Rough Guide to Vietnam - Jan Dodd [334]
In the mid-third century BC a Chinese warlord conquered Van Lang to create a new kingdom, Au Lac, with its capital at Co Loa, near present-day Hanoi. For the first time the lowland Lac Viet and the hill peoples were united. After only fifty years, around 207 BC, Au Lac was itself invaded by a Chinese potentate and became part of Nam Viet (Southern Viet), an independent kingdom occupying much of southern China. For a while the Lac Viet were able to maintain their local traditions and an indigenous aristocracy. Then, in 111 BC the Han emperors annexed the whole Red River Delta and so began a thousand years of Chinese domination.
History |
Chinese rule
A millennium under Chinese rule had a profound effect on all aspects of Vietnamese life, notably the social and political spheres. With the introduction of Confucianism came the growth of a rigid, feudalistic hierarchy dominated by a mandarin class. This innately conservative elite ensured the long-term stability of an administrative system which continued to dominate Vietnamese society until well into the nineteenth century. The Chinese also introduced technological advances, such as writing, silk production and large-scale hydraulic works, while Mahayana Buddhism first entered Vietnam from China during the second century AD.
At the same time, however, the Viet people were forging their national identity in the continuous struggle to break free from their powerful northern neighbour; on at least three occasions the Vietnamese ousted their masters. The first and most celebrated of these short-lived independent kingdoms was established by the Trung sisters (Hai Ba Trung) in 40 AD. After the Chinese murdered Trung Trac’s husband, she and her sister rallied the local lords and peasant farmers in the first popular insurrection against foreign domination. The Chinese fled, leaving Trung Trac ruler of the territory from Hué to southern China until the Han emperor dispatched twenty thousand troops and a fleet of 2000 junks to quell the rebellion three years later. The sisters threw themselves into a river to escape capture, and the Chinese quickly set about removing the local lords. Though subsequent uprisings also failed, the sisters had demonstrated the fallibility of the Chinese and earned their place in Vietnam’s pantheon of heroes.
Over the following centuries Vietnam was drawn closer into the political and cultural realm of China. The seventh and eighth centuries were particularly bleak as the powerful Tang Dynasty tightened its grip on the province it called Annam, or the “Pacified South”. As soon as the dynasty collapsed in the early tenth century a series of major rebellions broke out, culminating in the battle of the Bach Dang River in 938 AD (See "The battles of Bach Dang River"). Ngo Quyen declared himself ruler of Nam Viet and set up court at the historic citadel of Co Loa, heralding what was to be nearly ten centuries of Vietnamese independence.
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History | Chinese rule |
Funan and Champa
While China has always exerted a strong influence over north Vietnam, in the south it was initially the Indian civilization that dominated, though as a cultural influence rather than as a ruling power. From the first century AD Indian traders sailing east towards China established Hindu enclaves along the southern coast of Indochina. The largest and most important of these city-states was Funan, based on a port city called Oc Eo, near present-day Rach Gia in the Mekong Delta (See "Oc Eo and the Funan Empire"). By the early third century, Funan had developed into a powerful trading nation with links extending as far