Emperor Le Trung Tong

In Hoa Lư, mist still lay cold on the stone railings. A small boy stood by the palace steps and pressed his palm to the wet stone. Then he looked up at the ring of mountains around the capital. He was Lê Long Việt, a son of Emperor Lê Đại Hành. The land was so beautiful that it left a person speechless, and it was his home.

Lê Long Việt was born in 983, in the very heart of the Hoa Lư capital. History also knows him as Lê Trung Tông. His father was Emperor Lê Đại Hành, whom the old histories usually call Lê Hoàn. Earlier, in 980, the emperor had founded the Former Lê dynasty. It kept the name Đại Cồ Việt, which means the great Việt country. It also made Hoa Lư its capital.

The boy grew up in that capital, loved and trusted by his father. In 989, while he was still very small, the emperor named him Prince of Nam Phong. For people of that age, a title was more than a rank. It was a way of placing hope in someone. The emperor looked at this child and saw a part of the family's future.

Then a great sorrow came to the palace. The eldest son had been chosen as crown prince, the one who would inherit the throne. He died young. A gap opened at court and in the emperor's heart, and nothing could fill it.

A father had just lost the son in whom he had placed all his hopes. The emperor let his eyes move slowly and quietly over his sons. They came to rest on Lê Long Việt, the third son. He chose the boy as crown prince, the one who would carry the country in the years ahead.

That country was no light burden. The Former Lê dynasty stood on the ground of Hoa Lư, a capital that had been the heart of a whole nation. There the emperor and his officials talked over the affairs of state. There the people plowed their fields, built their houses and raised their children. One day all of it would rest on the shoulders of the boy who had pressed his hand to the wet stone at dawn.

This is what makes the story warm. In the middle of loss, the emperor still believed that this child was gentle and steady enough to guard what the family had built. It was a father's heart, given wholly to his son.

Today that land belongs to Ninh Binh, inside the Tràng An scenic area. Limestone mountains rise above the river and show their reflections in it. Stone steps lie where people of long ago once walked. In the early mist, one can almost see a small hand resting on the wet stone.

More than a thousand years ago, a young prince looked up at these same cliffs and grew up in his father's love. The mountains are still there, and so is the river. The story of a father's faith in his son still lingers in the morning mist of Hoa Lư.