Vietnam under Chinese rule
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Vietnam under Chinese ruleorBắc thuộc( bắc chúc, lit. "belonging to the north" )[1][2](111 BC–939, 1407–1428) refers to four historical periods when several portions of modern-day Northern Vietnam was under the rule of variousChinese dynasties.Bắc thuộcin Vietnamese historiography is traditionally considered to have started in 111 BC, when theHan dynastyconqueredNanyue(Vietnamese "Nam Việt" ) and lasted until 939, when theNgô dynastywas founded. A fourth, relatively brief, 20-year rule by theMing dynastyduring the 15th century is usually excluded by historians in their discussion of the main, almost continuous, period of Chinese rule from 111 BC to 939 AD. Historians such asKeith W. Taylor,Catherine Churchman, and Jaymin Kim assert these periods and stereotypes enveloped the narrative as modern constructs, however, and critique they being served for various nationalist and irredentist causes inChina,Vietnam,and other countries. Museums in Vietnam often completely omit periods of Chinese rule, skipping over large periods of its own history.[3][4]
Geographical extent and impact
[edit]The four periods of Chinese rule did not correspond to the modern borders of Vietnam, but were mainly limited to the area around theRed River Deltaand adjacent areas. During the first three periods of Chinese rule, the pre-Sinitic indigenous culture was centered in the northern part of modern Vietnam, in the alluvial deltas of theHong,CảandMã Rivers.[5][6]Ten centuries of Chinese rule left a substantial genetic footprint, with settlement by large numbers of ethnicHan,[7][8]while opening up Vietnam for trade and cultural exchange.[9]
Elements ofChinese culturesuch as language, religion, art, and way of life constituted an important component of traditional Vietnamese culture until modernity. This cultural affiliation with China remained true even when Vietnam was militarily defending itself against attempted invasions, such as against theYuan dynasty.Chinese charactersremained the official script of Vietnam untilFrench colonizationin the 20th century, despite the rise in vernacularchữ Nômliterature in the aftermath of the expulsion of the Ming.[10]
Historiography
[edit]French historiography
[edit]The historiography of Vietnam under Chinese rule has had substantial influence from French colonial scholarship and Vietnamese postcolonial national history writing. During the 19th century, the French promoted the view that Vietnam had little of its own culture and borrowed it almost entirely from China. They did this to justify European colonial rule in Vietnam. By portraying the Vietnamese as merely borrowers of civilization, the French situated themselves in a historical paradigm of bringing civilization to a backwards region of the world. French scholar Leonard Aurousseau argued that not only did Vietnam borrow culturally and politically from China, the population of Vietnam was also directly the result of migration from the state ofYuein China. This line of thought was followed by Joseph Buttinger, who authored the first English language history book on Vietnamese history. He believed that to fight off the Chinese, the Vietnamese had to become like the Chinese.[11]
Vietnamese national historiography
[edit]Another narrative, the national school of Vietnamese history, portrays the period in "a militant, nationalistic, and very contemporary vision through which emerged a hypothetical substratum of an original Vietnam that was miraculously preserved throughout a millennium of the Chinese presence."[11]The national Vietnamese narrative depicts the Chinese as a corrupt and profit-driven people and merely the first of the foreign colonizing empires that were eventually driven from Vietnam. According to Catherine Churchman, this is not an entirely new historical tradition but a rewriting or updating of it, and has roots inDai Viet,which portrayed itself as the Southern Empire equal to the Northern Empire (China). Dai Viet literati of theTrầnandLêdynasties sought an ancient origin for their autonomy prior to Chinese rule and traced their genealogy toTriệu Đàor the semi-legendaryHồng Bàng dynasty.They recorded that the Northern Empire suffered defeat for not respecting these views. However, scholars such as Nhi Hoang Thuc Nguyen argue that "the trope of a small country consistently repelling the China’s cultural force is a recent, postcolonial, mid-20th-century construction".[12][13]Works by Japanese scholars in the 1970s as well as in the English language in the 1980s have taken on elements of the national school. Katakura Minoru'sChūgoku shihaika no betonamuemphasizes the innate characteristics of the Vietnamese people. Keith Taylor'sThe Birth of Vietnam(1983) asserts a strong continuity from the semi-legendary kingdoms of theRed River Plainto the founding of Dai Viet, which was the result of a thousand-year struggle against the Chinese that culminated in the restoration of Vietnamese sovereignty. Jennifer Holmgren'sThe Chinese Colonisation of Northern VietnamusesSinicizationandVietnamizationas terms to refer to political and cultural change in different directions. Works following the national school of Vietnamese history retroactively assign Vietnamese group consciousness to past periods (Han-Tangera) based on evidence in later eras. The national school of Vietnamese history has remained practically unchanged since the 1980s and has become the national orthodoxy.[14]
Anachronisms
[edit]The argument for an intrinsic, intractable, and distinctly Southeast Asian Vietnamese identity in the Red River Plain throughout history has been categorized by Catherine Churchman ascontext,cultural continuity,andresistance.[15]Contextrefers to the downplaying of similarities between Vietnam and China while emphasizing Vietnam's Southeast Asian identity in the postcolonial period.Cultural continuityrefers to an intrinsic Vietnamese "cultural core" that has always existed in the Red River Plain since time immemorial.Resistancerefers to the national struggle of the Vietnamese people against foreign aggressors. Proponents of this historical narrative, such as Nguyen Khac Vien, characterize the history of Vietnam under Chinese rule as a "steadfast popular resistance marked by armed insurrections against foreign domination", while opponents such as Churchman note the lack of evidence, anachronisms, linguistic problems, adherence to Chinese political and cultural norms, and similarities as well as differences with other peoples under Chinese rule.[16]
