W.Minh Tuan

Background.

At the end of the Tran Dynasty, in the 14^th Century, the situation of our country and the Vietnamese Court was similar to that at the end of the Ly Dynasty: the country was in chaos, rebellious enemies emerged like bees, the King and officials were weak and did not care about running the country, mainly worried about overwhelming and usurping each other’s power.

Ho Qui Ly (1336-1407) had two aunts who were both wives of King Tran, one aunt gave birth to King Tran Minh Tong, the other aunt gave birth to King Tran Nghe Tong.

Therefore, Ho Qui Ly was trusted and promoted to the high position of Marshal of Do Hai Tay, like the Minister of Defense today,  and King Tran gave King’s daughter for him to marriage.

During the time of King Tran Minh Tong (15 years as King: 1314-1329, 19 years as Supreme Emperor: 1339-1358), the situation of the Tran Dynasty was relatively stable, the court had good mandarins such as Pham Ngu Lao, Truong Han Sieu, Mac Dinh Chi, Nguyen Trung Ngan, Chu Van An,,,.

At that time, Ho Qui Ly was still young.

After King Tran Minh Tong died in 1358, the generations of subsequent Tran Kings were very corrupt.

During the reign of King Tran Du Tong (1341-1369), Mr. Chu Van An had to write a petition asking for the execution of 7 flatterers.

King Tran Du Tong did not listen to the petition paper, so Mr. Chu Van An took off his hat, hung up his coat, and returned to live in hiding in his hometown of Chi Linh, Hai Duong.

King Tran Du Tong’s father, Emperor Tran Nghe Tong, was Ho Qui Ly’s cousin (because Ho Qui Ly’s aunt married King Tran, giving birth to King Tran Nghe Tong), and appointed Ho Qui Ly to the position of Grand Master, with free access to the forbidden palace to teach his son, Tran Thuan Tong, who became King at the age of 13.

At that time, Ho Qui Ly intended to rob the Tran dynasty.

First, Ho Qui Ly forced King Tran Thuan Tong to cede the throne to his 3-year-old son, King Tran Thieu De, and King Tran Thuan Tong to become Supreme Emperor, in 1398.

But King Tran Thuan Tong was Emperor for only 1 year, then Ho Qui Ly sent people to kill Emperor Tran Thuan Tong in 1399.

This scenario almost repeats the story of Mr. Tran Thu Do killing King Ly Hue Tong in 1225, to rob the Ly dynasty.

Now Ho Qui Ly wants to rob the Tran dynasty, repeating the same scenario as Tran Thu Do did nearly 200 years ago.

King Tran Thieu De was King for 2 years, and in 1400, when the King was 5 years old, Ho Quy Ly decided to abolish him and demoted him to Bao Ninh Dai Vuong, and Ho Qui Ly himself became King, giving the country the title Dai Ngu-Great Stupid, very strange name.

And the 5-year-old King Tran Thieu De of course agreed to let Ho Quy Ly become King. Because a child is only 5 years old, how does he dare to reject of obeying to Ho Qui Ly?

But Ho Qui Ly’s brutality far surpasses that of Tran Thu Do. Ho Qui Ly arrested and killed all 380 officials of the Tran court who wanted to oppose Ho Qui Ly, including the famous general Tran Khat Chan.

Ho Qui Ly’s family was originally from China and came to our country a long time ago, but perhaps the brutality of the Chinese people still remains in Ho Qui Ly’s personality?

The Ming dynasty in China waited for just that, then used Ho Qui Ly’s excuse to usurp the Tran dynasty and send troops to invade our country.

The people’s hearts resented Ho Qui Ly’s brutality and usurpation of the Tran dynasty, so they did not follow the command of Ho Qui Ly’s father and son to fight the Ming army, so Ho Qui Ly lost.

Ho Qui Ly and his son had another humiliating deed, which was to tie themselves up and surrender to the Ming army in 1407, ending the short reign of the Ho Dynasty, which lasted for 7 years only, from 1400 to 1407.

1-The humanity of King Le Loi.

The Ming army invaded Vietnam in 1407, and was defeated by King Le Loi in 1428, after 20 years of fiercely war.

During the first 12 years, from 1407 to 1418, the Ming army did many brutal things, exploited our people very badly, and especially wanted to thoroughly assimilate our Vietnamese people, which was a job that 1,000 Northern Domination previously failed.

