Mois : mars 2025

Traces of Vietnam’s matriarchal system

j050807 Culture, Ethnies, Histoire, Lịch sử, Traditions, Văn Hóa

 

Traces of Vietnam’s matriarchal system.

Version française
There is a time when our people, like other peoples of the world, adopt the matriarchal system. Do we have the opportunity to think about this for ourselves? Certainly not, because at birth, we all took our father’s name, except in France where we are now allowed to add our mother’s name to our name. In the Vietnamese language, we often use words that still bear traces of the matriarchal system, which we never think about, especially since our country has adopted the patriarchal system for so long. We often say wife/husband (VỢ CHỒNG) but never husband/wife (CHỒNG VỢ). We are used to referring to the family line with the term « BÀ CON » where the word BÀ (madam) always precedes the word CON (or child). Sometimes there is contempt in the words when using the following term « gái nạ dòng or divorced woman » where the word nạ refers to the mother’s lineage. According to the writer Binh Nguyên Lộc, this is meant to imply a polyandrous girl. This implicitly means a bad girl.

Today, our country still has a matriarchal system in many places, such as in the Vietnamese highlands with the Cham, Jarai, Ede, Raglai and Churu ethnic groups belonging to the Austronesian language family, or the M’nong and K’ho of the Austro-Asiatic language family. Some claim that our country has adopted the patriarchal system since the annexation of Jiaozhi (Giao Chỉ) by China. This is certainly not true. When did our country abandon the matriarchal system in favor of the patriarchal one? To explore this question further, archaeologists often rely on the way the dead are buried in the tombs of sites linked to the flooded rice civilization. It was certainly not at this time that the Hùng kings of the Văn Lang kingdom ruled with the Phùng Nguyên culture, as succession to the throne clearly operates through patriarchy in the legend, notably the major power always accruing to the eldest member of the family in the social organization of the time.

We also know that the ancestors of the Vietnamese people came directly from the region of the Blue River (Yangtze), based on today’s genetic research data. We need to go back in time and analyze the places where flooded rice was grown in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, because according to Japanese researcher Shin’ichi Nakamura of Kanazawa University, the cradle of rice cultivation must have been there, but given the current state of knowledge, it’s difficult to pinpoint it very precisely on a map.

However, there is the social evolution in the regions of the lower Yangtze River (Hemudu and Liangzhu archaeological sites) during the Neolithic period:

from a diversified economy to an exclusively rice-growing economy

– from agricultural to urban settlement

– from a collective cemetery to a cemetery for individual groups.

Why the Hemudu site? According to French archaeologist Corinne Debaine-Francfort, the oldest Neolithic site in the Hemudu region (Zheijiang) not only yielded the remains of a wooden lake dwelling on stilts, quite different from the mud houses of northern China, but also grains of rice cultivated in flooded fields using hoes made from animal shoulder blades in 1973. It can be said that rice was domesticated at this site dating from around 4770 to 5000 BC. The people living here had both Mongoloid and Australo-Negroid features. When people died, they were buried with their heads facing east or northeast, and most had no offerings. Nor did they have a clearly defined communal cemetery.

On the other hand, they had a common clan cemetery with numerous grave goods. We can see that a matriarchal system was still in place here, as we find the remains of animals such as monkeys, rhinoceroses, deer, elephants, tigers, tortoises etc. This shows that the local inhabitants were still living off hunting and fish.

The role of man is not considered important, as it is not yet necessary to have a social organization requiring many human resources for production, such as tool-making, storing rice in granaries, casting bronze, etc., as well as the distribution of arduous tasks to obtain the desired result during the harvest season. Man seems to have little power and is not allowed to own or inherit land.ing at the time.

On the other hand, in the Neolithic sites of the Liangzhu culture, there is a clear shift in the balance of power between husband and wife. For example, among the funerary objects in individual tombs, agricultural tools such as polished stone shovels are intended for men, while weaving wheels remain the main objects for women. This proves that, at the time, men were the main laborers in the rice fields and women were only responsible for household chores.

In addition, stonecutters were forced to change their trade and became jade cutters. This led to an important period of industrial development and division of labor in society, and fostered the emergence of class distinctions between rich and poor, as well as between aristocracy and religion. Since then, there has also been a contribution to division within the family unit. It was also at this point that monogamy began to appear.  The wife followed her husband to live with his family. The children were also able to live with their parents and family, and took the father’s surname when they were born.  Upon death, husband and wife could be buried together with members of their patriarchal family.

In short, we can say that the Vietnamese followed the patriarchal system very early on, when our ancestors were still living in the Yangtze basin. Consequently, when they returned to the Red River delta, they continued to preserve patriarchy under the Hồng Bàng dynasty with the Phùng Nguyên culture.


Bibliographie:

Annick Levy-Ward : Les centres de diffusion du riz cultivé. De l’Asie du Sud-Est à la Chine. Études rurales, n°151-152, 1999
Shin’ichi Nakamura: LE RIZ, LE JADE ET LA VILLE. Évolution des sociétés néolithiques du Yangzi. Éditions de l’EHESS 2005/5 60e année, pp 1009-1034
Corinne Debaine-Francfort : La redécouverte de la Chine ancienne.  Editions Gallimard  1998.
Bình Nguyên Lộc: Lột trần Việt ngữ. Talawas

Why do the Thai have a piece of history with the Vietnamese people?

j050807 Gallery, Histoire, Lịch sử, Văn Hóa

 

Tại sao dân tộc Thái có một đoạn đường chung

với dân tộc Việt?

Version française
Version vietnamienne

According to Western scholars such as archaeologist Bernard Groslier, the Thai were grouped with the Vietnamese in the Thai-Vietnamese group, especially as they only founded their country in the 14th century, and there were black and white Thai sub-groups in Vietnam. So, are these the Thais found in Thailand today?

Repulsed by the Tsin of Shi Huang Di, the Thai tried to resist many times. For the Vietnamese writer Bình Nguyên Lôc, the subjects of the Shu and Ba kingdoms (Ba Thục) annexed very early by the Tsin in Sichuan (Tứ Xuyên)(1) were the proto-Thais (or Tay). According to this writer, they belonged to the Austro-Asiatic group of the Âu branch (or Ngu in Mường language or Ngê U in Mandarin Chinese (quan thoại)) to which the Thai and the Tày were attached.

For him, as for other Vietnamese researchers Trần Ngọc Thêm, Nguyễn Đình Khoa, Hà Văn Tấn etc., the Austro-Asiatic group includes 4 distinct subgroups: Môn-Khmer subgroup, Việt Mường subgroup (Lạc branch), Tày-Thái subgroup (Âu branch) and Mèo-Dao subgroup to which must be added the Austronesian subgroup (Chàm, Raglai, Êdê etc.) to define the Indonesian (or proto-Malay) race (2) (Chủng cổ Mã Lai).

