Long Đĩnh took the throne with the reigning name Khai Thiên Ứng Vận Thánh Văn Thần Vũ Tắc Thiên Sùng Đạo Đại Thắng Minh Quang Hiếu Hoàng đế (開天應運聖文神武則天崇道大勝明光孝皇帝) and gave the title Hưng Quốc Quảng Thánh Hoàng Thái Hậu (興國廣聖皇太后) to his mother. Career Foreign relations After news of the death of Emperor Lê Đại Hành in China, Song dynasty mandarins urged the Song emperor Taizong to dispatch forces to invade Đại Cồ Việt. However, Taizong chose to respect the tributary status that Đại Cồ Việt had paid with respect to the Song empire, and he left Vietnam alone. Some trading activities were even allowed to occur between the borders of both nations. Sponsorship of Buddhism and education In spring 1007, Lê Long Đĩnh ordered his brother to gift a white pangolin (or white rhinoceros) as a gift to the Song dynasty in exchange for Buddhist sutras to be sent to Vietnam. In Vietnamese Buddhism, records of Zen Buddhist Thích Mật Thể, the 14th year of Ứng Thiên era (1008), Vietnam sent the envoy to Song to pay tribute and asked for taking nine classics and sutra to Vietnam. The Song emperor approved the request and gave the requested works to the Vietnamese ambassador. The nine classics included I Ching, Classic of Poetry, Book of Documents, Book of Rites, Spring and Autumn Annals, Classic of Filial Piety, Analects, and Mencius. These were the nine classics of Chinese civilization that first came to Vietnam under the reign of Lê Long Đĩnh. Dispute Tyrannical and brutal reign According to the Complete annals of Đại Việt, Lê Long Đĩnh was one of the most brutal and sadistic rulers during Vietnam's dynastic era. His reign was considered a reign of terror at the time. He is comparable to the Roman emperors Caligula and Commodus in their traits of excess cruelty and paranoia. Some of the acts of cruelty that he committed were: He often executed innocent people who were condemned to death for entertaining purposes by some frightful ways such as tying them with hay to burn to death or ordering an executioner called Liêu Thủ Tâm (廖守心) from Great Song to gradually mutilate victims to death slowly using dull bladed swords and axes. When the victims cried out in agony, this executioner would manipulate the victims into thinking they were not dying. The emperor was said to have delighted in the deaths