The 16th century was a special period in Vietnamese history and culture. Despite continuous and fierce wars, there was a blossom of cultural and artistic talents. Among others, Doai area contributed an outstanding person who had many remarkable marks in our nation’s culture and history. His name was Trang Bung Phung Khac Khoan.
Phung Khac Khoan was born in 1528 in Phung xa, normally called Ke Bung, now in Phung Xa commune, Thach That district, Ha Noi. Phung Xa had a “favorable” position, situated on a high area with a lake in front and vast green rice fields behind. Seen from a height, Bung village looks like a giant seal. According tofengshui, this was a supernatural land that gave birth to many mandarins and leaders.
Phung Khac Khoan’s father got the doctorate degree under the Le Dynasty and became chairman of Dong Lan district. Right after his birth, Phung Khac Khoan had an unusual appearance: “a loud voice, beautiful eyes, extraordinary manners and able to use weapons at the age of 5 or 6”. Therefore, his family had a great expectations of him and his father himself trained and educated him. According to folk memories, since Phung Khac Khoan was small he showed his highest intelligence, broad knowledge and was considered the best student of Grand Duke Nguyen Binh Khiem. However, his examinations were all unsuccessful. After decades of hard work, in 1552 Phung Khac Khoan took the examinations held by the Mac, and he only passed theTam Truong level. He decided to leave his homeland to Thanh Hoa to do his own business.
During the first years on the new land, he lived lonely and miserably, and earned his living by teaching children from local villages. Legend said that there was an old teacher in a village who was not qualified to teach but had a lot of students. Phung Khac Khoan wrote a funny poem as follows:
Do do binh tuong nga
De tu man duong ha
Uc uc ho van tai
De tu bat kien lai
Phung Khac Khoan played on words profoundly. “Uc uc ho van tai” meant “Literature is brilliant”. But these words sound the same as “do do binh tuong nga” which had no meaning. Those who didn’t learn carefully often read like that by mistake. Phung Khac Khoan intended to ridicule that a bad teacher who read wrong words had a lot of students but a good teacher had no one to follow. Then students left this teacher and came to Phung teacher. The other teacher was very angry and sued Phung Khac Khoan to the Mandarin. The Mandarin judged the case by proposing a topic and forced them to write poems and the one who could finish first would be allowed to teach. The topic was about an ink slab made of oyster shell. Phung Khac Khoan improvised the poem immediately, which made the Mandarin admire to a great extent. The Mandarin immediately invited Phung Khac Khoan to be his literature guest but was refused.
In those days in Thanh Hoa, Phung Khac Khoan met and started to serve Le King - Trinh Lord against the Mac Dynasty to restore the Hau Le Dynasty. In recognition of his support, Le Trang Ton King was very glad and treated Phung Khac Khoan as an adviser. Phung Khac Khoan worked out many schemes to win people’s hearts and attract talented people from surrounding areas. When Mac army rushed to attack Thanh Hoa, although a minor mandarin only, he made significant contributions to Southern Dynasty in this tough defense. After defeating the Mac, he was promoted “Le Khoa Cap Su Trung”. In 1580 when he was 53, he got a second doctorate in the examination held by Le The Tong King (1573-1600).
The war between Southern and Northern Dynasties came to an end with the victory of Le King - Trinh Lord. In mid April 1593, Le The Tong King stepped up to the Court Hall centre in Thang Long Capital, completing the restoration cause of Le dynasty. Thanks to decades of devotion to Le Dynasty, Phung Khac Khoan was awarded with many high titles as “Dac tien Kim tu vinh loc dai phu Tan tri Thua chinh su ty”, “Thanh Hoa Thua chinh”, “Honorary minister of Ministry of Public works”, “Minister of Ministry of Public works” and “Minister of Finance”.
After returning to Thang Long capital, beside restoring the country and suppressing the remaining Mac force, Le Dynasty had to face with another problem which was the relationship with Ming Dynasty (China). Ming King requested Le King to go to Nam Quan pass for identifying if he was a true Le descendant or a disguised Trinh person. Responding to this request, Le King gave Phung Khac Khoan the responsibility of becoming Ambassador to China at an old age. In 1597, Phung Khac Khoan was appointed Chief envoy, leading a mission of Dai Viet envoys to Ming Dynasty.
Phung Khac Khoan’s trip to China was considered as “long-lasting trip” which was very hard and difficult. For the sake of the royal mission, he tried his best to stand and overcome the scorn with many provoking tricks of Ming officials so that he could finish his important mission.
He cleverly established relations with Ming officials through a series of typical cultural activities which were literature singing. Furthermore, he was very sophisticated and had a long-term vision in establishing relationships with the Korean and Japanese Ambassadors (Luu Cau) so that he could have them to influence Ming King.
During the time of acting as ambassador in China, Phung Khac Khoan stood out among well-known people who were respected by Ming King for their literature competence. Legend has it that in his term of working as ambassador in China, on New Year’s Day, Ming King requested each official in the Court and foreign ambassadors to make a congratulatory poem. Everyone made his own poem. Phung Khac Khoan was the only one, without delay, to compose 36 poems with different ideas and words which made Ming King and other people surprised in admiration. Ming King then nominated Phung Khac Khoan “first doctoral candidate” of Ming Dynasty. After that, Ming King organized the printing of a poem collection of “Marigold” that Phung Khac Khoan composed during the period he was living in China. By skillful advocacy through literary activities, diplomatic proposals made by ambassador Phung Khac Khoan were taken into Ming King’s consideration.
Although he made a lot of efforts to advocate for the acknowledgement of Le King, when he knew that Ming Court only conferred the title of “An Nam do ho su" for Le The Ton King, Phung Khac Khoan bravely gave the title back to Ming King on the reason “Le is a descendant of An Nam nation. He is angry with rebellious official of Mac family who seized the throne and can’t stand the thousand-year enmity so he suffered great hardships, tried to restore his ancestor’s inheritance and follow ancestors’ path. That Mac family who was a subject of Le family in Vietnam and killed the King to usurp the throne is guilty; furthermore he secretly sought for Do Thong position. Now My Lord is not guilty as the Mac so why is he conferred with the same title?” With Phung Khac Khoan’s convincing and sharp arguments, Ming King had to promise: “Although your Lord is not compared with Mac family, he just took back the country and people do not completely comply with; therefore, he should accept this title and will later be appointed to a higher position.” This was a great diplomatic victory of Phung Khac Khoan’s envoy delegation.
Phung Khac Khoan’s journey to China had echoing repercussions among contemporary people. Legend handed down many anecdotes from generations to generations both in folk memories and historical books about his journey. The most remarkable story was about the relationship between him and Queen Lieu Hanh.
After coming back from the trip, Phung Khac Khoan returned to live in his hometown. He had people to repair 2 bridges of Nhat Tieu and Nguyet Tieu next to Sai mountain in front of Thay pagoda. In addition, Phung Khac Khoan had people to make irrigation systems which supplied water for surrounding areas. In the memory of Phung Xa people, Phung Khac Khoan was also honored as the father of silk weaving. He was the person who taught and instructed them how to grow corns and beans which he brought back from China. Phung Khac Khoan died in 1613 at the age of 86.
Phung Khac Khoan left a huge amount of poetry heritages, including Han and Nom works, with the 3 most important works being Ngon chi thi tap, Lam tuyen van and Mai Linh su hoa thi tap. Phung Khac Khoan’ poems represented great ambitions of a man who had to make a reputation in life and at the same time emphasized the importance of books, literature and culture. The remarkable literary pieces are fine as his life itself – a great life for the country and people.
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