The Thai contribution to the founding of the Au Lac Kingdom of the Viet of Thục Phán (An Dương Vương) is no longer in doubt after the latter succeeded in eliminating the last Hùng king of the Văn Lang kingdom because the name « Au Lac » (or Ngeou Lo) obviously evokes the union of two Yue ethnic groups of the Au branch (Proto-Thai) and the Lac branch (Proto-Viet). Moreover, Thục Phán was a Yue of the Au branch, which shows to such an extent the union and the common historical mission of these two ethnic groups in the face of Chinese expansion. According to Đào Duy Anh, Thục Phán was a prince of the Shu kingdom.This is what was reported in Chinese historical writings (Kiao-tcheou wai-yu ki or Kouang-tcheou ki), but it was categorically refuted by some Vietnamese historians because the Shu kingdom was located too far at that time, from the Văn Lang kingdom. It was annexed very early (more than half a century before the foundation of the Âu Lạc kingdom) by the Tsin. But for the Vietnamese writer Bình Nguyên Lôc, Thục Phán having lost his homeland, had to take refuge very young in the company of his faithful at that time in a country having the same ethnic affinity (culture, language) as him, namely the Si Ngeou kingdom (Tây Âu) located next to the Văn Lang kingdom of the Vietnamese. Furthermore, the Chinese have no interest in falsifying history by reporting that it was a prince of Shu ruling the kingdom of Âu Lạc. The asylum of the latter and his followers in the kingdom of Si Ngeou must have taken some time, which explains at least half a century in this exodus before the foundation of his kingdom Âu Lạc. This hypothesis does not seem very convincing because there was a 3000 km walk. In addition, he was at the head of an army of 30,000 soldiers. It is impossible for him to ensure logistics and make his army invisible during the exodus by crossing mountainous areas of Yunnan administered by other ethnic groups who were enemies or loyal to the Chinese. It is likely that he had to find from the Si Ngeou (or the Proto-Thais) everything (armament and military personnel, provisions) that he needed before his conquest.

There is recently another hypothesis that seems more coherent. Thục Phán was the leader of a tribe allied to the Si Ngeou confederation and the son of Thục Chế, king of a Nam Cương kingdom located in the Cao Bằng region and not far from Kouang Si in today’s China. There is a total concordance between everything reported in the legend of the magic crossbow of the Vietnamese and the rites found in the tradition of the Tày (Proto-Thai). This is the case of the golden turtle or the white rooster, each having an important symbolic meaning. An Dương Vương (Ngan-yang wang) was a historical figure. The discovery of the remains of its capital (Cổ Loa, huyện Đông An, Hànội) no longer casts doubt on the existence of this kingdom established around three centuries BC. It was later annexed by Zhao To (Triệu Đà), founder of the kingdom of Nan Yue.

Lac Long Quan-Au Cơ myth cleverly insinuates the union and separation of two Yue ethnic groups: one of the Lac branch (the Proto-Vietnamese) descending into the fertile plains following the streams and rivers, and the other of the Au branch (the Proto-Thai) taking refuge in the mountainous regions. The Muong were among the members of this exodus. Linguistically close to the Vietnamese, the Muong managed to preserve their ancestral customs because they were pushed back and protected in the mountains. They had a social organization similar to that of the Tày and the Thai. Located in the provinces of Kouang Tong (Quãng Đông) and Kouang Si (Quãng Tây), the kingdom of Si Ngeou (Tây Âu) is none other than the country of the proto-Thais (the ancestors of the Thais). It is here that Thục Phán took refuge before the conquest of the Văn Lang kingdom. It should also be remembered that the Chinese emperor Shi Houang Di had to mobilize at that time more than 500,000 soldiers in the conquest of the kingdom of Si Ngeou after having succeeded in defeating the army of the kingdom of Chu (or Sỡ) with 600,000 men. We must think that in addition to the implacable resistance of its warriors, the kingdom of Si Ngeou would have to be of a significant size and populated enough for Shi Houang Di (Tần Thủy Hoàng) to engage a significant military force.

Despite the premature death of a Si Ngeou king named Yi-Hiu-Song (Dịch Hu Tống), the resistance led by the Thai or (Si Ngeou)(Tây Âu) branch of the Yue managed to achieve some expected successes in the southern Kouang Si region with the death of a general T’ou Tsiu (Uất Đồ Thu) at the head of a Chinese army of 500,000 men, which was recorded in the annals of Master Houa-nan (or Houai–nan–tseu in Chinese or Hoài Nam Tử in Vietnamese) written by Liu An (Lưu An), grandson of Emperor Kao-Tsou (or Liu Bang), founder of the Han Dynasty between 164 and 173 BCE.

Si Ngeou was known for the valor of his formidable warriors. This corresponds exactly to the temperament of the Thais of yesteryear described by the French writer and photographer Alfred Raquez:(3)

Being warlike and adventurous, the  Siamese of yesteryear were almost continually at war with their neighbors and often saw their expeditions crowned with success. After each successful campaign, they took prisoners with them and settled them in a part of the territory of Siam, as far as possible from their country of origin.

After the disappearance of Si Ngeou and Âu Lạc, the proto-Thais who remained in Vietnam at that time under the rule of Zhao Tuo (a former Chinese general of the Tsin who later became the first emperor of the kingdom of Nanyue) had their descendants forming today the Thai ethnic minority of Vietnam. The other proto-Thais fled to Yunnan where they united in the 8th century with the kingdom of Nanzhao (Nam Chiếu) and then with that of Dali (Đại Lý) where the Buddhism of the Great Vehicle (Phật Giáo Đại Thừa) began to take root. Unfortunately, their attempt was in vain. The Shu, Ba, Si Ngeou, Âu Lạc (5), Nan Zhao, Dali countries were part of the long list of countries annexed one after the other by the Chinese during their exodus. In these subjugated countries, the presence of the Proto-Thais was quite significant. Faced with this relentless Chinese pressure and the inexorable barrier of the Himalayas, the Proto-Thais were forced to descend into the Indochinese peninsula (4) by slowly infiltrating in a fan-like manner into Laos, the North-West of Vietnam (Tây Bắc), the north of Thailand and upper Burma.

According to Thai historical inscriptions found in Vietnam, there were three major waves of migration by the Yunnan Thais into north-western Vietnam during the 9th and 11th centuries. This corresponds exactly to the period when the kingdom of Nanzhao was annexed by the kingdom of Dali, which was in turn annihilated 3 centuries later by Kubilai Khan’s Mongols in China. During this infiltration, the proto-Thai divided into several groups: the Thai of Vietnam, the Thai in Burma (or Shans), the Thai in Laos (or Ai Lao) and the Thai in northern Thailand. Each of these groups began to adopt the religion of their host country. 


The Thai in Vietnam did not have the same religion as those in other territories. They continued to retain animism (vạn vật hữu linh) or totemism. For this reason, they constituted the ethnic minorities of today’s Viet Nam.

Thaïlande (English version)

j050807 Ethnies, Histoire, Lịch sử

 


Version française
Version vietnamienne
Galerie des photos

The emergence of the Thai only became firmly established in the 14th century. Yet they are an ancient people of southern China. They are part of the Austro-Asiatic group (Chủng Nam Á) (or Baiyue or Bách Việt in Vietnamese). It is this group that the French archaeologist Bernard Groslier often referred to as the « Thai-Vietnamese group.

Repulsed by the Tsin of Shi Huang Di, the Thai tried to resist many times. For the Vietnamese writer Bình Nguyên Lôc, the subjects of the Shu and Ba kingdoms (Ba Thục) annexed very early by the Tsin in Sichuan (Tứ Xuyên)(1) were the proto-Thais (or Tay). According to this writer, they belonged to the Austro-Asiatic group of the Âu branch (or Ngu in Mường language or Ngê U in Mandarin Chinese (quan thoại)) to which the Thai and the Tày were attached.

For him, as for other Vietnamese researchers Trần Ngọc Thêm, Nguyễn Đình Khoa, Hà Văn Tấn etc., the Austro-Asiatic group includes 4 distinct subgroups: Môn-Khmer subgroup, Việt Mường subgroup (Lạc branch), Tày-Thái subgroup (Âu branch) and Mèo-Dao subgroup to which must be added the Austronesian subgroup (Chàm, Raglai, Êdê etc.) to define the Indonesian (or proto-Malay) race (2) (Chủng cổ Mã Lai).

