From Moral Exemplar to National Hero: The transformations of Trần Hưng Đao and the emergence of Vietnamese nationalism (part ½)

 

From Moral Exemplar to National Hero: 

The transformations of Trần Hưng Đao 

and the emergence of Vietnamese nationalism (part ½)

LIAM C. KELLEY

 Department of History, University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, United States of America Email: liam@hawaii.edu

                                                       

Trần Hưng Đao (1228–1300), the Vietnamese general who led troops to hold off Mongol invasions in the thirteenth century, is honoured across Vietnam today as a hero of the nation (anh hùng dân tộc). This ubiquitous representation has, however, come about only recently, having been crafted in the twentieth century. Prior to that time, Trần Hưng Đao was honoured in other ways. This article will examine precisely how it is that Trần Hưng Đao was represented and remembered in various works—from official histories to spirit writing texts—between the fifteenth and twentieth centuries. It will trace the transformations in these representations over time and argue that it was only in the early twentieth century that Trần Hưng Đao began to be represented as a national hero. In its coverage of the transformations in Trần Hưng Đao’s representation, this article will demonstrate how modern nationalist ideas emerged in Vietnam in the early twentieth century.

 

Introduction

Trần Hưng Đao, the general who fought off Mongol invasions in the thirteenth century, is an extremely famous historical figure in Vietnam today. Schoolchildren learn of his deeds, and streets are named after him all across the country. Invariably, he is presented as a national hero (anh hùng dân tộc), a heroic general who defended the nation against foreign aggression. Yet, as ubiquitous as this representation is today, it is a novel way of characterizing Trần Hưng Đao and his life. Over the course of the more than 700 years since his death in 1300, other ideas concerning the significance of Trần Hưng Đao predominated. It was only in the twentieth century that his position as hero of the nation emerged. To argue that a historical figure was viewed in different ways in the past and only became a national hero in the twentieth century should come as no surprise, given all of the scholarship which has been produced in recent decades on such topics as invented traditions and the modernity of nationalism. The field of Vietnamese history, however, has been slow to adopt these ideas. While many scholars today are likely aware that much that has been written about Vietnamese history is presented through a nationalist prism, little work has been done to determine exactly how and when that prism was created. Examining how Trần Hưng Đao has been represented through time, and how he was first transformed into a national hero in the early twentieth century, is one way of doing this, and is the focus of this article. Given the restrictions of space, what this article will not be able to cover are the changes that Trần Hưng Đao’s representation as a national hero underwent over the course of the twentieth century. That is a topic which will have to await further examination, but I will conclude this article with some thoughts on that matter. The topic of this article has recently been briefly addressed by anthropologist Pham Quynh Phương in her monograph Hero and Deity, on the resurgence in interest in the popular religious cult associated with the spirit of Trần Hưng Đao over the past few decades.

Pham Quynh Phương argues in this work that Trần Hưng Đao has always been viewed as both a national hero and a deity. In an introductory chapter on Trần Hưng Đao’s life and his image, for instance, she notes that ‘His status as the great national hero who defeated the strongest enemy in Vietnamese history meant that the cult that surrounded him was, from the outset, that of a national hero” At the same time, however, Pham Quynh Phương argues that ‘it was in the colonial era that, for the first time, Vietnamese people came to conceptualise themselves as bearers of a distinctive nation’, and as a result, ‘Trần Hưng Đao began to appear more as a symbol of patriotism rather than as a specific personality’. She notes further that it was also during this same period that members of the elite, influenced by Western ideas of civilization and progress, began to criticize the cult of Trần Hưng Đao as ‘superstitious’. Pham Quynh Phương also argues, following Shawn McHale, that at the turn of the twentieth century ‘Confucianism ceased to be a philosophy open only to specialists, and instead became the basis of a commonly shared idiom for intellectual life’, and as a result of this transformation, ‘Confucian notions of loyalty, the “Four Virtues”, and the “Three Submissions”’, which Trần Hưng Đao’s cult promoted, ‘resonated strongly during this period’. Then in the post-colonial era, and particularly in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, Trần Hưng Đao ‘came to occupy the most honored position in the symbolism of the state’. Pham Quynh Phương clearly sees that, historically, changes took place in the perception of Trần Hưng Đao and his cult. However, she only discusses these points briefly, as the main focus of her work is on the contemporary worship of Trần Hưng Đao’s cult. Nonetheless, her work brings to the fore important questions. If, for instance, it was only during the colonial era that Vietnamese began to ‘conceptualise themselves as bearers of a distinctive nation’, then how could Trần Hưng Đao have been seen as a ‘national hero’ before that point?

