1637–1695. A ploughman turned doctor, a censor renowned for his uprightness, father of two of the four tutelary deities and father-in-law of the third. Honoured after his death as Anh Nghị Đại vương, then canonised a second time under the Nguyễn.
Ⅰ
From the fields to the examinations
A seventh-generation descendant of Đinh Phúc Diên, he is described at the conference as a good ploughman who studied diligently. At twenty-eight he left the plough to follow his teacher to the capital and wear out the classics there.
He took his doctorate at the Canh Tuất session, in 1670, under the reign of Lê Huyền Tông. His name still stands on the doctors' stele at the Văn Miếu — Quốc Tử Giám in Hanoi.
Grateful to the man who had taught him, he had a hermitage raised at the place called Cồn Mai in memory of his master Trần: the am Bạch Vân, the hermitage of the White Cloud, which gave the temple of that name its name.
Ⅱ
The censor, and a pardon that decided everything
He served as Giám sát Ngự sử, a surveillance censor, then as Thiêm Đô Ngự sử. The Đại Việt sử ký bản kỷ tục biên, cited at the conference, records that in 1692 the Tham chính Đinh Nho, rated “superior” at the triennial review of merits, was promoted Thiêm đô Ngự sử. The papers disagree on the province: Sơn Tây in that chronicle, Sơn Nam in another.
The king awarded him the four-character praise “Ngôn ngữ phong lăng” — a keen and cutting speech.
It is in this office that the story of the fourth deity is knotted. Sent to inspect the prisons of Nghệ An in a year of great drought, he recognised the innocence of a registry keeper named Phan, whom the provincial mandarins held to be beyond pardon, and had him released. The man died without being able to repay it; his daughter, Phan Thị Viên, would marry his benefactor's third son.
Ⅲ
The household, and the canonisation
He had two wives and six sons. The third, born of Lady Đặng, is Đinh Nho Hoàn; the sixth, Đinh Nho Côn, would found the Thanh Liên branch. Four of his sons stand at the head of the clan's four branches.
After his death he was raised to the rank of deity under the title 英毅大王 Anh Nghị Đại vương. Under the Nguyễn he received a second investiture, as Dực bảo trung hưng phúc thần.
He is venerated at đền Gôi Vị, where he was joined to his daughter-in-law's cult by the custom reserved for second wives: the temple, writes the Hà Tĩnh museum, thus honours “two doctors of the Lê period, Đinh Nho Công and Đinh Nho Hoàn”. The site further attaches to his memory the temple of the White Cloud (đền Bạch Vân, or đền Thịnh Xá).