W.Minh Tuan

1000 years of Northern domination has left extremely harmful effects on Vietnamese culture and character.

And the worst is the struggle for the throne.

The Ly Dynasty existed for 216 years, from year 1009 to 1225.

In the year 1225, the Ly dynasty had no sons, so 7-year-old Princess Chieu Thanh ascended the throne, that is, female king Ly Chieu Hoang.

This is the second time our country has had a female king.

The first time was in the years 40-43, more than 1,000 years before King Ly Chieu Hoang, when Hai Ba Trung rose up against the Western Han Dynasty and took the throne for 3 years.

In our country during the Feudal period, there was a common rule that the kings in the early dynastic period often came from farmers, so they were healthy both physically and mentally, had a popular personality, and took care of the country.

But the kings of the late dynasties were often born in forbidden palaces, rarely went out into nature, did little labor, did little physical activity, ate happily that had few vegetables, and lots of meat, so they were often weak and debilitated.

A weak body is often accompanied by a weak spirit, weak mentality, spoiled brain, so there is little concern for state affairs.

From then on, rebellious enemies often arose against the Court, leading to the fall of the Court.

That was the situation in the country of Ly period, when King Ly Chieu Hoang ascended the throne in 1225, extremely chaotic and disorder.

Grand Master Tran Thu Do was the person with the greatest power in the court at that time, so Tran Thu Do felt it was necessary to replace the Ly dynasty, so that there could be a strong dynasty to lead the country.

Mr. Tran Thu Do arranged for female King Ly Chieu Hoang 7 years-old to marry Tran Canh, also 7 years old, who is Mr. Tran Thu Do’s nephew.

After that, Mr. Tran Thu Do had the editor of the Edict to Concede the Throne–Chieu Nhuong Ngoi– stating that King Ly Chieu Hoang was a woman, still young, not strong enough to shoulder the state’s affairs, so she ceded the throne to her husband, Tran Canh.

Tran Canh ascended the throne in 1225, taking the name Tran Thai Tong, starting a period of brilliant development of the Tran Dynasty.

Let’s try to learn about some typical cultural and benevolent deeds of the Tran kings, and two famous generals, Tran Thu Do and Tran Hung Dao.

1-Grand Master Tran Thu Do.

Mr. Tran Thu Do came from Thai Binh, was born in the year Giap Dan-Tiger 1194, died in the year Giap Ty-Mouse- 1264, at the age of 71 years old.

Grand Master Tran Thu Do was formerly the Commander of the Imperial Palace Guard during the reign of King Ly Hue Tong, and King Ly Chieu Hoang, the position of commander of the military guard protecting the Imperial Citadel and the King’s Court.

(More than 200 years earlier, King Ly Thai To, before becoming King and founding the Ly Dynasty, also held the position of Palace Commander like Mr. Tran Thu Do).

At the end of the Ly Dynasty, many rebellious enemies arose to fight against the Court.

But King Ly Hue Tong was weak both physically and mentally, so he did not like to be King, only liked to become a monk in the temple, so King Ly Hue Tong ceded the throne to his 7-year-old daughter Ly Chieu Hoang to be King, and he himself became a monk at Chan Giao pagoda in Hanoi.

King Ly Hue Tong completely did not understand that a 7-year-old female King could not lead the country, especially when rebels arose everywhere.

Mr. Tran Thu Do saw the need for a new court to replace the Ly Dynasty, to be capable of leading the country in a chaotic situation.

So he directed his nephew, Tran Canh, also 7 years old, to marry female King Ly Chieu Hoang, then female King Ly Chieu Hoang passed the throne to her husband, Tran Canh, also 7 years old.

The Tran Dynasty naturally replaced the Ly Dynasty without a bloody coup, just with a marriage between two 7-year-old children.

It can be said that Mr. Tran Thu Do was the person who had the greatest contribution in establishing the Tran Dynasty.

