An Illiterate Navy Commander of the Emperor Minh Mang(1820-1841)- Nguyen Tai Nang and his role in the building of the European style vessels

초록

We have two unusual names during the MM-TT period(1840-1847). One is đao Tri Phu, the other is Nguy?n Tai N?ng. The tri phu means the accumulation of wealth while the tai nang has the meaning of talent. The former was civil official who knew some languages including Classic Chinese and a certain Western language. He was engaged in the official trips on the European style square-rigged court vessel to purchase Western goods in the various port cities around Island Southeast Asia. Actually đao Tri Phu saved up wealth very much until he was executed due to his involvement with the H?ng B?o affairs in the beginning of T? đ?c reign(1848-1883). In contrast, Nguy?n Tai N?ng was a general, but could not read. His name appears in the court chronicle of the Minh M?ng time very often in related with the construction of the European style vessels, some of which brought đao Tri Phu to the foreign cities. When Minh M?ng decided to build the European style vessels, he asked two French generals, Jean B. Chaigneau and Philip Vanier who had been serving for the Nguy?n court from the time of Minh M?ng’s father, Gia Long. Because of unknown reasons, the French men refused Minh M?ng’s order saying that they did not know the way. order. Minh M?ng was disappointed, but he invested Nguy?n Tai N?ng to the position of directing the ship building, and it proved very successful. From this time, large sized Western style vessels were continuously produced under the direction of Nguy?n Tai N?ng, whose title was mainly the commander of Navy, th?y quan th?ng ch?. On these square-rigged court vessels, Minh M?ng's men both courts officials and generals traveled around large area of East Asian world including Canton, Manila, Singapore, Malacca, Batavia, and even eastern part of India. My paper examines this 'talented' man who could not read but could direct the work of building the most advanced vessels at that time in Vietnam.