Fourth Chinese domination of Vietnam

Giao Chỉ
Fourth Chinese domination of Vietnam
Giao Chỉ; Fourth Chinese domination of Vietnam
	Province of Ming dynasty
	1407–1427
	;
• Type	Provincial
History
• Defeat of the Hồ dynasty	1407
• Defeat of the Later Trần dynasty	1413
• End of the Lam Sơn uprising	1427
Preceded by	Succeeded by
	Hồ dynasty
Lê dynasty

The fourth Chinese domination was a period of the history of Vietnam, from 1407 to 1427 during which the country was invaded and ruled by the Chinese Ming dynasty. It was the result of the conquest of the region in 1406 to 1407. The previous periods of Chinese rules, collectively known as the Bắc thuộc periods in Vietnam, were longer-lasting, constituting much of Vietnam's history from 111 BC to 939 AD. The fourth Chinese occupation of Vietnam was eventually ended with the establishment of the Lê dynasty.

History

Ming invasion of Vietnam

Jiaozhi (northern Vietnam) when it was under Ming occupation

The former ruling dynasty of Đại Việt, the Trần, had relations with the Yuan and Ming Empire as a tributary. However, in 1400, Hồ Quý Ly (胡季犛) deposed and massacred the Trần house before usurping the throne. After taking the throne, Hồ renamed the country from Đại Việt to Đại Ngu (大虞). In 1402, he abdicated the throne in favor of his son, Hồ Hán Thương (胡漢蒼).

In October 1404, Trần Thiêm Bình (陳添平) arrived at the Ming imperial court in Nanjing, claiming to be a Trần prince. He notified the court of the treacherous events that had taken place and appealed to the court for the restoration of his throne.

The Yongle Emperor of the Ming Empire issued an edict reprimanding the usurper and demanding the restoration of the Tran throne, a pretext to the annexation of Vietnam. As the party crossed the border into Lạng Sơn, Hồ's forces ambushed them and killed the Trần prince that the Ming convoy were escorting back.

In the winter of 1406, the Ming armies began their invasion. Zhang Fu and Mu Sheng departed from Guangxi and Yunnan respectively to launch a pincer attack into enemy territory. On 19 November 1406, they captured the two capitals and other important cities in the Red River Delta. Hồ Quý Ly and his son were captured on 16 June 1407, they were caged and brought as prisoners to the Yongle Emperor in Nanjing.

Revolt of Trần aristocrats

There was several revolts among the Vietnamese people against the Ming authorities, only to be crushed by the Ming army. Among the people who led the rebellion were, Trần Ngỗi (revolted 1407–09), a young son of the late Trần emperor Trần Nghệ Tông and Trần Quý Khoáng, a nephew. These revolts were short-lived and poorly planned but they helped lay some of the groundwork for Lê Lợi's war for independence.

Lam Sơn uprising

Lê Lợi, one of Vietnam's most celebrated heroes, is credited with rescuing the country from Ming domination in 1428. Born of a wealthy landowning family, he served as a senior scholar-official until the advent of the Ming, whom he refused to serve.

The Ming dynasty crushed Lê's rebellion at first but court debates concluded that Vietnam was an unnecessary distraction and the Ming decided to withdraw their armies from Vietnam, long before the rebels started scoring any victories. When Lê offered to become a vassal of China, the Ming immediately declared him as ruler of Vietnam.[1] Le Loi then ascended the Vietnamese throne, taking the reign name Lê Thái Tổ and establishing the Lê dynasty (1428–1788).

Culture and hairstyle

When Han Chinese ruled the Vietnamese in the Fourth Chinese domination of Vietnam due to the Ming dynasty's conquest during the Ming–Hồ War they imposed the Han Chinese style of men wearing long hair on short haired Vietnamese men. Vietnamese were ordered to stop cutting and instead grow their hair long and switch to Han Chinese clothing in only a month by a Ming official. Vietnamese were ordered to stop cutting and instead grow their hair long and switch to Han Chinese clothing in only a month by a Ming official. Ming administrators said their mission was to civilized the unorthodox Vietnamese barbarians.[2] The Ming dynasty only wanted the Vietnamese to wear long hair and to stop teeth blackening so they could have white teeth and long hair like Chinese.[3] A royal edict was issued by Vietnam in 1474 forbidding Vietnamese from adopting foreign languages, hairstyles and clothes like that of the Lao, Champa or the "Northerners" which referred to the Ming. The edict was recorded in the 1479 Complete Chronicle of Dai Viet of Ngô Sĩ Liên.[4]

Economy

The Ming government began a harsh rule of both colonization and sinicization. Valuable artifacts such as gems, jade, gold, pieces of art as well as craftsmen were transported to China. The Chinese had greatly encouraged the development and the use of gold and silver mines. But right after the silver and gold were extracted they impounded them and sent a fraction of these minerals to Beijing. They also imposed salt taxes, but a slightly heavier tax against those who produced salt in Annam.

