Phan Châu Trinh (Chữ Hán: 潘周楨, 9 September 1872 – 24 March 1926), courtesy name Tử Cán (梓幹), pen name Tây Hồ (西湖) or Hi Mã (希馬), was an early 20th-century Vietnamese nationalist. He sought to end France's colonial occupation of Vietnam. He opposed both violence and turning to other countries for support, and instead believed in attaining Vietnamese liberation by educating the population and by appealing to French democratic principles. Early years Phan Châu Trinh was born in Tây Lộc village, Hà Đông district, Thăng Bình fu, Quảng Nam province, Đại Nam (now is Tam Lộc commune, Phú Ninh district, Quảng Nam province) on 9 September 1872. He was the son of a rich landowner and scholar. His father was a fighter in the Scholars' Revolt, but in 1885 he was killed by the other leaders in the revolt who suspected him of being a traitor. This left Trinh an orphan at the age of 13. His older brother educated him in classics. In 1900, he obtained a Cử nhân (舉人 senior bachelor) degree in the regional exam. One year later, he got (second rank, under doctorate) title in the national examination. In 1905, Phan resigned from his post in the mandarin bureaucracy. He had become strongly opposed to the monarchy, traditional Chinese Confucian-influenced Vietnamese court and mandarin system. He called for an end to the monarchy and its replacement with a democratic republic. Having earlier met Phan Bội Châu (Sào Nam) in 1903, in early March 1906, he went to Hong Kong then Kwangtung to meet with him again at Liu Yongfu (ông Lưu)'s house. He made his way there disguised as a disheveled common laborer. He then went to Japan with Sào Nam as part of the Đông-Du movement. They stayed in Yokohama, where they had set up a two-story Japanese house to teach students, which they called Bính-Ngọ-Hiên (Fire Horse Lodge). In early May 1906, they went to Tokyo to inspect the Japanese education and political system. Phan disagreed with Sào Nam's early ideas of asking for military assistance from Japan, as he didn't trust Japan's militarism. He also had other disagreements with Sào Nam's philosophy. Therefore, they had a friendly argument for a few weeks before he returned to Vietnam. Back in Vietnam he continued to receive letters from Sào Nam arguing about his opposition to the monarchy and his belief that the French could