Dương Thị Ngọc Vân (楊氏玉雲, ?–1000)

courtesy name A courtesy name (), also known as a style name, is a name bestowed upon one at adulthood in addition to one's given name. This practice is a tradition in the East Asian cultural sphere, including China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam.Ulrich Theob ...

Vân Nga (雲娥) was the only empress dowager of the

Đinh dynasty Dinh is a Vietnamese surname. In Vietnam, the surname is spelled Đinh or Đình but ''Đình'' is very rare in Vietnamese. Notable people * Andy Dinh, Team SoloMid owner, player * Dan Dinh, ''League of Legends '' player, brother of Andy Dinh * ...

and afterwards empress of

Lê Đại Hành 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 ...

, the first emperor of the Early Lê dynasty. When her husband

Đinh Tiên Hoàng Dinh is a Vietnamese surname. In Vietnam, the surname is spelled Đinh or Đình but ''Đình'' is very rare in Vietnamese. Notable people * Andy Dinh, Team SoloMid owner, player * Dan Dinh, ''League of Legends '' player, brother of Andy Dinh * ...

was assassinated in 979, Dương Vân Nga became the Empress Dowager of the Đinh dynasty as her son

Đinh Phế Đế Đinh Phế Đế (974–1001; literally "Overthrown Emperor of the Đinh") was the second and also the last emperor of the Đinh dynasty. His birth name was Đinh Toàn ( 丁璿) or Đinh Tuệ ( 丁穗). He was the son of Đinh Tiên Hoàng a ...

succeeded the throne. During the short-lived reign of Đinh Phế Đế, Dương Vân Nga and the general

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 ...

jointly held the regentship for the 6-year-old emperor, later it was Dương Vân Nga and general Phạm Cự Lượng who decided to cede the Đinh dynasty's throne for Lê Hoàn in 980 so that Đại Cồ Việt could stand 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 ...

's invasion with a capable ruler. Subsequently, Lê Hoàn entitled Dương Vân Nga as his empress, hence she became the first woman in 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 ...

to be married to two

emperors An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother (empr ...

Biography

Đinh dynasty

According to some sources, Dương Vân Nga was the daughter of a subordinate of the warlord

Dương Đình Nghệ Dương Đình Nghệ ( Chữ Hán: 楊廷藝; pinyin: ''Yáng Tíngyì''; 874 – March 937; some sources record Dương Diên Nghệ, Chữ Hán: 楊延藝) was the jiedushi of Tĩnh Hải quân in around 931 AD. He was a skillful, talented g ...

and came from the Ái province (now

Thanh Hóa Thanh Hóa () is the capital of Thanh Hóa Province. The city is situated in the east of the province on the Ma River (Sông Mã), about 150 kilometers (93 miles) south of Hanoi and 1560 kilometers (969 miles) north of Ho Chi Minh City. Thanh ...

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

), others claim that Dương Vân Nga was from the same town Hoa Lư as

. Being one of Đinh Tiên Hoàng's wives, Dương Vân Nga gave birth to his youngest son Đinh Toàn in 974. At the end of 979, as Đinh Tiên Hoàng and his eldest prince

Đinh Liễn Đinh Liễn (丁璉, 940 – October 979) or Đinh Khuông Liễn (丁匡璉), was the eldest son of emperor Đinh Bộ Lĩnh, the founding emperor of Đinh dynasty. Liễn was granted the title ''Nam Việt vương'' (南越王, "king of Nam Vi ...

were assassinated by

Đỗ Thích Đỗ is a Vietnamese family name. According to Lê Trung Hoa, a Vietnamese scholar, approximately 1.4 percent of Vietnamese people have this surname (2005).Lê Trung Hoa (2005). Họ và tên người Việt Nam, (Hà Nội), Việt Nam: NXB Khoa h ...

, the 6-year-old prince Đinh Toàn was made the successor of the throne of the

while his mother Dương Vân Nga became the Empress Dowager of the Đinh dynasty and took charge of the regentship with the general

who was promoted to the position of viceroy of the Đinh dynasty.

Regency

The short-lived reign of Đinh Toàn, now Đinh Phế Đế was perturbed by the revolt of Đinh Điền and

Nguyễn Bặc Nguyễn Bặc ( vi-hantu, 阮匐, 924 – 15 October 979), also known with the noble title Định Quốc Công (定國公), was a Vietnamese mandarin and general who served as the Grand Chancellor of Đinh dynasty and was the first chancellor i ...

who had been important officials in the royal court of Đinh Tiên Hoàng while the country also had to face with the intrusion led by

Ngô Nhật Khánh Ngô Nhật Khánh ( vi-hantu, 吳日慶, died 979), formally Prince An (安王), was a Vietnamese warlord during the Period of the 12 Warlords. Khánh was a grandson of Ngô Quyền. He occupied Đường Lâm (modern Sơn Tây, Hanoi), and ti ...

