Ly Bi

The old chronicles say

Ly Bi's origins are recorded in several layers. The Tongjian introduces him in one sentence: Ly Bi of Giao Chi, of a powerful clan for generations, was frustrated in his official career. The Complete Annals, in the summary opening the annal of the Early Ly, add an entire origin that those Chinese books do not have: a man of Thai Binh in Long Hung, whose ancestors were northerners who, at the end of the Western Han, suffering from the wars, fled south, and after seven generations became southerners; he first served as an official under the Liang. But the notes of the Cuong muc, some four hundred years after the Complete Annals, reject that very place name: Thai Binh was established in the fourth year of the Wude era of the Tang, Long Hung under the Tran, and in the time of the Liang there were no such place names — the old history gave him the later names in retrospect.⁷¹⁰¹¹

How later ages remembered

In its own day, that is, under the Nguyen dynasty in the nineteenth century, the Cuong muc recorded that in Tu Duong commune, Thuy Anh district, Thai Binh prefecture, in Nam Dinh, there was a temple to King Bi.¹¹

The old chronicles say

The rising broke out in the seventh year of Datong, usually converted to 541: Ly Bi joined with the bold men of several provinces, and they rose up together, attacking the governor of Giao Chau, Tieu Tu. Tieu Tu paid a bribe so that he could leave; the Complete Annals record that Ly Bi went out and seized the provincial citadel, and add a small note of their own: 'that is, Long Bien'. But in the histories compared, there is no battle in which Ly Bi defeated a Liang army in the two years 542 and 543: the army the Liang sent collapsed from sickness at Hop Pho, six or seven in ten of its men died, and it broke up and went home without fighting a single battle. The only victory for his side that the histories record was driving back the king of Lam Ap at Cuu Duc in 543 — and the general who led that battle was Pham Tu.⁴¹²³

Early in 544, Ly Bi proclaimed himself emperor. The Liang shu says only that he 'usurped a sovereign's title' without naming it; of the four Chinese histories compared, the Tongjian is the only one that names the title, calling him Viet De; the Chen shu does not record the taking of a title at all — for it, he is from the start a 'native man'. The Vietnamese histories write at far greater length: the Viet su luoc, the Complete Annals and the Cuong muc all call him Nam Viet De, with the reign title Thien Duc and the country named Van Xuan — words found in none of the Chinese histories compared. The Complete Annals also record that he built the Van Tho palace as the hall for court assemblies (the Cuong muc calls it the Van Xuan palace), made Trieu Tuc grand tutor, and gave Tinh Thieu and Pham Tu posts as military and civil officials.^12413314

In 545 the Liang army came south; by the Tongjian, Ly Bi was beaten at Chu Dien, beaten again at the mouth of the To Lich river, and fled into the citadel of Gia Ninh; the citadel fell in the first month of 546, and he fled into the land of the Lao. He came out again and camped at the Dien Triet lake; by the Chen shu, Tran Ba Tien's troops charged ahead, that night the river suddenly rose and poured into the lake, and his army was badly broken. The Complete Annals record that he fell back to hold the Khuat Lao cave and entrusted the great general Trieu Quang Phuc with holding the country and leading the army against Ba Tien. Le Van Huu judged that he fell short in the talent of a general, and then softened it: it was because he had the misfortune to meet Tran Ba Tien, who was skilled in war; Ngo Si Lien added that he also met the river rising to help the other side — was that not the doing of heaven?^15541617