The Hồ dynasty (Vietnamese: , chữ Nôm: 茹胡;
Sino-Vietnamese: ''Hồ triều,
chữ Hán:''
胡 朝) was a short-lived
Vietnamese dynasty consisting of the reigns of two monarchs,
Hồ Quý Ly (胡季犛) in 1400–01 and his second son,
Hồ Hán Thương (胡漢蒼), who reigned the kingdom of
Đại Ngu from 1401 to 1406. The practice of bequeathing the throne to a designated son (not simply passing it on to the eldest) was similar to what had happened in the previous
Trần dynasty and was meant to avoid sibling rivalry. Hồ Quý Ly's eldest son,
Hồ Nguyên Trừng, played his part as the dynasty's military general. In 2011, UNESCO declared the
Citadel of the Hồ Dynasty in
Thanh Hóa Province a world heritage site.
Hồ Quý Ly (c. 1335 – c. 1407)
Origin and background
The
Hồ/Hú family originated around modern-day
Zhejiang
Zhejiang ( or , ; , Chinese postal romanization, also romanized as Chekiang) is an East China, eastern, coastal Provinces of China, province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable citie ...
province in the
Southern Tang dynasty
Southern Tang () was a state in Southern China that existed during Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, which proclaimed itself to be the successor of the former Tang dynasty. The capital was located at Nanjing in present-day Jiangsu Province. ...
, which controlled much of southeast China, around the 940s.
China was then in the midst of the chaotic
Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period
The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (), from 907 to 979, was an era of political upheaval and division in 10th-century Imperial China. Five dynastic states quickly succeeded one another in the Central Plain, and more than a dozen conc ...
. The Hồ claimed descent from
Duke Hu of Chen (Trần Hồ công, 陳胡公), who in turn was descended from the ancient Chinese
Emperor Shun (Thuấn, 舜). Under Hồ Liêm (胡廉), Hồ Quý Ly's great-great-grandfather, the family migrated south from the Southern Tang until they established themselves in northern Vietnam. Hồ Liêm moved further south and settled in
Thanh Hóa Province (about 100 km south of the modern city of
Hanoi). Some historians bring attention to the fact that Hồ Quý Ly is also known as Lê Quý Ly. In his childhood, Hồ Quý Ly was adopted by Lê Huan, and took his family name. He did not change his family name from Lê back to Hồ until after he had deposed the last king of the Trần dynasty. Because of the short span of the Hồ dynasty and the tragic circumstances they brought upon the country, the family name "Hồ" was disgraced thereafter. However, historians have attributed to the Hồ family quite a few notable scholars, dignitaries, and government officials under both the
Lý dynasty and the
Trần dynasty.
Hồ Quý Ly's ascent to power
The Trần dynasty's authority and power in the 1370s and 1380s declined steadily after
Trần Nghệ Tông's reign (1370–1372). He had ceded the throne in favor of his son
Trần Duệ Tông (r. 1372–77), his grandson
Trần Phế Đế (r. 1377–88), and
Trần Thuận Tông (r. 1388–98), one of his younger sons.
The Trần dynasty became known for emperors who reigned for only a few years before relinquishing the throne to a favorite son, and becoming Thái Thượng Hoàng Đế, the first dynasty to take the name of Father of "Hoàng Đế" emperor title. Hồ Quý Ly was a skillful and sly politician that arose during the Tran dynasty. He was widely known for his cunning, courage, and boldness, and had distinguished himself in a successful campaign against the
Chams
The Cham ( Cham: ''Čaṃ'') or Champa people ( Cham: , ''Urang Campa''; vi, Người Chăm or ; km, ជនជាតិចាម, ) are an Austronesian ethnic group. From the 2nd century to 1832 the Cham populated Champa, a contiguous territ ...
of
Champa. Through his scheming and shrewd marriage alliances (to a sister of Emperor Trần Duệ Tông and Trần Thuận Tông), Hồ Quý Ly made himself a court fixture in the position of the emperors' indispensable advisor. In less than 20 years, while many others involved in court intrigues were being assassinated all around him, Hồ Quý Ly attained the highest post of General/Protector/Regent of the country in 1399.
Coup d'etat of Hồ Quý Ly (1399)
To facilitate his takeover, Hồ Quý Ly first had a new capital built, called
Tây Đô (literally "Western Capital"). In 1399, he invited the current emperor, Trần Thuận Tông, to visit this new capital. After coaxing the emperor into relinquishing the throne to Prince An (a three-year-old child) he had Trần Thuận Tông imprisoned in a
pagoda
A pagoda is an Asian tiered tower with multiple eaves common to Nepal, India, China, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Vietnam, and other parts of Asia. Most pagodas were built to have a religious function, most often Buddhist but sometimes Taoist, ...
and later executed. Prince An "reigned" for one year until Hồ Quý Ly deposed him in 1400 and declared himself to be the new emperor.
Đại Ngu
Hồ Quý Ly immediately changed the country's name from Đại Việt to ''Đại Ngu'' (
大 虞, meaning "Great Peace"), which might have been inspired by Hồ Quý Ly's claims that the Hồ family were descendants of
Shun of Yu (虞舜, "Ngu" is
Vietnamese pronunciation for 虞 "Yu") through Gui Man (媯滿), the
Duke Hu of
Chen ("Hồ" is the
Vietnamese pronunciation for "胡 Hu").
Taking a page from the ruling book of his Trần predecessors, Hồ Quý Ly reigned less than a year before relinquishing the throne to his second son, Hồ Hán Thương. He then became known as the Emperor's Highest Father (太上皇,
Sino-Vietnamese: Thái thượng hoàng).
