Person
Pham Tu
A general of Ly Bi, who by the Liang shu defeated the king of Lam Ap at Cuu Duc in 543; when Ly Bi proclaimed himself emperor in 544, the Complete Annals record that he and Tinh Thieu were both given posts as military and civil officials.
At a glance
Life
The old chronicles say
The only victory for Ly Bi's side that the histories record in those years was not over a Liang army, but over Lam Ap. The Liang shu, in the fourth month of the ninth year of Datong (543), records: the king of Lam Ap sacked Duc Chau and attacked Ly Bi; Bi's general Pham Tu in turn defeated the king of Lam Ap at Cuu Duc, and the king of Lam Ap fled in defeat. It is worth noting that the Liang's own history names the general who won that battle, while for its own troops it records not a single result.1
The Complete Annals change the scene — recording a raid on Nhat Nam instead of the sack of Duc Chau — but keep the name Pham Tu, only changing him from 'Bi's general' to the emperor's general. The following year, when Ly Bi proclaimed himself emperor, the Complete Annals record that he and Tinh Thieu were both given posts as military and civil officials; these appointments are among the details that none of the Chinese histories compared here contain.2
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