The Thai contribution to the founding of the Au Lac Kingdom of the Viet of Thục Phán (An Dương Vương) is no longer in doubt after the latter succeeded in eliminating the last Hùng king of the Văn Lang kingdom because the name « Au Lac » (or Ngeou Lo) obviously evokes the union of two Yue ethnic groups of the Au branch (Proto-Thai) and the Lac branch (Proto-Viet). Moreover, Thục Phán was a Yue of the Au branch, which shows to such an extent the union and the common historical mission of these two ethnic groups in the face of Chinese expansion. According to Đào Duy Anh, Thục Phán was a prince of the Shu kingdom.This is what was reported in Chinese historical writings (Kiao-tcheou wai-yu ki or Kouang-tcheou ki), but it was categorically refuted by some Vietnamese historians because the Shu kingdom was located too far at that time, from the Văn Lang kingdom. It was annexed very early (more than half a century before the foundation of the Âu Lạc kingdom) by the Tsin. But for the Vietnamese writer Bình Nguyên Lôc, Thục Phán having lost his homeland, had to take refuge very young in the company of his faithful at that time in a country having the same ethnic affinity (culture, language) as him, namely the Si Ngeou kingdom (Tây Âu) located next to the Văn Lang kingdom of the Vietnamese. Furthermore, the Chinese have no interest in falsifying history by reporting that it was a prince of Shu ruling the kingdom of Âu Lạc. The asylum of the latter and his followers in the kingdom of Si Ngeou must have taken some time, which explains at least half a century in this exodus before the foundation of his kingdom Âu Lạc. This hypothesis does not seem very convincing because there was a 3000 km walk. In addition, he was at the head of an army of 30,000 soldiers. It is impossible for him to ensure logistics and make his army invisible during the exodus by crossing mountainous areas of Yunnan administered by other ethnic groups who were enemies or loyal to the Chinese. It is likely that he had to find from the Si Ngeou (or the Proto-Thais) everything (armament and military personnel, provisions) that he needed before his conquest.

There is recently another hypothesis that seems more coherent. Thục Phán was the leader of a tribe allied to the Si Ngeou confederation and the son of Thục Chế, king of a Nam Cương kingdom located in the Cao Bằng region and not far from Kouang Si in today’s China. There is a total concordance between everything reported in the legend of the magic crossbow of the Vietnamese and the rites found in the tradition of the Tày (Proto-Thai). This is the case of the golden turtle or the white rooster, each having an important symbolic meaning. An Dương Vương (Ngan-yang wang) was a historical figure. The discovery of the remains of its capital (Cổ Loa, huyện Đông An, Hànội) no longer casts doubt on the existence of this kingdom established around three centuries BC. It was later annexed by Zhao To (Triệu Đà), founder of the kingdom of Nan Yue.

Lac Long Quan-Au Cơ myth cleverly insinuates the union and separation of two Yue ethnic groups: one of the Lac branch (the Proto-Vietnamese) descending into the fertile plains following the streams and rivers, and the other of the Au branch (the Proto-Thai) taking refuge in the mountainous regions. The Muong were among the members of this exodus. Linguistically close to the Vietnamese, the Muong managed to preserve their ancestral customs because they were pushed back and protected in the mountains. They had a social organization similar to that of the Tày and the Thai. Located in the provinces of Kouang Tong (Quãng Đông) and Kouang Si (Quãng Tây), the kingdom of Si Ngeou (Tây Âu) is none other than the country of the proto-Thais (the ancestors of the Thais). It is here that Thục Phán took refuge before the conquest of the Văn Lang kingdom. It should also be remembered that the Chinese emperor Shi Houang Di had to mobilize at that time more than 500,000 soldiers in the conquest of the kingdom of Si Ngeou after having succeeded in defeating the army of the kingdom of Chu (or Sỡ) with 600,000 men. We must think that in addition to the implacable resistance of its warriors, the kingdom of Si Ngeou would have to be of a significant size and populated enough for Shi Houang Di (Tần Thủy Hoàng) to engage a significant military force.

Despite the premature death of a Si Ngeou king named Yi-Hiu-Song (Dịch Hu Tống), the resistance led by the Thai or (Si Ngeou)(Tây Âu) branch of the Yue managed to achieve some expected successes in the southern Kouang Si region with the death of a general T’ou Tsiu (Uất Đồ Thu) at the head of a Chinese army of 500,000 men, which was recorded in the annals of Master Houa-nan (or Houai–nan–tseu in Chinese or Hoài Nam Tử in Vietnamese) written by Liu An (Lưu An), grandson of Emperor Kao-Tsou (or Liu Bang), founder of the Han Dynasty between 164 and 173 BCE.

Si Ngeou was known for the valor of his formidable warriors. This corresponds exactly to the temperament of the Thais of yesteryear described by the French writer and photographer Alfred Raquez:(3)

Being warlike and adventurous, the  Siamese of yesteryear were almost continually at war with their neighbors and often saw their expeditions crowned with success. After each successful campaign, they took prisoners with them and settled them in a part of the territory of Siam, as far as possible from their country of origin.

After the disappearance of Si Ngeou and Âu Lạc, the proto-Thais who remained in Vietnam at that time under the rule of Zhao To (a former Chinese general of the Tsin who later became the first emperor of the kingdom of Nanyue) had their descendants forming today the Thai ethnic minority of Vietnam. The other proto-Thais fled to Yunnan where they united in the 8th century with the kingdom of Nanzhao (Nam Chiếu) and then with that of Dali (Đại Lý) where the Buddhism of the Great Vehicle (Phật Giáo Đại Thừa) began to take root. Unfortunately, their attempt was in vain. The Shu, Ba, Si Ngeou, Âu Lạc (5), Nan Zhao, Dali countries were part of the long list of countries annexed one after the other by the Chinese during their exodus. In these subjugated countries, the presence of the Proto-Thais was quite significant. Faced with this relentless Chinese pressure and the inexorable barrier of the Himalayas, the Proto-Thais were forced to descend into the Indochinese peninsula (4) by slowly infiltrating in a fan-like manner into Laos, the North-West of Vietnam (Tây Bắc), the north of Thailand and upper Burma.

According to historical Thai inscriptions found in Vietnam, there were three major waves of migration initiated by the Thais from Yunnan into Northwest Vietnam during the 9th to 11th centuries. This corresponds exactly to the period when the kingdom of Nanzhao was annexed by the kingdom of Dali, which in turn was destroyed three centuries later by the Mongols of Kublai Khan in China. During this infiltration, the proto-Thais divided into several groups: the Thais of Vietnam, the Thais in Burma (or Shans), the Thais in Laos (or Ai Lao), and the Thais in northern Thailand. Each of these groups began to adopt the religion of their host countries. The Thais of Vietnam did not have the same religion as those in other territories. They continued to maintain animism (vạn vật hữu linh) or totemism.

This is not the case for the Thais living in northern Thailand, Upper Burma, and Laos. These areas were occupied at that time by Indianized Mon-Khmer kingdoms and Theravada Buddhist kingdoms (Angkorian empire, Mon Dvaravati kingdoms, Haripunchai, Lavo, etc.) after the disintegration of the Indianized Founan (Phù Nam) kingdom. The Mons played an important role in transmitting Theravada Buddhism from the Sinhalese tradition to the newly arrived Thais.

It can be said that to the two main components of the Thai religion (worship of geniuses (Phra) and spirits (Phi) and Theravada Buddhism) is added Hinduism. The latter played a very important role in Southeast Asia before Theravada Buddhism succeeded in establishing itself and embracing Burma, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia.

