Lý dynasty

Background

In 1009, the Early Lê dynasty passed from flourish and downfall in 29 years with 3 Emperors Lê Đại Hành, Lê Trung Tông and Lê Ngọa Triều.The last emperor Lê Ngọa Triều died in 1009 after evil and brutal ruling in Đại Cồ Việt which made him and his dynasty becoming unpopular to civilians. According to some history records of Vietnam like Khâm định Việt sử Thông giám cương mục, Việt sử lược, Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư all proved that in October 1009, Lê Long Đĩnh died because of consequence of his licentious life . The crown prince of Lê Long Đĩnh was still very young and he could not take the power from his dad.Then,the conference by the members of royal court was held to discuss about the fate of nation.Finally, Lý Công Uẩn,the high position mandarin and aristocrat was chosen by Đào Cam Mộc and Vạn Hạnh buddhist monk to become the new emperor of Đại Cồ Việt.

Founding

Statue of emperor Lý Thái Tổ, Hanoi.

The founder of the Lý, Lý Thái Tổ (Lý Công Uẩn) 李公蘊 has been said to have had origins from Fujian province somewhere in his paternal bloodline,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} while little is known about his maternal side except for the fact that his mother was a woman named Phạm Thị. Very few direct details about his parents are known,^[7] however, the ethnic Chinese background of Lý Công Uẩn, at least on his paternal side, was accepted by Vietnamese historian Trần Quốc Vượng.^[8]

The Lý dynasty was started by Lý Công Uẩn, a former temple orphan who had risen to commander of the palace guard, succeeded Lê Long Đĩnh of the Early Lê dynasty in 1009, thereby founding the Lý dynasty. He took the reign name Lý Thái Tổ. The early Lý emperors established a prosperous state with a stable monarchy at the head of a centralized administration. The name of the country was changed to Đại Việt in 1054 by Emperor Lý Thánh Tông.

Moving the capital

after a year of enthronement,in 1010 Lý Thái Tổ started to move the capital from Hoa Lư(Ninh Bình) to Đại La(Hà Nội) and renamed it to Thang Long.he wrote the Edict on the Transfer of the Capital to announce his plan to move to the new place.

Thiên đô chiếu (遷都詔), written in 1009 by Emperor Lý Thái Tổ when he decided to move from Hoa Lư to Đại La (later renamed Thang Long, as known as Hanoi today).

This decision had mark major circumstance in Vietnam which opened the flourish era of the dynasty and followed by the other dynasties such as Trần, Lê, Mạc that still used Thang Long as their capital in the long time as well as nowaday republic government.

Throne crisis

In 1028, Lý Thái Tổ died at the age 55 with Posthumous name Thần Vũ hoàng đế (神武皇帝),buried at Thọ royal tomb. In his funeral, Most of his mandarins expected crown prince Lý Phật Mã to take a throne however 3 of his brothers are Duke of Đông Chinh(Đông Chinh vương),Duke of Dực Thánh(Dực Thánh vương) and Duke of Vũ Đức(Vũ Đức vương) rejected this decision, then ambushed royal palace by their own armies to steal the throne. Crown prince Lý Phật Mã discovered the danger, then ordered to close all the gates of palace and arranged guards for protection.However his eunuch Lý Nhân Nghĩa advised him to fight with betrayer.Thus, Lý Phật Mã decide to let Lý Nhân Nghĩa to lead the royal army to fight against his brothers.Lý Nhân Nghĩa succeeded in his campaign and caught Vũ Đức Vương,the 2 others escaped. After that,Lý Phật Mã enthroned and take the temple name Lý Thái Tông.To grant his mercy to all those who tried to opposed him,he pardoned his two brothers Đông Chinh vương and Dực Thánh vương.

Flourish era

From the reign of Lý Thái Tổ with the other emperors, Lý dynasty began to focus on solving some major and minor situation:

+Strengthen internal rule :the economy was promoted to high progress,especially agriculture.The government introduced "Hình thư" (Ministry of Punishments) as the first system of law and legislation of Vietnam after gain independence from China and opened the education system based on imperial examination of China
+ Strengthen territory reigning : The royal court tried to expanded their influence to the remote areas by managing the marriage policy such as giving princesses to marry with the other local lords for closer relationships with royal family.To conciliate those who were not loyal mto government,the emperor will order princes to eliminate the revolts.
+Protecting country from foreigners: Resolve and reconcile some minor issues with Song dynasty,(China),fighting against the invasion of Nanzhao and Champa.

map of Lý dynasty

One of the big event of Lý dynasty is changing name of country from Đại Cồ Việt (大瞿越) to Đại Việt (大越) in 1054 under reign of Lý Thánh Tông.

Statue of emperor Lý Thánh Tông.

