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Vietnam: Emperor Minh Mang (1791 - 1841), was the 2nd emperor of the Nguyen Dynasty. This image shows Minh Mang circa 1827.

Vietnam: Emperor Minh Mang (1791 - 1841), was the 2nd emperor of the Nguyen Dynasty. This image shows Minh Mang circa 1827.

Minh Mạng (1791–1841) was the second emperor of the Nguyen Dynasty of Vietnam, reigning from 14 February 1820 until 20 January 1841. He was a younger son of Emperor Gia Long, whose eldest son, Crown Prince Canh, had died in 1801.

He was well known for his opposition to French involvement in Vietnam and his rigid Confucian orthodoxy. As Gia Long aged, he took on a more isolationist foreign policy, and as a result favored Minh Mang especially for his outlook.

Minh Mang was a classicist who was regarded as one of Vietnam's most scholarly monarchs. He was known as a poet and was regarded as an emperor who cared sincerely about his country and paid great attention to its rule, to the extent of micromanaging certain policies. He pursued a sceptical policy to Christian missionaries, often trying to inhibit their activities by administrative means, and later by explicitly banning proselytisation.

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