Ly Long Tuong

Who is Ly Long Tuong?

Lý Long Tường was a prince of the Ly Dynasty of Dai Viet and later became Lee of Hwasan, a general of Korea. He is an ancestor of one branch of the Lee family today in both South and North Korea.

Tuong was born in 1174, the seventh son of Emperor Ly Anh Tong and his consort Le My Nga. He was appointed the Great National Tutor.

In 1225, Tran Thu Do overthrew the Ly Dynasty by introducing his nephew Tran Canh to the imperial court to serve the incumbent Empress Ly Chieu Hoang, he then orchestrated a political marriage between Tran Canh and Ly Chieu Hoang and thereafter forced Ly Chieu Hoang to abdicate in favour of her husband Tran Canh. This marked the end of the Ly Dynasty and the beginning of the Tran Dynasty. With the Tran family having just gained the throne, Tran Thu Do ordered the massacre of the Ly family members and forced all of its descendants to change their surname to Nguyen, and sent them to the northern mountainous areas.