The Vietnamese national narrative has introduced anachronisms in order to prove a unified Vietnamese national consciousness. The word Viet/Yue is often used to refer to an ethnic group when it had various meanings throughout history. There was no terminology to describe a Chinese-Vietnamese dichotomy during the Han-Tang period nor was there a term to describe a cohesive group inhabiting the area between thePearl Riverand the Red River.[17]During the Tang period, the indigenous people ofAnnanorJinghai Circuitwere referred to as theWild Man(Wild Barbarians), theLi,or the Annamese (Annan people).[18][19]In addition, the national history tends to have a narrow view limited to modern national boundaries, leading to conclusions of exceptionalism. Although it is true that the political situation in the Red River Plain was less stable than in Guangzhou to the north, such circumstances were not restricted to the area. The Vietnamese national narrative retroactively assigns any local rebellions, the rise of local dynasties, and their local autonomy with the motive of seeking national independence.[20]These early moves toward autonomy in the 10th century were fairly tame compared to the activities of people who cushioned them from more direct contact withSouthern dynastiesempires.[21]Language has also been used as evidence for a distinct Vietnamese identity in the Han-Tang period. However, some research points to the formation of a Vietnamese language only afterward as the result of a creolization and language shift involvingMiddle Chinese.[22]
Linguistic influence
[edit]The periods of Chinese rule over Vietnam also saw the linguistic transformations of several lects in Northern Vietnam, includingThai,Vietnamese,Lao,Muongand many other languages. These languages are often referred to as a regional sprachbund known asMainland Southeast Asia linguistic area.Vietnamese and Muong, under heavy linguistic influence from Chinese andTai-Kadailanguages, have completedtonogenesis,monosyllabicization,andgrammaticalizationof Chinese loan words to becomeclassifiersandaspect markers;while at another extreme, the Southern Vietic languages have robustly polysyllabicmorphemesand derivational or inflectionalmorphologymuch like conservativeAustroasiatic languages.[23]
Periods of Chinese rule
[edit]The four periods of Chinese rule in Vietnam:
| Period of Chinese rule | Chinese dynasty | Year | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| First Era of Northern Domination Bắc chúc 𠞺 thứ nhất Bắc thuộc lần thứ nhất |
Western Han dynasty Xin dynasty Eastern Han dynasty |
111 BC–AD 40 | The first period ofBắc thuộcis traditionally considered to have started following the Western Han's victory in theHan–Nanyue War.It ended with the briefrevoltof theTrưng sisters. |
| Second Era of Northern Domination Bắc chúc 𠞺 thứ 𠄩 Bắc thuộc lần thứ hai |
Eastern Han dynasty Eastern Wu dynasty Western Jin dynasty Eastern Jin dynasty Liu Song dynasty Southern Qi dynasty Liang dynasty |
AD 43–544 | Chinese rule was restored after the Trung sisters' rebellion. The second period of Chinese rule was ended by the revolt ofLý Bôn,who took advantage of the internal disorder of the waning Liang dynasty. Lý Bôn subsequently founded theEarly Lý dynasty,with the official dynastic name "Vạn Xuân" (Vạn xuân). |
| Third Era of Northern Domination Bắc chúc 𠞺 thứ 𠀧 Bắc thuộc lần thứ ba |
Sui dynasty Tang dynasty Wu Zhou dynasty Southern Han dynasty(sometimes counted) |
AD 602–905 or AD 602–939 |
The Sui dynasty reincorporated Vietnam into China following theSui–Early Lý War.This period saw the entrenchment of mandarin administration in Vietnam. The third period of Chinese rule concluded following the collapse of the Tang dynasty and the subsequent defeat of the Southern Han armada byNgô Quyềnat theBattle of Bạch Đằng.Ngô Quyền later proclaimed theNgô dynasty. |
| Fourth Era of Northern Domination Bắc chúc 𠞺 thứ tứ Bắc thuộc lần thứ tư |
Ming dynasty | AD 1407–1428 | Vietnam was brought under the control of China following the Ming dynasty'sdefeatof the short-livedHồ dynasty.The fourth period of Chinese rule ended when theLam Sơn uprisingled byLê Lợiemerged successful. Lê Lợi then reestablished theĐại Việtkingdom (Đại việt) under the newLê dynasty. |
Population
[edit]| Year | Chinese dynasty | Period | Household | Population |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2[24] | Han dynasty | First Era of Northern Domination | 143,643 | 981,755 |
| 140[24] | Han dynasty | Second Era of Northern Domination | 64,776[a] | 310,570 |
| Jin dynasty[25] | Second Era of Northern Domination | 25,600 | - | |
| Liu Song dynasty[25] | Second Era of Northern Domination | 10,453 | - | |
| 609[26] | Sui dynasty | Third Era of Northern Domination | 56,566 | - |
| ca. 700[27] | Wu Zhou dynasty | Third Era of Northern Domination (Protectorate General to Pacify the South) |
38,626[b] | 148,431 |
| 740[27] | Tang dynasty | Third Era of Northern Domination (Protectorate General to Pacify the South) |
75,839[c] | 299,377 |
| 807[27] | Tang dynasty | Third Era of Northern Domination (Protectorate General to Pacify the South) |
40,486 | -[d] |
| 1408[28] | Ming dynasty | Fourth Era of Northern Domination | - | 5,200,000[e] |
| 1417[29][28] | Ming dynasty | Fourth Era of Northern Domination | 450,288 | 1,900,000 |
See also
[edit]
Notes
[edit]- ^The 140 census for the Hong River Delta did not survive.[24]
- ^The census for Phuc Loc, Luc, Truong and Dien counties did not survive.[27]
- ^The census for Phuc Loc county did not survive.[27]
- ^Information pertaining to the population size in the census did not survive.[27]
- ^Ming ShiluSoutheast Asia in the Ming Shi-lu: an open access resource
References
[edit]- ^Eliot 1995,p. 557.
