Nanyue
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Map of Nanyue State

History of Vietnam

Hồng Bàng Dynasty prior to 257 BCE Thục Dynasty 257–207 BCE First Chinese domination 207 BCE – 39 CE • Triệu Dynasty 207–111 BCE Trưng Sisters 40–43 Second Chinese domination 43–544 • Lady Triệu's Rebellion 248 Anterior Lý Dynasty Triệu Việt Vương 544–602 Third Chinese domination 602–905 • Mai Hắc Đế 722 • Phùng Hưng 791–798 Autonomy 905–938 • Khúc Family 906–930 • Dương Đình Nghệ 931–937 • Kiều Công Tiễn 937–938 Ngô Dynasty 939–967 • The 12 Lords Rebellion 966–968 Đinh Dynasty 968–980 Prior Lê Dynasty 980–1009 Lý Dynasty 1009–1225 Trần Dynasty 1225–1400 Hồ Dynasty 1400–1407 Fourth Chinese domination 1407–1427 • Posterior Trần Dynasty 1407–1413 • Lam Sơn Rebellion 1418–1427 Later Lê Dynasty 1428–1788 • Early Lê 1428–1788 • Restored Lê 1533–1788 • Mạc Dynasty 1527–1592 • Trịnh-Nguyễn War 1627–1673 Tây Sơn Dynasty 1778–1802 Nguyễn Dynasty 1802–1945 • Western imperialism 1887–1945 • Empire of Vietnam 1945 Indochina Wars 1945–1975 Partition 1954 • Democratic Republic  of Vietnam 1945–1949 and 1955–1976 • State of Vietnam 1949–1955 • Republic of Vietnam 1955–1975 • Rep. of South Vietnam 1975–1976 Socialist Republic of Vietnam from 1976   Related topics Kingdom of Champa c. 100–1471 List of Vietnamese monarchs Economic history of Vietnam Prehistoric cultures of Vietnam v • d • e

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Nanyue (Chinese: 南越; pinyin: Nányuè; Wade-Giles: Nan Yüeh; Vietnamese: Nam Việt) was an ancient kingdom that consisted of parts of the modern Chinese provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan and much of modern northern Vietnam. The kingdom was established by the Han Chinese general Zhao Tuo (Traditional Chinese: 趙佗; pinyin: Zhào Tuō; Vietnamese: Triệu Đà) of the Qin dynasty who assimilated the customs of the Yue peoples and central China in his territory. Its capital was named Panyu (番禺), in today's Guangzhou, China. In Vietnam, the name Triệu Dynasty (based on the Vietnamese pronunciation of the surname Zhào) is used to refer to the lineage of kings of Nanyue, and by extension the era of Nanyue rule.

History

The history of Nanyue was written in Records of the Grand Historian by Han Dynasty historian Sima Qian, between 109 BC to 91 BC.

After the first Emperor of China Qin Shi Huang united China by conquering all six kingdoms in 219 BC, he ordered his generals to conquer the regions of present-day Guangdong and Guangxi. The conquest was completed in 214 BC. A new administrative unit, Nanhai Commandery (南海郡) was formed to rule the area corresponding approximately to present-day Guangdong. Zhao Tuo was appointed to manage a Longchuan (龍川), a strategic place in the military. He asked Qin Shi Huang to send 500 thousand people from Central China to Nanhai to assimilate the culture of Central China and Yue.

Establishment

Asia in 200BC, showing Nanyue and its neighbors.

After the death of Qin Shi Huang, a wave of anti-Qin riots swept across central China and the Qin Dynasty soon capitulated. In 208 BC, the head of Nanhai Commandery, Ren Xiao (任囂), appointed Zhao Tuo to succeed his position and suggested that Zhao establish a country in the south and take advantage of the mountainous boundary with northern China. Zhao soon reinforced the defences in the mountain passes north and replaced the Qin officials with his own followers. In 203 BC, he conquered another two commanderies, Guilin (桂林郡, approximately Guangxi) and Xiang "Elephant" (象郡, approximately Yunnan, north and central Vietnam), at the south of the mountain. The new kingdom of Nanyue was born, with Pānyú as the capital; Zhao Tuo declared himself Wu Wang (武王, lit. martial king) of Nanyue.

Liu Bang, after years of war with his rivals, established the Han dynasty and reunified Central China in 202 BC. Liu and his successors adopted a policy of peace to give his empire time to regenerate. In 211 BC, the emperor Liu sent Lu Jia (陸賈) to Nanyue to appoint Zhao Tuo as the King of Nanyue. Trade relations were established at the border between Nanyue and the Han kingdom of Changsha. Although formally a Han subject state, Nanyue retained a large measure of effective autonomy.

After the death of Liu Bang in 195 BC, the government was put in the hands of his wife, Empress Lu Zhi, who served as empress dowager over their son Emperor Hui of Han and then Emperor Hui's sons Liu Gong and Liu Hong. Zhao Tuo believed that Wu Chen (吳臣), the Prince of Changsha, had made false accusations against him to get Empress Dowager Lu to block the trade between the states and to prepare to conquer the Nanyue to merge into his principality of Changsha. In revenge, he then declared himself the emperor of Nanyue and attacked the principality of Changsha. Lu sent general Zao (灶) to punish Zhao Tuo. The hot and humid weather made soldiers fall ill and the army unable to go south of the mountains. The army withdrew. With the military success, Zhao Tuo took in the surrounding states of Minyue (閩越) in the east and Ouluo (甌雒) in the west as subject kingdoms. The empress dowager then killed some of Zhao's clan members within Han territory and damaged his ancestors' tombs.

