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Vietnam EARLY HISTORY
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Figure 2. Location of Vietnam in Asia, 1987
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Figure 3. Nam Viet Before Conquest by China in 111 B.C.
The Vietnamese people represent a fusion of races, languages,
and cultures, the elements of which are still being sorted out by
ethnologists, linguists, and archaeologists. As was true for most
areas of Southeast Asia, the Indochina Peninsula was a crossroads
for many migrations of peoples, including speakers of
Austronesian, Mon-Khmer, and Tai languages
(see
fig. 2). The
Vietnamese language provides some clues to the cultural mixture
of the Vietnamese people. Although a separate and distinct
language, Vietnamese borrows much of its basic vocabulary from
Mon-Khmer, tonality from the Tai languages, and some grammatical
features from both Mon-Khmer and Tai. Vietnamese also exhibits
some influence from Austronesian languages, as well as large
infusions of Chinese literary, political, and philosophical
terminology of a later period.
The area now known as Vietnam has been inhabited since
Paleolithic times, with some archaeological sites in Thanh Hoa
Province reportedly dating back several thousand years.
Archaeologists link the beginnings of Vietnamese civilization to
the late Neolithic, early Bronze Age, Phung-nguyen culture, which
was centered in Vinh Phu Province of contemporary Vietnam from
about 2000 to 1400 B.C.
(see
fig. 1). By about 1200 B.C., the
development of wet-rice cultivation and bronze casting in the Ma
River and Red River plains led to the development of the Dong Son
culture, notable for its elaborate bronze drums. The bronze
weapons, tools, and drums of Dong Sonian sites show a Southeast
Asian influence that indicates an indigenous origin for the
bronze-casting technology. Many small, ancient copper mine sites
have been found in northern Vietnam. Some of the similarities
between the Dong Sonian sites and other Southeast Asian sites
include the presence of boat-shaped coffins and burial jars,
stilt dwellings, and evidence of the customs of betel-nut-chewing
and teeth-blackening.
According to the earliest Vietnamese traditions, the founder
of the Vietnamese nation was Hung Vuong, the first ruler of the
semilegendary Hung dynasty (2879-258 B.C., mythological dates) of
the kingdom of Van Lang. Hung Vuong, in Vietnamese mythology, was
the oldest son of Lac Long Quan (Lac Dragon Lord), who came to
the Red River Delta from his home in the sea, and Au Co, a
Chinese immortal. Lac Long Quan, a Vietnamese cultural hero, is
credited with teaching the people how to cultivate rice. The Hung
dynasty, which according to tradition ruled Van Lang for eighteen
generations, is associated by Vietnamese scholars with Dong
Sonian culture. An important aspect of this culture by the sixth
century B.C. was the tidal irrigation of rice fields through an
elaborate system of canals and dikes. The fields were called Lac
fields, and Lac, mentioned in Chinese annals, is the earliest
recorded name for the Vietnamese people.
The Hung kings ruled Van Lang in feudal fashion with the aid
of the Lac lords, who controlled the communal settlements around
each irrigated area, organized construction and maintenance of
the dikes, and regulated the supply of water. Besides cultivating
rice, the people of Van Lang grew other grains and beans and
raised stock, mainly buffaloes, chickens, and pigs. Potterymaking and bamboo-working were highly developed crafts, as were
basketry, leather-working, and the weaving of hemp, jute, and
silk. Both transport and communication were provided by dugout
canoes, which plied the network of rivers and canals.
The last Hung king was overthrown in the third century B.C.
by An Duong Vuong, the ruler of the neighboring upland kingdom of
Thuc. An Duong Vuong united Van Lang with Thuc to form Au Lac,
building his capital and citadel at Co Loa, thirty-five
kilometers north of present-day Hanoi. An Duong's kingdom was
short-lived, however, being conquered in 208 B.C. by the army of
the Chinese Qin dynasty (221-207 B.C.) military commander Trieu
Da (Zhao Tuo in Chinese). Reluctant to accept the rule of the Qin
dynasty's successor, the new Han dynasty (206 B.C.-A.D. 220),
Trieu Da combined the territories under his control in southern
China and northern Vietnam and established the kingdom of Nam
Viet (Nan Yue in Chinese), meaning Southern Viet. Viet (Yue) was
the term applied by the Chinese to the various peoples on the
southern fringes of the Han empire, including the people of the
Red River Delta. Trieu Da divided his kingdom of Nam Viet into
nine military districts; the southern three (Giao Chi, Cuu Chan,
and Nhat Nam) included the northern part of present-day Vietnam.
The Lac lords continued to rule in the Red River Delta, but as
vassals of Nam Viet
(see
fig. 3).
Data as of December 1987
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