Information AboutLe Dynasty |
|
LE LOI The founder of the Le Dynasty was the hero-king of Vietnam: Le Loi (ruled: 1428-1433). See Also: Le Loi Le Loi (Vietnamese Lê Lợi) was the son of a village leader in Thanh Hoa Province , the southern-most province of Vietnam at the time. When he was born, Vietnam was independent and under the rule of the Tran Dynasty . However, the Tran kings had been weak for some decades and the powerful neighbor to the north, China was now unified and under the rule of the energetic founder of the Ming Dynasty , Emperor Hongwu . As was usual in Vietnamese history, a disputed succession was an excuse for the Chinese to re-assert control over Vietnam (See the Ho Dynasty for further details). The Chinese, now under the Yongle Emperor conquered and ruled Vietnam starting in 1407 . They immediately tried to change it into another province of the Ming Empire. Many, if not all Vietnamese customs and laws were declared invalid. Distinctive features of Vietnamese life which had naturally emerged during the nearly 500 years of independance from China were suppressed. All resistance to this effort was treated as rebellion and was dealt with according to normal Imperial Chinese methods (villages were burned, people were tortured and executed). Le Loi started a revolt against the Ming rulers in 1418 . The revolt last for 10 years during which there was much bloodshed and many defeats. However, the Chinese were gradually beaten and finally Le Loi was victorious. He proclaimed himself the new King of Vietnam, gave himself the name Le Thai To, and was recognized as such by the new Xuande Emperor of China. However, after only five years on the throne, Le Loi became ill and died. LE THAI TONG See Also: Le Thai Tong Le Thai Tong (Vietnamese: Lê Thái Tông) (ruled: 1433-1442)) was the official heir to Le Loi but he was only 11 years old. As a result, a close friend of Le Loi, Le Sat, assumed the regency of the kingdom. Not long after he assumed the official title as king of Vietnam in 1438 Le Thai Tong accused Le Sat of abuse of power and had him executed. The new king had a weakness for women, he had many wives, and he discarded one favorite after another. The great scandal was his affair with Nguyen Thi Lo (Vietnames: Nguyễn Thị Lộ) the wife of his father's chief advisor Nguyen Trai. The affair started early in 1442 and continued when the king traveled to the home of Nguyen Trai, who was venerated as a great Confucian scholar. Shortly after the king left their home to continue his tour of the western province he fell ill and died. At the time the powerful nobles in the court argued that the king had been poisoned to death. Nguyen Trai and his wife were executed as were three entire generations of both their families (the normal punishment for treason). LE NHAN TONG See Also: Le Nhan Tong With the sudden death of the king at a young age, his heir was an infant son named Bang Co. He was the second son of his father but the elder son had been officially passed over due to his mother's low social status. Bang Co was renamed . The next 17 years were good years for Vietnam - there were no great troubles either internally or externally. Two things of note occurred, first, the Vietnamese sent an army south to attack the Champa kingdom in 1446 . Second, the Dowager Empress ordered the execution of Trinh Kha, for reasons lost to history, in the year 1451 . In 1451 years later, at the age of twelve, Le Nhan Tong was formally given the title of king. This was unusual as in the past, boys could not be given the powers of government till the age of 16. It may have been done to remove the Empress Nguyễn Thi Anh from power, but if that was the reason, it failed and the boy's mother still controlled the government up until the coup of 1459 . In 1459, Le Nhan Tong's older brother, Nghi Dan, plotted with a group of friends to kill the king. On October 28 , the plotters with some 100 "shiftless men" entered into the palace and killed the king (he was just 18). The next day, facing certain certain execution, his mother, Nguyen Thi Anh, committed suicide. Nghi Dan's rule was brief, he was never officially recognized as a king by the later Vietnamese historians. Revolts against his rule started almost immediately and the second revolt, occurring on class="copylinks">June 24 [[1460 succeeded. This revolt, led by the last of Le Loi's old advisors (Nguyen Xi and Dinh Liet) captured and killed Nghi Dan along with his friends. The old men then selected the last son of Le Thai Tong, to be the new king. His name was Le Thanh Tong (Vietnamese: Lê Thánh Tông) and he was just 17 years old at the time. LE THANH TONG See Also: Le Thanh Tong La Thanh Tong (ruled: 1460-1497) was the most prominent of all the Le rulers and one of the greatest kings in Vietnamese history. His rule was one of the high points in the history of Vietnam and was referred to as the time of a "Flood of Virtue" (Hong Đức). He instituted a wide range of government reforms, legal reforms, and land reforms. He restarted the examination system for selecting men for important government positions. He reduced the power of the noble families and reduced the degree of corruption in the government. He built temples to Confucius throughout the provinces of Vietnam. In nearly all respects, his reforms mirrored those of the Song Dynasty . He led a large and effective army against the Champa which succeeded in conquering the Cham capital and ended the power of the Champa forever. He