However, Mr. Tran Thu Do did a very cruel thing, which we need to criticize him, that is, he tried to kill King Ly Hue Tong, the father of King Ly Chieu Hoang, who at that time had stopped being King, living in temple to become a monk.

Mr. Tran Thu Do wanted to eliminate the consequences of people’s desire to restore the Ly Dynasty.

One day, King Ly Hue Tong was pulling weeds in the yard of Chan Giao pagoda, when Mr. Tran Thu Do passing by and hinted, “You have to pull the grass out at the root.”

King Ly Hue Tong knew what he meant and went to the back of the temple yard to commit suicide by hanging himself.

Mr. Ngo Si Lien later had to write a comment in the Complete History of Dai Viet, complaining: “Taking someone else’s country, and even killing someone else’s King, is truly inhumane.”

Currently, in Hanoi, there is Cong Duc street-chiseled gate-located in the old quarter near Phung Hung street nowaday, which is the remaining trace of Mr. Tran Thu Do’s callous deeds more than 800 years ago.

After King Ly Hue Tong died, Mr. Tran Thu Do had the citadel wall chiseled to bring King Ly Hue Tong’s coffin out through to his hometown in Dinh Bang, Bac Ninh today.

Mr. Thu Do did not want King Ly Hue Tong to pass through the city gate, so he had the city wall chiseled like that.

The Vietnamese people were very thoughtful and named the place where the city wall was punctured Cong Duc street-chiseled gate street, to commemorate King Ly who died unjustly.

Except for that inhuman act of Mr. Tran Thu Do, it can be said that the Tran dynasty was a dynasty that developed very brilliantly, and especially had great achievements in defeating the Yuan-Mongol invaders three times, with famous generals names such as Tran Hung Dao, Tran Khanh Du, Tran Nhat Duat, Tran Quang Khai, Pham Ngu Lao, Yet Kieu, Da Tuong,,,.

Mr. Tran Thu Do also had a number of famous benevolent deeds, which were praised by later generations.

During the first war against the Yuan army in 1257, many people were afraid and advised King Tran Thai Tong to surrender to the enemy, or seek refuge in the Song country, northern China.

But Grand Master Tran Thu Do calmly told King Tran:

“My head has not fallen yet, please don’t worry, Your Majesty.”

This saying had a great encouraging effect on King Tran. At that time, General Tran Hung Dao commanded the army against the enemy on the northern border.

That year, our army defeated the Yuan army at the Battle of Dong Bo Dau, and the Yuan army fled back to the country.

Mr. Tran Thu Do is uneducated, cannot read or write Chinese characters, but he has many jobs and is very cultured and knowledgeable.

After Mr. Thu Do appointed his nephew Tran Canh as King Tran Thai Tong, some people complained to King Tran Thai Tong that Mr. Tran Thu Do had power that overwhelmed the King.

King Tran was so scared that he took that person to Mr. Tran Thu Do and repeated this complaint.

Mr. Tran Thu Do was not angry, thought for a moment, then said:

“-It’s exactly just like what he said”,

Then ordered to bring money and silk to reward for that person.

At that time, King Tran Thai Tong was still young and did not have much experience in managing the country, so Mr. Tran Thu Do had to hold great power to “overwhelm the King” to run the country for the national benefit.

But Mr. Tran Thu Do did not argue with his critics, because he understood that essentially, “overriding the King’s power” is not good.

In another matter, Mrs. Linh -Tu- the mother of the country, the wife of Mr. Tran Thu Do, once went on a palanquin past the forbidden steps in the King’s palace, so a guard at the door stopped her, saying she had to get off the palanquin and walk according to the court’s rules at that time, but that law was issued by Mr. Tran Thu Do.

So that guard strictly obeyed the court’s rules and did not allow Mr. Tran Thu Do’s wife to carry the palanquin onto that forbidden platform.

