Trưng Sisters

The Chinese traditional historical accounts on the Trưng sisters are remarkably brief. They are found in two different chapters of the Book of the Later Han, the history for the Eastern Han Dynasty, against which the Trưng sisters had carried out their uprising.

Chapter eighty-six of the Book of the Later Han, entitled Biographies of the Southern and the Southwestern Barbarians,[Note 1] has this short description:

In the 16th year of Jianwu [40], Jiaozhi (Giao Chỉ) [modern northern Vietnam and extreme western Guangdong and western Guangxi] women Zhēng Cè (Trưng Trắc) and Zhēng Èr (Trưng Nhị) rebelled and attacked the commandery capital. Zhēng Cè was the daughter of the sheriff of Mê Linh (麊泠; Miling) County, and she married a man named Shi Suo (Thi Sách; 詩索) from ....(Chu Diên) [Note 2] She was a ferocious warrior. Su Ding (蘇定), the grand administrator of Jiaozhi Commandery, curbed her with laws. Cè became angry and rebelled. The barbarian towns of Jiuzhen (Cửu Chân), Rinan (Nhật Nam), and Hepu (Hợp Phố) Commanderies all joined her, and she captured sixty five cities and claimed to be queen. The governors of Jiaozhi Province and the commanderies could only defend themselves. Emperor Guangwu therefore ordered the Changsha, Hepu, and Jiaozhi Commanderies to prepare wagons and boats, to repair the roads and bridges, to open the mountain passes, and to save food supplies. In the 18th year 42, he sent Ma Yuan the General Fubo and Duan Zhi (段志) the General Lochuan to lead ten odd thousands of men from Changsha, Guiyang, Linling, and Cangwu Commanderies against them. In the summer of the next year 43, Ma recaptured Jiaozhi and killed Zhēng Cè, Zhēng Èr, and others in battle, and the rest scattered. He also attacked Du Yang (都陽), a rebel of the Jiuzhen Commandery, and Du surrendered and was moved, along with some 300 of his followers to Lingling Commandery. The border regions were thus pacified.

Chapter twenty-four, the biographies of Ma and some of his notable male descendants, had a parallel description that also added that Ma was able to impress the locals by creating irrigation networks to help the people and also by simplifying and clarifying the Han laws, and was able to get the people to follow Han's laws.

The traditional Chinese account, therefore, does not indicate abuse of the Vietnamese population by the Chinese officials. It implicitly disavows the traditional Vietnamese accounts of massive cruelty and of the Chinese official killing Trưng Trắc's husband. There is no indication in the Chinese account that the Trưng sisters committed suicide, or that other followers followed their example. Indeed, Ma, known in Chinese history for his strict military discipline, is not believed by the Chinese to have carried out cruel or unusual tactics. That account is in contrast to the Vietnamese.

Trưng Sisters, national heroines of Viet Nam are honored with a parade of elephants and floats in Saigon, 1961

The third book of Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư (Complete Annals of Dai Viet),[5] published in editions between 1272 and 1697, has the following to say about the Trưng Sisters:

Queen Trưng (徵 Zhēng) reigned for three years. The queen was strong and intelligent. She expelled Tô Định (蘇定 Sū Dìng) and established a kingdom as the queen, but as a female ruler could not accomplish the rebuilding of the state. Her taboo name was Trắc (側 Cè), and her family name was Trưng, but was originally Lạc. She was the daughter of General Lạc from Mê Linh from Phong Châu, and she was the wife of Thi Sách (詩索, Chinese Shī Suǒ) from Chu Diên County. Thi Sách was the son of General Lạc's doctor, and they arranged the marriage. (The work Cương mục tập lãm [Gangmu Jilan] erroneously indicated that his family name was Lạc.) Her capital was Mê Linh. [...]

