Do Anh Vu

Do Anh Vu
Đỗ Anh
Chancellor of the Dynasty
Monarch Anh Tông
Personal details
Born 1113
Died 1158 (aged 45)

Đỗ Anh (Hán tự: ) (11131158) was an official in the royal court of Anh Tông, the sixth emperor of the Dynasty. Considered the most prominent figure of the consort clan during the Early period, Đỗ Anh held the most powerful position in the royal court from 1140 to his death in 1158 except a short period in which Đỗ Anh was toppled by a group of officials led by the military commander Đái. According to dynastic historians such as Ngô Liên and Văn Hưu, Đỗ Anh was a skilled but arrogant official who profited his position, that came from his intimate relation with the Empress Mother thị, to purge other opponents in the royal court by ruthless method. However, the discovery in the late 1930s of a stele engraved the description about the life of Đỗ Anh provided an alternative perspective about the official in which Đỗ Anh was highly praised for his noble character and devotion for the stability of the Dynasty.

Contents

History

According to Từ điển bách khoa toàn thư Việt Nam, Đỗ Anh was born in 1113 in Hồng Châu (now Hải Dương), he had an elder sister Đỗ thị, who was the natural mother of the Emperor Thần Tông, and a niece that got married to the Emperor Anh Tông. Being an intelligent and good-looking boy, Đỗ Anh was selected to serve in the imperial palace at the age of twelve.[1]

After the coronation of Anh Tông in 1138, since Đỗ Anh was younger brother of the new Empress Mother Đỗ thị, he was promoted to the position of secretary of the imperial palace (Vietnamese: Cung điện lệnh chi nội ngoại ) in 1140.[2] One year after the appointment, Đỗ Anh began to prove his ability during the rebellion of the priest Thân Lợi. In 1140, Thân Lợi called himself the son of Nhân Tông and raised a revolt against Anh Tông in the northern region (now Thái Nguyên).[3] The army of Thân Lợi successfully dominated the frontier region and defeated the army of the royal court led by the high-ranking official Lưu Nhĩ. After the victory, Thân Lợi, now self-appointed as King Bình (Bình Vương), took a further step by directly attacking the capital Thăng Long. It was Đỗ Anh who assumed the task of stopping the military campaign of Thân Lợi, a mission that he accomplished in the fifth month of 1141 after the major battle in Quảng Dịch in which Thân Lợi's army was heavily defeated by the forces of the Dynasty led by Đỗ Anh .[4] Five months later, Đỗ Anh continued to conduct the campaign of wipping out the remaining force of Thân Lợi which resulted in the total stability in the northern region, Thân Lợi himself was captured by Hiến Thành and beheaded by the order of Anh Tông.[5]

During the regency of the Empress Mother thị when the young emperor only ruled in name, Đỗ Anh was the favorite official of the Empress Mother and thus became the most powerful figure in the royal court who held both military and civil matters of the country.[1][6] In 1147 he went to a mission of inspecting the system of mandarins and domestic records in Phú Lương.[7] According to Đại Việt sử toàn thư, Đỗ Anh sent his wife to act as servant of the Empress Mother and profited his wife's position to secretly establish an intimate relation with the Empress Mother, as a result he got the favouritism of the Empress Mother thị. Holding the most important position in the royal court, Đỗ Anh became arrogant and despised other officials, hence they began to form a group to topple Đỗ Anh from power. The conspirators were several prominent figures in the royal court such as military commanders Đái, Lương Thượng , Đồng Lợi, mandarins Đỗ Ất, Dương Tự Minh and members of the royal family Prince Trí Minh, Marquis Bảo Ninh. The careful plan of Đái's group was partly successful when Đỗ Anh was imprisoned by the soldiers loyal to the group. But with the support of the Empress Mother, Đỗ Anh was able to bribe some members of the group, therefore he was only tried by the emperor instead of being immediately killed as the initial plan. Following the order of Anh Tông, Đỗ Anh was deprived of all titles and demoted to farmer for the dynasty (cảo điền nhi). Again with the backing of the Empress Mother thị, Đỗ Anh was pardonned several times and rapidly restored his position in the royal court and finally took the position of Chancellor Regent (Thái úy phụ chính) with even more power than before.[8]

Afraid of another conspiracy, Đỗ Anh decided to form his own military unit called Phụng quốc vệ (Guard of the Country) with more than 100 soldiers who were always ready to carry out any mission that Đỗ Anh ordered. To get an official reason for his revenge against the group of Đái, Đỗ Anh made the young emperor believe that the toppling plan of Đái was a lèse majesté action and thus got the order from Anh Tông to punish Đái and his accomplices. As a result, except for the two members of the royal family who were only downgraded, all conspirators of the plan of overthrowing Đỗ Anh were captured and subsequently killed by the Phụng quốc vệ after the order of Đỗ Anh .[9] After the purge, Đỗ Anh continued to tighten the security measure in the imperial palace and capital Thăng Long such as forbidding mandarins and members of royal family meeting in group of more than five persons to discuss or scorn, banning arms from the palace with the only exception for his Phụng quốc vệ, and prohibiting eunuchs from entering the palace. Nguyễn Quốc, an ambassador of the Dynasty after his voyage to the Song Dynasty, was also forced to commit suicide by Đỗ Anh after the advice of Nguyễn Quốc for the emperor about a system of public report adapted from the Song Dynasty.[10] Those events were detailed in Đại Việt sử toàn thư in which the role of Đỗ Anh was heavily criticized by the historians Văn Hưu and Ngô Liên, for example Ngô Liên considered Đỗ Anh "the utterly ruthless" ("kẻ đại ác") while Văn Hưu denounced his actions "nothing more heinous crime" ("không tội to bằng").[8]

