W.Minh Tuan

King An Duong Vuong replaced the 18th King Hung Vuong in 258 BC.

There are 2 theories here.

One theory is that King An Duong Vuong of Au Viet invaded, overthrew the 18th Hung King of Lac Viet, merged the two countries of Au Viet, and Lac Viet to become Au Lac country.

The second theory is that the 18th King Hung Vuong had a daughter, My Chau, who married Son Tinh. Son Tinh son-in-law advised King Hung Vuong to give the throne to the king of the country next to Au Lac, that is Thuc Phan, because Thuc Phan was a talented, gentle king, and as the same as of Bach Viet lineage from 100 eggs laid by Mrs. Au Co more than 2,000 years before.

(We now live in the year 2023, about 2,300 years ago was the reign of the 18th King Hung Vuong and King An Duong Vuong. And the reign of the 18th King Hung Vuong and King An Duong Vuong Thuc Phan, and Son Tinh-Thuy Tinh are about 2,000 years after period of Mrs. Au Co gave birth to 100 eggs)

This second theory is consistent with the Swearing Stone Stele relic on Ngu Linh Mountain, Hung Temple, Vinh Phu today.

This Oath Stone Stele was built more than 1,000 years ago, during the reign of King Dinh Tien Hoang – Dinh Bo Linh, which is also about more than 1,000 years after the reign of An Duong Vuong.

However, the time of King Dinh Tien Hoang and the time of King Hung Vuong 18, more than 1000 years apart, in terms of culture, history, and level of development were not much different, unlike today’s modern industrial-internet era.

So the memories from the time of Hung King 1000 years before, to the time of King Dinh Bo Linh 1000 years later, are still as fresh as if it happened just a short while ago.

Therefore, we can completely believe that the Oath Stone Stele at Hung-Vinh Phu temple today is based on reliable legends.

However, King An Duong Vuong Thuc Phan only existed for 51 years, and in 207 BC, he was annexed by Trieu Da of the Han Dynasty.

Trieu Da used a trick to make his son Trong Thuy to be the son-in-law of King An Duong Vuong, then stole the secret of King An Duong Vuong’s magic crossbow, overthrew King An Duong Vuong, and established the rule of the Han Dynasty over Vietnam since 207 BC.

From then on, Chinese dynasties ruled the Vietnamese people for 1146 years, until 938 AD, when King Ngo Quyen rebelled, overthrowing the Han Dynasty, and the following year, 939, defeated the Southern Han army on the Bach Dang River, permanently ending the period of 1000 years of Northern domination.

Mr. Tran Trong Kim tends to classify the Northern domination twice, the first time from 111 BC, when Trieu Da was overthrown by the Western Han Dynasty, to the year 40, when Hai Ba Trung rebelled and defeated the Western Han army.

After that, Mr. Tran Trong Kim classified the second period of Northern domination, from the year 43, after the defeat of Hai Ba Trung, to the year 939 when Ngo Quyen defeated the Southern Han army on the Bach Dang River.

Such a classification is very wrong, because in this way, Mr. Tran Trong Kim repeats the mistake of Mr. Le Van Huu, considering Trieu Da as the ancestor of our country Vietnam.

There was only one time of Northern domination, which was when Trieu Da overthrew King An Duong Vuong in 207 BC, which lasted until Ngo Quyen established independence, proclaimed Ngo Vuong in 939, lasting 1146 years.

The Western Han dynasty’s overthrow of Trieu Da was to overthrow a rebel general of the Qin Dynasty, to unify the rule of our Vietnamese people, not to overthrow the king of our country.

Trieu Da has never been the king of our Vietnam, and will never be the king of our Vietnam, but is only a foreigner who rules over our people.

The first question is why King An Duong Vuong lost to Trieu Da, allowing the Vietnamese people to be oppressed and ruled by the Han Dynasty for more than 1,000 years?

Perhaps the section about the Hung King period in Chapter 1 answered this question quite clearly.

First, for nearly 3,000 years, during the Hung King period, we lived in peace, with almost no war, so in terms of war, we did not know how to fight, did not prepare weapons or fortified citadels necessary, without adequate military training, to fully and thoughtfully defend the country.

Second, mentally, Vietnamese people at that time never thought that Van Lang, Lac Viet, Au Lac would one day be invaded by the Northern enemy.

We have lived peacefully for nearly 3,000 years, no one has invaded our country, so we are not very likely to fight, not thinking that anyone will invade us, is a natural mentality.

