함응이
Hiền was born in the village of Liên Bạt, in Son Lang district of Hà Đông Province. His father was a minister of the Nguyễn Dynasty court in Huế, and while still in his teenage year, Hien was married to the daughter of Tôn Thất Thuyết, who was then the head mandarin of Emperor Tự Đức, Vietnam's last sovereign monarch. In 1884, he passed the regional exams of the imperial examination system, and in 1885 he was successful in passing the metropolitan exams. He would then have been eligible to take the palace exams, the highest in the hierarchy. However, in the same year, his father-in-law, who was the regent of the boy emperor Hàm Nghi had planned an uprising against the French colonisation of Vietnam. Thuyết had organised a large arsenal to be accumulated in a forest base outside the capital and then orchestrated for Hàm Nghi and royal entourage to escape to the base before launching an attack on the French garrison in attempt to force the collapse of the colonial structure. However, the attack failed, so Thuyết had to go on the run with Hàm Nghi and a band of nationalist partisans, so Hien could not turn up at the examinations as a family member without risking the possibility that he would be taken hostage.