Nguyen Khuyen

Who was Nguyen Khuyen?

Nguyễn Thắng, pen name Nguyễn Khuyến, was a famous Vietnamese Confucian scholar, poet and teacher living in 19th century.

Nguyễn Khuyến was born on 15 February 1835 in his mother-in-law hometown Văn Khế village, Hoàng Xá commune, Ý Yên district, Nam Định Province. His father-in-law home town is Và village, Yên Đổ commune, Bình Lục district, Hà Nam Province. His father who was a teacher is Nguyễn Tông Khởi. His mother is Trần Thị Thoan whose father is Trần Công Trạc.

His first teacher is Phạm Văn Nghị. Although his intelligence and high knowledge, his examination path was not in favourable condition. In 1864, he passed the Cử nhân degree at first-rate in Hà Nội. One year later, unfortunately, he failed Hội examination that was why he lived in Hanoi to learn in Quốc Tử Giám. He continued to study. Furthermore, to remind himself in iron discipline and mobilize himself, he changed his given name from Nguyễn Thắng to Nguyễn Khuyến. In Vietnamese language, Thắng only means success or victory but Khuyến has a stronger meaning that is inspiration or stimulation; Thắng is the result but Khuyến is the way toward result. After six years of exertion, he passed the Hội Nguyên degree and the Đình Nguyên degree continuously in only one year 1871. This case has been very rare throughout history, so people gave him an honourable name: "Tam Nguyên Yên Đổ".