Lord Trinh Tung

A span of 53 years is long enough for a child to grow up, become a father, and then a grandfather. The Hanoi Moi newspaper says Trịnh Tùng directed the Lê court for about that long.

Bamboo groves lean over a river in Thanh Hóa province, and their shadows lie on the still water. A cool wind crosses the fields. From this gentle countryside came a lord whom the old records keep mentioning.

His family came from the Vĩnh Lộc area of Thanh Hóa. His father, Trịnh Kiểm, had built his career in service of the Lê dynasty. His mother was Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Bảo. She was the daughter of Nguyễn Kim. Trịnh Tùng grew up in a family used to carrying the cares of the land, and he soon took on the work of soldiers and state.

Through all those years he held one plain but great wish, to bring the emperor back to the old capital.

One spring in the late 16th century, the army of Trịnh Tùng marched on the capital and won it back. The capital was Thăng Long, the city now called Hanoi. This story will not tell of swords and spears. It tells of what he quietly did right afterward.

After he retook the city, he had the palace halls repaired, banners set out, and the troops put in order. The halls had stood empty for a long time, and now they were swept clean. Banners of many colors hung along the paths and fluttered in the spring sun. After years of silence, the city slowly warmed with the sound of people again. Soldiers stood in neat lines on both sides of the road. The man who led the army did not hurry up to the throne. He saw to every small thing to make the place ready, and only then did he respectfully invite the emperor to return to the capital of his ancestors.

After that happy day, the Mạc dynasty withdrew to the Cao Bằng region. Trịnh Tùng restored power to the Lê court. The court gave him the title Bình An Vương. Bình An means calm and safe, peace and well-being. A man who had just won a battle was given so gentle a name because, after so many years apart, what people wanted most was not a victory but a peaceful life.

Those two words were more than a title. Trịnh Tùng treated the soldiers who surrendered with kindness and kept strict discipline in his army, and so he won the hearts of the people. A man who leads an army well is one thing. A man who treats decently even the soldiers who once stood on the other side is rarer. The old records say this goodwill helped him keep the north steady for about 20 years.

One thing deserves to be remembered clearly. People recall Trịnh Tùng as the first to hold the title of lord among the Trịnh lords, a noble family who dominated northern Vietnam. He began a very particular age, when the country had both a Lê emperor and a Trịnh lord. He was a lord who stood beside the emperor to support him, and he was not the emperor. Through a long life he quietly carried the heavy work so that every household could rest in peace, and he stayed within his own place.

In Vĩnh Lộc the old river still runs quietly, and green bamboo still leans over the water in the country that bore him. Perhaps that gentle scene explains why a man with a whole land on his shoulders wished for just two plain words, Bình An, peace for every household.