Mr. Thu Do’s wife was very upset and cried to Mr. Tran Thu Do, saying:

“This woman is your wife, yet I was so disrespected by the military commanders.”

When Mr. Tran Thu Do heard that, he was also angry and called the guard over to before him.

The soldier was so scared that he thought he would probably be beheaded, but he honestly told the story exactly as it happened.

After hearing this, Mr. Tran Thu Do understood everything. Not only did he stop being angry, but he also praised the soldier for keeping discipline and the rules of the country.

He said:

“If you are in a low position and know how to keep the law, why should I blame you?”

Then he ordered the soldier to be rewarded with gold and silk, then sent him home.

Another time, when reviewing Household Registration Books throughout the country, Mr. Tran Thu Do’s wife asked for an acquaintance from the same hometown of her to hold the position of Cau Duong, like today’s Commune Police Chief.

Mr. Tran Thu Do nodded, then wrote down the person’s full name and hometown.

After that, Mr. Thu Do called that person over. That person happily ran to kneel and bow, thinking he would be given that position.

Mr. Tran Thu Do told that person:

“For the sake of the Princess, you asked to be a Cau Duong. You cannot be compared to other Cau Duong people. You have to cut off a toe to distinguish yourself from others.”

That person was so scared, he asked for forgiveness before being forgiven, and did not dare to ask to be Cau Duong again.

Once, King Tran Thai Tong wanted to confer the title of Prime Minister on Tran Thu Do’s older brother, Tran An Quoc.

Mr. Tran Thu Do replied:

“An Quoc, my brother, if you think he is better than me, then I would like to retire. If I am said to be better than him, then Your Majestic cannot appoint An Quoc. If we are all both Prime Ministers, what will happen to the Court?”

It can be said that Mr. Tran Thu Do’s generosity and fairness, are worthy of learning from future generations, except for his brutal act of forcing King Ly Hue Tong to death.

2-King Tran Thai Tong (1225-1258).

The King was born in 1218, died in 1277, at the age of 60, served as King for 33 years, from the age of 7, and did as Supreme Emperor for 20 years. King Tran Canh is the grandson of Mr. Tran Thu Do, the first King of the Tran Dynasty.

Immediately after ascending the throne for 2 years, in 1227, when the King was 9 years old, Grand Master Tran Thu Do suggested to King Tran Thai Tong and his mandarins to continue the cultural tradition of the Ly Dynasty, which is every year, on April 4, the King and mandarins must go to Dong Co Temple in West Lake, Hanoi, to hold the Oath Festival at Dong Co Temple. The content of the oath is almost the same as the oath of the Ly Dynasty more than 200 years ago, the general idea is as follows:

“Be a loyal servant, be a pure official, whoever breaks the oath will be killed by the gods.”

In year 1251, King Tran Thai Tong himself wrote an essay, giving it to the King’s Princes, to teach about Trung, Hieu, Hoa, Ton, On, Luong, Cung Kiem- loyal, filial, peaceful, kind, gentle, respectful, thrifty, which are the moral values that people must have as Princes.

During the Ly Dynasty more than 200 years ago, in 1070, King Ly Thanh Tong built a Temple of Literature.

Up to now, in 1253, King Tran Thai Tong built Quoc Tu Giam behind the Temple of Literature, as a teaching place for the King’s children, mandarins’ children, and good students of ordinary people. The king invited famous scholars in the country to become teachers at Quoc Tu Giam.

It can be said that the Temple of Literature-Quoc Tu Giam is the first university in our country.

We hope that one day, the Temple of Literature-Quoc Tu Giam University will be restored, continuing the tradition of studiousness and respect for talent of our ancestors.

Also in the year 1253, King Tran Thai Tong established Giang Vo Hall, in the area of present-day Giang Vo ward, to serve as a place to teach martial arts to soldiers.

We also hope that one fine day, Giang Vo Duong will be restored c in the area of Giang Vo ward today, to be a place to teach martial arts, and teach Vietnamese culture to martial arts students, to continue the cultural traditions of our ancestors.

