Item: i100045

Authentic Coin of:

Vietnam – Tran Dynasty (1225-1400)
Tran Du Tong – Emperor: 1341-1369 (Dai Tri Period: 1358-69)
Bronze Dai Tri Thong Bao Cash Token 23mm, Struck 1358-1369
Reference: B 21.7, H 25.08, T 021
Chinese Symbols.
Three-dot Tong.

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Trần Dụ Tông (Hán tự: 陳裕宗, 22 November 1336 – 25 May 1369), given name Trần Hạo (陳暭), was the seventh emperor of the Trần dynasty, and reigned over Vietnam from 1341 to 1369. Enthroned by Senior Emperor Minh Tông after the death of his elder brother Hiến Tông, Dụ Tông nominally ruled Đại Việt under the regency of the Senior Emperor until the latter’s death in 1357 and held the absolute position in the royal court for twelve more years. The reign of Dụ Tông was seen by historical books as the starting point for the third phase of Trần Dynasty when the peaceful and prosperous state of the country began to fade away and the royal family fell into a long period of chaos before ultimately collapsing.

From 1341 to his death in 1357, the Senior Emperor Minh Tông acted as a 
regent for his son Dụ Tông, who thus reigned only in name. According to Đại Việt 
sử ký toàn thư, the young Emperor Dụ Tông was very intelligent and was 
completely focused on managing both civil and military matters of Đại Việt. For 
that reason, Dụ Tông in his first era Thiệu Phong (1341–1357) was well respected 
in the royal court even if it was the Senior Emperor who ruled the country. In 
1349 Dụ Tông entitled a daughter of Prince Huệ Túc Trần Đại Niên as his queen, 
and she became Queen Nghi Thánh. However, historical books recorded that the 
Emperor was impotent and that he was only cured after many unusual treatments 
including using medicine made from a killed young boy and incest with Dụ Tông’s 
own sister, princess Thiên Ninh.

In this era, the royal court of Trần Dynasty began to face troubles such as 
the death of several important and experienced mandarins, the failure of some 
military campaigns against Lan Xang and Champa and the proliferation of many 
natural disasters in Đại Việt. For only a short period, Đại Việt suffered many 
disasters, which caused a time of economic dearth and ignited several revolts 
against the royal court. A temporary peace was only re-established when Trương 
Hán Siêu, a capable mandarin, was appointed to restore order in regions affected 
by unrest.

In 1353, Minh Tong attempted an expedition against the Champa king Tra Hoa Bo 
De in support of Che Mo’s claim to the throne as the son of Che Anan. The 
expedition was aborted and Che Mo died soon after. 91  Đại Trị era

After the death of Minh Tông in 1357, Dụ Tông ascended to the throne and he 
decided to change the era from Thiệu Phong to Đại Trị (1358–1369). With the 
death of a capable ruler like Minh Tông, the royal court led by Dụ Tông began to 
fall into chaos, especially as several able officials such as Nguyễn Trung Ngạn 
and Trương Hán Siêu died while others such as Chu Văn An became discontented. 
After the Emperor’s refusal of his famous Thất trảm sớ (Petition of beheading 
seven corrupt officials), Chu Văn An decided to leave the royal court, which was 
now full of corrupt mandarins and bad cohorts.

At that time, the situation in China was very complicated with the struggle 
between Zhu Yuanzhang and Chen Youliang, both of whom tried to mobilise support 
from Đại Việt. However, Dụ Tông maintained a neutral attitude to concentrate his 
army along the southern border against Champa. Despite his effort, Champa’s 
forces still posed concerns for Đại Việt’s border and launched several 
skirmishes while many revolts were taking place and causing diversions in Đại 
Việt.

While being modest and diligent under the regency of Minh Tông, the 
independent reign of Emperor Dụ Tông saw extravagant spending on the building of 
several luxurious palaces and other pleasurely indulgences. Dụ Tông introduced 
theatre, which was considered at the time to be a shameful pleasure, in the 
royal court. Hierarchy and order were completely discarded by the Emperor, and 
he had the princes and princesses of the royal family do trivial tasks such as 
folding paper fans in the market. During official audiences, when Dụ Tông felt 
happy, he would step off the throne to dance with his ministers. One time, the 
Emperor was so drunk that he fell into a pool of water and caught a disease that 
was only cured after a long period of treatment. The Emperor died on 25 May of 
the Lunar calendar, 1369, at the age of 33 following a reign of twenty-eight 
years. He did not have any posthumous name and was buried in Phụ Tomb. Family 
and succession

