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A Complete Collection of Trần Nhân Tông’s
Works
By
Lê Mạnh Thát
Translator’s note:
The original title of this translation is Toàn Tập Trần Nhân Tông.
It is written by Lê Mạnh Thát, a Vietnamese researcher on Buddhism,
particularly the history of its development in Vietnam. For the past
decades his works have been ardently received by the Vietnamese Buddhists,
not because their subject-matter is chiefly centered on the worldwide
virtue of a religious belief but because they are able to shed light on
numerous historical facts that have not been revealed sufficiently in the
current historical books of Vietnam. Indeed, in his works Buddhism is not
exhibited as a monastic doctrine or isolated interpretations of remarkable
individuals but as an integral part of social and political life of his
country. This may be easily proved by his elaborate presentation of
numerous Buddhist aspirants, monks and nuns, laymen and laywomen, who have
played various roles needed by their country, from the highest down to the
lowest positions: a king, a queen, a national teacher, a royal official, a
general, a soldier, a peasant, a fisherman, a village preceptor, and so
on. It is through the multiform existence of such Buddhist figures in the
long history of Vietnam that the reader may be quickly awakened to the
fact that Buddhism has determined the history of Vietnam and the destiny
of its people so far. For in the chronological order indicated by him of
all the historical facts since its introduction into Vietnam, Buddhism is
found not to be merely a cause of the development of Vietnam but also an
effect of the same one as it has never had a moment to isolate itself from
the glory as well as the humility of the nation. From my view, such a fact
seems to escape easily the knowledge of anyone who, due to their own
barrier of language, has had little opportunity to evaluate Buddhism in
Vietnam truly as it has ever been unless such pains-taking presentations
of it as by Lê Mạnh Thát would be made accessible to the world. Hence, the
present translation comes as the modest manifestation of such an ambition,
out of which his perfect book on Emperor Trần Nhân Tông’s life and works
is selected to introduce to the readers, at home and abroad as well.
Preface
Emperor Nhân Tông of
the Trần Dynasty is a national hero who had great contributions to the
history of our country in various aspects. It is under his leadership that
the Vietnamese people could reach the summit of the age. Together with
most gifted military experts they were capable of activating their
potential power for defeating the most ferocious and veteran army of the
time in such victorious battles as Hàm Tử, Chương Dương, Bạch Đằng, Tây
Kết. He also succeeded in extending the country’s boundaries, laying a
strong foundation for the people’s common cause of ‘marching southward’— a
cause that the Vietnamese, today and tomorrow, would remember with
gratitude forever.
Further, Vietnamese
culture in his reign unexpectedly witnessed two greatly significant
events. The first is the usage of the Vietnamese language, together with
Chinese, as the official script in administration by the royal court,
which is discovered in several inscriptions recorded for the first time in
Vietnamese. In the earlier dynasties the Vietnamese language must have
been used to some extent, yet the fact had not been proved by any
documentary evidence until the reign of Emperor Nhân Tông. It may be said
that the formal usage of Vietnamese in his time resulted in the appearance
of a series of literary works written in Vietnamese such as Tiều Ẩn
Quốc Ngữ Thi Tập by Chu Văn An, a translation of Ching Shih by
Hồ Quí Ly, poems of Nguyễn Biểu, Trần Trùng Quang, a Buddhist monk of the
An Quốc Temple; particularly, Quốc Âm Thi Tập by Nguyễn Trãi, and
the earliest Vietnamese translations of Phật Thuyết Đại Báo Phụ Mẫu Ân
Trọng and Phật Thuyết Báo Phụ Mẫu Ân Trọng, which are said to
have been carried out by Dhyāna Master Viên Thái and still extant today.
The second is that a new line of development of the Dhyāna sect, namely,
Trúc Lâm Yên Tử, holding that the Path to enlightenment may be cultivated
peacefully right in a worldly life, was founded by the emperor himself.
Under the reign of
Emperor Nhân Tông, therefore, there occurred many great events in
political, military and cultural aspects: the double victory over the
Mongol-Yuan invaders, the incorporation of the two districts Ô and Lý into
the country’s territory, the usage of Vietnamese, together with Chinese,
as the official language; and, eventually, there accrued certain
developments of thought. These historical events, which took place in the
same period, may show us some dialectical relations among them. For it is
true that not any event may occur without the existence of another one.
Thus, it is within
these events that the Trúc Lâm Dhyāna sect came into being with its
historical missions of laying the foundation for the development of
Vietnamese Buddhism in the following centuries and setting forth the
premise for the cause of marching southward of the Vietnamese people in
the same period. It is not quite natural that the first patriarch of Thảo
Đường Dhyāna sect, that is, Emperor Lý Thánh Tông, had started the same
cause in 1069, that Emperor Nhân Tông went on to lay the foundation for it
by establishing the two districts Thuận and Hóa, and that the
Bodhisattva-in-Precepts Hưng Long Nguyễn Phúc Chu, nearly 400 years later,
ordered General Nguyễn Hữu Cảnh to build the city of Saigon and develop
the South into an inseparable part of Vietnam. Behind all of the
above-mentioned achievements by such talented and energetic sons of the
fatherland there must be some basis of reasoning that may be studied in
terms of the work Cư Trần Lạc Đạo Phú of Emperor Nhân Tông. For,
being preserved originally in the monasteries of the Trúc Lâm sect, it may
be utilized for a research on such a basis of reasoning.
So great is Emperor
Nhân Tông’s political and military career that it has been extolled and
appreciated many times through seven hundred years by his contemporary
people like Trương Hán Siêu, Trần Minh Tông, Phạm Sư Mạnh and people in
the later generations like Nguyễn Trãi, Ngô Sỹ Liên, Lê Quí Đôn, Ngô Thì
Nhiệm, and so on. And his literary career and his works, too, have been
gradually collected in Việt Âm Thi Tập, Toàn Việt Thi Lục, Tam Tổ Thực
lục, etc. The collection, however, has not yet been satisfactory so
far. All of the diplomatic correspondence submitted to the Yuan court by
the emperor, for instance, has not been completely collected and
published, at least in the range of possible accounts preserved hitherto.
We suggest,
therefore, to introduce once more the military and political career and
literary works that Emperor Nhân Tông has left for us so far. The
publishing of A Complete Collection of Trần Nhân Tông’s Works comes
as the manifestation of such an intention. This collection is divided into
two parts. The first, consisting of nine chapters and generally dealing
with his political and military career, describes the events in his youth
up to his roles in the two wars of 1285 and 1288, the extension of the
country’s territory, the usage of the Vietnamese language and the
foundation of Trúc Lâm Yên Tử Dhyāna sect. The second is to publish his
literary works, including poems, writings, teachings, discourses, and
diplomatic correspondence, for the purpose of providing materials for
those who are concerned about an all-round study of the history of Vietnam
in general and Emperor Nhân Tông in particular.
Finally, to provide
documentary evidence for reference and review as well, we have all the
papers in Chinese and Quốc Âm reprinted, which we have used to
transliterate or translate. In the case of an original with its different
editions, the earliest ones still extant are chosen to be the original,
and the others for comparative study.
The Collection,
which was basically finished in 1977, has not been published completely
until today. It is, however, unfortunate that this edition cannot include
the translation of śūraṃgama-mantra,
which was transmitted by Bodhiśri, written down by Bảo Sát and edited by
the Emperor. It is one of his works that we discovered in the years
1974-1975 and it is, so to speak, one of the final translations of
Sanskrit into Chinese completed with a
king’s cooperation in our country and the
Far East.
The version, which
we collected from the Từ Quang Temple in Phú Yên Province, is an
incomplete reprint in the reign of Cảnh Hưng. Except the last page, the
first ones of the Preface are lost. Of the śūraṃgama-mantra
proper the first four chapters are still in good condition, but the last
remains only one fragment. The Ten Mantras is lost, too. On the
remaining pages, following each group of Sanskrit characters printed in
large size are two lines of translation in Chinese in small size.
Unfortunately, this version was taken in 1984. We hope that, for the
common benefit of our country in the field of literature, those who are
storing it would be kind enough to inform of it so that it may remain a
precious material for any research on Emperor Nhân Tông’s contributions,
which were made not only to the nation and Buddhism but also to the
Vietnamese history of thought and culture.
The 9th
day of the 9th month of lunar year Kỷ Mão.