Further, what did Confucian notions such as the Four Virtues and Three Submissions have to do with a cult dedicated to a general? And if these notions ‘resonated strongly’ during the colonial era, where exactly did they come from, and how exactly had they changed since earlier times? These are some of the issues which this article will address. In examining how Trần Hưng Đao was represented in writings from the fifteenth to the early twentieth centuries, the article will ultimately demonstrate that Trần Hưng Đao has not always been viewed as a national hero. Rather, it was only in the early twentieth century that he began to be represented in that manner. Prior to that time he had been written about as a moral exemplar, a local general in a larger world, a deity with specific powers to cure certain women’s illnesses, and a spirit who encouraged people to follow Confucian values. In tracing these transformations, it is clear that what Prasenjit Duara termed the ‘superscription of symbols’ took place, as new representations of Trần Hưng Đao did not completely replace older ones. Instead, some ideas were kept while new ones were added or emphasized.

Nonetheless, the effort in the early twentieth century to represent Trần Hưng Đao as a national hero was dramatic in the degree to which it erased what had been emphasized prior to that point, and to which it reinterpreted the past to suit the present. Further, the continued dominance of the modern nationalist ideas that began to take form at that time has prevented scholars in the succeeding century from seeing clearly how transformative the early twentieth century was. However, by tracing the changes in Trần Hưng Đao’s representations over time and examining how he was refashioned as a national hero in the early twentieth century, we can gain an understanding of how and when modern nationalist ideas took hold in Vietnam.

Moral exemplar

Trần Hưng Đao first emerges in recorded history for acts for which he is not usually remembered or honoured today engaging in premarital sex and thwarting an arranged marriage.

In 1251, the first ruler of the Trần Dynasty, Trần Thái Tông, wished to marry the eldest princess in his palace, Princess Thiên Thành, to a certain Prince Trung Thành. Such unions between members of the same extended family were acceptable, but they had to be arranged by the parents. Trần Hưng Đao, however, intervened out of his own initiative before this marriage could take place. More specifically, he snuck into Princess Thiên Thành’s chamber under the dark of night and had sexual relations with her. Confronted with a fait accompli, Trần Thái Tông approved a marriage between Princess Thiên Thành and Trần Hưng Đao. The fifteenth-century historian Ngô Si Liên had nothing but words of disdain for this episode. In his Complete Book of the Historical Records of Đai Việt (Đai Việt sử ký toàn thư), he chastised the Trần for not following the proper rites in carrying out this marriage and felt that the joining in matrimony of members of the same family was an act that was simply unacceptable.

Later, in the eighteenth century, historian Ngô Thì Sĩ placed the blame for this act on Trần Hưng Đao’s youth and imprudence, as well as the improper family customs of the Trần. Indeed, Trần Hưng Đao’s indiscretion followed other such acts committed by the Trần family which later commentators likewise criticized.

