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The grim resistance by the population against Chinese
imperialist domination, which persisted century after
century, time and again, broke out in the form of armed
insurrection.
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
coordinated 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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