Princess An Tu

More than 700 years ago, enemy soldiers closed in around Thăng Long on every side. Thăng Long is the city now called Hanoi. Lamps in the city burned all night, and people worked and worried, hoping only to hold on to each day as it came. In those heavy days, a gentle princess of the Trần dynasty quietly took on the hardest task of all. The Trần dynasty ruled Vietnam from 1225 to 1400. The princess was called An Tư.

An Tư was the youngest daughter of Emperor Trần Thái Tông, the first emperor of the dynasty. She was the younger sister of Emperor Trần Thánh Tông, and the aunt of Emperor Trần Nhân Tông. Born in the palace, she might have lived a calm and quiet life among its familiar roofs.

The hard year was 1285. The Yuan Mongol army had marched down from the north once more. The Yuan were the Mongol dynasty then ruling China. The man leading the siege of Thăng Long was an enemy general named Thoát Hoan. As the ring around the city tightened, the Trần soldiers and people needed more time to put their forces in order.

At that moment, the court thought of a way to slow the enemy's advance. A history called the Đại Việt Sử Ký Toàn Thư records it. It is the oldest complete official history of Vietnam that survives. It says the court sent Princess An Tư to the enemy general Thoát Hoan. This was a diplomatic step, a skillful way of dealing with the enemy, meant to win a little precious time for the soldiers and people.

She was a gentle princess, used to the quiet life of the palace, and now she took on a very hard duty without a word. She went not for herself but for the safety of a whole country. She carried no sword and rode into no battle, yet what she did took great courage.

Courage is not always loud. Sometimes it lives in the beat of war drums and in the stride of a charge. Sometimes it lives in a sacrifice made in silence. One person carries the hardest part so that others can be a little safer. An Tư was a person like that.

In that precious time, the Trần soldiers and people managed to put their ranks in order. After the hard days, they won their country back. The enemy general Thoát Hoan had to flee north. The land returned to peaceful days, and the countryside heard laughter again.

The history books do not record what became of An Tư after that year. The people of old did not write down how she lived on. Some people are like that. They do one great thing in silence, and then slip into the haze of time.

One thing remains and has never faded: her courage, and the heart she put into the peace of her homeland. She is remembered as a gentle princess who quietly carried a hard task for the whole country, with a courage that was soft, deep and lasting.