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                     Second Founder : King Quang Trung NGUYEN HUE

                                                                                                Tran phu Huu
                                                                            translated by Trinh thu Thuy

              It's a big loss for our culture because all the stuffs from the Tay Son's Dynasty had been destroyed and devastated by the Nguyen 's Dynasty . They beared the principle of killing to the grass-root, burning down to the ground, and erasing completely all the properties and the trace of enemies.

         Therefore, we tried to find out the life of an hero of the pink flag and poor clothes thru very few documents, legendaries of his life, and his famous victories on the battle fields. Particularly, the research of his active contribution on the heritage of martial-arts of VietNam - a special aspect - encountered many difficulties and limitations.
         Following were basically the documents that we have recalled, hope that we will receive the recommendations and researches which are more deeply and exactly from the audience.

A. Nguyen Hue, a hero had a great will which brought the happiness to the people.

      Three brothers of Tay Son, were born in Thai Lao village, Hung Nguyen district, Nghe An province. In the middle of the 17th century, the Nguyen ' s soldiers once crossed the bordered of Gianh River to force the people in Nghe An to move south to work as labors for the land exploitation.

     One of the victim was a fourth generation ancestor of Nguyen Hue and his brothers. At the generation of Nguyen phu Phuc, his family had become better,  so that the three brothers had been educated. They were known as having good knowledge.

        Scholar Hien was a close friend of the official Truong van Hanh who was in danger because of his confrontation against Truong phuc Loan 's power. He raised a letter to the Emperor to prosecute Truong phuc Loan 's group.

   Avoid the trouble of relationship, scholar Hien escaped to Binh Dinh and stayed there more than 10 years. He had a pleasent to be a teacher at a small hamlet which was near by Tay Son .
       He recognized the special characteristics and attitude of three brothers of Nguyen Hue, so that he dedicated his love to them and taught them both the martial-arts and the litterature. Those included the poems, litterature books and the battle statics, the best traditional, undefeated martial-art at that time.

        Nguyen Hue was the best of the three brothers. He had a loud and clear voice as the sound of a temple bell, his brillant eyes were similar to the light. He was sharp and intelligent, understood the lesson as just studying once. At the elder age, scholar Hien who gave all his heart to the country, just tried to produce a great will for three brothers of Tay Son so that they could help the country to save people.

                " The rebellion flag settled in Tay Son.
                   Sacrified for the people to help the country.
                   Became the Emperor with a glorious decoration .
                   And remember to win the people's mind." . . . . . . . . . . (1)

                  (1) The words from scholar Hien to recommend Nguyen Hue before the rebellion
                       - Tay Son Hidden Dragon document 1978.

B. A noble will to unify the nation.

          In the inauguration of Tay Son 's dynasty, Nguyen Hue stated clearly :

     "... they had built the nation by themself, the disciplines of the heaven and the earth had colapped, couldn't be recovered. Moreover, for the last several years, the civil war between the North and the South caused the suffering for people..."

                 In the agricultural society, the poor peasants who had suffered many disasters on their shoulders, were indeed those who judged the dirty civil war by their activities. Nguyen Hue, a exellent leader who originated from the peasants, a poor man who had no land had quickly become a hero of the nation. He had the strength of people to defeat the invasive troops to unify the country and brought a happy life for everybody.

C. A military genious who 's never been defeated.

           Nguyen Hue had been a knowledgeable man in both military and politics :

              He knew how to arrange the tasks using his sharp and talented skill when using
               the assistants or settle works.

              Strictly applied the martial-art orders, quickly settled down the ordinaries and
                         calmed down the people's mind.

     " Those southern men ( Nguyen Hue's troop ) have applied strictly the regulations
         - they executed the thieves or those who were procecuted  as thieves .
       Everybody was pleased with such punishment, and the upright of Tay Son 's troop
         had been admired. . . . . . . . (3)

(3) Letter of Missionaire Le Roy (Nam Dinh) written to Blaudin in Paris 11/07/1786.

          A stormy operation in the battle field .
           Although having a peasant background, Nguyen Hue had proved that he was really
           an exellent general, only gained victories , had never been defeated for more than
           20 years traversing all over the country.

          The different heroes under the ancient dynasties had the different creative tactics :

                 Ly thuong Kiet had " attacking first to dominate enemies " ,
                  employed the swift attacking to break the enemies' plan at the beginning.

             Tran hung Dao had the strategy to lure the enemy to enter deeply into
                  his land, then reattacked to destroy them.

                Le Loi used the long term war , moved from little to large scale.

             Nguyen Hue, with his genious leadership and hid capability to organize
                  the troop had create a people army , no matter small or large, always had
                   a powerful and steady forward movement.

           " Stormy and sudden were the special characteristic
                in the battle tactic of Nguyen Hue "

          Nguyen Hue invited the scholars at that time : La Son Phu Tu Nguyen Thiep,
Tran van Ky, Ngo thoi Nham, together with the talented generals as Dang tien Dong, Tran quang Dieu, Nguyen van Dung, Bui thi Xuan. Dang tien Dong was Do Doc Muu, who won the famous historical battle of Dong Da. Bui thi Xuan , a first special female general in VietNam history, had the talent and courage.

       Quang Trung Nguyen Hue had an creative idea in the traditional Kung Fu to establish for his soldiers who fight under the victorious pink flag. Just less than 40 days, since the army started moving from Phu Xuan ( 11/22/1788 ) in addition to 5 days of attacking, his army had swept out 200,000 enemies, won the victories at Gian Khan, Ha Hoi,
  Ngoc Hoi, Dong Da with the movements like the thunders.

           Under the magnificant flag with pink color like a fresh peach flower which flying close to the military uniforms with the smell of gun smoke of the Tay Son hero, more and more young men in the rebellion moved like the water fall to destroy all the plans of the enemy. the fire of Dong Da in the Spring of the Ky Dau 1789, like a storm, had burned the proud, cruel soldiers of Man Thanh, to liberate the nation.

         From a super leader of the peasants, Quang Trung Nguyen Hue became a nation wide great hero, a genious in the military, a famous general, who had only victories. Most of all, the glorious success of the Tay Son troop was a historic , glorious epos of the nation, famous until now, marked the historic period of Dai Viet people.

VietNamese Traditional Martial Arts BĐ/SLC Association
in Austin, TX. USA. ( Since 1998 )