Prince Yên Sinh Trần Liễu (1211–1251) was the elder brother of the
Trần Thái Tông,
the first emperor
''The First Emperor'' is an opera in two acts with music by Tan Dun and a libretto written in English by Tan Dun and Ha Jin. The opera received its world premiere at the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center in New York City on 21 December 2006, co ...
of
Trần Dynasty. Initially, Trần Liễu was honoured by his younger brother with the title King Hiển (
Vietnamese: Hiển Hoàng) but he was downgraded to Prince Yên Sinh after the short-lived revolt in fury of losing his pregnant wife, Princess
Thuận Thiên, to the Emperor under the pressure of Imperial Regent
Trần Thủ Độ. Besides this event, Trần Liễu was well known in the
history of Vietnam for being the father of
Trần Hưng Đạo, commander-in-chief of the
Đại Việt army during the second and third war of resistance against the
Mongol invasion.
Background
Trần Liễu was born in 1211 as the first son of
Trần Thừa
Trần Thừa ( Hán tự: 陳 承, 1184–1234) was the head of the Trần clan and a high-ranking mandarin during the reign of Lý Huệ Tông and Lý Chiêu Hoàng. After the overthrow of the Lý dynasty by Trần Thủ Độ, Trần Th ...
and grandson of Trần Lý, the head of the Trần clan in
Lưu Gia village. During the troubled time under the reign of
Lý Cao Tông, the Crown Prince
Lý Sảm
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 ...
sought refuge in Trần Lý's family and decided to marry his beautiful daughter
Trần Thị Dung
National Matriarch Linh Từ (Vietnamese: Linh Từ Quốc mẫu, Hán tự: 靈 慈 國 母) Trần Thị Dung (?–1259) was the last empress and the last empress mother of the Lý dynasty. She was entitled by the Emperor Lý Huệ Tông ...
, younger sister of Trần Thừa, in 1209. Afterward, it was the Trần clan who helped Lý Cao Tông and Lý Sảm restore the throne in
Thăng Long, therefore the Emperor appointed several members of the Trần clan for high positions in the royal court such as
Tô Trung Từ who was uncle of Trần Thị Dung, or
Trần Tự Khánh
Marquis Chương Thành Trần Tự Khánh (1175-1223) was a general of the Lý dynasty during the reigns of Lý Cao Tông and Lý Huệ Tông. He was son of Trần Lý, head of the Trần clan, and brother of Trần Thừa and Trần Thị Dun ...
who was Trần Thừa's younger brother.
In 1211 the Crown Prince Lý Sảm was enthroned as
Lý Huệ Tông after the death of
Lý Cao Tông, by then the Trần clan's position began to rise in royal court.
During this time, Trần Liễu was entitled by Lý emperor as Prince Phụng Càn (Phụng Càn vương)
and married to Princess Thuận Thiên who was elder sister of Empress Regnant
Lý Chiêu Hoàng.
In October 1224, Lý Huệ Tông decided to cede the throne to his second daughter, the Princess Chiêu Thánh, now the Empress Regnant Lý Chiêu Hoàng.
Chiêu Hoàng was only six at that time so every important decision in the royal court was made by the Trần clan. Profiting from this circumstance,
Trần Thủ Độ arranged a marriage between Chiêu Hoàng and
Trần Cảnh, the eight-year-old son of Trần Thừa and the younger brother of Trần Liễu.
With Trần Cảnh being the Empress Regnant's husband, Trần Thủ Độ was finally able to overthrow Lý Dynasty by making Lý Chiêu Hoàng pass the throne to Trần Cảnh, now
Trần Thái Tông, in 1225.
History
In August 1228 Trần Thái Tông appointed Trần Liễu for the position of prime minister (''Thái úy'') of the royal court.
He was promoted to Regent of the Emperor in 1234 and was honoured by the Emperor with the title King Hiển (Hiển Hoàng) which was criticized by the historian
Ngô Sĩ Liên as an over-merit and origin of Trần Liễu's revolt afterwards.
However, in 1236 Trần Liễu committed a serious guilt in royal palace when he violated a former concubine of Lý Dynasty, therefore he was downgraded to Prince Hoài (Hoài vương).
[
According to '' Đại Việt sử kí toàn thư'', Thái Tông and his wife the Empress Chiêu Thánh did not have their first son for a while, this situation in the royal family made grand chancellor Trần Thủ Độ worried because he had profited the same circumstance of the Emperor Lý Huệ Tông to overthrow the Lý Dynasty. Therefore, in 1237 Trần Thủ Độ decided to force Trần Liễu to give up his wife Princess Thuận Thiên for the Emperor when she had been already pregnant with Trần Liễu for three months. After the royal marriage, Thuận Thiên was entitled the new empress of the Trần Dynasty while Chiêu Thánh was downgraded to princess. In the fury of losing his pregnant wife, Trần Liễu rose a revolt against the royal family, meanwhile, Thái Tông felt awkward about the situation and decided to become a monk in Yên Tử Mountain. Finally Trần Thủ Độ successfully persuaded Thái Tông to return to the throne and Trần Liễu had to surrender after judging that he could not stand with his fragile force. All soldiers who participated in this revolt were killed. Trần Thủ Độ even wished to behead Trần Liễu but was stopped by Thái Tông.]生
Radical 100 or radical life () meaning "life" is one of the 23 Kangxi radicals (214 radicals in total) composed of 5 strokes.
In the ''Kangxi Dictionary'', there are 22 characters (out of 49,030) to be found under this radical.
is also the 109 ...
王
is a Chinese character encountered in East Asian languages. It was grouped with as Radical 96 in the ''Kangxi'' radicals.
It may also refer to:
* kings, in reference to non-Chinese states
* the early Chinese sovereigns of the Xia, Shang, and ...
).
Family
Trần Liễu had two wives. The first was Princess Thuận Thiên whom Trần Liễu was forced to give up for his brother Thái Tông.[ The second wife of Trần Liễu was Lady Thiện Đạo who was entitled as Mother of the Nation (Quốc mẫu), her given name Nguyệt afterwards was made as taboo by an order of the Emperor for the purpose of honouring Trần Liễu and his wife.]
References
Notes
Bibliography
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Tran, Lieu
Trần dynasty princes
Lý dynasty princes
1211 births
1251 deaths