Sources of Vietnamese Tradition

By Columbia University Press

This work covers Vietnamese culture from its origins to the present. Vietnamese culture is heterogeneous, reflecting the country's shifting geography and multiple peoples over the past two thousand years. It has maintained its independent nature while at the same time interacting closely with China and other Southeast Asian communities.

The book is divided into seven parts: Vietnamese origins, the Buddhist era, the Confucian era, the Trinh-Nguyen and Tay Son eras, the Nguyen dynasty, the Colonial era, and the era of independence. Each part includes descriptions of the land, society, culture, religion, philosophy, and economy of Vietnam, as well as patterns of governance adopted from China and elsewhere. Most of the selections are Vietnamese in origin, with some descriptions of the country by outsiders.

Each part, chapter, and selection is prefaced by introductory comments, and there are chronological tables and pronunciation guides.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Release date: Aug 21, 2012
• ISBN: 9780231511100

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INTRODUCTION

The reference in the title of this volume to Vietnamese suggests a common, albeit broad, society now bounded by the borders of the modern nation-state. Nonetheless, readers should bear in mind that it is anachronistic to use the term Vietnam to describe the territories inhabited by these peoples in the past. The reason is that the name Vietnam was not used until the early nineteenth century and that the territory so labeled did not reach its current size until around the same time.

Over the past two thousand years, the geographical expanse today known as Vietnam has had many labels, including Giao Chi, Lam Ap, Zhenla, Champa, Dai Viet, Van Lang, Van Xuan, Dai Nam, and Ai Lao. More recently, this area was separated into three territories—labeled by French colonial authorities as Tonkin, Annam, and Cochinchina—even after it was joined with the Lao and Khmer territories to form a new entity known as the Union of Indochina. Then, for nearly thirty years in the second half of the twentieth century, the Vietnamese territories were again divided, this time by the forces of Cold War politics, creating the Democratic Republic of Vietnam in the north and the Republic of Vietnam in the south. The geographies encompassed by these multiply termed places varied as well, some representing only small parts of what is today Vietnam and others representing large portions of this area. In this book, we hope to avert the all-too-common teleological perspective that views the Vietnamese past as an inevitable trajectory moving toward a unified modern state. We then must recognize that there are indeed multiple pasts, as well as what are now known as regional cultures, histories, and geographical realities bounded by a single, but still extremely diverse, modern state.

SELECTION AND ORGANIZATION OF TEXTS

We recognize that the sampling of texts in Sources of Vietnamese Tradition risks creating an artificial canon of readings that represent Vietnamese history and culture. This risk is particularly great in the Vietnamese case because of the very few existing translations of historical materials, especially those from before the twentieth century. But it is not our intention to create a canon of any kind, and we are not suggesting that the readings assembled here are the only significant ones or even that all of them are of equal importance. Instead, they may be viewed as representative of certain literary genres, ideas, or views.

Ten years from now, this project would be very different in different hands or, indeed, in our own. We caution, too, that these texts may not necessarily allow readers to arrive at some understanding of the essential Vietnamese cultural or social outlook. But the texts certainly do offer glimpses into the minds of certain Vietnamese individuals at particular moments, and they do suggest some of the many themes to be found over the long trajectory of Vietnamese history. What these (mostly) elite texts can tell us about the Vietnamese people is limited, however, since the vast majority of the Vietnamese population has historically been illiterate or semiliterate. Accordingly, their view of their world has been preserved to some extent in a rich tradition of folk stories, Buddhist tales, foundation myths, aphorisms, and songs, a few of which are included in this book.

In selecting the texts, we tried to cover a broad range of voices, time periods, regions, and issues. The voices are almost exclusively those of elites and lowland Vietnamese because only the elites were literate and, furthermore, their texts were preserved as part of official court histories or were passed down within literary lineages or even, in rare cases, were printed in woodblock form. Consequently, we seriously considered including materials from ethnic minority peoples living within the boundaries of modern Vietnam, for the histories of the Vietnamese are bound up with these groups in significant ways. But we finally decided that we could not do justice to the voices of these many groups, none of which could be said to represent the others, and therefore excluded them from the project. Thus when we speak of Vietnamese traditions, we are referring to the majority lowland Vietnamese populations, sometimes called the Kinh or, simply, the Viet. Our decision to limit our coverage to the lowland Vietnamese also was strongly shaped by the fact that the other volumes in the Introduction to Asian Civilizations series similarly restricted their coverage to the majority socioethnic groups in their countries.

Most of the documents we chose have not been previously translated into English, particularly those from the early modern period, the early seventeenth through the mid-nineteenth century. Although many of these texts were translated from their original Chinese or vernacular Vietnamese characters into modern Vietnamese and were published and sometimes republished in Vietnam during the twentieth century, we based our translations on the original language in which the texts first appeared. Most of the pre-twentieth-century documents were written in either classical Chinese or chu nom, the demotic script used to represent the Vietnamese vernacular. A few texts from this period, all by Vietnamese Christians, were written in early forms of the romanized quoc ngu alphabet.

Tracking down the original texts was often a challenge, since most modern Vietnamese translations do not include a copy of the original, and many of the original texts have never been published. We consulted the originals in the Han-Nom archive in Hanoi, in Vietnamese journals from the early part of the twentieth century, or in microfilm versions when available. We also used texts from steles, on rubbings or on published versions of the stele texts, which was yet another challenge. Even many of the primary twentieth-century texts were difficult to locate in their original forms. Anthologies contain excerpts of some, while others appeared in short-lived Vietnamese newspapers or weeklies of the 1930s. Yet others we knew about only through references or even rough English translations but had trouble finding the original texts. Some texts that we wanted to include we ultimately could not because we could not find an original-language version and did not wish to work from a translation. The very few exceptions to this rule include some eighteenth-century texts that have survived in contemporary translations, into either French or Portuguese. Throughout our translations, we tried to minimize the use of footnotes. But at the same time, we recognized that certain texts, particularly classical references, needed an additional explication of terms, and in those cases we offer more extensive annotation.

We deliberately limited the number of literary texts that we would include. As a result, we have only a small number of poems and only a few excerpts from longer literary pieces, whether historical novels, modern novels, or short stories. We made this decision in part to limit the range of documents. Particularly with respect to poetry, English-language readers already are well served by a number of recent anthologies that offer a good sampling of Vietnamese poetry. Finally, we again followed the existing volumes in the Introduction to Asian Civilizations series, which focus mainly on nonliterary texts. We nonetheless hope that future scholars will translate more texts from Vietnam’s rich literary tradition. For example, several significant historical novels from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries offer compelling story lines and extremely useful insights into Vietnamese society at that time. The very brief excerpts we included from a few of the most important such texts can only hint at their rich content.

