Prince Tran Quang Khai

An old story is still handed down about two great generals. Once, the story goes, one of them bent over a stove. With his own hands he boiled a pot of fragrant leaves, then gently bathed the other. They were two of the highest-ranking men at the royal court, yet they sat there as gentle as brothers at home. The man being bathed was Chiêu Minh Vương Trần Quang Khải. He was an official of the Trần dynasty, which ruled Vietnam from 1225 to 1400. He led armies well and wrote fine poems. Vietnamese has a warm four-word phrase for a man like that: văn võ song toàn. It means accomplished in both letters and arms. But to see why that small pot of water mattered so much, you first have to know who he was.

He was born in 1241, the third son of Emperor Trần Thái Tông. Under Emperor Trần Thánh Tông he received the princely title Chiêu Minh Vương. He later rose to Supreme General and Grand Preceptor, almost at the head of the whole court. Yet people remember him less for those titles than for the kind of man he was. In the morning he discussed affairs of state. By afternoon he could lead troops, and in quiet hours he sat down to write poems. Through those years he was a pillar at the emperor's side, a man who carried the weight of the country's great affairs.

Affairs of state were hard in those days. The Yuan armies came down from the north, powerful and vast. The Yuan were the Mongol dynasty then ruling China. At one point the capital, Thăng Long, fell into their hands. Thăng Long is the city now called Hanoi. Its streets went quiet, and people waited anxiously for the day they could return. The whole country joined together to defend its land, from the emperor down to ordinary people.

The year 1285 was such a year. That year, Trần Quang Khải led his troops to victory at the Chương Dương landing, a stretch of river near the capital. Shortly before, the army had also won a great battle at the Hàm Tử river mouth. The two victories came one after the other and worked together. They helped the soldiers and people of Đại Việt take back Thăng Long. Đại Việt is an old name for Vietnam.

What deserves remembering is not swords and spears but the courage and unity of soldiers and people. Because of them, he and everyone with him drove the Yuan armies out and returned the capital to Vietnamese hands. It is regarded as the greatest victory of its time.

The remarkable part comes next. After the victory, as he followed the emperor's carriage back to the capital, he did not write about battle or glory. He wrote a short poem called Tụng giá hoàn kinh sư, which means following the emperor's carriage back to the capital. The poem recalls the victories at Chương Dương and Hàm Tử, then closes with a very gentle message.

The message is simple. A general who had just won could have rested. Instead he was already thinking about tomorrow, about keeping the peace for the generations to come. It was the long view of a man who knew how to lead armies and how to write poems. That line would stay with the world for a very long time, longer than any war drum.

And what of the pot of fragrant water from the start of the story? Another great general of the Trần dynasty was Trần Hưng Đạo. Old histories say that at first, he and Trần Quang Khải kept some distance from each other within the royal family. But in time the two men chose to make peace with each other.

The tale is told this way. One day Trần Hưng Đạo boiled a pot of fragrant leaves himself and bathed Trần Quang Khải. They were two great generals of the same court, both of the highest rank. Yet one bent down to heat the water, and the other let himself be bathed. Trần Hưng Đạo said, "Today I have the honor of bathing the Supreme General." The other answered, "Today I have the honor of being bathed by the Grand Duke." In both sentences, each man put the other before himself. With one pot of fragrant water, all that distance drifted away like smoke.

From then on the two were close, united in serving the emperor and saving the country. Later generations have seen this as the key. The princes and nobles of the Trần dynasty could set aside private matters and stand together. Because of that, the soldiers and people of Đại Việt were strong enough to defeat a powerful army each time it came.

Trần Quang Khải died in 1294. He left later generations an example to follow, and a poem. That poem is still remembered today.

In classrooms and in books, people still read one line of it aloud: in times of peace we should strive all the harder, so that the land endures forever. More than 700 years have passed, and the line still sounds warm. Each time a child reads it again, the gentle advice of a poet general passes on once more to the generations to come: in times of peace we should strive all the harder, so that the land endures forever.