Story 8: King Thanh Tong Ly

Prince Nhat Ton was born in 1023 as his father was living as a prince who was chosen to be the next king. His father (later was Thai Tong Ly) lived in Long Duc palace. When his father ascended the throne and went to castle to live, Prince Nhat Ton was ordained to be the heir with appellation “Khai Hoang Vuong”. Though he was only five years old, he had to live in Long Duc palace alone, separated from his parents, the king and the queen. He was taught by teachers who were assigned by the king. Therefore, like his father and his grandpa, Nhat Ton grew up into a boy who was great in both knowledge and martial arts. Especially, he was calm and altruistic that made others not only respected but also loved him.

King Thai Tong Ly was a person who always observed each Prince Nhat Ton’s step, his oldest son. King Thai Tong Ly believed in Prince Nhat Ton’s ability and had given the prince great responsibilities since the prince was very young. When Prince Nhat Ton was 15 years old, King Thai Tong Ly gave him a challenge. He was assigned to be great general and led soldiers to fight against rebels in Lam Tay (now, Lai Chau province). The king was adviser, went with him and observed him entire the fighting. That battle they won. King Thai Tong Ly was satisfied.

In 1039, King Thai Tong Ly led soldiers to fight against rebels, who were led by Ton Phuc Nong, in Quang Nguyen (now, Cao Bang province). The king left Prince Nhat Ton stayed at castle and was on behalf of the king to solve national problems. Prince Nhat Ton did well. That time, he was 16 years old.

Years later, he continued being trained by his father, the wise king Thai Tong Ly. Grew up in training, Prince Nhat Ton had experienced important positions and got valuable experiences about management of country though he not yet crowned.

In 1054, Prince Nhat Ton crowned with title Thanh Tong Ly. That time, he was 31 years old but he had 26 years old living in community and studying to understand people and had ten years working as an internship king.

Had just crowned, King Thanh Tong renamed the country to Dai Viet. He desired the country would be in same level with Dai Tong, the country was in north. From that time, history had written about an independent country, Dai Viet in 750 years (later, the country was renamed to Vietnam in Nguyen dynasty). In 18 years he reigned, what he had done was elevated the country at economy, culture and military.

With his community, King Thanh Tong Ly was altruistic he treated others as his son.

The first thing he did as he crowned was letting all concubines living in Thuy Hoa palace come back their hometown and lived as the normal if they had aspiration. He ordered soldiers to destroy all instrument of tortures. He advised mandarins and generals to live economically, helped the poor. He used to open national warehouse to give to people whenever, wherever people had bad harvest.

One day, he judged a case. Accused was a man who had slaughtered a calf to eat because of bad harvest and the crime he had done was very serious because that time, rules which were set to protect animals which were used in agriculture explained that harming to the animals was big crime. Though, the man lived in a remote village and didn’t know about rules. Then, King Thanh Tong Ly called the mandarin who managed prison and said:

“You have to put all things in their cases before thinking about them. If he breaks rules because he doesn’t know the rules, we have to blame ourselves firstly”.

Then the king released the man but he requested him that he had to teach people who lived in his village about the rules. Later, he came back the castle and considered all rules which were pupiblished in the time his father regained. He revised and made some crimes to be less serious. He asked mandarin to published rules largely and judged tolerantly.

One day, it was very cold. King Thanh Tong Ly sat by fireplace and thought about others then he said sadly:

“I stay in castle, sit next to the fireplace and put on thick wool coat but I still feel cold. How can people, who are in prison waiting for judging, withstand the cold if they don’t have enough food to eat and enough clothes to wear”.

Then he called the mandarin who managed national storage to open, take clothes and food to give prisoners. He asked mandarins were responsible for judging to do carefully and if they made any mistake, they would be punished.

King Thanh Tong Ly always found the way to be familiar with community as he had chance. He had traveled whole the country, including remote areas. He had met farmers, fishers, or gone craft villages to meet smith, weavers…The distance between him and his community seemed not to exist.

The time he reigned was the time the country was the most peaceful in Ly dynasty. Therefore, he could use militaries to fight against foreign enemies.