In 179 BC, Liu Heng ascended the Emperor of Han. He reversed the policy of the empress. He ordered officials to visit the family town Zhending (真定), garrison the town and make offerings to his ancestors regularly. His prime minister Chen Ping (陳平) suggested sending Lu Jia to Nanyue as they were familiar with each other. Zhao Tuo felt surprised on Lu's arrival. He then withdrew his title of emperor and Nanyue became Han's subject state.

Zhao Hu

In 137 BC, Zhao Tuo died. His grandson Zhao Hu (趙胡) succeeded the king of Nanyue. Ying Xing (郢興), the king of Minyue, attacked Nanyue. Zhao Hu asked the Emperor Liu Che to send troops to halt the attack of Minyue. The emperor sent two generals to Minyue. Before Han's advancing to Minyue, Ying Xing's younger brother Yu Shan (餘善) killed Ying Xing and surrendered.

The emperor Liu Che sent Zhuang Zhu (莊助) to Nanyue. Zhao Hu thanked the Emperor and sent his son Zhao Yingqi (趙嬰齊) to the Han capital, Chang'an. He also wanted to go Chang'an but was stopped by his minister for fear that he could not return and it would be the end of the kingdom. He thus pretended to be sick and stayed in Nanyue. He really fell sick later for over 10 years and died. He got his posthumous name Wen Di (文帝).

Zhao Yingqi

Zhao Yingqi returned to Nanyue and succeeded the king. He married a woman of family Jiu (樛) from Handan and born a son Zhao Xing (趙興) when he was in Chang'an. He asked the Emperor to appoint Jiu as his queen and Zhao Xing his crown prince. He sent his second son to Chang'an. Zhao Yingqi died with posthumous name Ming Wang (明王).

Zhao Xing

Zhao Xing succeeded Zhao Yingqi as king. As the king was young, the king's mother Jiu took control of the kingdom. In 113 BC, the Emperor sent Anguo Shaoji (安國少季) to Nanyue ask the king and the king's mother to visit the Emperor. Anguo Shaoji was in fact Jiu's lover when she was in Chang'an. They renewed their affair which made the subjects mistrust the king's mother. To secure their positions, the king and his mother wanted Nanyue to be a kingdom within the Han Empire. The king, his mother, and Anguo Shaoji tried to persuade Lu Jia (呂嘉) and other ministers to follow. Lu Jia stood and left. The king's mother tried to kill him but stopped by the king.

Lu Jia refused to meet the king and planned to revolt. As he knew the king had no intention to kill him, the plan was not carried out for months.

Zhao Jiande

The minister Lu Jia revolted and killed the king and the king's mother. He named Zhao Jiande (趙建德), the eldest son of Zhao Yingqi, to be the king of Nanyue. In autumn 112 BC the emperor sent a navy of a hundred thousand strong to attack Nanyue. In winter 111 BC the capital Panyu fell and many surrendered. Lu Jia and Zhao Jiande fled out to sea but were captured soon. Nanyue was officially incorporated into Han.

Kings

Controversy

Among the Vietnamese, the Zhao/Trieu Dynasty was a controversial one. Many consider it a period of Chinese domination since it was ruled by a Chinese general, while others consider it a period of independence because they believed that he adopted Yue customs and often ruled in defiance of the Han emperor.

Most official pre-modern Vietnamese annals, such as the Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư, list the Trieu Dynasty as a Vietnamese dynasty.

View of the tomb of Zhào Hú from above

Archaeological findings

In June of 1983, The tomb of Zhao Hu was found in Guangzhou. Thousands of artefacts were found, including bronze ritual utensils, musical instruments, weapons, farming utensils, lacquer, silk, and jewelry of jade, gold, silver, and ivory. Others were also found buried with the king. In addition, the gold seal of Wen Di was unearthed.

Guangdong and Vietnam

Nán/Nam (南) means in the south and Yuè/Việt (越) means Yue/Viet people and the place of Yue/Viet people. Nam Viet is a southern country in the place of Viet people.

The Chinese character 越 (Yuè/Việt) and its homonym variant 粤 (Yuè/Việt), were used in ancient times to refer to people or peoples inhabiting southern China: see Yue (peoples) for details. Today, the former character refers either to the people, culture, and languages of Zhejiang province (on the east coast) or Vietnam, while the latter character refers to those of Guangdong province.

After the Han Chinese controlled the Nanyue area for nearly 1000 years, people in northern Vietnam were partly sinicized while the areas of present-day Guangdong and Guangxi were largely sinicized.

The people in what is now northern Vietnam broke away from China in 938 A.D. after their victory on the Bach Dang river. They formed their own kingdom and called it Đại Việt (The Great Việt Kingdom). This kingdom grew stronger; it expanded south and conquered the Champa kingdom (in central Vietnam) and most of the Khmer empire (in present-day southern Vietnam), forcing the Khmer to migrate. In 1800s, Nguyen Anh, a Vietnamese king, wanted to change his kingdom's name from Dai Viet to Nam Viet. However the Qing Emperor at that time did not want to confuse it with the ancient kingdom thus changing the name to Viet Nam (south of Yue or Viet). The Kinh people (a subset of the Yue/Viet peoples) form the modern majority ethnic group of Vietnam.

See also

• Triệu Dynasty
• An Dương Vương

References

• Records of the Grand Historian, vol. 113.
• Book of Han, vol. 95.
• Zizhi Tongjian, vols. 12, 13, 17, 18, 20.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Nanyue

• Wiktionary, the free dictionary, has entries on all these Chinese characters: 南, 越, 粤