In organizing our materials, we decided to arrange our texts both chronologically and thematically. Chronologically, we divided the text into seven time periods, three in the premodern period and two each in the early modern and modern periods. The criteria we used to select the time periods were chiefly political and therefore a bit arbitrary. The documents’ elite nature inevitably reflects political considerations, which helped justify this approach. The thematic divisions were more problematic, and we are aware that they sometimes appear arbitrary. Nonetheless, we felt that organizing readings under particular categories would make the book more accessible and more useful to readers interested in particular themes that they could trace through the various time periods. Moreover, our method of organizing anthologized materials is one with which the Vietnamese themselves are familiar. For example, Phan Huy Chu’s famous early-nineteenth-century encyclopedia, Categorized Records of the Institutions of Successive Dynasties (Lich trieu hien chuong loai chi), organized its selected texts under such headings as geography, people, natural resources, and government.

The categories we settled on are both new and old. Some are those that the Vietnamese literati (like Phan Huy Chu) themselves used, particularly our geographical and economic classifications. Other categories, such as Society and Culture and Philosophy and Religion, are modern inventions, which pre-twentieth-century Vietnamese would not have recognized. Nonetheless, we feel that such labels are useful, for our project is translation, which encompasses not merely words but also ideas. To translate is to build bridges between languages and between time periods, and our categories are part of this bridge-building process, enabling modern readers to find materials relevant to topics of interest. We understand that placing various practices, beliefs, and texts into the general category Religion narrows highly complex ideas, although our project is not about defining religion but providing some practical categories for modern readers. We could have used other categories, and some documents could well have been placed under several of our own headings. The chronological and thematic divisions that we selected largely guided our distribution of sources, as we sought to maintain some balance among time periods and across themes. Some time periods and themes contain a larger or smaller number of texts, reflecting various considerations, including the availability of suitable writings.

Finally, we note that nomenclature and labels can often become a stumbling point in a project spanning such a long history. Indeed, the terms China and Vietnam, whose modern territorial and political implications are readily apparent, are much less useful when discussing pre-twentieth-century geography. Accordingly, we tried not to use them in reference to earlier incarnations of what became China and Vietnam, unless doing so was either unavoidable or helped us avoid particularly awkward circumlocutions. Especially for earlier periods, we use the general geographical referents North and South to designate the peoples and polities of the Chinese and Vietnamese realms, respectively.

We hope that this volume will be the beginning of a much larger project to make the historical, cultural, and ideological heritage of an important civilization available to an English-language audience. At the very least, the texts included here represent ideas and concepts and offer useful comparisons placing Vietnamese civilization within a larger Asian or even global context. If this book inspires another generation of students and researchers to explore more fully the history and society of Vietnam we will consider our efforts to have been worthwhile.

Part I

Premodern Vietnam

Chapter 1

THE PERIOD OF NORTHERN EMPIRE

The region of what is today north and north-central Vietnam entered the historical record as the Northern empire of the Qin (255–207 B.C.E.) expanded to the south into the land of the Yue (the Shanghai region and south). The rapid collapse of the Qin left a warlord family, the Zhao (V: Trieu), in control of what are now Guangdong and northern Vietnam (then referred to as Nan Yue [Southern Yue]; V: Nam Viet). From the beginning, the Qin forces met local armed resistance in a pattern that was periodically repeated throughout the centuries. What we now call guerrilla warfare originated in peripheral localities to contest the distant northern power.

When the Han dynasty took power in the North, the Zhao resisted its efforts at Southern control until their fall in 111 B.C.E. For the next century and a half, Han authority over the indigenous lords was loose and relatively unobtrusive. Despite greater contact with Northern influences, local society and culture remained the same. But when Wang Mang usurped power (9–25 C.E.) in the North, Northern refugees fled to the South, expanding the Sinic presence there. Led by the aristocratic Trung sisters, Nhac and Nhi, indigenous resisters drove out the Northern forces and kept them at bay for three years (40–42). The Han then sent General Ma Yuan to suppress the resistance. Establishing the Northern administrative system in the central Red River Delta, the general set the stage for almost nine centuries of Northern domination, during which Chinese power periodically waxed and waned.

During this time, there was a constant blending of incoming Northern families with the indigenous population, amid a growing sense of South and North, the local region and a more remote China proper. Besides the many Northern officials, merchants, and others who came south, carried out their business, and then returned north, some settled permanently in the South and adopted its way of life. Both groups brought with them their social, cultural, and intellectual habits and gradually began to remake the indigenous society. The Northerners had specific ideas about how to govern, via the prefecture/district system, and sought to apply them to their new homeland. The local economy was based on wet-rice agriculture, but it was the trade in exotic goods from the mountains and the seas as well as from the lands beyond them that attracted the Northerners, as explained by the Northern official Chen Shou’s observations in Riches of the South.

Others who came to Vietnam’s Red River Delta during the first millennium C.E. arrived on the trade and communication routes stretching from the coastal Chinese seas all the way to the Middle East and the Mediterranean. Various merchants, monks, and travelers—Buddhist, Indian, Central Asian, and Arab—passed through the region’s ports, bringing with them goods from their home regions, which stimulated local production and increased local wealth. In particular, Buddhists on the grand tour (India, Southeast Asia, China, Central Asia) entered the Red River Delta with their beliefs, texts, and need for temples and monasteries. Through these centuries, Buddhism increasingly permeated local society, especially in the central area of the Red River Delta, and its presence was noted by contemporary observers, including Tan Qian (Buddhism in the South), who wrote at the end of the fifth century, and Shen Quanqi (Buddhism as It Existed in the South), who wrote in the eighth century. Buddhism also served as a link to other societies, such as those in Champa (central Vietnam) and Srivijaya (southeast Sumatra) to the south, as well as to their Northern compatriots.

A variety of cultures thus took root across the Vietnamese lowlands, coast, and highlands. Locally diverse indigenous beliefs (such as those represented in the spirit cults), the standard Northern culture of the elite, the strong transnational Buddhist presence, and other ethnic patterns in the mountains and along the coast were included in the mix. During times of Northern political weakness, local patterns reasserted themselves and competed for dominance. In both the sixth and the tenth centuries, local chieftains used aspects of Northern rule, indigenous myth, and Buddhist claims of legitimacy to challenge Northern political control. Although the Sui and Tang dynasties were able to crush the first such effort at local autonomy in the sixth century, the Song dynasty was unable (or unwilling) to suppress the second effort in the tenth century.

