Emperor Mac Mau Hop

Today, at Cao Bình in Hòa An, traces of an old citadel remain. The ancient walls are covered in green moss, grass grows between the stones, and the mountain wind passes through like a very quiet voice.

But the story begins elsewhere. The golden hall stood in Thăng Long, the city now called Hanoi. On its throne sat a boy of about two. The throne was tall and wide, and the boy was tiny. His feet did not reach the footstool. Around him stood the elder men of his family, grave in manner and protective in their gaze.

That boy was Emperor Mạc Mậu Hợp.

Historical sources call him the fifth emperor of the Mạc dynasty. He was a descendant of Emperor Mạc Đăng Dung, who opened the dynasty in 1527. His father was Emperor Mạc Tuyên Tông. When his father died, the throne passed to the very young son.

He took the throne in 1562, at about two years old. A child so small could not run a kingdom alone. But he had royal uncles, the older men of the clan, who shared the work.

One of them is often named, Mạc Kính Điển. He gave himself fully to supporting the young emperor and looked after matters large and small at court. Thanks to devoted uncles like him, the boy on the throne grew up safely, day by day and year by year.

And the boy reigned for a long time. Mạc Mậu Hợp held the throne for about 30 years, from 1562 to 1592. Those 30 years are a long stretch, as long as a whole grown life. His first reign name was Thuần Phúc, a name that sounds like a wish for peace.

Through those long years, the capital kept its morning bells, its crowded markets and its people on the old streets. The Mạc dynasty ruled from Thăng Long for about 65 years, from 1527 to 1592. One family, over several reigns, lived and built on that ground.

Then, in 1592, a long chapter in the capital came to a close. The throne then went to his son, Mạc Toàn, as it had once come to Mậu Hợp himself when he was a small child. Thăng Long was no longer the seat of the Mạc court.

But a family is more than a citadel. The Mạc relatives packed up their memories, left the capital, and went up toward the misty mountain ranges of Cao Bằng. In those far mountains they built a new home for their house.

Cao Bằng welcomed them with green valleys, clear streams and evenings when mist hung over the hilltops. Over several generations, the Mạc family repaired and built a small capital among the forested mountains, a place for the whole clan to return to. They stayed on that land for a very long time, until 1677.

Before the mossy walls at Cao Bình, one can picture the boy of two on the throne in Thăng Long, and a whole family carrying its name up into the mountains to begin again. A time in the capital had come to its end. But the name Mạc remains, lying in every layer of moss and in the morning mist of Cao Bằng, for later generations to come and remember.