And finally, in the nineteenth century, Emperor Tự Đức stated that Trần Hưng Đao’s martial and civil skills were exemplary, as were his loyalty and filial piety. Yet because of his ‘distasteful behaviour’ (xú hanh), he could not be considered a ‘perfect being’ (toàn nhân). So, Trần Hưng Đao had stained his stature with a moral failure which the literati prior to the twentieth century never allowed to be erased. At the same time, however, there were other aspects of Trần Hưng Đao’s life that these same men found praiseworthy, and none more so than his loyalty and filial piety. In his entry in the Complete Book of the Historical Records of Đai Việt marking the death of Trần Hưng Đao in 1300, for instance, Ngô Sĩ Liên recorded various stories about conversations that Trần Hưng Đao supposedly had during his lifetime that revealed these traits. One story claims that when Trần Hưng Đao’s father was on his deathbed he entreated his son to take control of the kingdom someday, to fulfill his own desire to have done the same. Trần Hưng Đao reportedly felt that this was not the right way to act. The Complete Book of the Historical Records of Đai Việt records that Trần Hưng Đao subsequently asked two of his servants about this matter. These two men noted that in taking control of the kingdom he would gain sudden riches but would be reviled through the ages. The two servants stated further that they would rather die as his servants than become officials in a new government and thereby sacrifice their filial piety and loyalty. Similarly, one of Trần Hưng Đao’s sons stated that it was unacceptable to seize control from another ruling family, let alone one’s own family. However, another son, Trần Quốc Tảng, held a different view. When Trần Hưng Đao brought up the issue of his father’s dying wish, Trần Quốc Tảng noted how the founder of the Song Dynasty had been a mere farmer, but then had taken advantage of the changing times to take control of the empire, thereby implying that Trần Hưng Đao should do the same. According to the Complete Book of the Historical Records of Đai Việt, Trần Hưng Đao became incensed and stated that ‘Treacherous officials come from unfilial sons.’ He then pulled out his sword to kill his son but was prevented by the first son from doing so. Trần Hưng Đao thus remained loyal to the monarch, and he encouraged others to do the same. He reportedly wrote documents for his soldiers, such as a work entitled A Brief Summary of the Mysterious Tactics of Military Strategists (Binh gia diệu lý yếu lược thư) in which he cited examples of people in the past who had loyally served their monarch in extreme ways. He noted, for instance, how in the ancient kingdom of Chu, a kingdom that flourished in the Yangzi valley through much of the first millennium bce, a man by the name of You Yu had allowed himself to be speared in the back in order to protect the monarch, and how in the third century bce, a military official by the name of Ji Xin had let himself be captured and put to death by the enemy in order to divert attention so that his commander, Liu Bang, the subsequent founder of the Han Dynasty, could escape. In addition to encouraging his soldiers to serve loyally, Trần Hưng Đao also demonstrated to others his own loyal intent. There is an entry in the Complete Book of the Historical Records of Đai Việt for the year 1285 that records that when Trần Hưng Đao escorted the emperor he always carried with him a kind of musical instrument used by members of the military. It looked like a wooden staff with a bell at the end. According to this account, other people in the entourage kept an eye on him, believing that he might follow his father’s advice and use this instrument as a weapon against the emperor. Aware of what others were thinking, Trần Hưng Đao threw away the bell and just carried with him the more harmless wooden staff to demonstrate to everyone that he had no such intentions. While we have no way of verifying whether such events ever actually occurred, this is the earliest type of representation that we have of Trần Hưng Đao. Through the actions that were recorded about him, not only did Trần Hưng Đao demonstrate his loyalty, but, in the eyes of subsequent generations of literati, he also revealed the depth of his filial piety as well, for in their minds there was a direct connection between these two virtues. Works such as the Classic of Filial Piety (Hiếu kinh/Xiaojing), a common text for children to study, dating from the first millennium bce, repeatedly emphasized this connection with statements such as ‘The exemplary man having served his parents with filial piety, can therefore transfer his loyalty to the monarch.’ Hence, loyalty to the monarch was seen as an outgrowth of filial piety in the home. ‘If you seek loyal officials,’ Confucius is reported to have said, ‘you must proceed to the gates of [the homes of] filial sons.’ This is the same point that Trần Hưng Đao made in negative terms to his scheming son when he said, ‘Treacherous officials come from unfilial sons.’ As such, by demonstrating his complete loyalty to the monarch, Trần Hưng Đao also demonstrated his filial piety. While both of these virtues were thus interrelated and essential, loyalty to the monarch was the utmost virtue. Loyalty was the culmination of a process of moral development that began with the cultivation of filial piety in the home. Further, loyalty was also the most important quality to maintain in order to survive and prosper in a pre-modern kingdom ruled by an absolute monarch. It is not surprising, then, that we find this virtue emphasized repeatedly and employed to explain various other human attributes. In the case of Trần Hưng Đao, for instance, Ngô Sĩ Liên even attributed his success as a general to his loyalty, for as he wrote in his Complete Book of the Historical Records of Đai Việt, ‘It must be that the capacity to strategise and to be valiantly martial comes from always harboring in one’s heart a sense of loyal righteousness.’