Lê Mạnh Thát
PART ONE
RESEARCH ON
TRẦN NHÂN TÔNG’S LIFE
CHAPTER ONE:
ON HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
For hundreds of
years Emperor Nhân Tông has been praised in many historical and literary
books of Vietnam to be a brilliant emperor, a gifted leader, a national
hero. His life, therefore, has been recorded much more in detail than
those of any other prominent people of the nation. In spite of this, some
details, particularly concerning his literary works, are to be found
ambiguous in such elaborate accounts. For that reason, we have had to
resort to various sources preserved in our country as well as in China to
make up some major features of the emperor’s life, which may serve as the
basis of our research on his great contributions to the nation in
political and military aspects.
First, regarding the
documentary sources of Vietnam the most remarkable and fundamental one is
undoubtedly Đại Việt Sử Ký Toàn Thư (A Complete History of Đại
Việt), in which the Bản Kỷ on the emperor was cited by Ngô Sỹ Liên
from Đại Việt Sử Ký (The History of Đại Việt) of Phan Phu Tiên.
This is the primary book of history that was employed by Ngô Thì Sỹ
(1726-1780) and Quốc Sử Quán
of the Nguyễn Dynasty to write about this brilliant emperor in Việt Sử
Tiêu Án and Khâm Định Việt Sử Thông Giám Cương Mục
respectively. Though we have also referred to some other sources, chiefly
from China, we have not discovered anything new except some points to be
found wrong. Therefore, Đại Việt Sử Ký Toàn Thư (ĐVSKTT) is still
considered to be the first-class source.
In the book in
question, however, many aspects and facts of Emperor Nhân Tông’s life have
been neglected or recorded insufficiently. For instance, the last days of
the emperor are not dealt with so clearly as in Thánh Đăng Ngữ Lục.
Yet we are fortunate to have for reference some records preserved in the
Trần Dynasty or compiled by the later authors, which are Thánh Đăng Ngữ
Lục, Thiền Tông Bản Hạnh, Thượng Sỹ Ngữ Lục, Việt Điện U Linh Tập, Nam Ông
Mộng Lục, and Việt Âm Thi Tập.
Thánh Đăng Ngữ Lục
is a record of poems and discourses on Dhyāna by the Dhyāna
master-emperors of the Trần Dynasty, namely, Thái Tông, Thánh Tông, Nhân
Tông, Anh Tông and Minh Tông. It may be regarded as a history of
Vietnamese Buddhism dealing with the period from the year 1226, when
Emperor Trần Thái Tông ascended the throne, up to the death of Emperor
Minh Tông in 1357. Though its compiler is unknown today, we know that, due
to the content of the work, he must have had a very intimate relation with
Emperor Trần Minh Tông, and that the record could not have been realized
without the agreement of the latter’s successor, Emperor Trần Dụ Tông, and
the court.
The first reason for
this is that the writer would not have had enough first-hand materials for
such a record as we have today if he had not been close to the king. The
second is that without the king’s and the court’s permission the record
would never have been written, or published if it had been already
finished, since it conveys a great deal of facts, even documentary papers,
concerning the kings. Yet we also know that among the Vietnamese authors
who are well known to have lived after 1357 and have met the
above-mentioned conditions is Dhyāna Master Kim Sơn, who had a very close
relation with the king and witnessed the last days of his life. Otherwise
stated, besides the possibility of being the author of Thiền Uyển Tập
Anh and Cổ Châu Pháp Vân Phật Bản Hạnh Ngữ Lục, Dhyāna Master
Kim Sơn may be the compiler of Thánh Đăng Ngữ Lục, too.
In fact, Thánh
Đăng Ngữ Lục is written in accordance with the approach of ‘true
recording’, that is, the approach of writing down everyday facts, mainly
of kings, which used to be applied by Chinese historians. Therefore, in
the eighteenth century, in order to rewrite the line of transmission of
the Trúc Lâm Dhyāna sect, Dhyāna Master Tính Quảng and Ngô Thì Nhiệm
(1746-1803) combined the chapter on Trần Nhân Tông cited from Thánh
Đăng Ngữ Lục with the inscription of Pháp Loa’s Niên Phổ at the
Thánh Mai Temple and the biography of Huyền Quang recorded in Tổ Gia
Thực Lục to compile Tam Tổ Thực Lục. It should be noticed that,
in spite of being based on the approach of ‘true-recording’, Thánh Đăng
Ngữ Lục simply records the facts with respect to Buddhist activities
of the Dhyāna master-emperors without any references to their political
and military activities. Yet, Thánh Đăng Ngữ Lục remains a valuable
account, particularly for our research on the Buddhist activities of
Emperor Nhân Tông. Further, it was ever the source for Dhyāna Master Chân
Nguyên (1647-1726) to write his Thiền Tông Bản Hạnh. The most
peculiar point of this work is that when it was printed in 1745, it was
enriched with Ngộ Đạo Nhân Duyên by the same author and three other
works in Vietnamese, the two of which are Cư Trần Lạc Đạo Phú and
Đắc Thú Lâm Tuyền Thành Đạo Ca of Emperor Nhân Tông. Though they
were not printed until 1745, these two verses certainly existed in the
seventeenth century; for Chân Nguyên had quoted Cư Trần Lạc Đạo Phú
in his Kiến Tánh Thành Phật written around 1684.
Apart from Thánh
Đăng Ngữ Lục, we have Thượng Sỹ Ngữ Lục written by Tuệ Trung
Trần Quốc Tung, a famous general who liberated Thăng Long
in the war of 1285. His Record, which was printed under the reign of Trần
Anh Tông in the years 1308-1311, contains the biography of the author
himself (1230-1290) written by Emperor Nhân Tông. The biography shows us
partly the emperor’s course of approaching and studying Buddhism as well
as his literary talent. Moreover, it contains a poem that he wrote to
praise Tuệ Trung.
In addition, Việt
Điện U Linh Tập written by Lý Tế Xuyên about 1327, in spite of simply
recording a series of heroes, heroines and sacred spirits of our country,
writes down, for the first time, the fact that Emperor Nhân Tông conferred
additional titles on national heroes, heroines and sacred spirits in the
years of Trùng Hưng the First (1285) and the Fourth (1288). Though it is
not found in ĐVSKTT, the fact has a very interesting meaning in the
cultural aspect. It is the first time that a sacred Vietnamese shrine came
into existence with the official approval from the court. Việt Điện U
Linh Tập, therefore, has a rather remarkable position in throwing
light on some of Emperor Trần Nhân Tông’s views of the sacred past of our
country.
In Nam Ông Mộng
Lục written by Hồ Nguyên Trừng in China in 1438, the author used four
of its thirty-one sections for writing on Emperor Nhân Tông, which are
Trúc Lâm Thị Tịch (No. 1), Tổ Linh Định Mệnh (No.2), Cảm
Kích Đồ Hành (No.17) and Thi Ý Thánh Tân (No.19), all covering
fifteen percent of the content of the record. Through this record, we are
informed not only of a number of facts and writings concerning Emperor
Nhân Tông but also of some of his impact and influence on the following
generations.
The last document is
Việt Âm Thi Tập. It is an outcome of the campaign of reviving
national culture after the national hero Lê Lợi successfully drove away
the Ming invaders and restored national independence. Its compilation, of
which twenty-six poems of Emperor Nhân Tông are found, was first started
by Phan Phu Tiên in the period when he was working at Quốc Sử Quán and
later completed by Chu Xa in the year of Diên Ninh the Sixth (1433). The
materials for its completion must have been taken from the works collected
by Quốc Sử Quán and employed by Phan Phu Tiên for his Đại Việt Sử Ký
Tân Biên.
The most noticeable
fact concerns the poem Hạnh Thiên Trường Phủ, which is assumed in
Việt Âm Thi Tập to be of Emperor Nhân Tông and is said to be quoted
from Quốc Sử (National History). Here, Quốc Sử must refer to
the re-edition of Đại Việt Sử Ký of Phan Phu Tiên himself. Yet,
according to the current edition of ĐVSKTT taken from the Nội Các
Quan Bản, the poem is said to be of Trần Thánh Tông. So is it in Nam
Ông Mộng Lục. Is there then anything wrong in recording by Việt Âm
Thi Tập printed in the year of Bảo Thái the Seventh (1727)?
Việt Âm Thi Tập
was later used as the source of the works written on poems and writings of
the kings and their subjects of the Trần Dynasty. Of them are the
voluminous book, Toàn Việt Thi Lục, by Lê Quý Đôn and Trần Triều
Thế Phả by an unknown author. In Toàn Việt Thi Lục, after
removing Hạnh Thiên Trường Phủ, Lê Quý Đôn did not add anything
else to the section on Trần Nhân Tông’s writings besides the number of
twenty-six poems already edited in Việt Âm Thi Tập. Nor did he take
any poems recorded in Thánh Đăng Ngữ Lục, which was printed by
Dhyāna Master Chân Nguyên in 1705, and in its edition prefaced by Tính
Quảng in 1750. In Trần Triều Thế Phả Hành Trạng the number is even
smaller, only about eighteen poems published.
