, second Emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty. |alt=A black-and-white painting. A clean-shaven man in a traditional Asian gown with a picture of a lion on his chest is seated. He wears an ornamental headpiece and other dragon motifs can be seen on his clothes. Two subordinates in plain robes stand behind him on either side, wearing simple headcloths. There was a lot of tension between Duyet and Minh Mạng. Although Gia Long had enlisted European support to claim the throne and allowed missionaries to function in Vietnam in gratitude to Pigneau, he ran a classical Confucian administration. He also expressed dismay at the Catholic condemnation of the traditional
ancestral worship, a basic tenet of Vietnamese culture; Crown Prince Cảnh had been converted by Pigneau and subsequently refused to bow down to his ancestors, instead desecrating a shrine with feces. As Crown Prince Cảnh had died of
smallpox during the war against the Tây Sơn, it was assumed that Cảnh's son would succeed Gia Long, but in 1816
Nguyễn Phúc Đảm, the son of Gia Long's second wife, was appointed instead. Gia Long chose him for his strong character and his deeply conservative aversion to Westerners, whereas Cảnh's lineage had converted to Catholicism and had shunned Confucian traditions such as ancestor worship. Gia Long told his son to treat the Europeans—especially the French—respectfully, but not to grant them any position of preponderance. Duyệt and many of his southern associates tended to be favourable to Christianity, and supported the installation of Nguyễn Phúc Cảnh's descendants. As a result, Duyệt was held in high regard by the Catholic community. According to McLeod, as Duyệt was not from a
scholar-gentry background and lacked a classical Confucian education, he did not place a great emphasis on tradition and was more concerned with military needs, and that as a result, he would be more interested in maintaining strong relations with Europeans so that he could acquire weapons from them, rather than worrying about the social implications of Westernization. He enacted "edicts of interdiction of the Catholic religion" and condemned Christianity as a "heterodox doctrine". Because of the role of Westerners in the war between the Nguyễn and the Tây Sơn, and Pigneau's role in recruiting European assistance, Duyệt protected Vietnamese Catholic converts and Westerners from Minh Mạng's
isolationalist and Confucian policies by disobeying the emperor's orders. In defense of the Christians, Duyệt wrote to Ming Mạng, "We still have between our teeth the rice which the missionaries gave us when we were starving." This came in response to an imperial edict that ordered missionaries to leave their areas of operation and move to the
imperial city, ostensibly because the palace needed translators, but in reality to stop the Catholics from proselytizing. Whereas the government officials in central and northern Vietnam complied, Duyệt disobeyed the order and Minh Mạng was forced to bide his time. Duyệt's policy towards criminals and former rebels also courted conflict with Minh Mạng. In the early-19th century, the nascent years of the Nguyễn dynasty were plagued by incessant revolts, particularly in northern and central Vietnam. This resulted in a large number of rebels being captured along with common criminals and bandits. Such people were usually internally exiled to the opposite part of the country, so a large number ended up in southern Vietnam. These included many former rebels who were spared the death penalty after being defeated by Duyệt in northern and central Vietnam during his pacification campaigns in the late 1810s, and had sworn loyalty towards the general personally. These men were sent south with their wives and children to remove them from potentially rebellious areas and to punish them, but another objective was to start military colonies to help develop southern Vietnam, which had only recently been acquired by ethnic Vietnamese. The convicts were given equipment to work on the land and some were later pardoned. For Minh Mạng, the placement of former convicts and rebels in positions of power was contrary to the Confucian system of order and debauched the prestige of the state, whereas Duyet was only concerned with practicality. During the 1820s, Duyệt's continued cultivated of relations with the
immigrant Chinese community that had settled in southern Vietnam in large numbers brought him into conflict with Minh Mạng. The general had adopted a Chinese immigrant merchant as his son and gave him favours, including appointing him to position of the body that regulated trade. The Japanese historian Shimao concluded that Duyệt and his entourage were given financial rewards and gifts from the Chinese merchants in return for favourable treatment by government officials. It was also pointed out that another of Duyet's men was himself a businessman who had a Chinese agent. In the meantime, the opium supply kept on increasing. It was thought that Chinese merchants, whom Duyệt patronised, were illegally exporting rice at higher prices, and then bringing back opium during return journeys along with incoming immigrants. For his part, the general disagreed with the prevailing view held by the emperor, and said that people of both races were engaging in illegal trading, as well as blaming the incoming immigrants' personal addictions rather than the Chinese merchants for bringing in opium. Nevertheless, Duyệt disobeyed Minh Mạng and tax concessions were granted. Because of their involvement in the illegal exportation of rice and importation of opium, Minh Mạng tried to ban the Chinese from engaging in sea trade in 1827, It was not until Duyệt died that Minh Mạng was able to crack down on fraudulent sea trade. in an attempt to wear down Duyệt's power base by gradually removing the general's close aides. In 1821, Minh Mạng sent two of his aides from central Vietnam to serve as education officials in the south. One of the objectives was that they would oversee the imperial examination process and education system, which would allow them to determine who would serve in the government as mandarins and therefore fill the southern ranks with men acceptable to the court. However, their attempts were either blocked or circumvented by Duyệt's incumbent officials and they returned to the capital two years later in failure. In 1823, one of Duyệt's closest subordinates
Tran Nhat Vinh, was indicted by one of Minh Mạng's officials from Huế, who charged him with trading rice on the black market and operating a brothel. This ended in a stalemate, but a few years later, Vinh was transferred to northern Vietnam and later imprisoned while Duyet was unable to do anything about the matter in the south; Vinh's position was taken by one of the emperor's men. In 1829, Duyet suffered another blow when
Nguyen Van Thoai, an ally whom he appointed to run Cambodia for him died. The general nominated another subordinate to replace his colleague
Nguyen Van Xuan, but Minh Mạng overruled him and instead appointed one of his mandarins
Bui Minh Duc to the post. Although the emperor formally asked Duc to cooperate with Duyet, Minh Mạng then appointed Duc to the post of Minister of the Board of War, putting him above the general in the chain of command, effectively making Duyet irrelevant with regards to the running of the protectorate. == Family and personal life ==