View source for Lý Thái Tổ

{{Short description|6th emperor of Đại Việt (r. 1009–28); founder of the Lý dynasty}}
{{for|the frigate|Vietnamese frigate Ly Thai To (HQ-012)}}
{{family name hatnote|Lý|Công Uẩn|Ly|lang=Vietnamese}}
{{Infobox royalty
|name=Lý Thái Tổ<br/>李太祖
|image=Tượng Lý Thái Tổ 2.jpg
|caption=Statue of Lý Thái Tổ beside the [[Hoàn Kiếm Lake]] in [[Hanoi]]
|title=[[List of Vietnamese monarchs|Great Emperor of Đại Cồ Việt]]
|father= [[Hiển Khánh vương]]
|mother= Minh Đức Thái hậu Phạm Thị
|spouse=[[Lê Thị Phật Ngân]] and 8 other empresses
|issue=Prince of Khai Thiên Lý Phật Mã as emperor [[Lý Thái Tông]]<br>Prince of Khai Quốc [[Lý Bồ]]<br>Prince of Đông Chinh [[Lý Lực]]<br>Prince of [[Vũ Đức]] (?–1028)<br>Prince of Uy Minh [[Lý Nhật Quang]]<br>Princess An Quốc <br>8 sons, and 13 daughters.
|birth_date= 8 March, 974
|birth_place = [[Từ Sơn District|Cổ Pháp, Bắc Ninh]], [[Đại Cồ Việt]]
|death_date= 31 March 1028 (aged 54)
|death_place = [[Imperial Citadel of Thăng Long|Thăng Long]], [[Names of Vietnam|Đại Cồ Việt]]
|place of burial = Thọ Tomb
|full name= Lý Công Uẩn (李公蘊)
|succession=[[List of Vietnamese monarchs|Emperor of Đại Cồ Việt]]
|reign=1009–1028
|predecessor=[[Lê Long Đĩnh]]
|successor=[[Lý Thái Tông]]
|succession1=[[List of emperors of the Lý dynasty|Emperor of the Lý dynasty]]
|reign1=20 November 1009&ndash;31 March 1028
|predecessor1=Dynasty established
|successor1=[[Lý Thái Tông]]
|house=[[Lý dynasty|Lý]]
|era dates= Thuận Thiên (順天; 1010–1028)
|regnal name=Phụng Thiên Chí Lý Ứng Vận Tự Tại Thánh Minh Long Hiện Duệ Văn Anh Vũ Sùng Nhân Quảng Hiếu Thiên Hạ Thái Bình Khâm Minh Quảng Trạch Chương Chiêu Vạn Bang Hiển Ứng Phù Cảm Uy Chấn Phiên Man Duệ Mưu Thần Trợ Thánh Trị Tắc Thiên Đạo Chính Hoàng đế (奉天至理應運自在聖明龍見睿文英武崇仁廣孝天下太平欽明光宅章昭萬邦顯應符感威震藩蠻睿謀神功聖治則天道政皇帝)
|temple name=Thái Tổ (太祖)
|posthumous name=Thần Vũ Hoàng đế (神武皇帝)
|religion = [[Buddhism]]
}}
{{Infobox Vietnamese
|title=Temple name
|qn=Lý Thái Tổ
|chuhan={{linktext|李|太|祖}}
}}
{{Infobox Vietnamese
|title=Personal name
|qn=Lý Công Uẩn
|chuhan={{linktext|李|公|蘊}}
}}

'''Lý Thái Tổ''' ({{lang-vi-hantu|{{linktext|李|太|祖}}}}, 8 March 974 – 31 March 1028), [[Vietnamese name|personal name]] '''Lý Công Uẩn''', [[temple name]] '''Thái Tổ''', was a founding emperor of [[Lý dynasty]] and the 6th ruler of [[Đại Việt]]; he reigned from 1009 to 1028.

