Lý Thái Tông (
chữ Hán:
李 太 宗; 29 July 1000 – 3 November 1054), personal name Lý Phật Mã, posthumously
temple name
Temple names are posthumous titles accorded to monarchs of the Sinosphere for the purpose of ancestor worship. The practice of honoring monarchs with temple names began during the Shang dynasty in China and had since been adopted by other dyna ...
Thái Tông, was the second
monarch
A monarch is a head of stateWebster's II New College DictionarMonarch Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest authority and power i ...
of the
Lý dynasty, ruled
Đại Việt
Đại Việt (, ; literally Great Việt), often known as Annam ( vi, An Nam, Chữ Hán: 安南), was a monarchy in eastern Mainland Southeast Asia from the 10th century AD to the early 19th century, centered around the region of present-day H ...
from 1028 to 1054. He was considered the most successive Vietnamese ruler since the tenth century.
Early life
Lý Phật Mã was born in 1000 in
Hoa Lư,
Ninh Bình, during the reign of king
Lê Hoàn
Lê Hoàn (10 August 941 – 18 March 1005), posthumously title Lê Đại Hành, was a Vietnamese emperor and the third ruler of Dai Viet kingdom, ruling from 981 to 1005. He first served as the generalissimo commanding a ten-thousand man arm ...
, when his father
Lý Công Uẩn
LY or ly may refer to:
Government and politics
* Libya (ISO 3166-1 country code LY)
* Lý dynasty, a Vietnamese dynasty
* Labour Youth of Ireland
* Legislative Yuan, the unicameral legislature of the Republic of China (Taiwan)
Science and tech ...
was an official of the royal court. His mother was Lê Thị Phất Ngân, daughter of Lê Hoàn. When he was nine, Lý Công Uẩn became the new ruler of Đại Việt and moved the capital from Hoa Lư to
Thăng Long
Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi i ...
. In 1020, as crown prince, Phật Mã was marching his army south through Thanh Hóa, he encountered the spirit of Mount Trống Đồng, which promised to help his campaign. Phật Mã successfully invaded Champa, killed the Cham commander, and destroyed half his army. After his father's death, Phật Mã claimed that the Spirit of Mount Trống Đồng, or the Mountain of the Bronze Drum (Thần Núi Đồng Cổ), which also inhabited a shrine at Thăng Long.
Reign
Lý Phật Mã ascended the throne in 1028. At the beginning of his reign, Thái Tông relied mostly on his father's officers to put down an uprising by two of his brothers contesting his accession, and personally led an expedition against a third rebellious brother at Hoa Lư.
When his rule became more secure, Thái Tông started to demonstrate his unconventional style of governing. He promoted one of his favorite
concubine
Concubinage is an interpersonal and sexual relationship between a man and a woman in which the couple does not want, or cannot enter into a full marriage. Concubinage and marriage are often regarded as similar but mutually exclusive.
Concubi ...
s to royal status. He rejected his officials' advice and plowed the land himself during the spring plowing ceremony.
The king ignored convention and promoted a favourite concubine to royal status, thereby provoking a rebellion, which he crushed. He reorganized administration on the borders and built ocean-going
junks. He apparently attempted to reform the system of justice and prisons at Thăng Long by placing it under the protection of the cult of a tenth-century hero. He ignored the objections of his advisers and insisted on personally conducting the spring ploughing ceremony.
In 1039, Thái Tông had a serious discussion with his official about whether a good government depended upon strong personal leadership or a sophisticated institution. In the end, he accepted his officials' opinion and started to reform the government. In the same year he captured the leader
Nong Quanfu
Nong Quanfu (, za, Nungz Cienzfuk; ?-1039), also recorded as Nùng Tồn Phúc ( vi, Nùng Tồn Phúc; ; Chữ Hán: ) was a Nùng/ Zhuang chieftain and zhou-level official of Guangyuan located in the modern-day Cao Bang in the 11th century AD ...
of a rebellious clan in the northern mountains and publicly executed them at Thăng Long, publishing an edict full of self-righteous pride and indignation.
In 1041 Thái Tông had statues cast of the Buddha Maitreya and two irrigation gods; the latter may again imply the emergence of Confucian associations between the monarchy and agricultural organization.
In 1042 Thái Tông created a new code, called the Minh Đạo laws. Inspired by the
Tang Code
The ''Tang Code'' () was a penal code that was established and used during the Tang Dynasty in China. Supplemented by civil statutes and regulations, it became the basis for later dynastic codes not only in China but elsewhere in East Asia. The Cod ...
in China, these new laws were written by officials charged by Phat Ma to'deliberate about what was suitable to the contemporary age. The Minh Đạolaw book has not survived, but nine edicts dated within a few months of its publication have survived. Also in the same year,
Nùng Trí Cao, the leader of the Nung clan in
Cao Bằng province Cao or CAO may refer to:
Mythology
*Cao (bull), a legendary bull in Meitei mythology
Companies or organizations
*Air China Cargo, ICAO airline designator CAO
*CA Oradea, Romanian football club
*CA Osasuna, Spanish football club
* Canadian Assoc ...