From the seventh to the tenth century, forces outside the realm of Northern control vied in challenging it. To the south, Champa continuously raided up the coast, competing politically and economically with the Chinese territory. To the west, Nanzhao (in what is now Yunnan), on the southwestern fringe of the Tang empire, posed a threat down the Red River. Tai chieftains in the western and northern mountains sometimes allied with Nanzhao, and their political and economic relations with the lowlanders occasionally caused tensions. Throughout the eighth and ninth centuries, both coastal raiders from Champa and the islands of Southeast Asia and a strong Nanzhao and Tai invasion helped weaken the Tang’s hold on this Southern territory.

Overall, the first millennium C.E. was a highly dynamic and transformative period for northern Vietnam. The indigenous society was stimulated externally by political, social, economic, religious, and cultural forces, and it responded by absorbing many of these elements into its own culture. A number of patterns for Vietnam in later periods were set during these centuries: the use of Chinese characters in writing, chopsticks for eating, money in the form of Chinese copper cash, and the Tang dynasty’s poetry and laws. Nonetheless, the emerging Vietnamese polity did not become a replica of the Northern state, as the Vietnamese blended these internal and external influences to form their own style.

THE LAND

CHEN SHOU

SOUTH AND NORTH (297)

Shi Xie (V: Si Nhiep or Si Vuong [King Si]) was a local strongman of Northern descent in Jiaozhou/Jiaozhi (northern Vietnam) at the end of the Han dynasty (206 B.C.E.–220 C.E.). The following excerpt from his biography in the Chronicle of the Wu Dynasty, one of the books in Chen Shou’s Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms, describes both the increasing chaos as the Han dynasty weakened and the sense of distance between this Southern border region and the capital far to the North. Such distance enabled the political mischief described here and a local family like the Shi to gain control in the South.

Xie’s younger brother Shi Wu took sick and died first. After the death of Zhu Fu, the Han appointed Zhang Jin as Inspector of Jiaozhou. Jin was later assassinated by his own general, Qu Jing. Subsequently, the Governor of Jingzhou, Liu Biao, appointed Lai Gong from Lingling as Jin’s replacement. At about the same time, the Grand Administrator of Cangwu, Shi Huang, passed away. Biao thereupon appointed Wu Ju to take his place. Along with Gong, he arrived to fill his post. The Han court, having learned of the death of Zhang Jin, sent an imperial proclamation to Xie, saying, Jiaozhou is a very distant region, so far beyond the rivers and seas to the south, a place where our beneficence can barely reach and whence the gratitude of the people can hardly flow back. It has come to our attention that the rebellious Liu Biao, viceroy of Zhang province directly to the north, has had the effrontery to have appointed Lai Gong to office and that he has his ambitious eye on our southern lands. Thus we now charge you to become our General of the Gentlemen of the Household Who Comforts the South, in charge of all seven commanderies, maintaining as before your authority as Grand Administrator of Jiaozhi.

[Wu zhi, 4, in Chen Shu, San guo zhi (hereafter, SGZ); trans. O’Harrow, Men of Hu, 262]

SHEN QUANQI

LIFE IN THE SOUTH (EARLY EIGHTH CENTURY)

By the early eighth century, the Southern region had been fully absorbed into the great cosmopolitan Tang dynasty as the Protectorate of Annan (V: Annam). In the following poem, the poet Shen Quanqi describes a Northerner’s sense of living and growing old in the South. He evokes a sense of both space and time, the past and its power, as represented by the spirits of the warlord Zhao Tuo (V: Trieu Da [second century B.C.E.]) and the local ruler, Shi Xie. Commissioner Tuo later became known as the king of Nan Yue (V: Nam Viet). This poem was included in the Short Record of Annan (1333), compiled by Le Tac, a Vietnamese living in China.

I have heard it said of Jiaozhi

That southern habits penetrate one’s heart.

Winter’s portion is brief;

Three seasons are partial to a brightly wheeling sun.

Here Commissioner Tuo obtained a kingdom;

Shi Xie has long been roaming the nether world.

Village dwellings have been handed down through generations;

Fish and salt have been produced since ancient times.

In remote ages, the people of Yue [V: Viet] sent pheasants as tribute;

The Han dynasty general pondered the sparrowhawk.

The Northern Dipper hangs over Mount Chong;

The south wind pulls at the Zhang Sea.

Since I last left home, the months have swiftly come and gone;

My hairline shows that I have grown old.

My elder and younger brothers have yielded to their fates;

My wife and children have departed to reap their destinies.

An empty path, a ruined wall, tears;

It is clear that my heart has not echoed Heaven’s will.

[Le Tac, An Nam chi luoc (hereafter, ANCL), 157; trans. Taylor, Birth of Vietnam, 185–86]

ZENG GUN

THE SPIRIT CAO LO (NINTH CENTURY)

Following the victory in the 860s over invaders from Nanzhao (present-day Yunnan) to the west, Gao Pian (V: Cao Bien or Cao Vuong [King Cao]), the Northern general stationed in the Protectorate of Annan (V: Annam, earlier known as Jiaozhi), was believed to have encountered the local spiritual power of the land. This was recounted in a document from the South written by a Northern official and later recorded in Departed Spirits of the Viet Realm (1329), a collection of cultic tales by Ly Te Xuyen. The Spirit Cao Lo describes the spirit world as viewed locally as well as Gao’s view of the land’s beauty. The so-called Dragon’s Belly is an area in the center of the Red River Delta around the present-day Hanoi where Gao Pian established his capital of Dai La (Great Walled City).

Determinably Bold, Unyieldingly Orthodox, Majestically Gracious King

According to the Records of Jiaozhi as cited in Do Thien’s History, the King was named Cao Lo and was a meritorious subordinate of King An Duong [r. 257?–179 B.C.E.].¹ He was commonly called Commander Lo or the Rock Spirit.

Long ago king Cao Bien pacified the Nanzhao enemy (866) and used troops to patrol Vu Ninh province. He reached the place and dreamed he saw a supernatural figure. His body stood nine feet tall and his dress was proper and solemn. His manner of speech was stern and severe. His hair was pinned up with a knife. He had a red stick and wore a belt. He said to king Cao (Bien), My name is Cao Lo. Long ago, I assisted King An Duong as a great general. I had great merit in driving away the enemy. Afterwards, I served as a high official and was slandered by a great official and lord of Lac and killed. God on High pitied my loyalty and awarded me a stretch of river and mountain to govern as campaign commander-general. Whenever thieving enemies were quelled or punished, and in matters of sowing and reaping, I always managed these things as if I were the benevolent deity of the region. Now I have again followed Your Excellency in pacifying rebels and plunderers. The world is at great peace, and I have again returned to headquarters. If I did not thank you, it would be unceremonious.

