There is a novel about Ly Cong Uan.

(Baonghean) -That is the book Le Trieu Ly Thi by Pham Minh Kien, published in 1931 in the South. Before that, there was no novel about Ly Cong Uan, so Le Trieu Ly Thi is considered the first novel, and Pham Minh Kien is the first Vietnamese novelist to write about the enlightened king who founded the Ly dynasty, opening a long period of peace and prosperity for Dai Viet.

Under the pen name Duong Tuan Anh, Tuan Anh, he also left sharp articles in the newspapers Nong Co Min Dam, Luc Tinh Tan Van, Dong Phap Thoi Bao, Nam Ky Kinh Te Bao... and was considered a great journalist in the country's journalism industry at that time.

Among the historical novels mentioned above, Le Dynasty Ly Thi is an excellent work about Ly Cong Uan. The novel successfully depicts the life, morality, and career of an ideal king as conceived by the Vietnamese.

Cong Uan was born into a poor family, his mother named Cuc Hoa was an orphan, she worked for Tien Son pagoda. One night, Cuc Hoa dreamed of a monk on the mountain giving her a peach, she respectfully accepted it and ate it, when she woke up she found herself pregnant. There was a poor farmer named Ly Ky Xuan who was also an orphan, he worked for hire during the day and slept in the pagoda at night, Ky Xuan fell in love with Cuc Hoa, the two became husband and wife. Seeing Cuc Hoa's belly getting bigger and bigger, the abbot of the pagoda knew about the matter and thought that the two were doing something unclean in the Buddhist monastery so he expelled them both from the pagoda. The two wandered to an abandoned house, next to the house was a well, while Ky Xuan was drawing water to drink, he accidentally slipped and fell into the well, Cuc Hoa had not yet jumped in to save him when the landslide suddenly buried the well. Thinking of the child in her womb, not daring to commit suicide, Cuc Hoa knelt down and cried by the well, bowed to Ky Xuan three times and then left.

The abbot of Ung Tam pagoda dreamed that the Dragon God told him: Tomorrow the king will come to visit the pagoda. The monk waited all day but did not see the king. At dusk, he saw a hungry and pregnant woman come to the pagoda and ask to stay overnight. At the third watch of that night, Cuc Hoa went into labor and gave birth to a handsome baby boy. Around the baby boy was a halo as bright as the sun. After giving birth, she passed away due to postpartum complications. The abbot held the baby and saw the two hands with the words "mountains and rivers" and "country and land", he happily named the baby Hoang Tri.

Growing up in the temple, Hoang Tri was smart, bright, and mischievous. The offering cake to the Dragon God was taken by an uncle and eaten. The Dragon God told the abbot, but the monk scolded him and wrote on the Dragon God's back the four words "Liu tam thien ly" (Exiled three thousand miles). That night, the monk dreamed of the Dragon God coming to complain about being exiled three thousand miles by the Emperor, asking the monk to ask the Emperor for a general pardon. In the morning, the monk asked someone to wipe the four words on the Dragon God's back, but they could not be removed. The monk had to ask Hoang Tri, the boy used a wet towel to wipe it clean.

Master Van Hanh from Tien Son pagoda came to visit, the abbot of Ung Tam pagoda let Hoang Tri follow him to learn martial arts scriptures. After a while, Master Van Hanh transferred Hoang Tri to Master Ly Khanh Van (a cousin of the abbot of Co Phap pagoda) to teach. Master Ly Khanh Van adopted Hoang Tri and named him Ly Cong Uan. Little Uan's first achievement was killing a fierce snake to save innocent people. After Master Khanh Van passed away, little Uan began his life of chivalry and made friends with heroes, defeating a group of robbers led by Tan Manh Duy and Dao Quy when they intended to rob a house of a man named Vien Ngoai. But this was a group of robbers with an ideal - "rob the rich and give to the poor", so Ly Cong Uan accepted to be sworn brothers with the owner of the mountain camp, and at the same time received the wife of the man's daughter, Tran Bach Loan. Later, Ly Cong Uan killed the corrupt district chief to save innocent people from his clutches. On the way, after defeating a group of bandits, Ly Cong Uan made friends with a bandit named Chau Phuoc Nghia. Encountering a group of Nung bandits who were bullying a good girl, Ly Cong Uan killed the leader and saved the girl. When asked, he learned that she was Xuan Kieu, the daughter of an honest mandarin whom he had known before. He took her to his uncle's house in Thai Nguyen. At night, sleeping in a temple by the roadside, he dreamed of meeting a god. The god gave him three pills to take to cure all his accidents, and also gave him a book of Heaven to use as a treasure. The god also told him that Xuan Kieu was the one who would tie the knot with him. On the way, Ly Cong Uan killed a fierce tiger and saved the Minister of War, Dao Cam Moc. Thanks to that, he and his sworn brothers were recruited by Cam Moc to follow him to fight the southern invaders to help King Le Dai Hanh.

