Lý Thái Tổ


Lý Thái Tổ, personal name Lý Công Uẩn, was a founding emperor of Lý dynasty. He reigned the empire for 18 years, from 1009 until his death in 1028.
With the background as a military personnel under the Anterior Lê dynasty, Công Uẩn was quickly promoted to Palace Commander and held a strong position at the royal court. After the death of Emperor Lê Hoàn, the Lê dynasty immediately fell into crisis due to wars among the princes for the throne. The succession crisis officially ended when Lê Long Đĩnh ascended the throne. However, Lê Long Đĩnh died young and ruled the empire for only four years. With great prestige and widespread renown throughout the empire, Lý Công Uẩn was enthroned by the royal court, thereby establishing the Lý dynasty - the very first Vietnamese dynasty to endure for more than two centuries, ruling for a total of 216 years and experiencing periods of both prosperity and crisis.
The first achievement of his reign was the relocation of the capital from Hoa Lư to Đại La which was later renamed Thăng Long. This event marked the beginning of more than 1000 years of Hà Nội's history as the capital. During his reign, Đại Cồ Việt witnessed numerous achievements in economic and agricultural development, administrative and territorial reforms, tax reform, and the promotion of Buddhism. In addition, his reign successfully suppressed all domestic uprisings, achieved victories in wars against Champa and Dali, thereby secured widespread popular loyalty. Neighboring states such as Champa and Chenla paid tribute, while the Song Empire refrained from exerting pressure and instead maintained peaceful relations with Đại Cồ Việt. His 18-year rule built a strong foundation for the Lý dynasty. In recognition of his great contributions to history, the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam officially designated him as one of the 14 Vietnamese national heroes.

