Emperor Le Tuc Tong

Emperor Lê Hiến Tông once praised his third son as one who loved the Thi and the Thư, and who gave his whole heart to respecting his parents. The studious boy's birth name was Lê Thuần. Later generations call him Emperor Lê Túc Tông.

A father stands quietly on the veranda, looking into the house. Inside, a boy bends over a page, reading in a low voice, one finger following each line of writing. What the father sees has nothing to do with the boy's walk or his strength. He watches how gently the boy handles a book, and how politely he bows to his elders.

The house also held older brothers. Yet the emperor chose this third son to take the throne after him. It was not because the boy was born first, and not because he was stronger than the others. It was because of his heart. He was gentle, he loved learning, and he knew how to honor those above him and give way to those below.

Thi and Thư are the names of old books that teach people what is right, how to live honestly and how to care for others. A child who bends his head over such pages tends to keep a kind heart as he grows. The watchful father read all this early, from nothing more than the way his son sat with a book.

Then the day came. In 1504, the boy who loved books became emperor. He gave his reign a fine name, Thái Trinh. The quiet boy at his pages now carried a whole country on his shoulders, and all the lives that looked to him.

A high seat makes it easy to forget small things. But the kind heart of the boy with the book was still whole in this young emperor. He began to use it to do good for his people.

He let some of the people of the palace go home, to their parents and to their own fields and gardens. He went over the spending and dropped whatever was not truly needed, so that the people's strength would not be wasted. He eased the heavy labor that ordinary families had to carry. He lightened the taxes and the tribute as well, so that every household suffered a little less.

Each of these acts took a weight off someone's shoulders. One person got to visit home. One basket of rice stayed in the family bin. One day of hard labor became lighter. These things sound small, yet to ordinary people they meant a great deal of warmth.

His thoughts did not stop at the people outside the palace. He kept beside him the officials who already had long experience and understood the work of the country, so that they could help him care for everyone under his rule. When a ruler prizes good people like this, the work of the country is looked after with more care.

The histories written later praise him as a man who devoted himself to learning, kept company with the wise and good, and took pleasure in doing good. That praise fits the boy of long ago, bent over his book on the veranda. The studious child grew up true to his own heart and became a gentle emperor who wanted only to do good for all his people.

Long ago, on a veranda, a father stood quietly and smiled, because he saw that his son loved to read and knew how to care for others.