Dao Duy Tu

Đào Duy Từ (1572 - December 7, 1634) was a Vietnamese scholar, poet, military adviser, and mandarin who served under the reign of Nguyễn lord Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên.

Early life Đào Duy Từ, born in Hoa Trai village, Ngọc Sơn, Lương Sơn, Hoà Bình (present day Ngọc Sơn, Lương Sơn, Lương Sơn District, Hoà Bình Province), was a son of Đào Tả Hán, a Vietnamese folk singer, who died when Từ was five years old. After this Từ was raised solely by his mother, a woman named Vũ Thị Kim Chi. When Từ was 14 years old his mother sent him to study Confucianism under a local scholar named Nguyễn Đức Khoa. Đào Duy Từ was however forbidden from taking the court examination because his father's profession as a folk singer Because of this Từ was expelled from the examination school while he was taking the second court examination in Thăng Long. After learning of this failure his mother blamed herself and committed suicide by cutting her throat. Both his mother's death and his failure in the examination lead to Từ becoming seriously ill. After some years of inactivity, Đào Duy Từ went south to the land of Nguyễn Lords.

Activities in southern Vietnam After arriving in southern Vietnam, Đào Duy Từ attempted to meet Lord Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên but failed. After that, Từ became a worker for a landlord named Chúc Trịnh Long in Tùng Châu (present day Bồng Sơn, Bình Định Province) in order to get close to Trần Đức Hòa, a neighbor of Chúc Trịnh Long and a mandarin of Lord Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên. This attempt was a success: after learning of Từ's ability, Trần Đức Hòa gave his daughter's hand to Đào Duy Từ and hired him as the family tutor . At this time, Từ composed a famous Vietnamese language poem, "Ngọa Long Cương Vãng" (Singing of a Lying Dragon), in which he compared himself to famous Chinese military strategist Zhuge Liang. Thereon Đào Duy Từ kept refusing to talk with Lord Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên until the lord opened the main gate of the palace and wore formal clothing.

From this point on, Đào Duy Từ served as the chief military advisor, directing the construction of Nguyen's two famous strategic lines of defense: the ramparts of Lũy Thầy and Lũy Trường Dục, in northern Thuận Hóa (present day Quảng Bình Province). During the Trịnh–Nguyễn War, Lũy Thầy and Lũy Trường Dục were largely impregnable, enabling the Nguyễn lords to defend themselves against the Trịnh invasions, despite the population and army of the Nguyễn being smaller than those of the Trịnh lords.

In 1627, when these ramparts were completed, Đào Duy Từ presented a double-bottomed tray to the Lê Emperor in which he concealed the royal decree that demanded the Nguyễn lord to submit to the Lê emperors.

Family No information regarding the family of Đào Duy Từ was recorded except that Đào Duy Từ had a daughter who married Nguyễn Hữu Tiến, one of the two most important commanders of the Nguyễn army in the Trịnh–Nguyễn War.

Most cities in Vietnam, regardless of the political orientation of the government, have named major streets after him. Despite the ruling communist party's disapproval of the Nguyễn lords and the subsequent Nguyễn dynasty as "feudal" and "reactionary", and their renaming of streets and public facilities named after most Nguyen leaders, streets named after Đào Duy Từ remain.