Early years

Lý Công Uẩn was born in Cổ Pháp village Bảng communal house|Bảng], Từ Sơn, Bắc Ninh Province in 974. There are no historical records about his maternal side except that his mother was surnamed Phạm. The identity of his birth-father is unknown although he was posthumously granted the title Duke of Hiển Khánh when Công Uẩn was enthroned. Although Vietnamese chronicle Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư and Đại Việt sử lược recorded Công Uẩn's mother only by the surname Phạm, or referred to her as Mrs. Phạm, local folklore associated with the historical relics in Dương Lôi states that her name was Phạm Thị Ngà.
Đại Việt sử lược also records Công Uẩn has an elder brother, later entitled Duke of Vũ Uy, and a younger brother, later entitled Duke of Dực Thánh.' Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư also records that Công Uẩn has an uncle, who was entitled Duke of Vũ Đạo.
Still according to Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư, Công Uẩn's mother gave him up for adoption to a Buddhist monk named Lý Khánh Vân at the age of three. From an early age, Công Uẩn proved himself to be an extraordinarily intelligent boy with an impressive physical appearance. At the age of six or seven, he was sent to Lục Tổ Pagoda in Đình Bảng village, to be raised by the Buddhist monk Vạn Hạnh, the most eminent Buddhist patriarch of the time. Upon seeing Công Uẩn, Vạn Hạnh immediately said: "This boy is exceptional, he will grow up to resolve the nation’s problems and be a great emperor".'
Growing up, Công Uẩn was an upright and ambitious man, who had no interest in material riches, and just loved delving into Confucian classics and Buddhist scriptures, though his knowledge of them remained largely at an overview level. He acquired a reputation as a devout Buddhist, and then a historian student, and a soldier. According to the Lê royal genealogy in Bảo Thái, Hà Nam and historical sources from Hoa Lư Ancient Capital, Công Uẩn followed Patriarch Vạn Hạnh to serve emperor Lê Hoàn in Hoa Lư annually. The emperor then allowed Công Uẩn to stayed at the court to learn military affairs, married his daughter Lê Thị Phất Ngân off to him, and gradually promoted him from a minor official to Điện Tiền Chỉ Huy Sứ. However, Đại Việt sử lược records that Lý Công Uẩn served the Lê royal court during the Ứng Thiên era,' while Khâm định Việt sử Thông giám cương mục records his serving in the middle of the that era. Until 1003, emperor Lê Hoàn starts being sickness, and finally died in 1005. Before 1003, during the Ứng Thiên era, the emperor regularly led campaigns to suppress rebellions and barbarians, all of which resulted in victory. From these events, it can be inferred that Lý Công Uẩn married the emperor’s princess, Phất Ngân, became a military personnel, and later rising to the rank of general, in the middle of the Ứng Thiên era, between 1000 and 1003. No historical sources record any contributions of Lý Công Uẩn to emperor Lê Hoàn during this era.
In 1005, emperor Lê Hoàn died, resulting in a civil war between his sons which lasted 8 months over the succession to the throne. By the end of 1005, Lê Long Việt was successfully enthroned as emperor Lê Trung Tông, but was assassinated by the thugs of Lê Long Đĩnh just 3 days after his enthronement. All mandarins fled the royal court for fear of being executed by Long Đĩnh following the coup d’état. Only Lý Công Uẩn remained at the court, embracing the body of Long Việt and mourning him. Long Đĩnh was surprised by this and praised Công Uẩn’s loyalty, rather than executing him for siding with the deposed emperor. The coup-installed emperor Lê Long Đĩnh then promoted Công Uẩn to Tứ sương quân Phó Chỉ huy sứ then was ultimately bestowed with the title Tả Thân Vệ Điện Tiền Chỉ Huy Sứ, which was one of the most important positions within the royal guards.' This is the very first time Lý Công Uẩn is recorded by historians. Before that, during the 8 months civil war for the throne, it is unknown which side Lý Công Uẩn supported, but it was likely Long Việt’s, given that Công Uẩn mourned for his death after his assassination. The entire empire descended into chaos as a result of the civil war, which left the court without an emperor for eight months. Not until Long Đĩnh was enthroned and had defeated all rival princes, did the empire return to peace, with all princes and bandits capitulating to the royal court.
Before the assassination of Long Việt and the enthronement of Long Đĩnh, at Ứng Thiên Tâm pagoda in Cổ Pháp village, a dog gave birth to a puppy with white hair marked by a black fur spot forming the Chinese characters for “Son of Heaven." Confucian scholars throughout the empire at this time believed that a man born in the year of the dog would become emperor. Lý Công Uẩn was also born in the year of the dog, in 974.
During his 5 years ruling, emperor Lê Long Đĩnh launched many military campaigns to suppress rebellions and barbarians throughout the realm, as well as dealing with the invasion threat from the Song dynasty. There are no historical records indicating any involvements of Lý Công Uẩn in those events. All military campaigns during this period are recorded in detail as having been personally led by Lê Long Đĩnh, with no mention of the emperor issuing any imperial edicts authorizing Lý Công Uẩn or other generals to launch those campaigns. The wrongdoing of the emperor - such as his arousal when torturing and abusing the captured defeated forces, engaging in debauchery, and allowing disorder at the royal court, including letting clowns to mock the presentation of the mandarins - are not mentioned to be criticized and restrained by Lý Công Uẩn, who served as a general during this reign. Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư records the folk stories of Long Đĩnh as a hedonistic tyrant who died of hemorrhoids, yet it contains no political activities of Lý Công Uẩn during this reign. Only An Nam chí lược of the Trần dynasty born historian Lê Tắc during the Yan dynasty briefly records: "Lý Công Uẩn ''was born in Jiaozhou, and renowned for his administrative talent, Lê Chí Trung appointed him as the General officer, and is also his close aide."''