On December 12, 1257, the Yuan army, led by general Ngu Luong Hop Thai (Uriyanquadai), invaded our country.

King Tran Thai Tong entrusted the army to General Tran Hung Dao to command, the King himself also participated in directing the army to fight.

During this war, many Vietnamese people were afraid of the Yuan army and advised the King to surrender or enter the Song state to ask for protection from the Tong state. Grand Master Tran Thu Do kindly replied to the King:

“My head has not fallen yet, please don’t worry, Your Majesty.”

This bravery and kindness of Mr. Tran Thu Do encouraged the fighting spirit of King Tran Thai Tong, and encouraged the soldiers to fight the enemy, and partly reduced his cruel image of coercion King Ly Hue Tong died as said above.

In less than a month, the Yuan army was defeated. On the way withdrawing back , they lost and fled, not daring to plunder anything, so our people at that time called the Yuan army “Buddha’s enemy“.

In 1258, after defeating the Yuan army for 1 year, and being King for 33 years, at the age of 40, King Tran Thai Tong ceded the throne to his son and became Supreme Emperor himself, to teach the young King how to be King.

3-King Tran Thanh Tong. (1258-1278)

King Tran Thanh Tong as a child, his name was Hoang, born in the year of the Rat, 1240, and became King in 1258, at the age of 18.

Although he became King at a young age, King Tran Thanh Tong had the help of his father, Supreme Emperor Tran Thai Tong, so he soon became a courageous, talented, and very benevolent and generous King.

King Tran Thanh Tong was a famous commoner.

In 1268, when he had been King for 10 years, that is when he was 28 years old, King Tran Thanh Tong told his relatives and royal family:

“The country is the country of the Ancestors. The successor of the Ancestor must enjoy the same wealth and prosperous as the same as of his relatives.”

From then on, the King decreed that when he King dismissed the Court Meeting, he would eat and drink with his royal brothers.

On the day of visiting the King, when it was too dark to return, relatives and mandarins would arrange long pillows, spread wide blankets, and make beds to sleep together, with the King, to show their wholehearted love for each other.

In 1272, Mr. Le Van Huu obeyed King Tran Thanh Tong’s orders and compiled the complete history book Dai Viet Su Ky Toan Thu, which is the most valuable history book in the history of our country.

In the same year 1272, King Tran Thanh Tong issued an edict looking for talented people to work as Quoc Tu Giam Private Enterprise, like today’s Director-Principal.

In 1274, King Tran Thanh Tong again came down to look for talented people to make teachings for the Prince who would succeed the King.

Thus, the first two Kings of the Tran Dynasty built two famous cultural works, valuable for thousands of years, which were King Tran Thai Tong, who made the National Tu Giam, and his son, King Tran Thanh Tong, who ordered Le Van Huu to Compile the complete history book Dai Viet Su Ky Toan Thu.

His father, King Tran Thai Tong, also had the merit of defeating the Yuan invaders for the first time in 1257.

4-King Tran Nhan Tong. (1278-1292).

This was the reign of King Tran who defeated the Yuan army twice, in 1284-1285, and in 1287-1288.

At this time, King Tran Thanh Tong ceded the throne to his son, became Supreme Emperor himself, helped young King lead the country, and fight against the invading Yuan army.

After defeating the Yuan army for the second time, in 1286, King Tran Nhan Tong was very humane and ordered all Yuan prisoners of war to be released back to the country.

The following year, 1287, Yuan Thoat Hoan led his army to invade our country for the third time, and lost again.

This time the Yuan army did many brutal things against our people.

But in 1289, King Tran Nhan Tong benevolently released all the prisoners of the Yuan army back to the country, except for General O Ma Nhi, who was too cruel and had dug up the Tran Dynasty’s tomb in Nam Dinh, so he drowned him by using the boat chiseling scheme.

