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Vietnam – Ly Dynasty (1009-1224)
Ly Anh Tong – Emperor: 1138-1175
Bronze Chinh Long Nguyen Bao Cash Token 25mm, Struck 1163-1173
Reference: B 117.1
Chinese Symbols.
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Emperor Lý Anh Tông (1136 – 14 August 1175) of Đại Việt (literally Great Viet), was the sixth ruler of the later Lý Dynasty, from 1138 until his death in 1175. Since Lý Anh Tông, given name Lý Thiên Tộ (李天祚), was chosen as the successor of his father Lý Thần Tông at the age of only two, the early period of his reign witnessed the dominant position of Đỗ Anh Vũ in the royal court until his death in 1157, afterwards the Emperor ruled the country with the assistance of a prominent official named Tô Hiến Thành. The reign of Lý Anh Tông was considered the last relatively stable period of the Lý Dynasty before the turbulence during the reign of Lý Cao Tông.
Anh Tông was born during the third month of 1136 (Lunar calendar) as Lý Thiên Tộ, the first son of Lý Thần Tông and Lê Thị, the Emperor and Empress of Vietnam. Initially Lý Thiên Tộ wasn’t chosen as the Lý Dynasty crown prince because his father preferred Lý Thiên Lộc, four years older and the son of his favourite concubine. In the ninth month of 1138, the ill emperor decided to make Lý Thiên Tộ his successor and demote Lý Thiên Lộc to Prince Minh Đạo (Vietnamese: Minh Đạo vương) after a campaign launched by three other concubines of the Emperor, Ladies Cảm Thánh, Nhật Phụng and Phụng Thánh, who were afraid that the coronation of a concubine’s son would threaten their positions in the royal family.
Soon after naming his successor, on the 26th day of the same month, Lý Thần Tông died. On the first day of the tenth lunar month (5 November), two year old Lý Anh Tông ascended the throne. After changing the era name to Thiệu Minh, he elevated his mother (Lady Cảm Thánh) to Empress Mother Lê Thịof of the Lý Dynasty. During his 37-year reign, Lý Anh Tông had three more era names: Đại Định (1140–1162), Chính Long Bảo Ứng (1163–1173) and Thiên Cảm Chí Bảo (1174–1175).
Since he had attained the throne at such a young age, the child emperor was ruler in name only, with the real power in the hands of Empress Lê Thị, who acted as regent for her son. Since Empress Lê Thị favored Đỗ Anh Vũ, the royal court witnessed the rising power of this official who decided almost all matters of the country and despised other officials. According to Ngô Sĩ Liên in Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư, the reason for the favouritism of Empress Lê Thị for Đỗ Anh Vũ was the secret personal relationship between them, as a result, some mandarins such as Vũ Đái, Nguyễn Dương, Nguyễn Quốc and Dương Tự Minh tried to topple Đỗ Anh Vũ but failed and thus died under his order. After the death of the Empress in 1147, Đỗ Anh Vũ maintained his strong position in the royal court until his own death in the eighth month of 1158. The rise of Đỗ Anh Vũ in the royal court was considered by Ngô Sĩ Liên as bad judgment on the Emperor’s part, and one of the more serious weaknesses of Lý Anh Tông’s reign.
In 1140, the priest Thân Lợi, calling himself the son of Lý Nhân Tông, raised a revolt against Lý Anh Tông in the northern region (now Thái Nguyên). 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 Vũ Nhĩ. After the victory, Thân Lợi, proclaimed himself King Bình (Bình Vương), and directly attacked the capital Thăng Long. Đỗ Anh Vũ, the chancellor, assumed the task of suppressing the rebellion, a mission that he accomplished after five months. Thân Lợi was later captured by Tô Hiến Thành and beheaded on the order of Lý Anh Tông.
The Lý Dynasty issued several edicts during the early years of Lý Anh Tông’s reign designed to lessen the more severe laws at that time. In 1142, in order to memorialize the rebellion of the Trưng sisters against the Chinese domination, Lý Anh Tông ordered the still existing Temple of Trưng sisters be built in the southern suburbs of Thăng Long. Lý Anh Tông was also considered the first emperor of Đại Việt to promote Buddhism as the state religion. Another important decision of the royal court was the military campaign against the King Jaya Harivarman I of Champa with the purpose of replacing Harivarman I with Vangsaraja, who was supported by the Lý Dynasty. 76 In 1152, the general Lý Mông was appointed by Lý Anh Tông to command over 5,000 soldiers. Thanh Hóa and Nghệ An began the campaign which ultimately ended in defeat for the Lý Dynasty and the deaths of both Lý Mông and Vangsaraja. In 1154, to heal the broken relation with the Lý Dynasty, Jaya Harivarman I sent his daughter to Đại Việt, where Lý Anh Tông accepted her as his concubine. The decision of Lý Anh Tông was criticized by the historians Ngô Sĩ Liên and Lê Văn Hưu, who argued that instead of accepting the offer, the Emperor should have opened another campaign to punish the kingdom of Champa.
After the death of Đỗ Anh Vũ, Lý Anh Tông ruled the country with the assistance of the prominent official Tô Hiến Thành. It was Tô Hiến Thành who successfully pacified the revolt of the Ngưu Hống and Ai Lao forces on the western border in 1159, and he had another victory against the Champa army in 1167, which stabilized the southern border. Originally holding only military positions in the royal court, Tô Hiến Thành not only helped the Emperor to improve the quality of the Lý army, but he also paid attention to the development of Confucian learning in the country. On the advice of Tô Hiến Thành, Lý Anh Tông established the first temple of Confucius in Thăng Long in 1156, formerly Confucius was jointly worshipped in the Temple of Literature, Hanoi.