King Cao Bien was taken aback and asked for what matter the lord of Lac despised him and which had absurdly provided a pretext for slander. The figure said, Matters of the dark and obscure (the underworld) I am not desirous of disclosing. King Cao Bien questioned repeatedly, and the figure responded, "King An Duong was a golden chicken spirit. The lord of Lac was a white ape spirit. I am a stone dragon spirit of the giap mao year.² Chicken and ape are mutually compatible. With dragon, they are each mutually destructive. Therefore, it was as it was." He finished speaking and vanished.

King Cao Bien awoke and spoke of this with his assistants. He joyfully intoned to himself.

How beautiful is the land of Jiaozhou;

So has it been for a long time, ten thousand years.

Sages of yore can be encountered;

Now I am not ungrateful to the mind of spirit.

Then he said,

The Hundred Viet offered gifts to the empire;

The two Han dynasties [Former and Later] defined the mountains and rivers.

Divine spirits all assisted obediently;

The prospects of the Li Tang dynasty gave much prosperity.

Following this, Tang Con praised King Gao Pian, saying,

The mountains and streams of the Viet land are old;

Persons of the Tang house are new.

The man called Cao Lo heard it had life-giving force,

In action and inaction informing the dragon spirit.

Then he said,

The Southern country’s mountains and rivers are beautiful;

The dragon spirit meets with a divine land.

Jiao province has ceased knitting its brows in pain;

From now on it will be an age of peace.

[Ly Te Xuyen, Viet dien u linh tap (hereafter, VDULT); trans. Ostrowski and Zottoli, Departed Spirits, 57–59]

ECONOMICS AND TRADE

CHEN SHOU

RICHES OF THE SOUTH (297)

The prospect of exotic goods from the Southern seas and mountains and from their international trade routes, drew the Northerners to the South. The trade in goods from Southeast Asia, India, and even the Middle East and the Mediterranean joined agriculture as a major segment of the local economy, and by the second century, Northern officials sought to enrich themselves from the region’s international trade. The goods available there were well represented in the items sent by the Shi family, who controlled Jiaozhi, to the Sun court of Wu (220–280) in the lower Yangzi valley to the north following the fall of the Han dynasty in the third century. This is depicted here in another excerpt from the biography of Shi Xie found in Chen Shou’s Chronicle of the Wu Dynasty.

Each time Shi Xie sent officials to the Wu royal court of Sun Quan, he always presented as well different kinds of spices and the finest grass cloth and always by the thousand-fold, glossy pearls and great conches, Liuli pottery, emerald kingfisher feathers, shell of tortoise and horn of rhinoceros, elephant tusks and various valuables and strange fruits: bananas, coconuts, longans, and such like. And in no year did these things not come. Now and again, Xie’s brother Yi would send horses in tribute, hundreds of head at a time. Quan would always send letters increasing royal favors to assuage them in reciprocation.

[Wu zhi, 4, in Chen Shou, SGZ; trans. O’Harrow, Men of Hu, 263]

XUE ZONG

ECONOMICS IN THE SOUTH (231)

Later in the third century, Xue Zong, an official from the North living in Jiaozhi, commented on Northern interests in the South, as noted in the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms (297), by Chen Shou. The selection here also makes clear that the Northern regimes’ wealth gained from the South was in the form of local exotica rather than tax revenues.

The local people easily become rebellious and are difficult to pacify; district officials act dignified but are careful not to provoke them. What can be obtained from field and household taxes is meager. On the other hand, this place is famous for precious rarities from afar: pearls, incense, drugs, elephant tusks, rhinoceros horn, tortoise shell, coral, lapis lazuli, parrots, kingfishers, peacocks, rare and abundant treasures enough to satisfy all desires. So it is not necessary to depend on what is received from regular taxes in order to profit the Central Kingdom.

[Chen Shou, SGZ, 53, 9b; trans. Taylor, Birth of Vietnam, 78]

LIU XU

MARITIME TRADE IN THE SOUTH (945)

With the Tang dynasty controlling the Protectorate of Annan from the seventh century onward, there was a continued need to keep order among the commercial interests, foreign and domestic, as briefly noted here in the Old History of the Tang Dynasty, by Liu Xu (887–946).

Chinese officials acted to control the barbarians of all the kingdoms in the southern seas, including those south and southwest of Jiao Province, and those who dwell on the islands of the great sea … arriving in boats after traveling unknown distances … bringing goods by the Jiaozhi route as they have done from the time of Emperor Wu of the Han [140–87 B.C.E.].

[Liu Xu, Jiu Tang shu, 41, 43a; trans. Taylor, Birth of Vietnam, 167]

PHILOSOPHY AND RELIGION

MOU BO

BELIEFS IN THE SOUTH (CA. 200)

In the late second century C.E., both Sinic and local thought were taking hold in the Southern region. Such thought included the ideas contained in the Five Classics of Confucianism and the classical thought that dominated the Han dynasty. Daoist influence was apparent in ideas about abstinence and the search for immortality. The following brief statement describing the intellectual scene before the author’s conversion to Buddhism comes from the preface to a work by the early Buddhist monk Mou Bo.

At that time, after the death of [the Han] Emperor Ling [189], the empire was in disorder; only Jiao Province was relatively calm, and unusual men from the North came to live there. Many occupied themselves with the worship of gods and spirits, abstinence from cereals, and immortality. Many people of that time devoted themselves to these studies. Mou Bo unceasingly proposed objections based on the Five Classics; none of the Daoists and spiritualists dared argue with him.

[Mou Bo, Li huo lun, 1; trans. Taylor, Birth of Vietnam, 81]

CHEN SHOU

SCHOLARSHIP IN THE SOUTH (297)

The following excerpt is from the biography in the Chronicle of the Wu Dynasty of Shi Xie, a distinguished member of the elite Northern family who had settled in the South, as compiled by Chen Shou in the late third century. This passage describes his intellectual pursuits and shows the extent of local elite interest in the classical studies of the Han dynasty, even in the far distant South.

When Xie was young, he journeyed to the capital to study. He studied under Liu Ziqi of Yingchuan [commandery in Henan], and focused on Zuo’s Spring and Autumn Annals.³ He was recommended as filial and incorrupt and appointed a secretarial court gentleman. For reasons related to official business, he was dismissed from office. His father, Ci, passed away. After that, [Xie] became a cultivated talent. He was appointed magistrate of Wuyang, and then promoted to governor of Jiaozhi.

