A thousand years of Chinese rule and the Trưng sisters
China's Han dynasty conquers the Red River delta, beginning more than a millennium of Chinese rule, punctuated by revolts such as that of the Trưng sisters.
- The Birth of Vietnam — Keith Weller Taylor, University of California Press (1983)
- A History of the Vietnamese — K. W. Taylor, Cambridge University Press (2013)
- Việt Nam: A History from Earliest Times to the Present — Ben Kiernan, Oxford University Press (2017)
In 111 BCE armies of the Chinese Han emperor Wu conquered the kingdom of Nanyue, which included the Red River delta, and made it a set of Chinese commanderies. Chinese officials, settlers and scholars arrived, and over the centuries the local elite learned to read Chinese, adopted Confucian ideas and, later, Mahayana Buddhism.
- The Birth of Vietnam — Keith Weller Taylor, University of California Press (1983)
- Việt Nam: A History from Earliest Times to the Present — Ben Kiernan, Oxford University Press (2017)
Rule was never unchallenged. In 40 CE Trưng Trắc, whose husband had reportedly been executed by the Chinese governor, rose up with her sister Trưng Nhị; dozens of settlements joined them and they ruled as queens until the Han general Ma Yuan defeated them in 43. Other revolts followed, including that of Lady Triệu in 248 and of Lý Bí, who founded a short-lived independent kingdom, Vạn Xuân, in 544. Under the Tang, the territory was called Annam, “the pacified south”.
- The Birth of Vietnam — Keith Weller Taylor, University of California Press (1983)
- A History of the Vietnamese — K. W. Taylor, Cambridge University Press (2013)
Historians debate how far a distinct “Vietnamese” identity existed in these centuries, and Keith Taylor stresses that the local elite were often deeply Sinicised. What is clear is that the spoken language survived and the region ultimately broke away when Chinese power weakened.
- A History of the Vietnamese — K. W. Taylor, Cambridge University Press (2013)
- Việt Nam: A History from Earliest Times to the Present — Ben Kiernan, Oxford University Press (2017)
Why it matters today
The "thousand years of Chinese domination" (Bắc thuộc) is the backdrop to Vietnamese national identity. It brought Chinese writing, Confucianism and Buddhism, which shaped Vietnamese culture deeply, and also the conviction that survival means standing up to the north. The Trưng sisters, Lady Triệu and Lý Bí are celebrated as the first heroes of that resistance.