There are as many geniuses as malevolent spirits in the Thai pantheon. This animist belief is not incompatible with Theravada Buddhism because the Thais place protective deities (the phra) at an intermediate level between humans and Hindu gods closely linked to Theravada Buddhism. They are, in a way, servants of the Buddha. Buddhism tolerates local rites. That is why one often finds a small temple carefully maintained and dedicated to Brahma with four faces (Thần Bốn Mặt) around important Thai buildings, in order to allow this deity to ward off malevolent spirits and protect these places. Other deities have not gone unnoticed in public places (pagodas, airports, royal palace, etc.).

Having arrived late in these host countries, the Thais initially had to take on all the « ungrateful » jobs. Because their skin was dark, the Khmers called them by the name Syàma (Xiêm La), a Sanskrit word meaning « tanned. » It is under this name that they were mentioned around 1050 in one of the Cham inscriptions of Po Nagar (Nha Trang) as prisoners of war during the confrontation between the Chams and the Khmers of the Angkorian empire. They also appeared as daring scouts, mercenaries of the Angkorian empire’s army, whose presence was reported in one of the bas-reliefs of Angkor Wat. According to the French archaeologist Bernard Groslier, they were merely unruly hill people, without writing or religion. They had no chance of even shaking the border posts of the Khmer empire and the Mon kingdoms of Dvaravati culture.

This is not the case for the Vietnamese who began to challenge Champa at the same time because, according to Bernard Groslier, the latter already constituted a nation remarkably equipped by Chinese civilization during the long domination, and could engage in the struggle on equal terms with the Chams. The Thais had to wait at least two centuries to assimilate the lessons of their masters before being able to replace and subsequently surpass them. Coming from the north and in frequent contact with the Dvaravati culture, they quickly converted to Theravāda Buddhism (or the Little Vehicle) or (Phật Giáo Nguyên Thủy in Vietnamese) but continued to maintain their social structure organized into powerful feudal chiefdoms (or mường).

For the Thais, Thailand is still considered the great and powerful chiefdom (Mueang of the free Thais or Mường của các người Thái tự do). Even paradise is organized into chiefdoms administered by deities (or the Devata). This is what has been reported by the Thais of Vietnam. This aligns with Alfred Raquez‘s observation on the common practice of the Siamese in grouping their prisoners into chiefdoms:

The Siamese did not scatter their prisoners throughout the kingdom. On the contrary, they kept them grouped together, forming khong at the head of which they placed chiefs of the same origin or naïkhong. These, supreme magistrates, handled all the affairs of the community and were almost the only ones in direct contact with the country’s authorities.

The chieftaincy is at the base of the social, religious, and political organization of the Thais. The chieftaincies are considered small (mường nhỏ) or large (mường lớn) depending on their size and importance. This corresponds respectively to what we have in France with the district or the province. But there is always a central chieftaincy (mường luông) towards which the other chieftaincies converge. This is what we observe in the organization of Thai chieftaincies in Vietnam. Each chieftaincy is led by a chief or a lord from the local aristocracy who also has an important religious role. He is responsible for maintaining the cult of the spirit of the land. That is why he has precedence over the villagers. They owe him not only armed service in case of war but also corvée labor. Each chieftaincy has its own customs. Its administrative and military organization resembles that of the Mongols, which allows distinguishing the nobles and warriors from the rest (the petty kings and serf peasants). Each has his rank or status in a system called sakdina (sakdi meaning power and na meaning rice field). Suppose each peasant owns 25 rai (an amount of land equivalent to 1600 m2 or rẫy in Vietnamese). A boss with a grade of 400 in sakdina can have 16 peasants under his command because 16 = 400/25. As for a noble or a lord, he can have 400 people under his command if his grade rises to 10,000 in the sakdina system. (400 = 10,000/25). In short, depending on his rank, he can have a certain number of people for the system of civil and military duties.

Each chiefdom is made up of several hamlets (or thôn in Vietnamese), each managed by a council of notables and having 40 or 50 houses except for some that can reach up to 100 houses. Similar to the Vietnamese, the Thais generally establish their hamlet and their chiefdom in alluvial plains (such as that of the Chao Praya) and in regions with significant waterways conducive to flooded rice cultivation, transportation, and the interconnection of roads to facilitate exchange with other Thai chiefdoms.

Galerie des photos

Bangkok

Taking advantage of the exhaustion of the Angkorian empire due to incessant wars against its neighbors (Champa, Vietnam) and the gigantic construction works of the temples (Bayon, Angkor Thom, Ta Prohm, Angkor Wat, etc.) of Jayavarman VII, the death of the latter, and the Mongol invasion against Indochina (the Khmer empire in 1283, Champa (1283-1285), Đại Việt (or Vietnam) of the Trần (1257-1288)) and against the kingdom of Pagan (Burma), the Thais began to establish their political power both in Thailand and in Burma.

In Thailand, on the northern edge of the Menam basin, two Thai princes named Po Khun Bangklanghao and Po Khun Phameung succeeded in freeing Sukhothai from the control of the Mon and the Khmers in 1239. Po Khun Bangklanghao thus became the first king of the independent Thai kingdom of Sukhothai, whose name means « the dawn of happiness. » But it was rather his son Rama Khamheng who had the great task of expanding the Thai kingdom by conquering not only northern Malaysia up to Ligor (or Nakhon Si Thammarat) but also Khmer possessions near Luang Prabang (Laos). At the same time, in northern Thailand, after the annexation of Haripunjaya in 1292, another allied Thai prince named Mengrai founded his kingdom Lannathai (kingdom of a million rice fields) by making Chiang Mai the capital. Rama Khamheng and Mengrai, two Thai princes, now shared dominion, one in the center and the other in the north of Thailand. Other small Thai kingdoms were created in Phayao and in Xiang Dong Xiang Thong (Luang Prabang) in Laos. In Burma, the kingdom of Pagan failed to resist the Mongol invasion. The Thais of Burma (or the Shan) took advantage of this opportunity to break the kingdom into several Shan states.

(1):  Land of pandas. It is also here that the Ba-Shu culture was discovered, famous for its zoomorphic masks of Sanxingdui and for the mystery of the signs on the armor. It is also the Shu-Han kingdom (Thục Hán) of Liu Bei (Lưu Bị) during the Three Kingdoms period. (Tam Quốc)

(2): Race of prehistoric Southeast Asia.

(3): Comment s’est peuplé le Siam, ce qu’est aujourd’hui sa population. Alfred Raquez, (publié en 1903 dans le Bulletin du Comité de l’Asie Française). In: Aséanie 1, 1998. pp. 161-181.

(4):  Indochina in the broad sense. It is not French Indochina.

 

 

 

 

Forbidden Purple City (Huế)

j050807 Art, Histoire, Lịch sử, Sites touristiques, tourisme, Văn Hóa

 

Version française

Version vietnamienne

The Forbidden Purple City of Hue is protected by a 4-meter-high brick wall. This wall is further reinforced by the installation of a water-filled moat system, thus encircling the city. Each gate leading into the city is preceded by one or more bridges, but the Meridian Gate remains the main entrance, once reserved for the king. Today, it is the main entrance for visitors.

It is a powerful masonry structure pierced by five passages and topped by an elegant two-story wooden structure, the Five Phoenix Belvedere (Lầu Ngũ Phụng). To the east and west of the citadel are the Chương Đức Gate (7) and the Hiển Nhơn Gate (8), which are very well decorated and each pierced by three passages. The Hiển Nhơn Gate was completely restored in 1977.