- ^Ooi 2004,p. 1296.
- ^Churchman, Catherine (2016).The People Between the Rivers: The Rise and Fall of a Bronze Drum Culture, 200–750 CE.Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.ISBN978-1-442-25861-7.
- ^Brindley, Erica Fox (2018). "The People Between the Rivers: The Rise and Fall of a Bronze Drum Culture, 200–750 CE by Catherine Churchman".Asian Perspectives.57(1): 179–181.doi:10.1353/asi.2018.0007.S2CID166116726.
- ^Lockard 2010,p. 125.
- ^Walker 2012,p. 269.
- ^Trần 1993,p. 14.
- ^Suryadinata 1997,p. 268.
- ^Hoang 2007,p. 15.
- ^Ms 2007,p. 828.
- ^abChurchman 2016,p. 24.
- ^"Anti-Chinese Sentiment in Contemporary Vietnam: Constructing Nationalism, New Democracy, and the Use of" the Other "".Trinity University.Retrieved26 December2023.
- ^Reid & Tran 2006,p. 5.
- ^Churchman 2016,p. 24-25.
- ^Churchman 2016,p. 27.
- ^Churchman 2016,p. 27-29.
- ^Churchman 2016,p. 26.
- ^Schafer 1967,p. 53.
- ^Taylor 1983,p. 149.
- ^Churchman 2016,p. 26-27.
- ^Churchman 2016,p. 74-75.
- ^Churchman 2016,p. 28.
- ^Sidwell, Paul; Jenny, Mathias, eds. (2021).The Languages and Linguistics of Mainland Southeast Asia: A Comprehensive Guide.Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.doi:10.1515/9783110558142.ISBN978-3110556063.
- ^abcTaylor 1983,p. 56.
- ^abTaylor 1983,p. 120.
- ^Taylor 1983,p. 167.
- ^abcdefTaylor 1983,p. 176.
- ^abLi 2018,p. 166.
- ^Li 2018,p. 159.
Sources
[edit]- Lockard, Craig A. (2010).Societies, Networks, and Transitions: A Global History To 1500.Cengage Learning.ISBN978-1-439-08535-6.
- Walker, Hugh Dyson (2012).East Asia: A New History.AuthorHouse.ISBN978-1-477-26516-1.
- Suryadinata, Leo (1997).Ethnic Chinese As Southeast Asians.Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
- Eliot, Joshua (1995).Thailand, Indochina and Burma Handbook.Trade & Travel Publications.
- Hoang, Anh Tuấn (2007).Silk for Silver: Dutch-Vietnamese relations, 1637-1700.Brill.ISBN978-9-04-742169-6.
- Schafer, Edward Hetzel (1967),The Vermilion Bird: T'ang Images of the South,Los Angeles: University of California Press
- Trần, Khánh (1993).The Ethnic Chinese and Economic Development in Vietnam.Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.ISBN9789813016668.
- Ms, Cc (2007).The World and Its Peoples: Eastern and Southern Asia - Volume 6.Marshall Cavendish.
- Ooi, Keat Gin, ed. (2004).Southeast Asia: A Historical Encyclopedia, from Angkor Wat to East Timor.ABC-CLIO.ISBN978-1-576-07771-9.
- Li, Tana (2018).Nguyen Cochinchina: Southern Vietnam in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries.Cornell University Press.ISBN978-1-501-73257-7.
- Taylor, Keith Weller (1983),The Birth of the Vietnam,University of California Press,ISBN978-0-520-07417-0
- Reid, Anthony; Tran, Nhung Tuyet (2006).Viet Nam: Borderless Histories.University of Wisconsin Press.ISBN978-1-316-44504-4.