Our kingdom’s general

While loyalty was the main concern for the literati who compiled histories and other texts in pre-twentieth-century Vietnam, they also clearly acknowledged Trần Hưng Đao’s achievements on the battlefield. The campaigns that he led against the Mongols were recorded in detail, and he was recognized as a gifted strategist. That said, there are two aspects of the praise for Trần Hưng Đao’s martial skills that deserve note. The first is that his capability as a general was never viewed in isolation of characteristics that the literati who wrote about him cherished, such as learning, loyalty, and filial piety. The second is that his greatness as a general was usually expressed by either comparing him to, or associating him with, famous generals from ‘Chinese’ history. The following assessments by two of the most famous eighteenth-century literati, Ngô Thì Sĩ and Bùi Huy Bích, respectively, illustrate these two points. King Hưng Đao was loyal, righteous, wise and brave. The Tang’s Prince of Fengyang was second to him. Beyond his writings, his civil and martial skills set the standard for the myriad polities. And beyond his accomplishments, his heroism gained fame in the two kingdoms [that is, ‘China’ and ‘Vietnam’]. His power could overturn rivers and mountains, could drive off wind and thunder and cause fear in the Celestial awe’s closeness [that is, the Chinese emperor]. His loyalty pierced the sun and moon, and his integrity moved ghosts and spirits. In comparison with Prince Fenyang, he was a big step beyond in terms of maintaining his loyalty and holding firm to righteousness. The Classic of Changes states that ‘[the exemplary man] comprehends that which is minute and that which is manifest. He perceives that which is soft and that which is hard. The myriad people [therefore] look to him.’ Because of these [qualities], King Hưng Đao was able to enjoy auspiciousness throughout his days and maintain his honor. He therefore can truly serve as a model for officials throughout the ages. When people of previous generations praised good generals, they would certainly speak of King Trần Hưng Đao, and when they praised pure scholars, they would certainly speak of Master Chu Van Trinh [the famous fourteenth-century scholar, Chu Van An]. There has never been anyone to match them. King Hưng Đao’s talent, virtue, merit and accomplishments have stood out through the ages. Perhaps only the Tang magistrate can compare. Although historical works are not very thorough, nonetheless his accomplishments can still be verified. King Hưng Đao was from a privileged family, and Master Van Trinh was a recluse. They did not follow the path of the civil service examinations. However, those in later generations who were employed [by the government], could all take these two as models. In both of these passages, Trần Hưng Đao is compared to the same person. ‘The Tang’s Prince of Fengyang’ and the ‘Tang magistrate’ are both references to Guo Ziyi, a Tang Dynasty general who put down the An Lushan Rebellion and who was later regarded as one of the greatest generals in ‘Chinese’ history. I place ‘Chinese’ in scare quotes here as Ngô Thì Sĩ and Bùi Huy Bích did not make such a distinction. To them Guo Ziyi was simply a great general who served a great dynasty, and who set a standard for other generals to aspire to. Further, in their minds, Trần Hưng Đao had exceeded that standard, and they felt that this was due to the strength of such characteristics as his loyalty and moral virtue. In the eighteenth century, the literati who would have read these comments, like their counterparts throughout East Asia, believed strongly in the importance of moral virtue and loyalty. They believed that these characteristics were essential in order to succeed at any endeavour, and particularly at the endeavours that they engaged in—studying for the civil service examinations and serving in the government. Trần Hưng Đao had followed a different path, but his success likewise came from the strength of such characteristics as moral virtue and loyalty, and he could therefore still serve as a model for the literati. While Ngô Thì Sĩ and Bùi Huy Bích compared Trần Hưng Đao to the recognized standard of Guo Ziyi in order to demonstrate the degree of his greatness, the Lê and Nguyễn Dynasties created an institutional setting in which these men likewise coexisted. In 1740, in an effort to increase the Lê Dynasty’s power and prestige, an order was issued to revive certain ancient rituals. One institution which was dealt with as a result of this was the Martial Temple (Võ Miếu). It is unclear when the first martial temple was constructed. By the time this order was issued in 1740 it appears that there were multiple martial temples, as this order says nothing about constructing such temples, but specifies that each martial temple was to be supported by its surrounding district, indicating that the temples already existed but had perhaps not been maintained and were not all following the same rituals. This order sought to standardize the ritual regimes in the martial temples in the kingdom, and it did so by stipulating who was to be honoured in the temples. It stated that the main figure honoured in the temple should be Taigong, the general who had helped the Zhou Dynasty come to power in antiquity. Both sides of the temple were then to be lined with 18 other figures, all of whom we would today label as ‘Chinese’ generals. The order then specifically stated that Trần Hưng Đao was to be honoured following these figures. It is likely that these temples may again have fallen into disrepair or been abandoned during the tumult of the Tây Sơn Rebellion, for the martial temple was not re-established under the subsequent Nguyễn Dynasty until 1835, during the reign of Emperor Minh Mang. In that year an official from the Board of Rites memorialized the throne to request the establishment of a martial temple. This official noted that in establishing a kingdom, both the literati and the military needed to be attended to. To date, this official argued, literati matters had received strong attention, but not military ones. It was thus important to promote martial teachings to provide a model for members of the military to emulate. This statement was not entirely true. After the Nguyễn Dynasty was established in 1802, a shrine to Guan Yu (also known as Guan Gong, Guandi, and Guansheng Dijun) was set up next to Thiên Mu Pagoda in Hue. Guan Yu was a general who lived during the final years of the Han Dynasty and into the Three Kingdoms period. By the nineteenth century, Guan Yu had served as the main figure of martial worship in China for centuries, having surpassed Taigong in importance. His presence was not unknown in Vietnam, for in the same year that the Lê Dynasty ordered martial temples standardized (1740), it also ordered shrines to Guan Yu be constructed next to martial temples. That said, the shrine to Guan Yu appended to a Buddhist pagoda in 1802 could clearly not compare with the order that Gia Long, the first Nguyễn emperor, issued in 1804 to support and regulate rituals at multiple Temples of Literature (Van Miếu) across the kingdom. It was likely this imbalance that the official from the “Board of Rites” was speaking of in 1835.

