Lê Văn Hưu (1230–1322) was an historian 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 ...

. He is best known for his work the '' Đại Việt sử ký'', the first comprehensive historical record 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 ...

. Although the book was lost during the Fourth Chinese domination in Vietnam, its contents, including Lê Văn Hưu's comments on various events in the history of Vietnam, were used by other Vietnamese historians as a base for their works, notably 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 ...

'' by

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 ...

History

Lê Văn Hưu was born in 1230 in Phủ Lý village, Hà Nam now Phủ Lý District, Hà Nam. In February 1247 he ranked second in the

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 ...

organized under the reign of

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 ...

and thus received the title ''bảng nhãn'' ( 榜眼, eyes positioned alongside). After the examination, he was appointed an official of the royal court of the

and was gradually promoted to Hàn Lâm viện học sĩ (翰林院學士, Member of the Hanlin Academy) and Quốc sử viện giám tu (Supervisor of the royal bureau for historical records) during the reign 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 ...

. Lê Văn Hưu was also the teacher of the Prince Chiêu Minh Trần Quang Khải, the younger brother of Trần Thánh Tông. Lê Văn Hưu began to compile the official historical text of the Trần dynasty named '' Đại Việt sử ký'' ( 大越史記, ''Annals of Đại Việt'') during the reign of Trần Thái Tông. In this 30-volume (''quyển'') text, Lê Văn Hưu comprehensively recounted the history of Vietnam from Triệu Đà, the first king of the

Triệu dynasty The Triệu dynasty or Zhao dynasty (; vi, Nhà Triệu, links=no; 茹趙) ruled the kingdom of Nanyue, which consisted of parts of southern China as well as northern Vietnam. Its capital was Panyu, in modern Guangzhou. The founder of the dynas ...

, to

Lý Chiêu Hoàng Lý Chiêu Hoàng ( vi-hantu, 李昭皇, September 1218 – 1278), personal name Lý Phật Kim (李佛金) later renamed to Lý Thiên Hinh (李天馨), was the ninth and last sovereign of the Lý dynasty, empress of Đại Việt f ...

which was the empress regnant and the last ruler of the Lý dynasty. After the ''Đại Việt sử ký'' was finished, Lê Văn Hưu offered the book to the Emperor Trần Thánh Tông in January 1272 and was praised by Thánh Tông for its quality.

Lê Tắc 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 ...

in his ''

An Nam chí lược The ''An Nam chí lược'' (literally ''Abbreviated Records of An Nam'') is a historical text that was compiled by the Vietnamese historian Lê Tắc during his exile in China in early 14th century. Published for the first time in 1335 during ...

'' suggested that the ''Đại Việt sử ký'' was compiled by Lê Văn Hưu in revising the book ''Việt chí'' ( 越志, ''Records of Việt'') which was written by Trần Phổ under the order of Trần Thái Tông. According to ''

Từ điển bách khoa toàn thư Việt Nam ''Từ điển bách khoa Việt Nam'' (Literally ''Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Vietnam'') is a state-sponsored Vietnamese language encyclopedia that was published in Vietnam in 2005. It is the first state encyclopedia of the Socialist Republic o ...

'', Lê Văn Hưu died in 1322 at the age of 92.

Works

Lê Văn Hưu's ''Đại Việt sử ký'' is considered the first comprehensive historical record of the

. During the Fourth Chinese domination, many valuable books of

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 H ...

were taken aways by the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last orthodox dynasty of China ruled by the Han peo ...

including the ''Đại Việt sử ký'', hence the book was subsequently lost and they could not find out anymore the original version of the ''Đại Việt sử ký''. However, the contents of the ''Đại Việt sử ký'' and Lê Văn Hưu's comments on various historical events was collected by Phan Phu Tiên and later

in their works, notably the ''

'' by Ngô Sĩ Liên. From his remarks recorded in the ''Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư'', Lê Văn Hưu proved to focus his work on Đại Việt's independence from and equality with its northern neighbour China. For example, Lê Văn Hưu praised

Ngô Quyền Ngô Quyền ( vi-hantu, 吳權) (April 17, 898 – February 14, 944), often referred to as Tiền Ngô Vương (前吳王; "First King of Ngô"), was a warlord who later became the founding king of the Ngô dynasty of Vietnam. He reigned from ...

for his original military tactics defeating the

Southern Han Southern Han (; 917–971), officially Han (), originally Yue (), was one of the ten kingdoms that existed during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. It was located on China's southern coast, controlling modern Guangdong and Guangxi. The ...

's navy in the Battle of Bạch Đằng (938) and restoring the independence of Vietnam but he criticized Ngô Quyền's decision of keeping the title King (''Vương'') instead of self-proclaiming Emperor (''Hoàng đế''). Lê Văn Hưu was also the first Vietnamese historian who appreciated the revolt of the Trưng Sisters against the

Han dynasty The Han dynasty (, ; ) was an imperial dynasty of China (202 BC – 9 AD, 25–220 AD), established by Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–207 BC) and a warr ...

which he evaluated a symbol of the fight for independence in Vietnam. Therefore, Lê Văn Hưu was considered an essential scholar in affirming an autonomous identity for Vietnam.Patricia M. Pelley ''Postcolonial Vietnam: New Histories of the National Past'' 2002 Page 29 "Instead of insisting on a rupture with the dynastic past, they reinterpreted Lê Văn Hưu and Ngô Sĩ Liên as ancestors to be revered ... To celebrate ''seven hundred years of historiographical tradition,'' to honor Lê Văn Hưu as the first historian of "

References

Notes

Bibliography

* * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Le, Van Huu Vietnamese writers 13th-century Vietnamese historians Trần dynasty officials 1230 births 1322 deaths Trần dynasty writers 13th-century Vietnamese philosophers 14th-century Vietnamese philosophers 14th-century Vietnamese historians