Empress Duong Van Nga

In the palace at Hoa Lư, more than 1,000 years ago, a heavy robe lay folded on a stand. It was embroidered with golden dragons. This was the dragon robe, a garment meant for an emperor alone. One day a woman lifted it with her own hands and laid it across the shoulders of a general, so that together they could hold the country.

That woman was Dương Vân Nga.

She lived in Hoa Lư, in what is now Ninh Binh. She was an empress, the wife of Emperor Đinh Tiên Hoàng. He had founded the country of Đại Cồ Việt. The capital lay among limestone mountains, with rivers curving past like ribbons of silk. In the palace, the empress was raising a very small son.

Then a great blow struck her family. The emperor died. The court raised their son, Đinh Toàn, to the throne, but the boy was only six years old. A child of six could hardly carry the work of a whole country.

So Dương Vân Nga, his mother, was named Empress Dowager and took charge of the country's affairs in her son's place. That was the year 979.

Holding a country was no easy task. In the north, the Song was preparing to send its army south. The Song was the dynasty then ruling China. Bad news came one report after another. The emperor was a child, and people were anxious. The country needed someone steady, someone skilled at leading troops.

At court there was a gifted general named Lê Hoàn. The soldiers trusted him, and the people looked to him. Everyone understood that against the great army now approaching, the country needed a leader like him.

Then came the moment on which the whole story turns.

As the old account tells it, in the middle of an anxious court she had the dragon robe brought out. It was so heavy it weighed down both her arms. Before many eyes she raised it and placed it on the shoulders of Lê Hoàn, raising him to the throne so that he could lead the army in defending the land. Here was a mother who chose a man of talent for the sake of the people, her son and the mountains and rivers, and who put the country above everything.

With a steady commander, the whole country came together. People worked side by side to defend it, and the land came safely through the storm. The general became Emperor Lê Đại Hành. And the mother, who had held her child in her arms while the enemy drew near, had kept a country for him.

To honor that service, in 982 Emperor Lê Đại Hành gave her the title of Empress Đại Thắng Minh. Đại Thắng Minh means a great and shining victory. In those days people took the name of a victory itself and placed it on her, as a word of thanks to a woman of great strength.

History also gives her a very particular name: the empress of two dynasties. She had been empress to two emperors in turn, Đinh Tiên Hoàng and then Lê Đại Hành. Across the long story of Vietnam, few women have lived a life so unusual.

Later generations remember her not for a high throne, and not for a fine robe, but for her heart. At the hardest time, with her son still small and the enemy near, she chose what was best for the country. They remember her as a brave mother who wanted her child to grow up in a peaceful land.

Today in Hoa Lư, Ninh Binh, people still worship her in old temples, where incense smoke drifts warmly all year round. And the picture they keep is of an empress long ago, lifting a dragon robe in both hands. She lays the weight of the country on the shoulders of a gifted man, so that those who came after could live in peace.