Princess Lê Thị Ngọc Hân (chữ Hán: 黎玉昕,Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư ghi là [昕], Đại Nam thực lục ghi là [忻] còn Khâm định Việt sử thông giám cương mục ghi là [欣]; tất cả đều đọc là Hân 1770 – 1799) also known as Ngọc Hân or Bắc Cung Hoàng Hậu (Empress of the Northern Palace), was a famous historical figure in 18th-century Vietnam. She was a princess of the Later Lê dynasty, and later became the second wife of Emperor Quang Trung (Nguyễn Huệ) one of Vietnam’s greatest military leaders.
Her life has often been romanticized as a love story between a noble princess and a rising general. Ngọc Hân came from a royal family in decline, while Nguyễn Huệ who had peasant origins was the leader of the Tây Sơn rebellion, a revolutionary force threatening the Lê dynasty’s continued existence.
Biography Lê Ngọc Hân was born on April 27, 1770 in the royal capital of Thăng Long (modern-day Hanoi)Theo TS. Trương Văn Quả, tr. 331.Theo Lịch triều tạp kỷ của Ngô Cao Lãng và Hoàng Lê nhất thống chí, nhưng theo cuốn Ngự chế ngọc phả ký thì Lê Ngọc Hân là con gái thứ 21 (chú thích của TS. Trương Văn Quả, tr. 331). She was the 9th or possibly 21st daughter of Emperor Lê Hiển Tông. Her mother, Nguyễn Thị Huyền, held the title Chiêu Nghi (a high-ranking imperial consort), she came from Phù Ninh village in what is now Ninh Hiệp, Gia Lâm District, Hanoi, where her father Nguyễn Đình Giai, a respected scholar had sent her to the royal palace, where she rose in status.
Growing up Ngọc Hân was skilled and took a particular great interest in the classics and history, and was gifted in writing poetry and prose.Thomas Hodgkin Vietnam: the revolutionary path 1981 – Page 87 "gave him his sixteen-year-old daughter, Le Thi Ngoc Han, as a wife. A well-educated girl, she died in 1799 at the age of twenty-nine, leaving two children and two admirable poems in nom, moving laments for her husband ..."Nguyên Thi Minh Hà, Nguyên Thi Thanh Bình Annamese feminist poems from antiquity to the present 2007 Page 81 "King Lê Hiển Tông (life: 1716–1786; reign: 1740–86) married off his youngest daughter, Princess Lê Thị Ngọc Hân (1770–1799), to Nguyễn Huệ (life: 1753–1792; reign: 1788–92), leader of the .. Lê Thị Ngọc Hân was skilled in classics and history and gifted in writing poetry and prose. In 1786, Nguyễn Huệ brought his troops to the North to exterminate the Trịnh lords controlling the Lê dynasty. The king gave Lê Ngọc Hân, then sixteen,"
Marriage to Nguyễn Huệ In May 1786, Tây Sơn general Nguyễn Huệ marched north with the declared goal of ”supporting the Lê destroying the Trịnh”.—referring to his intention of removing the powerful Trịnh lords who had long dominated the Lê court and its emperors for the past two centuries. After defeating the Trịnhs, Nguyễn Huệ entered the capital Thăng Long, where he recognized the Emperor Lê Hiển Tông’s legitimacy. With the matchmaking of Nguyễn Hữu Chỉnh, a Northern official who supported the Tây Sơn, Ngọc Hân was married to Nguyễn Huệ, the marriage, solidified further influence he had in the North. She was only 16 years old, while he was 33 and already married to Phạm Thị Liên, his main wife.
Just days after the wedding, Emperor Lê Hiển Tông, her father died from illness after a 46-year reign. A succession dispute followed. Ngọc Hân wanted her older brother, prince Lê Duy Cận to take the throne, believing that her brother was closer to the line of succession and had more legitimacy. But the Lê royal family pushed for Lê Duy Kỳ, her nephew, who was the son of a former crown prince. Under pressure from the royal family, she gave in, and Lê Duy Kỳ became emperor known as Lê Chiêu Thống, he would become the final ruler of the Le Dynasty. Shortly after, she followed Nguyễn Huệ back South to Thuận Hóa.
