Place
Khuat Lao
A cave of the Lao people, where Ly Bi fled after the fall of the citadel of Gia Ninh and after his defeat at the Dien Triet lake; the Chinese and Vietnamese histories record differently what happened to him there.
At a glance
- Location
- Unknown; the Nguyen court historians who compiled the Cuong muc likewise wrote plainly that it was unknown1
About the place
The old chronicles say
After the citadel of Gia Ninh fell early in 546, the Liang shu and the Nan shi record that Ly Bi fled into a cave of the Lao people; the Nan shi names it more precisely as the Khuat Lao cave, while the Tongjian calls it the land of the Lao at Tan Xuong. After his further defeat at the Dien Triet lake, the Chen shu records that his army was badly broken and fled into the Khuat Lao cave; the Complete Annals record that he fell back to hold the Khuat Lao cave, and put his troops in order meaning to fight again.23456
The four Chinese histories compared for this episode agree on one point: the people of Khuat Lao beheaded Ly Bi, and his head was sent on to the Liang capital — they differ only on the year, 547 by the Chen shu, 548 by the Liang shu, the Nan shi and the Tongjian. None of the three Vietnamese histories compared here — the Viet su luoc, the Complete Annals, the Cuong muc — mentions the beheading; all three record that he fell ill and died in the cave, and the two later ones add that he had stayed there a long time and caught the miasmal sickness.427
Mentioned in
Sources for this page
Every row of the profile and every passage below points to one of these documents. How we choose and check sources