, proclaimed the state of Dali (大历). Because of his efforts, the Vietnamese captured him and held at Thăng Long for several years. In the next year, the Vietnamese court first time used the term ''nho thần'' (Confucianist scholar), referring to court officials whom the king ordered to "compose a rhyming narrative" in order to publicize his achievement of an "extraordinary supernatural event".
In 1044, Thái Tông with his army invaded
Champa by seaborne. After sailed 950 km across the sea, the Vietnamese fleet attacked Champa and the Cham king,
Jaya Simhavarman II, was killed. The amount of the plunder was considerable, included 5,000 captives, trained elephants, gold, jade, and other treasures. The Cham captives settled in
Nghệ An, lived in Cham-style villages and either became personal servants to the royal elite or laboured for religious establishments. They also contributed to the construction of religious buildings, indicated by thousands of bricks from Ba Đình which bear Cham script. Taxes were reduced, foreign merchants were accommodated, markets were opened in the mountains.
In 1048, Nùng Trí Cao again rebelled and proclaimed the state of Heavenly South. Thái Tông attacked Nùng Trí Cao and only succeed in pushing him into the
Song China
The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...
's territories.
In 1049, having dreamed of
Avalokiteśvara
In Buddhism, Avalokiteśvara (Sanskrit: अवलोकितेश्वर, IPA: ) is a bodhisattva who embodies the compassion of all Buddhas. He has 108 avatars, one notable avatar being Padmapāṇi (lotus bearer). He is variably depicted, ...
seated on a
lotus, he ordered the construction in Thăng Long of the
One Pillar Pagoda
The One Pillar Pagoda ( vi, Chùa Một Cột ), formally belongs to an architecture complex called (延祐寺) which means Extend Bless pagoda. The pagoda is a historic Buddhist temple in the central Ba Đình district (near the Thăng Long ...
, which survived in twentieth-century Hanoi.
Starting around 1049, Thái Tông became less occupied with worldly affairs. He began to seek solutions of life through religion. He died in 1054 and a few months before his death, he transferred the governing job to his son Lý Nhật Tôn (
Lý Thánh Tông
Lý Thánh Tông (30 March 1023 – 1 February 1072), personal name Lý Nhật Tôn , temple name Thánh Tông, was the third emperor of the Lý dynasty and the 8th ruler of the Vietnamese kingdom Đại Việt. In his reign, Lý Thánh Tôn ...
). The succession went much smoother than the one in 1028 and proved the success of Thái Tông's institutional reform.
Religious activities
Lý Phật Mã was a devout Mahayana Buddhist since youth age. In 1040 he ordered silversmiths to decorate more than 1,000 statues and more than 1,000 paintings of Buddha. Thái Tông engaged with the Buddhist community more directly than did his father. Interacting with a variety of monks, he sought to honoured their varied opinions, including those emanating from India and China. At one point, the king held an vegetarian feast and state:
Huệ Sinh, a monk of distinguished local family whom the king had brought from a mountain north into the capital, made this reply in verse:
::
Dharma is originally like non-Dharma
::Neither existent nor non-existent
::If one knows the truth,
::The sentient beings and Buddha are one.
::How great the Moon over Lanka!
::Empty, empty, the boat that crosses the ocean
::If one knows emptiness, by mean of
:::::that emptiness one realizes being,
::Free to go everywhere in ''samadhi''.
Thái Tông followed the monk's view, and Huệ Sinh became the court teacher. In the process, this monk composed inscriptions for a number of major temples in Tiên Du and Vũ Ninh areas north of the capital (which none of these temples survived). Thái Tông also brought the spirit cults into the capital. He was particularly close to the cult of the spirit of the Mountain of Bronze Drum from the southern territory of the Viet mandala. In front of this spirit, the king had courtiers swear their yearly blood oath of allegiance.
Family
* Parents
**
Lý Công Uẩn
LY or ly may refer to:
Government and politics
* Libya (ISO 3166-1 country code LY)
* Lý dynasty, a Vietnamese dynasty
* Labour Youth of Ireland
* Legislative Yuan, the unicameral legislature of the Republic of China (Taiwan)
Science and tech ...
(974 – 1028), founder of the house
**
Empress Lập Giáo (981 – ?)
* Consorts
** Queen Kim Thiên (金天皇后)
** Queen Vương (王皇后)
** Queen Đinh (丁皇后)
** Queen Dương (天感皇后)
* Children
**
Lý Nhật Tôn (李日尊, 1023 – 1072), first son
**
Lý Nhật Trung, Prince of Phụng Càn (李日中, 奉乾王), second son
** Princess Bình Dương (平陽公主)
** Princess Trường Ninh (长宁公主)
** Princess Kim Thành (慶城公主)
Ancestry
References
Citations
Sources
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ly, Thai Tong
Lý dynasty emperors
1000 births
1054 deaths
People from Bắc Ninh province
11th-century Vietnamese monarchs
Thiền Buddhists
Vietnamese monarchs