In 1060, to probe military strength and king's attitude to Dai Tong, the king of Dai Tong ordered armies to fight Dai Viet. King Thai Tong Ly ordered General Thieu Thai Tran to suppress strongly them. General Thieu Thai Tran not only defeated their enemies but also caught Bao Tai Duong, great general of Dai Tong. The king of Dai Tong had odered others to fight Dai Viet some times but they also had gotten failures. At last, the king of Dai Tong had to send a messenger to ask reconciliation. King Thanh Tong Ly agreed but he didn’t release Thieu Thai Tran and the king of Dai Tong also didn’t dare to fight them again.

In the south of country, people used to bother Chiem Thanh, a neighbour country that made people could not felt peaceful. In 1069, King Thanh Tong Ly led soldiers fought them. They captured the capital of the country and caught the king of Chiem Thanh. King Thanh Tong Ly and soldiers brought him to capital of Dai Viet and prisoned. To save his life, the king of Chiem Thanh giftef King Thanh Tong Ly three districts Dia Ly, Ma Linh and Bo Chinh (now they are Quang Ninh district, Quang Trach district, Bo Trach district, Tuyen Hoa district, Le Thuy district belonging to Quang Binh province and Ben Hai district belonging to Quang Tri province)

January 1072 on lunar calendar, King Thanh Tong Ly got sick and died. That time, he was 49 years old. Though the time he reigned was not much long, he had done many good things for the country. He had built a country with reasonable rules, with people who had easy lives and especially, he had elevated the national status that was worthy of the name, Dai Viet.

THE END

"Translated by Hung Nguyen"

Read more:

Historical stories

Story 6: Tri Cao Nung

Story 7: One Pillar Pagoda (Chua Mot Cot)

Story 9: Royal Concubine Y Lan

Story 10: Temple of Literature - Imperial Academy

Story 11: King Nhan Tong Ly

-----

Truyện cổ tích Việt Nam

Vietnamese fairy tales

Comments

BÀI ĐĂNG ĐƯỢC XEM NHIỀU

List of Vietnamese fairy tales

Vietnamese fairy tales includes many stories as Tam and Cam; So Dua; Hundred – knot- bamboo tree... which were spread in folk. Each stories has its own meaning. I think I can not translate exactly each word into english but I will try my best to convey its meaning to you. Hope you like them!

Bài 1.5: Cách sử dụng at, on, in cho thời gian, ngày, tháng, năm, mùa.

Chào các bạn! Bởi vì mình có hay dich truyện và một vài thứ linh tinh khác nên thường bắt gặp ngày, tháng năm. Thật ra khôngkhó để sử dụng đúng nhưng mỗi lần cần đến mình lại phải tra lại tra cứu. Điều đó rất mất thời gian nên hôm nay mình viết một bài liên quan đến at, on, in + thời gian để giúp bạn nào chưa biết và giúp chính mình nhớ được cách sử dụng của các giới từ at, on, in và dạng thời gian được theo sau giới từ đó.

Bài 14: Danh từ đếm được số ít và số nhiều và quy tắc thêm chuyển từ danh từ đếm được số ít sang số nhiều.

Như chúng ta đã biết danh từ thường phân thành nhiều loại nhưng về mặt ngữ pháp bạn chỉ cần biết danh từ gồm hai loại: danh từ đếm được và danh từ không đếm được. Về cơ bản mình sẽ nói qua một chút về danh từ đếm được và danh từ không đếm được vì bài này chủ yếu xoay quanh danh từ đếm được. Về bản chất danh từ đếm được là những từ bạn có thể kiểm soát nó bằng mặt số lượng tức là bạn có thể đếm 1, 2, 3 cái gì đó và nó có sự phân biệt giữa số ít (một) và số nhiều (hơn một) của loại từ này trong ngữ pháp của câu. Ví dụ: I have bananas và I have a banana có sự khác biệt rõ ràng, bạn có nhận thất mạo từ “a” ở trước banana không? Thêm nữa Bananas are yellow và a banana is yellow bạn có nhận thấy động từ đi kèm có sự khác biệt không; danh từ số nhiều sẽ tương đương vói ư chỉ ngữ they và danh từ số ít sẽ tương đương vói it. Cơ bản là thế. Còn về danh không đếm được thì bạn phải cân, đo, đong như những...

Thuong Luong

Thuong Luong was common name of creatures which are in people’s imagines. They are distant relatives of dragons. While dragons are worshiped as gods, the gods ruled rivers and sea and the gods can make rains, Thuong Luong is not respected as dragons that the creatures are too amorous, combative, wild, and have bad behaviors. All most of them like to harm people.

