The Trần Dynasty (1225–1400)
The Trần dynasty (1225–1400) was a pivotal Vietnamese dynasty that succeeded the Lý dynasty, establishing a strong, centralized state (Đại Việt) that thrived for nearly two centuries. Famous for repelling three Mongol invasions (1257, 1284, 1287) led by Trần Hưng Đạo, the dynasty bolstered national defense, economic development, and cultural growth.
Origin and foundation
The ancestor of the Trần clan, Trần Kinh migrated from the modern province of Fujian to Đại Việt during the early 12th century. He settled in Tức Mặc village (now Mỹ Lộc, Nam Định) and lived by fishing. His grandson Trần Lý (1151–1210) became a wealthy landowner in the area.Trần Lý's grandson, Trần Cảnh, later established the Trần dynasty. From Trần Lý onwards, the Trần clan became related to the Lý clan by intermarriages with several members of the imperial Lý dynasty.
During the troubled time of many regional rebellions under the reign of emperor Lý Cao Tông, the imperial crown prince, Lý Sảm sought refuge in the territory of the Trần clan, headed by Trần Lý. During this time, the crown prince decided to marry Trấn Lý's daughter Trần Thị Dung in 1209. Afterward, it was the Trần clan who helped emperor Lý Cao Tông and crown prince Lý Sảm to restore their power and return to capital Thăng Long. As a result, the emperor appointed several members of the Trần clan to key positions in the imperial court, such as Tô Trung Từ, who was an uncle of Trần Thị Dung, and Trần Tự Khánh and Trần Thừa, who were all Trần Lý's sons. In 1211 the crown prince Lý Sảm was enthroned as Lý Huệ Tông after the death of Lý Cao Tông. By that time the Trần clan's position began to rise within the imperial court.
After a period of political crisis, the Emperor Lý Huệ Tông, who had been mentally ill for a long time, ultimately decided to pass the throne of the Lý dynasty to crown princess Lý Chiêu Hoàng in October of the lunar calendar, 1224. Ascending the throne at the age of only six, Lý Chiêu Hoàng ruled under the dominant influence of the commander of the imperial guard, Trần Thủ Độ. Even the Empress Regnant's servants were chosen by Trần Thủ Độ; one of them was his 7-year-old nephew Trần Cảnh.
When Trần Cảnh informed Trần Thủ Độ that the Empress Regnant seemed to have affection towards him, the leader of the Trần clan immediately decided to take this chance to carry out his plot to overthrow the Lý dynasty and establish a new dynasty ruled by his own clan. First Trần Thủ Độ moved the whole Trần clan to the imperial palace and arranged a secret marriage between Lý Chiêu Hoàng and Trần Cảnh there, without the appearance of any mandarin or member of the Lý imperial family. After that, he announced the fait accompli to the imperial court and made Lý Chiêu Hoàng cede the throne to her new husband on the grounds that she was incapable of holding office. Therefore, Trần Cảnh was chosen as her successor. As a result, the 216-year reign of the Lý dynasty was ended, and the new Trần dynasty was created on the first day of the twelfth lunar month (December 31, 1225).
Early Trần
After the collapse of the Lý Dynasty, Trần Thủ Độ was still afraid that the newly established Trần Dynasty might be overthrown by its political opponents. He therefore continued to eliminate members of the Lý imperial family: first the former emperor Lý Huệ Tông was coerced into suicide in the tenth lunar month of 1226, then other members of the Lý imperial family were massacred by the order of Trần Thủ Độ in the eighth lunar month of 1232.
Trần Thái Tông was enthroned when he was only eight years old. There were several rebellions in Đại Việt at that time, so Trần Thủ Độ had to devote all of his efforts to consolidating the rule of Thái Tông in the imperial court and over the country. Right after the coronation of the Emperor in 1226, Nguyễn Nộn and Đoàn Thượng rose in revolt in the mountainous region of Bắc Giang and Hải Dương. By both military and diplomatic measures, such as sending an army and by awarding two leaders of the revolt the title of Prince, Trần Thủ Độ was able to put down these revolts in 1229.
According to Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư, Thái Tông and his wife, the Empress Chiêu Thánh, did not have their first son for some time. This situation worried the grand chancellor Trần Thủ Độ because he had profited from similar circumstances with the Emperor Lý Huệ Tông in overthrowing the Lý dynasty. Therefore, in 1237 Trần Thủ Độ decided to force Prince Hoài Trần Liễu, Thái Tông's elder brother, to give up his wife, Princess Thuận Thiên, for the Emperor when she had been pregnant with Trần Quốc Khang for three months. After the marriage, Thuận Thiên was entitled the new empress of the Trần dynasty, while Chiêu Thánh was downgraded to princess.
Furious at losing his pregnant wife to his brother, Trần Liễu rose in revolt against the imperial family. Meanwhile, Thái Tông felt remorse about the situation and decided to become a monk at Yên Tử Mountain in Quảng Ninh in order to avoid the family feud. Finally Trần Thủ Độ forcefully yet successfully persuaded Thái Tông to return to the throne, and Trần Liễu had to surrender after judging that he could not stand with his fragile force. All soldiers who participated in this revolt were killed; Trần Thủ Độ even wanted to behead Trần Liễu, but was stopped by Thái Tông.