The Ming army destroyed a series of cultural works of our country, and took most of the precious books of our Vietnamese people and brought them back to China, such as the collection of Thuong Thu by King Ly Thai Tong during the Ly Dynasty, The Penal law of King Tran Thai Tong during the Tran dynasty, the esoteric Van Kiep of Tran Hung Dao,,,.

All of these precious books from Vietnam have now been lost, only their names remain.

On the Chinese side, many of the above-mentioned books also could not be found. Perhaps China destroyed many of those precious books in an attempt to destroy the brilliant culture of Vietnam during the Ly and Tran dynasties?

King Le Loi rebelled against the Ming army in Lam Son, Thanh Hoa since 1418, with many talented people helping, such as Nguyen Trai, Nguyen Xi, Le Lai, Tran Nguyen Han, Pham Van Xao,,,.

By 1428, the uprising was successful and more than 50,000 Ming soldiers surrendered.

At that time, many people reported that they wanted to kill Ming Dynasty prisoners of war to take revenge.

At that time, King Le Loi replied:

“Revenge is a common thing in life. But not liking to kill is the nature of a virtuous person. Besides, if someone surrenders and you kill them, there is no greater evil than that.

If it’s just to release anger for a moment, but to be known to all generations, as killing those who have already surrendered, then what better way to spare the lives of tens of thousands of people, to put an end to war for future generations? To enjoy fragrant forever, isn’t that greater?”

Then King Le Loi ordered to supply to the Ming surrendered army 500 boats, 20,000 horses, along with food, clothing, etc., so that the Ming army could return home.

Ming generals such as Phuong Chinh, Son Tho, Hoang Phuc, Ma A Nh, Ma Ky,,, both shed tears of emotion, leading their troops back to the Chinese country.

Ming general Vuong Thong, before saying goodbye to his country, sat and talked all night with King Le Loi.

King Le Loi sent buffaloes and wine as gifts, and returned the embroidered flags and painted banners of Minh Army captured by the Leloi army.

It can be said that in the world there are few people as humane as our Vietnamese King Le Loi.

After defeating the Ming army, King Le Loi issued a decree abolishing agricultural taxes for the people for 2 years.

Afterwards, King Le Loi issued an edict to the Ngon Quan who was responsible for dissuading the King, as follows:

“If you see that the Government has harsh orders, heavy taxes, abuses the people’s conscience, rewards and punishes wrongly, does not follow ancient rules, or ministers, mandarins, generals, and officials inside and outside of capital do not keep permission, accepting bribes, harassing good people, or illegal favoritism, you must immediately submit a petition to the court.”

This action of King Le Loi is similar to King Ly Nhan Tong of the Ly Dynasty nearly 400 years earlier, who issued the edict “Praying for straight speech” in 1072.

After that, King Le Loi issued an edict to rectify the country’s rules and regulations as follows:

“From now on, if any officer discusses any matter, he must take military matters and people’s matters into account as urgent matters, and must not put personal feelings first.”

Although he was a great and famous king in the history of Vietnam, King Le Loi also had two brutal actions that made history criticize him.

That is, he wrongly suspected two generals who had great contributions in the war against the Ming army, General Pham Van Xao and General Tran Nguyen Han.

King Le Loi suspected these two generals of treason, causing the two generals to commit suicide.

2-The unjust case of Mr. Nguyen Trai.

In the entire more than 4,000-year cultural history of the Vietnamese people, perhaps the unjust case of Mr. Nguyen Trai during the Le Dynasty is the biggest unjust case, a common lesson to remind all Vietnamese people to try to live more merciful and generous, don’t let any more unjust cases happen.

Mr. Nguyen Trai was from Ha Tay, born in 1380, died in 1442 (unjustly beheaded), at 62 years old.

Mr. Nguyen Trai was the general who had the greatest contribution in helping King Le Loi defeat the Ming army during 20 years war against Minh dinasty.

Not only that, Mr. Nguyen Trai is also the greatest cultural figure in the more than 4,000-year history of our country.

Mr. Nguyen Trai composed the Binh Ngo Dai Cao in 1427, with the following immortal words:

“The act of kindness consists in keeping the people at peace,

The punishment military first to eliminate violence.

As of our Dai Viet country,

Having claimed a long-standing civilization,

The borders, rivers and mountains are separate,

North-South customs are also different.”