To support his argument, this official noted that during the Kaiyuan era (731–741 ce) of Tang Xuanzong’s reign, the Tang Dynasty had established a temple dedicated to Taigong. This event, this official argued, constituted a precedent which the Nguyễn Dynasty could follow. He thereupon requested that a martial temple be erected, and that famous generals from antiquity and meritorious officials from the kingdom be selected to serve as models for later generations. Emperor Minh Ma.ng agreed to this proposal, and ordered that a temple dedicated to Taigong be erected to the west of the capital. This temple was also to honour such famous personages from the ‘Northern Court’ (Bắc Triều) as Guan Zhong, Zhang Liang, Han Xin, Zhuge Liang, Li Jing, Guo Ziyi, and Yue Fei, followed by figures from what Minh Ma.ng simply labelled ‘Our Kingdom’ (Ngã Quốc), namely Trần Hưng Đao, Lê Khôi, and several individuals from the current dynasty. Finally, officials were to make offerings there twice a year, which was the practice during the Tang Dynasty as well.27 Thus, in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Trần Hưng Đa.o’s position as an exemplary general garnered for him entrée into the martial temples of the Lê and Nguyễn Dynasties. However, he was simply one among many individuals who were honoured in these temples. He may have been chronologically the first ‘Vietnamese’ general in these temples, but in the larger scheme of temples that honoured ‘Chinese’ figures before ‘Vietnamese’, his position was far from central. This was even more the case in another Nguyễn Dynasty temple in which he was honoured, the Temple of Sovereigns from Successive Generations (Li.ch Đa.i Đế Vương Miếu). This temple was established by Emperor Minh Ma.ng in 1823, following a Ming Dynasty precedent. The main figures honoured in this temple were ‘Chinese’ rulers from antiquity, such as Fu Xi and Shen Nong. They were followed by ‘Vietnamese’ rulers, from Kinh Dương Vương and La. c Long Quân to monarchs from the Đinh, Lý, Trần, and Lê Dynasties. The final individuals honoured in this temple were officials who had served monarchs well and benefited the people. While the records do not use these terms, here again ‘Chinese’ preceded ‘Vietnamese’, with Trần Hưng Đa. o placed chronologically sixth in a group of 15 ‘Vietnamese’ officials and generals.

