Regarding the origin of Nguyen Cuu lineage branch and the chief captain of the power system Nguyen Cuu Van

Abstract

Regarding the origin of Nguyen Cuu lineage branch: During the early period of land clearance in the South, many lineage branches from Tonkin organized themselves into groups of migrants to cultivate the new lands in Cochin. Nguyen Cuu lineage branch was one of them. However, this lineage branch didn’t exist in the Nguyen Lords time. Nguyen CuuKieu’s Nguyen lineage branch originally came from Quy rural district (i.e. Tong Son rural district). Thanks to his great contributions, Lord Nguyen Phuc Nguyen married Princess Ngoc Dinh to him, then granted national status Nguyen Phuc to his lineage branch. Later, to distinguish the hierarchy of lineage branches in Nguyen Phuoc clan system, in  1820 King Minh Mang changed his lineage branch into Nguyen Cuu, and Nguyen CuuKieu was the first to get into the historical record of this lineage branch.

The chief captain of the power system Nguyen Cuu Van:  There is no documented record of the year of birth and death of Nguyen Cuu Van. About his background, Nguyen Cuu Van was Nguyen CuuDuc's son; Nguyen CuuDuc was Nguyen CuuKieu’s son, i.e. Nguyen Cuu Van was Nguyen CuuKieu’s grandson. The chief captain of the power system Nguyen Cuu Van contributed a great deal to the early period of land clearance in the western part of the South. He was a famous general who repelled the Siamese army whose intention was to impose influences on the Chenla kingdom; thereby helped Nguyen Lords to legally acquire part of the land which is today the western part of the South. At the same time, with the outstanding political and economic vision, he held land clearance, digging for rivers and building forts, both for defence and  fertile land in the areas bordering the provinces which now are Long An, TienGiang and Vinh Long. In addition, it was he who left cultural imprints through the construction of temples and pagodas in the new land to next generations.