Lê Thánh Tông

Lê Thánh Tông (* 1442 , † 1497 , real name Lê Tư Thành ) was the fifth emperor of the Lê dynasty . His rule from 1460 to 1497 is often seen as the heyday of Confucian governance and statecraft. After a period of weak rulers, he reformed the imperial court, administration and education of the country. He also distinguished himself as a great promoter of Confucian scholarship and statehood. Militarily, his reign brought a gain in territory in the south at the expense of the Champa .

origin

Lê Thánh Tông was the fourth and youngest son of the emperor Lê Thái Tông . His father died a few days after he was born. He was first brought up at court with his brothers. His mother fled to the country with him for fear of intrigues at court.

After the palace revolt and regicide by Lê Nghi Dân , he was put on the throne by the magnates Le Xi and Le Liet in 1430 after they had overthrown the usurper.

Domination

Lê Thánh Tông reorganized the imperial court. Instead of power groups held together by family ties, he built an efficient bureaucracy of Confucian scholars to conduct state affairs. Up to 3,000 scholars were employed at the court. The day at court was strictly organized and consultations with top officials or military leaders followed fixed rules and a formalized procedure. Following the Chinese model, he divided the state apparatus into six ministries (rites, war, justice, home affairs, public works and finance). To each of these ministries he set up a smaller department that was supposed to function as the ministry's auditing body. The pay of civil servants was strictly regulated and the performance was repeatedly re-evaluated. The staffing of the state offices, which previously often served to balance power groups, he completely attracted and did not tolerate any public discussion. Lê Thánh Tông wrote poems and two books himself; these have not been preserved. Under his aegis, the scholar Ngô Sĩ Liên wrote a revised overall history of the Vietnamese which first mentions the Hung Dynasty, which he dated before the first Chinese dynasty.

His economic policy, like that of the founder of the dynasty Lê L Seinei, was aimed at increasing production by promoting the smallholders who farm the land themselves. For this purpose, the system of communal land use and distribution was further expanded and formalized by the village communities responsible for the central state under his aegis. He reformed the judiciary by issuing a formalized criminal and civil code. This comprised six volumes with a total of 721 articles. This legal code is called the Hong Duc Codex after the era of the emperor . The code was based on the ideas of Confucianism supplemented by already practiced Vietnamese customary law. It remained in force until the reforms of Gia Long in the early nineteenth century with changes. To strengthen Confucian culture, he limited the construction of Buddhist and Daoist temples, which he saw as an obstacle to the rational administration of the country. He enacted his official religious pluralism in worship and public rite.

Under his aegis, the Vietnamese state expanded militarily. In the south they gained a new province (to the previous twelve) at the expense of the Champa. Here he relied on a daring military plan. His main army marched along the coast. One wing was at sea on ships to land in the rear of the enemy. The other wing advanced through the mountainous region to thwart ambushes. The resulting military victory brought the Cham king captive and Vietnam territorial gains. The new province was covered with military colonies. The imperial government used the province to concentrate inefficient dignitaries and people groups considered to be disloyal; this resulted in administratively ordered mass deportations from Cham and Laotians. Luang Prabang was captured in a campaign against Laos , but no territory was gained. An army of the emperor marched to the border with Myanmar and southern China. The military expeditions also served to employ the military elite from Thanh-Hoa, who had brought the Lê dynasty to power and who had previously dominated the court. Lê Thánh Tông also restricted the power of military leaders through the statutory primacy of civil servants and the fact that officers were prohibited from trading.

Lê Thánh Tông died of an illness at the age of 55. Contemporaries suspected a venereal disease caused by one of his numerous sexual relationships. Heir to the throne was his 36-year-old son Lê Hiến Tông .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} K. W. Taylor: A History of the Vietnamese. Cambridge, 2013 pp. 205-222
2. ^ William J. Duiker, Bruce Lockhart: Historical Dictionary of Vietnam , Lanham, 2006, pp. 169f, pp. 210f