Background

Dụ Tông was born in 1336 as Trần Hạo, the tenth son of the Senior Emperor Minh Tông and Queen Hiến Từ. In 1341, the reigning Emperor Hiến Tông died at the age of only 23 without an heir. Trần Hiến Tông was the son of one of Minh Tông's concubines, but he was designed as emperor because the official queen of Minh Tông, Hiến Từ, had not given birth to any male child yet. However, by the time of Hiến Tông's death, the Senior Emperor had had with the Senior Queen Hiến Từ two sons: Trần Dục (Prince Cung Túc) and Trần Hạo. Hạo was only five years old at that time, but the Senior Emperor passed the throne to him. The reason for this particular decision is that Minh Tông thought that Prince Cung Túc was too extravagant to run the country.

As emperor

Thiệu Phong era

From 1341 to his death in 1357, the Senior Emperor Minh Tông acted as a regent for his son Dụ Tông, who thus reigned only in name. According to Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư, the young Emperor Dụ Tông was very intelligent and was completely focused on managing both civil and military matters of Đại Việt. For that reason, Dụ Tông in his first era Thiệu Phong (1341–1357) was well respected in the royal court even if it was the Senior Emperor who ruled the country. In 1349 Dụ Tông entitled a daughter of Prince Huệ Túc Trần Đại Niên as his queen, and she became Queen Nghi Thánh. However, historical books recorded that the Emperor was impotent and that he was only cured after many unusual treatments including using medicine made from a killed young boy and incest with Dụ Tông's own sister, princess Thiên Ninh.

In this era, the royal court of Trần Dynasty began to face troubles such as the death of several important and experienced mandarins, the failure of some military campaigns against Lan Xang and Champa and the proliferation of many natural disasters in Đại Việt. For only a short period, Đại Việt suffered many disasters, which caused a time of economic dearth and ignited several revolts against the royal court. A temporary peace was only re-established when Trương Hán Siêu, a capable mandarin, was appointed to restore order in regions affected by unrest.

In 1353, Minh Tong attempted an expedition against the Champa king Tra Hoa Bo De in support of Che Mo's claim to the throne as the son of Che Anan. The expedition was aborted and Che Mo died soon after.

Đại Trị era

After the death of Minh Tông in 1357, Dụ Tông ascended to the throne and he decided to change the era from Thiệu Phong to Đại Trị (1358–1369). With the death of a capable ruler like Minh Tông, the royal court led by Dụ Tông began to fall into chaos, especially as several able officials such as Nguyễn Trung Ngạn and Trương Hán Siêu died while others such as Chu Văn An became discontented. After the Emperor's refusal of his famous Thất trảm sớ (Petition of beheading seven corrupt officials), Chu Văn An decided to leave the royal court, which was now full of corrupt mandarins and bad cohorts.

At that time, the situation in China was very complicated with the struggle between Zhu Yuanzhang and Chen Youliang, both of whom tried to mobilise support from Đại Việt. However, Dụ Tông maintained a neutral attitude to concentrate his army along the southern border against Champa. Despite his effort, Champa's forces still posed concerns for Đại Việt's border and launched several skirmishes while many revolts were taking place and causing diversions in Đại Việt.

While being modest and diligent under the regency of Minh Tông, the independent reign of Emperor Dụ Tông saw extravagant spending on the building of several luxurious palaces and other pleasurely indulgences. Dụ Tông introduced theatre, which was considered at the time to be a shameful pleasure, in the royal court. Hierarchy and order were completely discarded by the Emperor, and he had the princes and princesses of the royal family do trivial tasks such as folding paper fans in the market. During official audiences, when Dụ Tông felt happy, he would step off the throne to dance with his ministers. One time, the Emperor was so drunk that he fell into a pool of water and caught a disease that was only cured after a long period of treatment. The Emperor died on 25 May of the Lunar calendar, 1369, at the age of 33 following a reign of twenty-eight years. He did not have any posthumous name and was buried in Phụ Tomb.

Family and succession

Dụ Tông had ten wife, Queen Nghi Thánh, who was daughter of the Prince Huệ Túc Trần Đại Niên. Being impotent, Dụ Tông had no son of his own and before his death, he issued an edict that the throne would be passed to Dương Nhật Lễ despite the fact that his appointee was not from Trần clan while the royal family still had several capable princes available for the position. This decision of Dụ Tông was heavily criticized by imperial historians because it broke the normal protocol for succession and heralded the start of a chaotic period of the Trần Dynasty.

背景

陳裕宗為陳明宗第十子，為憲慈皇后所生。1341年，陳憲宗逝世，沒有嗣子。太上皇決定立自己的小兒子陳暭為帝，而不是嫡長子恭肅王陳元昱。據說這是因為太上皇認為陳元昱過於奢侈，不宜繼承國統的緣故。

即位為王

太上皇執政時期

1341年至1357年之間，陳朝的政權一直由太上皇陳明宗把持著。1349年，裕宗冊立平章惠肅王第四女懿慈公主為儀聖皇后。

在這段時期裡，陳朝的重要文臣武將相繼去世，天災不斷發生。天災導致了越南朝廷的財政窘迫和農民起義的爆發。張漢超奉命鎮壓了這些叛亂，在叛亂地區重建了朝廷的權威，但僅僅只得到了短期的和平。與此同時，哀牢、占城趁機入侵越南。

親政時期

1357年，太上皇陳明宗逝世，裕宗開始親政，更元大治。這時期陳朝皇室陷入了混亂之中，賢臣阮忠彥、張漢超相繼逝世。朱文安不滿於裕宗的昏亂，上《七斬疏》，請求裕宗將七位佞臣處斬，但未被採納。朱文安等賢臣辭官退隱，此後陳朝朝政由佞臣把持，官員也越來越腐敗。

此時中國正處於元末明初時期，局勢複雜多變，朱元璋和陳友諒爭奪權力，雙方都希望越南出兵支持自己。然而陳裕宗卻保持了中立。裕宗將軍隊集中於南方以對抗占城。雖然如此，占城依然趁越南農民起義爆發之機多次入侵越南。越南朝廷不得不將伐占的軍隊調回國中去鎮壓這些農民起義。

明宗在位和執政期間勤勤勉勉、日理萬機。而裕宗親政的時候則將大量的經費花在了建造華麗宮殿、園林等娛樂的地方。裕宗還將戲劇引進了皇宮，而這為當時陳朝皇室所不齒。裕宗完全置封建等級制度於不顧，他脅迫皇子、公主們做平民的事情，諸如在集市中折紙扇等。在上朝期間，如果陳裕宗高興，他會走下寶座與群臣一起手舞足蹈。一次，裕宗大醉，跌入水池之中，因此得病，經過一段很長的時間才治癒。

1369年，陳裕宗逝世，年僅34歲。葬於阜陵，廟號裕宗，沒有諡號。

嗣君

陳裕宗沒有兒子。在裕宗臨終之前，他指定皇位由兄長陳元昱的養子陳日禮繼承。陳日禮並無陳朝皇室血統，而當時陳朝皇室依然眾多。陳裕宗的這一舉動完全顛覆了封建觀念，為後世的眾多史官所批評。陳日禮即位後改姓為「楊」，對陳朝皇室進行了迫害，從此以後，陳朝皇室陷入了混亂之中。