The Prophecy of the Lý Founder

Text

Vạn Hạnh served as advisor to the courts of Đinh and Tiền Lê. When the power of the Tiền Lê dynasty was failing, Vạn Hạnh said to the general Lý Công Uẩn: 'The omens all point toward you. But kingship is not a prize to seek — it is a burden that falls upon the one who cannot refuse it. Act only when it is undeniable. Do not seize; receive.' Lý Công Uẩn said: 'I am a soldier, not a king.' Vạn Hạnh said: 'A soldier who knows this is already the king that is needed.' When Lý Công Uẩn was crowned and founded the Lý dynasty in 1009, he named Vạn Hạnh as the spiritual father of the new realm. The master replied that the realm and the dharma were one realm and one dharma, indistinguishable at their root.

license: public_domain

Attribution

• Speaker
  Vạn Hạnh

Lineage: Thiền

By Vạn Hạnh

• On the Impermanence of Dynastiesverse
• The Illusory Nature of Powersermon

Sources

• contentCuong Tu Nguyen — medieval Vietnamese Buddhism scholarship

  Cuong Tu Nguyen

  Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư (Complete Annals of Đại Việt), Bản kỷ, Vol. 2, on the founding of the Lý dynasty; Thiền Uyển Tập Anh, Vạn Hạnh section; after Cuong Tu Nguyen (1997), pp. 44–58

  Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư (Complete Annals of Đại Việt): The Prophecy of the Lý Founder