Dụ Tông had one wife, Queen Nghi Thánh, who was daughter of the Prince Huệ 
Túc Trần Đại Niên. Being impotent, Dụ Tông had no son of his own and before his 
death, he issued an edict that the throne would be passed to Dương Nhật Lễ 
despite the fact that his appointee was not from Trần clan while the royal 
family still had several capable princes available for the position. This 
decision of Dụ Tông was heavily criticized by imperial historians because it 
broke the normal protocol for succession and heralded the start of a chaotic 
period of the Trần Dynasty.

 
The Trần dynasty, also known as the House of Trần, was a Vietnamese dynasty that ruled over the Kingdom of Đại Việt from 1225 to 1400. The dynasty was founded when emperor Trần Thái Tông ascended to the throne after his uncle Trần Thủ Độ orchestrated the overthrow of the Lý dynasty. The final emperor of the dynasty was Thiếu Đế, who at the age of five years was forced to abdicate the throne in favor of his maternal grandfather, Hồ Quý Ly. The Trần dynasty defeated three Mongol invasions, most notably in the decisive Battle of Bạch Đằng River in 1288.

The Tran improved Chinese gunpowder enabling them to expand southward to defeat and vassalize the Champa. They also started using paper money for the first time in Vietnam. The Tran period was considered a golden age in Vietnamese language, arts, and culture; with the first pieces of Chữ Nôm literature written during this period, and first-time introduction of the vernacular Vietnamese language into the court, alongside Chinese. This laid the foundation for the further development and solidifying of Vietnamese language and identity.

The ancestors of the Trần clan, Trần Kinh (陳京) migrated from the province of Fujian to Đại Việt during the early 12th century. He settled in Tức Mặc village (now Mỹ Lộc, Nam Định) and lived by fishing. His grandson Trần Lý (陳李; 1151 – 1210), became a wealthy landowner in the area. Trần Lý’s grandson, Trần Cảnh, later established the Trần dynasty. From Trần Lý onwards, the Trần clan became related to the Lý clan by intermarriages with several royal members of the Royal Lý dynasty.

During the troubled time under the reign of Lý Cao Tông, the Crown Prince Lý Sảm sought refuge in the family of Trần Lý and decided to marry his beautiful daughter Trần Thị Dung in 1209. Afterward, it was the Trần clan who helped Lý Cao Tông and Lý Sảm restore the throne in Thăng Long. As a result, the Emperor appointed several members of the Trần clan to high positions in the royal court, such as Tô Trung Từ, who was an uncle of Trần Thị Dung, and Trần Tự Khánh and Trần Thừa, who were Trần Lý’s sons. In 1211 the Crown Prince Lý Sảm was enthroned as Lý Huệ Tông after the death of Lý Cao Tông. By that time the Trần clan’s position began to rise in the royal court.

After a period of political crisis, the Emperor Lý Huệ Tông, himself been mentally ill for a long time, ultimately decided to cede the throne of the Lý dynasty to crown princess Lý Chiêu Hoàng in October of the lunar calendar, 1224. Ascending the throne at the age of only six, Lý Chiêu Hoàng ruled under the total influence of the commander of the royal guard, Trần Thủ Độ. Even the Empress Regnant’s servants were chosen by Trần Thủ Độ; one of them was his 7-year-old nephew Trần Cảnh. When Trần Cảnh informed Trần Thủ Độ that the Empress Regnant seemed to have affection towards him, the leader of the Trần clan immediately decided to take this chance to carry out his plot to overthrow the Lý dynasty and establish a new dynasty ruled by his own clan. First Trần Thủ Độ moved the whole Trần clan to the royal palace and arranged a secret marriage between Lý Chiêu Hoàng and Trần Cảnh there, without the appearance of any mandarin or member of the Lý royal family. After that, he announced the fait accompli to the royal court and made Lý Chiêu Hoàng cede the throne to her new husband on the grounds that she was incapable of holding office. Thus Trần Cảnh was chosen as her successor. As a result, the 216-year reign of the Lý dynasty was ended, and the new Trần dynasty was created on the first day of the twelfth lunar month (Gregorian: December 31) 1225.

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.