The royal edict on the transfer of the capital of Thăng Long in the year 1010

January 15, 2010 10:12 AM GMT+7

In the 10th year of the 21st century, Hà Nội will celebrate its millennium. It was in the year 1010 that King Lý Thái Tổ, the founder of the first lasting national dynasty (Lý), decided to transfer the old capital at Hoa Lư to Thăng Long, the present capital. Before the transfer he took the advice of his courtiers in an edict:

“In the old days, the Shang Dynasty, up to the reign of Ban Qing, changed its capital five times, and the Zhou Dynasty, up to the reign of Cheng Wang, three times.

Could it be that those kings of the period of the Three Dynasties, when moving their capital in this way, had obeyed an unjustifiable whim?

No, they had simply wanted to choose a center favorable to the edification of an immense undertaking for ten thousand generations to come.

Bowing to the will of Heaven and meeting the aspirations of the people, they moved their capital whenever they deemed it necessary, thus ensuring the country’s density, its wealth and prosperity.

In 1010, King Lý Thái Tổ decided to move the ancient capital in the mountainous area of Hoa Lư (left) to Thăng Long, present-day Hà Nội (right: West Lake).

On the contrary, because such is their will and pleasure, the two dynasties of the Đinh and the Lê chose to ignore the will of Heaven and did not follow the example set by the Zhou. Obstinately they stayed in this place. Their dynasties were short lived, their fates precarious. The common people were ruined while untold resources remained unused. I suffered greatly from that and am compelled to move the capital to another place. The more so since Đại La, the former capital of His Highness Kao, is located in the heartland of our country. Its location evokes the image of a coiled-up dragon, a squatting tiger. It is situated at an equal distance of the four points of the compass and corresponds to a favorable orientation of the mounts and rivers.

There, the site is sufficiently vast and level, the grounds sufficiently raised and well exposed. The population is protected against floods and river spates, its economy is well developed and prosperous. It is the most beautiful site where are assembled men and resources coming from the four points of the compass; it also makes an excellent capital for a royal dynasty over ten thousand generations. I, therefore, wish to benefit from this favorable location and to move there the capital.

What do you think of that decision, you members of my court?”

COMMENTARY

This text, which dates back to the beginning of the 11^th century, and is classed among the most ancient written documents of Việt Nam, was written in Chinese ideograms (Han), the Chinese script being then used in the Far East for official, educational and literary writings as was Latin in Europe in the Middle Ages. That script was the only one used in Việt Nam for more than twenty centuries, not only under Chinese rule but also in the period of independent national dynasties (10^th to 19h centuries). Only in the 20^th century was it replaced by French (colonial period: 1884-1945) and the Vietnamese Romanized script (officially starting with the 1945 Revolution).

Let us put that document into the historical context. The Việt national and cultural identity was formed in the first millennium B.C. with the bronze culture. The first Vietnamese State established its capital at Bạch Hạc, the apex of the deltaic triangle of the Red River on the demarcation line between the hilly uplands and the swampy, barely cultivated lowlands. The second State moved its capital to the plain, already grown with rice, to Cổ Loa (18 kilometers from present-day Hà Nội). Then came a 1000-year period of Chinese rule; imperial proconsuls first established their administrative seat north of present-day Hà Nội in Luy Lâu and Long Biên before building the citadel of Đại La in the 9^th century on the site of the present capital. Meanwhile, the heads of victorious insurrections against the Chinese were able to stay in power only for brief periods; they preferred to install their headquarters in their native regions with the exception of Lý Nam Đế (6^th century) who took Hà Nội (then Long Biên) as the capital of his short-lived kingdom.

The Chinese yoke was broken in the 10^th century. The capital was established at Cổ Loa by the liberating Ngô Dynasty which ended in anarchy. Order was restored by King Đinh Tiên Hoàng who for the sake of better defense installed the capital at Hoa Lư in a hilly region. The following dynasty stayed there.

It was Lý Thái Tổ who was credited with having asserted the location of Hà Nội to be the country’s capital. His voice was no doubt dictated by the geopolitical conjuncture. For several decades Việt Nam had had time to remake the apprenticeship of independence. The central power having been consolidated, economic and cultural conditions made it possible to build a prosperous and powerful kingdom which, indeed, was to enjoy great prestige in Southeast Asia over four centuries. The capital had to be moved to a site favorable to these prospects.

Hà Nội obviously seemed to fit that role. A glance at the map shows that all the waterways (and the mountain ranges) converge on Hà Nội and continue to the sea like the fingers of the hand. Both river and land routes are the most favorable. Protected on its northern flank against possible invasions by mountain ranges, the city easily communicates with the sea and overseas cultures; plains and mountains meet there.

Of course, in the time of Lý Thái Tổ, geopolitical reasons vindicating the choice of Hà Nội as capital were left rather than analyzed. The king was obeying two imperative cultural commands: the Confucian nation of “heavenly mandate” (Thiên Mệnh) and the principles of geomancy.

“Lý Thái Tổ reproached the Đinh and Lê dynasties, his predecessors, with having disobeyed the law of heaven by persisting in staying in Hoa Lư, a place not easily accessible. An unjust reproach, for they were compelled to act as they did by reason of security. As for him, he could allow himself to move the capital away in order to “follow the will of Heaven” and the “aspirations of the people”.

Once the decision was taken, has had to conform to the rules of geomancy. The capital would be located “in the head land of the country. Its position evokes that of a coiled-up dragon, a squatting tiger. It is situated at an equal distance of the four points of the compass and corresponds to favorable orientation of mountains and rivers, which would ensure a royal dynasty lasting ten thousand generations”.

This text indicates the ambiguous character of the old relations between Việt Nam and China, which were governed by the dialectical play of repulsion and attraction. On the one hand, the Vietnamese repulsed all that emanated from the hereditary invader; on the other hand, they were attracted by a richer culture which often served as a model. Thus, Lý Thái Tổ cited the examples set by Chinese dynasties (Shang, Zhou, the Three Dynasties) and honored the memory of the proconsul Kao Pen.

The king called his capital Thăng Long the “Soaring Dragon”, showing that he remained deeply Việt, for the Việt were believed to descend from the union of a Dragon and a Fairy. The mythical animal was thought to bring rain to the rice fields. It represented royalty and nobility.

Thăng Long or Long Thành (the Dragon City) has been called since 1831, in the reign of the Nguyễn Dynasty which fixed its capital in Huế, Hà Nội again has resumed the status of capital since the Revolution of 1945.