Lê Long Đĩnh (;
黎 龍 鋌, 15 November 98619 November 1009), also known as Lê Ngọa Triều (), was the last emperor of the
Early Lê dynasty
Early may refer to:
Places in the United States
* Early, Iowa, a city
* Early, Texas, a city
* Early Branch, a stream in Missouri
* Early County, Georgia
* Fort Early, Georgia, an early 19th century fort
Music
* Early B, stage name of Jamaican d ...
of the kingdom of
Đại Cồ Việt, ruling from 1005 to 1009. After killing his predecessor and brother
Lê Long Việt, he took the throne and named his era
Cảnh Thụy. His death at the age of 23 led to the fall of the Early Lê dynasty, and power was seized by the
Lý dynasty
The Lý dynasty (, , chữ Nôm: 茹李, chữ Hán: 朝李, Vietnamese language, Vietnamese: ''triều Lý''), officially Đại Cồ Việt (chữ Hán: 大瞿越) from 1009 to 1054 and Đại Việt (chữ Hán: 大越) from 1054 to 1225, was ...
. In some history books, he is portrayed as a self-indulgent and cruel emperor. However, a lot of temples were created where people still worship him, and recently, some historians have proved that some rumours about his ruling style were exaggerated, and possibly fabrications.
Background
Lê Long Đĩnh, who was also named Lê Chí Trung (), was born on 15 November 986 by the
Western calendar. He was the fifth son of Emperor
Lê Hoàn
Lê Hoàn (10 August 941 – 18 March 1005), posthumously title Lê Đại Hành, was the third ruler of Đại Việt kingdom, ruling from 981 to 1005, and founder of the Early Lê dynasty. He first served as the generalissimo commanding ...
, but historians do not note the background of his mother, only information regarding a
concubine
Concubinage is an interpersonal relationship, interpersonal and Intimate relationship, sexual relationship between two people in which the couple does not want to, or cannot, enter into a full marriage. Concubinage and marriage are often regarde ...
. He was the half-brother of the duke of Nam Phong (), Lê Long Việt.
The ''
Complete Annals of Đại Việt'' () recorded that in 992 he was granted the title ''Prince of Khai Minh'' (, ) and ruled over Đằng county (now
Hưng Yên province
Hưng Yên (/hɨŋ˧˧:iən˧˧/) is a province in the Red River Delta of Northern Vietnam.
History Dynastic period
The area of the province of Hưng Yên has been inhabited for millennia. Under the Ngô dynasty, it was called Dang Chau. It wa ...
).
[According to the '' Khâm định Việt sử Thông giám cương mục'', Prequel Records Volume 5, 31 (), Đằng Châu comprised "Đằng Châu commune, Kim Động district, and Hưng Yên province; the Trần dynasty called it Khoái Lộ, and the Lê dynasty called it Khoái Châu" (). The area now corresponds to Kim Động district, Khoái Châu and Văn Giang townships, ]Hưng Yên
Hưng Yên () is a city in the Red River Delta of the Northern Vietnam. It is the old capital of Hưng Yên Province and is a third-graded city according to Vietnam's urban classification table.
History
Hưng Yên city was originally the expansion ...
city, Hưng Yên province
Hưng Yên (/hɨŋ˧˧:iən˧˧/) is a province in the Red River Delta of Northern Vietnam.
History Dynastic period
The area of the province of Hưng Yên has been inhabited for millennia. Under the Ngô dynasty, it was called Dang Chau. It wa ...
, and part of Thái Bình province
Thái Bình was a former coastal eastern Provinces of Vietnam, province in the Red River Delta region of northern Vietnam. Its name is chữ Hán (太平) for "great peace." It is about 18 km from Nam Định, 70 km from Haiphong, and 110 km from ...
. In 1004 the crown prince and duke of Kinh Thiên, Lê Long Khâu, died; the emperor made Lê Long Việt the crown prince of Đại Cồ Việt and Lê Long Đĩnh the duke of Khai Minh.
