Biography

Trịnh Khả, like most of Lê Lợi's chief aids and generals, was from Thanh Hóa Province which is where Lê Lợi was born. During the decade-long Lam Sơn uprising against the Ming dynasty, Trịnh Khả served as an advisor to Lê Lợi. With victory, Trịnh Khả was elevated to a high position in the new court of Emperor Lê Lợi. Trịnh Khả (and the other councilors) were given the privilege of wearing red silk and were called Hành-khiển. Other members of this new elite were: Nguyễn Trãi, Tran Nguyen Han, Lê Sát, Phạm Văn Xảo, Dinh Liêt, and Lê Ngan.

When Lê Lợi died in 1433, Lê Sát was appointed regent for the young emperor, Lê Lợi's second son, Lê Thái Tông. Lê Sát made use of his new power to remove rivals from the government, some were killed (like Phạm Văn Xảo), while others, like Trịnh Khả, were sent away to govern distant provinces of Vietnam.

Lê Thái Tông officially came of age in 1438 but found Lê Sát was unwilling to give up his power as regent. Lê Thái Tông looked for political allies and found Trịnh Khả. The new emperor appointed Trịnh Khả to command the Palace Guard. A few months later, Lê Sát was accused of ruling in place of the emperor and with the aid of Khả's guards, Lê Sát was arrested and then condemned to death. Not long after this, Lê Ngan was also removed from power, leaving Trịnh Khả as the main power behind Lê Thái Tông.

Officially, Trịnh Khả was the head of the Administrative Bureau (Chinh-su-vien) but the next four years were filled with intrigue as the various noble families in the court plotted to expand their power at the expense of their rivals. Trịnh Khả came out on top of this fight, being promoted to the position of Imperial Councilor shortly before Lê Thái Tông became sick and died in 1442.

With the death of the young emperor, the new heir to the throne was an infant Lê Nhân Tông. The government was nominally controlled by the boy's mother, Nguyễn Thị Anh (as Dowager Queen and Regent), but she was very young herself. Real power seems to have been wielded by Trịnh Khả along with Nguyễn Xí, Le Thu and two generals: Dinh Liêt and Pham Boi.

The government of the oligarchy was not very active but they sent six missions to the Ming Court. Some of the missions were complaints about raids by the Champa kingdom into Vietnam. In 1446, the government launched an attack on the Champa. The campaign was reasonably successful as the Vietnamese army captured the capital city of Vijaya but they lost the city to a counter-attack a year later. This was the forerunner of the 1470 campaign which would destroy the Champa.

As the years passed, Queen Nguyễn Thị Anh came into greater conflict with the Trịnh Khả and the other oligarchs who ruled the country. The Queen gained some support from the Confucian scholars who had passed the Imperial examinations and tried to rule much like their Chinese colleges to the north ruled in the Ming imperial system. The nobles in turn tried to limit the power of the scholars and maintain their own control over the government.

For reasons lost to history, the Queen ordered Trịnh Khả and his eldest son executed in August 1451. Two years later, upon the official enthronement of Lê Nhân Tông (at the age of 12), Trịnh Khả was pardoned and new lands were given to the Trịnh family.

The Trịnh family continued to be a major noble family in Việt Nam. In 1545, a great-grandson named Trịnh Kiểm, took control of a large part of Vietnam. His descendants ruled the north for the next 240 years (see the Trịnh Lords for details).

Three hundred years later, the Vietnamese officer, Lê Quý Đôn, said of Trịnh Khả he "served the public good, exhausted his virtue (on it), and considered the correction of evil and the presentation of instruction to be his own duty".

生平

鄭可，永寧縣金杯人，容貌英俊。鄭可父親鄭倦是當地農民。鄭可十八歲時，在田地里耕種放牧，某日在寺門小憩，鎮守西都城的明將來到金杯，遇到了鄭可，十分喜歡鄭可的容貌，將其收養為奴隸。過了不久，明朝官員認為鄭可相貌不凡，擔心將來驅逐明朝，於是想要加害鄭可。鄭可逃走，明軍將其父投入河中。鄭可埋葬其父後，投奔黎利。

藍山起義

永樂十四年（1416），鄭可參與了隴崖會誓，成為黎利起義軍的核心將領之一。永樂十六年（1418），皇陵之變，鄭可與裴備從明軍的守中奪回了靈車。黎利起義期間，鄭可通曉老撾語，遂為黎利出使老撾，說服老撾國王暗中支持黎利。在與明軍的戰鬥中，鄭可衝鋒陷陣，拜為太監。宣德元年（1426），鄭可與黎篆率兵二千出天關，征服廣威、嘉興、三帶、臨洮、宣光五路，進逼東關城。先於寧橋擊敗明軍，又於車轆橋擊敗成山侯王通的援軍。黎利從清化來攻東關城，命鄭可攻打三江城，拜為少尉。宣德二年（1427），鄭可鎮守梨花關，成功阻擊了來自雲南的明軍。

黎朝建立

順天元年（1428），黎利建立後黎朝，鄭可官至紫金榮祿大夫左麟虎衛上將軍，賜金魚帶銀符，上輕車都尉。

順天二年（1429），定開國功臣九十三人，鄭可封縣侯。

擅權

1433年黎利逝世後，黎察奉命輔佐年幼的嗣君黎太宗。黎察執政後不斷剷除政敵，不少昔日的功臣被殺（如范文巧），其他一些功臣則外放到地方擔任官員。鄭可也被驅逐，貶為地方官。

1438年，黎太宗成年，但他卻發現黎察絲毫沒有交還大權的意圖。於是黎太宗與鄭可結為同盟，召鄭可入京，任命鄭可統領禁軍。在鄭可的幫助下，黎太宗宣佈黎察謀反，將黎察逮捕並賜死。不久以後，黎銀也遭免職，鄭可獨攬大權。

鄭可官拜太監參知政事兼少尉，成為政事院的首腦。在接下來的四年裡，鄭可陰謀剷除異己，以擴大自己的政治勢力。然而鄭可卻失敗了，在1442年黎太宗逝世後，鄭可從權力頂峰跌落了下來。

失勢

黎太宗死後，年幼的黎仁宗繼位。皇太后阮氏英把持朝政。雖然阮氏英很年輕，但卻野心勃勃。阮氏英試圖通過聯合阮熾、丁列等人剷除權臣鄭可。

在此期間越南政治並不活躍，但曾先後向明朝派遣了六個外交使團，其中一些使團提到了占城曾多次騷擾邊境。1446年，鄭可遣軍襲擊了占城。這次戰爭越南獲得了勝利，次年攻佔了占城首都，俘虜了占城國王摩訶賁該。

隨著時光的流逝，阮氏英太后同鄭可的矛盾越來越尖銳。太后在一些太學生的支持下，試圖像明朝一樣讓太學生執掌政權。但執政的鄭可為了鞏固自己的地位，阻撓太后的改革。最終太后在1451年處死了鄭可，同時被殺的還有鄭可的長子。

後世的權臣鄭檢自稱是鄭可的後裔。