Mongol invasions
In 1257, the first Mongol invasion of Đại Việt was launched with the purpose of opening a southern front against the Song dynasty, whom they were fighting for more than two dacades. The Mongols had already conquered parts of modern-day Sichuan province and the Dali kindom in modern-day Yunan province of China in order to besiege the Southern Song from the west. Trần Thái Tông opposed the encroachment of a foreign army across his territory and so dispatched soldiers on elephants to deter the Mongol troops. The elephant-mounted troops were routed by sharpshooters targeting the elephants. In comparison with the previous Ly dynasty, the Tran had strengthened their armed forces and were able to deter the Mongol attacks.
At the beginning of the war, the Đại Việt army suffered several defeats at the hands of an overwhelming force that had already conquered a vast area in Asia. Several high-ranking officials of the Trần dynasty were so fearful that Prince Trần Nhật Hiệu, the younger brother of Thái Tông, even suggested to the Emperor that they might escape from Đại Việt to the Song dynasty.
Trần Thái Tông submitted to the Mongols after the loss of a prince and the capital. In 1258, the Trần commenced regular diplomatic relations and a tributary relationship with the Mongol court, treating them as equals to the embattled Southern Song dynasty without renouncing their ties to the Song.
Kublai Khan was dissatisfied with the arrangement at the end of the first invasion and requested greater tributary payments, including taxes to the Mongols in both money and labor, "incense, gold, silver, cinnabar, agarwood, sandalwood, ivory, tortoiseshell, pearls, rhinoceros horn, silk floss, and porcelain cups", and direct oversight from a Mongol-appointed darughachi. In 1283, Khubilai Khan sent word to the Trần that he intended to send Yuan armies through Trần territory to attack the kingdom of Champa, with demands for provisions and other support to the Yuan army.
In the twelfth lunar month of 1284, the second Yuan invasion of Đại Việt was launched under the command of Kublai Khan's prince Toghon. Đại Việt was attacked from two directions, with Toghan himself conducting an infantry invasion from the northern border while the Yuan navy under general Sogetu advanced from the southern border through the territory of Champa.
Initially, Trần Thánh Tông and Trần Nhân Tông had to order the army to retreat to avoid the pressure from the Yuan force when Prince Chiêu Minh Trần Quang Khải commanded his troops to stop Sogetu's fleet in the province of Nghệ An. Meanwhile, several high-ranking officials and members of the imperial family of the Trần dynasty defected to the Yuan side, including Thánh Tông's own brother, Prince Chiêu Quốc (Trần Ích Tắc), and Trần Kiện, who was the son of Prince Tĩnh Quốc (Trần Quốc Khang). To ensure the safety of Thánh Tông and Nhân Tông during their retreat, Princess An Tư was offered as a present and diversion for Prince Toghan, while Marquis Bảo Nghĩa (Trần Bình Trọng) was captured and later killed in the Battle of Đà Mạc defending the two emperors. The mass defections were the result of the significant effect that recent Mongol conquest of the Southern Song had on contemporary observers, with a Mongol conquest of Vietnam appearing inevitable to many.
At the southern border, Trần Quang Khải also had to retreat under the pressure of Sogetu's navy and the defection of the governor of Nghe An. This critical situation for the Trần dynasty began to change after the Toghan made the decision to retreat with the forward troops their victory in the fourth lunar month of 1285 at the Battle of Hàm Tử, where the troops commanded by Trần Nhật Duật, Prince Chiêu Thành, Trần Quốc Toản, and Nguyễn Khoái were finally able to defeat the fleet of general Sogetu. On the tenth day of the fifth lunar month of 1285, Trần Quang Khải fought the decisive battle in the Chương Dương, where the Yuan navy was almost destroyed and the balance in the battlefield tilted definitively in favor of the Trần dynasty. Ten days later Sogetu was killed and the Trần Emperor Nhân Tông and Emperor Emeritus Thánh Tông returned to the capital, Thăng Long, on the sixth day of the sixth lunar month, 1285.
In the third lunar month of 1287, the Yuan dynasty launched their third invasion of Đại Việt. This time, unlike the second invasion, commander-in-chief Prince Hưng Đạo (Trần Quốc Tuấn) assured the Emperor that Đại Việt's army could easily break the Yuan military campaign. After occupying and looting the capital, Toghan decided to retreat with the forward troops. This invasion was indeed ended one year later by a disastrous defeat of the Yuan navy at the Battle of Bạch Đằng on the eighth day of the third lunar month, 1288. Besides Trần Quốc Tuấn, other notable generals of the Trần dynasty during this time were Prince Nhân Huệ Trần Khánh Dư, who destroyed the logistics convoy of the Yuan navy at the Battle of Vân Đồn, and general Phạm Ngũ Lão, who took charge of ambushing prince Toghan's retreating troops. After the destruction of the Mongol navy, both the Đại Việt and Champa decided to accept the nominal supremacy of the Yuan dynasty and serve as tributary states in order to avoid further conflicts.
Professor Liam Kelley noted that people from Song dynasty China, such as Zhao Zhong and Xu Zhongdao, fled to the Tran dynasty after the Mongol invasion of the Song and helped the Tran fight against the Mongol invasion. Like the Tran dynasty, the Daoist cleric Xu Zongdao originated from Fujian. He recorded the Mongol invasion and referred to the Mongols as "Northern bandits".