After becoming emperor in 1787, attempting to restore royal power, Chiêu Thống relied on fragmented noble support, but his efforts to raise loyalist forces only fueled further instability. In 1787, sensing the resurgence of Lê supporters, Tây Sơn general Vũ Văn Nhậm with permission, led an expedition north where he defeated the remaining Lê-aligned factions and seized the capital Thăng Long once again, forcing Lê Chiêu Thống to flee into hiding. This time Nhậm installed Lê Duy Cận, Ngọc Hân’s brother as a Prince Regent. Stripped of authority, Chiêu Thống fled north into the mountains and into Yunnan where he sought help from Qing China and Emperor Qianlong, requesting military intervention, and begging them to restore him to the throne. Seeing it as a chance to reassert Chinese influence over Vietnam, his request was granted. This led to the massive Qing invasion of Vietnam in 1788. This act of requesting foreign intervention enraged the entire country, people of all factions including those formerly loyal to the Lê and seen as a national betrayal, setting the stage for one of Vietnam’s most legendary victories.
Becoming Empress In late 1788, Qing China sent over 200,000 troops to northern Vietnam with the goal of reinstalling the exiled Lê Chiêu Thống. In response, Nguyễn Huệ then ruler of Central Vietnam proclaimed himself Emperor, taking the title Quang Trung, marking the beginnings of the Tây Sơn dynasty, he gave Ngọc Hân the title Hữu Cung Hoàng Hậu (“Right Palace Empress”), since his first wife, Phạm Thị Liên, already held the title of the main empress.
He then gathered a disciplined and experienced Tây Sơn army, and led what was known as a ‘legendary lightning-fast’ march of over 1,000 km from Phú Xuân (Huế) to Thăng Long (Hanoi) in just 10 days, striking during the Tết, Lunar New Year, when the Qing forces were celebrating and unprepared. Using superior tactics, mobility, and intimate knowledge of the terrain, Nguyễn Huệ launched simultaneous attacks on Qing positions. At the fortified village of Ngọc Hồi, south of Thăng Long, Qing troops had built strong defensive positions with artillery and entrenched infantry. Nguyễn Huệ forces advanced with wooden shields and armor soaked in water to resist musket fire and explosives. The Tây Sơn army launched a fierce frontal assault, using a combination of close-range grenades, hand-to-hand combat, and war elephants to break enemy lines. The Qing defenders were overwhelmed, and tens of thousands were killed in brutal combat. As surviving Qing forces retreated toward Đống Đa, they were ambushed by Tây Sơn units who had already planned ahead, a maneuver to cut off their escape. The chaos and panic led to mass casualties. Qing General Sun Shiyi abandoned the rest of his troops and fled across the border with only a handful of followers. At Đống Đa, tens of thousands of Qing soldiers died. Out of respect towards his dead enemies, Nguyễn Huệ had them buried with courtesy at Đống Đa. The victory humiliated the Qing court, ended Lê Chiêu Thống’s hopes of restoration, and forced China to recognize Quang Trung as the legitimate ruler.
The Battle of Ngọc Hồi-Đống Đa is remembered as one of Vietnam’s greatest military triumphs, a moment when a smaller and overwhelmed but determined Vietnamese force outwitted and crushed one of the world’s largest empires. With no path back to power, the Lê dynasty was abolished and Lê Chiêu Thống lived the rest of his life in exile in China, where he was given a low-ranking position and stripped of royal dignity where he died, widely remembered as a symbol of treason and betrayal for inviting foreign troops into Vietnam.
Now emperor of a unified Central and Northern Vietnam, Nguyễn Huệ promoted Ngọc Hân to Bắc Cung Hoàng Hậu (“Empress of the Northern Palace”). She had two children with him. Princess Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Bảo (阮氏玉寶) and Prince Nguyễn Quang Đức (阮光德).TS. Trương Văn Quả (tr. 332) ghi tên là Nguyễn Thị Ngọc và Nguyễn Văn Đức.
Widowhood and death In the 5th year of his reign (1792), Nguyễn Huệ unexpectedly died at the age of 40. After his death, Nguyễn Quang Toản son of his first wife, Empress Phạm Thị Liên—ascended the throne under the reign title “Cảnh Thịnh”, at the young age of 9 years old and thus was referred to as Emperor Cảnh Thịnh. Since Lady Lê Ngọc Hân was a secondary wife, she was elevated to the title of Empress Dowager (Hoàng Thái Hậu).
According to the essay “Lady Lê Ngọc Hân” by Chu Quang Trứ, after Nguyễn Huệ’s death, Lê Ngọc Hân had lost all political power. She voluntarily left the royal palace in Phú Xuân, modern-day Huế) with her two children and lived in Kim Tiền Pagoda (in Dương Xuân, near the Đan Dương shrine) to mourn her husband and raise their children. On December 4, 1799. She died at just 29 years old.