As regards the
sources from China, Yuan Shih (元
史,
Yuan History), especially its section entitled An Nan Chuan (安
南
傳,
The Story of Vietnam), produces most of information about the two wars
between Mongolia and Vietnam in 1285 and 1288 and their diplomatic
relationship before and after the wars. In addition, we have An Nam Chí
Lược of Lê Sực, Thiên Nam Hành Ký of Từ Minh Thiện and Trần
Cương Trung Thi Tập of Trần Phu. Their authors, who had all lived
under the reign of Emperor Nhân Tông, fled to the invaders’ country and
directly participated in political and military activities in relation to
our country in various forms. Yet, even though their activities are viewed
from some standpoint as being opposed to the country’s privilege, their
works may provide for us some political and military information about
Emperor Nhân Tông, particularly twenty-two diplomatic documents sent by
him to the Yuan emperor. For the past seven hundred years, these documents
have been known in our country but they have never been so systematically
cultivated and so fully published as to be the basis of a proper knowledge
of our country’s hard struggle in diplomacy before and after the two wars.
Even though Lê Quý Đôn ever referred to Thiên Nam Hành Ký and Sứ
Giao Tập of Trần Cương Trung Thi Tập, he picked only a poem of
Trần Phu in Kiến Văn Tiểu Lục.
In addition, on a
painting entitled Chu Lin Ta Shih Chu Shan T’u painted by Ch’ên
Chien Ju in the year of Chi Chêng 23 (1363) and later provided with
prefatory characters by Ch’ên Kuang Chih in the year of Yung Lo 18 (1420),
there are some rather interesting details about Emperor Nhân Tông’s life.
As regards the
sources from
China,
however, there are some problems that need to be definitively solved. The
first is about the system of calendar. Until today, researchers have
agreed that the Vietnamese calendar at that time is quite in accordance
with the Chinese in the Yuan court. Accordingly, there are not many
calendrical differences of the same historical events in the records of
Vietnam and China. Hence, if some differences are found, it is due to
different information or mistakes of copying through generations. In this
Collection, to avoid unnecessary confusions the calendar of our country is
chiefly used and the solar calendar is added only in necessary
circumstances.
The second is about
the names of historical characters at that time. For the Chinese
characters, especially those of Mongol tribes, the way of transliteration
in Yuan Shih is basically admitted, except for names that are found
to be false when compared with other sources. In such cases they are
corrected and definitely rectified; that is to say, we have had to
transliterate them again in Mongolian and put them in brackets instead of
replacing them, which are extant in historical books of China, as some
researchers have done before.
In this connection,
let us mention a little about the name Sực of the Vietnamese traitor Lê
Sực. In Chinese, it is written as
崱
, which has been transliterated into Vietnamese as Tắc or Trắc in the
historical books of Vietnam so far. Yet, in ĐVSKTT 5 p.46b5-6,
under the character 崱
is noted “sỹ lực thiết”;
that is to say, it must be read as Sực instead of Tắc or Trắc.
The third is about
the names of Vietnamese leaders, particularly of the kings of the Trần
Dynasty, recorded in Chinese accounts. This is a difficult matter. When
researching the Trần Dynasty’s struggles against the Mongol-Yuan army in
his Annam Shi Kenkyu (A Study of An Nam History), though Yamamoyo
has had an entire chapter written on this subject, namely, Chincho No
Omei Ni Kansuru Kenkyu, his conclusions, from our view, are not very
satisfactory. It is, therefore, necessary to make a new study. This is all
that we must meet so that any presentation of historical facts as well as
the works in relation to Emperor Nhân Tông may be evident and highly
persuasive.
According to Chinese
accounts, especially An Nan Chuan of Yuan Shih 209
pp.1a8,1b4, for instance, the first king of the Trần Dynasty is said to be
Trần Nhật Cảnh: “in the 2nd month of the year Mao Wu, Nhật
Cảnh handed over the throne to his eldest son, Quang Bính, [who] changed
the era name into Thiệu Long . . ..” This is quite in accordance with
what Ngô Sỹ Liên writes down in ĐVSKTT 5, p.24a4-6: “On the 24th
of the 2nd month of the year Mậu Ngọ, having handed over the
throne to the crown prince, the king moved into Bắc cung (Northern
Palace). The crown prince ascended the throne, changing the title of his
reign into Thiệu Long.” It is then very obvious that the name Quang
Bính in Yuan Shih is another name of Emperor Trần Thánh Tông in
ĐVSKTT.
Next, also in the
words of An Nan Chuan of Yuan Shih 209 p.3b13: “In the
year [of Chih Yuan]
14, Quang Bính died. People in the country agreed to appoint Thế Tử
Nhật Huyên [to be king], [who] ordered Trung Thị Đại Phu Châu Trọng Ngạn
and Trung Lương Đại Phu Ngô Đức Thiện to come for audience.” The year
of Chih Yuan 14, that is, the year 1277 C.E. is the date when Emperor Trần
Thái Tông Nhật Cảnh died as recorded in ĐVSKTT 5 p.59a6-7. It is
due to his reliance on the date of Quang Bính’s death that Yamamoto comes
to the conclusion that Quang Bính is another name of Empror Trần Thái
Tông, and Trần Nhật Huyên is another name of Emperor Trần Thánh Tông.
However, Pen Chi
(本
紀
) of Yuan Shih 10, p. 4a12 says: “On the Hsin Szu day of the 6th
month of the year (of Chih Yuan) 15, the king of An
Nam, Trần Quang
Bính, ordered his messengers to submit the list of gifts [to the Yuan
king].”
Obviously, had Quang Bính died in the year of Chih Yuan 14 (1277), he
could not have ordered his messengers to submit offerings in the year of
Chih Yuan 15. Yamamoto claims that the number 14 was mistaken for 15 in
Pen Chi. Yet such a suggestion is not highly persuasive since in case
Quang Bính was another name of Emperor Trần Thánh Tông, he could send his
messengers to the Yuan right in the year of Chih Yuan 15. Whatever case it
may be, there have been two different pieces of information on Quang Bính
that “he died in 1277” and that “he sent his messengers for offering in
1278.” Thus, it is impossible to rely on the date of Quang Bính’s death
recorded in An Nan Chuan only to conclude that Quang Bính is the
name of Emperor Trần Thái Tông as Yamamoto has done.
In addition, also in
the words of Pen Chi of Yuan Shih 10, p.13b3-4: “On the
Jen Tzu day of the 8th month of the year of Chih Yuan 16
(1279), Li Pu Shang Shu Ch’ai Ch’ung, accompanied by An Nam Messenger Đỗ
Trung Tán, was ordered to persuade An Nam Prince Trần Nhật Huyên to come
[to the Yuan court] for audience.” This indicates that the name Trần
Nhật Huyên appeared in Chinese books only when Emperor Nhân Tông had come
to the throne, i.e. the 10th month of the year Mậu Dần (1278)
as recorded in ĐVSKTT 5, pp. 37b9-38a1, together with his later
reception of the Chinese envoy led by Ch’ai Ch’ung.
Further, the name
Trần Nhật Huyên appeared again a year later than the death of Trần Thánh
Tông in the year of Chih Yuan 28 (1291). Pen Chi of Yuan Shih
16 p.11b8-9 says: “On the Hsin Hai day of the 9th month of
the year (of Chih Yuan) 28, An Nam King Trần Nhật Huyên ordered his
messengers to submit the list of local gifts offered as an excuse for not
arriving for audience.” Yamamoto has mentioned this fact but taken it
for false recording. According to the facts mentioned above and our way of
identification, however, Trần Nhật Huyên is Emperor Nhân Tông and not
Emperor Trần Thánh Tông. It should be remembered that according to Pen
Chi of Yuan Shih Quang Bính ever sent his messengers to the
Yuan court a year later than the death of Emperor Trần Thái Tông. So did
Nhat Huyen a year later than Emperor Thánh Tông’s death. The
identification of Quang Bính with Trần Thánh Tông and of Nhật Huyên with
Trần Nhân Tông allows us not to resort necessarily to the supposition of
false recording. In reality, Pen Chi is much more reliable than
Lieh Chuan (列
傳
) since the way of recording used by the former, called ‘Chi Chü Chu’,
is merely to write down kings’ daily activities such as receiving
messengers, reading memorials, issuing decrees, etc. whereas the latter
has to collect so many different sources that it may easily have some
mistakes.
