After 175 years of domination, Tran Dynasty fell into recession. Early 1428, Le Loi raised up Lam Son movement and after a nine-year fight against the Minh invader reached successes by campaign to liberate Dong Quan. On April 29, 1428, Le Loi enthroned king and restored the official name of Dai Viet and set up the capital at Thang Long.
From early the 15th century, the Confucianism advanced towards the unique position to serve the centralized feudal regime which was developing strongly at that time, but the Buddhism and Taoism were still maintained to protect the ruling position of the feudal class.
According to Musician Do Nhuan, Le Thanh Tong King was expert in and venerated the Confucianism’s philosophy: “Regarding to the philosophy, the king is perspicacious in complicated reasoning and has a clear understanding about sophisticated meaning”. Le Thanh Tong thought that “The religion is a natural mater and the reason is the obvious reason (It means that reason causes things– the world), the mysterious magic hard to be seen.” (Annals Sdd, volume 2, page 466). The religion is the rule of things that human reason can recognize. The reason is a mysterious spiritual factor which is the source of all things. This is thought of idealistic philosophy of the Confucianism. The history was developed and was the most important part of social sciences and humanity of the Le Dynasty.
With the spirit “Literature-History- Philosophy, closed relation”, most of officials said that founders of dynasties and the intellectual circle recorded the history and narrated their voices and actions to transmit them to their descendants.
The first history book was compiled in the Later Le Dynasty, named Lam Son royal annals (Lam Son thuc luc)by Nguyen Trai. In 1455, Le Nhan Tong asked Phan Phu Tien to compile Supplementary Edition of the Annals of Dai Viet (Dai Viet Su Ky Tuc Bien) of Le Van Huu in the Tran Dynasty. The book comprised 10 volumes, recording the history from Tran Thai Tong (1225-1257) to the Minh invader expelled out of the country. In 1479, Historian Ngo Si Lien complied the Supplementary Edition of the Annals of Dai Viet (Dai Viet Su Ky Toan Thu) under the requirement.
Historically, Supplementary Edition of the Annals of Dai Viet collected and expressed documents about Vietnamese history during a long time from founding the country to the early 15th century systematically.
During the history of the Vietnamese monarchic system, the Later Le Dynasty was the wholly-dominated period of Confucianism and Le Thanh Tong King was an outstanding Confucianist. Using the history as a spiritual tool to consolidate and encourage the national spirit is a tradition of Confucianism. For Kings in the Later Le Dynasty, particularly King Le Thanh Tong, it affirmed power of Dai Viet in the frequent confrontation against the Minh invader’s monarchy in the North and the inevitable victory over Chiem Thanh in the South along with Bon Man and Ai Lao in the West.
History in the Later Le Dynasty fulfilled its task: making a remarkable contribution to encouraging the national spirit and strengthening the solidarity from the court and the grassroots. This laid a foundation for the entire science and education sector to build Dai Viet become a strong nation in the Southeast Asian region in the second half of the 15th century. In the 15th Hong Duc year (1484), the first time in the system of former competition-examinations of Confucianism, from At Mao examination 1075 from this time, Le Thanh Tong set up doctor stele at Thang Long Temple of Literature. Such steles encouraged candidates who read up the Chinese classics and history, racing for noble titles. Currently, vestiges of these are still left as evidences of a prosperous past of the feudal education.
Further development of history
Between the 16th and 18th century, the educational and cultural life of Le-Trinh Dynasty developed remarkably. A history book written in poems appeared this period. It was Thien Nam Ngu Luc which included over 8,000 lines of six-eight meter poems. Unification Records of the Imperial Le (Hoang Le Nhat Thong Tri) and Unification Records of An Nam (An Nam Nhat Thong Tri) of Ngo Thi Chi and writers from the Ngo family recorded affairs from Trinh Sam Dynasty to the failure of Trinh Dynasty (1787). The workers were written following the form of tales of the Three Kingdoms with seven stages and a continuation version of nine following stages, recording affairs from the time when Le Chieu Thong sought China’s Thanh Dynasty’s help and many activities of Tay Son Dynasty.
