Mongol Invasions of Dai Viet (1258-1288): Tran Hung Dao

The Mongol invasions of Dai Viet were three attempts, in 1258, 1285 and 1287-1288, by the Mongol Empire and its Chinese Yuan dynasty to bring the kingdom of Dai Viet in what is now northern Vietnam under their control. Each invasion took the capital Thang Long (modern Hanoi), and each ended in retreat. The defence, led in the later wars by Prince Tran Hung Dao and crowned by the river ambush at Bach Dang in 1288, became one of the founding stories of Vietnamese national identity.

Background: the Tran dynasty and the Mongol advance

In the 13th century Dai Viet was ruled by the Tran dynasty, which had replaced the Ly dynasty in 1225. The kingdom occupied the Red River delta and the coastal plains to its south, with the kingdom of Champa further down the coast.

The Mongols reached Dai Viet’s borders after conquering the kingdom of Dali in Yunnan in 1253-1254. The Mongol general Uriyangkhadai, son of the famous commander Subutai, was ordered to secure the south-western flank of the planned war against the Song dynasty of China. He sent envoys to Thang Long demanding submission. The Tran court imprisoned them.

The first invasion (1257-1258)

At the end of 1257 Uriyangkhadai led an army from Yunnan down the Red River valley. In January 1258 his troops, including mounted archers, defeated the Tran army near the border and advanced on Thang Long. King Tran Thai Tong evacuated the city, and the Mongols found it largely empty, together with their envoys, at least one of whom had died in captivity.

The Mongols stayed only a short time. Tropical heat, disease and a lack of supplies weakened them, and the Tran regrouped and counterattacked at Dong Bo Dau, close to the capital. Uriyangkhadai withdrew to Yunnan. The Vietnamese chronicles credit the regent Tran Thu Do with steadying the court at the darkest moment, telling the king not to fear while his own head was still on his shoulders.

Both sides then preferred a compromise. Dai Viet agreed to send tribute every three years, and the Mongols, now focused on China, accepted a nominal submission.

Kublai Khan’s demands and the second invasion (1285)

After Kublai Khan became Great Khan in 1260 and proclaimed the Yuan dynasty in 1271, his demands grew. He asked the Tran ruler to come to his court in person, send royal hostages, provide census registers and accept a Mongol resident official. Kings Tran Thanh Tong and Tran Nhan Tong politely refused most of these terms.

In 1282-1283 a Yuan fleet under the general Sogetu attacked Champa, which resisted fiercely. Kublai then demanded passage through Dai Viet to supply this campaign. When this was refused, he sent a large army under his son Toghon, who crossed the northern border in early 1285 while Sogetu pushed north from Champa.

The size of the Yuan force is uncertain. Vietnamese chronicles speak of 500,000 men, a figure modern historians regard as a great exaggeration; the true number was probably a large fraction of that, with tens of thousands of combat troops. According to tradition, King Tran Nhan Tong’s father, the retired king Tran Thanh Tong, summoned village elders to the Dien Hong conference and asked whether to fight or submit; they called for war. Soldiers tattooed the words “Sat That” (“Kill the Tatars”) on their arms.

Tran Hung Dao, born Tran Quoc Tuan and a nephew of the dynasty’s first king Tran Thai Tong, was made supreme commander. Faced with a stronger enemy, he gave up the capital again and withdrew to the coast. When the invaders were worn down by heat and short of food, the Tran struck back in May and June 1285, winning battles at Ham Tu, Chuong Duong and Tay Ket. Sogetu was killed and Toghon fled north. A captured Tran general, Tran Binh Trong, is remembered for refusing a Mongol title before his execution, saying, in the chronicles’ account, that he would rather be a ghost of the South than a prince of the North.

The third invasion and Bach Dang (1287-1288)

Kublai cancelled a planned new attack on Japan in order to try again in Vietnam. At the end of 1287 Toghon invaded once more, supported by a fleet under Omar (Wu Ma’er in Chinese sources) and a convoy of supply ships. Early in 1288 the general Tran Khanh Du destroyed the supply fleet at Van Don, in the islands of what is now Quang Ninh province.

Toghon again occupied an abandoned Thang Long but, without supplies, decided to retreat. The army went overland towards Lang Son, while Omar’s fleet sailed down the Bach Dang River towards the sea. Tran Hung Dao repeated the stratagem that Ngo Quyen had used against a Chinese fleet in the Battle of Bach Dang (938). Iron-tipped wooden stakes were driven into the riverbed and hidden at high tide.

In April 1288 light Vietnamese boats drew the Yuan ships into the estuary as the tide turned. Stranded and impaled on the stakes, the fleet was attacked from the banks and the river. Most of the ships were destroyed or captured, and Omar and other commanders were taken prisoner. Toghon’s land army was harried all the way back to the border.

Key people

• Tran Hung Dao (c. 1228-1300): prince and commander-in-chief, author of a famous “Proclamation to the Officers” urging resistance, and of military writings now lost or surviving only in part.
• Tran Nhan Tong (1258-1308): king during the second and third invasions; he later abdicated, became a monk and founded the Truc Lam school of Vietnamese Zen Buddhism.
• Kublai Khan (1215-1294): Mongol Great Khan and Yuan emperor who ordered the second and third invasions.
• Toghon: Kublai’s son, commander of the 1285 and 1287-1288 campaigns; after the defeat of 1288 Kublai banished him to Yangzhou.
• Uriyangkhadai: Mongol general who led the first invasion from Yunnan.

Consequences

Kublai planned a fourth invasion, but it was abandoned after his death in 1294. The Tran court, wishing to avoid further war, continued to send tribute missions, and the Yuan accepted this arrangement. Dai Viet remained independent.

The wars also affected the wider region. Together with the failed Mongol invasions of Japan (1274 and 1281), the defeats in Vietnam marked the limits of Yuan sea power and of the Mongol cavalry’s effectiveness in the humid south. Champa, which had resisted the Yuan as well, drew closer to Dai Viet for a time.

Legacy

Tran Hung Dao is one of Vietnam’s most honoured figures. He is worshipped at temples such as Kiep Bac, near Chi Linh in northern Vietnam, and streets, schools and naval units bear his name. The stakes of Bach Dang have been excavated in the area of Quang Yen, and remains are displayed in Vietnamese museums.

The wars became a model in later Vietnamese thinking about resisting stronger invaders: give up territory, preserve the army, strike at supply lines and wait for the enemy to weaken. Twentieth-century leaders repeatedly cited the Tran example.

Timeline

• 1257, December: Uriyangkhadai invades from Yunnan.
• 1258, January: Mongols defeat the Tran army and occupy Thang Long, then withdraw after a Tran counterattack.
• 1271: Kublai Khan proclaims the Yuan dynasty.
• 1282-1283: Yuan fleet under Sogetu attacks Champa.
• 1285, early in the year: Toghon invades Dai Viet; Thang Long is abandoned.
• 1285, May-June: Tran counteroffensive; Sogetu killed and Toghon retreats.
• 1287, December: third invasion begins.
• 1288, early in the year: Tran Khanh Du destroys the Yuan supply fleet at Van Don.
• 1288, April: Battle of Bach Dang; the Yuan fleet is destroyed.
• 1294: Death of Kublai Khan; the planned fourth invasion is dropped.

Why it matters

Dai Viet was one of the few states to defeat the Mongols repeatedly. Its victory preserved Vietnamese independence, set the limits of Yuan expansion in Southeast Asia and gave Vietnam an enduring national hero in Tran Hung Dao.