First Chinese domination of Vietnam
The first Chinese domination or the first Han Dynasty rule of Vietnam is a period in Vietnamese history during which present-day northern Vietnam was under Han dynasty rule. It is considered the first of four periods of Vietnam under Chinese rule, the first three of which are almost continuous and referred to as Bắc thuộc.
In 111 BC, the powerful Chinese Han dynasty conquered the Nam Việt kingdom during its expansion southward and incorporated what is now northern Vietnam, together with much of modern Guangdong and Guangxi, into the expanding Han empire. Vietnamese resistance to Han rule culminated in the rebellion of the Trưng Sisters, who expelled the Han in 40 AD and briefly ruled Vietnam until being defeated by the returning Han Chinese army in 43 AD.
Administration
In 111 BC, the Han dynasty defeated the successors of Zhao Tuo and annexed Nam Việt and the former Âu Lạc into the Han empire. Following annexation, the name of Jiaozhi was established, dividing the former kingdom into nine commanderies with the last three commonly used in modern Vietnamese history books:- Nanhai
- Hepu
- Cangwu
- Yulin
- Zhuya
- Dan'er,
- Jiaozhi
- Jiuzhen
- Rinan
Sinification
During the next several hundred years of Chinese colonization and domination, sinification of the newly conquered Nanyue was brought about by a combination of Han imperial military power, regular settlement and an influx of Han Chinese refugees, officers and garrisons, merchants, scholars, bureaucrats, fugitives, and prisoners of war. At the same time, Chinese officials were interested in exploiting the region's natural resources and trade potential. In addition, Han Chinese officials also seized fertile land conquered from Vietnamese nobles for newly settled Han Chinese immigrants. Han rule and government administration brought new influences to the indigenous Vietnamese and the rule of Vietnam as a Chinese province operated as a frontier outpost of the Han Empire. The Han dynasty was desperate to extend their control over the fertile Red River Delta, in part as the geographical terrain served as a convenient supply point and trading post for Han ships engaged in the growing maritime trade with various South and Southeast Asian Kingdoms as well as establishing it as a prominent trading post with Ancient India and the Roman Empire. During the first century of Chinese rule, Vietnam was governed leniently and indirect with no immediate change in indigenous policies. Initially, the practice of indigenous Vietnamese was governed at the local level but was ruled out in favor of replacing indigenous Vietnamese local officials with newly settled Han Chinese officials. Han imperial bureaucrats generally pursued a policy of peaceful relations with the indigenous population, focusing their administrative roles in the prefectural headquarters and garrisons, and maintaining secure river routes for trade. By the first century AD, however, the Han dynasty intensified its efforts to assimilate its new territories by raising taxes and instituting marriage and land inheritance reforms aimed at turning Vietnam into a patriarchal society more amenable to political authority.successfully conquered Nanyue and annexed it into the Han empire.
The Vietnamese paid heavy tributes and imperial taxes to the Han mandarins to maintain the local administration and the military. The Chinese vigorously tried to assimilate the Vietnamese peacefully either through forced sinicization or through brute Chinese political domination. The Han dynasty sought to assimilate the Vietnamese as the Chinese wanted to maintain a unified cohesive empire through a "civilizing mission" as what the Chinese regarded the Vietnamese as uncultured and backward barbarians and regarded their "Celestial Empire" as the supreme centre of the universe. Under Chinese rule, Han dynasty officials imposed much of Chinese culture, including Chinese Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism, its imperial examination system, and mandarin bureaucracy. However, implementation of a foreign administrative system and sinification was not easy as frequent uprisings and rebellions were indicative of Vietnamese resistance to these changes. Some Vietnamese welcomed the chance to assimilate as what they considered Chinese culture, to be a more civilized, advanced and superior culture. Though the Vietnamese incorporated advanced and technical elements they thought would be beneficial to themselves, the unwillingness to be dominated by outsiders, the desire to maintain political autonomy and the drive to regain Vietnamese independence signified Vietnamese resistance and hostility to Chinese aggression, political domination and imperialism on Vietnamese society. Han Chinese bureaucrats sought to impose much of Chinese high culture onto the indigenous Vietnamese including bureaucratic Legalist techniques and Confucian ethics, education, art, literature, and language. The conquered and subjugated Vietnamese had to adopt the Chinese foreign writing system, Confucianism, veneration of the Chinese emperor at the detriment of the loss of their native spoken language, culture, ethnic and national identity.
History
Professor Liam Kelley wrote on how the 17th century Vietnamese historians like Ngô Thì Sĩ and Jesuits like Martinio Martini studied texts on the Hồng Bàng Dynasty like Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư and used mathematics to deduce that the information on them were nonsense given the impossible reign years of the monarchs. However, modern Vietnamese now believe that the information is true. Ngô Thì Sĩ used critical analysis of historical texts to question the relations between Zhao Tuo's Nanyue Kingdom in Guangdong and the Vietnamese inhabiting Red River Delta, concluding that the Red River Delta was a mere vassal to Nanyue and not an integral part of it in addition to criticizing the existence of the Hồng Bàng Dynasty.Modern Vietnamese nationalists seek to stress local Vietnamese influence in history and downplay the role of foreign origin monarchs like the fact that the family of the Trần dynasty rulers originated in China. Vietnamese historians have sought to construct a fantasy of a continuous succession since the Hung Kings of local political units in Vietnam. Vietnamese scholars and historians have debated over whether to regard Zhao Tuo as part of the "orthodox succession" of rulers or as "enemy invader".
The Jiaqing Emperor refused Gia Long's request to change his country's name to Nam Việt, and changed the name instead to Việt Nam. Gia Long's Đại Nam thực lục contains the diplomatic correspondence over the naming.