Prince Tĩnh Quốc Trần Quốc Khang (1237–1300) was the first prince of the Emperor

Trần Thái Tông Trần Thái Tông (17 July 1218 – 5 May 1277), personal name Trần Cảnh or Trần Nhật Cảnh, temple name Thái Tông, was the first emperor of the Trần dynasty, reigned Đại Việt for 33 years (1226–58), being Retired Emperor f ...

, the eldest brother of

Trần Thánh Tông Trần Thánh Tông (October 12, 1240 – July 3, 1290), personal name Trần Hoảng (), was the second emperor of the Trần dynasty, reigning over Đại Việt from 1258 to 1278. After ceding the throne to his son Trần Nhân Tông, Thán ...

and princes

Trần Quang Khải Prince Chiêu Minh Trần Quang Khải (1241–1294) was the third son of Trần Thái Tông, first emperor of the Trần dynasty of Vietnam. Being the younger brother of the Emperor Trần Thánh Tông and holding the position of grand ch ...

Trần Ích Tắc Trần Ích Tắc ( vi-hantu, 陳益稷, Chen Yiji, 1254–1329), or Prince Chiêu Quốc (Vietnamese: Chiêu Quốc vương / 昭國王), was a prince of Đại Việt, the fifth son of emperor Trần Thái Tông of the Trần dynasty, and the ...

and

Trần Nhật Duật Prince Chiêu Văn Trần Nhật Duật (1255–1330) was the sixth son of Trần Thái Tông, first emperor of Trần Dynasty. Being younger brother of the Emperor Trần Thánh Tông, Trần Nhật Duật was one of the most important figur ...

. Although a son of Thái Tông in name, Trần Quốc Khang's father was actually Prince Hoài

Trần Liễu Prince Yên Sinh Trần Liễu (1211–1251) was the elder brother of the Trần Thái Tông, the first emperor of Trần Dynasty. Initially, Trần Liễu was honoured by his younger brother with the title King Hiển (Vietnamese: Hiển Ho ...

, who was forced by grand chancellor

Trần Thủ Độ Prince Trung Võ Trần Thủ Độ ( vi-hantu, 陳守度, 1194–1264) was a general and leader of the Trần clan during the reign of Lý Huệ Tông and Lý Chiêu Hoàng of Vietnam. Trần Thủ Độ was credited for overthrowing the Lý dyna ...

to give up his wife, Princess Thuận Thiên, to his younger brother Thái Tông when she was already pregnant with Trần Quốc Khang. For this reason, Trần Quốc Khang was not chosen as successor of Thái Tông for the throne, and he did not have a significant role in royal court either, as his younger brothers did. Afterwards he was appointed as governor of Nghệ An, a position that his descendants inherited. Since Trần Quốc Khang was in fact a son of

, he was also a natural brother of general

Trần Hưng Đạo Trần Hưng Đạo (; 1228–1300), real name Trần Quốc Tuấn (陳國峻), also known as Grand Prince Hưng Đạo (''Hưng Đạo Đại Vương'' - 興道大王), was a Vietnamese royal prince, statesman and military commander of Đạ ...

, commander-in-chief of Đại Việt army.

Background

Trần Quốc Khang was born in 1237 as the first son of the Emperor

and his new empress Thuận Thiên. 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 made grand chancellor

worried, because he had profited from the same circumstance with the Emperor

Lý Huệ Tông Lý Huệ Tông (chữ Hán: 李惠宗; born Lý Sảm 李旵; July 1194 – 3 September 1226) was the emperor of Vietnam from 1211 to 1224, the penultimate leader of the Lý dynasty. During Lý Huệ Tông's rule, many members of the Trần famil ...

to overthrow 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 ...

and create 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 Thái T ...

. Therefore, Trần Thủ Độ decided to force Thái Tông's elder brother, Prince Hoài

, to give up his wife Princess Thuận Thiên for the Emperor when she had been already pregnant with Trần Quốc Khang for three months. After the royal marriage, Thuận Thiên was styled 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, and Thái Tông felt awkward about the situation and decided to become a monk in Yên Tử Mountain. The stable state was only restored when Trần Thủ Độ successfully persuaded Thái Tông to return to the throne and put down Trần Liễu's revolt. Vietnamese historians in the feudal era, such as

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 ...

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 ...