With Binh Ngo Dai Cao report, our country for the first time declared a civilized, independent Vietnam, affirming the cultural and geographical differences between China and Vietnam.

In addition to the Binh Ngo Dai Cao version, Mr. Nguyen Trai also wrote the Vinh Lang Epitaph in Lam Son, Thanh Hoa, and wrote famous books such as Quan Trung Tu Menh Tap, Uc Trai Thi Tap, Quoc Am Thi Tap, Uc Trai posthumous collection, posthumous Ngoc Duong, Gia Huan ca,,,.

The unjust case of Mr. Nguyen Trai is summarized as follows:

King Le Loi died in 1433, at the age of 49. Crown Prince Nguyen Long ascended the throne, as Le Thai Tong, when he was only 11 years old.

After the suicide of two generals Pham Van Xao and Tran Nguyen Han because of being unfairly suspected by King Le Loi, Mr. Nguyen Trai resigned, retired, and returned to live in hiding in Chi Linh mountain, Hai Duong today.

Perhaps Mr. Nguyen Trai felt that he might also be suspected by King Le Loi, so he avoided it in advance.

But the cruel fate still did not let Mr. Nguyen Trai go.

Or to be more precise, the cruel fate still does not spare our Vietnamese people, even though our country has more than 4,000 years of proud civilization, with the Hung Kings living in kindness and generosity for nearly 3,000 years, with heroic victories over the Southern Han army on the Bach Dang River, victory over the Song army on the Nhu Nguyet River, three victories over the Yuan army, and now victory over the Ming army.

Such a majestic and civilized nation, allowing such an unjust case to occur?

And who did that unjust case happen to?

Happened to Mr. Nguyen Trai, one of the most famous cultural figures in the more than 4,000-year history of our Vietnamese people.

It’s cruel.

It’s unfair.

Mr. Nguyen Trai returned to Chi Linh mountain to live in hiding. Accompanying him was his beloved concubine Nguyen Thi Lo, who was more beautiful, youthful, and sang very well.

It can be said that Mr. Nguyen Trai is also a romantic person.

But are there any great people in the world who are not romantic?

US President Bill Clinton once had a fiery girlfriend right in the White House?

French President François Mitterrand also has children of his own, and many young girlfriends, not just one girlfriend like US President Bill Clinton.

Mr. Nguyen Trai’s beloved concubine was the cause of Mr. Nguyen Trai’s tragedy unjust case.

Because the young King Le Thai Tong ascended the throne when he was 11 years old, and at the age of 20, this King liked Mr. Nguyen Trai’s concubine, so once he visited Mr. Nguyen Trai in Chi Linh mountain, the young King Le Thai Tong asked to borrow Nguyen Trai’s beloved concubine for a few days just to “listen to her sing for fun”.

With the reason “just to listen to Miss Thi Lo sing for fun”, Mr. Nguyen Trai could not reject this request.

The young King is 20 years old, and Thi Lo is more beautiful, plays well, and sings, then both to board a ship from Chi Linh district to Thang Long, and on the way, the ship stopped at a lychee garden near Hai Duong today.

The King and Thi Lo landed on the shore, into a poetic lychee garden, Le Chi Vien garden, under the moonlit night, and in the poetic moonlit night, the King and the girl Nguyen Thi Lo drank wine together, and the King listened to her Nguyen Thi Lo plays the instrument and sings under the moon.

Then the King’s weak body could not stand the cold of the foggy night, combined with alcohol and women, so the next morning, the King passed away, leaving behind the unjust case of plotting to kill the King on Mr. Nguyen’s Trai head.

Because before that, when King Le Loi chose the Crown Prince to succeed the King, Mr. Nguyen Trai expressed his disapproval of this young King.

That’s why the mother of this young King, along with the corrupt people on her side, immediately falsely accused Mr. Nguyen Trai on their revenge, framing Mr. Nguyen Trai for plotting to kill the King.

Ms. Thi Lo was arrested and tortured to force her to confess to Mr. Nguyen Trai’s plot to kill the king, so Mr. Nguyen Trai and all 3 of his families, 3 generations of his were sentenced to death, to be beheaded, more than 300 people were beheaded, from the child of the newborn to the gray hair of Mr. Nguyen Trai, then 62 years old, all were beheaded in 1442, 15 years after the victory over the Ming army.