Besides, the section
called Cheng Fa in Ching Shih Ta Tien Tzu Lu, which was
compiled by Chao Shih Yen and Yu Chi in the years 1330-1331 and later
copied in Yuan Wen Lei 41 pp. 26b1-27b, says on p.27a8: “T’ang
Wu Tai drove Nhật Huyên and his father out to the estuary of An bang”,
in which Nhật Huyên is known to have been accompanied by his father. If
Nhật Huyên were Trần Thánh Tông and his father, Trần Thái Tông, had died
in 1277, how could the latter appear again in the second war in 1285?
Merely upon these
four factual evidences, Nhật Cảnh is no doubt Trần Thái Tông, Quang Bính
is Trần Thánh Tông and Nhật Huyên is Trần Nhân Tông. There are, however,
two details that may cause Yamamoto to assume Trần Nhật Huyên to be Trần
Thánh Tông. The first is found in An Nan Chuan of Yuan Shih
209, p.10a9: “In the year [of Chih Yuan] 27, Nhật Huyên died. His son
sent an envoy for offering.” The year of Chih Yuan 27 (1290) is the
date when Trần Thánh Tông died, as recorded in ĐVSKTT 5, p.59a6-7.
The second is a report, recorded in An Nan Chuan of Yuan Shih
209, p.7a10-12, on what the Yuan army watched in the war 1285 after their
occupation of Thăng Long, “Nhật Huyên claimed to be the Head of State
of Đại Việt, that is, Emperor Hiến Thiên Thể Đạo Đại Minh Quang Hiếu Trần
Uy Hoàng, handing over the throne to his son, the Crown Prince, and
appointing the latter’s wife to be the Queen (…). He then came to the
Emperor-Father’s ‘throne.’ It shows that the kinghood of An Nam belonged
to Nhật Huyên’s descendant, who named his era Thiệu Bảo.” Emperor
Hiến Thiên Thể Đạo Đại Minh Quang Hiếu is the reverend title of Trần
Thánh Tông as recorded in ĐVSKTT 5, p.24b8. And the era name Thiệu
Bảo is of Trần Nhân Tông, which is here assumed to be of Nhật Huyên’s son.
With these two
details, the name Nhật Huyên really refers to Trần Thánh Tông, and Nhật
Tôn to Trần Nhân Tông. Yet, it is not possible to depend on these two
details only to assert that Quang Bính is the name of Trần Thái Tông, Nhật
Huyên of Trần Thánh Tông and Nhật Tôn of Trần Nhân Tông as Yamamoto has
done. The reason is that these two facts when compared, in number only,
with the four facts mentioned above are not enough for us to come to such
a conclusion.
In reality, all the
confusions above have their own reasons. The first is that the ascension
as well as the abdication of the throne of the Vietnamese kings up to the
reign of Trần Nhân Tông and later on was not quite exactly reported in the
correspondence sent to the Chinese court. Right in the days of Đinh Tiên
Hoàng, it was Đinh Liễn, but not the former, who wrote a letter to the
Sung king in the name of Sovereign of Đại Cồ Việt,
as recorded in Sung Shih (History of Sung). Later, subsequent to
the reign of Trần Nhân Tông, in An Nan Chuan of Yuan Shih
are recorded the names of his successors such as Nhật Suy in the year of
Chih Ta 5 (1311) or Nhật Khoáng in the year of Tai Ting 1 (1324), which
are not found in Vietnamese historical books, particularly in ĐVSKTT.
The second is that,
proceeding from this inexact correspondence between Vietnam and China, the
confusions increased much more by the time Trần Nhân Tông was leading the
war of resistance in 1285, due to the presence of some Vietnamese traitors
such as Trần Ích Tắc, Trần Văn Lộng, Lê Sực in the enemy’s army. It was
due to their multi-factorial reports on our country, in which there were
certainly some of the ascending as well as abdicating the throne of our
kings and the mutual relationship among them, that the confusions
mentioned above occurred. For that reason, we cannot depend on Chinese
historical materials to identify the names recorded by them with those of
kings in our historical books. On the contrary, it is the Vietnamese
historical materials that should be used as the foundation for affirming
to whom the king-names refer in Chinese historical books, which are, in
this case, used for reference only.
From our view,
therefore, we cannot accept Yamamoto’s way of solution by identifying
Quang Bính with Trần Thái Tông and Nhật Tôn with Trần Nhân Tông as the
historical documents do not allow such an easy solution, even those of the
Chinese source, as we have said before. Thus, our solution is to take the
formal historical books of Vietnam to be fundamental materials. Relying on
these materials, we consider Quang Bính to be Trần Thánh Tông, Nhật Huyên
and Nhật Tôn to be the other names of Trần Nhân Tông, Nhật Suy and Nhật
Khoáng to refer to Trần Anh Tông and Trần Minh Tông respectively;
particularly the identification of Nhật Huyên and Nhật Tôn with Trần Nhân
Tông, who is the object of our present research.
The above-mentioned
identification of names is derived from the two different historical
sources. First, on the part of China, Yuan Shih Pen Chi and
Ching Shih Ta Tien Tzu Lu affirm that Quang Bính lived till the year
of Chih Yuan 15 (1278) whereas Emperor Trần Thái Tông died one year
earlier (1277), and Nhật Huyên began sending his messengers to China in
1279 on to 1291, that is, one year later than Trần Thánh Tông’s death and
having his Emperor-Father accompanied in the war of 1285.
Secondly, on the
part of Vietnam, Hồ Nguyên Trừng and Ngô Sỹ Liên assume in Nam Ông Mộng
Lục, p3a7-9 and ĐVSKTT 5, pp. 24a9-b3 that “according to the
regulations of Trần family…a son at his full-fledged age will be approved
to ascend the throne, and his father, then called Emperor-Father, retreats
into Thánh Từ Palace, helping his son with the administration of the
court. In reality, national affairs are all decided by the Emperor-Father
since the move of transferring the throne merely aims at avoiding some
unexpected turmoil that may occur later.” Nevertheless, it is quite
different in the case of Emperor Nhân Tông. Though his Emperor-Father Trần
Thánh Tông was still alive, he himself made all decisions of national
affairs. The most typical fact is recorded in ĐVSKTT 5
pp.56b9-57a1: “Đỗ Hành was appointed to be an ‘official of internal
service’ only because when he captured Wu Ma Er, he did not turn over the
latter to the Emperor but to the Emperor-Father.” The fact that Đỗ
Hành could not get a high appointment clearly proves Emperor Trần Nhân
Tông’s role in determining national affairs. Indeed, according to
ĐVSKTT, it was Emperor Nhân Tông who received Chinese envoys from the
end of 1278 till his death.
It is true that any
research on Emperor Nhân Tông or any historical characters of Vietnam must
be based chiefly on Vietnamese historical materials. Yet, under the reign
of Trần Nhân Tông many diplomatic and military relations with China have
left for us a number of facts and works bearing the names of our country’s
leaders that are not found in the formal historical books of Vietnam.
Therefore, it is really necessary for us to find out with what characters
in our formal historical books such names are concerned. Merely the fact
that the kings of the Trần Dynasty changed their own names in diplomatic
relations with China shows more or less the intention of Đại Việt’s
emperors not to let China know their personal identities. Hence, it is
indispensable for us to have some lengthy discussions to clarify the
identification of such names.
Another reason is
that some researchers of our country have mentioned the same problem, but
they have generally accepted Yamamoto’s way of solution rather easily.
Actually, his argument, as it has been discussed above, has too many
defects; particularly, he has not taken any formal historical books of
Vietnam for the basis of his research. For that reason, our discussions
aim at not only Yamamoto’s own mistakes but also helping correct some
cognitional impact that he has had on the circle of historical researchers
of our country.
From here on, in the
present book, all the works and historical facts bearing the names of Trần
Nhật Huyên and Trần Nhật Tôn are collected under Emperor Nhân Tông
himself. Apart from the two details concerning the reverend title Hiến
Thiên Thể Đạo Đại Minh Quang Hiếu and the death of Nhật Huyên in the year
of Chih Yuan 27, all the others recorded by China definitively belong to
Emperor Trần Nhân Tông, and we will not have any more discussions.
