Lý Thần Tông (1116–1138),

personal name A personal name, or full name, in onomastic terminology also known as prosoponym (from Ancient Greek πρόσωπον / ''prósōpon'' - person, and ὄνομα / ''onoma'' - name), is the set of names by which an individual person is known ...

Lý Dương Hoán, was the fifth monarch of the

Lý dynasty The Lý dynasty ( vi, Nhà Lý, , chữ Nôm: 茹李, chữ Hán: 李朝, Hán Việt: ''Lý triều'') was a Vietnamese dynasty that existed from 1009 to 1225. It was established by Lý Công Uẩn when he overthrew the Early Lê dynasty an ...

, reigning over Đại Việt from 1127 to his death in 1138. Becoming the ruler of Đại Việt at the age of twelve, Lý Thần Tông successfully maintained the order of the royal court and strengthened the stability of the country with the assistance of capable officials. For that reason, Đại Việt under Lý Thần Tông was able to witness a peaceful period like during the reign of his predecessors. However, Lý Thần Tông died at age 23 before passing the throne to his crown prince Lý Thiên Tộ.

Early years

Lý Dương Hoán was born in the summer of 1116 as Lý Dương Hoán to Lady Đỗ and the Marquis of Sùng Hiền ( Vietnamese: Sùng Hiền hầu) who was son of the Emperor

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 Tông ...

and younger brother of the Emperor

Lý Nhân Tông Lý Nhân Tông (22 February 1066 – 15 January 1128), personal name Lý Càn Đức, temple name Nhân Tông was the fourth monarch of the Lý dynasty, ruling the kingdom of Đại Việt from 1072 until his death in 1128. Succeeding his fat ...

. According to the '' Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư'', Lý Dương Hoán was born right after the death of the monk

Từ Đạo Hạnh Từ Đạo Hạnh (, 1072-1116) also thánh Láng, was a Vietnamese monk who lived at the Thầy Temple near modern Hanoi Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It c ...

, one of the most important figures of the Early Lý dynasty, which implied that Lý Dương Hoán might be the incarnation of Từ Đạo Hạnh. At that time, the Emperor Lý Nhân Tông was unable to have his own child, and thus he decided to adopt sons of the Marquises Sùng Hiền, Thành Khánh, Thành Quảng, Thành Chiêu, Thành Hưng, so that the emperor could choose a capable successor to maintain the throne for the Lý dynasty. Finally, being an intelligent and vivacious boy, Lý Dương Hoán was made by Lý Thần Tông the

crown prince A crown prince or hereditary prince is the heir apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The female form of the title is crown princess, which may refer either to an heiress apparent or, especially in earlier times, to the wif ...

of the Lý dynasty at the age of two in 1117. In December 1127, Lý Nhân Tông died at Vĩnh Quang Palace and was succeeded by the Crown Prince Lý Dương Hoán, now Lý Thần Tông. Immediately after the coronation, Thần Tông began to regulate the royal court and the royal family in order to keep the stability of the Lý dynasty in the wake of Nhân Tông's death. This action of Lý Thần Tông was criticized by contemporary historians

Lê Văn Hưu Lê Văn Hưu (1230–1322) was an historian of the Trần dynasty. He is best known for his work the ''Đại Việt sử ký'', the first comprehensive historical record of the history of Vietnam. Although the book was lost during the Fourth Chin ...

and

Ngô Sĩ Liên Ngô Sĩ Liên (吳士連) was a Vietnamese historian of the Lê dynasty. He was the principal compiler of the ''Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư'', a comprehensive chronicle of the history of Vietnam and the oldest official historical record of ...

who thought that Lý Thần Tông should have been in mourning for his predecessor for a longer period to show his respect for the departed emperor.

As emperor

After the enthronement, Lý Thần Tông changed the era name to Thiên Thuận (1128–1132) and made his adoptive mother Lady Trần Anh the Empress Mother of the Lý dynasty. During the reign, the Emperor changed the era name one more time to Thiên Chương Bảo Tự (1133–1138). Although he had been not long on the Lý throne, Lý Thần Tông at once made several major changes in the royal court such as relaxing strict laws, appointing officials for important positions and maintaining diplomatic relations with the

Song dynasty 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 ...

and the Kingdom of

Champa Champa (Cham: ꨌꩌꨛꨩ; km, ចាម្ប៉ា; vi, Chiêm Thành or ) were a collection of independent Cham polities that extended across the coast of what is contemporary central and southern Vietnam from approximately the 2nd cen ...