World cultural Heritage of Viet Nam

Once you pass through the Meridian Gate, you see the sumptuous Palace of Supreme Harmony or Throne Palace, which can be reached by crossing the Esplanade of Great Salutations (Sân Ðại Triều Nghi). It was in this palace that the emperor, seated on the throne in a prestigious symbolic position, received the greeting of all the dignitaries of the empire. They were lined up hierarchically on the esplanade for major ceremonies. It is also the only building that has remained relatively intact after so many years of war. Behind this palace is the private residence of the king and his family.

 

 

  • 1 Gate of the Midday (Ngọ Môn)
  • 2 Palace of the Supreme Harmony. ( Điễn Thái Hòa)
  • 3 Belvedere of the Lecture or Pavilion of the Archives (Thái Bình Ngự Lâm Thư Lâu)
  • 4 Royal Theatre (Duyệt Thị Đường)
  • 5 Splendour Pavilion (Hiên Lâm Các)
  • 7 Gate of the Vertu (Chương Đức Môn)
  • 8 Gate of the Humanity (Hiển Nhơn Môn)

Vietnamese makara (con kim)

j050807 Art, Culture, Lịch sử, sculpture, Văn Hóa

 

Con kìm 

Version française
Version vietnamienne

For so many years, when I have the opportunity to visit temples or pagodas, I am used to taking photos of the sacred animal that is clearly visible on their roofs. I always think I am dealing with a dragon because its head resembles that of a dragon, its mouth being gaping and always swallowing an element of the roof. But when you examine it closely, you discover its very short body and its tail resembling that of a fish. The Chinese are used to calling it Xi. This is their way of calling this legendary creature Makara. This one is used to living underwater and is the favorite vehicle of the goddess of the Ganges River, Ganga. It is therefore an aquatic creature from abroad. Its mouth is so large that it can swallow an architectural element of the roof. Is this why the Vietnamese give it the name « Kìm » (or pincer in French)? Why is it often found on the roofs of temples or communal houses?

According to the Taiping Leibian Encyclopedia, it is a tradition dating back to the Han period under the reign of Emperor Han Wudi and the period when Buddhism began to take root in China. Following the fire at the Bach Luong Palace and at the suggestion of a mandarin to the emperor, the Imperial Court decided to sculpt the statue of this aquatic creature and install it on the roof of the palace because it was capable of extinguishing fire by surfing on the waves, which caused rain when it appeared. This creature henceforth became the symbol of the extinction of fire.

This custom was widespread not only in the Han imperial court but also in popular belief. Our country, annexed by the Han at this time, was no exception in the practice of this cult. Kim thus became the sacred animal of decoration on the roofs of communal houses and pagodas because Vietnamese artists have succeeded today in giving it a specific character in Vietnamese culture over the centuries. It has long since become a purely Vietnamese sacred animal. Everyone forgets not only its Hindu name, makara, but also its origin. 

 

 

Nỗi buồn chiến tranh (Chagrins de la guerre)

j050807 Histoire, Lịch sử, Vietnam

Tình gia thất nào ai chẳng co’
Kià lão thân khuê-phụ nhớ ‘thương
Mẹ già phơ phất mái sương
Con thơ  nhỏ  dại còn dương phù  trì

Chinh Phụ Ngâm

 chagrin_de_guerre

Version française

Nhắc đến Việt Nam, người ta không ngừng nghĩ về cuộc chiến, những vết thương lòng  và  các thuyền nhân. Không ai có thể thờ ơ  khi biết rằng có đến 13 triệu tấn bom (265 kg bình quân đầu người) và sáu mươi triệu lít chất tẩy  lá đã được thả xuống  suốt thời kỳ chiến tranh. Có khoảng 4 triệu thường dân Việt Nam thiệt mạng hoặc bị thương, 450000 chiến binh tử vong, 800.000 chiến binh bị thương  chưa kể đến 58.183 lính Mỹ tử vong hay mất tích và  313 613 người Mỹ bị thương. Cuộc chiến này đã chia rẽ vào thời điểm đó không những dư luận quốc tế mà luôn cả dư luận ở Việt Nam. Nó vẫn mãi còn in sâu trong tâm trí của người Mỹ cho đến ngày nay. Trái lại, người Việt Nam khó mà có thể biện minh cho cuộc chiến này khi yêu chuộng công lý, tự do và độc lập. Mỗi người trong chúng ta đều tràn  đầy  tiếc nuối, mâu thuẫn và bối rối vì chúng ta biết rõ nguyên nhân và hậu quả  của cuộc chiến này.

Độc lập và tự do không bao giờ đi cùng nhau trên con đường đi đến hòa bình. Chúng ta tiếp tục ước mơ có một ngày nào đó có đựợc cả hai trên mảnh đất gian khổ này mà chúng ta không ngừng uốn nắn và thấm đẫm nó với mồ hôi và nước mắt từ bao nhiêu thế hệ.

Chúng ta tiếp tục van xin Thượng Đế, đổ lỗi cho người ngoại quốc mà không muốn nhận ra lỗi lầm của mình, không dám soi gương và không muốn nuôi dưỡng niềm hy vọng của cả một dân tộc. Trong quá khứ, chúng ta đã đánh mất quá nhiều cơ hội hòa giải, đưa Việt Nam ra thoát khỏi sự nghèo đói và đưa nước ta trở lại trên con đường thịnh vượng vào buổi bình minh của thế kỷ 21. Đã đến lúc không nên lặp lại những sai lầm mà các bậc tiền bối của chúng ta đã mắc phải trong nhiều năm qua, nên chôn vùi mối hận thù cá nhân vì lợi ích quốc gia và đối xử một cách cao thượng với tất cả những người không có cùng quan điểm chính trị. Rõ ràng là chúng ta không làm điều đó một cách dễ dàng nhưng cũng đỡ đớn đau hơn những gì mà biết bao gia đình Việt Nam phải gánh chịu trong cuộc chiến này, điều mà chúng ta thường gọi là “nỗi buồn chiến tranh”.

Năm 1945, tại vùng đồng bằng sông Cửu Long, một thiếu niên tên Hoàng, xuất thân từ một gia đình địa chủ, sống bí mật ở một vùng ngoại ô cách Cần Thơ không xa cùng với người tình trẻ tên Hương. Họ có được hai người con, một bé trai tên Thành 3 tuổi và một bé gái tên Mai một tuổi. Đáng tiếc, cuộc hôn nhân này chỉ tồn tại trong thời gian ngắn vì bị người thân của họ phát hiện. Họ lên án mạnh mẽ cô vì thật xấu hổ cho gia đình khi biết cô gái trẻ này không ai khác chính là em họ xa của Hoàng. Quá xấu hổ và hối hận, Hoàng quyết định từ bỏ gia đình và nhập ngũ vào quân đội Việt Minh với hy vọng tìm được sự giải thoát trên chiến trường chống lại quân Pháp. Nhờ lòng dũng cảm và chiến công quân sự, vài năm sau Hoàng trở thành lãnh đạo quan trọng của Đảng Cộng sản Việt Nam ở vùng Minh Hải (Cà Mau), miền Nam Việt Nam.

Năm 1954, sau Hiệp định Genève, Hoàng được tập kết  ra miền Bắc Việt Nam chờ cuộc bầu cử dân chủ mới ở miền Nam Việt Nam. Thật không may, vì chiến tranh lạnh và sự đối đầu Đông/  Tây khiến  các cuộc bầu cử đã không bao giờ diễn ra. Việt Nam sau đó trở thành nơi đối đầu và bị chia  thành hai nước cộng hòa, một nước thân cận với khối Xô Viết và nước kia là Việt Nam Cộng hòa. Sau vài năm du học ở Mạc Tư Khoa, Hoàng trở về Hà Nội, vài năm sau và  trở thành kỹ cao cấp  có trách nhiệm,chuyên trong lĩnh vực chế tạo pháo hạng nặng và bảo trì các khẩu đội phòng không DCA trong chiến tranh Mỹ-Việt. Trong thời gian đó, Hoàng tái hôn và bị tử vong  vào một buổi sáng đẹp trời trong hầm trú ẩn  lúc máy bay Mỹ-Miền Nam Việt Nam oanh tạc ở vùng Vinh năm 1964. Hoàng  được truy tặng danh hiệu và được  xem coi là anh hùng dân tộc (hay liệt sỹ).