Chapter Two:
Emperor Nhân Tông’s Youth
The source of
materials for our research on Emperor Nhân Tông’s life and career is
basically the same as what has just been dealt with. From it, the emperor
is known to have been born on the 11th of the 11th
month of Nguyên Phong 8 (1258). As a young baby, he is described in
ĐVSKTT 5, pp. 38a8-b1 as being “possessed of the best qualities of
saints, pure countenance, golden complexion, perfect constitution, and
brilliant spirits; [the people of] the two Palaces were amazed, calling
him the ‘Golden Boy of the Heaven’;
on his right shoulder was a black mole, indicating that he was capable of
undertaking great affairs.”
Thánh Đăng Ngữ Lục
p.14b1-7 mentions the dream of Queen-Mother Nguyên Thánh before his birth:
“Queen-Mother Nguyên Thánh once dreamt that a sacred person gave her
two swords, saying, ‘By order of Heaven, let you choose.’ She was very
pleased to have taken the short one; hence becoming pregnant.” The
story was later written in verse by Chân Nguyên in Thiền Tông Bản Hạnh:
The
Queen-Mother was an affable and clement woman.
In
one of her sound sleeps in a Spring night,
She
saw a sacred person suddenly appear,
So
noble as a messenger from the Heaven,
He
gave her two swords and told her to take.
She
suddenly wakened in the long night,
Telling Thánh Tông the strange omen she saw.
Hearing it, the king was greatly joyful,
Saying that it was a gift from the Heaven.
According to
Thánh Đăng Ngữ Lục, during her pregnancy of the emperor Queen-Mother
Nguyên Thánh led a normal life without any special concerns about the
nourishment and protection of her fetus, which was then a popular and
familiar custom, particularly in the nobility, of our country: “In the
months of pregnancy, she did not have any diet. She was ready to eat
anything offered by the cook but her fetus was still in good condition.
She knew that she was being protected by something inconceivable.” In
Thiền Tông Bản Hạnh, this fact is not described but expressed in
two lines of verse:
Since the day she had the dream,
The
queen’s pregnancy passed by increasingly well.
Regarding the days
when Emperor Nhân Tông was just born, Thánh Đăng Ngữ Lục as well as
ĐVSKTT, notes the phenomenon that he had a golden complexion with a
black mole on his right shoulder: “When he was born, his skin was like
pure gold. Thánh Tông named him Golden Buddha. On his right shoulder was a
black mole like a big bean. The learned men said that he would be capable
of undertaking great affairs later.” This detail is found rather
lengthy in Thiền Tông Bản Hạnh:
Her
pregnancy reached its full months when he came into the world.
How
strange it was, his form with golden skin.
The
Emperor-Father said that it was due to their merits
That they could give birth to a Golden Buddha.
On
his right shoulder was a mole,
By
which the seers foretold
That the Prince’s wisdom was so great as to carry great affairs
And
become the teacher of the ten directions.
When he grew up,
Emperor Nhân Tông was named Khâm by his father and given careful education
so that he could have capacity of ruling the country in the future. This
fact is not clearly recorded in the historical documents of Vietnam. In
Thánh Đăng Ngữ Lục there is only a brief note: “Điều Ngự
was intelligent, possessed of much capacity, fond of studying; he read
everything, mastering books of both Buddhism and worldly subjects.”
And in Thiền Tông Bản Hạnh are two lines of verse:
So
much were his parents’ care and love
That they gave him the title King Điều Ngự.
In his prefatory
handwriting on the painting Chu Lin Ta Shih Chien Shan T’u,
however, Ch’ên Kuang Chih gives us a rather clear detail of Emperor Nhân
Tông’s education in his youth: “When he grew up, he became well versed
in the three teachings
and comprehended Buddhist texts fully. Even astronomy, calendar, military
tactics, medicine, musical rules, all were quickly and thoroughly mastered
by him.” Thus, Emperor Nhân Tông received extremely general education
in a free and open manner, combining scientific knowledge with literature,
military principles with music. It is the educational tradition of Vietnam
and Vietnamese Buddhism that is known to have existed since the days of
Mâu Tử and Khương Tăng Hội.
As regards his age
of sixteen, i.e. the year of Giáp Tuất (1274), ĐVSKTT 5 p.34a4-5
says: “In the 12th month, the eldest Prince Khâm was
appointed to be the Crown Prince and married the eldest daughter of Hưng
Đạo Vương, who was then given the title ‘phi’.”
According to Thánh Đăng Ngữ Lục p.16b7, after learning about his
father’s intention of handing over the imperial power to him, Emperor Nhân
Tông had the idea of ceding it to his younger brother, Đức Việp. The
Record gives us an account of the emperor’s marriage and his feelings
after his intention of abdicating the throne failed: “At the age of
sixteen, he was chosen to be the Crown Prince. Though he had refused his
father’s decision three times, he failed. He was then married to the
eldest daughter of National Mother Nguyên Từ… The couple’s life was in
harmony, yet his feeling was indifferent.” The same fact is plainly
recorded in Thiền Tông Bản Hạnh, without mentioning his marriage:
When he was still at his young age of sixteen,
His
father decided to hand over the throne to him.
Điều Ngự prostrated himself twice before his father, saying
His
younger brother should substitute for him.
Being indifferent to wealth and nobility,
He
was concerned about the practice [of the Path] only.
Though dwelling in the
Eastern
Palace,
On
the way of Dhyāna was his mind all the time concentrated.
Since “his feeling
was indifferent” towards his wife, Thánh Đăng Ngữ Lục gives a
detail concerning the fact that Emperor Nhân Tông left the palace for
Mount Yên Tử: “One night, at the Tý hour,
the king crossed the Citadel to enter the Yên Tử Mountain. On his arrival
at the
Tháp Temple, he felt
rather tired and further it was already at dawn; so he took a rest there.
Watching his extraordinary countenance, the monk of the temple offered
food to him.”
The fact is rewritten in Thiền Tông Bản Hạnh:
That night the Crown Prince departed from the palace,
Seeking the way to Yên Tử alone.
On
his arrival at
Mount
Đông Cứu, it was at dawn;
Pretending to be a private soldier,
He
entered the Tower to rest for a moment.
Seeing his strange appearance,
The
monk prepared a meal for him.
On learning of his
renunciation, it is natural that the royal family, especially the queen,
had to order a search for him. In the words of Thánh Đăng Ngữ Lục:
“The queen told Thánh Tông everything [about the crown prince’s
departure]. He ordered the subjects to search in the four directions. The
crown prince unpleasantly came back, ascending the throne. Although he
lived in the splendid citadel, he kept himself in purity.” In the
words of Thiền Tông Bản Hạnh:
The
queen reported the news to the brilliant king,
Ordering all the subjects and common people
Quickly to fetch the crown prince.
He
would be punished immediately
For
forcing his younger brother to replace him.
Then, the crown prince was brought back
And
was handed over the throne to rule the people.
ĐVSKTT says nothing
about the fact above; yet Thánh Đăng Ngữ Lục gives us one more detail:
“The crown prince usually stayed at the Từ Phúc Temple in the Citadel. In
a dream by day, he saw a golden lotus growing from his navel, which was as
big as a wheel. On the lotus appeared a golden Buddha and beside Him was a
person who pointed to the king, saying, ‘Do you know this Buddha? That’s
Buddha Biến Chiếu.’ He woke up in a surprised manner, telling the dream to
King Thánh Tông, who felt it extremely strange.” In Thiền Tông Bản Hạnh,
the story is recorded in verse:
Though he was dwelling in the Eastern Palace,
His
mind was always centered on the way of Dhyāna.
One
night when the moon was shining by the corridor,
He
suddenly saw, in his dream, the appearance of a lotus.
It
was said that he had good opportunity
Of
seeing Buddha, symbolized by the lotus.
According to
Thánh Đăng Ngữ Lục, after this dream, Emperor Nhân Tông made up his
mind to eat vegetarian food only. He was so thin that the Emperor-Father
had to request him to change his diet: “Since then he was usually on a
vegetarian diet only, abstaining from animal food. His face became so thin
that Thánh Tông felt strange, asking him the reason. Having heard him
telling the truth, Thánh Tông cried, saying: ‘I am already old. Everything
depends upon you alone. If you are in such a state, what will the career
achieved by our ancestors be like?.’ Hearing this, Điều Ngự cried, too.”
In the verse of Thiền Tông Bản Hạnh:
The
Crown Prince vowed to be a vegetarian.
His
face and body got increasingly thin.
Seeing that, the king-father asked him.
Prostrating himself the prince told the truth.
His
face filled with tears, Thánh Tông said,
“How pitiful it is when I have become old
And
no one would inherit the ancestors’ career.”
[Hearing this,] the prince’s tears dropped too.
Father and son, how deeply emotional their love was.
