Emperor Ho Quy Ly

A banknote lies in the hand, thin and light, made of paper. A white cloud drifts across it. Another shows rolling waves. A third carries a turtle moving slowly, and a fourth, a phoenix with its wings spread. More than 600 years ago, a ruler of Vietnam thought up these notes, as lovely as paintings. His name was Hồ Quý Ly.

Hồ Quý Ly loved to think up new things. In his time, people bought and sold with metal coins, heavy and hard to carry. He looked at this familiar thing and wondered whether there might be a lighter way to carry money.

Then he did something no one had done before. In 1396, he had the first paper banknotes in the country issued. The new money was called Thông bảo hội sao. It was the first time in the nation's history that people used money made of paper instead of cast metal coins.

The most delightful part was that each kind of note carried its own picture. The one-tiền note showed clouds. The 30-dong note showed waves on the water. The two-tiền note showed a turtle. The five-tiền note showed a phoenix. Each note was like a small painting, carrying the clouds of the sky, the rivers and the sea, and the creatures that live in old tales.

But coins and paper were not his only concern. He also loved learning. He encouraged everyone to study hard, and he had more schools opened in the phủ and the châu. Those were the regions of that age, much like the regions of today. In this way he meant for children everywhere, not only in the capital, to have a place to learn their letters.

He also did something that few earlier rulers had thought of. He held up Nôm, the script that writes down the everyday speech of the Vietnamese people. He was among the first rulers to honor Nôm in this way. To him, the speech of his people deserved to be written down, kept, and taught to children and grandchildren.

He was a tireless ruler who dreamed of making his country better. He liked to try new ways, from the note in a villager's hand to the school roof over a child's head.

Hồ Quý Ly left one more work, built of stone, that amazes people of later ages. In 1397, he had a great citadel built at Vĩnh Lộc, in Thanh Hóa. It was called Tây Đô, and today it is known as Thành Nhà Hồ, the Citadel of the Hồ Dynasty. What makes it special is that it was raised from enormous blocks of stone, fitted tightly one upon another, solid through many seasons of rain and sun.

The blocks are so large that a person standing at the foot of the wall and looking up can hardly picture how people long ago moved and stacked them. Over more than six centuries, wind has blown, rain has fallen and grass and trees have grown around the walls. Still the stone stands, quietly telling the story of a time long gone.

Because of this rare beauty and strength, the citadel became known to the whole world. On June 27, 2011, UNESCO inscribed it as a World Cultural Heritage site. The stone citadel of Emperor Hồ Quý Ly has been a pride shared by the whole country from that day on.

At Vĩnh Lộc, the slabs of the old citadel gate are cool under a hand laid on them. White clouds drift in the sky, and birds fly across it. It is easy to think of an emperor who loved new ideas, the man who drew clouds, waves and a phoenix on the first paper money of his country.