Military and administration

It was instructed that the Ming army should free the prisoners from various countries who were taken captive by so-called Li bandits in Vietnam.[5]

To keep the people under control in Vietnam, the Ming government issued, and utilized the "So Ho" system, (literally meaning Family Book) at the lowest village community level. Whenever there was a change in a family, a change in the book was recorded and approved. Based on this information, they created a systematic military service enrollment process for all young men deemed fit enough to serve in the future for the Imperial Chinese Army. This process was no different than what other governments did to subjugated areas, nonetheless, this had created a negative feeling against the Chinese government. In addition, many talented Vietnamese individuals with varying trades and backgrounds who could make significant contributions were allowed to become government officials in China where they served in the Chinese imperial government.

The Ming's ethnic Vietnamese collaborators included Mac Thuy whose grandfather was Mạc Đĩnh Chi who was a direct ancestor of Mạc Đăng Dung.[6][7]

Vietnam received firearms from Ming dynasty rule over Vietnam.[8][9]

The conquest of Champa was enabled when Vietnam's north received gunpowder weapons from the Ming dynasty along with Neo-Confucianist thought.[10]

It was recorded that the union of Vietnamese women and Chinese (Ngô) men produced offspring which were left behind in Vietnam, and the Chams, Cẩu Hiểm, Laotians, these people, and Vietnamese natives who collaborated with the Ming were made into slaves of the Le government in the Complete Annals of Đại Việt.[11]

There was no mandatory required reparation of the voluntarily remaining Ming Chinese in Vietnam. The return of the Ming Chinese to China was commanded by the Ming and not Le Loi. The Trai made up the supporters of Le Loi in his campaign. He lived among the Trai at the border regions as their leader and seized the Ming ruled lowland Kinh areas after originally forming his base in the southern highland regions. The southern dwelling Trai and Red River dwelling Vietnamese were in effect locked in a "civil war" during the anti Ming rebellion by Le Loi.[12]

The leader Lưu Bác Công (Liu Bogong) in 1437 commanded a Dai Viet military squad made out of ethnic Chinese since even after the independence of Dai Viet, Chinese remained behind.[13] Vietnam received Chinese defectors from Yunnan in the 1400s.[14][15]

References

David C. Kang, Dat X. Nguyen, Ronan Tse-min Fu, Meredith Shaw. "War, Rebellion, and Intervention under Hierarchy: Vietnam–China Relations, 1365 to 1841." Journal of Conflict Resolution 63.4 (2019): 896-922. online
The Vietnam Review: VR., Volume 3. Vietnam Review. 1997. p. 35.
Baldanza, Kathlene (2016). Ming China and Vietnam: Negotiating Borders in Early Modern Asia. Cambridge University Press. p. 110. ISBN 978-1316531310.
Dutton, George; Werner, Jayne; Whitmore, John K., eds. (2012). Sources of Vietnamese Tradition. Introduction to Asian Civilizations (illustrated ed.). Columbia University Press. p. 87. ISBN 978-0231511100.
"Entry | Southeast Asia in the Ming Shi-lu".
K. W. Taylor (9 May 2013). A History of the Vietnamese. Cambridge University Press. pp. 232–. ISBN 978-0-521-87586-8.
Bruce M. Lockhart; William J. Duiker (14 April 2010). The A to Z of Vietnam. Scarecrow Press. pp. 229–. ISBN 978-1-4617-3192-4.
Military Technology Transfers from Ming China and the Emergence of Northern Mainland Southeast Asia (c. 1390-1527) Sun Laichen Journal of Southeast Asian Studies Vol. 34, No. 3 (Oct., 2003), pp. 495–517 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of Department of History, National University of Singapore Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/20072535 Page Count: 23
Michael Arthur Aung-Thwin; Kenneth R. Hall (13 May 2011). New Perspectives on the History and Historiography of Southeast Asia: Continuing Explorations. Routledge. pp. 75–. ISBN 978-1-136-81964-3.
Jeff Kyong-McClain; Yongtao Du (2013). Chinese History in Geographical Perspective. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 67–. ISBN 978-0-7391-7230-8.
https://leminhkhai.wordpress.com/2016/08/02/the-ngo-in-the-du-dia-chi-were-not-the-ming/#comment-56679
K. W. Taylor (9 May 2013). A History of the Vietnamese. Cambridge University Press. pp. 191–. ISBN 978-0-521-87586-8.
Li, Tana (2010). "3 The Ming Factor and the Emergency of the Viet in the 15th Century". In Wade, Geoff; Sun, Laichen (eds.). Southeast Asia in the Fifteenth Century: The China Factor. Hong Kong University Press. pp. 95–96. ISBN 978-988-8028-48-1.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/248395427_The_Ming_factor_and_the_Emergence_of_the_Viet_in_the_15th_century p. 88 https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Tana_Li/publication/248395427_The_Ming_factor_and_the_Emergence_of_the_Viet_in_the_15th_century/file/60b7d51df84438389a.pdf
Geoff Wade; Laichen Sun (2010). Southeast Asia in the Fifteenth Century: The China Factor. Hong Kong University Press. ISBN 978-9971-69-448-7.