While Mr. Nguyen Trai was hiding in Chi Linh mountain, he wrote many poems with a melancholy mood, sighing about the times and status of country, about the harshness and ingratitude. Perhaps Mr. Nguyen Trai wanted to allude to his indifference by King Le Loi?

The poem Tu Than-self mourning– written by Mr. Nguyen Trai during this time, written in Nom script, Quoc Am (written in Chinese characters, read in Vietnamese), is still circulated today, as follows:

“The boat floats on the river,

Know who to confide in,

Surely the world today,

But use mountains and water to make dreams,

Was sad about the showering,

Again, the pain of the rushing east wind,

The clouds float and the water flows downstream,

The boat floats on the river alone.”

Fortunately, after that, the benevolent King Le Thanh Tong passed down, exonerating Mr. Nguyen Trai, and both generals Tran Nguyen Han and Pham Van Xao, more than 30 years later, in 1465.

3-King Le Thanh Tong, the King considered the greatest in the feudal history of Vietnam.

King Le Thanh Tong was born in 1442, the year Nguyen Trai was killed. The king ascended the throne in 1460, when he was 18 years old, and remained on the throne for 37 years, until 1497 when the King died.

King Le Thanh Tong’s 37 years as of King accomplished great things as follows:

A-Improving the State apparatus from central to local levels. For the first time, Vietnam has Luc Ministries, or 6 Ministries, which are:

1. The Ministry of Lai, the Ministry in charge of appointing mandarins, is similar to the functions of the Central Organizing Committee and the Ministry of Home Affairs now combined.
2. Ministry of Households, is the Ministry in charge of population management, household registration, and human resource development.
3. Ministry of Rites, is the Ministry in charge of rituals, offerings, national clothes, costumes, culture, sports, reception of foreign envoys, etc. of the Court, similar to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs today.
4. Ministry of Public Works, concerned with economic development, construction of palaces, citadels, dykes, roads,,,.
5. Ministry of Military, takes care of the military.
6. Ministry of Justice, concerned with law, trials, litigation,,,.

B-Regarding local management, at that time, King Le Thanh Tong divided the whole country into 13 Thua Tuyen, like 13 provinces, which are:

1. Thanh Hoa,
2. Nghe An,
3. Son Nam, today’s Thien Truong, Nam Dinh,
4. Son Tay
5. Kinh Bac, including today’s Bac Ninh and Bac Giang,
6. Hai Duong,
7. Thai Nguyen,
8. Tuyen Quang,
9. Hung Hoa, including provinces such as Lai Chau, Son La, today,
10. Lang Son,
11. An Bang, is the area of provinces such as Cao Bang, Ha Giang,,, today,
12. Thuan Hoa, are provinces like Quang Binh, Quang Tri, and Thua Thien today,
13. Quang Nam.

In those 13 Provinces, divided into 52 Prefectures, 172 Districts and 50 Chau, 8006 Communes, Villages, Wards, Trang, Sach, Dong,,,.

Today, Vietnam has about 10,000 communes and wards, which can be said to still be similar to the organizational structure of local government under King Le Thanh Tong.

This shows that the State apparatus under King Le Thanh Tong was quite complete, not inferior to today’s State apparatus.

Even better than today, for example there were only 6 Ministries, not approximately 20 Ministries like today, so the State apparatus under King Le Thanh Tong was more compact, more efficient, and saved tax money of the people.

During the time of King Le Thanh Tong, there was no police force or procuracy, but security was still maintained, as long as the Court’s soldiers maintained both national defense and public security, very compact, effective.

During the reign of King Le Thanh Tong, only one Ministry of Public Works was needed to replace the ministries of Industry, Agriculture, Commerce of today.

C-Regarding Agriculture, King Le Thanh Tong attached great importance to agricultural development, appointing Ha De mandarins to develop the dyke system, and Agriculture Extension mandarins to help farmers develop agriculture.

The King established 42 Plantation Departments to develop wastelands and help farmers when crops failed or famine.

The King established worship houses, similar to today’s hospitals, to examine and treat diseases for the people.

In the fields and dykes, King Le Loi built watch stations and rest stations, so that people living there could stay to  look after the dykes. And in the fields, there were rest stations for people to go to work on hard-working fields have places to sit and rest, shelter from rain and sun.