Phan Huy Ích, the Minister of Rites under the Tây Sơn dynasty, was ordered to write five funeral eulogies in her honor: one from Emperor Cảnh Thịnh, one from the princesses, one from Lady Nguyễn Thị Huyền (her mother), one from the Lê royal family, and one from her maternal relatives in Phù Ninh Village. Emperor Cảnh Thịnh himself read the eulogy at her altar. She was posthumously granted the honorific title: Nhu Ý Trang Thuận Trinh Nhất Vũ Hoàng hậu — meaning “The Empress of Gentleness, Grace, Loyalty, Chastity, and Bravery.” All five eulogies were later included in the literary collection Dụ Am Văn Tập.Năm bài văn tế này đã được Hoa Bằng Hoàng Thúc Trâm tìm thấy và công bố trên tạp chí Tri Tân vào năm 1943 tại Hà Nội.
According to the Nguyễn Đình family records on her maternal side, when the Tây Sơn dynasty began to collapse and Nguyễn Phúc Ánh (future Emperor Gia Long)’s army seized the village of Phú Xuân, Prince Nguyễn Quang Đức her son died on December 23, 1801, at just 10 years old. Whilst her daughter, Princess Ngọc Bảo died not a year later on May 18, 1802, at only 12 years old.
Posthumous eulogy In 1799, after Lê Ngọc Hân’s passing, Emperor Cảnh Thịnh ordered Phan Huy Ích to compose an official eulogy conferring her posthumous title. The full text reads:Nguyên văn: 上言，璇闈日暖，褘褕之瑞彩方新；瑤宴雲深，霓羽之真遊永閟。几筵展敬，簡冊貽芳。欽惟大行武皇后玉殿下，秀毓銀潢，祥徵渭涘。齊媚協敷內則，嗣徽賡京室之遺音；弘光懋體至元，成化配左宮之懿範。琚瑀示儀於寰海，帨幋滋慶於邦家。荊湖弗逮龍髯，碧漢之追陪有約；蓬島倏遄鸞馭，長秋之歡侍無由。哀恫恪奉孝思，譔述參稽禮制。謹上尊號，曰柔懿莊慎貞一武皇后。伏望默垂慧鑒，光受崇稱。遡十四年煒燁，彤書善美，式留琬琰；歷千百世肅雍，清廟昭明，用妥焄𤌾。小子不勝感悟，戀慕之至。謹奉冊文，叩籲以聞
”I present these words like the warmth of the sun, newly spreading over fragrant blossoms; like a bird dancing in deep clouds, soaring in eternal grace. Time passes, yet memory remains; the record of virtue shall endure. The late Vũ Empress from the royal palace possessed elegance and intelligence, an ideal partner for a scholar-king. She fulfilled her duties as wife and mother, embodying the teachings of the inner chambers and transmitting the values of harmony and refinement. Her grace and virtue were celebrated throughout the empire; her presence brought joy to both the royal family and the people. When fate took her before her time, sorrow spread across the land. Though she is gone, her memory is preserved in rites and rituals, and her honor shall never fade. Therefore, we respectfully confer upon her the title: Nhu Ý Trang Thận Trinh Nhất Vũ Hoàng hậu (“The Empress of Gentleness, Grace, Loyalty, Chastity, and Bravery.”) We pray she will shine her wisdom upon us from the heavens and bless the nation’s continued prosperity. For 14 years, she demonstrated goodness and charm, leaving behind a legacy of grace. Let future generations remember her name as one who enriched our dynasty and deepened the royal lineage”
Burial and legacy Burial In 1804, Lady Nguyễn Thị Huyền (Lê Ngọc Hân’s mother) grieved deeply over the deaths of her daughter and two grandchildren in a ‘faraway land’. She secretly hired people to retrieve their remains from Phú Xuân and return them to her families ancestral estate (Thiết Lâm Hall).
On July 16, 1804, Lady Huyền arranged for Lê Ngọc Hân to be buried at the center, with her children, the prince to her left and the princess to her right. This burial site is believed to be what is now known as Bãi Cây Đại or Bãi Đầu Voi, near the entrance of Nành Village, Phù Ninh Commune (now Ninh Hiệp, Gia Lâm District, Hanoi).