Person

Dinh Kien

According to the Old and New Books of Tang, a confederate of Ly Tu Tien who led troops to besiege the seat of Annam; the Complete Annals alone records that he killed the Protector Luu Dien Huu, while the Old Book of Tang records the killer as Ly Tu Than and the New Book of Tang does not say by whom.

At a glance

Role
A confederate of Ly Tu Tien; according to the Old and New Books of Tang, led the troops besieging the seat of Annam in 687; the Complete Annals alone records that he killed Luu Dien Huu123
End
According to the New Book of Tang, he was the man Tao Huyen Tinh beheaded; the Old Book of Tang instead records that Huyen Tinh captured Ly Tu Than and his men and beheaded them all beneath the walls of Annam, without naming him there21

Life

The old chronicles say

The Old Book of Tang records that in the third year of Chuigong, Tu Tien's confederates, Dinh Kien, Ly Tu Than and others, led their forces to besiege the seat of Annam. The New Book of Tang tells it more briefly and without Ly Tu Than: the rest of his band, Dinh Kien and others, rebelled and gathered their forces to besiege the seat. In this New Book of Tang version, the man beheaded by Tao Huyen Tinh is Dinh Kien himself. The Viet su luoc and the Tu tri thong giam do not name him: the Viet su luoc only says the rest of the band besieged the seat and killed Dien Huu without naming Dinh Kien, while the Tongjian speaks only of Ly Tu Than and his men.1245

The Complete Annals records Ly Tu Tien as the one who laid the plans, killed by Dien Huu; the rest of his band, Dinh Kien, gathered their forces and besieged the seat, and here the account differs from all three other versions: Kien himself killed Dien Huu. The label pairing Ly Tu Tien with Dinh Kien matches exactly the cast in this version of the Complete Annals, Tu Tien laying the plans, Kien leading the troops and killing the Protector, but not the Old Book of Tang, where the man recorded as Dien Huu's killer is Ly Tu Than.3

Mentioned in

  1. Episode 10The Protectorate of Annam and the rising of Ly Tu Tien and Dinh Kien14 min

Sources for this page

Every row of the profile and every passage below points to one of these documents. How we choose and check sources

  1. Old Book of Tang

    book 190 part one, the Wenyuan chapter part one, the biography of Luu Dan Chi, the appended account of Luu Dien Huu, main text

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  2. New Book of Tang

    book 201, the chapter on men of letters part one, the biography of Luu Dien Huu, main text

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  3. Dai Viet su ky toan thu

    Outer Annals book 5, folios 4a to 4b, the year Dinh Hoi, main text

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  4. Viet su luoc

    upper book, the entry on Luu Dien Huu, main text

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  5. Zizhi tongjian

    book 204, the third year of Chuigong, after the day Nham Thin in the seventh month, main text

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