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Nguyễn Quyền (1869–1941) was a #Vietnamese #scholar & #AntiColonial #revolutionary #activist who advocated independence from #French #colonial rule. He was a contemporary of Phan Bội Châu & Phan Chu Trinh & one of Tonkin Free School's founders.

"The more I read the more I become aware that the things we studied, our examination system, were wrong – indeed the real reasons for our having lost our country. From that point on I was determined to seize upon our country's literature and on modern learning to awaken our citizenry."

Quyen advocated the modernisation of Vietnam's #education system. Around 1903 or 1904, Quyen met Tang Bat Ho, who had returned from his travels abroad & talked extensively about the modernisation of Japan. In 1904 he met with Phan Bội Châu, but Quyen had little in common with Chau's ideology of using violence to achieve independence. Quyen went on the work with Lương Văn Can & Le Dai in setting up the Dong Kinh Thuc Nghia, which sought to strengthen the Vietnamese people & thereby the likelihood of independence through the training of a new, more modern generation of scholars.

In 1908, Quyen was arrested in a general crackdown by French authorities and sent to jail on Côn Lôn island. He died in the prison which was infamous for torturing political prisoners.

Ref: Marr, David G. (1970). Vietnamese Anticolonialism, 1885–1925. Berkeley: University of California. ISBN 0-520-01813-3.