Ngô Sĩ Liên (吳士連) was a Vietnamese historian of the

Lê dynasty The Lê dynasty, also known as Later Lê dynasty ( vi, Hậu Lê triều, chữ Hán: 後黎朝 or vi, nhà Hậu Lê, link=no, chữ Nôm: 茹後黎), was the longest-ruling Vietnamese dynasty, ruling Đại Việt from 1428 to 1789. The Lê ...

. He was the principal compiler of the ''

Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư The ''Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư'' ( vi-hantu, 大越史記全書; ; ''Complete Annals of Đại Việt'') is the official national chronicle of the Vietnamese state, that was originally compiled by the royal historian Ngô Sĩ Liên under ...

'', a comprehensive chronicle of the

history of Vietnam The history of Vietnam can be traced back to around 20,000 years ago, as the first modern humans arrived and settled on this land, known as the Hoabinhians, which can be traced to modern-day Negritos. Archaeological findings from 1965, which are ...

and the oldest official historical record of a Vietnamese dynasty that remains today. In ''Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư'', Ngô Sĩ Liên is appreciated not only for the precision of his records but also for the innovative method of compilation, he was the first Vietnamese writer who extracted information for historical book from collections of myths and legends such as ''

Lĩnh Nam chích quái ''Lĩnh Nam chích quái'' ( vi-hantu, 嶺南摭怪 lit. "Selection of Strange Tales in Lĩnh Nam") is a 14th-century Vietnamese semi-fictional work written in Han scripts by Trần Thế Pháp. The title indicates strange tales "plucked fro ...

'' or ''

Việt điện u linh tập The Vietnamese people ( vi, người Việt, lit=Viet people) or Kinh people ( vi, người Kinh) are a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to modern-day Northern Vietnam and Southern China (Jing Islands, Dongxing, Guangxi). The native lang ...

''. Until now, Ngô Sĩ Liên is always considered one of the most important figures of the historiography of Vietnam.

History

The exact dates of Ngô Sĩ Liên's birth and date are unknown but it was said that he was born in the Đan Sĩ village, Hà Đông, Hanoi. In his youth, Ngô Sĩ Liên participated in the

Lam Sơn uprising The Lam Sơn uprising (; vi, Khởi nghĩa Lam Sơn; vi-hantu, 起義藍山) was a Vietnamese rebellion led by Lê Lợi in the province of Jiaozhi from 1418 to 1427 against the rule of Ming China. The success of the rebellion led to the est ...

of Lê Lợi that led to the retreat of the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...

and the foundation of the

in Vietnam. In the 1442

imperial examination The imperial examination (; lit. "subject recommendation") refers to a civil-service examination system in Imperial China, administered for the purpose of selecting candidates for the state bureaucracy. The concept of choosing bureaucrats by ...

under the rule of

Lê Thái Tông Lê Thái Tông (黎太宗 22 December 1423 – 28 August 1442), birth name Lê Nguyên Long (黎元龍), was the second emperor of the Later Lê dynasty from 1433 until his early death nine years later. __TOC__ Biography Lê Thái Tông w ...

, Ngô Sĩ Liên gained the title Doctorate (''Tiến sĩ'') and thus became an official in the royal court of three successive emperors Lê Thái Tông (1434–1442),

Lê Nhân Tông Lê Nhân Tông (黎仁宗, 28 May 1441 – 25 October 1459), birth name Lê Bang Cơ (黎邦基) was the third emperor of the Later Lê dynasty from 1453 until his murder in a coup in 1459. He was a grandson of the emperor Lê Lợi. During nearl ...

(1442–1459) and

Lê Thánh Tông Lê Thánh Tông (黎聖宗; 25 August 1442 – 3 March 1497), personal name Lê Hạo, temple name Thánh Tông, courtesy name Tư Thành, was an emperor of Đại Việt, reigning from 1460 to 1497, the fifth and the longest-reigning emp ...

(1460–1497), during the latter's reign, Ngô Sĩ Liên was appointed Director of the National Bureau for Historical Record (''Viện Quốc sử'') in 1473. According to some sources, Ngô Sĩ Liên lived up to the age of 99, therefore he was likely born around 1400 and died during the late period of Lê Thánh Tông's reign. Ngô Sĩ Liên was born and grew up during a turbulent period of Vietnam with the collapse of the

Trần dynasty The Trần dynasty, ( Vietnamese: Nhà Trần, chữ Nôm: 茹陳）also known as the House of Trần, was a Vietnamese dynasty that ruled over the Kingdom of Đại Việt from 1225 to 1400. The dynasty was founded when emperor Trần Thá ...

, the

Fourth Chinese domination The Fourth Era of Northern Domination was a period of Vietnamese history, from 1407 to 1427, during which Vietnam was ruled by the Chinese Ming dynasty as the province of Jiaozhi (Giao Chỉ). Ming rule was established in Vietnam following its c ...

by the

, the Lam Sơn uprising, the coronation of Lê Lợi and several struggles in the royal family of the Lê dynasty. Besides, Ngô Sĩ Liên also witnessed the gradual predomination of the

Confucianism Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a Religious Confucianism, religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, ...

over the

Buddhism 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 ...

in the royal court, especially during the reign of Lê Thánh Tông, it was the context in which Ngô Sĩ Liên wrote his ''

''.

Works

Ngô Sĩ Liên's major work is the historical record ''

'', a 15-volume (''quyển'') book that he compiled in revising ''

Đại Việt sử ký The ''Đại Việt sử ký'' (, vi-hantu, 大越史記, ''Annals of Đại Việt'') is the official historical text of the Trần dynasty, that was compiled by the royal historian Lê Văn Hưu and was finished in 1272. Considered the first co ...