Ly Cong Uan was offered a set of armor and a silver helmet, a heavy stick weighing eighty or ninety pounds that had just been dug up by a local, and was told: Tomorrow you will meet someone who needs these things. Ly Cong Uan wholeheartedly supported Lord Le Dai Hanh: defeated the southern enemy, Lu Tri Vien, then led Thien Oai cave, saved Princess Lien Hoa, sister of King Le Dai Hanh. Returning victorious, Ly Cong Uan was given the title of Duke of the Left Royal Guard, Commander of the Grand Marshal, General of the Nation's Military, and was given his sister in marriage by King Le Dai Hanh. Ly Cong Uan requested to take two wives who had been previously engaged: Tran Bach Loan, daughter of the Grand Master, and Xuan Kieu - the woman he had rescued and brought to his uncle's house in Thai Nguyen.

King Le Dai Hanh passed away, Crown Prince Trung Ton ascended the throne. Trung Ton was killed by his younger brother Long Dinh. Long Dinh was extremely cruel and debauched, and died after two years as king. Ly Cong Uan returned to mourn, and upon arriving at the city, he was hailed by the high-ranking mandarins Dao Cam Moc, Pham Cu Luong, and all the civil and military mandarins as long-lived, asking Cong Uan to become king to bring peace to the world. Cong Uan refused and ascended the throne, calling himself Ly Thai To. The king was grateful for his kindness and expanded the country, "from now on, the four seas were calm, and no more storms broke the country's borders."

Le Trieu Ly Thi is written in the Chinese chapter novel genre. The story is fascinating from beginning to end with many intertwined characters, many forces fighting each other, continuous conflicts, one story follows another; there are good people being harmed, lonely people being exiled, faithful women in trouble; there are rescues and helpers (fighting robbers, killing wild animals, pacifying border bandits...). It is mainly a fictional historical novel, based only on a few pages about Ly Cong Uan in the historical books Dai Viet Su Ky, Dai Nam Thuc Luc Tien Bien, Viet Nam Su Luoc and biographies of famous people such as Nam Hai Di Nhan by Phan Ke Binh, the fictional nature of the novel overwhelms the historical accuracy. It can be said that Le Trieu Ly Thi is "two parts real, eight parts fictional". Thanks to its fictional nature, the work vividly depicts the image of the wise king Ly Cong Uan, who experienced many storms, made many achievements, ascended the throne, opened a period of long-lasting peace and prosperity, and laid a solid foundation for building a powerful and civilized country in the Southern sky. The story was written in the simple, strong voice of the common people of the South, evoking the previous literary work Luc Van Tien by Do Chieu, the novels of Ho Bieu Chanh, Tran Chanh Chieu, Nguyen Chanh Sat... of the same period.

The fact that Pham Minh Kien and some other Southern writers of the same period wrote novels about national history is a special phenomenon, different from the previous literary tradition. In Southern literature from the 19th century onwards, the awareness of national unity was very strong but the inspiration about national origins was still faint. Meanwhile, people saw that national history before the Nguyen Dynasty was mentioned a lot in the works of Central and Northern authors such as: Cao Ba Quat, Pham Van Nghi, Nguyen Xuan On, Nguyen Quang Bich, Phan Dinh Phung, Chu Manh Trinh... Therefore, the fact that Southern writers from the 20s of the 20th century onwards wrote a lot about national history is a new and interesting phenomenon. When writing about national history, the writers were very aware that their job was to popularize national history to the people, thereby fostering patriotism and national pride. In the preface to the novel Le Dynasty Ly Thi Pham Minh Kien wrote: The fascinating story of Ly Cong Uan is no different from Trieu Khuong Dan in China: Trieu Khuong Dan was embroidered, decorated, and arranged into a very long story and play to make his name and reputation valuable; but our Ly Cong Uan was buried deep in the national history chest.

In short, at the beginning of the last century, Southern writers took themes inspired by national history, which showed a strong change in the writers' thoughts. Behind the seemingly entertaining literature was a very high consciousness, a passionate love for the origin and national unity. That was also one of the important contributions of Southern historical novelists to national thought and literature. Among the historical novelists of the same period who left their mark on the literary world, Writer and Journalist Pham Minh Kien holds the most important position in the hearts of readers.

Mai Thach Anh (Collected and compiled)