Struggle for the throne
In 1005, Lê Hoàn died in Trường Xuân palace. Crown Prince Lê Long Việt contested the crown with his three brothers: Tích, Kính, and Đĩnh. The four princes pitted their armies against each other, plunging the country into civil war. In October 1005, Việt defeated Tích, forcing him to flee to
Champa
Champa (Cham language, Cham: ꨌꩌꨛꨩ, چمڤا; ; 占城 or 占婆) was a collection of independent Chams, Cham Polity, polities that extended across the coast of what is present-day Central Vietnam, central and southern Vietnam from ...
where he was subsequently killed by locals at the Cơ La estuary. The victorious Việt was proclaimed emperor with the title ('Emperor Trung Tông').
Three days after his ascension, however, Trung Tông was murdered by assassins in Lê Long Đĩnh's employ. All of his supporters fled except for
Lý Công Uẩn
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 ...
, who embraced the body of the emperor and wept. In the winter of 1005, Lê Long Đĩnh took the throne with the regnal name () and gave his mother the title ().
Reign
Foreign relations
After news of the death of Emperor Lê Hoàn in China,
Song dynasty
The Song dynasty ( ) was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Fiv ...
officials urged the Song emperor
Taizong to dispatch forces to invade Đại Cồ Việt. However, Taizong chose to respect the
tributary status that Đại Cồ Việt had towards the Song Empire, and he left the country alone. Some trading activities occurred between both nations.
Sponsorship of Buddhism and education
In spring 1007, Lê Long Đĩnh ordered his brother to gift a white
pangolin
Pangolins, sometimes known as scaly anteaters, are mammals of the order Pholidota (). The one extant family, the Manidae, has three genera: '' Manis'', '' Phataginus'', and '' Smutsia''. ''Manis'' comprises four species found in Asia, while ' ...
(or white
rhinoceros
A rhinoceros ( ; ; ; : rhinoceros or rhinoceroses), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant taxon, extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates (perissodactyls) in the family (biology), famil ...
) as a gift to the Song dynasty in exchange for
Buddhist sutras
Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or 5th century BCE. It is the world's fourth- ...
to be sent to Vietnam. In the
Vietnamese Buddhist records of
Zen Buddhist
Zen (; from Chinese: ''Chán''; in Korean: ''Sŏn'', and Vietnamese: ''Thiền'') is a Mahayana Buddhist tradition that developed in China during the Tang dynasty by blending Indian Mahayana Buddhism, particularly Yogacara and Madhyamaka phil ...
Thích Mật Thể, in the 14th year of the Ứng Thiên era (1008), Lê Long Đĩnh sent an envoy to Song to pay tribute and asked for nine classic texts and
sutra
''Sutra'' ()Monier Williams, ''Sanskrit English Dictionary'', Oxford University Press, Entry fo''sutra'' page 1241 in Indian literary traditions refers to an aphorism or a collection of aphorisms in the form of a manual or, more broadly, a ...
s to take back to Vietnam. The Song emperor approved the request and gave the requested works to the Vietnamese ambassador. The nine classics included ''
I Ching
The ''I Ching'' or ''Yijing'' ( ), usually translated ''Book of Changes'' or ''Classic of Changes'', is an ancient Chinese divination text that is among the oldest of the Chinese classics. The ''I Ching'' was originally a divination manual in ...
'', ''
Classic of Poetry
The ''Classic of Poetry'', also ''Shijing'' or ''Shih-ching'', translated variously as the ''Book of Songs'', ''Book of Odes'', or simply known as the ''Odes'' or ''Poetry'' (; ''Shī''), is the oldest existing collection of Chinese poetry, co ...
'', ''
Book of Documents
The ''Book of Documents'' ( zh, p=Shūjīng, c=書經, w=Shu King) or the ''Classic of History'', is one of the Five Classics of ancient Chinese literature. It is a collection of rhetorical prose attributed to figures of ancient China, a ...
'', ''
Book of Rites
The ''Book of Rites'', also known as the ''Liji'', is a collection of texts describing the social forms, administration, and ceremonial rites of the Zhou dynasty as they were understood in the Warring States and the early Han periods. The '' ...
'', ''
Spring and Autumn Annals
The ''Spring and Autumn Annals'' is an ancient Chinese chronicle that has been one of the core Chinese classics since ancient times. ''The Annals'' is the official chronicle of the State of Lu, and covers a 242-year period from 722 to 481&nbs ...
'', ''
Classic of Filial Piety
The ''Classic of Filial Piety'', also known by its Chinese name as the ''Xiaojing'', is a Confucian classic treatise giving advice on filial piety: that is, how to behave towards a senior such as a father, an elder brother, or a ruler.
