Tran Ton

Tran Ton, the eldest son of Tran Tong was born on 15 September 1675. At his birth, he was named Nginh Nhat.

He became a studious man, part of this social class easily recognisable through their ong quyen, a cylindrical container of lacquered wood which was used to encase rolled documents and other literary work.

Tran Ton married early with a woman called Du Thi Diem. He became a father at the age of 20 years old. His first son was called Nguyen Le.

Around this time, Tran Ton set forth on a journey to China to regain the natal province of his grandfather, Thi-To. During his stay, Tran Ton visited members of his family that were still alive and paid his respects at the tombs of his Chinese ancestors. Note that according to ancestral worship practices and also according to the filial obligations set out by Confucian morality, it was considered (and still is) an important duty of Vietnamese and Chinese descendants to maintain their ancestors' cult and to respect such dates as their ancestors' death anniversary...a task my grandmother fulfills to this day.

I noticed that Tran Ton divorced. In those days, divorce was very much taboo. Incidentally, having children was considered important for assuring the perpetuation of the family line and to ensure the maintenance of the ancestral cult. So I wonder whether the reason for this divorce was the lack of children from his first wife. Either way, Tran Ton remarried with Tu-Thuc Tran-Van-Dai and had seven children:

Three Boys: Nguyen-Luan, Nguyen-Hoan, Man-Truc
Four Girls: Thi-Nguyet, Thi-Doai, Thi-Qua, Thi-Lan

Tran Ton died of cholera around the same time as his parents, on 28 October 1714.
He was only 39 years old.

His cult name is Tanh Tien Tran Ton. He was buried near his parents' tomb at the foot of a mountain in the village of Phan-xa in the province of Quang-tri.

His second wife survived cholera. She lived to the age of 84 and died on 7 April 1766. Her remains were initially placed near her husband's and later moved to the foot of the Da Bac mountain, in the village of Chau chu (10 km from Hue) in the district of Huong-thuy in the province of Thua-thien.


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