This is the second bad deed of the Tran Dynasty, after Tran Thu Do forced King Ly Hue Tong to death at Chan Giao Pagoda in 1225.

When considering rewards for those who contributed to the fight against the Yuan army, many people argued that those who had surrendered to the enemy should be punished.

Emperor Tran Thanh Tong, father of King Tran Nhan Tong, told people who report this to hand over all the surrender petitions to him, then he ordered them all to be burned out, without punishing anyone.

This is a typical benevolent act of the Tran Kings, very worthy of learning for thousands of generations to come.

In 1290, when the harvest failed and there was great hunger, King Tran Nhan Tong issued an edict to distribute rice in public warehouses to the people, and exempted the people from taxes.

King Tran Nhan Tong is also a famous popular king. When traveling in the streets, the King forbade his mandarins and guards not to scream, and not push away at people who come to see the King.

King said:

“On normal days, there are guards, mandarins on left and right. When the nation is in trouble, only they common people are present.”

Let’s try to compare Kings in many other countries in the ancient world, often forbidding people from seeing the King’s face, and we will see that King Tran in our country of Vietnam was truly a good King.

5-General Tran Hung Dao.

General Tran Hung Dao’s real name is Tran Quoc Tuan, born in the year of the Pig 1227, died in the year of the Rat 1300.

He is the son of An Sinh Vuong Tran Lieu, the older brother of King Tran Thai Tong Tran Canh. Thus, Mr. Tran Quoc Tuan is the nephew and King Tran Thai Tong is the uncle.

His family and King Tran Thai Tong had animosity because Mr. Tran Thu Do forced the wife of Mr. Tran Lieu – Tran Hung Dao’s father- is pregnant with Tran Lieu, being the wife of King Than Thai Tong Tran Canh-young brother of Tran Lieu- because King Tran Thai Tong’s wife is the former daughter of King Ly Chieu Hoang and has no children.

(But after this forced marriage, King Tran Thai Tong’s other wives gave birth to many children)

Because of this, King Tran Thai Tong’s third son, Tran Quang Khai, and General Tran Hung Dao had a secret disagreement.

Thus, cousins have animosity towards each other.

But both Tran Quang Khai and Tran Quoc Tuan tried to actively eliminate that feud.

Once, when General Tran Quang Khai came to visit, General Tran Quoc Tuan said:

“Your body is dirty, let me bathe you,” then took off Quang Khai’s shirt and poured fragrant water to bathe.

After bathing, General Tran Hung Dao said happily:

“Today I got to bathe the Lieutenant General.”

General Tran Quang Khai also laughed and said loudly:

“Today, the Duke bathed for me.”

From then on, the two generals lost their enmity and united together to fight against the Yuan army.

During the second fight against the Yuan army in 1284-1285, the enemy was strong, many people secretly advised King Tran Nhan Tong to surrender. But General Tran Hung Dao calmly told the King:

“If Your Majesty wants to surrender, please behead me first.”

Before his death, Mr. Tran Hung Dao’s father, Tran Lieu, told Mr. Tran Quoc Tuan that he needed to find a way to win the throne.

General Tran Hung Dao’s power is very great. One time, Mr. Tran Hung Dao repeated the wishes of Mr. Tran Lieu’s father, intending to ask his trusted generals Yet Kieu and Da Tuong. The two generals replied:

“Doing that will only make you rich for one lifetime, but it will leave a bad reputation for thousands of years. Isn’t the Great General already wealthy enough?”

General Tran Hung Dao was very happy to see that his fellow generals were of the same mind.

But when he asked his children, one of his children, Tran Quoc Tang, said he expressed contempt for the King, meaning he wanted to take over the throne. Mr. Tran Quoc Tuan was angry and intended to kill Tran Quoc Tang.

In addition to his benevolent deeds, General Tran Quoc Tuan is the most outstanding general of all time in our country, because he commanded victories in all three invasions of the Yuan army.