Whether the dream
occurred before his ascending the throne or after his being appointed to
be the Crown Prince, it is obviously true that Prince Trần Khâm accepted
to mount the throne on the 22nd of the 10th month of
Mậu Dần, Bảo Phù 6 (1278). No sooner had he been on the throne than
Emperor Nhân Tông encountered an extremely dangerous situation of the
country. Kublai Khan was urgently preparing his plan of invading our
country whereas his army was taking up the final military bases of the
Sung Dynasty in Southern China and then ended their campaign with the fact
that General Lu Hsiu Fu carrying the Sung king on his back jumped to death
into the sea in the spring of the following year (1279).
In the 10th
month, Emperor Nhân Tông came to the throne. In the leap 11th
month, a messenger of Kublai Khan, Ch’ai Ch’ung, arrived at Yang Chou via
the route of Kiang Ling and went on toward our country. Concerning this
fact, ĐVSKTT 5 p38a3-7 says: “Learning of Thái Tông’s death, the
Yuan king intended to occupy our country. He ordered the arrival of Li Pu
Shang Shu Ch’ai Ch’ung (i.e. Ch’ai Chuan Ch’ing). At that time, our
messenger in
China, Lê Khắc Phục,
who had encountered the Yuan troops’ attack on the Sung court on his way
back to our country, followed the route of Hu Nan. Accompanying him, Ch’ai
Ch’ung arrived at our court. On the pretext that the Emperor had come to
the throne without the Yuan’s approval, he persuaded the Emperor to go for
an audience with the Yuan king. The Emperor refused his request, sending
Trịnh Đình Toàn and Đỗ Quốc Kế to the Yuan. The Yuan detained Đình Toàn,
not allowing him to return.”
The Chinese
historical accounts, especially Pen Chi and An Nan Chuan of
Yuan Shih 10 p.5a3-4 and 209 p.4a1-b13, record very clearly the
activity of their envoy in our country and Emperor Nhân Tông’s measures of
defense. In the 8th month Ch’ai Ch’ung was ordered by Kublai
Khan to follow the route of Kiang Ling in Kwang Hsi; yet, he decided to
choose the route in Yan Nan and arrived at Yung Chou in the leap 11th
month. Hearing of this, Emperor Nhân Tông sent a letter of protest,
demanding Ch’ai Ch’ung to withdraw on the route of Shan Ch’an, Yun Nan he
had often used before. This may be the first diplomatic correspondence
that is preserved partly in An Nan Chuan of Yuan Shih 209
p.4a4-5: “Now, learning that Your Kuo Kung
has taken pains to come to our humble country, none of the people on the
frontier is not frightened. They do not know where the people who have
just arrived come from. You might take your troops back on the former
route to come again.”
Ch’ai Ch’ung did not
respond to the Emperor’s request but sent a letter, demanding the
reception of him: “Together with your country’s mission led by Lê Khắc
Phục, we, Li Pu Shang Shu and some mandarins, obeying the superior order,
arrived at Yung Chou via Kiang Ling to enter An Nan. If there are any
guiding troops, follow the horses at rest-houses to the distant frontier
to receive us.”
According to the
same An Nan Chuan of Yuan Shih 209 p.4a6-10, Emperor Nhân
Tông ordered Ngự Sử Trung Tán Kiêm Tri Thẩm Hình Viện Sự Đỗ Quốc Kế to
receive them on the border. Then he ordered Thái Úy Trần Quang Khải with a
hundred royal officials to lead them from the bank of the Red River to the
House of Messengers. On the 2nd of the 12th month of
Mậu Dần (1278), Emperor Nhân Tông went there to meet them. On the 4th,
he received a decree issued by Kublai Khan, which was read by Ch’ai Ch’ung
himself: “Your country has been subject [to the Chinese court] for more
than twenty years but has not fulfilled six affairs recently. If you do
not come for audience, rebuild your ramparts and moats, reorganize your
troops to wait for our army (…). Your father received my orders to be a
king. Not only have you mounted the throne without my permission but also
refused to come for audience. How can you avoid being punished by the
imperial court later?”
It is due to those
insolent words that Trần Hưng Đạo, in his later proclamation of
encouraging his soldiers, wrote “watching their messengers to walk up
and down haughtily on the roads, stick out their ‘barn-owl’ tongues to
disregard our court, expose their ‘goat-dog’ bodies to show pride before
the Emperor.” Those insolent attitudes could not discourage the
Emperor easily. To test their reactions, he sent for Ch’ai Ch’ung at a
party held in the corridor as before. The latter refused to sit at table
and returned to the House of Messengers, staying there until Phạm Minh Tự,
by order of the Emperor, invited him to the party held at Tập Hiền Palace.
In An Nan Chuan
of Yuan Shih 209 p.4a12 –b3, the talk between the Emperor and Ch’ai
Ch’ung at the party is rather clearly recorded. In the beginning is the
Emperor’s statement: “No sooner had my Emperor-Father passed away and I
succeeded him than Your Imperial Messenger brought a decree together with
your words of persuasion. This makes me both pleasant and frightened. I
have secretly heard that the head of Sung, though still an innocent child,
has been conferred the title ‘kung’, so my small country should also
receive your favor to be pitifully considered. Earlier, I was exempted
from the six affairs. Now, as to my personal attendance on audience, I am
afraid I may die halfway since, being born in the secluded palace, I have
not learnt how to ride horses; nor have I got accustomed to the outside
climate. Neither have my younger brother, Thái Úy, and those under his
age. On your return to attend upon the King, state clearly my sincere
loyalty in your report and let me offer rare gifts.”
Hearing these words,
Ch’ai Ch’ung replied at once, “Although the head of Sung was not yet at
the age of ten and he grew up in the closed palace as well, he could
arrive at the Capital. Besides delivering the decree, [I] dare not obey
any other order. Further, our group of four really come here to invite
you, not to take anything from you.”
Thus, it is obvious
that not more than two months since his ascending the throne, Emperor Nhân
Tông had to receive Ch’ai Ch’ung’s mission with their threat of attacking
our country. Before their ill-willed actions, Emperor Nhân Tông tactfully
carried out a flexible policy so that the people of Đại Việt had enough
time to develop and reinforce their potential strength. According to An
Nan Chuan of Yuan Shih 209 p.4b3-6, when Ch’ai Ch’ung was about
to return home, Emperor Nhân Tông ordered Phạm Minh Tự, Trịnh Quốc Toản
and Đỗ Quốc Kế to ask him to submit his memorial to the Yuan king,
informing him of his refusal of audience: “My body is weak by nature;
further, the road is hard to travel. I fear that, if I die, my white bones
exposed on the way would hurt Your Majesty’s heart without any benefit for
the imperial court at all. Bowing my head, I entreat Your Majesty to show
mercy to this small and remote country in order that I and my subjects can
keep our lives for the purpose of serving Your Majesty. It is a great
chance for me and a great favor for the people as well.”
In the 3rd
month of the following year (1279), when Ch’ai Ch’ung’s mission arrived at
Ta Tu
to submit their report on Emperor Nhân Tông’s sending his messengers
instead of his personal arrival for audience, Ch’u Mi Yuan of the Yuan
proposed Kublai Khan to attack our country. He refused their proposal,
letting our mission enter for audience. In the 11th month,
having had one messenger of ours, Trịnh Quốc Toản, detained at Ta Tu, he
ordered a mission of four led by Ch’ai Ch’ung to go to our country with Đỗ
Quốc Kế, setting forth their threats and terms. In the words of An Nan
Chuan of Yuan Shih 209 p.4b9-12: “If it is true that you
cannot come for audience, collect gold to substitute for your body, two
pearls for your eyes, and two men—a learned man and a son or a brother of
yours—and two types of partisans—two men each for aborigines. If you
cannot do so, rebuild your ramparts and moats to wait for [our] judgment.”
In face of such
threats and thus the danger of an increasingly coming war, Emperor Nhân
Tông urgently carried out a series of measures focused on increasing the
people’s potential power in politics, economy, military and diplomatic
affairs in order to prepare for the coming war against invaders, a war
that the Emperor himself and the court thought it impossible to avoid.
