Ly Nam De
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Ly Nam De (544 A.D. - 548 A.D)
Ly Nam De (Ly, The Southern Emperor) was originally Ly Bi (b. 17 October 503 - d. 13 April 548) is debatably considered the "first" emperor of Vietnam and the founder of the Early Ly Dynasty (544 - 603) and ruled from Feb. 544 - Feb. 548. Of ethnic Han Chinese ancestry, he was a regional magistrate of Jiaozhou (Giau Chau/modern-day Northern Vietnam). In 541, during this time China was under constant civil warfare following the Northern and Southern Dynasty Period. He became increasingly frustrated with the corruption in the government and hostility toward the local population. Upon resignation of his post he gathered the local nobility and tribes withing the Red River Valley (North Vietnam) mobilized the imperial troops and naval fleet of Jiaozhou and successfully expelled the Chinese (Liang Dynasty) administration and led the insurrection that ended in 543. The following year in February 544, Ly Bi was declared "Emperor" by the Viet (Yueh) people with the intention of demonstrating equal in power to the Chinese emperial rulers. He renamed the empire "Van Xuan" (Land of Ten Thousand Springs). His imperial armies also repelled attacks from Champa in the south who had allied with Chinese at the time.
Ly Nam De established his capital at Long Bien (modern-day Hanoi), surrounded himself with effective leadership in military and administrative scholars. Ly Nam De has many excellent generals such as Pham Tu, Trieu Tuc, Tinh Thieu, and Trieu Quang Phuc, (from the (Trieu Viet Vuong - Trieu, King of The Viets) son of Trieu Tuc). This latter will be a real, true hero in Vietnam's history and who will eventually succeed to Ly Nam De as ruler in 548. Ly Nam De built many fortresses at strategic locations throughout Van Xuan to fend off potential threats from China in the north and from the Champa Kingdom in the south, he also established the first national university for mandarin scholars and promoted literacy amongst the population. He laid the foundation for many reforms that modeled after the Chinese administration, literature, religion, and military system.
Stability of Van Xuan did not last long and in 544, the Liang Dynasty retaliated against Van Xuan by sending 120,000 imperial troops to re-occupy the region. The Liang emperor sent one of his best general Chen Pa H'sien (Tran Ba Tien) and granted him command of the entire invading Chinese forces. By 545, Chen had marched his army into Van Xuan territory and had laid siege, devastation to many cities. In the winter of 545, Chen laid a surprised attack on the capital during the monsoon season. Ly Nam De's imperial forces were caught off guard. He was forced to flee from Long Bien. The following year in 546, Ly managed to flee westward to neighboring allies in Laos near the mountainous areas. His forces becoming weary and Ly himself was increasingly ill due to exposure in the wilderness, Ly Nam De realized he would not be able to rally the troops and accomplish a successful resistance against the imperial Chinese forces. He thus relinquished, transferred his power to Trieu Quan Phuc (r. 548 - 571), his best lieutenant and general as his immediate successor and the most capable man to shake Van Xuan off from the Chinese imperial forces.
By early 548, Ly Nam De suffered from serious diseases and died in Laos while fighting the Chinese forces. His immediate successor Trieu Viet Vuong continued the resistance and eventually drove the Chinese colonialism from Van Xuan in 550. Although China had occupied Vietnam for approximately 1,000 years, Ly Nam De successfully established a local Viet Dynasty that lasted more than 60 years of independence in between those times.
Regal Titles
Ly Nam De I (r. 542 - 548)
Ly Thien Bao (r. 548 - 555 co-reigned w/Trieu Viet Vuong)
Trieu Viet Vuong (r. 548 - 571)
Ly Nam De II (r. 571 - 602)