Enthrone

According to Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư and Việt sử lược, during the reign of Lê Long Đỉnh, in Diên Uẩn village, there was a kapok tree struck by a lightning. The resulting marks formed a poem which is called by Vietnamese historian as Sấm cây gạo :'English translation based on the original translation from Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư and Việt sử lược:
Thụ Căn yểu yểu, the root symbolizes to the emperor, "yểu" means short-live. It predicts the emperor is short-live. Mộc biểu thanh thanh, bark symbolizes the mandarins under the emperor, while green signifies flourishing or prosperity. The phrase thus indicates that the mandarinate would flourish. In the third sentence, Hòa + Đao + Mộc combine to form the character Lê, this indicates the fall of the Lê dynasty. In the fourth sentence, Thập + Bát + Tử combine to form the character Lý, which is interpreted as indicating the establishment of the Lý clan or dynasty.'
The first four sentences are interpreted as predicting the fall of the Lê dynasty and the rise of the Lý dynasty. The final four sentences are understood as indicating historical events up to the Trịnh–Nguyễn warlord era. However, footnotes in the 1993 edition of Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư claim the last four sentences were entirely fabricated by the historians of the Trần and Later Lê dynasty in order to legitimize their rule through the Mandate of Heaven theory.'
News about the kapok tree prophecy started spreading all over the realm. Patriarch Vạn Hạnh told Công Uẩn: "I have seen the prophecy glyphs indicates that the Lý's clan will flourish and rise to the throne. There are so many people who bear the surname Lý in this realm, yet none possess have the warm heart like yours, Commander. You are now in charge of the national guard. If it is not you who governs the empire, then no one will. I'm in my 70s now, and simply want a peaceful death. However, I just wanna see your morality turn into the kingship, which is a once-in-a-thousand-years chance''." From that moment, Công Uẩn developed the idea to rise to the throne being held by the Lê clan, but he feared that the words of Patriach Vạn Hạnh would be exposed publicly, so he asked his brother to hide Vạn Hạnh in Tiêu Sơn. By that time, public sentiment had already rallied around Công Uẩn.
Aware of the kapok tree prophecy, Lê Long Đĩnh once ate a pear and found a jambos seed inside, an omen that convinced him of the prophecy. The emperor then ordered his men to secretly murder people bearing the surname Lý, but Lý Công Uẩn still remained unharmed as if nothing had happened. Palace attendant' Đào Cam Mộc, who had already known of Công Uẩn’s ambition for kingship, tried to taunt Công Uẩn into taking the throne during a private, one-on-one conversation. Công Uẩn was pleased by that and pretended to scold Cam Mộc for saying so, then threaten to expose his "treason words" to the royal court, but those were merely Công Uẩn's ruse for Cam Mộc to prove his commitment. Cam Mộc replied at ease: "I simply based on the Mandate of Heaven and the public sentiment to say so. If you want to report my words to the court, feel free to do so – I'm not afraid of dead." Công Uẩn replied: "I can't bear to do that. But I'm scared of your words might be exposed, so I just say this as a warning."
In 1009, the ruling emperor Lê Long Đĩnh, the last emperor of the Lê family, developed hemorrhoids and had to lie down while listening to officials’ reports. Incapacitated by declining health, Long Đĩnh watched helplessly as the monks of Giao launched a propaganda campaign that nurtured belief in the inevitability of Lý Công Uẩn becoming king. He died in November 1009 under the wrath of the people because of his brutality and cruelty during his reign. Đào Cam Mộc, a royal official, and Patriarch Vạn Hạnh seized the opportunity and imposed their power and political influence to enthrone their trusted disciple Lý Công Uẩn without much resistance, thus ended the reign of the Lê dynasty.
Two days after Long Đĩnh's death, advised and assisted by his patron, the monk Vạn Hạnh, and by the efforts of the entire Buddhist establishment, Lý Công Uẩn was proclaimed emperor by general acclamation. After his ascension to the throne, Lý Công Uẩn named his era "Thuận Thiên" meaning "Accordance with Heaven".

Reign

Capital relocation

The royal court decided to relocate from Hoa Lư to the site of Đại La in the next year, 1010. Đại La was known as the city that the Tang general Gao Pian had built in the 860s after the ravages of the Nanzhao War. In 1010, Lý Công Uẩn published an edict explaining why he moved his capital to Dai La. Lý Công Uẩn chose the site because it had been an earlier capital in the rich Red River Delta. He saw Đại La as a place "between Heaven and Earth where the coiling dragon and the crouching tiger lie, and his capital would last 10,000 years". When Lý Công Uẩn's boat docked at the new capital, a dragon, symbol of sovereign authority, reportedly soared above his head; he accordingly renamed the place Thăng Long, the "ascending dragon".
The royal city at Thăng Long was laid out in the standard pattern: the urban center encompassed the Royal City. The Throne Room Palace was located within a Dragon Courtyard and faced south. The Crown Prince of the Lý dynasty lived in the Eastern Palace outside the city walls. Palaces and offices were constructed of timber. Càn Nguyên Palace where the king held audience was located on the Nùng hill. By 1010, 11 palaces were built in Thăng Long. The earthworks which were ramparts of the new capital still stand to the west of the modern city of Hanoi, forming a vast quadrilateral by the side of the road to Sơn Tây.

