1228–1300 (exact dates unknown)
Trần Hưng Đạo, birth name Trần Quốc Tuấn, also Hưng Đạo Vương
Trần Hưng Đạo · 越南
13th-century Vietnamese Trần dynasty commander, the military leader who twice defeated Mongol–Yuan invasions.
His birth year has two accounts, 1228 and 1229, marked "uncertain"; he was of Trần royal lineage, son of Trần Liễu. In the early 1280s he became commander of the whole country's armies, and facing Kublai Khan's great army he adopted a strategy of scorched earth, guerrilla harassment, and avoiding the enemy's strength, retaking Thăng Long (now Hanoi) in 1285; when Yuan forces invaded again in 1287, he lured the enemy deep, and in 1288 at the Bạch Đằng River used pre-planted underwater iron-tipped stakes and a pincer attack at low tide to crush the Yuan fleet, capturing its chief commander. After the war he wrote military treatises, and died in 1300 at Vạn Kiếp (now around Hải Dương Province), posthumously titled Hưng Đạo the Great King, later revered by the people as a saint.
People & stories
Places in their life
Place of activity and burial Vạn Kiếp (Kiếp Bạc, now Hải Dương Province); battle.
People
Cultural significance
A national hero in Vietnamese hearts and a model of military leadership; the Bạch Đằng stake tactic and the "whole people's resistance" narrative are core chapters in Vietnamese history education; his temples are found throughout Vietnam, and his death anniversary is marked by sacrificial ceremonies.