==Early years==
Lý Công Uẩn was born in Cổ Pháp village, Đình Bảng, [[Từ Sơn]], [[Bắc Ninh Province]] in 974. The identity of his birth-father is unknown; likewise, little is known about his maternal side except that his mother was surnamed Phạm.<ref>''[[Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư]]'' "Basic Annals", [https://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E5%A4%A7%E8%B6%8A%E5%8F%B2%E8%A8%98%E5%85%A8%E6%9B%B8/%E6%9C%AC%E7%B4%80%E5%8D%B7%E4%B9%8B%E4%BA%8C vol. 2] text: "其母范氏"</ref> According to the Vietnamese chronicle ''[[Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư]]'', his mother gave him up for adoption to a man named Lý Khánh Vân at the age of three. The Lý clan of Lý Công Uẩn's adoptive father Lý Khánh Văn was a Vietic ''Tao-hua'' clan that originated from the highland regions in Feng district.{{CN|date=November 2023}}

Công Uẩn was educated by [[Vạn Hạnh]], the most eminent Buddhist patriarch of the time, in the village of Đình Bản, a short distance across the [[Red River (Asia)|Red River]] from [[Hanoi]] to the northeast. He acquired a reputation as a devout Buddhist, and then a historian student, and a soldier.{{sfn|Tarling|1999|p=140}} He was gradually promoted from a minor official to a prominent post of the government and was ultimately bestowed with the title ''Tả Thân Vệ Điện Tiền Chỉ Huy Sứ'' (The Commander of the Palace's Left Flank), which was one of the most important positions within the royal guards. 

In 1005, the ruling emperor [[Lê Hoàn]] died, resulting in a civil war between his sons.{{sfn|Anderson|2011|p=97}} Lý Công Uẩn began serving at the royal court, eventually rising to a high position of trust at the side of the designated heir to the throne.{{sfn|Taylor|2013|p=60}} In 1009, the ruling emperor [[Lê Long Đĩnh]] (r. 1005–1009), the last emperor of the Lê family, developed hemorrhoids and had to lie down while listening to officials’ reports.{{sfn|Kiernan|2019|p=147}} Incapacitated by declining health, Long Đĩnh watched helplessly as the monks of Giao launched a propaganda campaign that nurtured belief in the inevitability of Lý Công Uẩn becoming king.{{sfn|Taylor|2013|p=60}} He died in November 1009 under the wrath of the people because of his brutality and cruelty during his reign. [[Đào Cam Mộc]], an royal official, and Patriarch Vạn Hạnh seized the opportunity and imposed their power and political influence to enthrone their trusted disciple Lý Công Uẩn without much resistance, thus ended the reign of the Lê dynasty.{{sfn|Kiernan|2019|p=147}}

Two days after Long Đĩnh's death, advised and assisted by his patron, the monk Vạn Hạnh, and by the efforts of the entire Buddhist establishment, Lý Công Uẩn was proclaimed emperor by general acclamation.{{sfn|Tarling|1999|p=140}} After his ascension to the throne, Lý Công Uẩn named his era "Thuận Thiên" (順天) meaning "Accordance with Heaven['s Will]".

==Reign==
===Capital relocation===
[[File:Ly Thai To statue 1.jpg|thumb|Ly Thai To statue, Hanoi, Vietnam.]]
The royal court decided to relocate from [[Hoa Lư]] to the site of [[Đại La]] (modern-day [[Hanoi]]) in the next year, 1010.{{sfn|Pelley|2002|p=213}} Đại La was known as the city that the Tang general [[Gao Pian]] had built in the 860s after the ravages of the [[Tang–Nanzhao conflicts in Annan|Nanzhao War]]. In 1010, Lý Công Uẩn published an edict explaining why he moved his capital to Dai La.{{sfn|Taylor|2013|p=60}} Lý Công Uẩn chose the site because it had been an earlier capital in the rich [[Red River Delta]]. He saw Đại La as a place "between Heaven and Earth where the coiling dragon and the crouching tiger lie, and his capital would last 10,000 years".{{sfn|Miksic|Yian|2016|p=433}} When Lý Công Uẩn's boat docked at the new capital, a dragon, symbol of sovereign authority, reportedly soared above his head; he accordingly renamed the place [[Thăng Long]], the "ascending dragon".{{sfn|Taylor|2013|p=61}}

The royal city at Thăng Long was laid out in the standard pattern: the urban center encompassed the Royal City. The Throne Room Palace was located within a Dragon Courtyard and faced south. The Crown Prince of the Lý dynasty lived in the Eastern Palace outside the city walls.{{sfn|Miksic|Yian|2016|p=433}} Palaces and offices were constructed of [[timber]]. Càn Nguyên Palace where the king held audience was located on the Nùng hill. By 1010, 11 palaces were built in Thăng Long.{{sfn|Miksic|Yian|2016|p=433}} The earthworks which were ramparts of the new capital still stand to the west of the modern city of [[Hanoi]], forming a vast quadrilateral by the side of the road to [[Sơn Tây]].{{sfn|Coedès|2015|p=83}}