Domestic policies

The outer regions of the Red River Delta, beyond the Lý heartland, were in the hands of families allied with the Lý family by marriage. Lý Thái Tổ abandoned a scheme of dividing the plain into "ten circuits" that had been devised by Đinh Bộ Lĩnh and replaced it with 24 routes; these were not administrative jurisdictions but rather itineraries designating various localities. He organized the southern provinces into military outposts, indicating a policy of garrisons and patrols. Officials did not receive a salary controlled by the capital, but were entirely dependent upon local resources, a region's fish and rice. The soldiers did receive some largesse at the same time as they were expected to do some farming of their own. The village communities scattered about the countryside stayed within their own frames of reference except in times of emergency or of specific royal demands. Only then would they interact with the central power. Otherwise they sent some of their resources to the local lord, who in turn forwarded a share as tribute to the throne. This administrative system resembles a naturally Southeast Asian mandala system.
In 1011, Lý Thái Tổ raised a large army and attacked rebels in the southern provinces, in what is now Thanh Hoá and Nghệ An. He
campaigned there for two years, burning villages and capturing local leaders. While returning by sea in late 1012, a great storm threatened to sink his boat, which he understood as a divine judgment upon him for the violence he had brought upon so many people.
For three years, 1013–1015, Lý Thái Tổ sent soldiers into the northern mountains of modern Hà Giang Province to pacify Hani people who allied with the Dali Kingdom in Yunnan.
He also reformed the tax system in 1013 by creating six tax classifications, which enabled the royal court to efficiently collect taxes and citizens to clearly know which tax classification affected them, for instance, applied mostly to goods produced on royal estates:
  • Tax on fishing and seafood production
  • Tax on agricultural production
  • Tax on logging/wood and masonry
  • Tax on salt production
  • Tax on luxury goods production
  • Tax on fruits and vegetable production
When a severe earthquake occurred in 1016, Lý Thái Tổ prayed to the gods that were in charge of the mountains surrounding the capital, while also sending more than 1,000 people to teach in Buddhist schools. He journeyed around his kingdom both to propitiate its disparate genies and co-opt them by having them "declare" themselves to him.

Foreign affairs

During the reign of Lý Thái Tổ, the Song dynasty was pre-occupied with maintaining internal stability and still recovering from previous defeats or skirmishes with the Liao dynasty and Western Xia. Đại Việt, as a result, was mostly left alone and political relations between the two states revived. In 1010, the Song emperor recognized Lý Công Uẩn without delay, conferring upon him the usual titles of vassalage.
In 1010, Lý Thái Tổ attacked and caught thirteen persons of Địch Lão ethnicity and presented the captives to the Chinese court. In August 1014, he sent a mission to China, presented 60 horses as gifts and notified the Song court that he had subdued a Hani community.

Religious activities

Having begun life as a Buddhist monk, Lý Thái Tổ practiced Buddhism and promoted it as the national religion. As a result, he gave much support to the Buddhist clergy and institutions. He donated money to build pagodas throughout Đại Việt. Initially, he built 8 Buddhist temples in the Tiên Du area, heart land of Vietnamese Buddhism and three others around the capital region itself.
Consistent with his geo-administrative vision and his kingship to appease and tame the spirit world, during the eleventh century the Lý court "brought back" to Thăng Long a firmament of local spirits that had long dominated more distant regions of the kingdom. The spirits of the Trưng sisters from the western delta, the earth genie of Phù Đổng north of the capital, and the Mountain of Bronze Drum god from Thanh Hoá in Ái to the south were all relocated to the capital and housed there in temples specially dedicated to them. If these spirits were "symbols of regional powers", their pacification involved the extension of monarchical authority to the regions of Đại Việt.
In 1024, a temple was built for Lý Thái Tổ to use for reading and reciting the Buddhist scriptures, a copy of which he had requested and
received from the Song court a few years earlier. After establishing suitable relationships with the terrestrial powers, he showed an interest in establishing proper relationships with the supernatural powers, patronizing the Buddhist religion and local cults, thereby cultivating a cultural basis for his authority. Thereafter he began to withdraw from public affairs. In 1025, Vạn Hạnh died. He had been Lý Thái Tổ's teacher, mentor, and, to some extent, father figure. He had previously been an advisor to Lê Hoàn and was a central figure in effecting the transition from the Lê family at Hoa Lư to the Lý family at Thăng Long. It seems that Lý Thái Tổ's royal personality was in some degree animated as an extension of Vạn Hạnh's expectations of him, for from this time little of note is recorded about Lý Thái Tổ until his death in the spring of 1028.

Death

Lý Công Uẩn died in 1028 at the age of 55 according to the royal official accounts. He was buried at Thọ Lăng, the Mausoleum of Longevity, outside of Thiên Đức Palace. He was posthumously named as "Lý Thái Tổ"; his posthumous imperial title was "Thần Võ Hoàng Đế". Today the ancestor spirit of Lý Thái Tổ is among those popularly honoured in rites at national shrines.

Legacy

The Lý Thái Tổ a in service with the Vietnam People's Navy since 2011 is named after him.

Family