Person
Tieu Tu
The governor of Giao Chau attacked by Ly Bi in 541. The old histories record only two words of blame about him, in two books, and not a single concrete thing he did in Giao Chau; what they record in more detail are the two men about to rise against him.
At a glance
- Role
- Governor of Giao Chau, attacked by Ly Bi in 5413
- Family
- A member of the Liang ruling house: son of Tieu Khoi, Prince of Ba Duong, a younger brother of Emperor Wu of Liang — so the emperor was his uncle; younger brother of Tieu Pham42
- End
- Bribed his way out — the Liang shu says back to Viet Chau, the Tongjian and the Complete Annals say to Quang Chau; he then reported that the generals Ton Quynh and Lu Tu Hung were in league with the 'rebels', and by edict both were ordered to die at Quang Chau; later, when Hou Jing seized and held the capital, someone sent one of his own enemies to stab him to death5672
Life
The old chronicles say
Seven histories compared for this episode name him — the Liang shu, the Chen shu, the Nan shi, the Tongjian, the Viet su luoc, the Complete Annals, the Cuong muc — and not one tells of a single concrete thing Tieu Tu did in Giao Chau: not one tax, not one levy of labour, not one tribute. What they leave behind is only two words of blame, in two books. The Liang shu, the Liang dynasty's own history, records the events of 541 in one line with no blame in it: Ly Bi attacked, Tieu Tu paid a bribe and was allowed to return. The Nan shi is briefer still, and just as free of blame.438
The first word of blame is in the Chen shu, in the very book about Tran Ba Tien: 'Tieu Tu, Marquis of Vu Lam, was governor of Giao Chau, and through harsh exactions he lost the people's hearts.' Some five hundred years later, Sima Guang wrote that sentence again in the Tongjian, and the word for exaction had become brutality: 'the governor of Giao Chau, Tu, Marquis of Vu Lam, lost the people's hearts through harshness and brutality.' The Liang shu and the Chen shu were both completed by Yao Silian early in the Tang — one and the same man, blaming him in the book on Tran Ba Tien but not in the Liang's own history. From here on, the Vietnamese histories follow the Tongjian: the Complete Annals of the fifteenth century copy this sentence almost word for word; as for the word 'policy', none of the histories has it.94310
When the army the Liang sent to attack Ly Bi collapsed from disease at Hop Pho in 542, the man who stepped forward to point the finger was Tieu Tu himself: he reported that the generals Ton Quynh and Lu Tu Hung were in league with the 'rebels' — Ly Bi's side — and had dawdled without advancing; both were put to death at Quang Chau. The compilers of the Complete Annals copy this and add exactly one word, that he 'falsely' reported; the Tongjian says only 'reported'. Turning the charge into a slander is the judgment of the Le-dynasty court historians, and it is not in Sima Guang's own wording.67
Apart from the Giao Chau story, the Nan shi gives him a very short biography of his own, attached after that of his elder brother, Tieu Pham: his courtesy name was The Cung, and he rose to be Minister of the Guards; when Hou Jing seized and held the capital, someone sent one of his own enemies to stab him to death. Giao Chau does not appear in that biography by so much as a word.2
Mentioned in
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