Her life was full of ups and downs, like the fate of the dynasty in which she was once a princess, before becoming the last empress dowager of that dynasty.
Duc Tu Cung, Emperor Bao Dai, Empress Nam Phuong, Prince Bao Long and Southern Dynasty officials, 1939. Source: manhhai/flickr.
Born in 1890, Hoang Thi Cuc is the result of a love affair between a trio of Hoa Da district (Binh Dinh province) Hoang Van Tich and his sister-in-law La Thi Son, when she came to Binh Dinh from her hometown to take care of him. His daughter is La Thi Huan, the chief of staff of Mr. Hoang Van Tich. After giving birth, Mrs. La Thi Son entrusted her daughter to the tri-district husband and wife to take care of to get married.
Hoang Thi Cuc grew up in the upbringing of her aunt and also her target mother. Unfortunately, the husband and wife of the tri district Hoang died early, so the eldest son of Mr. Hoang Van Tich, Hoang Trong Khanh, became the person to take care of her and the siblings in the Hoang tri district’s family.
Due to the increasingly difficult family situation, Mr. Hoang Trong Khanh “advanced” her into the palace as a maidservant to serve Nguyen Thi Nhan and Tien Cung Duong Thi Thuc, two widows of King Dong Khanh. This was an opportunity for Ms. Hoang Thi Cuc to “meet” Phung Hoa, Nguyen Phuoc Buu Dao, the eldest son of King Dong Khanh and Mrs. Tien Cung, who later became the 12th king of the Nguyen Dynasty.
In 1913, she gave birth to Prince Buu Dao, son of Nguyen Phuoc Vinh Thuy, but according to rumors in Hue folklore, Cong Phung Hoa was just a “coverer” for Prince Huong D., who was in the row. his role, but he is a close friend of Prince Buu Dao.
The truth of this matter is unknown, only knowing that Hoang Thi Cuc is a person who is very favored by Phung Hoa Cong Buu Dao. In 1916, Phung Hoa Cong was elevated to the throne to become King Khai Dinh (1916 – 1925), then Mrs. Hoang Thi Cuc was conferred the title of Hue Qin by the king. In 1918, she was ordained as Hue concubine, the second rank (second rank concubine) among the nine ranks (nine ranks) that the Nguyen Dynasty kings bestowed on their concubines.
In 1925, King Khai Dinh ascended to Ha, Dong Cung Crown Prince Vinh Thuy, who was studying in France, was called back to inherit the throne, became King Bao Dai, and then went to France to continue studying. loan to rule the country. On March 25, 1933, King Bao Dai honored his mother as Doan Huy Empress Doan, but since then the people of Hue have always reverently called her Duc Tu Cung or Duc Tu.
Duc Tu Cung came from a low-ranking mandarin family, had a difficult childhood, so he had little education. Circumstances pushed her to become a concubine favored by King Khai Dinh, and then into a powerful empress dowager in the end of a feudal dynasty. Therefore, she did not stop learning, both in Chinese, French and Quoc Ngu; always learn and practice all the rituals and scriptures related to life, culture and behavior in the Hue court, to be worthy of the position of a “mother of the world”.
When the Nguyen Dynasty was in existence, despite being in the position of a noble empress dowager, Duc Tu Cung still lived a simple life and was a devout Buddhist, putting aside all controversies to protect the honor of the royal family and protect the royal family. keep the family title for the “first family” of King Bao Dai and Queen Nam Phuong.
After the end of the Nguyen Dynasty, King Bao Dai wandered around and eventually had to go into exile in a foreign country, but Duc Tu Cung still “anchored” both body and soul in Hue.
She spent her own money to repair the Thai Mieu (the place to worship the nine Nguyen lords), the Hung Mieu (the place to worship the father and mother of King Gia Long) and the damaged tombs of members of the Nguyen dynasty’s royal family. damage caused by war. She maintained worshiping activities and rituals at the shrines and mausoleums of the Nguyen kings.
In particular, thanks to her tireless efforts, Doan Ba Vu, the court dance troupe of the Nguyen Dynasty, was maintained until the day peace was restored. Thanks to this, Hue has kept a heritage of royal music and dance to serve tourists and develop tourism in Thua Thien Hue and is the basis for building a dossier to register Hue royal court music as a cultural heritage. of mankind.
Duc Tu Cung was a person with many merits in the Buddhist revival movement in Vietnam in the early 1930s. She influenced King Bao Dai to establish the Annam Buddhist Society of which the king himself was the famous president. attend. She also influenced King Bao Dai to ordain the temples of Tay Thien, Tuong Van, Truc Lam (in Hue) and Khai Doan pagoda (in Buon Ma Thuot) as “sacred four” pagodas of the Hue court.
After Ngo Dinh Diem “overthrew” Head of State Bao Dai to take full power […] She was expelled from An Dinh Palace, which was a special palace built by King Khai Dinh with his own money to give to Dong Cung Crown Prince Vinh Thuy, and has been the residence of Duc Tu Cung since the end of the Nguyen Dynasty.
She moved to live in a house next to An Dinh Palace that she bought herself. Here, she built an altar to worship King Khai Dinh and his family members and was the place to store the treasures of the Nguyen dynasty.
According to a document published by researcher Nguyen Dac Xuan in April 2011, it was Duc Tu Cung who assigned bodyguard Nguyen Duc Hoa to secretly move to Dinh Ba in Da Lat two safes filled with jewels and ivory. of the Nguyen Dynasty for storage. She then handed over these two safes to the revolutionary authorities.
Duc Tu Cung, 1972. Source: manhhai/flickr.
In 1972, witnessing the increasingly fierce war, Duc Tu Cung organized a large-scale Giao sacrifice ceremony at the Nam Giao Forum in Hue with the participation of the Nguyen Phuoc clan and the witness of the political representative. At that time, the authority of Thua Thien province, to pray for peace, for the nation and the people. This is the first Giao sacrifice ceremony held in Hue following the end of the Nguyen Dynasty, and also the last Giao sacrifice ceremony organized by a member of the Nguyen dynasty royal family.
In the autumn of 1980, Duc Tu Cung fell seriously ill. Knowing that she might not survive, she sent someone to invite the Hue city government to come and say: “I come from a poor family, have no assets. All that I still keep today belongs to the family. Nguyen. Now that the Nguyen Dynasty is gone, this is the property of the state. I would like to hand it over to you” (quoting published documents of researcher Nguyen Dac Xuan).
As a result, Duc Tu Cung’s private residence became a memorial site for Duc Tu Cung managed by the state (now at 145 Phan Dinh Phung, Hue city), where images, memorabilia and relics are kept. historical and cultural values, not only of Duc Tu Cung, but of the whole family of three kings: Dong Khanh – Khai Dinh – Bao Dai, serving domestic and foreign tourists to visit and study.
Duc Tu Cung died on October 3, 1980, at the age of 91. Her tomb was built in Duong Xuan village, next to the tomb of King Dong Khanh and the mausoleum of King Tu Duc. That idyllic person rests peacefully in the middle of a peaceful countryside, following more than nine decades of experiencing the vicissitudes of fate, associated with the ups and downs of the Nguyen Dynasty.