Therefore, when Trieu Da used a sinister plan to send Trong Thuy’s son to marry My Nuong, to steal the military secrets of our Vietnamese people, as mentioned above, we lost easily.

But there is a second question, that is, why were our Vietnamese people colonized by the Northern invaders for more than 1,000 years, but our Vietnamese people were not assimilated? not Han sinicized?

We Vietnamese people are heavily influenced by Han culture, but we have not been Sinicized, like many other ethnic groups colonized by the Han people, and were Sinicized after only a few hundred years.

This question continues to attract the attention of many domestic and foreign researchers.

Perhaps it is also the Vietnamese nation’s character of love for peace, altruism, kindness, and equality, built since the Hung King period, that has made our Vietnamese nation stable and not changed much during the 1000 years of Northern domination.

If the peace-loving personality of our Vietnamese people is one of the causes the reason why we were defeated during King An Duong’s time, was the same peace-loving personality that made our Vietnamese people unable to accept being colonized and ruled by foreigners.

And that was the important reason that created a series of uprisings against the domination of the Northern Han Dynasty during more than 1,000 years of Northern domination.

Try listing the uprisings against 1,000 years of Northern domination in our country:

-The first was the Hai Ba Trung Uprising in 40-43. Thus, since Trieu Da placed the yoke of domination on our country in 207 BC, it was 247 years later that our country had the first uprising of the Trung Sisters against the Han Dynasty. And this first uprising was by two women, not two men, showing that the Matriarchy regime is very strong in Vietnam.

-The second is the Ba Trieu Uprising in 248, which is 245 years after the Hai Ba Trung Uprising.

This second uprising was also by a woman, not a man.

-Third, the Ly Bi uprising, also known as Ly Nam De, also known as the Early Ly dynasty, in 544-602, 298 years after the Ba Trieu uprising. Ly Nam De defeated the Luong Dynasty, became king, and named the country Van Xuan.

Fourth, the Mai Hac De uprising in 722, 120 years after the Ly Nam De uprising.

Fifth, the Phung Hung-Bo Cai Dai Vuong uprising in 791, 69 years after the Mai Hac De uprising.

Sixth, father and son Khuc Thua Du, Khuc Hao, and Khuc Thua My were appointed by the Han Dynasty as Emperors in 906-917, 15 years after the Phung Hung uprising.

I don’t call this an uprising, because Mr. Khuc Thua Du is from Hai Duong, and his son is Khuc Hao, his grandson is Khuc Thua My, all were appointed by the Han Dynasty of the Five Gui Dynasty at that time to be the Governors to govern our country Vietnam.

This is the first time during the 1000 years of Chinese domination that our Vietnamese people were allowed by the Han Dynasty to self-govern our country, due to the Han Dynasty’s constant civil war, for 52 years, from 907 to 959, there were Up to 5 dynasties took turns holding power in the Han country, so history called it the Five Gui period.

Father and son Khuc Thua Du and Khuc Hao were benevolent and generous people, loved by the Vietnamese people, so the Han dynasty had to let Khuc Thua Du and Khuc Hao become the envoys.

By 917, Mr. Khuc Thua My, son of Mr. Khuc Hao, had the intention of not serving the Southern Han dynasty and intended to build independence, so the Southern Han dynasty sent troops to fight, captured Khuc Thua My and brought him back to Han.

Seventh, the Ngo Quyen uprising began in 938, 21 years after Khuc Thua My, ending the 1000-year period of Northern domination.

It can be said that without the patriotic role of father and son Khuc Thua Du and Khuc Hao, there could not have been the Ngo Quyen uprising that ended 1,000 years of Northern domination. Because Mr. Ngo Quyen was a former general of Mr. Duong Dien Nghe, and Duong Dien Nghe was a general of Khuc Hao.

It can be said that the many uprisings against the Han Dynasty’s domination during the 1,000 years of Northern domination trained the Vietnamese people to fight, to be brave, tenacious, intelligent, creative, and knowledgeable how fight, and dare to fight.

And the Han people could not believe that this small nation, ruled for more than 1,000 years, could fight so well.

Mr. Ngo Quyen used the tactic of planting wooden stakes on the Bach Dang River to defeat the Southern Han army, and killed general Hoang Thao of the Southern Han Dynasty.

Thus, it was the peace-loving spirit of the Vietnamese people that caused King An Duong Vuong to lose to Trieu Da, causing us to be dominated by the Chinese enemy for more than 1,000 years.

But that same peace-loving spirit made the Vietnamese people unable to accept being dominated and oppressed by others, so they always rose up against the Han invaders.