Her first year was Canh Tí [AD 40, Gengzi]. (It was the 16th year of Han Dynasty's Jianwu era). In the spring, the second month, the governor of Wangku Commandery, Tô Định, punished her under the law, and she also hated Định for having killed her husband. She, therefore, along with her sister Nhị, rose and captured the commandery capital. Định was forced to flee. Nam Hải, Cửu Chân, Nhật Nam, and Hợp Phố all rose in response to her. She was able to take over 65 cities and declare herself Queen. Thereafter, she began to use the family name of Trưng.

Her second year was Tân Sửu [AD 41, Xinchou]. (It was the 17th year of Han Dynasty's Jianwu era). In the spring, the second month, there was a solar eclipse, and the moon was dark. The Han saw that as Lady Trưng had declared herself queen and captured cities, causing much distress in the border commanderies. It thus ordered Trường Sa, Hợp Phố, and our Giao Châu to prepare wagons and boats, repair the bridges and the roads, dredge the rivers, and store food supplies. It commissioned Mã Viện (Ma Yuan) as the General Fupo and Liu Long the Marquess of Fule as his assistant in order to invade.

Her third year was Nhâm Dần [AD 43, Renyin]. (It was the 18th year of Han Dynasty's Jianwu era). In the spring, the first month, Mã followed the coastline and entered Sui Mountain. He went for over a thousand li and reached Lãng Bạc (west of Tây Nhai in La Thành was named Lãng Bạc) He battled with the queen, who saw that the enemy's army was large. She considered her own army to be ill-trained and feared that it could not stand. Therefore, she withdrew to Jin (禁) River. (Jin River was referred to in history as Jin (金) River.) Her followers also thought that the queen was a woman and could not be victorious, and therefore scattered. Her kingdom therefore ended.

Procession of elephants in the Trưng Sisters' Parade in Saigon, 1957

Lê Văn Hưu (one of the historians editing the Annals) wrote:

Trưng Trắc, Trưng Nhị are women, with a single cry led the prefectures of Cửu Chân, Nhật Nam, Hợp Phố, and 65 strongholds heed their call. They established a nation and proclaimed their rule as easily as their turning over their hands. It awakened all of us that we can be independent. Unfortunately, between the fall of the Triệu Dynasty and the rise of the Ngô Dynasty, in the span of more than one thousand years, men of this land only bowed their heads and accepted the fate of servitude to the people from the North (Chinese). The reign of Trưng Nữ Vương [Trưng Queens], started in the year of Canh Tý and ended in Nhâm Dần, for a total of 3 years (40–42).

The Trưng sisters were born in a rural Vietnamese village, into a military family. Their father was a prefect of Mê Linh, therefore the sisters grew up in a house well-versed in the martial arts. They also witnessed the cruel treatment of the Viets by their Chinese overlords. The Trưng sisters spent much time studying the art of warfare, as well as learning fighting skills. When a neighbouring prefect came to visit Mê Linh, he brought with him his son, Thi Sách. Thi Sách met and fell in love with Trưng Trắc during the visit, and they were soon married.

With Chinese rule growing extremely exacting, and the policy of forcible cultural assimilation into the Chinese mould during the Southward expansion of the Han dynasty, Thi Sách made a stand against the Chinese. The Chinese responded by executing Thi Sách as a warning to all those who contemplated rebellion. His death spurred his wife to take up his cause and the flames of insurrection spread.

In AD 40, Trưng Trắc and Trưng Nhị, after successfully repelling a small Chinese unit from their village, assembled a large army consisting mostly of women.[6] Within months, they had taken many (about 65) citadels from the Chinese, and had liberated Nanyue.[7] They became queens regnant of Nanyue and managed to resist subsequent Han attacks on the country for over three years.

