Nguyen An

The Imperial Citadel of Thang Long
(photo source: hoangthanhthanglong.vn)

Nguyen An was born in 1381 at Ha Dong (Ha Noi today) and died in 1453 at the Ming dynasty (China today). Under the dynasty of Tran Thuan Tong (1), he had participated into the construction of the palaces at Thang Long, capital of the Great Viet. When the Ming dynasty invaded the Great Viet, Nguyen An was taken to Nanjing (capital of Ming dynasty) and became eunuch A Liu (2). The Yongle emperor Zhou Di wont construct the new capital at Beijing, Nguyen An (3) was assigned to design and manage the construction of monuments in the Forbidden City. Nguyen An was also envoyed to dyke the Yellow river and many other rivers in the Ming empire.

Annotation:

(1) Tran Thuan Tong: eleventh emperor of the Tran dynasty, named Tran Ngung, ruled from 1388 to 1398.

(2) In vietnamese: A Lưu, in chinese: 阿 留

(3) In chinese: 阮 安