Hiển Khánh Vương


Hiển Khánh Vương was the father of Lý Thái Tổ. Very little is known about him, as not much was recorded about him historically; even his real name remains unknown.

Biography

The paternal lineage of Lý Thái Tổ was not prominently recorded in Vietnamese official history. Little was known about his father other than that he was of Fujian extraction. According to Dream Pool Essays by Shen Kuo, Lý Thái Tổ was "a man of Fujian extraction".
According to Vietnamese legend, Lý Thái Tổ had no biological father. His mother, Phạm Thị, dreamed of copulating with a Taoist immortal. Phạm became pregnant and later gave birth to Lý Thái Tổ at Cổ Pháp Pagoda. At the age of 3, Phạm brought him back to the pagoda. Lý Khánh Văn, head monk of the pagoda, adopted him and named him Lý Công Uẩn.
After Lý Công Uẩn became emperor, he granted his father the title Hiển Khánh vương posthumously.

Modern research

Chinese-Vietnamese historian Li Taishan discovered a record in the genealogy of the Li clan of Anhai which showed that the father of Lý Công Uẩn was Li Chun'an. Historical sources disagree on whether Li Chun'an's wife Phạm Thị Ngà gave birth to Lý Công Uẩn in Fujian or Jiaozhi.
Li Chun'an was said to be the first of two sons of Li Song. After Li Song was falsely accused and executed in 948 during the Later Han dynasty, Li Chun'an escaped to Quanzhou which was then controlled by the warlord Liu Congxiao.
He resettled in the Li Family village in Anhai, Quanzhou and became a Water mid Land Transport Commissioner at some point. Some time later, he deserted his official post to escape from an unspecified danger, and traveled by South China Sea to Jiaozhi, Champa and Khmer Empire for business, spending the most time in Jiaozhi. He fathered several children, including Lý Công Uẩn who would later become the founding emperor of the Lý dynasty.

Family