Trần Thái Tông (17 July 1218 – 5 May 1277),

personal name A personal name, full name or prosoponym (from Ancient Greek ''prósōpon'' – person, and ''onoma'' –name) is the set of names by which an individual person or animal is known. When taken together as a word-group, they all relate to that on ...

Trần Cảnh or Trần Nhật Cảnh,

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 ...

Thái Tông, was the first emperor 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 ...

, reigned

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 ...

for 33 years (1226–58), being Retired Emperor for 19 years. He reigned during the first Mongol invasion of Vietnam before eventually abdicating in favor of his son Trần Hoảng (

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 ...

) in 1258. He is also known for his Buddhist scholarship, which is still influential on Vietnamese Buddhism today, especially his ''Khóa Hư Lục'' (課虛錄‎, '' Instructions on Emptiness'').

Life

Early life

The ancestors of the Trần clan originated from the province of

Fujian Fujian is a provinces of China, province in East China, southeastern China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capital is Fuzhou and its largest prefe ...

before they migrated under Trần Kính (陳京, Chén Jīng) to

. According to a Chinese writer, Zhou Mi (1232–1298), Trần Nhật Cảnh's real name was Hsieh Sheng-ch'ing, "a man from Qinglo district in

". Trần Cảnh ( 陳煚) was born in 1218 in modern-day Nam Định province during the last years of the Lý.

Trần Thủ Độ Prince Trung Vũ Trần Thủ Độ ( vi-hantu, 陳守度, 1194–1264) was a general and leader of the Trần clan during the reign of Lý Huệ Tông and Lý Chiêu Hoàng of Vietnam. He was the chief mastermind between the overthrowal the L� ...

, his uncle, prepared the way for his marriage to Empress Lý Chiêu Hoàng, the last empress of the House of Lý, who later abdicated to make him the founder of the

in 1226. His progress to the throne in particular and the replacement of the Trần dynasty over the Lý dynasty in general were mostly thanks to the efforts of

, Trần Cảnh's uncle. At that time, Trần Thủ Độ was the front commander of capital of the Lý house. Trần Cảnh's father, Trần Thừa, was also an official under the Lý dynasty, like Trần Thủ Độ. He had been "Nội thị phán thủ", one of the most important officials in the Lý dynasty.

Reign

During his reign Trần Thái Tông used three

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 ...

s: Kiến Trung (1225–1232), Thiên Ứng Chính Bình (1232–1250) and Nguyên Phong (1251–1258). In the autumn of 1257, Mongol general Uriyangkhadai addressed three letters to Trần Thái Tông demanding passage through to southern China in order to attack the Song dynasty. After the three successive envoys were imprisoned in the capital Thang Long (modern-day Hanoi) of Dai Viet, Uriyangkhadai invaded Dai Viet. A battle was fought in which the Vietnamese used war elephants: the emperor even led his army from atop an elephant. Aju ordered his troops to fire arrows at the elephants' feet. The animals turned in panic and caused disorder in the Đại Việt army, which was routed. The Vietnamese senior leaders were able to escape on pre-prepared boats while part of their army was destroyed at No Nguyen (modern Viet Tri on the Hong River). The remainder of the royal army again suffered a major defeat in a fierce battle at the Phu Lo bridge the day after. This led the Tran leadership to evacuate the capital. The Vietnamese annals report that the evacuation was "in an orderly manner;" however this is viewed as an embellishment because the Vietnamese must have retreated in disarray to leave their weapons behind in the capital. While Chinese source material incorrectly stated that Uriyangkhadai withdrew from Vietnam due to poor climate, Uriyangkhadai left Thang Long after nine days to invade the

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 ...

. After the Mongol departure, Trần Thái Tông agreed to send tribute every 3 years to the court of the

Mongol Empire The Mongol Empire was the List of largest empires, largest contiguous empire in human history, history. Originating in present-day Mongolia in East Asia, the Mongol Empire at its height stretched from the Sea of Japan to parts of Eastern Euro ...

. Learned in both

Confucianism Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China, and is variously described as a tradition, philosophy, Religious Confucianism, religion, theory of government, or way of li ...

and

Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

, Trần Thái Tông authored several profound works on

Mahayana Buddhism Mahāyāna ( ; , , ; ) is a term for a broad group of Buddhist traditions, texts, philosophies, and practices developed in ancient India ( onwards). It is considered one of the three main existing branches of Buddhism, the others being Thera ...

, the most famous of which is Khóa Hư Lục (課虛錄‎, '' Instructions on Emptiness''), a collection of sermons and essays on Buddhism. A prodigious writer, he left behind a substantial number of works, of which only a small number survive. In 1258 Trần Thái Tông abdicated the throne in favor of his son, crown prince Trần Hoảng. During his reign, a boy student was given money in exchange for becoming a

eunuch A eunuch ( , ) is a male who has been castration, castrated. Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function. The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 2 ...

by the emperor in 1254 since many men castrated themselves to become eunuchs during the Tran and Ly dynasties.

