He was born in 1174, the seventh son of Emperor Lý Anh Tông (who reigned from 1138 to 1175) and his consort Lê Mỹ Nga.
[2] In 1226, (Kiến Trung's year of the Second Trần dynasty of Thái Tông), in order to avoid further bloodshed by the Trần family,[3] Lý Long Tường, together with 6000 mandarins and servants departed from the Thần Phù (now Thanh Hóa Province) estuary and fled to the South China Sea in three large ships.
Legend has it that the Korean king Gojong of Goryeo (1192–1259) had dreamt of a grand phoenix flying from the south and landing in his nation.
Therefore, he ordered the local government of Hae-ju to give the Vietnamese royal refugees a red-carpeted welcome and allow them to live in a manor in his country.
The troops, using the waterways, attacked Hwang-hae but were defeated by the army and the local inhabitants led by Ly Long Tuong.
Lý Long Tường, although by then over 70 years old, led the army and the local inhabitants to victory after a five-month campaign.
[5] At the end of 1995, a report on Lý Long Tường was broadcast by South Korean TV channel KBS.