Về phần Hương, nàng  tiếp tục nuôi hai con ở miền Nam trong khi chờ lúc chồng về. Khoảng hai mươi năm sau, cậu con trai Thành của Hương đã trở thành một trong những phi công trẻ xuất sắc của miền Nam Việt Nam sau ba năm học tập và huấn luyện tại một căn cứ quân sự ở Hoa Kỳ (Houston, Texas). Thành đã thực hiện một số phi vụ  ở miền Bắc Việt Nam và nhiều lần tham gia các cu ộc  ném bom ở vùng Thanh Hóa và Vinh. Liệu một trong những quả bom  vô tình đánh rơi có thể giết chết cha Thành, người mà Thành luôn luôn  muốn gặp lại một ngày khi hòa bình trở lại với  đất nước này? Hai tháng trước khi Sài Gòn thất thủ năm 1975, vào tháng 2, Thành nhận được lệnh bí mật cùng gia đình rời Việt Nam để di cư sang Hoa Kỳ. Cuối cùng,Thành thích ở lại Việt Nam hơn vì mẹ anh vẫn nuôi hy vọng tìm thấy cha mình đang sống ở miền Bắc Việt Nam và gặp lại gia đình đoàn tụ sau bao nhiêu năm đau khổ và chia ly. Thật không may, Hương không bao giờ tìm thấy được chồng mình còn sống. Nàng được biết chồng nàng  đã bị bom Mỹ giết chết và như một phần thưởng, nàng đã nhận được danh hiệu “vợ anh hùng” (hay vợ của liệt Sỹ).

Ngược lại, vì ba năm được huấn luyện ở Hoa Kỳ và hoạt động quân sự nên Thành, con trai Hoàng, bị đưa vào trại cải tạo ở Lạng Sơn, miền Bắc Việt Nam. Thành  phải mất 8 năm để  phục hổi  chức năng. Trong thời gian anh bị giam giữ, mẹ anh, Hương  cứ sáu tháng lại phải đi một chặng đường dài để gặp anh và không ngừng khóc trong những lần đoàn tụ này. Anh ta chỉ thấy mẹ bị mất thị lực và trông tình trạng đáng thương khi anh được thả về. Anh  chưa bao giờ có cơ hội phục vụ mẹ đựợc lâu vì anh  được phép rời Việt Nam định cư lâu dài tại Hoa Kỳ vào năm 1994. Có lẽ, anh sẽ không bao giờ gặp lại mẹ mình nữa năm nay đã 85 tuổi, bởi việc trở về Việt Nam lúc này sẽ là một điều không mơ tưởng.

Câu chuyện của  gia đình này bị hủy hoại  và  khổ đau  bởi cuộc chiến  không chỉ là câu chuyện của đại đa số người Việt Nam mà còn là câu chuyện của một dân tộc tiếp tục xoa dịu  vết thương sâu đậm qua ngày tháng cho cái giá độc lập và tự do.

 

Griefs of war (Nỗi buồn chiến tranh)

j050807 Culture, Histoire, Lịch sử, Vietnam

 
Tình gia thất nào ai chẳng co’
Kià lão thân khuê-phụ nhớ ‘thương
Mẹ già phơ phất mái sương
Con thơ  nhỏ  dại còn dương phù  trì

Chinh Phụ Ngâm

Familial sentiments, who does not feel them?
Your old parents, your young wife remember you with love
Your mother, under the weight of age, sees her white hair floating like the rime
Your young baby in his tender innocence, needs your protection.

Complaint of the warrior’s wife

chagrin_de_guerre

Griefs of war

Version française

Speaking of Vietnam, people will not stop thinking of the war, its wounds and its boat people. No one could be indifferent when it is known that 13 million tons of bombs ( 300 pounds per person ) and 45 million gallons of defoliant were dumped over during the war. There were about 4 million Vietnamese civilians killed or injured, 450,000 Vietnamese combatants dead, 800,000 combatants wounded not included 58,183 Americans dead or missing in action and 313,613 wounded on the American side. That war divided at that time not only world opinion but also that of the Vietnamese. It continued to engrave on the mind of Americans up until now. On the other hand, it is hard for a Vietnamese to justify that war when one is in love with justice, freedom and independence. There is in each one of us full of regrets, contradictions and embarrassment because we know quite well the causes of that war and its consequences.

Independence and freedom never come together on the road of peace. We continue to dream of having them together some day on that such an arduous land that we never stop shaping it with sweat and tears for so many generations. We keep on imploring God, attribute fault to foreigners without wanting to recognize our own errors, without daring to look to ourselves in the mirror and without wanting to nurture the whole people’s hope. We have lost too many occasions in the past to be reconciled with each other, to bring Vietnam out of poverty and to bring it back to the road of prosperity at the dawn of the 21st century. It is time not to start over the same mistakes that our elders have made for so many years, to bury our personal hard feelings for the national interest and to magnanimously treat all those who do not share our political convictions. To do it is evidently not easy but it is less painful than what so may Vietnamese families have suffered during that war, which we often called  » the griefs of war ».

In 1945, in the Mekong delta, a young man named Hoàng, issue of a landed family, lived in hiding with his young lover Hương at a suburb not far from Cần Thơ.. They had two children, a boy named Thành, 3 years old and a girl named Mai, one year old. Unfortunately, this conjugal union was short lived because it was uncovered by their kins.

They strongly condemned it because it was a shame to the family when it was known that the young woman was no other than Hoàng’s niece. Caught by shame and taken by remorse, Hoàng decided to abandon his family and enrolled in the Việt-Minh army hoping to find relief on the battle fields against the French army. Thanks to his courage and military exploits, he became a few years later an important person in charge in the Vietnamese communist party in the Minh Hải region ( Cà Mau ) in South Vietnam.

In 1954, after the Geneva Accord, he was repatriated to North Vietnam waiting for the new democratic election in South Vietnam. Unfortunately, because of the cold war and the East-West confrontation, the election never took place. Vietnam then became the place of confrontation and was divided in two republics, one close to the Soviet bloc and the other the Republic of Vietnam. After a few years of higher education in Moscow, Hoàng returned to Ha Noi and a few years later became the engineer in charge, specialized in the field of making heavy artillery and maintaining anti-aircraft battery DCA during the American Vietnamese war. In the meantime, he remarried and was killed in a beautiful morning in his bunker during a bombardment by South Vietnamese and American aircraft in the region of Vinh in 1964. He was posthumously decorated and considered national hero ( liệt-sĩ ) since then.

As for his young wife, she continued to raise her two children in South Vietnam waiting for the return of her husband. Her son Thành became some twenty years later one of the brilliant aviators of South Vietnam after having spent three years training in the United States ( Houston, Texas ). He flew several missions over North Vietnam and participated in several rounds of bombardment of Thanh Hóa and Vinh regions. Could one of the bombs he dropped have by accident killed his father, a person he would always like to see again some day when peace would return in this country?