In 1164, the relation between the Lý Dynasty and the Song Dynasty significantly changed, when the Emperor Xiaozong of Song decided to acknowledge Đại Việt as the Kingdom of Annam (An Nam quốc), which had been formerly designated the District of Giao Chỉ (Giao Chỉ quận), by his predecessors. Thereafter the Song Dynasty formally recognized the ruler of Đại Việt as a king (Quốc vương), instead of a district governor (Quận vương). Vân Đồn The principal port of trade between Đại Việt and China was also opened in 1149 by the order of Lý Anh Tông.
Lý Anh Tông died in the seventh month of 1175 at the age of 39. Before his death, the emperor entrusted Tô Hiến Thành with the regency of his 3-year-old crown prince, despite efforts from the empress to supply another prince for the throne. This final act by Lý Anh Tông was appreciated by the historian Ngô Sĩ Liên as a right decision to maintain the order of succession for the royal family and royal court.
The first son of Lý Anh Tông, the Prince Hiển Trung (Hiển Trung vương) Lý Long Xưởng, was born in the eleventh month of 1151. He was made crown prince of the Lý Dynasty but was stripped of all titles and imprisoned in the ninth month of 1174 after Lý Anh Tông discovered that his son had committed adultery with a concubine in the royal palace. As a result, the position of successor was changed to the second son Lý Long Trát who was born on the 25th day of the fifth month in 1173.
 The Lý dynasty (Vietnamese: Nhà Lý, chữ Nôm: 茹李, chữ Hán: 李朝, Hán Việt: Lý triều), also known as the House of Lý, was a Vietnamese dynasty that ruled Đại Việt from 1009 when Lý Công Uẩn overthrew the Early Lê dynasty and ended in 1225, when the queen Lý Chiêu Hoàng (then 8 years old) was forced to abdicate the throne in favor of her husband, Trần Cảnh. During emperor Lý Thánh Tông’s reign, the official name of Vietnam became Đại Việt.
Domestically, while the Lý monarchs were devout to Buddhism, the influence of Confucianism from China was on the rise, with the opening of the Temple of Literature in 1070 for selection of civil servants who are not from noble families. The first imperial examination was held in 1075 and Lê Văn Thịnh became the first Trạng Nguyên (Zhuangyuan) of Vietnam. Politically, they established an administration system based on the rule of law rather than on autocratic principles. The fact that they chose the Đại La Citadel as the capital (later renamed Thăng Long and subsequently Hanoi) showed that they held onto power due to economic strength and were liked by their subjects rather than by military means like previous dynasties. Noblemen scholars such as Lê Văn Thịnh, Bùi Quốc Khái, Doãn Tử Tư, Đoàn Văn Khâm, Lý Đạo Thành, and Tô Hiến Thành made vast contributions culturally and politically, allowing the dynasty to flourish for 216 years.
The last emperor of the Early Lê dynasty, the unpopular Lê Long Đĩnh died in 1009. His crown prince of was still very young and he could not take the power from his dad. Members of royal court including the official Đào Cam Mộc and the Buddhist monk Vạn Hạnh decided to install general Lý Công Uẩn to become the new emperor of Đại Cồ Việt.
The first ruler of the Lý dynasty, Lý Công Uẩn, was of Min Chinese ancestry (from Min kingdom, today’s Fujian province). yet the identity of his birth-father was unknown; likewise, little is known about his maternal side except for the fact that his mother was surnamed Phạm. Very few direct details about his parents (unknown birth-father, mother, and adoptive father Lý Khánh Văn) are known, however, the ethnic Chinese background of Lý Công Uẩn, at least on his paternal side, was accepted by Vietnamese historian Trần Quốc Vượng. The Lý clan of Lý Công Uẩn’s adoptive father Lý Khánh Văn was a Vietic Tao-hua clan originated from the highland regions in Feng district.
Công Uẩn himself was born in 974 CE in Cổ Pháp region, Bắc Giang circuit (now in Từ Sơn, Bắc Ninh Province, Vietnam). When three-year-old, Công Uẩn was adopted by Lý Khánh Văn, whose surname Công Uẩn inherited. The good-looking and intelligent Công Uẩn was noted as an extraordinary child by Buddhist Zen master Vạn Hạnh. When mature, he joined the palace guard and rose through the ranks to commandership. In 1009, Công Uẩn succeeded Lê Long Đĩnh of the Lê family, thereby founding the Lý dynasty.
Cash was a type of coin of China and East Asia, used from the 4th century BC until the 20th century AD. Originally cast during the Warring States period, these coins continued to be used for the entirety of Imperial China as well as under Mongol, and Manchu rule. The last Chinese cash coins were cast in the first year of the Republic of China. Generally most cash coins were made from copper or bronze alloys, with iron, lead, and zinc coins occasionally used less often throughout Chinese history. Rare silver and gold cash coins were also produced. During most of their production, cash coins were cast but, during the late Qing dynasty, machine-struck cash coins began to be made. As the cash coins produced over Chinese history were similar, thousand year old cash coins produced during the Northern Song dynasty continued to circulate as valid currency well into the early twentieth century.
In the modern era, these coins are considered to be Chinese “good luck coins”; they are hung on strings and round the necks of children, or over the beds of sick people. They hold a place in various superstitions, as well as Traditional Chinese medicine, and Feng shui. Currencies based on the Chinese cash coins include the Japanese mon, Korean mun, Ryukyuan mon, and Vietnamese văn.
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