===Domestic policies===
[[File:Coins, Ly dynasty, 1010-1225 AD, bronze - National Museum of Vietnamese History - Hanoi, Vietnam - DSC05536.JPG|250px|thumb|left|Coin issued by Ly Thai To (top, right)]]
The outer regions of the Red River Delta, beyond the Lý heartland, were in the hands of families allied with the Lý family by marriage. Lý Thái Tổ abandoned a scheme of dividing the plain into "ten circuits" that had been devised by [[Đinh Bộ Lĩnh]] (r. 968–979) and replaced it with 24 routes; these were not administrative jurisdictions but rather itineraries designating various localities. He organized the southern provinces into military outposts, indicating a policy of garrisons and patrols.{{sfn|Taylor|2013|p=62}} Officials did not receive a salary controlled by the capital, but were entirely dependent upon local resources, a region's fish and rice. The soldiers did receive some largesse at the same time as they were expected to do some farming of their own.{{sfn|Whitmore|1986|p=129}} The village communities scattered about the countryside stayed within their own frames of reference except in times of emergency or of specific royal demands. Only then would they interact with the central power. Otherwise they sent some of their resources to the local lord, who in turn forwarded a share as tribute to the throne.{{sfn|Whitmore|1986|p=127}} This administrative system resembles a naturally Southeast Asian [[Mandala (political model)|mandala]] system.{{sfn|Whitmore|1986|p=128}}

In 1011, Lý Thái Tổ raised a large army and attacked rebels in the southern provinces, in what is now [[Thanh Hoá]] and [[Nghệ An]]. He
campaigned there for two years, burning villages and capturing local leaders. While returning by sea in late 1012, a great storm threatened to sink his boat, which he understood as a divine judgment upon him for the violence he had brought upon so many people.{{sfn|Taylor|2013|p=63}}

For three years, 1013–1015, Lý Thái Tổ sent soldiers into the northern mountains of modern [[Hà Giang]] Province to pacify [[Hani people]] who allied with the [[Dali Kingdom]] in [[Yunnan]].{{sfn|Taylor|2013|p=63}}

He also reformed the tax system in 1013 by creating six tax classifications, which enabled the royal court to efficiently collect taxes and citizens to clearly know which tax classification affected them, for instance, applied mostly to goods produced on royal estates:{{sfn|Kiernan|2019|p=150}}

* Tax on fishing and seafood production
* Tax on agricultural production (farming)
* Tax on logging/wood and masonry
* Tax on salt production
* Tax on luxury goods production (ivory, gold, silk, precious materials, etc.)
* Tax on fruits and vegetable production

When a severe earthquake occurred in 1016, Lý Thái Tổ prayed to the gods that were in charge of the mountains surrounding the capital, while also sending more than 1,000 people to teach in Buddhist schools. He journeyed around his kingdom both to propitiate its disparate genies and co-opt them by having them "declare" themselves to him.{{sfn|Kiernan|2019|p=151}}{{sfn|Kiernan|2019|p=153}}

===Foreign affairs===
[[File:China - Song Dynasty-en.svg|250px|thumb|right|Location of Dali and Dai Viet kingdoms; Song, Xia and Liao empires during 11-12th century]]
During the reign of Lý Thái Tổ, the [[Song dynasty]] was pre-occupied with maintaining internal stability and still recovering from previous defeats or skirmishes with the [[Liao dynasty]] and [[Western Xia]]. Đại Việt, as a result, was mostly left alone and political relations between the two states revived. In 1010, the Song emperor recognized Lý Công Uẩn without delay, conferring upon him the usual titles of vassalage.

