According to the text in the Complete Annals of Đại Việt, Hồ claimed descent from the Hồ clan which originated from Zhejiang, and later migrated south to Annam under Hồ's ancestor Hồ Hưng Dật 胡興逸, before settling in Thanh Hóa. Hồ Quý Ly also made claims that his family was descended from Duke Hu, the founder of Chen, along with the Hồ's being descendants of Shun of Yu 虞舜, which was the reason Hồ immediately changed the name of his country from Đại Việt to Đại Ngu 大虞, using 虞 as a reference to Shun's fiefdom of Yu. Hồ Quý Ly was born in 1336 at Đại Lại village, Vĩnh Ninh district, Ái Châu, Thanh Đô town with aristocracy's standing. His birth name was birth name Lê Quý Ly, courtesy nameLý Nguyên or Nhất Nguyên, owed to the fact that he was adopted by Lê Huan, after whom he took the family name. It was not until Hồ Quý Ly deposed of the last Trần emperor that he reverted his family name of Hồ.
Throne
In 1400, Hồ Quý Ly dethroned the last Trần emperor and declared himself emperor, establishing the Hồ dynasty and renaming the country from Đại Việt to Đại Ngu. During his reign, he made several significant economic and administrative reforms. In 1396, he enacted a law issuing paper money instead of minting bronze coins but failed, mostly because of the lack in credibility in paper money as it was easy to duplicate at that time. In 1397, he began to work on land reform policies, limiting the area of land to be owned by aristocrats, mandarins and landlords to 10 acres for each household. He also ordered standardisation of measurement methods, imperial examination reforms and promote the use of Nom script as official writing system instead of Han script. In 1401, he abdicated in favor of his second son Hồ Hán Thương. In accordance with the former Trần dynasty's tradition, Hồ Quý Ly styled himself as Emperor Emeritus and still possessed much power over state affairs. From 1400 to 1403, Hồ Quý Ly and his son, Hồ Hán Thương sent three expeditions against Champa. The first and third expeditions ended with Champa's defensive victory; however the second one resulted in the Champa King Jaya Simhavarman V relinquishing southern Quảng Nam and northern Quảng Ngãi to the Hồ dynasty. In 1407, Hồ Quý Ly failed to rally his subjects in the war of resistance against a huge invasion by the Ming Yongle Emperor's forces. He was captured by Ming forces in Thiên Cầm cave and was exiled to China. He was forced to enlist in the Ming army as a common soldier. It is not clear when he died. His son, Hồ Hán Thương, and grandson, Hồ Nhuế, also died in Chinese exile.
Hồ Quý Ly has been a subject of controversial debates among Vietnamese historians, some scholars highly value his radical thoughts and reformation, while others regard him as an usurper. He ordered the construction of a citadel in Thanh Hóa Province. The remnants of this citadel are included in UNESCO's list of World Heritage Sites.
