Nguyễn Du

Nguyễn Du was born in 1766 into a great mandarin family loyal to the Lê dynasty. The fall of the dynasty and the Tây Sơn wars left him without a position: he spent about ten years in poverty and wandering in the north of the country. Rallying late and reluctantly to the Nguyễn, he held provincial posts and in 1813 led an embassy to China, from which he brought back a minor Chinese novel. He died in 1820, aged fifty-four, and is now regarded as the greatest poet of Vietnam.

In the catalogue 1

• PoetryThe Tale of KieuTruyện KiềuNguyễn Du · 1820Literature