In 1010, Lý Thái Tổ attacked and caught thirteen persons of Địch Lão (bandit) ethnicity and presented the captives to the Chinese court.{{sfn|Anderson|2011|p=98}} In August 1014 he sent a mission to China, presented 60 horses as gifts and notified the Song court that he had subdued a Hani community.{{sfn|Anderson|2011|p=98}}{{sfn|Bielenstein|2005|p=22}}

==Religious activities==
Having begun life as a [[Buddhist monk]], Lý Thái Tổ practiced [[Buddhism]] and promoted it as the national religion. As a result, he gave much support to the Buddhist clergy and institutions. He donated money to build pagodas throughout Đại Việt. Initially, he built 8 Buddhist temples in the Tiên Du area, heart land of Vietnamese Buddhism and three others around the capital region itself.{{sfn|Whitmore|2015|p=287}}

Consistent with his geo-administrative vision and his kingship to appease and tame the spirit world, during the eleventh century the Lý court "brought back" to Thăng Long a firmament of local spirits that had long dominated more distant regions of the kingdom. The
spirits of the [[Trưng sisters]] from the western delta, the earth genie of Phù Đổng north of the capital, and the Mountain of Bronze Drum god from Thanh Hoá in Ái to the south were all relocated to the capital and housed there in temples specially dedicated to them. If these spirits were "symbols of regional powers", their pacification involved the extension of monarchical authority to the regions of Đại Việt.{{sfn|Kiernan|2019|p=151}}{{sfn|Kiernan|2019|p=152}}

In 1024, a temple was built for Lý Thái Tổ to use for reading and reciting the Buddhist scriptures, a copy of which he had requested and
received from the Song court a few years earlier. After establishing suitable relationships with the terrestrial powers, he showed an interest in establishing proper relationships with the supernatural powers, patronizing the Buddhist religion and local cults, thereby cultivating a cultural basis for his authority.{{sfn|Tarling|1999|p=140}} Thereafter he began to withdraw from public affairs. In 1025, [[Vạn Hạnh]] died. He had been Lý Thái Tổ's teacher, mentor, and, to some extent, father figure. He had previously been an advisor to [[Lê Hoàn]] and was a central figure in effecting the transition from the Lê family at [[Hoa Lư]] to the Lý family at Thăng Long. It seems that Lý Thái Tổ's royal personality was in some degree animated as an extension of Vạn Hạnh's expectations of him, for from this time little of note is recorded about Lý Thái Tổ until his death in the spring of 1028.{{sfn|Taylor|2013|p=64}}


==Death==
[[File:Bac Ma Temple - there's the white horse.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Inside the Bạch Mã Temple, completed during the reign of Lý Thái Tổ]]
[[File:Ly Thai To statue Kien So.jpg|thumb|Emperor Lý Thái Tổ statue in [[Kiến Sơ Temple]], Gia Lâm, Hanoi, Vietnam]] 
Lý Công Uẩn died in 1028 at the age of 55 according to the royal official accounts. He was buried at Thọ Lăng, the Mausoleum of Longevity, outside of Thiên Đức Palace. He was posthumously named as "Lý Thái Tổ"; his posthumous imperial title was "Thần Võ Hoàng Đế". Today the ancestor spirit of Lý Thái Tổ is among those popularly honoured in rites at national shrines.{{sfn|Fjelstad|Nguyen|2011|p=18}}


==Legacy==
The [[Vietnamese frigate Ly Thai To (HQ-012)|''Lý Thái Tổ'']] a {{sclass2|Gepard|frigate}} in service with the [[Vietnam People's Navy]] since 2011 is named after him.

==Family==
{{unreferenced section|date=November 2023}}
* Father
** Hiển Khánh vương (posthumously honored by Lý Thái Tổ in 1010)
** Lý Khánh Vân (adoptive father)
* Mother
** Phạm Thị Ngà
* Brothers
** Dực Thánh Vương (翊聖王)
** Lý Mỗ
* Wives
** [[Empress Lập Giáo]]
** Lady Chu Ái Vân (婤爱雲夫人)
* Children
** [[Lý Thái Tông|Lý Phật Mã]] (李佛瑪)
** [[Lý Long Bồ]] (李龍菩) (?–1069)
** [[Lý Lực]] 
** [[Lý Cập]]
** [[Lý Phó]]
** [[Lý Nhật Quang]] (李日㫕) (995–1057)
** Princess An Quốc
** Princess Lĩnh Nam (Lý Thị Bảo Hòa)

==Ancestry==
{{ahnentafel
|collapsed=yes |align=center
|title=Ancestry of King Lý Thái Tổ
| boxstyle_1 = background-color: #fcc;
| boxstyle_2 = background-color: #fb9;
| boxstyle_3 = background-color: #ffc;
| boxstyle_4 = background-color: #bfc;
| boxstyle_5 = background-color: #9fe;
| 1 = [[Lý Công Uẩn]] (974–1028)
| 2 = Lý Khánh Vân (adoptive father)
| 3 = Phạm Thị Ngà 
| 4 = 
}}