Xie was generous in nature and humble to his subordinates. Many scholars from the Central Kingdom went to rely on him [for protection]. He was extremely fond of the Spring and Autumn Annals and annotated them. Yuan Hui, from the Kingdom of Chen (Hui at that time was residing in Jiao Region) wrote to Director of the Imperial Secretariat Xun Yu and said, "The commandery governor of Jiaozhi has vast knowledge and excels at executing administrative matters. [Although] in the midst of unrest, he has held the commandery together for more than 20 years with no incidents on this frontier. The people have not lost their occupations [owing to warfare], and travelers have all benefited from this good fortune. Although Mr. Dou controlled Hexi, how could he have surpassed [Shi Xie]?

When taking a break from official matters, he reads texts, and is particularly well-versed in the Spring and Autumn Annals and Mr. Zuo’s Commentary. I have queried him many times about questions I have [with these texts], and he has always offered model explanations, dense with meaning. He is also versed in the Classic of Documents, and knows all the ancient and current explanations.⁴ Having heard of the debate at the capital concerning the study of new and old texts, he now wishes to list the most prominent points in Mr. Zuo’s [Commentary] and the Classic of Documents, and to present this [to the emperor]." This reveals how he was praised.

[Chen Shu, SGZ, 2, 30b–31a; trans. Liam Kelley]

TAN QIAN

BUDDHISM IN THE SOUTH (CA. 480)

Along with Northern patterns of belief entering the South, international trade routes introduced a transnational Buddhism into the region. In the fifth century, Buddhism in the South already was recognized as being ahead of that found in the North. Tan Qian (542–607), a Buddhist master from Central Asia, reported this to the Chi court around 480 C.E. in this brief passage from Thong Bien’s 1096 discussion of Buddhist history in Vietnam and recorded in Eminent Monks of the Thien Community (1337).

The area of Jiaozhou has long been in communication with Tianzhu [India]. Early on, when the Buddha-Dharma reached Jiangdong and still had not been established [there], in Luy Lau⁵ more than twenty precious temples had [already] been built, more than five hundred monks had [already] been ordained, and fifteen volumes of scriptures had [already] been translated [from Sanskrit into Chinese].

[Thien uyen tap anh (hereafter, TUTA), 20b; trans. adapted from Nguyen Tu Cuong, Zen in Medieval Vietnam, 129]

SHEN QUANQI

BUDDHISM AS IT EXISTED IN THE SOUTH (EARLY EIGHTH CENTURY)

This poem, composed by a Northern scholar during the Tang period, reflects the establishment of Buddhist thought in the South. Le Quy Don, the great eighteenth-century Vietnamese scholar, later brought together such Northern Buddhist poems in his Small Chronicle of Things Seen and Heard. Shen Quanqi, who earlier described living in the South, here presents his poem to the Buddhist monk Vo Ngai Thuong Nhan.

Formerly the Buddha was born in Tianzhu [India],

Now he manifests himself here to convert the people of Rinan.⁶

Free from all defilements,

He built a temple at the foot of the mountain.

By the stream the fragrant branches are the standards,

The boulders on the mountaintop become his home.

Blue doves practice meditation,

White monkeys listen to the sutras.

Creepers cover the cloud-high cliffs,

Flowers rise above the pond at the foot of the mountain.

The water in the streams is good for performing ritual,

The trees let him hang his clothes on them.

This disciple regrets that he is ignorant,

Not able to discuss the Buddha’s doctrine.

Who one night crossed over the Tiger-stream,

Amidst mountain fog under a lonely tree.

[Le Quy Don, Kien van tieu luc, 1:193–94; trans. Nguyen Tu Cuong, Zen in Medieval Vietnam, 335]

ZENG GUN

THE MOUNTAIN SPIRIT (LATE NINTH CENTURY)

Spirit cults continued to form a major part of Vietnam’s early religious belief, with tales of the local spirits surfacing in records of the Tang period (618–907). The following is the tale of the rivalry between mountain and stream, the land and the water, first recorded by a Tang dynasty official and included in Departed Spirits of the Viet Realm (1329), compiled by Ly Te Xuyen. The event took place in mythic times among the local Lac people. Note the land and water products described.

Tan Vien Protecting Sacredness, Saving the Country, Manifesting Divinity, and Responding King

According to Duke Tang’s Records of Jiaozhi, the Mountain Spirit enjoyed friendship with the Water Spirit. The Mountain Spirit lived hidden in the Gia Ninh cave in Phong Province where the Red River enters the lowlands.

King Hung had a daughter named My Nuong, who was of excellent appearance, her beauty great enough to fell cities. The king of Thuc sent an emissary to request a marriage.⁷ King Hung was about to allow this when a great minister and lord of Lac disagreed, saying, They only are spying on our country! King Hung feared this would create a rift in relations.

The lord of Lac said, Your Great Majesty’s land is expansive and the people numerous. I beseech you to grant her to him who has strange talents and extraordinary abilities, making him your son-in-law. First, arrange your troops to wait in ambush. It is needless to imagine anything better. And so King Hung broke off negotiations with Thuc. Everywhere in the country, those with extraordinary abilities were sought after. Both the Mountain Spirit and the Water Spirit responded to the search, and King Hung ordered that they be investigated. The Mountain Spirit could penetrate jade and stone, and the Water Spirit could enter water and fire. They manifested their divine powers equally well. King Hung was greatly pleased and told the lord of Lac, Both the two gentlemen are worthy matches. [But] I have only one daughter. Which of the two virtuous gentlemen shall be chosen? The lord of Lac said, Your Majesty should agree with them that whoever comes to marry her first shall be granted her hand. King Hung consented to do this. Each was bidden to return and prepare the ceremonial offerings.

The Mountain Spirit returned home overnight to bring local products, gold and silver, beautiful women, rhinoceroses, and elephants. There also were rare birds and beasts, all numbering in the hundreds. By sunrise the next day, he had already made his presentations to King Hung. The king was greatly pleased and thereby granted My Nuong in marriage. The Mountain Spirit met her in person and brought her back to live with him on Mount Loi.

That evening, the Water Spirit also prepared aquatic products, pearls, tortoise shells, valuables, and coral. There were great and fine fish as well, also numbering in the hundreds. The Water Spirit reached the royal city to present his offerings. Finding that My Nuong had already returned with the Mountain Spirit, the Water Spirit became very angry, leading a mob to pursue them and wanting to reduce Mount Loi to pieces.

The Mountain Spirit moved his residence to the peak of Mount Tan Vien.⁸ And so later generations became enemies with the Water Spirit. Each year, the Water Spirit brought autumn rains (the monsoons) to strike Tan Vien. Together, the people on the mountain built a palisade to protect themselves, which the Water Spirit could not enter. Divine traces of the Mountain Spirit are so numerous that it is not possible to count all of them.

