Lê Thánh Tông
Lê Thánh Tông (黎聖宗; 25 August 1442 – 3 March 1497), personal name Lê Hạo, temple name Thánh Tông, courtesy name Tư Thành, was an emperor of Đại Việt, reigning from 1460 to 1497, the fifth and the longest-reigning emperor of the Later Lê dynasty, and is widely praised as one of the greatest emperors in Vietnamese history. He came to power through a coup d'état against his second brother Lê Nghi Dân in 1460.
In this Vietnamese name, the surname is Lê, but is often simplified to Le in English-language text. In accordance with Vietnamese custom, this person should be referred to by the given name, Hạo.
Lê Thánh Tông
黎聖宗
13 June 1460 – 13 March 1497 (36 years, 250 days)
3 March 1497 (aged 54)
- Crown Prince Lê Tranh
- Prince Lê Tân
- Prince Le Tung
- Prince Lê Tranh
- Prince Lê Cảo
- Prince Lê Thông
- Prince Lê Táo
- Prince Lê Tương
- Princess Lê Thanh Toại
- Prince Lê Chiêu
- Prince Lê Cảnh
- Prince Lê Thoan
- Prince Lê Kinh
- Prince Lê Kiện
- Princess Lê Oánh Ngọc
- Princess Lê Minh Kính
- Princess Lê Triệt San
- Princess Lê Bính Hiểu
- Princess Lê Lan Khuê
- Princess Lê Bảo Huyền
- Princess Lê Lệ Khanh
- Princess Lê Lan Đường
- Princess Lê Cẩm Thương
- Princess Lê Mỹ Thuần
Lê Hạo
Lê Thánh Tông
His reign is recognized for the extensive administrative, military, education, and fiscal reforms he instituted, conquests of Champa states and expansion of Đại Việt territory in the south, and a cultural revolution that replaced the old aristocracy with a generation of literati scholars. His reign was later praised as the Prospered reign of Hồng Đức (Hồng Đức Thịnh trị; 洪德盛治).
Name[edit]
Lê Thánh Tông is known by several names, including his birth name Lê Hạo (黎灝), his courtesy name Tư Thành (思誠), pseudonym Đạo Am chủ nhân (道庵主人), rhymed name Tao Đàn nguyên súy (騷壇元帥), formal title Thiên Nam động chủ (天南洞主).
Early life[edit]
Lê Tư Thành was born on the 20th of the 7th lunar month (August 25th in Gregorian calendar) in the third year of Đại Bảo (1442). A legend surrounding his birth is that, his mother Ngô Thị Ngọc Dao, was bestowed a Tiên đồng (仙童) by the Jade Emperor in her dream, and started to become pregnant with Tư Thành the following day. He was the fourth son of emperor Lê Thái Tông and his consort Ngô Thị Ngọc Dao. He was the fourth grandson of Lê Lợi,[1] the half-brother of Lê Nhân Tông and it is likely that his mother and consort Nguyễn Thị Anh (the mother of Lê Nhân Tông) were related (cousins or perhaps sisters). Young Tư Thành was described in the national chronicle, the Complete Annals of the Great Viet as "Magnificently gifted, his mind and body are marvelous, his looks elegantly strong; kind-hearted and generous, bright, earnest, truly the brilliant kind who deserves the title of Emperor, whose ingenuity and bravery will preserve the nation".[2]
When Tư Thành was three years old, he was brought to the royal palace and was educated just like his half-brother, the ruling emperor Lê Nhân Tông, and other brothers, Lê Khắc Xương and Lê Nghi Dân in Đông Kinh (東京).[3] In 1445, Le Nhan Tong issued a decree and conferred Le Tu Thanh as Prince of Binh Nguyen (Bình Nguyên Vương), and sent to kinh sư, to study with other kings in Kinh Dien. Officials in Kinh Dien such as Tran Phong noticed that Binh Nguyen Vuong had a dignified appearance and was more intelligent than other people, so they considered him an extraordinary person.
Ascension to the throne[edit]
On the 3rd of the 10th lunar month, 1459, 6th year of Diên Ninh, Lê Thái Tông's firstborn son, Lê Nghi Dân staged a coup in the middle of the night, assassinating reigning emperor Lê Nhân Tông.[4][5] Nghi Dân then proclaimed himself Emperor. Nine months later, a counter-coup against Lê Nghi Dân led by two military leaders Nguyễn Xí and Đinh Liệt was successfully carried out, and Nghi Dân was killed in the royal palace.[6] The plotters asked Prince Tư Thành to become the new emperor and he accepted. Two days after Lê Nghi Dân's death, Lê Hạo was proclaimed Emperor.[6]
The leaders of the counter-coup which removed and killed Nghi Dân were two of the last surviving friends and aides of Lê Lợi - Nguyễn Xí and Đinh Liệt. The pair had been out of power since the 1440s, but they still commanded respect due to their association with the dynasty's founder, Lê Lợi. The new king appointed these men to the highest positions in his new government: Nguyễn Xí became one of the king's councilors, and Đinh Liệt was gifted command over the royal army of Đại Việt.
Reign[edit]
Bureaucratic reforms[edit]
Lê Thánh Tông introduced reforms designing to replace the Thanh Hoá oligarchy of Dai Viet's southern region with a corps of bureaucrats selected through the Confucian civil service examinations.[7] Following the Chinese model, he divided the government into six ministries: Finance, Rites, Justice, Personnel, Army, and Public Works.[8] Nine grades of rank were set up for both the civil administration and the military.[1] A Board of Censors was set up with royal authority to monitor governmental officials and report exclusively to the king. However, governmental authority did not extend all the way to the village level.[9] The villages were ruled by their own councils.[9]
In 1469, all of Dai Viet was mapped and a full census, listing all the villages in the kingdom, was taken. Around this time, the country was divided into 13 dao (provinces).[10] Each was administrated by a Governor, a Judge, and the local army commander. Thánh Tông also ordered that a new census should be taken every six years.[11] Other public works that were undertaken including building and repair of granaries, using the army to rebuild and repair irrigation systems after floods, and sending out doctors to areas afflicted by outbreaks of disease. Even though the emperor, at 25, was relatively young, he had already restored Dai Viet's stability, which was a marked contrast from the turbulent times marking the reigns of the two emperors before him. By 1471, the kingdom employed more than 5,300 officials (0.1 percent of the population) into the bureaucrat army, equally divided between the court and the provinces, with at least one supervising officer every three villages.[11]
A national-wide census was conducted in 1490, reported approximately 8,000 village-level jurisdictions throughout the country including the thirty-six urban wards that lay between the royal compound and the Red River at Dong Kinh, the only city in the country;[12][13] with the total population was approximately 3.7 million people, the Red River delta had been the most densely inhabited region of Southeast Asia in the early-modern era.[14][15]
The new government proved to be effective and represented a successful adaptation of the Chinese Confucian system of government outside of China. However, following the deaths of Thánh Tông and of his son and successor, Lê Hiến Tông (r. 1498–1504), this new model of government crashed not once but twice in the next three following centuries.[1]
Lê Thánh Tông may have had Cham women as concubines, dancers and singers in his court.[67]