created a new province out of former Champa land and allowed settlers to go to the new land. THE DECLINE OF THE LE DYNASTY With the death of Le Thanh Tong the Le Dynasty fell into a swift decline (1497-1527). Prince Tang, one of Le Thanh Tong’s 14 sons, succeeded his father as Le Hien Tong (Vietnamese: Lê Hiến Tong) at the age of 38. He was an affable, meek and mild-mannered person. Due to his short period of rule and the fact that he didn't pass many significant reforms, he is considered to be simply an extension of Le Thanh Tong's legacy. Le Tuc Tong (1504-05), Le Uy Muc (1505-09) and Le Tuong Duc (1510-16) Succeeding to Le Hien Tong was his third son who took the reign name as Le Tuc Tong. However, he fell gravely ill with the and died away just six months after assuming the throne. His older brother succeeded him as Le Uy Muc. The first thing the new king did was to take revenge against those who had barred him from the throne by having them killed. Among his victims were the former king's mother - which was considered a shocking display of evil behavior. Le Uy Muc was described as a cruel, sadistic, and depraved person, who wasted the court’s money and finances to indulge his whims. Well aware of the fact he was detested by his subjects, Le Uy Muc protected himself by hiring a group of elite bodyguards to surround him at all times. Among them was Mac Dang Dung who became very close to the king and was eventually raised to the rank of General. Despite his precautions, in 1509 a half-brother who Le Uy Much had had jailed, escaped prison and plotted with court insiders to assinate the king. The assassination succeeded and the killer proclaimed himself king under the name Le Tuong Duc. Le Tuong Duc (Vietnamese: Le Tuong Đức) proved to be just as bad a ruler as Le Uy Mac. He reigned from 1510 to 1516 , all the while spending down the royal treasury, and doing nothing to improve the country. He was heedless to the reaction that his taxes caused throughout the country. His rule ended in 1516 when a group of officials and generals stormed the palace and killed him. CIVIL WAR At barely 14 years old, Le Tuong Duc's grandson, prince Le Y, was enthroned as the new emperor Le Chieu Tong (Vietnamese: Lê Chieu Tông) (ruled: 1516-1524). As usual when a young king came to the throne, factions within the court vied with one another for control of the government. One powerful and growing faction was led by Mac Dang Dung. His growing power was resented by the leaders of two noble familes in Vietnam: the Nguyen, under Nguyen Hoang Du (Vietnamese: Nguyễn Hoàng Dụ) and the Trinh, under Trinh Duy Dai and Trinh Duy San. After several years of increasing tension, the Nguyen and the Trinh left the capital Hanoi (then called Dong Quan) and fled south, with the king "under their protection". This was the start of a civil war with Mac Dang Dung and his supporters on one side and the Trinh and the Nguyen on the other side. Thanh Hoa province, the ancestral home to the Trinh and the Nguyen, was the battle ground between the two sides. After several years of warfare, the king, Le Chieu Tong, was assassinated 1524 by Mac Dang Dung's supporters. MAC DANG DUNG AND THE END OF THE LE Soon after Le Chieu Tong fled south with the Trinh and the Nguyen, Mac Dang Dung proclaimed the king's younger brother, Le Xuan, as the new king under the name Le Cung Hoang. In reality, the new king had no power. Three years after Mac's forces killed his older brother, Le Chieu Tong, Mac Dang Dung ended the fiction that Le Cung Hoang actually ruled by killing him also. Mac Dang Dung then proclaimed himself the new king of Vietnam in 1527 (see Mac Dynasty for more details). The Trinh and the Nguyen continued to fight nominally on behalf of the Le Kings but in reality, for their own power. Numerous Le kings ascended to the throne, and were deposed by the Trinh Lords for various reasons over the next 250 years. The last Le king was Le Chieu Tong. When the Tay Son revolt reached Hanoi, the victorious general, Hue, asked for (and received) the king's daughter's hand in marriage. After the Chinese army came and then was defeated, the Le king retreated with it out of Vietnam. He went to the Chinese capital where:
=Causes & Analysis of the Le Dynasty's Rapid Decline= The fundemental weakness of the Confucian system of government is that it rests on the moral statue and integrity of the ruler. If the ruler is wise and just, then the system can work well. Examinations can be fair, people get appointed to positions based on merit, and the government can function with honesty and justice. By contrast, if the leader at the top is weak, or corrupt, then the whole system tends to fall apart. Exam results can be faked, or ignored. Provincial leaders can rule unjustly without fear of punishment because they have personal connections or pay bribes to the high officials back at the capital. While Le Loi and his grandson, Le Thanh Tong, were men of high character and personal integrity, most of their descendants were not. Seduced by the trappings of power, idle where they should have been active, hedonistic where they should have followed the Confucian virtues of self-denial and self-improvement, they set the example for their court and the officials in the government. The problem of making sure that a good king will be followed by another good king is the great unsolved problem in monarchy and it is one that the Le Dynasty did not find a solution for. List Of Vietnamese Dynasties |
|
|