The poems about Chinese history in Ngu che thi tap by Emperor Minh Menh

Abstract

In the voluminous poetic treasure of Emperor Minh Menh, the poems about Chinese history only account for a small part. However, they make readers feel interested. The characters mentioned in these poems include the emperors of the Tang, Ming, Qing dynasties, etc. and mandarins in those dynasties, they appear in Minh Menh’s poems with both praise and criticism. Praising the wise emperors who have the far-sighted vision and know how to respect talents, criticizing the emperors who only use fawning servants; praising the servants who are wholehearted to favor nation, criticizing those who are disloyal and immoral, making people hate them. Through the poems written about Chinese history, Emperor Minh Menh would like to remind the descendants of the Nguyen dynasty to learn good things and not imitate the bad ones. He hoped that his descendants could keep their homeland forever.