=Promotion of Chữ Nôm script
=
Under the Hồ dynasty, the
Chữ nôm script was promoted by the Hồ over
Classical Chinese
Classical Chinese, also known as Literary Chinese (古文 ''gǔwén'' "ancient text", or 文言 ''wényán'' "text speak", meaning
"literary language/speech"; modern vernacular: 文言文 ''wényánwén'' "text speak text", meaning
"literar ...
to write the vernacular Vietnamese language.
Final years
In 1402 the army of the Hồ dynasty under general Đỗ Mãn made significant inroads against
Champa, prompting the Champa king to cede large territory to Vietnam.
Hồ Hán Thương, emperor 1401–06
Foreign diplomacy
Stable relations with the Ming dynasty were Hồ Quý Ly's foremost concern. Unfortunately, this matter proved impossible for the Hồ to pursue by that time of civil unrest. The descendants of the deposed Trần dynasty had begun agitating against the "usurper" Hồ Quý Ly. This internal disquiet kept the country in chaos and allowed an opportunity for the Ming to conquer Đại Việt with the help of the Trần sympathizers.
In May 1403, Hồ Quý Ly's requested the recognition of his son from the Ming court on the account that the Trần lineage had died out and that his son was a royal nephew.
[.] Unaware of Hồ's coup, the
Yongle Emperor granted him this request.
In October 1404, a Trần Thiên Bính (陳添平) arrived at the Ming court in
Nanjing
Nanjing (; , Mandarin pronunciation: ), alternately romanized as Nanking, is the capital of Jiangsu province of the People's Republic of China. It is a sub-provincial city, a megacity, and the second largest city in the East China region. T ...
, claiming to be a Trần prince, and appealed to the Yongle Emperor to press his claim to the throne.
[.] However, in the 1395 ''Ancestral injunctions'', the Yongle Emperor's father, the
Hongwu Emperor, specifically ordered that China should never attack Annam – the Yongle Emperor thus took no action until early 1405, when a Vietnamese envoy confirmed the pretender's story,
[ whereupon he issued an edict reprimanding Hồ Quý Ly and demanding that the Trần be restored.][.]
Hồ Quý Ly had doubts about the pretender's claims, but nevertheless agreed to receive the pretender as king.[ Thus, Trần Thiên Bính was escorted back by a military convoy, accompanied by a Ming ambassador.][ However, on 4 April 1406, as the party crossed the border into Lạng Sơn,][ Hồ's forces ambushed them and killed both the prince][ and the Ming ambassador.][.] Hồ also begun harassing the southern border of the Ming.[.]
Downfall
On 11 May[ 1406, the Yongle Emperor sent two forces for an invasion. ]Zhu Neng
Zhu or ZHU may refer to:
* Zhu (surname), common Chinese surnames
*Zhu River, or Pearl River, in southern China
*Zhu (state), ancient Chinese state, later renamed Zou
*House of Zhu, the ruling house of the Ming dynasty in Chinese history
*Zhu (str ...
, Duke of Chengguo, was appointed Commander-in-Chief, Zhang Fu
Zhang Fu (; vi, Trương Phụ; 1375–1449), courtesy name Wenbi (), was a Chinese military general
of the Ming dynasty. He was the eldest son of general Zhang Yu, one of Zhu Di's (later Yongle Emperor) finest generals. Zhang Yu was killed in ...
, Marquis of Xincheng, and Mu Sheng, Marquis of Xiping, were appointed Vice-Generals of the Right and of the Left, respectively. (Zhu died of illness en route and was replaced by Zhang) The '' Ming Shilu'' 2 December 1407 entry recorded the Yongle Emperor's order to Marquis Zhang Fu not to harm any innocent Vietnamese. In 1407, the fall of Da Bang fortress, and the defeats of the Hồ at Moc Pham Giang and Ham Tu all precipitated the fall of the Hồ dynasty. At the Ham Tu battle, the Hồ family tried to escape the enemy but was caught by the Ming and sent to exile in China.
Economy and finance
Hồ Quý Ly initiated the introduction of the a country-wide paper currency around 1399 or 1400. His other reforms included land reform, opening of ports to foreign trade, reform of the judiciary, health care and opening the education system to study mathematics and agriculture alongside Confucian texts.[Jan Dodd, Mark Lewis, Ron Emmons The Rough Guide to Vietnam 4th Edition 2003– Page 486 "Though the Ho dynasty lasted only seven years, its two progressive monarchs launched a number of important reforms. They tackled the problem of land shortages by restricting the size of holdings and then rented out the excess to landless peasants, the tax system was revised and paper money replaced coinage, ports were opened to foreign trade, the judiciary was overhauled and public health care introduced. Even the education system came under review and was broadened to include mathematics, agriculture and other practical subjects along with the classic Confucian texts."]
See also
* List of Vietnamese dynasties
* Citadel of the Hồ Dynasty
* Nam Ông mộng lục
References
Citations
Sources
* Hall, Kenneth R., ed. (2008)
''Secondary Cities and Urban Networking in the Indian Ocean Realm, C. 1400–1800''
Volume 1 of Comparative urban studies. Lexington Books. . Retrieved 7 August 2013.
* Taylor, K. W. (2013)
''A History of the Vietnamese''
(illustrated ed.). Cambridge University Press. . Retrieved 7 August 2013.
* ''Viet Nam Toan Thu'', by Pham Van Son
* ''Viet Nam Su Luoc'', by Trần Trọng Kim
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1407 disestablishments in Asia
15th-century disestablishments in Vietnam
States and territories established in 1400
1400 establishments in Asia
15th-century establishments in Vietnam