Nguyễn Thượng Hiền (阮尚賢; 1865–1925) was a Vietnamese scholar-gentry anti-colonial revolutionary activist who advocated independence from French colonial rule.

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.

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.

[1] He fled to the northern town of Thanh Hóa, before returning in 1892 to place second (hoang giap) in the palace exams, something that was considered surprising given the political status of his in-laws.

[1] Hiền later went to Canton with Chau for a meeting of expatriate revolutionaries, where the Việt Nam Quang Phục Hội (Vietnam Restoration League) was formed.

Shortly after the outbreak of World War I, Hiền wrote and organised the printing of an impassioned plea for Vietnamese people to rise against the French colonialists, who were now also having to deal with battle commitments in Europe.

Most of the money was spent of badly prepared attacks on French border posts along the frontier with China, but these caused little military damage and only provoked more infighting within the Quang Phuc Hoi.