The
most important was that of the two sisters, Trung Trac and Trung Nhi, born of a
family of military chiefs in the district of Me Linh (northwest of Hanoi).
Between 40 and 43 A.D the Trung sisters launched a vast movement throughout
Chiao Chih led by women in many places. Trung Trac was made "Queen"
and Chinese imperialist domination was overthrown. The Han emperor, then at the
peak of his power, had to send his best general, Ma Yuan "Tamer of
Waters"to Chiao Chih. By the end of the year 43 A.D., the insurrection was
crushed, but it left an indelible imprint on the history of the country.
However,
Chinese annals kept deploring that "the people of Chiao Chih, relying on
remote inaccessible areas, liked to rebel". The insurrection in the Red River valley spread to the
south; military posts and the domains of imperial functionaries were attacked.
Another young woman, Lady Trieu, launched a large-scale movement against
foreign domination in 248 A.D. in the province
of Chiu Chen
(present-day Thanh
Hoa Province).
She said, "I'd like to ride storms, kill the sharks in the open sea, drive
out the aggressors, reconquer the country, undo the tics of serfdom, and never
bend my back to be the concubine of any man". Riding an elephant, she led
the way to the battlefield. However, she was unable to maintain a very long
resistance against the Chinese Imperial army.
Other
insurrections marked the 4th and 5th centuries, including one in the year 412
when Chinese peasants who had risen in revolt and been driven out of China
co-ordinated their efforts with Vietnamese patriots. The 6th century was marked
by a major insurrection led by Li Bi, a notable from Long Hung in present-day Thai
Binh Province,
who launched his movement in 542, swept away the Chinese administration, and defeated
a counter-offensive by the imperial army in 543 and an attack by the Cham in
the south. In 544 Ly Bi made himself King of Van Xuan kingdom and established a
national administration. However, he was defeated by the Chinese imperial army
in 545-546 and died in 548, handing over command to one of his aides, Trieu
Quang Phuc. The latter mustered his troops in the swampy areas of Da Trach (in
present-day Hung Yen Province), carrying out guerrilla raids and making himself
king after Ly Bi's death. In 550, availing himself of internal disturbances in China,
he reconquered a sizable part of the nation's territory. However, the
Vietnamese feudalists did not get on together and the last decades of the 6th
century were marked by their rivalry, which enabled China's
Sui dynasty to reconquer the country in 603.
The Sui
dynasty moved the administrative capital to Tong Binh (present-day Hanoi).
In 618, the Tang dynasty took power in China; China's economy and culture saw
unprecedented development as the empire experienced its greatest ever
expansion. For the Tang dynasty, Chiao Chih (Vietnam)
was not only a colony for exploitation, but also a starting point for expansion
into Southeast Asia. In
679, they instituted the "Protectorate of Annam (Pacified South)";
the term then came to be used for tile country itself. The Tang dynasty
extended their administrative network to cover villages and mountainous
regions; the annual tribute to the Court and the various taxes, cover and
duties were increased. However agriculture and handicrafts in particular,
continued to develop, as well as land, river and maritime communications. The
three doctrines -Confucianism, Taoism, and notably Buddhism - spread
nationwide, without doing away with local beliefs. The veneration of local genies,
often patriots or founders of villages, remained widespread. In order to stifle
deep-rooted national sentiment, the Chinese imperialists used geomancy in an
attempt to drain the "veins of the dragon" running through Vietnamese
soi resulting in resistance from the people. In society, more and more of those
obtaining high positions in the administration through education or bribery
were those who obtained important domains.
Under
the Tang dynasty the country faced several invasions from the south - Champa,
Java, and Malaya and from the kingdom
of Nan Chiao
(present-day Yunnan).
In 863, Nan Chiao troops reached the capital Tong Binh and destroyed it. The Tang Court
had to send General Gao Pian to fight against the Nan Chiao. Becoming governor
after defeating the Nan Chiao, Gao Pian tried to suppress the nationalist
movement which had continued to develop after the Tang dynasty took power.
Many
insurrections took place under the Tang dynasty, including that of Ly Tu Tien
and Dinh Kien in 687, of Mai Thuc Loan in 722, of Phung Hung in 766-791, and
Duong Thanh in 819-820. By the end of the 9th century, internal
disturbances, particularly the insurrection of Hwang Chao (874-883) in China,
shook the Tang reign and China
entered a long period of anarchy that started at the beginning of the 10th
century. In 905, the last governor sent by the Chinese imperial court to Vietnam
died.
Taking
advantage of the disturbances in China,
a notable from Cuc Bo (in the present-day province
of Hai Duong),
Khuc Thua Du, made himself governor, and in 906 the Tang court had to recognize
this fait accompli. Khuc Thua Du's son, Khuc Hao, tried to set up a national
administration; in 930 the Southern Ban dynasty, which had taken power in southern
China, again
invaded the country. In 931, however, a patriot, Duong Dinh Nghe, took up the
fight and made himself governor. After Duong Dinh Nghe died, murdered by one of
his aides, the fight was led by Ngo Quyen, who in 938 clashed with a Southern Han
expeditionary corps approaching by sea. The Southern Han fleet entered Vietnam
via the Bach Dang estuary (mouth of the river which flows into Halong
Bay) where iron-tipped stakes had
been sunk into the riverbed by Ngo Quyen. At high-tide a Vietnamese flotilla
attacked the enemy then, pretending to escape, lured the Southern Han boats
into the estuary beyond the stakes still covered by the tide. At low-tide, the
entire Vietnamese fleet counter-attacked, forcing the enemy to flee and sink,
impaled on the barrage of stakes.
The
Bach Dang victory in 938 put an end to the period of Chinese imperial
domination. In 939 Ngo Quyen proclaimed himself king, established his capital
at Co Loa (previously a capital in the 3rd century B.C.) and set up a
centralized government. It was the first truly independent Vietnamese state.
Domestically,
the main obstacle to the founding of a centralized power structure capable of
assuming direction of the economy - management of the dyke system in particular
- and of successfully resisting foreign aggression was the existence of feudal
lords who each ruled an area of territory. On the death of Ngo Quyen in 944, 12
warlords divided the country among themselves and began to fight one another.
Starting from Hoa Lu in
present-day Ninh Binh, Dinh Bo Linh defeated them all, one after another, and
unified the country in 967. The next year he made himself king, named the
country Dai Co Viet, established his capital at Hoa Lu, reorganized the army
and administration, and appointed renowned Buddhist monks as advisers. The
murder of Dinh Bo Linh in 979 brought a six-year-old child to the throne.
Meanwhile the Sung dynasty had taken power in China
where order was restored. A Sung expeditionary corps was sent to reconquer Vietnam,
which was also being attacked from the south by the Cham. To deal with this
danger, the Court and army appointed a talented general, Le Hoan. The latter
defeated the Sung army on both land and water, thus saving the country (981).
The next year, and expedition led by Le Hoan invaded the Kingdom
of Champa and conquered
its capital Indrapura (now in Quang Nam
province), removing the threat of invasion from the south for a long time to
come.
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