Potent deity

Although the literati praised Trần Hưng Đa.o’s loyalty and filial piety and the Lê and Nguyễn Dynasties honoured him by placing him in their martial temples, there were other people who viewed Trần Hưng Đa.o in still other terms, namely as a potent deity. These beliefs appear to have emerged around the area where Trần Hưng Đa.o passed away in Hải Dương Province. A shrine was erected there in his honour at a place called Va.n Kiếp, which was later renamed Kiếp Ba. c. As time passed, certain stories and legends emerged about Trần Hưng Đa. o in this area. This information was eventually recorded in the second half of the eighteenth century in a text called the Supplementary Compilation of Notes Made at Leisure (Công dư tiệp ký tuc biên), a work which was assembled by a man named Trần Quý Nha, and in a history compiled by Ngô Thì Sĩ entitled Model Cases from Việt History (Việt sử tiêu án). According to Ngô Thì Sĩ, at some point prior to Trần Hưng Đa. o’s birth, a woman in Hải Dương Province, who was the wife of a merchant from Fujian Province in China, dreamt that she had relations with a dragon sprite and that her son would create troubles for the Southern Kingdom. The Thearch (Đế) heard of this and ordered a green immortal boy to descend to earth to control him. The future mother of Trần Hưng Đao then dreamed one night of a boy wearing a green robe who threw himself into her embrace. She woke up after this and subsequently found that she was pregnant. As for the woman who was married to the Fujianese merchant, she also became pregnant and gave birth to a son who did indeed eventually cause trouble for the kingdom. According to Ngô Thì Sĩ, his name was Nguyễn Bá Linh and he served as a general for the invading Yuan army. However, he was captured and killed by Trần Hưng Đa.o. After Nguyễn Bá Linh died, he transformed into a demon (tuy. ). If women came into contact with this demon they would become ill. This was referred to as ‘Pham Nhan’, and the only cure for this illness was to obtain and lie on a mat from the shrine to Trần Hưng Đao’s spirit. Once a woman had done so, the demon that was ailing her would depart. Trần Quý Nha’s account, meanwhile, states that Nguyễn Bá Linh’s father was from Guangdong Province. It relates further that Nguyễn Bá Linh passed the exam to become a presented scholar (tiến s˜ı) under the Yuan Dynasty. Adept at using talismans, Nguyễn Bá Linh entered the Yuan royal palace to cure illnesses. While there he would engage in intercourse with the palace women. He was caught and was set to be executed for this, but was pardoned on the condition that he help guide the Yuan in their attack on the South. He was captured, and when Trần Hưng Đa. o was about to give him his punishment, Nguyễn Bá Linh taunted Trần Hưng Đa. o by asking what he would give him to eat. Trần Hưng Đa.o angrily responded that Nguyễn Bá Linh could eat the blood of pregnant women. Then, apparently, after he died his spirit travelled around the land and would step on pregnant women, making them incurably ill. Eventually, however, a cure for this illness was discovered. It required that someone visit Trần Hưng Đao’s shrine, exchange a new mat for an old mat at the shrine, and then lie on the old mat. If a woman did this, she would be cured of this ailment.31 Even though Pha.m Nhan was a demon, there was seemingly a shrine dedicated to him. Trần Quý Nha lamented that this ‘licentious shrine’ (dâm từ) had been in existence for 500 years and that no one had destroyed it.32 However, he did not say anything critical about Trần Hưng Đao’s spirit. Neither did literati who recorded information about this cult in the nineteenth century. One nineteenth-century writer even commented positively on Trần Hưng Đao’s power as a spirit by noting that while various members of the Trần royal family had become spirits after death, Trần Hưng Đao’s spirit was the most potent. This literati attributed such potency to the fact that Trần Hưng Đao had been so loyal and filial when he was alive. Indeed, not only did literati not condemn Trần Hưng Đa. o’s cult, there is evidence that they participated in it as well. In his Random Writings amidst the Rains (V˜u trung tùy bút), the famous early nineteenth[1]century scholar-official Pha.m Đình Hổ offered an example of this in an account about an official by the name of Hoàng Bình Chính, a man who passed the exam to become a presented scholar in 1775 and eventually served as a scholar in the Hàn Lâm Academy, an office that provided literary services to the court. Hoàng Bình Chính was thus