I still remember when I was little, during year 1970s, going playing in the fields, still seeing those motels, very humane, very warm, feeling that even though the State is far away somewhere, it still cares about the people.

D-The modification of customs and practices of the people.

For example, King Le Thanh Tong did not allow a new pagoda to be built, to save the people’s money. The king strictly prohibited the habits of excessive drinking and wasteful eating and drinking.

King Le Thanh Tong set out 24 rules for families to follow, such as:

1. Parents teach their children to have manners, speak well, and be polite.
2. The Head of the Family must keep the rules himself for the whole family to follow.
3. Husband and wife are frugal in business and have good relationships. In 1473, the King issued a decree clearly stating: “A wife who has not committed a crime cannot be abandoned. Anyone who dares to drink indiscriminately, is not strict with family rules, anyone who does not have a relationship but dares to steal and conspire, must be punished.”
4. As a disciple, you should love your brothers, be in harmony with the Commune Party, and behave respectfully.
5. In the Commune party, in the same hometown, in the same clan, if there is a problem, we must help each other.

  6-A woman who has made mistakes that her parents and husband have taught her must not run away and must correct herself.

8-A scholar should cherish his virtues and maintain official authority, and should not flatter the powerful to gain advantage.

9-Those who record books, documents, and court cases must not lie or change sentences. If discovered, they will be punished without mercy.

10-Those who trade must trade according to the time and price, must trade honestly, must not gather in gangs to change the scales and negotiations.

11- Roadside shops where women come to stay, must be carefully guarded and protected, and must not be bullied. If it is discovered that women are being abused, both the perpetrator and the homeowner will be severely punished.

  12-Villages and Communes must choose an elderly, virtuous person to be the Chief, to teach etiquette to the people in the Commune and Village.

13-In the County, Prefecture, or District, there are arrogant people who bully people, bully lonely people, and incite people to sue, they will be severely punished.

14-The powerful Kings, Dukes, and Ministers who tolerate petty people, allow them to oppress others, force them to buy things cheaply, and steal other people’s land will be severely punished.

15-Those who work as Government and District officials must know how to teach people how to be polite. If anyone does not work hard to teach people, he is not worthy of the position that must be replaced.

16-If the Head of a family knows how to teach their children how to live in rites and family, the Prefectures and Districts must report to the King for reward,,,.”

It can be said that King Le Thanh Tong’s teachings on culture mentioned above are worth learning and following for Vietnamese people today.

We should not generalize and say that “the Feudals are corrupt”.

The Elders Ly Thuong Kiet, Tran Hung Dao, Le Thanh Tong, Nguyen Du, Chu Van An, Nguyen Trai, Tran Nhan Tong, Ly Thai To,,, were feudal, but not corrupt.

E-Militarily, King Le Thanh Tong ordered 5 Military Palaces, like the current 5 Divisions, each Military Palace had 6 guards, or departments, like the current Battalions, each Department had about 400 soldiers.

The entire army during King Le Thanh Tong’s time was estimated to have about 70,000 standing troops. When there is a war, the civilian reserves can be mobilized immediately, the number of troops will increase about 5 times, 10 times in just a few days.

King Le Thanh Tong again set out 31 military orders to practice Water Battles, and 42 military orders to practice Infantry Battles.

The king set a rule for a martial arts exam every 3 years to encourage martial arts training.

Do Thi martial arts competition rules are as follows:

Each person shoots a bow and arrow 5 times, throws 4 arrows (like darts, or daggers), and fights 1 sword (1 phase).

To the South, King Le Thanh Tong sent troops to defeat the harassment of the three countries of Champa, Lao Qua, and Bon Man, with great prestige.

In the North, King Le Thanh Tong was always on guard. Whenever any Chinese entered our land to harass us, we immediately captured them and returned them to China.

One time, the King arrested thousands of Ming soldiers who came to harass us, imprisoned them for a long time, and did not return them immediately, making the Ming court very afraid and did not dare to do anything unruly.

In 1469, King Le Thanh Tong instructed Kien Duong Ba mandarin Le Canh Huy to go as an ambassador to the Ming Dynasty to protect the national territory:

“One meter of mountain, one inch of our river, should we throw it away? People must resolutely argue, don’t let them gradually encroach. If they do not listen, we can still send another envoys to the North to clearly explain what is right and wrong. If you dare to use an inch of Ancestor Thai To’s land as bait for the enemy, you will be guilty of the crime.”