[Ly Te Xuyen, VDULT; trans. adapted from Ostrowski and Zottoli, Departed Spirits, 75–77]

GOVERNANCE

FAN YE

MA YUAN’S ADMINISTRATION (445)

After the uprising of the indigenous aristocracy led by the Trung sisters (40–42), the new Northern regime needed to bring administrative order to Jiaozhi. Ma Yuan, the general sent south to crush the local resistance, immediately organized the new administration in the Northern fashion, as briefly described in his biography, which was recorded in the History of the Later Han Dynasty, by Fan Ye (398–445). The Yue (V: Viet) was a general term applied by the Han to the indigenous peoples on the far edge of civilization in the South. More specifically, the people of Jiaozhi were known as the Luo Yue (V: Lac Viet). The name Ma meant horse, and the bronze figure was to remind the local people of his power, displacing the indigenous symbol of the bronze drum.

Ma Yuan sent up a memorial saying, "The prefecture of Xiyu holds 32,000 families. The distance from its borders to its administrative center is over 1,000 li. I beg permission to divide it into two prefectures by the names of Fengchi and Wanghai." Permission was granted. Wherever Ma Yuan went, he set up commanderies and prefectures, established fortified barracks, and dug irrigation channels in order to benefit the people. In a memorial to the throne, he itemized more than ten items of Yue (V: Viet) law that contradicted Han law, and he expounded the ancient traditions of the Yue people in order to discipline them. From that time on, the Luo Yue followed the ancient customs of General Ma Yuan…. In Jiaozhi, he took away the bronze drums of the Luo Yue and had them smelted into the form of a horse.

[Fan Ye, Hou Han shu, 24/14, 14a; trans. Holmgren, Chinese Colonisation of Northern Vietnam, 16]

CHEN SHOU

GOVERNING THE SOUTH (297)

When the Han dynasty began to fall apart around 200 C.E., the powerful local Shi family of Northern descent, led by Xie (later called King Si by the Vietnamese), maintained a peaceful and prosperous regime in the South that included both foreigners from the international trading routes and those fleeing the chaos of the North. In another segment of his biography in the Chronicle of the Wu Dynasty, Xie, along with his brothers and his son, is described as controlling and maintaining the territory of Jiaozhi.

Shi Xie had the courtesy name of Weiyen. He was from the sub-prefecture of Guangxin in the commandery of Cangwu. His forebears were originally from the district of Wenyang in the state of Lu. At the time of the rebellion of Wang Mang [r. 9–25], his family had taken flight to Jiaozhou. Xie was one of the sixth generation thereafter. His father’s name was Ci and during the reign of Emperor Huan of the Han [r. 147–167] he was Grand Administrator of Rinan [V: Nhat-nam].

Once the period of mourning for his father, Ci, had ended, Xie was titled Candidate of Accomplished Talent and named Prefect of Wu, whence he was transferred to become Grand Administrator of Jiaozhi. His younger brother, Yi, was at first Investigator in the commandery.

The Inspector of the province of Jiaozhou, one Zhu Fu, was killed by the Yi bandits and the provinces and commanderies rose up in rebellion. Xie thereupon recommended that [his brother] Yi take over as Grand Administrator of Hepu. His second brother, Hui, formerly the Prefect of Xuwen, was made Grand Administrator of Jiuzhen [V: Cuu-chan].⁹

And Hui’s younger brother, Wu, was appointed Grand Administrator of Nanhai. Xie was a man of generous capacity and broad forbearance and he treated his subordinates with humility and open-mindedness. As for the Northern literati who fled to him from the troubles, they numbered in the hundreds.

In the midst of the great rebellions, Xie was able to preserve and protect the whole of the commandery; for more than twenty years there were no incidents within his borders. The people were not without employment; those who sojourn in their travels all receive his blessings.

Xie’s brothers were all commandery notables and they occupied a dominant position throughout the province; ten thousand li away from the court, their majestic influence was incomparable. Whenever Xie entered and whenever he went out, the reverberation of bells and stone chimes was heard; pomp and decorum were fully observed and the flutes and pipes were sounded. Chariots and outriders filled the road while men of Hu by the dozen, with incense smoldering, marched close beside the wheels of his carriage.¹⁰ Then there came the curtained coaches of his wives and concubines and then his sons and younger brothers, followed by the cavalry. All the while, his splendor awed the hundred Man [Southern barbarians] and kept them at bay; even Commander Zhao Tuo [V: Trieu Da] could not compare with him.¹¹

Later, Xie sent out the official Zhang Min with the tribute to the capital. At that time there were revolts among the people everywhere and the road was cut off. Nevertheless, Xie did not cease sending tribute and so, exceptionally, the court again issued an imperial declaration of recognizance; he was bestowed the title of General who Brings Tranquillity to the Far Reaches and raised to the dignity of Marquis of the Commune of Long-do.

[Wu zhi, 4, in Chen Shou, SGZ; trans. O’Harrow, Men of Hu, 259–61]

ZHAO CHENG

AN INDIGENOUS KING (EARLY NINTH CENTURY)

In the late eighth century, an indigenous chief named Phung Hung led an uprising in the upper Red River Delta. He succeeded in taking control of the upriver area and declared himself king. His assumption of power shows the political pattern of local chiefs that was based on personal strength and charisma. This tale was originally recorded by a ninth-century Tang official and was collected by Ly Te Xuyen in Departed Spirits of the Viet Realm (1329).

The Great Father-and-Mother King

According to the Records of Jiao Province of Duke Zhao, the King was of the Phung line and was named Hung. For generations, his ancestors had passed down the tribal chieftainship of the Bien Kho barbarians of Duong Lam province. They were called quan lang. A well-propertied family, they were powerful in their sphere. Hung was of extreme strength and courage, able to fight tigers and push buffalo. His younger brother, called Hai, was also of great strength, able to carry thirteen thousand pounds of stones or a small ten-thousand peck boat for over ten miles. The Di and the Lao all feared their names.

In the Tang Da Li era [766–780], because our army of Annan was in turmoil, the brothers went together to patrol the neighboring regions. These all fell to them, and wherever they went, there were none who did not scatter. Hung was satisfied and changed his name to Cu Lao; Hai changed his name to Cu Luc. Hung took the title of Metropolitan Lord; Hai took the title of Metropolitan Guardian. Using the strategy of Do Anh Luan of Duong Lam, they used troops to patrol the provinces of Duong Lam and Truong Phong. The people all followed them. Their power and reputation resounded greatly.

