Le Dinh Kien (1621 - 1704)

Le Dinh Kien was born in a poor peasant family in 1621 in Thiet Danh village, Yen Dinh district in Thanh Hoa province (Currently Dinh Tuong commune, Yen Dinh district in Thanh Hoa province). His father died at a very young age and his mother had to work hard to bring him up. He then became an adopted son of a mandarin, named Hon, in Tinh Gia district.

Le Dinh Kien was a mandarin under the Le-Trinh dynasty when Trinh Lord usurped the King’s power. The wars between Trinh and Nguyen were chronic, resulting in troubles everywhere, especially in Son Nam tran (tran is an old administrative unit). The court ordered many talented mandarins to rule it but all of them failed.

In 1664, he was ordered by the royal court to control Son Nam tran. His biggest contribution was to put down the revolt by Chinese people here and turn Pho Hien into a big trading center of the country. He held different high-level positions in the court.

Le Dinh Kien was a talented diplomat and good at doing business. He took an important role in the expansion of trade and the development of the country. When he died, the Vietnamese and overseas residents in Pho Hien built a stele describing his achievements and contributions.

Nowadays, in Pho Hien, there are two stelae, one set up by local people in 1727, one built by the captain of Nam Hai board, Tran De Dao - a Fujian (China) in 1723. The content of these two stelae is almost the same that praises his contributions and considers him as the loyal and righteous person. In the stele built in 1723, there is a paragraph "We have been often crossing the Southern sea for trading and entering Van Lai Trieu harbor for several decades. During this period, with the valuable support of Anh Linh Vuong, our work has been implemented very well. His support is uncountable. He loves local people as his relatives and economizes on spending money for them… His loyalty to the King is highly appreciated by people in the whole country". And in the stele set up by local people, it says "He loves people as much as his sons and judges with fairness. In constructing temple, dyke, drainage and stock, he does not take even a small part for his own… Local people from the old to the young admire his talent and virtue and consider him as their father"

Le Dinh Kien maintained the society stability not only by law but also by his generosity.  He gathered all the hunger and homeless to set up a village and facilitated their business and activities. He grouped all Chinese refugees to establish a village and Pho Hien.  Under his governing, Pho Hien became a trading port that was as big as Thang Long. He paid a special attention in the construction of Pho Hien as the same as Thang Long capital, leading to saying “The Capital ranks first, Pho Hien ranks second". He also encouraged local people to plant longan, a specialty of Hung Yen. The longan tree he planted is still located in the yard of provincial department.

With his talent in the fields of politics, foreign relations and foreign trade, on behalf of the King and the Lord, he communicated with foreign trade offices in Pho Hien such as trade exchange divisions of Holland, England, Japan, and Portugal.

Le Dinh Kien was famed for his judging ability. Robbers and thieves were afraid and never came to the area where he ruled. Some thieves gave themselves up and promised with him to amend. Therefore, the number of suit reduced.

It is said that when he was governor of Son Nam region, he dealt with some famous lawsuits. One of them was as follows:

A foreign dealer saw the beautiful wife of a cheo singer. He asked them to go to his board and sing. Then he made the husband drunk and took the wife away. As sobering up, the husband asked where his wife was and the foreign dealer answered that his wife had left his board. When he could not find his wife, the husband asked for the help of Le Dinh Kien. He arrested three suspected persons and put them in separate rooms. He ordered to beat two suspected persons and let the third one see that. Then he told the third person that "These two accomplices pleaded their guilty. What about you?" and gave him a statement note of his accomplices. Being frighten, the third one declared. And then the foreign dealer pleaded his guilty and returned the wife to the husband and gave  70 "dat" of silver as the fine.

He died at the age of 84 in 1704. Local people established an Anh Linh Vuong temple dedicated for his worship. Now this temple does not exist. In the house of his worship in Thiet Danh, home land of Le Dinh Kien in Thanh Hoa province, there is a parallel sentence praising his contributions.

Đại đức tứ dân, danh tại sử
Sinh vi lương tướng tử vi thần

Means:

His talent and virtue was well-known and his name was written down in the history
He lived as a good mandarin and died as the Saint

And

Trị sự liêm bình, kim cổ đan thanh tuế tích
Tại nhân đức trạch, bắc nam kim thạch minh danh 

Means:

Fair and upright governing was written down in the history forever.
His support and contributions towards Vietnamese and Chinese were craved in the stone.