In 1484, King Le Thanh Tong built the Doctor’s Stele-Bia Tien Sy- at the Temple of Literature, recording the names of those who passed doctorates since 1442. Currently, the Temple of Literature still retains 82 Doctor’s Steles, recording the names of Doctors from 1442 to 1870.

King Le Thanh Tong established a rule for honoring those who passed the doctorate exam, and instituted the Ceremony of Honoring the Patriarchs, so that those who passed the exam could return to visit their old hometown before taking up mandarin positions in the capital, and let their hometowns holds a ceremony to solemnly welcome those who pass the exam.

King Le Thanh Tong also encouraged the use of Nom script and promoted Nom poetry. King Le Thanh Tong established the Tao Dan Association, headed by the King himself, to write poetry in Nom.

King Le Thanh Tong also ordered Mr. Ngo Si Lien to rewrite and supplement the Dai Viet Su Ky Toan Thu that Mr. Le Van Huu wrote more than 200 years ago.

Special Most notably, King Le Thanh Tong compiled the National Trieu Penal Law, also known as Hong Duc Law, Hong Duc Code-consisting of 722 articles, which began to be compiled in 1428, when King Le Loi defeated the Ming army.

US Harvard University has translated this Hong Duc Code into English version to study.

By the time of King Le Thanh Tong, the Hong Duc Code was basically completed, and then it was supplemented and perfected by later Le Kings.

In 1777, the Hong Duc Code was published for the first time, the most complete that we currently have in hand. We call it the Hong Duc Law, because this law was most basically completed under the reign of Hong Duc, King Le Thanh Tong.

It can be said that today’s Criminal Code and Civil Law are far behind the Hong Duc Law in both humanity and legal severity.

For example, Article 470 of the Hong Duc Code regulates the handling of wrongful and illegal arrest of people:

“If you use authority or power to tie someone up, it will be treated as a crime of beating someone (Crime of Beating is stipulated in Article 465: hitting someone with hands or feet will be punished with 60 strokes; beating with an object will be punished with 80 strokes); If a person forces him to tie up and then beats and injures another person, he will be punished two levels more severely than the crime of beating someone. Using authority and power to order others to hurt or kill someone, even if you don’t do it, it must still be considered the heaviest crime; The person who fights is also guilty of the same crime.”

Article 475 stipulates penalties for insulting grandparents and parents:

“If you insult your grandparents, father, or mother, you will be sentenced to exile; If you hit your grandfather, grandmother, father, or mother, you will be sent to a distant continent.”

According to this law, if today, for example, a family in Hanoi has a child who insults and is rude to his parents or grandparents, that child will be exiled to live far away, for example, live in Mu Cang Chai, or on Truong Sa Island, do not live in Hanoi.

If only today, the Vietnamese State would restore some of the progressive provisions of the Hong Duc Law, it would be great.

Article 489 stipulates penalties for students insulting and hitting teachers:

“If a student beats or insults a teacher, he or she will be punished three levels more severely than the crime of beating someone (Article 465); If you beat a teacher to death, you will be beheaded.”

Article 506 regulates the punishment of filial piety and children not taking care of their grandparents and parents:

“Children who disobey the teachings and do not take care of their superiors, but are reported to the officials by their grandparents, parents, and grandparents, will be judged as criminals.” (Khao Dinh is a person who has to work serving tea, cleaning, etc. at offices)”

Article 138 stipulates penalties for officials accepting bribes:

“A mandarins official who violates the law and takes bribes from 1 franc to 9 francs will be prosecuted for sarcasm or dismissed; From 10 francs to 19 denarii, you will be considered a criminal or exiled; from 20 denarii will be beheaded,,,.”

(-that is, to reduce one’s position.

-criminals, that is, being made into all kinds of service soldiers.

-The crime of being exiled means being exiled to a far away place.

These crimes are often accompanied by a punishment of 60, 80 strokes of the rod,,,,,. Only men are punished with the rod.)

We hope that one fine day, our country of Vietnam will continue the tradition of our ancestors, continuing to make Doctoral Steles–Bia Tien Sy, to record the merits of good learners and famous intellectuals. work with the country, and to continue a number of laws of the Hong Duc Law that are still valid today, for example re-implementing very progressive laws, and very Vietnamese culture as quoted above.

