Bùi Thị Xuân Explained

Bùi Thị Xuân (Vietnamese: {{linktext|裴|氏|春, d. 1802) was a Vietnamese female general during the Tây Sơn era.

Biography

General Bùi Thị Xuân was born in Bình Khê District (now Tây Sơn District), Bình Định Province. She is said to have learned martial arts as a child,^[1] and was reputedly a strong woman. Legend has it that she once rescued Trần Quang Diệu, who later became her husband, from a tiger. She and Trần Quang Diệu joined the Tây Sơn Rebellion early and won many battles, while also helping the army train elephants.^[2]

When Phú Xuân (Huế) fell to Nguyễn Ánh, she followed king Cảnh Thịnh to Nghệ An, commanded 5000 troops and fought the Nguyễn forces in Trấn Ninh (Quảng Bình Province). In the second month of 1802, the Nguyễn forces became victorious. She joined her husband in Nghệ An and they were captured together by the Nguyễn forces. Both of them were executed; her husband was either beheaded, flayed or both, while she and her 15-year-old daughter were crushed to death by an elephant.^[3]

Notes and References

1. Book: Turner, Karen. The Oxford Encyclopedia of Women in World History. https://books.google.com/books?id=EFI7tr9XK6EC&pg=PA265. 2008. Oxford University Press. 978-0-19-514890-9. 265. Bui Thi Xuan .
2. George Edson Dutton The Tây Sơn Uprising: Society and Rebellion 2006 Page 236 "The latter is an account of the noted Tây Sơn female general Bùi Thị Xuân. Both of these texts Were Written in the second half of the nineteenth Century"
3. Book: David G. Marr. Vietnamese Tradition on Trial, 1920-1945. 3 February 1984. University of California Press. 978-0-520-90744-7. 212–.