History of Vietnam: Encyclopedia II - History of Vietnam - Dynastic Period

History of Vietnam - Dynastic Period

When the Lê emperor Lê Long Đĩnh died in his twenties, a court general named Lý Công Uẩn took the chance to take over the throne and founded the Lý dynasty. This event is regarded as the beginning of a golden era in Vietnamese history, with great dynasties following one another. Lý Công Uẩn (commonly called Lý Thái Tổ - Lý the Founding Emperor) changed the country's name to Đại Việt, established the capital in present-day Hanoi and called it Thăng Long (Ascending Dragon) under the pretext of seeing a dragon when he was touring the area. As with other dynasties in Vietnamese history, the Lý had many wars with the Chinese, most notably when Lý troops under command of the eunuch-turned-general Lý Thường Kiệt fought against the invasion of the Sung empire. Lý Thường Kiệt later defeated Sung troops at the battle by Như Nguyệt river (commonly Cầu river), now in Băc Ninh province (about 40km from the current capital, Hanoi).

During the late Lý era, a court official named Trần Thủ Độ became powerful. He forced the emperor Lý Huệ Tông to become a Buddhist monk and set Lý Chiêu Hoàng, Huệ Tông's young daughter, to become the empress. Trần Thủ Độ then arranged the marriage of Chiêu Hoàng to his nephew Trần Cảnh and the transfer of the throne between the two. Thus ended the Lý dynasty and started the Trần dynasty.

During the Trần dynasty, Đại Việt was under attacks three times by the Mongols, who had occupied China and were ruling as the Yuan dynasty. It was during this period that Vietnamese nationalism began to form, as the Trần used the so-called "Đông A spirit" to mobilize people to fight against Mongol invaders. According to Vietnamese pronunciation of Chinese characters, the word "Trần" consists of the two words "Đông" and "A". Using this propaganda combined with guerilla warfare tactics, Trần troops stopped all three Yuan invasions. The Yuan-Trần war reached its climax when Yuan navy was decimated at the battle of Bạch Đằng river. Trần troops, with the noble lord Trần Hưng Đạo as commander-in-chief, used the exact same tactics as Ngô Quyền had used centuries before, at the exact same site, to defeat northern invaders. Trần Hưng Đạo, whose real name was Trần Quốc Tuấn, is regarded as the national hero and a major figure in Vietnamese history's lineup of great military strategists.

It was also during this period that the Trần kings waged many wars against the southern kingdom of Chiêm Thành (Champa), continuing the Viets' long history of southern expansion (known as Nam Tiến) that had begun shortly after gaining independence from China. However, they encountered strong resistance from the Chams, and Champa troops led by their king Chế Bồng Nga (Binasuor) even sacked Đại Việt's capital Thăng Long in 1372 and again in 1377.

The Trần dynasty was in turn overthrown by one of its own court officials, Hồ Quý Ly. Hồ Quý Ly also forced the last Trần emperor to resign to a pagoda and assumed the throne in 1400. He changed the country name to Đại Ngu and moved the capital to Tây Đô (Western Capital, now Thanh Hóa). Thăng Long was renamed Đông Đô (Eastern Capital). Although widely blamed as the person who disrupted the Trần dynasty and let the country fall under the rule of the Chinese Ming dynasty, Hồ Quý Ly's reign actually saw a lot of progressive, ambitious reforms, including free education, the adoption of Nôm characters for writing official documents, and land reform. He ceded the throne to his son, Hồ Hán Thương, in 1401 and assumed the title Thái Thượng Hoàng (The Highest Father Emperor).

In 1407, Ming troops sacked Tây Đô and captured Hồ Quý Ly and Hồ Hán Thương. The Hồ dynasty came to an end after mere 7 years.

Lê Lợi waged a guerilla war against the Ming for over a decade from the forest of Lam Sơn (Thanh Hóa province). After many defeats, he finally gathered momentum and was able to launch a siege at Đông Quan (now Hanoi), the site of the Ming administration. The Ming emperor sent a reinforcement force to rescue, but Lê Lợi staged an ambush and killed the general, Liu Shan. Ming's troops at Đông Quan surrendered. In 1428, Lê Lợi ascended to the throne and the Hậu Lê dynasty (Posterior Lê) began.

In 1472, Lê troops led by the emperor Lê Thánh Tông (Lê the Saintly Emperor) invaded Champa, captured its capital Đồ Bàn (Indrapura) and massacred the city's residents. This event effectively ended the centuries-old wars between the Vietnamese and Cham kingdoms, and initiated the dispersal of the Cham diaspora across southeast Asia.

With the kingdom of Champa annihilated and the Cham people exiled or suppressed, Vietnamese colonization of what is now central Vietnam proceeded without substantial resistance. However, despite becoming greatly outnumbered by Kinh settlers and the integration of formerly Cham territory into the Vietnamese nation (it is notable that the modern city of Hue lies where the Champa capital of Indrapura once stood), populations of Cham nevertheless remained in Vietnam and now comprise one of the minority peoples of modern Vietnam.