All economic, social, and cultural things developed dramatically under King Le Thanh Tong.

King Le Thanh Tong was also a King with a very high spirit of national independence. He did not allow his subjects to have an attitude of submission to the Ming Dynasty.

In 1461, after being King for 1 year, King Le Thanh Tong scolded the historian Ngo Si Lien as follows:

“I only look at politics, correct my conduct, and follow the old rules of the Holy Patriarch of the Divine Sect, so I hold the Worship Ceremony in early spring. You say that the ancestors’ worships are not worth following.

You people say that our country in ancient times was a member of the Phien Bang (of the Han Dynasty), so you follow the religion of death and have no King in your heart.”

This is the first King in our country who dares to publicly criticize his mandarins for having a submissive attitude towards China, especially criticizing Mr. Ngo Sy Lien as a famous intellectual of our Vietnamese history.

In 1462, King Le Thanh Tong again ordered that our military and mandarin families that had Wu people (China) as slaves were not allowed to let them go out in collusion with Ming Dynasty envoys.

The king was afraid that these slaves were spies for the Ming Dynasty.

Also in 1462, King Le Thanh Tong again came down to “pray for straight speech“, learning from his grandfather King Le Loi, and King Ly Nhan Tong during the Ly Dynasty.

In 1467, there was a prolonged drought and crop failure. The King issued a general amnesty for the people.

The Great Amnesty text says:

“I am a person without virtue, the master of all nations. I want everyone to be rich, happy, and prosperous. Last year, from autumn to winter, it never rained, people lost hope of a good harvest, and people worried about hardship and famine. I am a parent, I only know the pain in my heart. If we do not give generous and forgiving grace, how can we see true wisdom for the people?”

In 1466, the King issued an order banning mandarins from marrying women in the county he governed, to ensure the impartiality, justice, and impartiality of the mandarins.

King Le Thanh Tong also repeatedly ordered the number of mandarins and commune chiefs to be reduced to streamline the State apparatus to be more compact, more effective.

In 1496, one year before the King passed away, King Le Thanh Tong issued an edict to choose the Commune Chief, it is forbidden for people from the same family or in-laws to serve as Commune Chiefs in the same commune.

In 1468, King Le Thanh Tong issued an order to reorganize the trial, to reduce wrongs committed against the people. The King’s edict said:

“On the day of trial, there must be an agent who personally allows the prisoner to plead unjustly, so that it is convenient to refute the case.”

This is the first idea of Vietnamese people about having a lawyer to protect the rights of the defendant.

Also in 1468, the King dismissed the officials of the Criminal Justice Department, who were in charge of the trial, because they were not objective and often caused many unjust cases.

In 1471, King Le Thanh Tong issued a decree to regulate the trial:

“From the Minister of Penal Affairs (similar to the position of Minister of Justice, or the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court today) down to the Dai Dai Tu, and the prison guards, anyone who pardons or accuses someone who is not in accordance with the law, then you have to complain. Those who have been unjustly guilty must also review and exonerate them.”

That same year, the King demoted the mandarins in the areas affected by rice insects, because these mandarins only sat and watched the people’s disasters, without knowing how to report to the King for measures to help the people.

In 1469, there was a flattering mandarin who asked King to take his daughter to the King’s Palace to find a way to get advantage. King Le Thanh Tong knew about this and immediately dismissed this mandarin.

In 1484, the King issued a decree “forbidding rich people who rely on their power to harass gold and silver miners“.

That same year, the King issued an edict forbidding the soldiers guarding the mandarin’s gate from accepting bribes from people coming to the mandarin’s gate.

The king also forbade officials to accept taxes from the people and not cause difficulties for those who came to pay taxes.

In 1485, the King ordered a crackdown on tyranny in localities:

“Any tycoon who relies on power, injures people, robs other people’s lands and property, plows and destroys graves, or harms others, will be punished according to the crime of rampant tyranny.”

It can be said that the reign of King Le Thanh Ton was the period when our country developed most brilliantly during 1000 years of feudal independence, both in terms of culture, military, economy, law, and State apparatus.

It can be said that the Vietnamese people during King Le Thanh Tong’s time lived with culture, decency, discipline, and the State apparatus was more compact, effective, and cleaner than today.///