Đinh dynasty

The Đinh dynasty (Template:Langx; Chữ Hán: 朝丁; or Template:Langx; Chữ Nôm: 茹丁), officially Đại Cồ Việt (Chữ Hán: 大瞿越), was a Vietnamese dynasty. It was founded in 968 when Đinh Bộ Lĩnh vanquished the upheavals of Twelve warlords and ended when the son of Đinh Bộ Lĩnh, Đinh Toàn, ceded the throne to Lê Hoàn in 980.

Family history

Origin and rise to power

File:Gateway to Temple of Emperor Dinh Tien Hoang, 10th century (2) (24629111998).jpg

Hoa Lư, Ninh Bình

The Đinh family originated from the village of Hoa Lư, Jinghai kingdom in modern-day Ninh Bình province, northern Vietnam. Đinh Bộ Lĩnh's father, Đinh Công Trứ had served both Dương Đình Nghệ and Ngô Quyền as governor of Hoan Châu (modern-day the city of Vinh). According to Chinese accounts, Bộ Lĩnh succeed his father as Duke of Hoan.Template:Sfn His father died when he was a child and he lived with his mother and other family members in a holy temple near a mountain in Hoa Lư.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Đinh Bộ Lĩnh had a sister named Đinh Quế Hương.

File:Map of 12 Warlords in Anarchy of the 12 Warlords.svg

Map of division of twelve warlord before the unification

Around 940s, the young Đinh Bộ Lĩnh emerged as a leader of villages youth, who played "royal games" in which Bộ Lĩnh was the king. The tradition folk said he had them collect wood for his mother, who slaughtered a pig and put on a feast. Villagers sensed a grim future leader: "We’d better follow him now before it is too late." They delivered their youths to Bộ Lĩnh, and he set up a base on land of his uncle, who refused to submit to him. Bộ Lĩnh sent his friends to attack the uncle, who pursued him, found him trapped under a collapsed bridge, and almost intended to kill him, but then saw two yellow dragons flying above. The uncle withdrew and later submitted to him.Template:Sfn Historian Oliver W. Wolters termed the story as a "man of prowess" possessing the "soul stuff" befitting a chief.Template:Sfn

In 951, he began challenging the royal authority of the ruling Ngô family. Two king Ngô Xương Ngập and Ngô Xương Văn sent a force tried suppressing Bộ Lĩnh that failed but captured Đinh Bộ Lĩnh's son, Đinh Liễn as a hostage. The two kings suspended Lien from a pole in plain view of Bộ Lĩnh and shouted that he would be killed unless Bộ Lĩnh submitted. Bộ Lĩnh angrily replied, "How can a great man compromise a great affair simply because of his son?" Bộ Lĩnh ordered more than ten arrows shot in Liễn's direction. The two kings were horrified and withdrew their troops.Template:Sfn

After Đinh Liễn was able to escaped and returned to Hoa Lư, Đinh Bộ Lĩnh went to convinced Trần Lãm, another warlord who occupied Bố Hải Khẩu (modern-day Thái Bình province) as his ally.Template:Sfn When king Ngô Xương Văn was killed during a battle in 965 and the country fells into chaotic civil wars between warlords, Đinh Bộ Lĩnh and Đinh Liễn commanded their army subdued the highland tribes, then took capital Cổ Loa in the same year. Two years later, he defeated or had all the warlords submitted, pacified the country at the age of 43. In 967, Bộ Lĩnh assigned his son Liễn the title "King of Nam Viet".Template:Sfn The only survivor of the previous Ngô family, Ngô Nhật Khánh submitted to Bộ Lĩnh, and he gave one of his own daughters, Princess Phất Kim in marriage with Nhật Khánh. After that, Ngô Nhật Khánh took his wife and fled to the south. He scolded her face and hatred of her father, and he went exiled in Champa.Template:Sfn

Ruling period

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Thái Bình hưng bảo, the first Vietnamese native coins, made of copper

File:Nền móng cung điện Đinh-Lê.JPG

Underground ruins of the Hoa Lư royal palace.