Crow and Peacock

Once upon a time, both Crow and Peacock were best friends and had same feather colors, gray. They knew themselves were ugly so they didn’t appear front of other birds. Peacock in Crow’s eyes was uglier than him because Peacock had a small head and a long neck that they didn’t connect to his body. vietnamesefairytales.blogspot.com One day, Crow talked Peacock: “A painter was painting nearly so we should come and steal some colors to paint on our feathers and make it beautiful” said Crow Peacock bowed his head. That day, the painter hadn’t finished his picture so he left his jar of colors on ground and took a nap. The first time, they stole a paintbrush and some jars then hid them on mound middle lake nearly. The second, they planned to go and steal again but the panter had woken up and came his home so they only took a jar of ink and a pocket of purl he had left. “Right, we start painting, yet” said Crow Crow made Peacock lie down and began painting. Crow painted v...

Incomplete love

A boy had family name Nguyen lost father and lived with his mother. His family was poor, his mother rowed a boat cross a river but her job didn’t earn enough money for their lives. Nguyen was a student because of poverty he had stopped going to school times. He had a great singing voice; besides, so handsome. His singing voice had made girls fall in love. vietnamesefairytales.blogspot.com In other side of the river stood rich man’s house which belong to a man whose family name was Tran. He had a young beautiful girl who was singer. She sometime saw the student when he brought people pass the river. After meetings, she felt love was growing inside. Especially, every afternoon of summer when the student sang she could keep herself to not fall in love with this heaven-voice. One day, he gave a brooch and a paper-fan to a faithful maid to bring the things and gave to the student. She also directed the maid said the student that he came and require to marry; it would be success...

The dangerous thing existing inside a person

A man was good-for-nothing but he was gentle and good-hearted. He had a wife but she dead so early. He lived alone from that and his life also became poorer. He had ever begged but he thought the job was too raffish and besides, it couldn’t help him to have enough money to live. Therefore, he changed into another job. He worked for another to get wages but he only worked a day to realize the job made him tired and ashamed because he was blamed by his owner. Therefore, he decided to stop working and planed to go fishing he thought the job would be more freely and easily. His owner gave him a little money for his-a-day-working and he used the money to buy a fishing rod. The next morning he went fishing but he could get nothing till noon. He wasted bait along passing time. Until afternoon when the float was pulled down into water he pulled up the rod immediately. Fortunately, he got something but it was only a snake which had no useful for him. He caught the snake then thre...

Van Khoi Le

Once upon a time that was the time the country was reigned by Minh Mang king. A poor boy but had great health. He worked as a ferryman at Thien ta port. When he was born he had three red moles on his stomach, people said that was rare signal. The rumor about his red moles spread to mandarins who thought that the boy would be an insurgent when he grew up. Therefore, they planned to arrest. The boy was informed, he escaped to a highland, Cao Bang province. He urged others to join with him and fought against the royal. Huu Khoi Nguyen was one of his fellows. He was young but had great health and bravery. vietnamesefairytales.blogspot.com Their power grew up so fast. In the short time, they had occupied whole Cao Bang province and opened out surroundings. The recent king feared, he ordered Van Duyet Le a powerful general to pacify. Though soldiers fought bravely, they repeatedly lost the battle. At last, they were forced to defend in the capital. Van Duyet Le feared that he co...

Yet Kieu

Once upon a time, in Ha-bi village lived a man named Yet Kieu who worked as a fisher. One night, while he was strolling along the seaside he saw two large buffaloes fighting on the beach. He sprinted to poke them apart. Buffalos were beaten painful they ran toward to the sea then disappeared. “Those creatures aren’t normal”, he thought then he turned back where buffaloes had been fighting and picked up some fur they had left. He gazed them then suddenly swallowed them down. From that he had the strength that nobody could fight against. Especially, he could stay in the water longer than any people in the world. He spent six or seven days fishing whenever he dived in water. vietnamesefairytales.blogspot.com That moment, their enemies had an invasion. A hundred ships approached and covered seaside of Van ninh. They caught all fishing boats and fired them. They robbed assets and took lives from people living around the beach. Warships following king of the countr...

Vietnamese fairy tales

Search This Blog