highly educated and a member of the elite. He also saw people in his dreams. In particular, for a period of time Hoàng Bình Chính often dreamed of a beautiful woman dressed like an imperial maiden who would regularly come, and they would enjoy themselves together just like a husband and wife. At first he suspected that this was a demon, but as time passed and he remained healthy and there were no problems in his daily life, he no longer found it strange. Not long after this, however, Hoàng Bình Chính’s wife became ill. Her illness worsened and abated at random as if something was possessing her. Hoàng Bình Chính sent someone to Va.n Kiếp to make entreaties at the shrine to Trần Hưng Đao and to obtain a mat from inside the shrine to place on the wife’s bed. Her illness then slightly dissipated. But a short while later it went back to the way it had been before. Hoàng Bình Chính then dreamt at night that the beautiful woman said, ‘I am not demonic (tuy. ) to people, so what can King Hưng Đa.o do to me?’35 The story then goes on to cover issues unrelated to Trần Hưng Đa.o’s spirit. What is significant, however, is that it indicates that even high-ranking government officials were aware of, and believed in the effectiveness of, his cult. We can gain an even stronger sense of this in the postscript to a text which was compiled in 1851. Called the Documentary Traces of Va. n Linh Shrine in Kiếp Bắc (Kiếp Bắc Va n Linh từ điển tích), this text gathered together information about Trần Hưng Đao’s life and military exploits. It contains a postscript which was written by a certain Pham Vo.ng, who at the time was assistant prefect under the provincial administration commission of Nam Đinh Province. Pham Vong records that in the years immediately prior to writing his postscript he was nearing 50 and still did not have a son. This was cause for worry. As it happened, a group of doctors visited him and told him that they worshipped the ‘venerable spirit’ (tôn thần), meaning the spirit of Trần Hưng Đao, and that they wished to build a new shrine, but were not sure how to do so. While the text does not make this point explicit, perhaps these were doctors whom Pham Vo.ng had previously visited in regard to the fertility problems that he and his wife were facing. In any case, Pham Vong reported the doctors’ wish to one of his superiors, the governor general of Nam Đinh and Hưng Yên provinces, Đặng Vann Hoà. Governor General Hoà responded positively that ‘Great King Tran is an orthodox spirit of the Southern Kingdom. From the past to the present he has truly served as a model for the people and officials.’ He also stated that it had long been his wish, too, to construct such a shrine, and now he suggested that they find an appropriate site on high and dry ground to do so.36 The shrine was built in Đông Mặc Commune, M˜y Lộc District, Nam Đi.nh Province. After it was completed Pham Vo.ng and some of the shrine’s other devotees went to the main shrine dedicated to Trần Hưng Đa.o in Va.n Kiếp in 1849 to bring back a name tablet to venerate. During this trip, Pha.m Vo.ng secretly made an entreaty to the spirit of Trần Hưng Đa. o that his wife become pregnant. After reciting this entreaty, Pha.m Vo.ng saw an immediate response in the smoke from the incense there in the temple. A month later, Pha.m Vo.ng’s wife did indeed become pregnant. The following year Vo.ng took up a post in a different location. On the occasion of the anniversary of the death of Trần Hưng Đa.o, he visited the new shrine. Heavy rains forced him to spend the night there, during which time he had a vision in his dream in which Trần Hưng Đao handed him a piece of yellow paper with the characters ‘trần’ and ‘khanh’ written on it. The following month Pham Vong’s wife gave birth to a son, and they named him Trần Khanh. Pham Vong then noted in his concluding remarks in his postscript that he was over 50 and now had a son to whom he could entrust the family’s poetry and writings, and who could take responsibility for maintaining the worship of the family’s ancestors. All of this, Pham Vo.ng felt, had been bestowed upon him by the spirit of Trần Hưng Đao. This was a gift which Pham Vong knew he could never repay. Nonetheless, he recorded this information in an attempt to at least repay a tiny fraction of what he had gained by spreading news of the spirit of Trần Hưng Đao’s great deeds.

                                                                 LIAM C. KELLEY

 Department of History, University of Hawai‘i at Manoa, United States of America 

Email: liam@hawaii.edu