First, concerning
politics the Emperor carried out a policy of comforting the people and
stabilizing society by “setting free prisoners throughout the country” on
the occasion of Tết Nguyên Đán
of Kỷ Mão, Thiệu Bảo 1, i.e. soon after his being enthroned, as recorded
in ĐVSKTT 5 p.38b4-5. Next, he ordered to solve false charges and
unjust trials left among the masses. There is an interesting fact in
ĐVSKTT 5 p.39b4-8 that twenty months after his ascending the throne,
some common people once hindered his vehicle to complain to him of an
unjust trial. The Emperor “ordered Chánh Trưởng Nội Thư Hỏa Trần Hùng
Thao” to solve it “right on the road.” Also in the same period,
when hearing of the rebellion of Trịnh Giác Mật in Hà Giang, he ordered
Trần Nhật Duật to persuade him to surrender; and the latter succeeded in “leading
Mật and his wife and children to see the king” without “wasting an
arrow.”
Economically, a year
after his mounting the throne, due to his measures of encouraging the
peasantry, “a big crop was obtained: two spikes per rice-stalk in the
fields at Trà Kiều of Khoái Lộ”, as recorded in ĐVSKTT 5
p.39b3-4. Further, ĐVSKTT 5 p39b2 gives the detail that, to boost
the development of national commerce, Emperor Nhân Tông had “standard
rulers for measuring wood and cloth” prescribed for an identical
system of measurement for the sake of business throughout the country. In
the 2nd month of the same year, the Emperor had “registers
of population and decrees of civil services in the country checked”
for the purpose of controlling the population and improving conditions of
living, working and producing of the people.
Concerning foreign
affairs, besides his efforts of dealing with the Yuan court, only several
months after his coming to the throne, Emperor Nhân Tông attempted to
solve the problem of Champa by establishing a close relationship with this
neighboring nation on the southern border. Just in the 1st
month of Thiệu Bảo 1 (1279), Chế Năng and Chế Diệp, who were ordered by
the Cham king to lead a mission to our country, asked King Nhân Tông to
allow them to stay and serve as subjects in our court. The Emperor,
however, refused their request tactfully and advised them to return to
Champa. Moreover, when Champa was invaded by the Yuan army in the 12th
month of Chih Yuan 16 (1279), Emperor Nhân Tông sent 20,000 troops and 500
warships to Champa as reinforcements. This fact is not mentioned in our
historical books, but it is very clearly recorded in An Nan Chuan
of Yuan Shih 209 p.5b3-8, which became one of the reasons for the
Yuan to invade our country: “An Fu Shih Ch’iung Chou Ch’en Chung Ta
heard Cheng Tien Yu saying that Giao Chi,
which was in collusion with Champa, sent 20,000 troops and 500 warships
for aid.” Thereafter, Emperor Nhân Tông replied in his letter: “Champa
is a dependency of our small country. So, when it was attacked by your
great army, you, great country, should have shown your pity. In spite of
this, we have not uttered any words at all since we know that any success
or failure of man’s planning depends on Heaven. Now, if Champa has
resisted [your great country] so stubbornly that it is not willing to
surrender, it really does not know anything about Heaven and man. We,
knowing clearly what Heaven and man are like, will never collude with
anyone who does not have the same knowledge. It is a fact that even a
small child can understand clearly, let alone our ‘small country.’ This is
our sincere statement.”
In spite of the
explanation above, the fact that Emperor Nhân Tông sent his men to Champa
to fight against the Yuan must have occurred. This may be the second time
when our country has sent troops abroad, nearly fourteen centuries later
than the first time King Hùng sent Vietnamese troops to aid Đông Việt and
Mân Việt to struggle against the army of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.
For the security of Đại Việt, Champa has an extremely vital position. When
ordering troops commanded by So Tu to attack Champa, Kublai Khan did not
only think of his occupation of Champa as a bridgehead for attacking other
countries in Southeast Asia, as is supposed by some, but also intended to
make use of Champa first as a foothold to attack Đại Việt from the
southern direction. In reality, this is proved by the subsequent events.
Indeed, from his
experience in the war of 1258, Kublai Khan paid attention to the position
of Champa in his strategy of besieging and annihilating our country.
Consequently, according to Chan Cheng Chuan (Story of Champa) of
Yuan Shih 210 pp.4a3-6a7, right in the 12th month of Chih
Yuan 16 (1279), Kublai Khan ordered Toa Do together with Ping Pu Shih Lang
Chiao Hua Ti, Tsung Kuan Meng Ch’ing Yuan and Wan Hu Ton Thang Phu to
Champa to persuade its king to go to court for audience. The next year, he
continued to send two more missions, one in the 6th month and
the other in the 11th month of Chih Yuan 17 (1280). In 1281,
Kublai Khan officially formed the headquarters of invading Champa known as
Chan Cheng Hsin Chung Shu Sheng headed by So Tu. Up to the 11th
of Chih Yuan 19 (1282), So Tu led his troops to Champa from Kwang Chou.
The above is briefly cited from Chan Cheng Chuan of Yuan Shih
210 p.4a3-13.
Thus, Champa has a
very important position in the defense strategy of Đại Việt. And Emperor
Nhân Tông resolved to keep at all cost the southern border stable and
peaceful, not letting the enemy have the opportunity to break the
Viet-Cham relationship in their struggle against the common enemy. In
reality, it is before his reinforcement of 20,000 troops and 500 warships
for Champa, possibly in the end of 1282, i.e. the time of So Tu’s
departure from Kwang Chou with his troops, that in the beginning of the
same year, i.e. the 2nd month of Nhâm Ngọ, Thiệu Bảo 4, Champa
sent a mission of more than one hundred people headed by Bố Bà Ma to Đại
Việt with an offering of white elephants. The fact, recorded in ĐVSKTT
5 p.41b1-2, that such a crowded diplomatic delegation was sent to Đại Việt
affirms the matter of aid for Champa by our country. In this connection,
nearly thirty years later, the king of Champa pleasantly agreed on the
incorporation of the two districts of Ô and Lý into the territory of Đại
Việt.
Concerning military
affairs, in the year of Chih Yuan 16 (1279), after annihilating the Sung
and occupying entire China, Kublai Khan immediately ordered to build
warships to attack Đại Việt, as recorded in Pen Chi of Yuan Shih
10 p.11b14. In the 11th month of the same year, though
detaining our messengers headed by Trịnh Đình Toản at Ta Tu, he ordered Li
Pu Shang Shu Ch’ai Ch’ung and Ping Pu Shang Shu Liang Seng to accompany Đỗ
Quốc Kế to Thăng Long with the threat that Emperor Nhân Tông should “rebuild
ramparts and moats to wait for judgment .” In the 10th
month of the following year (1280) Liang Seng and Ch’ai Ch’ung were
ordered to come to our country again. Therefore, in the 1st
month of Thiệu Bảo 3 (1281), Emperor Nhân Tông sent a mission of his
uncle, Trần Di Ái, Lê Tuấn and Lê Mục to China. According to Pen Chi
of Yuan Shih p.9a4-5, seizing this opportunity, Kublai Khan carried
out his evil plan of invasion by means of creating a puppet government in
exile headed by Trần Di Ái as An Nan Kuo Wang (King of An Nam), together
with Lê Mục as Han Lin Hsueh Shih and Lê Tuấn as Shang Shu. In a decree
issued in Chih Yuan 18 (1281) and recorded in An Nan Chih Lueh 2
p.35, Kublai Khan claimed two reasons: “The mission was sent to invite
you, but you found a pretext for refusal. Now, you intend to disobey my
order by sending your uncle Di Ái for imperial audience (…). You have
alleged illness as a reason for not going to court, so let you stay there
for medical treatment and convalescence. I have chosen your uncle as king
of An
Nan.”
Having founded the
puppet government, Kublai Khan had An Nan Hsuan Wei Ssu established in the
same month with Buyan Tamur as An Nan Hsuan Wei Tu Shih Yuan Shuai
assisted by Ch’ai Ch’ung and Qugar, as recorded in Pen chi of
Yuan Shih 11 p.9a8-9 and 209 pp.4b12-5a1. Then he ordered Ch’ai Ch’ung
to lead 1,000 troops accompanying Di Ái and his companions back to our
country. According to An Nan Chih Lueh 3 p.44, “having arrived
at the frontier in Vĩnh Bình, they were not recognized by the people
there. Being afraid, Di Ái fled first in the night. The eldest son of King
[Thánh Tông] ordered his subjects to welcome Ch’ai Ch’ung into the court
and proclaimed his edict.” ĐVSKTT 5 pp.40b8-41a2 says: “Ch’ai
Ch’ung led 5,000 troops, escorting [them] back to [our] country”, and
“Ch’ai Ch’ung, arrogant and impudent, rode straight into the gate of
Dương Minh on his horse. When Thiên Trường troops stopped [him], he used
the whip to hurt them on the head. Riding to the Tập Hiền Viện, he saw
curtains and hangings arranged and dismounted from his horse.” But
here it does not give any information as to where Trần Di Ái and his
companions were till page p.41b2, on which it records that in the 4th
month of the following year (1282) “Trần Di Ái and his companions
returned from their mission” and two months later, i.e. the 6th
month, “the traitors, Trần Di Ái and his companions, were punished to
serve as soldiers in Thiên Trường troop and Tuấn as Tổng Binh.”
