Ly Thai Tong

李太宗李佛瑪

emperor
officials

Lý Thái Tông was the posthumous title of Lý Phật Mã, emperor of the Lý dynasty of Đại Việt from 1028 to 1054.

Career

During his reign, he built the basic bureaucratic infrastructure for the dynasty and was considered one of the greatest kings and emperors in Vietnamese history. Later, he personally led an army to defeat yet another unsatisfied brother. When his rule became more secure, Thái Tông started to demonstrate his unconventional style of governing.

He promoted one of his favorite concubines to royal status.

He rejected his officials” advice and plowed the land himself during the spring plowing ceremony. In 1039, Thái Tông had a serious discussion with his official about whether a good government depended upon strong personal leadership or a sophisticated institution.

In the end, he accepted his officials” opinion and started to reform the government. One of those reforms was to reorganize the royal family and make it into a parallel of the government, which was a bureaucratic system.

Another significant reform was the publication of a new law, which replaced the old law that was either copied or borrowed from China”s Tang dynasty.

In 1044, Thái Tông with his army invaded Champa. The amount of the plunder was considerable. Starting around 1049, Thái Tông became less occupied with worldly affairs

He began to seek solutions of life through religion.

The succession went much smoother than the one in 1028 and proved the success of Thái Tông’s institutional reform.