They released word of their desire to plot against the regional Tang headquarters. At that time, Protector General Gao Chengping brought troops to attack them, but he could not beat them. Melancholic and exasperated, he fell ill with a stomach ulcer and died. Hung entered the regional headquarters, overseeing affairs seven years before dying. The crowds wanted to install Hai. But the assistant chieftain, Bo Pha Can, who was strong enough to clear away mountains and lift up cauldrons, and whose courage and power were excellent, refused to accede and proceeded to install Hung’s son, An, leading a mob against Hai. Hai fled from Bo Pha Can, moving to Chu Nham cave. It is not known what happened to him afterwards. Phung An honored Hung as the Bo Cai Great King, for it is the custom in the realm to call the father bo and call the mother cai. For this reason, his name was given like this.

Phung An continued to rule for two years before Emperor Tang Dezong [780–805] appointed Zhao Cheng to serve as Annan Protector General. Cheng entered the scene, sending an envoy with gifts to instruct Phung An. Phung An duly set out the ceremonial guard and a crowd to meet them in surrender. The people of the Phung line were thus dispersed.

[Ly Te Xuyen, VDULT; trans. Ostrowski and Zottoli, Departed Spirits, 11–12]

GAO PIAN

A NORTHERNER GOVERNING THE SOUTH (870)

After the Nanzhao wars of the 860s, Gao Pian, the victorious Northern general and high official (known to the Vietnamese as King Cao), commented, in a text recorded in the early fourteenth century, on the problems he faced in governing the territory. This text, Short Record of Annan (1333), was compiled by Le Tac, a Vietnamese scholar who had fled to China with the defeated Mongols.

Heaven and earth are boundless;

Man’s strength is but a trifle.

Banish distress by bringing food;

Prosperity comes riding in boats.

Breaking free of this strange affair,

Not just defeat but prolonged destruction,

I devised plans against civil disorder,

For excavating mountains and splitting rocks,

For meritoriously caring for those in need,

Thus rousing the power of thunderbolts,

Causing the sea to form a channel,

Where boats can pass in safety,

With the deep sea stretching out peacefully,

A highway of supply for our city.

The way of Heaven is the foundation of prosperity;

The majesty of the spirits supports and maintains.

[Le Tac, ANCL, 104; trans. Taylor, Birth of Vietnam, 252]

SOCIETY AND CULTURE

FAN YE

HAN OFFICIALS IN THE SOUTH (445)

As the influx of Northerners increased in the first century C.E., they tried to persuade the peoples of the South to adopt their customs. Of particular note were the attempts of the Han officials Ren Yan, in Jiaozhi in the central Red River Delta, and Xi Guang, in Jiuzhen in what is now north-central Vietnam (Thanh Hoa), during the first century C.E., as recorded in the History of the Later Han Dynasty, by Fan Ye (398–445). The Northerners considered the indigenous peoples of the South to be outside civilization and hence barbarians.

Xi Guang gradually instructed the barbarians in feelings of respect and morality. His reputation in government was like that of Ren Yan…. The civilization of Lingnan began with these two men.¹²

Ren Yan ordered the casting of agricultural implements and taught the people land reclamation. Year by year the amount of arable land increased and the common people were provided for…. Yan sent out letters to all dependent prefectures commanding them to have married all men between 20 and 50 years of age and all women between 15 and 40 years. The poor being without betrothal gifts, he ordered all officials to put aside a portion of their salaries to help them. Over 2,000 people were married.

Xi Guang and Ren Yan taught the people agriculture, introduced hats and sandals, and correct betrothal and marriage procedures; they instructed the people in feelings of respect and morality.

[Fan Ye, Hou Han shu, 76/66, 6a–7a, 9a–9b; trans. Holmgren, Chinese Colonisation of Northern Vietnam, 5–6]

ZHOU CHENG

MEMORIAL ON THE SOUTH (SECOND CENTURY)

In the second century C.E., after the first-century rebellion led by the Trung sisters had been crushed, tensions lingered between the incoming Northern officials and local families, many of whom had originally come from the North. Included in the Short Record of Annan (1333), compiled by the Vietnamese Le Tac in China, was the following brief statement written by the official Zhou Cheng to the Northern court. Though short, it represents the Chinese style of critical remonstrance and memorial presented by officials to their monarchs. In his memorial, Zhou presented a Northerner’s view of Southern society.

Jiaozhi is a distant land; greed and corruption are customary practices; powerful families connive in deceit; local officials are reckless and oppressive; the people are plundered and exploited. I have received great kindness and am pleased to be an imperial servant; my desire is that the throne allow me to clean up this one place.

[Le Tac, ANCL, 87–88; trans. Taylor, Birth of Vietnam, 66–67]

XUE ZONG

CUSTOMS OF THE SOUTH (231)

In the first half of the third century, the local official Xue Zong, a Northerner living in the South, was somewhat more measured in his own comments on local society as he pointed out its cultural variation. He believed that the distant Han presence had had little impact on local society. These random comments were recorded in the Chronicle of the Three Kingdoms (297), by Chen Shou.

Customs are not uniform and languages are mutually unintelligible, so that several interpreters are needed to communicate.

The people are like birds and beasts; they wear their hair tied up and go barefoot, while for clothing they simply cut a hole in a piece of cloth for their head or they fasten their garments on the left side in barbarian style.

If district-level officials are appointed, it is the same as if they were not.

Ren Yan taught the people to plow, established schools for instruction in the classics, and made everyone follow proper marriage ceremonies with designated matchmakers, public notification of officials, and parental invitations to formal betrothals.

Yet there is only a rude knowledge of letters here.

Those who came and went at the government posts could observe proper ways of doing things, and, according to the records, civilizing activities have been going on for over four hundred years, but, according to what I myself have seen during many years of travel since my arrival here, the actual situation is something else.

Concerning marriage in Zhuyai [Hainan Island], where all administration has been abandoned, in the eighth month family leaders assemble the people and men and women on their own volition take one another and become husband and wife with the parents having nothing to do with it. In the two districts of Me Linh [part of Phong to the west of present-day Hanoi] in Jiaozhi and Do Long in Jiuzhen, when an elder brother dies, a younger brother marries his widow; this has been going on for generations, thereby becoming an established custom, so district officials give in and allow it, not being able to stop it. In Rinan Prefecture, men and women go naked without shame. In short, it can be said that these people are on the same level as bugs.