Accordingly, Kublai
Khan’s plan of setting up a puppet government in our country failed
completely due to Emperor Nhân Tông’s resolution to break the escort
troops led by Ch’ai Ch’ung. Ten years later, in his decree issued in 1291,
not forgetting this fact Kublai Khan blamed our emperor for having “killed
uncle and driven messengers out.” Yet Emperor Nhân Tông refuted this
in a letter sent to Kublai Khan: “It is obvious that my uncle Di Ái
fled abroad earlier; yet I am falsely accused of having killed him.”
Due to this failure, Ch’ai Ch’ung was so angry that, according to
ĐVSKTT 5 p.41a2-9, he refused to receive Thái Sư Trần Quang Khải when
the latter was ordered by the Emperor to meet him at the House of
Messengers. Even when Trần Quang Khải walked straight into his room, he
refused to leave his bed. Hearing this, Hưng Đạo Vương Trần Quốc Tuấn
arrived. This time, Ch’ai Ch’ung stood up, greeting and inviting him to
sit. Everybody was amazed. But that was because Trần Quốc Tuấn had his
head shaved and dressed himself as a Buddhist venerable from the North.
Since that failure,
however, the Yuan’s plan of invading our country was only a question of
time. In reality, the Yuan court had prepared tactics, weapons and troops
to attack Đại Việt. Under Emperor Nhân Tông’s leadership, all of their
actions were shadowed by the Đại Việt court. According to ĐVSKTT 5
p.41b4-5, in the 8th month the Vietnamese authorities were
informed by General Lương Uất in Lạng District on the frontier that “Yu
Cheng Hsiang So Tu of the Yuan leading 500,000 well-trained troops claimed
to take the route of Vietnam for attacking Champa, but in reality to
invade our country.”
Two months later,
Emperor Nhân Tông gave orders for a military conference in Bình Than to
discuss the plan of fighting against the Yuan invaders. Beside the
conference there were two remarkable facts mentioned in ĐVSKTT 5
pp.41b8-43a6. The first is about the reinstatement of Trần Khánh Dư in Phó
Tướng Quân; the second is that Hoài văn hầu Trần Quốc Toản squashed an
orange in his hand since he was not allowed to attend the conference. This
shows that, before the invaders entered our country’s frontier, Emperor
Nhân Tông had launched a movement of enemy-killing resolution in the
military staff. The 10th month of the same year, he conferred
Thượng Tướng Thái Sư on Thái Uý Trần Quang Khải.
In the 7th
month of the following year, the emperor sent a mission of Hoàng Tư Lịnh
and Nguyễn Chương to
China.
On their return, they reported that Prince A Thai and P’ing Chang A La
were concentrating 500,000 troops from the bases of Hu Kwang with the
intention of invading our country. According to An Nan Chuan of
Yuan Shih 209 p.5a1-b3, learning of this, Emperor Nhân Tông sent a
letter to A Li Hai Ya, demanding him to set free the messengers held as
hostage; and A Li Hai Ya replied by order of the Yuan king. From Ching Hu
Chan Cheng Hsin Sheng in Ngoh Chou, A Li Hai Ya ordered Ta Lu Hua Chih
Chao Ch’u to bring the letter to our country. In the 11th month
of the same year, when Chao Ch’u came, Emperor Nhân Tông ordered Trung
Lượng Đại Phu Đinh Khắc Thiệu, Trung Đại Phu Nguyễn Đạo Học, and so on to
accompany Chao Ch’u, carrying local offerings to the Yuan court.
Simultaneously, the emperor continued with his diplomatic struggle by
ordering Trung Phụng Đại Phu Phạm Chí Thanh and Triều Thỉnh Lang Đỗ Bào
Trực to carry to A Li Hai Ya his letter concerning the reason why he could
not help them with troops and provisions in their attack of Champa and why
he could not go to the Yuan court for audience.
While allowing A Li
Hai Ya to delegate Chao Ch’u in the 7th month, Kublai Khan
ordered T’ao Ping Chih, in the 10th month of the same year, to
carry his letter to Emperor Nhân Tông. Though it is lost, the letter must
have been full of threatening words. According to ĐVSKTT 5
p.43b6-8, in the same month Emperor Nhân Tông mobilized all the naval
officers and men commanded by his princes and nobles for maneuvers. He
conferred Quốc Công Tiết Chế Thống Lãnh Thiên Hạ Chư Quân Sự on Trần Hưng
Đạo and, at the same time, delivered troops to experienced generals,
getting ready for the coming invasion of the Yuan court.
On the Keng Wu day
of the 5th month of Chih Yuan 21 (1284), Kublai Khan, having
heard “Ching Hu Chan Cheng Hsin Sheng leading troops to occupy Wu Ma
close to An Nam and asking for more troops, ordered Ta Lu Hua Chih Chao
Ch’u of Ngoh Chou to carry his letter to [the king of] An Nam”, as
recorded in Pen Chi of Yuan Shih 13 p.3a5-6. On Giáp Thìn,
i.e. the last day of the leap 5th month, Emperor Nhân Tông sent
an envoy headed by Trần Khiêm Phủ for offering jade bowls, gold pots,
chains of pearls, yellow satin, blue turtledoves and cloth. It is recorded
in An Nan Chih Lueh 14 p.139 that the envoy came to Ching Hu Chan
Cheng Hsin Sheng to ask for a delay of action.
So is it recorded in
ĐVSKTT 5 p.44a4-5 except for the 11th month instead of
the 5th month. This must be false because afterwards it says: “In
the 12th month Trần Phủ returned from the Yuan, reporting that
the Yuan king ordered Prince Chen Nan Wang T’o Huan, P’ing Chang A La and
A Li Hai Ya to lead troops to invade our country on the pretext of taking
the route to attack Champa.” It is not possible for Trần Khiêm Phủ to
have gone to
China
and come back within only two months. Further, following him was the
mission of Đoàn Án and Lê Quý; and then in the 7th month was
the mission of Nguyễn Đạo Học, as recorded in Pen Chi of Yuan
Shih 13 p.4a8-9. This points out that a diplomatic front was opened to
seize the opportunity of consolidating and developing spiritual and
material force for the purpose of reinforcing the fighting strength and
the spirit-ready-to-fight of the army and militiamen of Đại Việt.
Indeed, in the 8th
month of the same year (1284), after being given the title Quốc Công Tiết
Chế, Trần Hưng Đạo proposed to concentrate all the troops at Đông Bộ Đầu
in Thăng Long to hold a large review. Afterwards, under his command they
were deployed into the important positions in Vĩnh Bình, Động Bàng, Nội
Bàng, Vạn Kiếp, Bình Than, Vân Đồn to face the north-eastern wing of the
enemy. The troops that would defend against the south-western wing from
Yun Nan was commanded by Chiêu Văn Vương Trần Nhật Duật. In addition,
several action-stations were set up south of the imperial capital in Đà
Mạc, A Lỗ and Đại Hoàng and handled by General Bảo Nghĩa Hầu Trần Bình
Trọng and others. The war between Mongolia and Vietnam was about to break
out.
Parallel with the
urgent mobilization of troops was a campaign to encourage the whole people
to join the force of resistance. In the 12th month,
Emperor-Father Trần Thánh Tông had all the country elders assembled at a
party in Diên Hồng Palace for discussing the plan of attacking the enemy.
To answer his question as to whether our people should fight the enemy or
not, the old men shouted “fight” in such a unanimous manner that “the
word uttered by ten thousand people sounded as if by only one person.”
Commenting on this action, Historiographer Ngô Sỹ Liên said, “Thánh
Tông’s intention was to see how firm the common people’s support was and
thereby increase their enthusiasm.” Indeed, the Assembly of Diên Hồng
was a great campaign of thought, which aimed at spreading the resolution
of fighting the enemy by Emperor Nhân Tông, the royal court and the army
widely to the common people.
Thus, under the
leadership of Emperor Nhân Tông the army and the people of Đại Việt got
ready, spiritually and materially, for a struggle imposed on them by the
invaders and they resolved to gain a victory over them when the war
started.
Translation by
Đạo Sinh
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Trình bày:
Nhị Tường
Cập nhật: 12-2004
