The emperor-author: zen-monk and poet Tran Thai Tong (1218-1277)
* Correspondence: Nguyen Huu Son (email: 476_nguyenhuuson@gmail.com)
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Abstract
Tran Thai Tong (1218-1277) was the first king of the Tran Dynasty (12251400) and the first of what later to be called "author-emper", Zen-monk and poet. In the works of Tran Thai Tong we hear the bold imperial voice, and yet at the qisame time see how he lives in the realms of life and penetrates the realm of Zen meditation in order to be an emperor and also a monk. Going further, he widened an the boundaries of aesthetic ideas using the language of literature. His aim was to build the Dynasty on the foundations of Confucian institutions and by propagating Buddhism.