[Chen Shou, SGZ, 53, 9a–9b; trans. Taylor, Birth of Vietnam, 75–76]

DAO HUANG

RELATIONS WITH CHAMPA (LATE THIRD CENTURY)

As the Northern dynasties worked to control and civilize peoples of the South—the area of present-day northern Vietnam—their officials in the South also had to contend with rival peoples living outside their territory. Dao Huang, an official appointed by the Wu dynasty, sent a report late in the third century C.E. to the now victorious Jin dynasty, which had replaced the Wu. In it, he speaks of the situation with the realm of Linyi, farther south, which controlled the territory along the coast of present-day central Vietnam, and discusses his thoughts on the matter. As the servant of the previous dynasty, Dao humbly acknowledges that his analysis has no bearing on the new dynasty, but in essence, he is cautioning the new court not to let down its guard against these barbarians on the frontier. In later centuries, Linyi came to be known as Champa. For its entire history, the people of the Red River Delta and the lowlands extending southward have had to contend with peoples of other cultures and ethnicities, in both the highlands and the lowlands. The Chronicle of Dai Viet (1272), by Le Van Huu, includes Dao’s report.

Jiaozhou lies only several thousand leagues from Linyi [Champa]. The barbarian commander Fan Xung, a constant rebel, proclaimed himself king and proceeded to raid our people numerous times. That land, a neighbor of Funan [even farther south], consists of many tribes and rival groups and counts on the difficult access to itself so as to avoid submission to us. When Linyi was still in contact with the Wu, it frequently pillaged our peaceful people, destroyed our local administrative centers, and killed our officials.

While serving the former dynasty [Wu], I took over the defense of the South. It has been more than ten years now. I have eliminated their forces, yet fugitives still remain, hiding deeply in the wilderness. In the beginning, I had 8,000 troops under my command. But now, because the South has humidity and an unhealthy climate, the incessant campaigning and deaths from disease have proceeded to reduce my forces to 2,400. At this time, since the four seas [the world at large] are unified and there is no more insubordination to fear, is it time to hang up our armor and break our swords? Yet here uprisings can break out suddenly. My advice, though from one who served a lost realm [the Wu], doubtless does not merit being followed.

[Ngo Si Lien, Dai Viet su ky toan thu, Outer Records, 8a–8b; trans. John K. Whitmore]

1.  In these cultic tales, the King refers to the historical figure and to the spirit of the cult that he became; Do Thien was a Vietnamese historian in the first half of the twelfth century.

2. Giap mao refers to a particular year in the Chinese stem-and-branch, sixty-year calendrical cycle.

3. Zuo’s Spring and Autumn Annals (Zuoshi chunqiu) is Zuo’s commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals (Chunqiu zuozhuan), one of the Five Classics. This is the only mention of Liu Ziqi in the standard histories.

4. The Classic of Documents is one of the Five Classics.

5. Jiangdong was the capital of the state of Qi. Luy Lau, in the central Red River Delta, was the main port area of Jiaozhi at that time.

6. Rinan (V: Nhat-nam) comprised the north-central coast of Vietnam.

7. Thuc (C: Shu) is the present-day region of Sichuan in southwestern China.

8. Mount Tan Vien is a sacred site for the Vietnamese west of the capital Thang Long (Hanoi).

9. Jiuzhen (V: Cuu-chan) covered present-day Thanh Hoa. Hepu was on the coast of present-day Guangxi Province, and Nanhai covered parts of present-day Guangdong Province.

10. Hu was the Sinic term applied to people of Indian and Central Asian origin.

11. In the second century B.C.E., Commander Zhao Tuo (V: Trieu Da) was the king of Nan Yue, now the two Chinese provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi and northern Vietnam.

12. Lingnan refers to the area South of the Passes, comprising the present-day Chinese provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi and northern Vietnam.

Chapter 2

THE LY, TRAN, AND HO EPOCHS

As the Tang dynasty of the North crumbled and lost its control over various parts of the South, including northern Vietnam, a pattern of regionalism emerged. Local chiefs of what was now the land of Viet vied with one another for dominance, and from the mid-tenth to the mid-eleventh century, the monarchy of Dai Viet gradually took shape. During this time, the Vietnamese fought among themselves and also fended off regional rivals within the South of the old empire (the southeast coast of China). In the 960s, the chieftain Dinh Bo Linh conquered the Twelve Warlords and established his capital and court at Hoa Lu in the hills south of the Red River Delta. His successor, Le Hoan, was able to fight off both the Song dynasty’s attempt to reconquer Annan and the effort by his southern rival, Champa, to achieve regional dominance.

In the early eleventh century, Ly Cong Uan ascended the throne. He was a military member of the royal court who had been mentored by the monk Van Hanh and supported by the Buddhist community. Ly Cong Uan moved the capital back to his home region in the central Red River Delta, situating it on the site of King Cao’s (Gao Pian’s) provincial seat of Dai La. He named his capital Thang Long (Ascending Dragon) and began what became the Ly dynasty (1009–1225). Using the Chinese concept of familial succession, Ly Cong Uan (also known as Thai To [r. 1009–1028]) and his two successors, son and grandson, created the monarchy of Dai Viet, invoking first the spirit cults of the localities, then the growing number of Buddhist temples, and finally the royal cult itself (involving the Buddhist gods Indra and Brahma). All were tied together by the annual oath of allegiance, and they saw themselves ruling the South, as opposed to the distant North.

Throughout the eleventh century, the lowland Vietnamese society grew and prospered in villages that were structured around bilateral kinship and an expanding wet-rice agriculture, mainly in the central Red River Delta region among numerous Buddhist temples and spirit shrines. At this time, Vietnamese society consisted of an aristocracy, a religious class (the Buddhist community), and peasants, along with a few scholars of Chinese texts. Successful wars with Champa down the coast to the south helped secure Dai Viet, in the middle of the Red River Delta, as did its defeat of a separate Tai realm in the northern mountains. Throughout this period, Dai Viet interacted with and borrowed from its Southeast Asian neighbors.

By the end of Dai Viet’s first three reigns in the 1070s, the royal court and the realm had built a structure strong enough to survive without a mature and controlling monarch. Then after the establishment of a royal Buddhism by the fourth ruler, Ly Nhan Tong (r. 1072–1127), the court community of royal wives and mothers joined powerful ministers to rule Dai Viet during the twelfth century. Like their contemporaries at Angkor in Cambodia and Pagan in Myanmar (Burma), the Vietnamese kings governed the area immediately around the capital and cultivated relationships with local leaders farther away. The annual oath ceremony linked to the spirit cults bound the realm together, aided by the Buddhist community. The increasing population and prosperity of the midriver area of the Red River ensured a stable realm even as important changes were taking place. Social and economic growth led to greater trade with both the mountain regions (and their exotic goods) and the coast, where the great surge of international commerce with the Song dynasty had a major impact. Although the lower delta previously had been lightly populated, with the increase in trade the Ly rulers began to set up royal bases in the area. In addition, as Dai Viet’s power grew, so did that of its southern rivals, Champa and Angkor. From the 1120s to the 1210s, warfare broke out among all three realms when each sought political and economic dominance, albeit not the cultural transformation