The Lê dynasty was overthrown by a general named Mạc Đăng Dung in 1527. He killed the Lê emperor and set himself as king, starting the Mạc dynasty. After ruling for two years, Mạc Đăng Dung adopted Hồ Quý Ly's practice and ceded the throne to his son, Mạc Đăng Doanh, and himself become Thái Thượng Hoàng. Nguyễn Kim, a former official in the Lê court, set up a Lê prince as the emperor Lê Trang Tông and rebelled against the Mạc. A civil war ensued.

Nguyễn Kim's side was winning the war, and he controlled most of the country, leaving only the area around the capital Đông Quan to the Mạc. When Nguyễn Kim was assassinated in 1545, military power fell into the hand of his son-in-law, Trịnh Kiểm. The civil war between Lê and Mạc dynasties came to an end in 1592, when the Mạc emperor Mạc Mậu Hợp was captured and executed. Survivors of the Mạc royal family fled to the mountains in province of Cao Bằng and continue to rule there until 1677.

After Trịnh Kiểm assumed power from Nguyễn Kim, he killed Nguyễn Kim's son Nguyễn Uông. Another son of Nguyễn Kim's named Nguyễn Hoàng fled to the province of Thuận Hóa and waged a war against the Trịnh Lords, who was by then effectively ruled the country, with the Lê emperors having no true power. The Trịnh-Nguyễn civil war lasted a century and a half, and is the longest war in the nation's history.

Meanwhile, the Nguyễn Lords continued the southward expansion by conquest of the various Khmer territories in the Mekong delta, and by the end of their rule had brough Vietnam's territory to almost present-day shape. Similar to the defeat of Champa, Vietnamese military victories in these territories initiated the large-scale colonization of what is now southern Vietnam by Kinh settlers in an area previously populated mainly by Khmers. Those who remained in the territories settled by the Vietnamese settlers became the Khmer Krom minority of modern Vietnam and have maintained a distinct ethnic identity, despite substantial intermarriage with Vietnamese and widespread adoption of the Vietnamese language and cultural influence.

In 1771, the Tây Sơn rebellion broke out in Bình Định province, under the Nguyễn Lord's rule. Leaders of this rebellion were three Nguyễn brothers (not related to the Nguyễn lords): Nguyễn Nhạc, Nguyễn Huệ, and Nguyễn Lữ. By 1777, the Tây Sơn had occupied all of the Nguyễn Lord's land and killed Lord Nguyễn Phúc Thuận. The surviving prince Nguyễn Phúc Ánh fled to Siam, and pledged to the Siamese king for support. When Nguyễn Phúc Ánh came back with Siamese troops in an attempt to regain power, he was defeated together with 500,000 Siam troops at Rạch Gầm and Xoài Mút by Nguyễn Huệ. Nguyễn Phúc Ánh had to flee again.

The Tây Sơn (西山) under Nguyễn Huệ's command pushed north to fight the Trịnh Lord. He succeeded in wiping out all the Trịnh troops and captured the capital, once again had been renamed Thăng Long. The Lê emperor, Lê Chiêu Thống, fled to China and pledged for help. The Qing emperor Qianlong supplied Lê Chiêu Thống with a massive army to support him. (The Manchus had conquered China and assumed the dynastic name of Qing.) Nguyễn Huệ proclaimed himself as the Emperor Quang Trung and defeated Qing troops in a quick, decisive attack to Hanoi. During his reign, Quang Trung imposed many reforms and is widely regarded as a good emperor. He died in 1792, at 40 years old.

After Quang Trung's death, the Tây Sơn court became unstable. Nguyễn Phúc Ánh, the surviving prince of the Nguyễn Lords, received help from France. In 1800, Nguyễn Phúc Ánh captured Tây Sơn's citadel Quy Nhơn. One year later, he occupied Phú Xuân (now Huế), Tây Sơn's central capital. Nguyễn Phúc Ánh finally won the war in 1802, when he sieged Thăng Long, captured and executed Quang Trung's son, Nguyễn Quang Toản, along with many Tây Sơn's generals and court officials. Nguyễn Phúc Ánh ascended to the throne and chose the name Gia Long. Gia is for Gia Định, the old name of Saigon; Long is for Thăng Long, the old name of Hanoi. Hence Gia Long implies the unification of the country. The Nguyễn dynasty lasted until Bảo Đại's abdication in 1945.

The modern name of Vietnam is known officially came under the Emperor Gia Long's reign, but recently historians have found that this name has been existed in older books in which Vietnamese called their country name Vietnam. In 1802, he asked the Manchu Chinese emperor for permission to rename the country, from An Nam to Nam Viet. To prevent any confusion of Gia Long's kingdom with Triệu Đà's ancient kingdom, the Chinese emperor reversed the order of the two words to Viet Nam.

There were over ten recognizable dynasties in Vietnam's history. Some are not considered official, such as the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and the Tây Sơn dynasty.

Almost all Vietnamese dynasties are named after the ruler's family name, unlike the Chinese dynasties, whose names are an attribute chosen by the first emperors.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Dynastic Period", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki