Cao Xuân Dục was a scholar, historian

Historian

A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...

-mandarin

Mandarin (bureaucrat)

A mandarin was a bureaucrat in imperial China, and also in the monarchist days of Vietnam where the system of Imperial examinations and scholar-bureaucrats was adopted under Chinese influence.-History and use of the term:...

, and court adviser in the Nguyễn Dynasty, Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

.

Cao Xuân Dục was born in Thịnh Mỹ, Diễn Châu, Nghệ An. In 1876, he entered Vietnamese Imperial examination

Imperial examination

The Imperial examination was an examination system in Imperial China designed to select the best administrative officials for the state's bureaucracy. This system had a huge influence on both society and culture in Imperial China and was directly responsible for the creation of a class of...

 and was awarded the degree of provincial graduate (舉人 - Jǔrén), in same class with the famous anti-French patriot Phan Đình Phùng from Hà Tĩnh

Ha Tinh

Hà Tĩnh is a city in Vietnam. It is the capital of the Ha Tinh province, in Vietnam's north central coast....

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He served under Nguyễn Emperors Đồng Khánh and Thành Thái

Thanh Thai

Emperor Thành Thái of the Vietnamese Nguyễn Dynasty was born Prince Nguyễn Phúc Bửu Lân, son of Emperor Duc Duc. He reigned for 18 years, from 1889 to 1907.-Biography:...

 and held several important government posts including Governor-General

Governor-General

A Governor-General, is a vice-regal person of a monarch in an independent realm or a major colonial circonscription. Depending on the political arrangement of the territory, a Governor General can be a governor of high rank, or a principal governor ranking above "ordinary" governors.- Current uses...

 of Hưng Yên (1889) and minister of education (1907). He was one of the four top advisers to the Emperor during the Vietnam-France conflict in early 20th century.

When Hoàng Cao Khải

Hoang Cao Khai

Hoàng Cao Khải was a viceroy of Tonkin , the northernmost of the three parts of Vietnam under French colonial rule. He is best known for his role in helping the French authorities to hunt down Phan Đình Phùng, the leading Vietnamese revolutionary of the time.-External links:*...

, a notorious pro-French collaborator, coerced his colleagues to sign a petition to Thành Thái to promote Khải to viceroy

Viceroy

A viceroy is a royal official who runs a country, colony, or province in the name of and as representative of the monarch. The term derives from the Latin prefix vice-, meaning "in the place of" and the French word roi, meaning king. A viceroy's province or larger territory is called a viceroyalty...

, Dục refused to sign - instead he wrote a quick poem on the petition.

天無二日 國無兩王 臣高春育 不可旡

the sky cannot have two suns a nation cannot have two kings your servant Cao Xuân Dục cannot sign

He was later vilified by Khải's group and demoted to a lowly local post in Hoàng Xá outside of Hanoi

Hanoi

Hanoi , is the capital of Vietnam and the country's second largest city. Its population in 2009 was estimated at 2.6 million for urban districts, 6.5 million for the metropolitan jurisdiction. From 1010 until 1802, it was the most important political centre of Vietnam...

. A relief

Relief

Relief is a sculptural technique. The term relief is from the Latin verb levo, to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is thus to give the impression that the sculpted material has been raised above the background plane...

 of Cao Xuân Dục was sculptured on a wall in a cave in this local region to commemorate his righteousness.

Cao Xuân Dục retired in 1913 to concentrate on building his library, Long Cương Bảo Tàng Thư Viện (named after his pseudonym), collecting and maintaining Vietnamese literature.

A street in Ho Chi Minh city

Ho Chi Minh City

Ho Chi Minh City , formerly named Saigon is the largest city in Vietnam...

 was named after Cao Xuân Dục

Writings & co-writings

Cao Xuân Dục made significant contribution in maintaining Vietnamese culture and literature in 19th and 20th century. He spent many years writing, collecting, copying, re-writing and preserving valuable books including:

• Annals of Đại Nam
  Annals of Đại Nam
  The Annals of the Đại Nam or Đại Nam thực lục are the annual records of the Nguyễn Dynasty, who ruled Vietnam...
  
  
• Quốc triều chính biên toát yếu
• Quốc triều khoa bảng lục - records of biographies of graduates of major Imperial exams.