Meanwhile, the Yuan army invaded and ruled China for nearly 100 years, invading and defeating all European and Asian countries, except Japan and Vietnam.

In Japan, the Yuan army lost because both invasions were destroyed by storms and almost all their ships were sunk.

The Yuan army was very afraid of General Tran Hung Dao, often only calling him An Nam Hung Dao Vuong, but did not dare to call his birth name as of Tran Hung Dao or Tran Quoc Tuan.

During the two invasions by the Yuan army in 1284 and 1287, King Tran Thanh Tong, the Supreme Emperor, and his son Tran Nhan Tong, assigned Mr. Tran Hung Dao great authority, with the authority to confer titles on generals, and then report later to the Kings.

But General Tran Hung Dao did not dare to arbitrarily reward anyone.

Only rich people lent rice to the army, General Tran Hung Dao only conferred the title Gia Luong Tuong, meaning Salary Lending General.

When General Tran Hung Dao passed away, the people mourned greatly, tens of thousands of people came to see him off, just like today, the people mourn General Vo Nguyen Giap.

He composed the very famous Hich Tuong Si, the book The Essentials of War, which is still passed down to this generation, and the book Van Kiep Tong esoteric book, now lost.

6-Dien Hong Conference.

During the Tran Dynasty, there was an extremely special event, which was the Dien Hong Conference.

During the Second Resistance War against the Yuan Dynasty, in 1284-1285, Emperor Tran Thanh Tong and his son Tran Nhan Tong invited more than 200 elderly people from across the country to Dien Hong Palace, in Thang Long Imperial Citadel today, to ask the elders for their opinion, “Should we surrender, or should we fight?”

The Dien Hong Conference took place from January 7 to February 5, 1285. At that time, the Yuan enemy was very strong, they attacked the Tran army from all directions, and the Tran army often had to retreat to preserve their strength.

The two Tran Kings held a banquet at Dien Hong Palace, entertained the elders, and asked for their opinion on “whether to surrender or fight”.

After many days of discussion, finally, on February 5, all the elders unanimously shouted “fight“.

It can be said that the elders brought to the Dien Hong Conference the will of the people of the whole country, that with the invaders, there was only one determination to “fight“, not to surrender.

And after the Dien Hong Conference ended, the elders together brought the spirit of the Conference back to convey to the people of the country the spirit of the Conference, the determination of the Court, to “fight“, to the spirit of everyone enthusiastically participated in fighting the enemy.

Is there any country in the world that has such a conference of elders representing the people of the whole country to ask for advice on fighting the enemy?

The Dien Hong Conference once again demonstrated the culture of respect for the people, respect for the elderly, solidarity, love, and mutual protection, the spirit of 100 children all born from a single egg sac of Mother Au Co.

When the French organized the resistance against the German fascists, they did not have an All-French Conference like the Dien Hong Conference.

The Americans, after the Battle of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, also did not have a Conference like the Dien Hong Conference, but only a Conference of US Congress to decide to open war with Japan.

When the Soviet-Russian people started the war against Nazi Germany, they also did not have a conference like the Dien Hong Conference.

Perhaps in the near future, we Vietnamese will have to organize a second Dien Hong Conference to consult with elders, famous intellectuals, and famous veterans about the situation in Vietnam, that for example:

-Should our country of Vietnam reject the strange and outdated Marxism-Leninism?

-Should our country of Vietnam regain the name of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, that President Ho Chi Minh had named or not?

-Should our country of Vietnam implement the 1946 Constitution?,,,

Much more.

There are still many ideas that need to be widely discussed by Vietnamese people in the spirit of the Dien Hong Conference of the past, to help our country to develop, “to stand shoulder to shoulder with the powers of the Five Continents” – like President Ho Chi Minh wishes, to bring Vietnam to great development and become one of the happiest countries in the world.///