Đại Việt and Champa by Tan Pham

Author:Tan Pham
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: 315Kio Publishing

7.1 - Trần Hưng Đạo (1228–1300) – A great Vietnamese general

Before I begin this Chapter, I need to introduce a Đại Việt general, Trần Hưng Đạo, also known as Hưng Đạo Đại Vương, who is arguably the greatest general Vietnam has ever produced to date. In the Vietnamese pantheon of heroes, if the Trưng sisters are the greatest heroes of the previous millennium, then Trần Hưng Đạo is most likely the greatest hero in the second millennium of Vietnamese history. Today, in most cities and towns across Vietnam, visitors come across street names and temples dedicated to him; there is also a monument for him erected by the Vietnamese community in Arlington, Texas, USA.2

Trần Hưng Đạo was born as Trần Quốc Tuấn in 1228, but the exact date is unknown; it could have been 1226, 1227 or 1230, but he was undoubtedly born into royalty.3 His father, Trần Liễu, was the older brother of the first king of the Trần dynasty, Trần Cảnh. According to local information, Trần Hưng Đạo was born at Tức Mặc hamlet, present-day Lộc Vượng ward in Nam Định city, some 90 kilometres south-east of Hanoi, where the first Trần came to settle over a century earlier.

When he was ten years old, his father, Trần Liễu, rebelled against the king because the king’s uncle, Trần Thủ Độ, forced the king to marry Trần Liễu’s wife as she was pregnant and thus could produce an heir. (I told this story in the previous Chapter.) When the rebellion failed, the king forgave his brother but granted him some land away from the capital and a vương title. Trần Liễu was enraged and plotted vengeance through his son, Trần Hưng Đạo, by seeking teachers in both literature and military arts. Trần Hưng Đạo was well-educated as a result.4

Trần Liễu died in 1251, but early that year, Trần Hưng Đạo, now a young man of 23, married princess Thiên Thành, his cousin, who had been promised to someone else.5 He forced the wedding by climbing into her room at night and sleeping with her. Fortunately for him, his godmother, Thụy Bà, a sister of the king, Trần Cảnh, heard the news and rescued him from capture and possibly death by the princess’s father. She offered 10 trays of gold in exchange for his transgression.6

On his deathbed in 1251, his father told Trần Hưng Đạo that if he did not conquer the world for his father’s sake, his father would not be able to close his eyes when he died. Trần Hưng Đạo took note, but he did not believe that it was right.7 The episode demonstrated that even though he had climbed into the bedroom of his future wife who had been was promised to another man, he was not prepared to take the throne from his uncle. He could have been tempted because his family had a strained relationship with the king. Some years earlier, his father had raped one of the Lý concubines and received a demotion from

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