And those continuous uprisings have trained the Vietnamese people to become a warlike and tenacious people, and at the same time know how to unite and love each other, creating the unparalleled strength of the Vietnamese people.

That peace-loving spirit from the time of Hung King has also been deeply ingrained in the subconscious of our Vietnamese people, creating national strength, causing our Vietnamese people not to be assimilated, despite being under more than 1,000 years of Northern domination.

This is the logic of the peace-loving spirit of our Vietnamese people from the time of Hung King passed down to our Vietnamese people until today.

But 1000 years of Northern domination also left extremely strong marks, causing many changes to the Vietnamese people, destroying many precious cultural and spiritual values of the Vietnamese people, but at the same time, Vietnamese people also absorb the precious and good values of Han culture.

American historian K.W Taylor said it correctly:

“Vietnamese history as we know it today could not exist without Chinese history”.

However, if we had not been under 1,000 years of Chinese domination, our Vietnamese history would not have been what it is today, it would have been better, with long-standing, precious cultural values from the time of the Hung Kings, such as kindness, equality, generosity,,, will be maintained and developed to this day.

We know that 18 generations of Hung Kings passed the throne to each other without any competition for the throne. Furthermore, the Hung kings also used the common king’s title, not the individual king’s title, showing friendliness, equality, regardless of the individual interests of each king, and not consider yourself better than others.

However, after more than 700 years of being dominated by the Chinese, for the first time, Vietnamese people had a fight over each other’s throne, during the Ly Nam De uprising in 544-602.

King Ly Bi defeated the Luong dynasty, established the Van Xuan kingdom, and proclaimed himself Ly Nam De.

The Luong Dynasty sent troops to fight. Ly Nam De retreated to the Dien Triet lake area (in Tu Yen commune, Lap Thach district, Vinh Phu today), then died of illness in 548.

Ly Nam De’s general, Trieu Quang Phuc, took over, proclaimed himself Trieu Viet Vuong, retreated to Da Trach lagoon, and was helped by the couple Chu Dong Tu and Tien Dung to use the dragon claw as a weapon to fight against the army Luong.

But in 577, a relative of Ly Nam De named Ly Phat Tu also rose up, led an army to oppose the Luong army, and fought with King Trieu Viet Vuong to compete for the throne.

The incident of Ly Phat Tu fighting with Trieu Viet Vuong for the throne in 577 was the first event of fighting for the throne in Vietnam.

This is definitely influenced by Chinese culture. After more than 700 years of our country being colonized by the Chinese, the trait of competing for each other’s throne began to appear in our Vietnamese people.

Furthermore, although Ly Bi-Ly Nam De was from Thai Binh, he was originally from China and had come to our country to flee for 7 generations, and had become Vietnamese.

But perhaps the Chinese trait of competing for the throne is still present in the Ly Bi family?

Since the first struggle for the throne in the year 577 in the history of our country, Vietnamese people have also had many bad personalities like the Chinese, which are cruelty, dictatorship, greed, harshness, competition to usurp the throne, are characteristics that Vietnamese people did not have for nearly 3,000 years during the Hung King period.

Many of our feudal kings had cruel and dirty personalities that were no different from the cruel kings in China, such as King Le Ngoa Trieu in the Pre-Le and Le Dai Hanh periods, and Le Uy Muc in the Later- Le and Le Loi periods.

And now, adding class division, class struggle, losing the solidarity of our Vietnamese people, continuing to destroy Vietnamese culture.

1000 years of Northern domination did not pit children against fathers, wives against husbands, brothers in the house fighting, accusing each other like in the Land Reform of 1954-1956.

More than 1,000 years of feudal strife under the Ly, Tran, Le, Nguyen, Trinh-Nguyen dynasties did not hold back talented people, there was no backgroundism.

For nearly 100 years, the French colonized our country and did not turn communal houses, pagodas, and temples into dung warehouses, kindergartens, or schools, allowing children to urinate on Buddha statues.

And today’s interest groups are colluding with some corrupt officials, plotting to expel schools and hospitals from the center of Hanoi, with Decision No. 1259/QD-TTg dated July 26, 2011 by MP.Nguyen Tan Dung signed, on the approval of the General Planning for the construction of Hanoi Capital until 2030 and a vision to 2050, to get land to build restaurants, hotels, luxury apartments, offices for rent,,,.

Evicting schools and hospitals from the center of the thousand-year-old capital of Thang Long is unprecedented in Vietnam’s more than 4,000-year history.

If Uncle Ho was still alive, Uncle probably wouldn’t have allowed to do that eviction.///