. At that time, the Đại Việt's borders were fairly stable except for some skirmishes with the Khmer ruler Suryavarman II, starting in 1128,Maspero, G., 2002, The Champa Kingdom, Bangkok: White Lotus Co., Ltd., and Champa, which were driven out by the Lý army without difficulty. Besides the Emperor, the victory over Champa was also attributed to the protection of the

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

and

Taoist Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmony with the ''Tao'' ...

deities, an opinion that the historian Lê Văn Hưu did not agree with since the historian thought that the victory in battlefield was solely due to the ability of the commander. In the first month of 1129, the Emperor bestowed his real father and mother Marquis Sùng Hiền and Lady Đỗ thị on titles the Retired Emperor (Thái thượng hoàng) and the Empress Mother (Hoàng thái hậu) of the Lý dynasty. The decision of Lý Thần Tông was met with criticism from Lê Văn Hưu because of its unorthodoxy according to the feudal tradition in which the Emperor should accept only one origin, in this case was the late Lý Nhân Tông and his empress. Lê Văn Hưu, together with Ngô Sĩ Liên, again criticized Lý Thần Tông for his order in the first month of 1130 that every daughter of the mandarins in the royal court had to be available for the emperor's selection of concubines and ones who were not chosen could only get married afterwards. Because of the young age of the emperor, Ngô Sĩ Liên and Lê Văn Hưu often pointed their criticisms to Lý Thần Tông's officials who were considered ( by the historians ) lacking ability and being flatterers. However, Lý Thần Tông was later considered in the ''Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư'' a skilled ruler who was able to choose and use talented officials and hold the stability of the Lý dynasty. On the other hand, the modern historian

Trần Trọng Kim Trần Trọng Kim (Chữ Nôm: ; 1883 – December 2, 1953), courtesy name Lệ Thần, was a Vietnamese scholar and politician who served as the Prime Minister of the short-lived Empire of Vietnam, a state established with the support of Impe ...

wrote in his ''

Việt Nam sử lược ( vi-hantu, 越南史略, french: Précis d'Histoire du Việt-Nam, lit. "Outline History of Vietnam"), was the first history text published in the Vietnamese and the Vietnamese alphabet. It was compiled by Vietnamese historian Trần Trọng Kim ...

'' that Đại Việt was able to witness a peaceful era during the reign of Lý Thần Tông thanks to some capable mandarins such as Trương Bá Ngọc, Lưu Khánh Đàm and Dương Anh Nhị and the policy of "ngụ binh ư nông" which meant conscripting farmers into the army for a period of six months and release them for the remaining six months so that they could resume their farming work and thus the agriculture of the country was not affected by military activities. In 1136 Lý Thần Tông contracted a severe disease that his physicians could not cure, so a monk named

Nguyễn Minh Không Nguyễn () is the most common Vietnamese surname. Outside of Vietnam, the surname is commonly rendered without diacritics as Nguyen. Nguyên (元）is a different word and surname. By some estimates 39 percent of Vietnamese people bear this su ...

stepped up and helped the emperor survive his disease and recover. There was a legend said that Nguyễn Minh Không learned the disease's antidote of disease from his master Từ Đạo Hạnh before he died. Nevertheless, Lý Thần Tông survived for only two years, he died on the 26th day of the ninth month of 1138 at the age of 23 and was succeeded by Lý Anh Tông.

Family

Lý Thần Tông entitled his empress, the Empress Consort Lệ Thiên (Lệ Thiên Hoàng hậu) Lý thị in 1128. At the same time, Lý Thần Tông also married the niece Lê thị of the chancellor Lê Xương, who was entitled as Lady Minh Bảo (Minh Bảo phu nhân). The first son of Lý Thần Tông and Lady Minh Bảo Lê thị was Lý Thiên Tộ who was born in the fourth month in

Lunar calendar A lunar calendar is a calendar based on the monthly cycles of the Moon's phases (synodic months, lunations), in contrast to solar calendars, whose annual cycles are based only directly on the solar year. The most commonly used calendar, the Gre ...

of 1136. Initially Lý Thiên Tộ was not chosen the crown prince of the Lý dynasty because his father preferred Lý Thiên Lộc who was son of his favourite concubine and born before Lý Thiên Tộ in 1132. In the ninth month of 1138, the ill emperor decided to make Lý Thiên Tộ his successor and downgraded Lý Thiên Lộc to Prince Minh Đạo (Minh Đạo vương) after a campaign opened by three other concubines of the Emperor, Ladies Cảm Thánh, Nhật Phụng and Phụng Thánh, who were afraid that the coronation of a concubine's son would menace their position in royal family. Besides Lý Thiên Tộ and Lý Thiên Lộc, the emperor had a stillborn daughter in 1132, a third prince with unknown name born in 1137 and the Princess Thụy Thiên who was also born in 1137.

References

Notes

Bibliography

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