Illustrated Gazetteer of the Maritime Kingdoms, Volume 4

Brief Account of Annam

Page 3

At the time, the situation did not align with these events. Examining the chronological order, this passage must refer to Quang Nam The southern region of Vietnam, then ruled by the Nguyen Lords..

In the Collected Imperial Poems of Emperor Gaozong The Qianlong Emperor (reigned 1735–1796)., there is a note regarding a poem titled "On the Occasion of Pacification and the Matching Tally," written in the year 1775 the Yiwei year of the Qianlong reign, which states:

Li Shiyao A powerful Qing official and Governor-General of Liangguang. reported that a Guangdong commoner named Li Ajie secretly crossed the border to Hue Original: Shunhua. The seat of the Nguyen Lords. in the Kingdom of Annam. This place is southwest of the Annam capital, separated by vast seas.

In the past, it was usurped by the Nguyen clan. Over eight generations, they all called themselves the "King of Hue" and were hereditary enemies with the Le Kings of Annam. It happened that the King of Hue died, leaving two sons: the legitimate son was young, while the elder son was born of a concubine. The elder son was installed first, but his maternal uncle monopolized power and abused his authority.

There was a man of the same surname, Nguyen Ong Con Referring to Nguyen Nhac, the eldest of the three Tay Son brothers., who, under the pretext of removing the traitor and installing the legitimate heir, recruited soldiers and called himself the Tay Son King The "King of the Western Mountains.". He pressured the city of Hue, and the three sons of the late king all fled.

Li Ajie was granted the title "Founding Duke" due to his military merit. Nguyen Ong Con intended to declare himself king, but the masses were dissatisfied and would not follow him. Li Ajie went to sea and encountered the boat of the two Hue princes. He robbed them of their wealth and brought his family back to the Chinese interior, where he was arrested by local officials.

Upon searching his home, they found jade tallies Traditional Chinese authentication tools used by generals to prove they had the authority to move troops. for mobilizing troops—upper and lower pieces with interlocking joints. They were round yet oval in shape, inscribed with small seal script, and so on.

According to the records, the Yiwei year of Qianlong corresponds to the 41st year 1776, though the text notes a discrepancy with the "39th year" mentioned earlier., which is only a year apart from the 39th year mentioned here. The circumstances match perfectly. The two princes being robbed at sea is the same event described in this record as "fleeing to a sea island."

Nguyen Quang Binh's original name was Nguyen Hue. He had an elder brother named Nguyen Nhac. This matches the note in the poem regarding the "younger legitimate son and elder concubine-born son." It seems that when Nguyen Quang Binh was young, he suffered disaster and was driven into the wilderness. When he grew up, he borrowed troops to recover Quang Nam. Taking advantage of the internal strife involving the Le and Trinh dynasties, he eventually seized all of Annam.

Shenpu The pseudonym of the author/editor of this work. only knew of his later seizure of Annam, but was unaware of his early loss of Quang Nam. Only the Imperial Poems and this record support one another, while Dai Shifan’s Brief Account of Annam shows some differences in detail regarding whether King Quang Trung was a Nguyen...