Lê Văn Hưu (1230–1322) was a historian of the

Trần dynasty The Trần dynasty (Vietnamese language, Vietnamese: Nhà Trần, chữ Nôm: 茹陳; Vietnamese language, Vietnamese: triều Trần, chữ Hán: ikt:朝ikt:陳, 朝wikt:陳, 陳), officially Đại Việt (Chữ Hán: 大越), was a List ...

. He is best known for his work the ''

Đại Việt sử ký The ''Đại Việt sử ký'' (, vi-hantu, 大越史記, ''Annals of Đại Việt'') is the official historical text of the Trần dynasty, that was compiled by the royal historian Lê Văn Hưu and was finished in 1272. Considered the first ...

'', the first comprehensive historical record of the history of Vietnam. 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 Đại Việt, 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. Biography Ngô Sĩ Liên was the main compiler of the '' Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư'', a chronicle of the history of Vietnam and a historical record of an Annamese ...

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 was a civil service examination system in History of China#Imperial China, Imperial China administered for the purpose of selecting candidates for the Civil service#China, state bureaucracy. The concept of choosing bureau ...

organized under the reign of

Trần Thái Tông Trần Thái Tông (17 July 1218 – 5 May 1277), Vietnamese name, 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 R ...

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 The Hanlin Academy was an academic and administrative institution of higher learning founded in the 8th century Tang China by Emperor Xuanzong in Chang'an. It has also been translated as "College of Literature" and "Academy of the Forest of Pen ...

) 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, Th ...

. 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 ''

'' ( 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 (; ; 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 dynasty, Zhao Tuo (Triệu Đ� ...

, 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 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 ...

. 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 in his '' An Nam chí lược'' 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'', 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 history of Vietnam. During the Fourth Chinese domination, many valuable books 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 ...

were taken away by the

Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...

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 China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. 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 fro ...

for his original military tactics defeating the

Southern Han Southern Han ( zh , t = 南漢 , p = Nán Hàn , j=Naam4 Hon3; 917–971), officially Han ( zh , t = 漢 , links=no), originally Yue ( zh , c = 越 , links=no), was a dynastic state of China and one of the Ten Kingdoms that existed during 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 The Trưng sisters ( (), 𠄩婆徵, literally "Two Ladies

amed Amed or AMED may refer to: *Amed (Bali), a town in Bali, Indonesia *Amedisys Home Health and Hospice Care, a home health and hospice care company in the US, NASDAQ abbreviation AMED * Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development *Amed Ber, a t ...

Trưng", 14 – c. 43) were Luoyue military leaders who ruled for three years after Trung sisters' rebellion, commanding a rebellion of Luoyue tribes and other tribes in ...

against the

Han dynasty The Han dynasty was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC9 AD, 25–220 AD) established by Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–206 BC ...

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 Vietnamese historians 13th-century historians 14th-century historians Trần dynasty officials 1230 births 1322 deaths Trần dynasty writers 13th-century Vietnamese philosophers 14th-century Vietnamese philosophers