Vũ Trinh

Vũ Trinh Chinese: 武楨 (1759–1828) is a well-known Confucianist and high-ranking mandarin. Vũ Trinh was born in a noble family with many proficient Confucian scholars in Ngọc Quan thorp, Lương Tài, Bắc Ninh. His grandfather is Vũ Miên: Headmaster of Guozijian and Chancellor. He got title Jieyuan (解元) (First laureate in the interprovincial Confucian examination that was taken place 3 years periodically with small quantity of selected candidates) when he was only 17, then became a mandarin. In his career path, at very young age (29 years old), he was promoted to be Vice Chancellor (參知政事).

He declined the invitation of Ngô Thì Nhậm, a great mandarin of Tay Son for a mandarin position. For this, he was mentioned in a poem written by Nguyễn Đề, stored in Qing dynasty's Literature records:

次東山偶憶蘭溪漁者

東魯行車雨雪飛， 

偶懷閒客釣魚磯。 

二倫情誼心相合， 

十載窮通命每違。 

不審役形當世事， 

何如拭目看時機。 

首陽今日無人問， 

也任夷齊採盡薇。

Along with being a mandarin, he was also a writer. His legacies were mostly written in Chinese.

References

[1] 皇黎一統志, 吳家文派

[2] 大南列傳, National History Press under Nguyen dynasty

[3] 國史遺編, 潘叔直