Trinh Hoai Duc (1765-1825) was Erudite scholar and poet. He served Gia Long as the Minister of the Interior. Trinh Hoai Duc was considered an honest mandarin in the history. His forebears were Chinese (of Foukien) faithful to the Ming dynasty, who came to live first in Phu Xuan (Hue) then in the South (Tran Bien, presently Bien Haa, Dong Nai province).
He was the author of the Gia Định thành thông chí (Monograph of Gia Định) translated into French at the end of the 19th century, and of three selections of poems.
