Person
Nha Lang
Son of Ly Phat Tu; by the Complete Annals, he asked for the hand of Cao Nuong, daughter of Trieu Viet Vuong, and came to live as a son-in-law; when his wife secretly showed him the helmet with the dragon claw, he quietly worked out a way to swap the claw, then went home and planned with his father to fall on the king by surprise and take the country. The main text does not say how he died; only Ngo Si Lien's comment has a short phrase: Nha Lang died first.
At a glance
- Role
- In 570 he asked his wife what magic her father had that could drive back his own father's army; when she secretly brought out the helmet with the dragon claw and showed it to him, he quietly worked out a way to swap the claw, then went home and planned with his father to fall on the king by surprise and take the country1
- Family
- Son of Ly Phat Tu; asked for the hand of Cao Nuong, daughter of Trieu Viet Vuong, and the king, who loved his daughter dearly, had him come and live in his own household as a son-in-law1
- End
- The main text of the Complete Annals does not say how he died, and has no scene of his remorse; only Ngo Si Lien's comment under 571 has a short phrase: Nha Lang died first2
- Worshipped at
- By the Complete Annals' note on place names, Ha Mo commune, Tu Liem district, now has a temple to Bat Lang, that is, a temple to Nha Lang3
Life
The old chronicles say
By the Complete Annals, Nha Lang was the son of Ly Phat Tu; he asked for the hand of Cao Nuong, daughter of Trieu Viet Vuong, and came to live as a son-in-law. In 570 he asked his wife what magic her father had that could drive back his own father's army. Cao Nuong did not see what her husband was after, and secretly brought out the helmet with the dragon claw and showed it to him; Nha Lang quietly worked out a way to swap the claw, told his wife he must set his feelings aside for a while and go home, and then planned with his father to fall on the king by surprise and take the country. The Complete Annals put this in the main text, but the compiler's note at the head of the annal says this part is taken from unofficial histories. Writing about My Chau, Ngo Si Lien himself suspected that the chronicler, seeing that both the Thuc and the Trieu lost their countries through a son-in-law, took one event and told it twice.145
Right after the swapping of the claw, Ngo Si Lien sets down a comment, and the one he blames is the father-in-law: the king's daughter had been married to Nha Lang, so why was she not sent to her husband's house, and why follow the Qin custom of the live-in son-in-law, and so come to ruin? As for Nha Lang's own fate, the main text for 571 does not say how he died, and has no scene of his remorse. Only Ngo Si Lien's comment on the Later Ly Nam De has a short phrase: he did win the country, but Nha Lang died first, and Phat Tu himself in the end could not escape being taken prisoner.62
How later ages remembered
Four hundred years after the Complete Annals, the Cuong muc retold the story and set a critical note directly beneath it: the tale of Nha Lang coming to live as a son-in-law and stealing the dragon claw, set beside the story of An Duong Vuong and Trong Thuy, is as if cast from a single mould — absurd and not to be believed, and not worth refuting. But within the Complete Annals itself, the note on place names puts Ly Phat Tu's citadel of O Dien in Ha Mo commune, Tu Liem district, and records that the commune now has a temple to Bat Lang, that is, a temple to Nha Lang. The historians could doubt the story, but the people in it already had a place where incense was burned for them.73
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