Lê Tương Dực (Han: 黎襄翼; 16 July 1495 – 8 May 1516), birth name Lê Oanh (黎瀠), reigned from 1509 to 1516, was the ninth emperor of the later
Lê dynasty
The Lê dynasty, also known in historiography as the Later Lê dynasty (, chữ Hán: 朝後黎, chữ Nôm: 茹後黎), officially Đại Việt (; Chữ Hán: 大越), was the longest-ruling List of Vietnamese dynasties, Vietnamese dynasty, h ...
of
Đại Việt
Đại Việt (, ; literally Great Việt), was a Vietnamese monarchy in eastern Mainland Southeast Asia from the 10th century AD to the early 19th century, centered around the region of present-day Hanoi. Its early name, Đại Cồ Việt,(ch ...
. The only primary account of his life and reign was 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 Đại Việt, that was originally compiled by the royal historian Ngô Sĩ Liên under ...
, the official historical chronicle of Đại Việt during the Lê dynasty which was completed in 1697 under the direction of the
Trịnh lords Trịnh is a Vietnamese family name
In many societies, a surname, family name, or last name is the mostly hereditary portion of one's personal name that indicates one's family. It is typically combined with a given name to form the full na ...
. The chronicle described Lê Tương Dực as initially being a good emperor who reorganized the court and ruled the nation wisely. However, later during his reign, he became overly greedy, corrupt and extravagant.
He was a grandson of
Lê Thánh Tông and the second son of Prince Lê Tân, a younger brother of
Lê Hiến Tông. His mother was Trịnh Thị Tuyên, a daughter of general Trịnh Trọng Phong. In 1509, Hiến Tông's son, Emperor
Lê Uy Mục arrested Lê Oanh during a program of purging imperial princes who were suspicious of disloyalty. Oanh fled to
Thanh Hoá, the House of Lê's homeland, and gathered an army against the Emperor. With the help of his lieutenants
Nguyễn Văn Lang and
Nguyễn Hoằng Dụ, Oanh marched his army to the imperial capital and defeated the Emperor's military officers. In retaliation, Lê Uy Mục executed Oanh's elder brother, Lê Sùng. That did not prevent Oanh from decisively routing the Emperor's main army and killing Uy Mục. Oanh then proclaimed himself Emperor and designed his
era name
A regnal year is a year of the reign of a sovereign, from the Latin meaning kingdom, rule. Regnal years considered the date as an ordinal, not a cardinal number. For example, a monarch could have a first year of rule, a second year of rule, a t ...
as Hồng Thuận (洪順). In the early years of his reign, Lê Oanh, known to later generations as Lê Tương Dực, had some achievements in reorganizing the government and fostering
Neo-Confucianist education. He also ordered the compilation of a new historical chronicle, ''Đại Việt thông giám thông khảo'', by the Minister of War
Vũ Quỳnh and ''Trị bình bảo phạm'' or "Rules for Maintaining Social Stability", in accordance with Neo-Confucianism.
However, later in his reign, he spent extravagantly in building many colossal palaces in the capital
Thăng Long. The most notable of those places was one known to the Vietnamese as "Nine-Story Tower" (''Cửu Trùng Đài)'', designed by famous architect
Vũ Như Tô. He also spent much time enjoying sexual activities with his concubines, many of whom were former concubines of Lê Hiến Tông and Lê Uy Mục. According to court chronicles, he ordered special ships to be built for him to travel on the
West Lake. He also forced his concubines to strip naked and perform dances on these ships. As the result of the emperor's luxurious lifestyle and ignorance of state affairs, the people suffered considerable hardships. Many soldiers committed to build imperial palaces died due to diseases. As the government became increasingly unpopular, many rebellions broke out. The largest of them was that of
Trần Cảo, a northerner who claimed to be an heir of the
House of Trần.
Because of his terrible leadership, he was known as the "Pig Emperor" (''Trư Vương'', 豬王) by later historians. The name comes from the remarks of him by a
Chinese diplomat who came to Đại Việt in 1513.
In 1516, a group of imperial guards, led by general
Trịnh Duy Sản
Trịnh Duy Sản (chữ Hán: 鄭惟㦃; ? - 1516), was a later Lê-period politician, a military general of Đại Việt in the late Lê Sơ dynasty. He was considered a rebel, his story was recorded in the ''Renegade Story'' because of his r ...
, murdered Lê Tương Dực in the capital.
References
Bibliography
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Le Tuong Duc
1495 births
1516 deaths
Lê dynasty emperors
16th-century Vietnamese monarchs
Vietnamese murder victims
16th-century murdered monarchs
Vietnamese monarchs
People murdered in 1516