Published: Mar 21, 2007 -
Nguyen An was taken as tribute from Vietnam to China and became a eunuch in service to the Chinese emperor. He achieved a successful career as an architect.
Nguyen An’s reputation is only beginning to be re-established in recent years, after he had been ignored for several centuries. He is coming to be seen as one of the most remarkable architect of China, despite having been taken from Vietnam as a boy and fated to become a eunuch in the service of five Chinese emperors of the Ming Dynasty, between the first and the fifth decades of the C15th.
Although Vietnam had established its independence of China by defeating the Mongol conquerors at the Battles of Bac Danh, a tributary system was still in operation. To demonstrate their willingness to enter into trade and alliance with Imperial China, neighbouring countries such as Vietnam would periodically send tribute missions to the Chinese emperor and would then be permitted to conduct trade at officially designated trading cities. It is unfortunate but nevertheless the case that people could be included as tribute goods, which is what happened to Nguyen An. The Chinese court had a long tradition of castrating male servants and, although it sounds barbaric and painful, becoming a court eunuch was regarded by some young men as a desirable career choice. A Eunuch presented no threat to the Emperor’s court of wives and concubines, it was thought, so would be more likely to participate in court and imperial household affairs. It appears that eunuchs had no limit on achievements and could even rise as high as did the great Admiral Zheng He.
Little is known of Nguyen An’s early years in China but he is recorded in Chinese chronicles as being instructed to design an overall plan for Beijing citadel, including numerous offices, houses and palaces, by the Emperor Taizong. Nguyen An had not yet reached the age of thirty. He gained considerable prestige and respect for his ability in managing a workforce of 10,000 soldiers in building the various buildings swiftly and according to budget. An enormous amount and variety of building materials was necessary and opportunities for error must have been enormous. Nguyen An’s reputation was made: his next task was to rebuild three temples and he managed this so successfully that the emperor rewarded him with fifty taels of gold, one hundred taels of silver, eight tons of silk and 10,000 yuan in cash. From then onwards, he was kept busy with a dizzying array of architectural projects in Beijing and also along the river and canal system of China, on which cities and countryside alike relied for flows of food and goods, as well as transportation. Repairing and strengthening the dykes of the system was a large-scale undertaking.
Nguyen An achieved a great deal and was obviously a talented and diligent individual. It is impossible to know what he might have achieved had he been left to follow his destiny in his home country.
References and Further Reading
Renowned Vietnamese Intellectuals Prior to the 20th Century (Hanoi: The Gioi Publishers, 2004).
John Walsh, Shinawatra University, March 2007
For more information, please click on the link listed below:
http://east-asian-history.suite101.com/article.cfm/nguyen_an
Read more in China History Forum:
http://www.chinahistoryforum.com/index.php?showtopic=9302
http://www.chinahistoryforum.com/lofiversion/index.php/t9302.html
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