Two months before the fall of  Saïgon in 1975, in the course of the month of February, Thành received the order to discreetly leave the country with his family to resettle in the United States. He finally preferred to stay in Vietnam because his mother always fostered the hope of finding his father alive in North Vietnam and seeing again a reunified family after so many years of sufferings and separation. Unfortunately, she never found her husband alive. She knew he was killed by American bombs and as a reward, she received the title of « spouse of a hero » ( or vợ của liệt sỹ  ). On the other hand, because of his three years of training in the United States and his military activities, Thành, her son, was sent to a reeducation camp located at Lạng Sơn in North Vietnam. He had to spend eight years of reeducation. During his confinement, his mother had to take a long trip every six months to see him and did not stop crying during these reunions. On his release, he only found her to be in a lamentable state with her eyes almost blind. But he never had the chance to serve her any longer because he had to leave Vietnam to resettle in the United States in 1994. Probably he would never see his mother again who is now 75 years old because returning to Vietnam would have been for the moment, an utopia.

The story of this family torn and ruined by that war is not only the story lived by the vast majority of Vietnamese but also that of a people continuing to heal its deep wounds, as the years go by, for the price of independence and freedom.

 

 

Two sisters Trưng (Trưng Trắc Trưng Nhị)

j050807 Histoire, Lịch sử, Vietnam

Hai bà Trưng (40-43)

Vietnamese  version

French version

In the territories conquered by the Han, particularly in southern China, Sinicization continued in full swing. This is why revolts first broke out in the Kingdom of Dian (86, 83 BC, 40 to 45 AD). They were severely suppressed. These uprisings were largely due to the abuses of Han officials and the behavior of Chinese settlers, who seized fertile land and drove the local populations back into remote corners of their territory. Moreover, the latter were forced to adopt the language, customs, and religious beliefs of the Han.

In 40 AD, a serious rebellion broke out in Jiaozhou Province (or Giao Chau in Vietnamese), which at that time included part of the territory of Kwang Si (Quang Tay) and Kwang Tong (Quang Dong). It was led by the daughters of a local prefect, Trưng Trắc (Zheng Cè) the elder and Trưng Nhị (Zheng Èr) her younger. As the husband of the elder Shi Suo (Thi Sách) opposed the Chinese assimilation policy brutally carried out by the Chinese proconsul Tô Định (Su Ding), the latter did not hesitate to execute him to make an example against the Yue insurgents, especially the Vietnamese.

This exemplary execution revolted the Trưng sisters and immediately triggered the insurrection movement in the Yue territories. The two Trưng sisters succeeded in capturing 65 citadels there in a very short period of time. They succeeded in liberating approximately 1.5 million Yue from the yoke of the Han. This is in accordance with the liberation of 65 liberated citadels including, from Lưỡng Việt (Kouang Tong, Kouang Si today) to Mũi nậy (Phú Yên): Hai Nan (Nam Hải), Yu-Lin (Uất Lâm), Ts’ang-wou (Thương Ngô), Giao Chỉ (Jiaozhi), Kieou-tchen (Cửu Chân) và Jenan (Nhật Nam).

This is probably the territory of the ancient Van Lang kingdom during the Hồng Bàng period. This is why popular support was so strong and swift at that time and today there are at least 200 sites where the veneration of the Trung sisters is still visible with their altars. (account of Dr. Trần Đại Sỹ during his visit to southern China during the years 1979-1989). They proclaimed themselves queens over the conquered territories and established themselves in Meiling (or Mê Linh). They managed to reign for three years. In the year 41, they were defeated by General Ma Yuan (Mã Viện, Phục Ba Tướng Quân) (Tamer of the waves) because their army was disparate and likely to be annihilated and dispersed according to the historian Trần Trọng Kim (page 31 in his work entitled « History of Vietnam (Việt Nam sử lược »)). They preferred to commit suicide instead of surrendering by throwing themselves into the Hát River.

They thus became the symbol of the resistance of the Vietnamese. They continue to be venerated today not only in Vietnam but also in certain parts of the Yue territories of China (Kouang Si and Kouang Tong). Ma Yuan began to implement a policy of terror and forced sinicization by placing Chinese trusted men at all levels of the administration and by imposing Chinese as the official language throughout the territory of the Vietnamese.

During the Chinese rule, only a very limited number of bronze drums remained because the Han tried to destroy them, as these bronze drums symbolized the power of the local lords. It was through these instruments that these leaders could summon and mobilize all their subjects living in their territory to participate in the war. It was Ma Yuan who wanted to destroy the Viet morale and the ardor to fight the enemy. According to the Book of Later Han (Hậu Hán Thư), the people of Jiaozhi were so excited and showed their ardor in battle that since then, they had to hide their bronze drums to avoid the systematic destruction imposed by the Han.

When we mention the name of Ma Yuan, we are reminded of the story of his bronze column. According to a number of ancient writings, there are six Chinese characters engraved on this bronze column: “Đồng trụ triệt, Giao chỉ diệt (The destroyed column, the vanished Jiaozhi). Therefore, according to rumor, the Vietnamese tried to consolidate this bronze column at that time and made it become a mound with a piece of stone deposited by each of them as they passed by. This column was made from the bronze collected during the systematic destruction of bronze drums belonging to the Đồng Sơn civilization that the French archaeologist Louis Pajot discovered in 1924 in Đồng Sơn (Thanh Hoá) during his archaeological excavations.

Does Ma Yuan’s bronze column really exist or is it just an oral rumor? We are used to finding in Chinese history the act of building, during the victory of territorial conquest, the column to demarcate the border like the Tang generals Hà Lý Trinh, Trương Chu and Mã Tống. The bronze column should surely exist because the last insolent Ming emperor Zhu Youjian did not hesitate to allude to this bronze column of Ma Yuan to humiliate the Vietnamese ambassador Giang Văn Minh in his main verse: Đồng trụ chí kim đài dĩ lục (The bronze column continues to turn green because of the moss that accumulates over the years). But he was annoyed and furious, immediately killing Giang Van Minh because of his replying verse showing greatness of soul and courage: Ðằng giang tự cổ huyết do hồng (the Bạch Đằng River continues to turn red because of the blood of the invaders).

According to The geographical work of the Qing Dynasty (Đại Thanh nhất thống chí ), this column was built at that time in the Phân Mao mountain of the Cổ Sâm cave distant from Khảm Châu about 3 kilometers in the west direction. It is here that we find a kind of perennial grass which orients itself in the North-South directions according to the climate. This is the second Chinese domination lasting from 43 AD until the rebellion of Lý Bôn. The latter seized the auspicious opportunity in the year 544 AD to found the former Lý dynasty in the year 544.

 

Exile (Boat people)

j050807 Histoire, Lịch sử, Vietnam

 

exilVersion française
Version vietnamienne

Exile is sometimes a far crueler torment than death for  people with a lively, sensitive character. The novelist Staël is right to say so. Exile is only the last resort contemplated by the Vietnamese when he can no longer live freely to the best of his knowledge, or when he feels frustrated or powerless, like the retired general of the talented novelist Nguyễn Huy Thiệp, in a country wrested from foreign powers after so many years of effort and sacrifice, only to fall into dreary self-colonization.

Exile is not only the beginning of a new life, it’s also the beginning of a new hope. Sometimes, it’s the surest way to escape all threat and suspicion. Such is the case of Duke Nguyễn Hoàng. The latter, who within a few years would emerge victorious from several dazzling battles against the Mạc, became a cause for concern for his brother-in-law Trịnh Kiểm towards the end of 1554. To monopolize power, the latter did not hesitate to eliminate Nguyễn Uông, Nguyễn Hoàng’s brother.