'' of

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 Ch ...

and ''Đại Việt sử ký tục biên'' of

Phan Phu Tiên Phan Phu Tiên (chữ Hán: 潘孚先, 1370–1482), was a Vietnamese scholar-official and historian. He was charged by Lê Nhân Tông with writing the annals of the preceding Tran dynasty.Joseph Nguyen Huy Lai La tradition religieuse spirituelle ...

. During the reign of

, the emperor had commissioned his historians to write an official chronicle for the dynasty in the Quang Thuận period (1460–1469), this work was later lost but after Thánh Tông's order, Ngô Sĩ Liên, a member of the board of compilation, wrote his own version in 1479 which was finally resulted in the ''Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư''. The fact that Ngô Sĩ Liên decided to write his own national history despite the existence of the official records might be explained by Ngô Sĩ Liên's intention of expressing his opinions in the book just as Lê Văn Hưu did with his ''Đại Việt sử ký'' instead of satisfying with only an objective narration of the official records. Some reasoned that Ngô Sĩ Liên compiled the ''Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư'' because he felt the need to promote Cofucian ideology in the Lê dynasty. Ngô Sĩ Liên's style of compilation showed an important influence from

Sima Guang Sima Guang (17 November 1019 – 11 October 1086), courtesy name Junshi, was a Chinese historian, politician, and writer. He was a high-ranking Song dynasty scholar-official who authored the monumental history book ''Zizhi Tongjian''. Sima was ...

, the author of the ''

Zizhi Tongjian ''Zizhi Tongjian'' () is a pioneering reference work in Chinese historiography, published in 1084 AD during the Northern Song dynasty in the form of a chronicle recording Chinese history from 403 BC to 959 AD, covering 16 dynast ...

''. Different than his Vietnamese predecessors, Ngô Sĩ Liên did not limit his references in official documents related to history but he also extracted information from ''

'' (''Compilation of the potent spirits in the Realm of Việt'') and '' Lĩnh Nam chính quái'' (''Extraordinary stories of Lĩnh Nam'') which were collections of folk legend and myth but considered by the historian having some credibility about history. Another innovation of Ngô Sĩ Liên is his division of history of Vietnam into two principal periods, he placed all events that happened before the establishment of the Đinh dynasty in Peripheral Records (''Ngoại kỷ'') while the independent time from the Đinh dynasty (10th century) to the creation of the Lê dynasty in 1482 was narrated in Basic Records (''Bản kỷ''). In addition, Ngô Sĩ Liên also compiled another three records for the reigns of

Lê Thái Tổ Le is a romanization of several rare East Asian surnames and a common Vietnamese surname. It is a fairly common surname in the United States, ranked 975th during the 1990 census and 368th during the 2000 census. In 2000, it was the eighth-most-co ...

, Lê Thái Tông and Lê Nhân Tông (1428–1459) in a separate volume named ''Tam triều bản kỷ'' (''Records of the Three Reigns''). From his extensive 72 comments in ''Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư'', Ngô Sĩ Liên appeared to be a

Neo-Confucian Neo-Confucianism (, often shortened to ''lǐxué'' 理學, literally "School of Principle") is a moral, ethical, and metaphysical Chinese philosophy influenced by Confucianism, and originated with Han Yu (768–824) and Li Ao (772–841) in t ...

scholar. He often quoted from Confucian literature in criticizing an event or a decision of the previous dynasties that, according to Ngô Sĩ Liên, did not follow the Confucian codes for an appropriate ruling institution. According to O. W. Wolters, Ngô Sĩ Liên respected the Confucian perspective to the extent that the highest praise he could lavish on a Vietnamese ruler was that his achievements could not be bettered by even the most famous Chinese emperors in antiquity. However, the criticism and often harsh remarks of Ngô Sĩ Liên towards previous dynasties, especially the

, could be understood as the historian's concern for the current dynasty, because the Lê dynasty would fall into collapse unless it could avoid the mistakes that were committed by its predecessors like the Trần dynasty. Besides, the historian paid attention in defining the identity of the nation; a typical example of this intention was the existence of the

Hồng Bàng dynasty The Hồng Bàng period (Vietnamese: ''thời kỳ Hồng Bàng''), also called the Hồng Bàng dynasty,Pelley, p. 151 was a legendary, semi-mythical period in Vietnamese historiography, spanning from the beginning of the rule of Kinh Dươn ...

in Peripheral Records, Ngô Sĩ Liên's introduction of this dynasty was challenged by several historians for the lack of information and the real motive of the historian in writing about Hùng kings. Some remarked that Ngô Sĩ Liên made the Hồng Bàng dynasty the first dynasty of Vietnam only because he wanted to emphasize the identity and the independence of Vietnam from China.

Legacy

Today, ''Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư'' is the oldest official historical record of a Vietnamese dynasty that remains in its original form while Ngô Sĩ Liên is always considered one of the most important figures of the historiography of Vietnam. He is venerated in his native village where people, during the reign of

Tự Đức Tự Đức (, vi-hantu, 嗣德, lit. "inheritance of virtues", 22 September 1829 – 19 July 1883) (personal name: Nguyễn Phúc Hồng Nhậm , also Nguyễn Phúc Thì) was the fourth emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty of Vietnam; he ruled ...

, erected a

stele A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek language, Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ...

to praise the achievements of the historian. Several streets, schools and other places in Vietnam are named in honour of Ngô Sĩ Liên.

Notes and references

Notes

References

* * * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ngo, Si Lien Vietnamese Confucianists Vietnamese male writers Lê dynasty officials Lê dynasty writers 15th-century Vietnamese philosophers