Person
Luu Phuong
A Sui general made field commander-in-chief of the Giao Chau route, who put down Ly Phat Tu's revolt in 602; by the Sui shu he talked Phat Tu into surrender, and by the Complete Annals he also seized and executed Phat Tu's former generals the following year.
At a glance
- Dates
- His biography places Ly Phat Tu's revolt in the middle of the Renshou era; the basic annals of the Sui shu place his dispatch to put it down in the twelfth month of 602. The Complete Annals also set down separately, under 603, that he seized the former generals of the Later Nam De, judged them cunning strongmen, and beheaded them all123
- Role
- Put forward by Yang Su, Vice Director of the Left, as a man with a gift for command; made field commander-in-chief of the Giao Chau route at the head of twenty-seven camps to put down Ly Phat Tu in 602; ran a strict army, beheading offenders on the spot but tending sick soldiers himself1
- Earliest record
- A biography of his own in the Sui shu, book 53; the basic annals of the Sui shu give the whole affair a single sentence. The Viet su luoc, an earlier Vietnamese history, mentions Ly Phat Tu's revolt and his fearful request to surrender in its section on those who governed the land, under his name124
Life
The old chronicles say
The Sui shu tells how Luu Phuong was put forward by Yang Su, Vice Director of the Left, as a man with a gift for command, and was made field commander-in-chief of the Giao Chau route, at the head of twenty-seven camps, to put down the revolt of Ly Phat Tu, a man of the Li people in Giao Chau — the Li here names a people, written with a character entirely different from Phat Tu's surname Ly. He ran a strict army: anyone who broke orders was beheaded on the spot, but sick soldiers he tended and comforted himself. At Mount Do Long, more than two thousand bandits came to attack the imperial army and were routed; then Phuong, closing in on Phat Tu, sent a man ahead to win him over by setting out what he stood to lose and gain; Phat Tu took fright and surrendered, and was sent to the capital, while other cunning strongmen were all beheaded to head off future trouble.1
The Complete Annals' passage for 602 copies the matching passage of the Zizhi tongjian almost clause by clause, but changes a few words: the Tongjian writes that Luu Phuong led twenty-seven camps 'and advanced', the Complete Annals that he 'came to invade'; where the Tongjian says only that at Do Long he 'met bandits', the Complete Annals adds a word to make it 'bandits of the grass'. On whether Phat Tu surrendered or was captured, the biography of Luu Phuong in the Sui shu and the Tongjian both use 'surrendered', but the biography of Lenh Ho Hy, in that same Sui shu, says he was 'captured'. The following year, the Complete Annals separately records that Luu Phuong seized the former generals of the Later Nam De, judged them cunning strongmen, and beheaded them all.56317
Mentioned in
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