First Chinese domination of Vietnam

Quick Facts: Who was First Chinese domination of Vietnam?

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First Chinese domination of Vietnam

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The period when northern Vietnam was governed by the Han Dynasty, marking early Chinese rule.

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Origins & Early Life

The First Era of Northern Domination refers to the period of Vietnamese history during which present-day northern Vietnam was under the rule of the Han dynasty and the interregnum Xin dynasty as Jiaozhi and Jiaozhou Commanderies. It is considered the first of four periods of Chinese rule over Vietnam, and the first of the three in which were almost continuous and was referred to as Bắc thuộc ("Northern Domination"). It began in 111 BC when the Western Han dynasty under its seventh emperor, Emperor Wu, conquered the defiant vassal state of Nanyue during its southward expansion and annexed all of the Lingnan region, which included what is today Guangdong and Guangxi together with much of modern northern Vietnam and half of central Vietnam. This era ended with the Trưng sisters' rebellion in 40 AD, which lasted three years before being quelled by Eastern Han dynasty general Ma Yuan, who restored Han rule and began Vietnam's Second Era of Northern Domination. Because the Han dynasty historians did not keep accurate and detailed records of the personal and cultural identities of the Yue people, much of the information now known is in relation to their political and governmental roles that the Imperial Han court came into contact with by means of trade and colonization.

Career & Major Achievements

Those who were referred to as Yue may not have claimed the identity signifier for themselves. It was a term placed onto them and their culture by outsider forces. Since there was not one cohesively defined and unified “Yue” culture, the term encompassed several different groups of people with varying cultural identities that ranged throughout what is now the southern Chinese Provinces and Northern Vietnam. The inhabitants indigenous to the southernmost territories of Northern and Central China were referred to as the “Hundred Yue” to allude to the numerous different upland tribal hill cultures that made up the singular Baiyue identity. After Qin Shi Huang defeated the state of Chu in 223 BC, the Qin dynasty in 221 BC undertook a military campaign against the Baiyue in Lingnan to conquer the territories of what is now southern China and northern Vietnam.

Enduring Legacy & Impact

The emperor ordered his armies of five hundred thousand men to advance southward in the five columns to conquer and annex the Yue territories into the Qin empire. By 214 BC, Guangdong, Guangxi, and parts of northern Vietnam were subjugated and annexed into the Qin Empire. However, Chinese domination was brief and the collapse of the Qin dynasty led the Yue tribes to regain their independence. Following the collapse of the Qin dynasty, Zhao Tuo, a general of the Qin dynasty, took advantage of the Qin's decline and the South region's crumbling political structure to set up his own kingdom, Nanyue. Nanyue was centered on Panyu (modern-day Guangzhou) and stretched from present-day Vietnam to modern-day Hunan.

Historical Fact-Check Quiz: First Chinese domination of Vietnam

True or False: “The initial conquest of the Yue territories by Qin forces was a single, swift military action completed before 214 BC.”

Answer (FALSE ❌): While the campaign began with great force, the process involved multiple stages and periods of local resistance following the collapse of the Qin dynasty.

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