up for sale to whoever was wealthy enough to purchase them. The ruling lords lived lavish lifestyles, building huge palaces and temples while the people were being taxed to death. The upright mandarins who protested against this were ignored. Finally, there was also the constant death as both the Nguyen and the Trinh lords drafted peasants into their armies to fight against each other for their own advancement. Soon, the people could tolerate these circumstances no longer.

Warfare Begins It was as early as 1715 that small peasant revolts began breaking out against the Trinh and Nguyen lords. The rebellions had become so severe and frequent that by the end of the 18th Century, the Trinh clan was on the verge of collapse. This would have been exploited, but the Nguyen were also trying to suppress a massive uprising by the people, from the region Son Tay, under the leadership of the brothers Nguyen Nhac, Nguyen Lu and Nguyen Hue in 1771.

The Tay Son brothers were the champions of the people, promising to evict the corrupt officials, such as the southern regent Truong Phuc Loan, and restore the legitimate authorities. They were extremely popular with the peasants and also with the minority tribes. In 1773 they captured the city of Qui Nhon, where the merchants who had been so restricted by the Nguyen gave them financial support to continue the war. Nguyen Hue at this time said that his goal was to end the people's oppression, reunite the country and restore power to the Le Dynasty Emperor in Hanoi. The Trinh took advantage of the disasterous situation to join the attack on the Nguyen and in 1774 they captured Phu Xuan, the Nguyen capital, forcing the feudal lord to flee. Hanoi opera house Hanoi (Vietnamese: Hà Nội; Chinese: 河内), estimated population 3,500,800 (1997), is the capital of Vietnam and was the capital of North Vietnam from 1954 to 1976. ...

The Trinh and the Tay Son joined forces in a massive campaign to wipe out the Nguyen Dynasty which succeeded rapidly due to their great unpopularity. In 1776 the Tay Son captured Gia Dinh (Saigon) which was the last Nguyen stronghold. The enraged people killed all of the Nguyen family except for one nephew, Nguyen Anh, who managed to escape to Siam. In 1778, well established in the south with popular support, Nguyen Nhac was proclaimed King at Do Ban in Binh Dinh province. Nguyen Dynasty was a line of rulers of Vietnam in the 19th century to mid-20th century. ... Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnamese: Thành Phố Hồ Chí Minh) is the largest city in Vietnam and, as Saigon (Vietnamese: Sài Gòn), was the capital of South Vietnam from 1954 to 1976. ... The Kingdom of Thailand is a country in southeast Asia, bordering Laos and Cambodia to the east, the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia to the south, and the Andaman Sea and Myanmar to the west. ...

Foreign Intervention The Nguyen survivor Anh, was plotting revenge against the Tay Son and used a tactic that would become a common one for the enemies of the popular Tay Son. Since the Tay Son were supported by the Vietnamese people, their enemies in every case had to rely on foreign armies to impose their rule over the country. Nguyen Anh invaded the south again in 1784 with the help of a massive Siamese army. After making some initial gains, Anh was again defeated by Nguyen Hue who completely destroyed the Siamese army and again Anh fled for his life, this time going for help and safety to the French.

After this, Nguyen Hue was tired of the duplicity of the feudal clans and decided that he must unite the country by destroying the power of the Trinh. He marched north in 1786 and in only two months had reached the Red River. The peasants refused to fight for the Trinh, and the elites were feuding among themselves for power, so the victory was swift. Nguyen Hue gave his sign of respect to Emperor Le Hien Ton, who gave Hue his daughter for a marriage. However, shortly after going south again, Hien Ton died and was replaced by the unscrupulous Le Chieu Thong.

Emperor Le Chieu Thong turned against Nguyen Hue and tried to have him assassinated. With this failed, the people turned violently against him and he was forced to flee to China where he, just like Nguyen Anh, pleaded to a foreign power for help. The Chinese Emperor Qienlung agreed to send a huge Qing army south to restore Chieu Thong to power as their puppet ruler in 1788. After capturing Hanoi. The prestige of the once revered Le Dynasty was destroyed by this betrayal and Nguyen Hue marched north again to liberate the country from Chinese rule. He addressed his troops before the battle saying: Hanoi opera house Hanoi (Vietnamese: Hà Nội; Chinese: 河内), estimated population 3,500,800 (1997), is the capital of Vietnam and was the capital of North Vietnam from 1954 to 1976. ...

• "The Tsing have invaded our country and occupied the capital city, Thang Long. In our history, the Trung sister fought against the Han, Dinh Tien Hoang against the Sung, Trait Hung Ado against the Mongols, and Le Loa against the Ming. These heroes did not resign themselves to standing by and seeing the invaders plunder our country; they inspired the-- people to fight f6r a just cause and drive out the aggressors... The Tsing, forgetting what happened to the Sung, Mongols and Ming, have invaded our country. We are going to drive them our of our territory".

In a brilliant surprise attack made while the Chinese were celebrating the Tet New Year festival, Nguyen Hue totally defeated the Chinese, forced Chieu Thong to flee and firmly established the first totally united and independent Vietnam since the early Le period. The grateful people acclaimed him as their leader at which time he took the name of Emperor Quang Trung, sharing rule over the country with his two brothers. As Emperor, Quang Trung distributed land to the poor peasants, encouraged the artisans that had been suppressed, allowed religious freedom, opened Vietnam to international trade and most importantly abolished Chinese script as the Vietnamese written language, using instead the native Vietnamese script nóm as the official language.

Unfortunately, in 1792, Quang Trung died and the Tay Son dynasty quickly crumbled after him. The brothers began to fight amongst each other for power, regents ruling for the young Emperor Canh Thinh began religious persecutions again and soon the people grew dejected. When Nguyen Anh again returned, this time with the French to fight for him, the Tay Son dynasty was destroyed and the Nguyen, the last imperial dynasty, took over the country in 1802.