Faced with this malicious intent, Nguyễn Hoàng, worried and distraught, was forced to secretly send an emissary to the illustrious scholar of the time, Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm, our Vietnamese Nostradamus, to seek his advice. Arriving at his place of retreat Bạch Vân am, the emissary laid a hundred gold taëls before the scholar and begged him for advice. But the scholar continued to remain impassive. Only towards the end of the interview did he stand up with his cane and head for the garden. Then, gazing admiringly at a decorative miniature artificial mountain made of a dozen tangled pebbles, on which a few ants were still climbing, he began to say:

Hoành sơn nhất đái vạn đại dung thân
Một dãy Hoành Sơn có thể dung thân được ở đó.

The refuge can be found on the side of the Annamite Cordillera.

The emissary told Nguyễn Hoàng what the scholar Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm had said. Seized by this brilliant idea, he pretended to be struck by madness and asked his sister, Ngọc Bảo, Trịnh Kiểm‘s favorite, to intervene with the latter so that he could be sent at once as governor of the Thuận Hóa- Quảng Nam province, known as the most unhealthy and dangerous corner, inhabited by barbarians and infested with wild beasts. But it was also here that Mạc troops continued to wage war. Machiavellian Trịnh Kiểm accepted this request without hesitation, for he seized the opportunity not only to liquidate Nguyễn Hoàng through the Mạc, but also to establish his legitimacy against the followers of his deceased father-in-law, general Nguyễn Kim. Thanks to this stratagem, Nguyễn Hoàng managed to save his family and later founded the dynasty of nine Nguyễn lords in the South, enabling one of his descendants by name Nguyễn Ánh (or Gia Long) to begin the long march south and later found the Nguyễn dynasty.

Similarly, Nguyễn Ánh had to spend several years in exile in Bangkok (Thailand) before being able to reclaim the throne. Exile is not always Eldorado, as Vietnamese still believe, but it is sometimes the beginning of a perilous adventure and a never-ending nightmare. More than 200,000 Vietnamese boat people perished in this adventure at the mercy of the East Sea and Thai pirates during the first years after the fall of Saigon (1975). Others who managed to escape alive continued to be kept as prisoners in camps in Thailand, Malaysia or Indonesia during the 90s. Exile is also the beginning of a long banishment, the end of a national upsurge and a lived experience.
hamnghi
Such was the case of King Hàm Nghi. After three years of struggle in the mountainous regions of Quảng Bình, he was captured alive on November 1, 1888 following the betrayal of a Mường Trương Quang Ngọc chief. Despite his capture, he continued to fuel doubts among the colonial authorities, for they found in front of them a young boy aged 18, of average height, so slender in his gait and so cultured above all, which contradicts the fact that according to rumors, Hàm Nghi was a vulgar and coarse character placed on the throne by the regent Tôn Thất Thuyết.   
 
No sign of weakness or fatigue appeared on his face, despite three years of tracking, misery and hunger in these mountainous regions. He continued to remain not only impassive, but also mute about his identity in the face of incessant interrogation by his jailers. Several mandarins were sent to identify whether the young captive in question was indeed King Hàm Nghi or not, but none succeeded in moving the latter except the old scholar Nguyễn Thuận.

On seeing the king continuing to perform this mockery, the latter, with tears in his eyes, prostrated himself before him, dropping his cane. Faced with the sudden appearance of this scholar, the king forgot the role he had played against his jailers, raised the latter up and knelt before him: “I beg you, my master”. At that moment, he realized that he had made a mistake in recognizing the latter, for Nguyễn Thuận had been his tutor when he was still young. He never regretted this gesture, because for him, respect for his master came before any other consideration. Thanks to this recognition, the colonial authorities were sure to capture King Hàm Nghi, enabling them to pacify Vietnam. King Hàm Nghi was deported to Algeria at the age of 18. He never saw Vietnam again. Even his body was not brought back to Vietnam, but buried in Sarlat (Dordogne, France).

The attachment of every Vietnamese to his native land is so deep that it’s impossible for him not to think of returning one day to Vietnam and dying there.

Exile is only a transitory period in one’s life but never an end in itself.

Dong Son culture (Văn hóa Đồng Sơn)

j050807 Art, Culture, Đồng Sơn, Histoire, Văn Hóa

 
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Version vietnamienne
Version française

In the early 20th century, archaeologists from the Ecole française d’Extrême-Orient (Louis Pajot, Olov Jansen) discovered a large number of Bronze Age artefacts in the Mã valley, notably in the village of Ðồng Sơn.

Among these finds are musical instruments, in particular drums. These are decorated with figurative motifs depicting stylized animals and scenes from daily life. But the most remarkable of these drums remains that of Ngọc Lũ. This is a cylinder 63 cm high and 79 cm in diameter. It was purchased by EFEO at the 1902 exhibition and auction in Hanoi for the price of 550 piasters at the time. It is arguably the finest drum ever found in Asia. On its upper side are motifs mixed with various ritual subjects: herds of deer, waterfowl, houses on stilts etc. The Austrian archaeologist Heine-Geldern was the first to propose the name Đồng Sơn for this culture. Since then, the culture has been known as the Ðồng Sơn or Dongsonian culture.   According to researchers Louis Bezacier and Nguyễn Phúc Long, the art of Đồng Sơn represents only the final phase of a long evolution of bronze metallurgy from the Gò Bông (late Phùng Nguyên) , Đồng Dậu and Gò Mun eras and corresponds to the period when it reached perfection and acquired prestige and influence in Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

According to researcher Hà Văn Tấn, the culture of Đồng Sơn has its roots among the proto-Dongsonian cultures discovered, which gradually enable it to have remarkable creations.  The art of Đồng Sơn emerged on the basis of Neolithic industry, as the first bronze objects can be found alongside carved stone instruments and pottery with a still Neolithic character. To look for the origins of the Dongsonian in the north or west of Vietnam, as several researchers have done, is to put forward a hypothesis that has no scientific basis. Dongsonian art is also in contact with the art of the Warring Kingdoms (Houai-style daggers from the Wu-Yue kingdom).  The ancient bronzes found in Vietnam are totally different from those of the Shang and Chu dynasties in China, both in the creation of charming forms and in decoration and alloying.  We can say without hesitation that this is a purely local production with very little influence from Chinese bronzes.

Đồng Sơn culture

(500 B.C. – 43 A.C.)

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Thanks to the discoveries of bronze ploughing implements (ploughshares) found at Vạn Thắng and Sơn Tây reported by Vietnamese researchers in their book entitled “Les premiers vestiges de l’Âge de bronze au Vietnam p 110-113, Hànội 1963)(1), the Proto-Vietnamese already knew how to plough their rice fields. This invalidates the old Chinese thesis that the Proto-Vietnamese didn’t know how to plough before the Han conquest. They had to learn from the governors Si Kouang (Tích Quan) and Ren Yan (Nhâm Diên) how to grow rice and how to live and dress (Livre des Han postérieurs). One of the characteristics of Dongsonian bronze lies in the subtle blend of copper, tin and lead elements, depending on the type of tool produced (battle axe, crossbow trigger, spear point, ploughshare, hoe, dagger, etc.). According to Vietnamese researcher Nguyễn Phúc Long, ancient bronze drums found in North Vietnam have a much higher lead content than those from archaic China, in the order of 27.8% for the former versus 0.55% for the latter.

Beauty and skill are not lacking either in the decoration of the various objects found with the creatures living in the rice fields (toad, pelican, turtle, buffalo etc.). For some time now, despite the proximity of a multi-cultural country like China, there has been unanimous agreement on the singularity of this age-old culture, which originated with the rice-growing peasants, whose feet were buried in the mud of the flooded fields and who were close to nature. It is contemporary with the Sa Huỳnh and Đồng Nai cultures of central and southern Vietnam today.

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