During the Lý dynasty, the Vietnamese began their long march to the south (Nam tiến) at the expense of the Chams. In 1069, Champa Kingdom gained more support from Song dynsaty so Cham stopped paying tributary to Đại Việt so this made the Vietnamese governmetn felt angry.As the result,the emperor Lý Thánh Tông made the expedition against Champa – (Champa-Đại Việt war 1069) and successfully captured the king of Champa Rudravarman III.Then Rudravarman III have to sign a treaty with Lý Thánh Tông to cede the Quảng Nam, Quảng Trị and Quảng Bình to Đại Việt which massively contributed to the expansion of Đại Việt territory.Consequently,Champa had to restore the tributary system to Lý dynasty . Soon afterwards, Vietnamese peasants began moving into the untilled former Cham lands, turning them into rice fields and moving relentlessly southward, delta by delta, along the narrow coastal plain. The Lý Emperors supported the improvement of Vietnam's agricultural system by constructing and repairing dikes and canals and by allowing soldiers to return to their villages to work for six months of each year. As their territory and population expanded, the Lý Emperors looked to China as a model for organizing a strong, centrally administered state. In 1070 Lý Thánh Tông ordered to construct Royal academy school to educate people. Minor officials were chosen by examination for the first time in 1075, and a civil service training institute and an imperial academy were set up in 1076. In 1089 a fixed hierarchy of state officials was established, with nine degrees of civil and military scholar officials. Examinations for public office were made compulsory, and literary competitions were held to determine the grades of officials.^[9]

Depression era

Emperor Lý Nhân Tông was the longest reign ruler in the history of Vietnam. However he was childless so he had to choose some of kids of royal relatives as the successor and then Lý Dương Hoán (李陽煥) ,his nephew was chosen to be the crown prince. In 1128, Lý Nhân Tông died at aged 63. At that time, Lý Dương Hoán enthrone at 11 year olds and took temple name Lý Thần Tông. The incident of death of Lý Nhân Tông had marked the transition of crown succession from main line to cadet line and also ended the flourish era of Lý dynasty. After the reign of Lý Nhân Tông ,all of his successors were too young and under control by regent and this led to the power competition among the regent. In the early of Lý Thần Tông era, Most of the member of government were good people who supported emperor to rule the stable Đại Việt. Those people include Chancellor Lê Bá Ngọc(黎伯玉), Vice chancellor Dương Anh Nhĩ (杨英耳), Lý Công Bình, Mâu Du Đô (缪攸度) and Lý Sơn (李山)... In Lý dynasty, Most of emperors had a favourite hobby of collecting the rare and precious treasures and this hobby become emerging when emperor Lý Thần Tông grew up.Then this causes the increase existing of corruption, people who flattered or gave the emperor the precious good, can get into the high rank position in the court. In 1138, Lý Thần Tông died at 23 year old after ruling in 10, years. before his death, Lý Thiên Lộc (李天禄), the first son and had been granted title dauphin of Đại Việt.Nevertheless, 3 Concubines Cảm Thánh, Phụng Thánh and Nhật Phụng corrupted the eunuch Từ Văn Thông (徐文通) to encourage emperor to change his mind. The emperor was persuaded and replaced prince Lý Thiên Tộ (emperor Lý Anh Tông) as crown prince when he was 3 year old.

Decline

Lý Cao Tông became the emperor at 3 and his mom concubine Đỗ became Chiêu Thiên Chí Lý empress dowager, Her younger brother Đỗ An Di became Consort kin and Tô Hiến Thành was still a regent and teacher to teach the emperor.^[10] However, Chiêu Linh empress dowager, mom of depose dauphin Lý Long Xưởng who tried to take the throne back for his son but not successful because of Tô Hiến Thành's determination In middle of 1179, Chancellor Tô Hiến Thành died when emperor Cao Tông was only 6 and Đỗ An Di replace him as regent. In 1188, Đỗ An Di died and Ngô Lý Tín replace his mission til death in 1190. Then, Đàm Dĩ Mông (譚以蒙), younger brother of Empress An Toàn, became regent. Emperor Lý Cao Tông was raised up in the luxury life and he allowed to make court position sale which led nation into crisis. The useless or rich people could be promote as the high rank officials so this increased the social unrest, corruption, poverty and thief . Finally, these cause a lot of revolts against royal court by local leaders.

Agriculture

The pillar of the Đại Việt economy in the Lý era was agriculture. Technically, all farmland was in possession of the Emperor. Each village allocated the farmland to households. Each household farmed their allocated land and paid annual tax, as well as provided mandatory labors and military services.

To facilitate cultivation, the central court built irrigation facilities and river levees. Buffalo and ox slaughtering was strictly prohibited since these cattle provided indispensable draft force in farming.

Trade

The Lý dynasty encouraged trade with foreign countries, primarily with Song China, Java, and Siam. Trade between Đại Việt and Song China in the border areas flourished. Private and government traders frequently visited Chinese trading ports in present Guangxi to exchange spices, ivory and salt for silk. The Lý dynasty founded the port of Vân Đồn in modern Quảng Ninh Province, a major trading port in South East Asia for hundreds of years. On the other hand, the Lý court, particularly under Emperor Thái Tông's reign, tried to promote the consumption of domestic products.

For reasons unknown, Emperor Cao Tông forbade the trade of salt and metal, giving rise to unrest and rebellions against the central court, which later led to the collapse of the Lý dynasty.

Sculpture

External links

• Cœdès, George. (1966). The Making of South East Asia (illustrated, reprint ed.). University of California Press. ISBN 0520050614. Retrieved 7 August 2013.