Family

There is nothing that gives reference to exactly how many children he had, but it is known that he had children by the name of Trần Trịnh (died prematurely), Tĩnh Quốc Vương Trần Quốc Khang,de facto the offspring of Trần Liễu and Princess Thuận Thiên Trần Hoảng, Chiêu Minh Vương Trần Quang Khải, Trần Nhật Vĩnh, Chiêu Quốc Vương

Trần Ích Tắc Trần Ích Tắc ( vi-hantu, 陳益稷, Chen Yiji, 1254–1329), or Prince Chiêu Quốc (Vietnamese language, Vietnamese: Chiêu Quốc vương / wikt:昭, 昭wikt:國, 國wikt:王, 王), was a prince of Đại Việt, the fifth son of List of em ...

, Chiêu Văn Vương Trần Nhật Duật, Chiêu Đạo Vương Trần Quang Xưởng, princesses Thiên Thành (wife of Hưng đạo Vương Trần Quốc Tuấn), Thiều Dương, Thuỵ Bảo, An Tư. *Father: Trần Thái Tổ *Mother: Lady Lê thị *Brother(s) and sister(s): #Older brother: King of Yên Sinh #Older sister: Princess Thụy Bà, adoptive mother of Great King of Hưng Đạo #Younger brother: King of Khâm Thiên #Younger brother: King of Hoài Đức *Consort(s) and their Issue(s): # Empress Consort Chiêu Thánh ##Crown Prince Trần Trịnh # Empress Consort Thuận Thiên ##Prince Trần Quốc Khang, later King of Tĩnh Quốc ##Crown Prince Trần Hoảng, later Emperor

##Prince Trần Quang Khải, later Great King of Chiêu Minh *Other Issues: #Prince Trần Nhật Vĩnh, King of Bình Nguyên #Prince Trần Duy, King of Vũ Uy #Prince Trần Quang Xưởng, King of Chiêu Đạo #Prince Trần Ích Tắc, King of Chiêu Quốc #Prince Trần Nhật Duật, King of Chiêu Văn #Prince Trần Uất, King of Minh Hiến #Princess Thiên Thành, later Queen Nguyên Từ of Great King of Hưng Đạo #Princess Thiều Dương #Princess Thụy Bảo, later wife of General Trần Bình Trọng # Princess An Tư, later wife of Prince Toghan of

Yuan dynasty The Yuan dynasty ( ; zh, c=元朝, p=Yuáncháo), officially the Great Yuan (; Mongolian language, Mongolian: , , literally 'Great Yuan State'), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after Div ...

. Prince Toghan was the ninth son of

Kublai Khan Kublai Khan (23 September 1215 – 18 February 1294), also known by his temple name as the Emperor Shizu of Yuan and his regnal name Setsen Khan, was the founder and first emperor of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty of China. He proclaimed the ...

Relation with Trần Liễu

Trần Liễu was Trần Thái Tông's elder brother. In 1237, Trần Thái Tông and Empress Chiêu Thành still did not have any son to maintain the continuation of his dynasty, due to Trần Trịnh's premature death. At that time, Princess Thuận Thiên, Trần Liễu's wife, had been pregnant with Quốc Khang for 3 months. Trần Thủ Độ and his wife princess Thiên Cực advised the emperor to arrogate the pregnancy to himself to maintain the continuity of the dynasty. Taking their advice, the emperor gave injunction to appoint princess Thuận Thiên the status of empress, and demote Chiêu Hoàng to princess. In response, Trần Liễu took his army to Cai River to rebel. This incident embarrassed Trần Thái Tông and he left the capital for Yên Tử mountain. Only after taking advice from the Buddhist priest Đạo Viên and

, did he return to the capital. Two weeks later, Trần Liễu surrendered. Trần Thủ Độ intended to behead him, but Trần Thái Tông intervened by covering him with his body, so that Trần Thủ Độ could not do anything. Afterwards, he gave him his territory, consisting of Yên Phụ, Yên Dưỡng, Yên Sinh, Yên Hưng, and Yên Bang. Due to the name of his territory, Liễu was also called "Yên Sinh Vương."

Notes

References

* * , - style="text-align: center;" , - , - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Tran, Thai Tong 13th-century Vietnamese monarchs 1218 births 1277 deaths Child monarchs from Asia Thai Tong Thai Tong Vietnamese people of Chinese descent Vietnamese Zen Buddhists Founding monarchs in Asia People from Nam Định province