During the Trung sisters' rebellion (Khởi nghĩa Hai Bà Trưng - Đánh đuổi Tô Định) against the Han dynasty's First Chinese domination of Vietnam, the Han Chinese administrator of Jiaozhi (Vietnam), Sū Dìng (蘇定 Tô Định) only managed to escape to China and avoid being discovered by the Vietnamese rebels by shaving his long hair to blend in with Vietnamese along the way since shaving hair was a common custom of Vietnamese men of that era but not of Chinese men as Nguyễn Khắc Thuần recorded.[8]

Their reign was short-lived, however, as the Chinese gathered a huge expeditionary army under the veteran general Ma Yuan to suppress the rebellion. The Trưng sisters were defeated in battle in 43 AD. Different accounts regarding the fate of the sisters are recorded in Vietnamese and Chinese sources. The Đại Việt sử lược reports that the sisters were killed by Ma Yuan. According to the Trần Thế Pháp and Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư, the sisters died during the fighting after they were deserted by their fellow rebels.[9] The Book of the Later Han states that they were decapitated by Ma Yuan, who sent their heads back to the Han capital.[10] There are also legendary accounts claiming that the sisters fell sick, vanished in the sky, or took their own lives by jumping into a river and drowning.[9] According to one legendary account, when finally overwhelmed by Han China's armies, the sisters threw themselves into the Hat Giang River in order to avoid capture. They then turned into statues. These eventually washed ashore and were placed in Hanoi's Hai Ba Trung Temple for worship.[11]

According to legend, Phùng Thị Chính, a pregnant captain of a group of soldiers who were to protect the center of Nanyue, gave birth on the front line. With her baby in one arm she ended the child's life and continued to fight in the war. She later committed suicide along with the Trưng sisters.

According to another oral tradition, the army led by the Trưng sisters was defeated when the Chinese troops decided to fight naked, causing the mostly female army to disperse in embarrassment.[12]

The Trưng Sisters are highly revered in Vietnam, as they led the first resistance movement against the occupying Chinese after 247 years of domination. Many temples are dedicated to them, and a yearly holiday in February to commemorate their deaths is observed by many Vietnamese. A central district in Hanoi called the Hai Bà Trưng District is named after them, as are numerous large streets in major cities[13] and many schools.

The stories of the Trưng Sisters and of another famous woman warrior, Lady Triệu, are cited by some historians as hints that Vietnamese society before sinicization was a matriarchal one, where there are no obstacles for women in assuming leadership roles.

Even though the Trưng Sisters' revolt against the Chinese was almost 2000 years ago, its legacy in Vietnam remains.[14] The two sisters are considered to be a national symbol in Vietnam. They represent Vietnam's independence. They are often depicted as two women riding two giant war elephants. Many times, they are seen leading their followers into battle against the Chinese. The Trưng sisters were more than two sisters that gave their life up for their country, they are powerful symbols of Vietnamese resistance and freedom.

Their strong defiance and devote for Vietnamese freedom nonetheless, has been greatly appreciated by not just Vietnamese but even foreign leaders. The U.S. President Donald Trump has recalled their heroism to be one of the greatest achievement of Vietnamese people during the APEC Vietnam 2017.[15]

Temples to the Trưng Sisters or "Hai Bà Trưng Temples" are found from as early as the end of the Third Chinese domination of Vietnam.[16] The best known Hai Bà Trưng Temple is in Hanoi near Hoàn Kiếm Lake.[17][18] Other Hai Bà Trưng temples are found in Mê Linh District (Vĩnh Phúc Province), Phúc Thọ District (Hà Tây Province) and Hoàng Hoa Thám Street, Bình Thạnh District, Ho Chi Minh City.

One reason for the defeat is desertion by rebels because they did not believe they could win under a woman's leadership.[19] The fact that women were in charge was blamed as a reason for the defeat by historical Vietnamese texts in which the historians ridiculed and mocked men because they did nothing while "mere girls", whom they viewed with revulsion, took up the banner of revolt.[20] The historical poem containing the phrase "mere girls", which related the revolt of the Trung Sisters while the men did nothing, was not intended to praise women nor view war as women's work, as it has been wrongly interpreted.[21][22]

The Minangkabau people were thought to be traced ancestries from the military commanders who refused to cower to China following the Trưng sisters' defeat, emigrated southward to the Malacca and became the modern Minangkabau people in both modern Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Philippines and Indonesia; and still maintains strict cultural heritage dated from ancient Vietnam while mixed with Islam.[23][24]