Outside the royal court, Đỗ Anh still supervised the most important matters of the country. In the second month of 1154 he succeeded in pacifying the revolt of the mountainous people in Chàng Long.[11] He died in the eighth month of 1158.[12] Trần Trọng Kim in his Việt Nam sử lược remarked that Đỗ Anh did not take any further step in the royal court only because of the appearance of some skilled officials such as Hiến Thành, Hoàng Nghĩa Hiền or Công Tín.[6]

Modern view

In the late 1930s, the researcher Hoàng Xuân Hãn discovered the description of a stele formerly believed about the life of Thường Kiệt. After carefully analysing its content, Hoàng Xuân Hãn affirmed that the stele was in fact about the life of Đỗ Anh , who held the same position chancellor (thái úy) as Thường Kiệt, he was also convinced that the stele was engraved right after the death of Đỗ Anh and thus held the invaluable information about the life of Đỗ Anh .[13] Contrary to the harsh criticisms from dynastic historians like Văn Hưu or Ngô Liên, the stele praised Đỗ Anh as a devoted official with noble character of the Dynasty, who could be compared with the legendary Yi Yin and the Duke of Zhou in History of China.[14] From the stele, the background of Đỗ Anh was also made clearer, such as his father's name was Đỗ Tướng, the sister's son of Thường Kiệt, while his mother, though unnamed, was highly extolled and his adoptive father was Ngọc, a prominent official in the royal court of Thần Tông.[15] Entered the imperial palace at a very young age, Đỗ Anh quickly became dedicated servant and close friend of the Emperor Thần Tông, who was three year younger than Đỗ Anh and had strong confidence in the official.[16] The activities of Đỗ Anh was also described much more detailed and with more positive tone than the record about the chancellor in Đại Việt sử toàn thư.[17]

According to John K. Whitmore of the Cornell University, Văn Hưu and Ngô Liên harshly criticized Đỗ Anh because firstly they evaluated the events in the point of view of outsiders while Đỗ Anh acted as an insider of the royal court,[18] and secondly these historians only analysed the accounts written by the outsiders of the imperial palace when Đỗ Anh was active inside, which meant the story might be distorted from the fact.[19] Moreover, Văn Hưu and Ngô Liên belonged to another dynasties, hence they could hardly praise the achievements of a different dynasty with its officials like the Dynasty with its Đỗ Anh .[20]

References

Notes

Bibliography


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем сделать НИР

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Anh Dao Traxel — Anh Đào Traxel Anh Đào Traxel, née Dương Anh Đào (Dương étant son nom de famille et Anh Đào ses prénoms) le 22 août 1957 au sud de Saïgon au Viêt Nam, est la fille de coeur recueillie par Jacques et Bernadette Chirac à l âge de 21 ans. Elle est… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Anh Đao Traxel — Anh Đào Traxel Anh Đào Traxel, née Dương Anh Đào (Dương étant son nom de famille et Anh Đào ses prénoms) le 22 août 1957 au sud de Saïgon au Viêt Nam, est la fille de coeur recueillie par Jacques et Bernadette Chirac à l âge de 21 ans. Elle est… …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Anh Duong — en 2010 Anh Duong, née le 25 octobre 1960 à Bordeaux, est une peintre, sculptrice, actrice et modèle française. Sommaire 1 Biographie …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Anh Tuan Hoang — (Anh Tuấn Hoàng) (12 février 1982 dans la province de Bac Ninh au Vietnam ) est un haltérophile vietnamien. Biographie Au championnat du monde junior 2005, il remporte la médaille d argent chez les hommes de moins de 56 kg, avec un …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Anh Dao Traxel — (Vietnamese spelling: Anh Đào Traxel, born Dương Anh Đào) (c. 1958) in South Vietnam is the foster daughter of former French President Jacques Chirac. She was a boat people refugee, and met Jacques Chirac at Roissy Airport in 1979. He told her… …   Wikipedia

  • Anh Duong — (October 25, 1960 ) is a French born actress and model born to a Spanish mother and a Vietnamese father. She studied dance and became a top supermodel, working for Vogue , Christian Lacroix, and John Galliano, among others.In 1988, she moved to… …   Wikipedia

  • Anh Dao Traxel — (* 22. August 1958 im Süden Saigons) lebte nach ihrer Flucht als Bootsflüchtling in Frankreich zwei Jahre beim damaligen Pariser Bürgermeister Jacques Chirac. Sie traf ihn 1979 im Alter von 21 Jahren am Pariser Flughafen Roissy. Seither… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Anh — Cette page d’homonymie répertorie les différents sujets et articles partageant un même nom. {{{image}}}   Sigles d une seule lettre   Sigles de deux lettres > Sigles de trois lettres …   Wikipédia en Français

  • Anh Dao Guesthouse — (Хошимин,Вьетнам) Категория отеля: 1 звездочный отель Адрес: 235 De Tham Street …   Каталог отелей

  • Anh Duong Hotel — (Phú Trung,Вьетнам) Категория отеля: 1 звездочный отель Адрес: 40 Cau Xeo, Tan Phu D …   Каталог отелей

  • Anh Dao Mekong Hotel — (Кантхо,Вьетнам) Категория отеля: 3 звездочный отель Адрес: 85 Chau Van Liem …   Каталог отелей

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
https://en-academic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/11650813 Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”