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

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Truyện cổ tích Việt Nam

Vietnamese fairy tales

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