In 968, Đinh Bộ Lĩnh established the kingdom of Đại Cồ Việt, relocated the capital to his home in Hoa Lư. At first he styled himself as Vạn Thắng Vương (Great Vanquishing King), then proclaimed the title emperor.Template:Sfn In 970 Đinh Bộ Lĩnh made his reign era Thái Bình (chữ Hán: 太平), issued the coin mining and started the tradition of Vietnamese cash coins.Template:Sfn Đinh Bộ Lĩnh established 5 queens.Template:Sfn In 971, Đinh Bộ Lĩnh officially published his appointments to the chief court positions. Nguyễn Bặc was placed at the head of the nobility, with the title "Nation Establishing Duke" (Định Quốc Công).Template:Sfn Lê Hoàn, a 35-year-old military officer from Ái (Thanh Hoá) was appointed as the commander of the royal army.Template:Sfn

The Đinh family established the official religious organization in incorporating Taoists and Buddhists in an administrative hierarchy.Template:Sfn Bộ Lĩnh awarded additional titles such as "Buddhist Priest Overseer" to Đại Việt's ranking monks, and in 971 assigned Buddhism's top position, that of great preceptor (đại sư) for reforming the Việt (khuông Việt), to the patriarch of the Vô Ngôn Thông sect, Ngô Chân Lưu, who occupied the post until his death forty years later.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Another Buddhist priest, Trương Ma-ni and a Taoist priest, Đặng Huyền Quang were given the title "Buddhist Priest Overseer" (Tăng lực đạo sĩ) and "Noble and Upright Majesty".Template:Sfn Đinh Bộ Lĩnh also established shrines to the gods of earth and agriculture.Template:Sfn In 973, Prince Đinh Liễn erected one hundred ratanadhvaja stone columns contain Uṣṇīṣa Vijaya Dhāraṇī sutras (written in Classical Chinese) in order to generate merits to help liberate the spirit of his deceased brother. Liễn established another hundred tantric pillars in 979, aiming to gain a healthy perpetuation of the kingdom. Archaeological efforts from 1963 to 1987 have recovered 20 of those stone pillars.Template:Sfn

In 972 Đinh Bộ Lĩnh sent tribute envoys include cloth, rhinoceros horns, elephant tusks and perfumed tea to the Song dynasty of China. The Song responded by sending an embassy to Dai Viet and awarding the title "King of Jiaozhi Prefecture" to Bộ Lĩnh; that title was given to Vietnamese monarchs by the Song emperors until 1174.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn

Assassination and dynasty transition

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Lion statue in Đinh Tiên Hoàng's temple

In October 979, a eunuch named Đỗ Thích killed the emperor Đinh Bộ Lĩnh and prince Đinh Liễn while they were sleeping in the palace at night. The general Lê Hoàn took power as regent while five-year-old Đinh Toàn occupied the throne. Rebellions erupted.Template:Sfn At this juncture, the Song sent troops under Hou Renbao in attempt to restore the throne of the young prince. However, the threat of renewed Chinese intervention in Vietnam caused court officials to support Lê Hoàn's bid for power. They urged him to become king and establish a more stable government, prepare for the Chinese invasion. In 980, officials and generals gathered at Hoa Lư and empress Dương Vân Nga brought out the emperor's robe to put on Lê Hoàn, offered him the throne,Template:Sfn and subsequently ended the rule of the Đinh dynasty and transferred power to the Lê family.

Descendants

After 980, Đinh Bộ Lĩnh's deposed son Đinh Toàn still held a position in the military. However, in 1001 a rebellion erupted in Phong (modern-day Phú Thọ province), Mường rebels trapped the royal army on the Đà River, and Đinh Toàn was killed on his boat.Template:Sfn

Foreign relations

From 970 to 975, Đinh Bộ Lĩnh established the status of Đại Việt as a protectorate and tributary state of the Song dynasty to gain Chinese recognition of the independence of Đại Việt. The tributary relationship would last until the French protectorate was established in 1883.

Legacy

The Đinh clan was the first fully independent Vietnamese dynasty. These early Vietnamese warrior-monarchs of Hoa Lư endorsed Vietnamese Buddhism as monks made themselves indispensable to the royal family.Template:Sfn

Family tree

Family tree of the Đinh dynasty

External links

• The Đinh dynasty on globalsecurity.org