[1][2] It was the Emperor Thái Tông who commissioned Lê Văn Hưu to compile the official historical text of the Trần dynasty named Đại Việt sử ký.
[11] The new Đại Việt sử ký of Phan Phu Tiên supplemented the period from 1223 with the coronation of Trần Thái Tông to 1427 and with the retreat of the Ming dynasty after the victory of Lê Lợi.
[11] Afterwards, the historian Ngô Sĩ Liên based on the works of Lê Văn Hưu and Phan Phu Tiên to write his essential book the Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư which was compiled in 6 volumes and finished in 1479.
[6] Since the original version of the Đại Việt sử ký was absorbed in the works of Phan Phu Tiên and Ngô Sĩ Liên, it is difficult to distinguish which part was written by Lê Văn Hưu and which ones were compiled by the others.
They only know that Lê Văn Hưu chose the foundation of the Kingdom of Nam Việt (南越) in 207 BC by Triệu Đà as the starting point for the history of Vietnam and finished his work with the reign of Lý Chiêu Hoàng from 1224 to 1225.
[11][12] The only original contents of the Đại Việt sử ký which still remained in other books were Lê Văn Hưu's 30 comments on various events in history of Vietnam:[13] They [ Trưng Sisters ] proclaimed themselves queens as easily as turning over their hands, which shows that our land of Viet was able to establish a royal tradition.
[45] During the period of compilation, Lê Văn Hưu had chance to witness one of the principal events of the Trần dynasty which was the war of resistance of Đại Việt against the second and third Mongol invasions.