== References ==

=== Citations ===
{{Reflist}}

=== Bibliography === 
{{Portal|Vietnam|Monarchy|History|Biography}}
*{{citation| surname =  Anderson| given = James A. | chapter = "Slipping through hole": The Late Tenth- and Early Eleventh-Century Sino-Vietnamese Coastal Frontier as a Subaltern Trade Network| pages = 87–100| title = The Tongking Gulf Through History| editor-given1 = Tana | editor-surname1 = Li| editor-given2 = James A. | editor-surname2 = Anderson| location = Pennsylvania | publisher = University of Pennsylvania Press| year = 2011 | isbn = 978-0-812-20502-2}}
* {{citation|last=Bielenstein|first=Hans|year=2005|title=Diplomacy and Trade in the Chinese World, 589–1276|publisher=[[Brill Publishers|Brill]]}}
* {{citation|last=Coedès|first=George|year=2015|title=The Making of South East Asia (RLE Modern East and South East Asia)|publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]]}}
* {{cite book|last1=Fjelstad|first1=Karen|last2=Nguyen|first2=Thi Hien|title=Spirits Without Borders: Vietnamese Spirit Mediums in a Transnational Age|year= 2011|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|isbn=978-113-7-29918-5 |url=https://archive.org/details/spiritswithoutbo0000fjel |url-access=registration}} 
*{{cite book|last=Kiernan|first=Ben|year=2019|title=Việt Nam: a history from earliest time to the present|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|isbn=978-0190053796}}
* {{cite book| title=Ancient Southeast Asia |first1=John Norman |last1=Miksic |author1-link=John N. Miksic|first2=Go Geok |last2=Yian |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |year=2016 |isbn=978-1-317-27903-7}} 
* {{cite book|last=Pelley|first=Patricia M.|title=Postcolonial Vietnam: New Histories of the National Past|year= 2002|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=978-0-822-32966-4}} 
* {{cite book |last=Tarling|first=Nicholas|title=The Cambridge History of Southeast Asia: Volume 1, From Early Times to c. 1800|year=1999|publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0-521-66372-4}}
*{{citation|author1-link=Keith Taylor (historian)|last=Taylor|first=K.W.|year=2013|title=A History of the Vietnamese|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-520-07417-0}}
* {{citation| surname1 =  Whitmore | given1 = John K. | chapter = "Elephants Can Actually Swim": Contemporary Chinese Views of Late Ly Dai Viet| title = Southeast Asia in the 9th to 14th Centuries | pages = 117–137| editor-given1 = Anthony Crothers| editor-surname1 = Milner| editor-given2 =David G. | editor-surname2 = Marr | location = Cambridge | publisher = Institute of Southeast Asian Studies| year = 1986 | isbn = 978-9-971-98839-5}}
*{{citation| surname =  Whitmore| given = John K. | chapter = Building a Buddhist monarchy in Dai Viet: Temples and texts under Ly Nhan Tong (1072–1127)| pages = 283–306| title = Buddhist Dynamics in Premodern and Early Modern Southeast Asia| editor-given1 = Dietrich Christian| editor-surname1 =Lammerts| publisher = ISEAS Publishing, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies| year = 2015 | isbn = 978-9-814-51906-9}}

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{{s-hou|[[Lý dynasty|House of Lý]]| |974| |1028}}
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{{s-bef|before=[[Lê Long Đĩnh]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[List of Vietnamese monarchs|Emperor of Đại Cồ Việt]]|years=1009&ndash;1028}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Lý Thái Tông]]|rows=2}}
|-
{{s-new}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[List of emperors of the Lý dynasty|Emperor of the Lý dynasty]]|years=1009&ndash;1028}}
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{{Family tree of Lý royal family}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ly, Thai To}}
[[Category:974 births]]
[[Category:1028 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Bắc Ninh province]]
[[Category:Emperors of the Lý dynasty]]
[[Category:Early Lê dynasty generals]]
[[Category:Early Lê dynasty officials]]
[[Category:11th-century Vietnamese monarchs]]
[[Category:Vietnamese monarchs]]
[[Category:Founding monarchs]]