, often criticized decisions of Trần Thủ Độ and Trần Thái Tông in this event and considered it as the root cause for the downfall of the Trần dynasty afterwards, during the reign of

Trần Dụ Tông Trần Dụ Tông ( vi-hantu, 陳裕宗, 22 November 1336 – 25 May 1369), given name Trần Hạo (陳暭), was the seventh emperor of the Trần dynasty, and reigned over Vietnam from 1341 to 1369. Enthroned by Senior Emperor Minh Tông afte ...

. After the birth of Quốc Khang, Thái Tông and the Empress Thuận Thiên had two other sons,

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 ...

Trần Hoảng Trần (陳) or Tran is a common Vietnamese surname. More than 10% of all Vietnamese people share this surname. It is derived from the common Chinese surname Chen. History The Tran ruled the Trần dynasty, a golden era in Vietnam, and succe ...

, who eventually became the Emperor

, and Prince Chiêu Minh

. Thái Tông also had several sons with his concubines, such as Prince Chiêu Quốc

and Prince Chiêu Văn

History

Unlike his famous brothers Trần Quang Khải or Trần Nhật Duật, Prince Tĩnh Quốc (

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia ** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam. * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overse ...

: Tĩnh Quốc vương) Trần Quốc Khang was not an important figure in the royal court during

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 ...

's war of resistance against the

Mongol invasion The Mongol invasions and conquests took place during the 13th and 14th centuries, creating history's largest contiguous empire: the Mongol Empire (1206- 1368), which by 1300 covered large parts of Eurasia. Historians regard the Mongol devastati ...

. While Trần Quang Khải was appointed by the Emperor

as minister at age 20, Trần Quốc Khang was not considered capable for an important position and thus he held only some nominal high-ranking title, but without real power in the royal court. However, Prince Tĩnh Quốc always lived in good term with his brothers. It was said that one time when the Retired Emperor Thái Tông wore a white cotton coat, Trần Quốc Khang tried to make the Retired Emperor award him this coat by a dance and finally achieved his purpose, but when the Emperor also wanted to get the coat by another dance, Prince Tĩnh Quốc said: "Even for the most precious thing, the throne, Your Majesty's humble subject uốc Khangdid not want to fight with the second brother hánh Tông Now the Retired Emperor awards me this negligible coat and the second brother still wants to deprive me of it?" His answer was praised by Thái Tông: "So you think that the throne has the same value as this mediocre coat." In 1269, Trần Quốc Khang was appointed as commander in chief (thượng tướng quân) to govern the southern frontier province Nghệ An. Prince Tĩnh Quốc decided to build his palace there, which was so luxurious that the Emperor knew about its reputation. Ultimately Prince Tĩnh Quốc transformed his palace into a Buddhist pagoda which still remains today with the name Thông Pagoda. During the

invasion An invasion is a Offensive (military), military offensive in which large numbers of combatants of one geopolitics, geopolitical Legal entity, entity aggressively enter territory (country subdivision), territory owned by another such entity, gen ...

of the

Yuan dynasty The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai, the fifth ...

in Đại Việt, Trần Quốc Khang's son, Marquis Chương Hiến (Chương Hiến hầu)

Trần Kiện Trần (陳) or Tran is a common Vietnamese surname. More than 10% of all Vietnamese people share this surname. It is derived from the common Chinese surname Chen. History The Tran ruled the Trần dynasty, a golden era in Vietnam, and succe ...

surrendered to

Kublai Khan Kublai ; Mongolian script: ; (23 September 1215 – 18 February 1294), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Shizu of Yuan and his regnal name Setsen Khan, was the founder of the Yuan dynasty of China and the fifth khagan-emperor of th ...

's prince Toghan. He was one of the highest ranking defectors of the Trần dynasty, just lower than Trần Ích Tắc, Trần Quốc Khang's younger brother. Before he could flee to northern border, Trần Kiện was killed in February 1285 by Nguyễn Địa Lô, house servant of

who incidentally was a son of Trần Liễu and thus a natural brother of Trần Quốc Khang. Prince Tĩnh Quốc Trần Quốc Khang died in March 1300 at the age of 63. Afterwards, his position of governor of Nghệ An was inherited by his descendants for several generations.

References

Notes

Bibliography

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tran, Quoc Khang Trần dynasty princes Trần dynasty generals Trần dynasty officials 1237 births 1300 deaths