, son-in-law of Đinh Tiên Hoàng, with reinforcements from the kingdom of Champa in the southern border. The rebellion of Đinh Điền and Nguyễn Bặc was quickly put down by Lê Hoàn but in the north, the

began an invasion of Đại Cồ Việt in profiting its chaotic situation after the death of Đinh Tiên Hoàng, finally Dương Vân Nga and the general Phạm Cự Lượng with the agreement from the majority of officials in royal court, decided to elevate Lê Hoàn for the throne so that the country had an able ruler who could deal with grave troubles at that time, hence the Early Lê dynasty was established and replaced the Đinh dynasty. The account of Đinh Phế Đế's abdication for Lê Hoàn is slightly different in each historical record, for example in ''

Đại Việt sử lược The ''Đại Việt sử lược'' ( vi-hantu, 大越史略; lit. ''Abridged Chronicles of Đại Việt'') or ''Việt sử lược'' ( vi-hantu, 越史略; lit. ''Abridged Chronicles of Viet'') is an historical text that was compiled during the ...

'', which is the oldest chronicles of history of Vietnam that remains, and ''

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 ...

'', it was Phạm Cự Lượng who proposed the Empress Dowager to cede her son's throne to Lê Hoàn, On the other hand, in '' Khâm định Việt sử thông giám cương mục'', since Dương Vân Nga appeared to have affection for Lê Hoàn during their regency, Nguyễn Bặc and Đinh Điền decided to rise a revolt with the main purpose of overthrowing Lê Hoàn and protecting the child emperor, subsequently it was the Empress Dowager who had the principal role in the enthronement of Lê Hoàn when she entrusted the defence against the Song dynasty's invasion for Lê Hoàn and herself persuaded him to accept the proposition of Phạm Cự Lượng.

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 ...

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 Ki ...

'' also agreed with ''Khâm định Việt sử thông giám cương mục'' about the affair between Dương Vân Nga and Lê Hoàn during their regentship.

Early Lê dynasty

After his coronation, Lê Hoàn succeeded in driving out the invasion of the

in 981, afterwards he entitled the former empress dowager Dương Vân Nga as the new empress of the Early Lê dynasty with the name Empress Đại Thắng Minh (

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 ...

: ''Đại Thắng Minh Hoàng hậu''). With this second marriage, Dương Vân Nga became the first woman in the

to be married to two

. The marriage between Lê Hoàn and Dương Vân Nga was severely criticized by the

Confucian 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 religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, a way of governing, or ...

historian

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 remarked that the fornication between the general and his emperor's wife and later their marriage seriously violated the Confucian moral codes and so became the seeds for the immorality of his son afterwards. Another dynastic historian, Ngô Thì Sĩ, even despised the new title Empress Đại Thắng Minh (literally ''Bright Empress of Great Victory'') of Dương Vân Nga which was identical with the title of her first husband Emperor Đại Thắng Minh (''Đại Thắng Minh Hoàng đế'') Đinh Tiên Hoàng, in Ngô Thì Sĩ's opinion, this naming was a "forever derision" ("để cười nghìn thu") in the history of Vietnam. Dương Vân Nga died in 1000 or the seventh year of the Ứng Thiên

era An era is a span of time defined for the purposes of chronology or historiography, as in the regnal eras in the history of a given monarchy, a calendar era used for a given calendar, or the geological eras defined for the history of Earth. Comp ...

of Lê Đại Hành. She died in the same year as Lê Thâu, the eldest son of Lê Hoàn.

Legacy

Today Dương Vân Nga, together with Lê Đại Hành and his sons

Lê Long Đĩnh Lê Long Đĩnh (; 黎龍鋌, 15 November 986 – 19 November 1009), also known as Lê Ngọa Triều (黎臥朝), was the last emperor of the Early Lê family of the kingdom of Đại Cồ Việt, ruling from 1005 to 1009. After killing his ...

and Lê Long Việt, is still worshipped in the Temple of Lê Đại Hành in Hoa Lư which is located next to the tomb of Đinh Tiên Hoàng, her first husband. Since she witnessed a turbulent time and herself participated in various important events in history of Vietnam, the life of Dương Vân Nga becomes subject of several

chèo ''Chèo'' (, Chữ Nôm: 掉) is a form of generally satirical musical theatre, often encompassing dance, traditionally performed by Vietnamese peasants in northern Vietnam. It is usually performed outdoors by semi-amateur touring groups, stere ...

cải lương ''Tuồng cải lương'' (, Hán-Nôm: 從改良) often referred to as cải lương ( Chữ Hán: 改良), roughly "reformed theater") is a form of modern folk opera in Vietnam. It blends southern Vietnamese folk songs, classical music, '' há ...

plays and a novel named ''Hoàng hậu hai triều Dương Vân Nga'' (''Dương Vân Nga, Empress of Two Dynasties''). Dương Vân Nga and Lê Đại Hành's only known daughter, Princess Lê Thị Phất Ngân married Lý Công Uẩn, who became Emperor Lý Thái Tổ.
Vua Lý Thái Tổ làm rể vua Lê Đại Hành, Lê Thái Dũng, Bảo tàng lịch sử Việt Nam, 2011-09-13 Their son was Emperor Lý Thái Tông.

References

Bibliography

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External link

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