The ...
'', ''
Analects
The ''Analects'', also known as the ''Sayings of Confucius'', is an ancient Chinese philosophical text composed of sayings and ideas attributed to Confucius and his contemporaries, traditionally believed to have been compiled by his followers. ...
'', and ''
Mencius
Mencius (孟子, ''Mèngzǐ'', ; ) was a Chinese Confucian philosopher, often described as the Second Sage () to reflect his traditional esteem relative to Confucius himself. He was part of Confucius's fourth generation of disciples, inheriting ...
''. These were the first classics of Chinese civilization to come to Vietnam.
Controversies
According to the ''Complete annals of Đại Việt'', Lê Long Đĩnh was one of the most brutal and sadistic rulers of Vietnam's dynastic era. His reign was considered a "reign of terror" at the time. He has been compared to the Roman emperors
Caligula
Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus (31 August 12 – 24 January 41), also called Gaius and Caligula (), was Roman emperor from AD 37 until his assassination in 41. He was the son of the Roman general Germanicus and Augustus' granddaughter Ag ...
and
Commodus
Commodus (; ; 31 August 161 – 31 December 192) was Roman emperor from 177 to 192, first serving as nominal co-emperor under his father Marcus Aurelius and then ruling alone from 180. Commodus's sole reign is commonly thought to mark the end o ...
in their traits of cruelty and paranoia.
He is alleged to have often executed innocent people who were condemned to death for entertaining purposes, by ways such as tying them with hay to burn to death, or by ordering an executioner called Liêu Thủ Tâm () from
Song China to mutilate victims to death slowly using dull swords and axes. When the victims cried out in agony, this executioner would manipulate the victims into thinking they were not dying. The emperor was said to have delighted in the deaths of his victims.
After capturing
prisoners of war
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...
, he is said to have ordered his soldiers to march the prisoners to rivers and cram them into cages that were tied along the riverbanks. When the high tides came in at dusk, he would watch them drown slowly.
The emperor himself is said to have often stabbed livestock such as pigs or cows to death before he allowed servants to prepare them for feasts. At court banquets, he killed cats and served them to his guests and court officials and made them eat the cats. Afterwards, he would play around with their severed heads in front of the court audience, frightening them and reducing their chances of questioning him.
Later life
According to historical records, he developed
hemorrhoids
Hemorrhoids (or haemorrhoids), also known as piles, are vascular structures in the anal canal. In their normal state, they are cushions that help with stool control. They become a disease when swollen or inflamed; the unqualified term ''he ...
and often held court while lying down, earning the popular name ( means 'lie' and means 'court'). He was not given a
temple name
Temple names are posthumous titles accorded to monarchs of the Sinosphere for the purpose of ancestor worship. The practice of honoring monarchs with temple names began during the Shang dynasty in China and had since been adopted by other dynas ...
because his successor ended the
Early Lê dynasty
Early may refer to:
Places in the United States
* Early, Iowa, a city
* Early, Texas, a city
* Early Branch, a stream in Missouri
* Early County, Georgia
* Fort Early, Georgia, an early 19th century fort
Music
* Early B, stage name of Jamaican d ...
and started the
Lý dynasty
The Lý dynasty (, , chữ Nôm: 茹李, chữ Hán: 朝李, Vietnamese language, Vietnamese: ''triều Lý''), officially Đại Cồ Việt (chữ Hán: 大瞿越) from 1009 to 1054 and Đại Việt (chữ Hán: 大越) from 1054 to 1225, was ...
.
He held the throne for four years, until 1009, when he died at the age of 23. His son Sạ was a child at the time, under the supervision of an official named Đào Cam Mộc (). When
Lý Thái Tổ
Lý Thái Tổ ( vi-hantu, , 8 March 974 – 31 March 1028), personal name Lý Công Uẩn, temple name Thái Tổ, was a founding emperor of Lý dynasty and the 6th ruler of Đại Việt; he reigned from 1009 to 1028.
Early years
Lý Công ...
became emperor of the Lý dynasty, all the officials enthroned him without any debate, and the Early Lê dynasty was abolished after only three emperors.
Notes
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Le, Long Dinh
986 births
1009 deaths
Civil wars in Vietnam
Early Lê dynasty emperors
Vietnamese monarchs
People from Ninh Bình province