The country that we now call Vietnam has a long history; somewhat surprisingly, the country as we now know it assumed its more or less final form in the 19th Century.
Humans have lived in the area for a very long time, at least back to the Paleolithic era. Traditional Vietnamese history traces back to at least 2879 B.C., when the Hồng Bàng kingdom of Hung was established and existed until the year 258 B.C., when it was conquered by the neighboring kingdom of Âu Việt, which was then merged together and formed the kingdon of Âu Lạc. which existed until 179 B.C. when it consolidated into the Chinese kingdom of Nanye - which was then incorporated into the empire of China in 111 B.C. Although there would be occasional revolutions where the Northern Vietnamese had temporary independence, but China ruled (more or less) until the 10th Century A.D. During this period of time, Chinese culture was deeply impactful on the Đại Việt (as Northern Vietnamese called themselves). Confucianism became deeply rooted as did Chinese cultural practices.
(Vietnam, 3rd Century B.C.E. - Source)
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There's no love lost between Vietnam and China these days, especially with the relocation of so much manufacturing to the former from the latter even though the two countries have been flirting with each other in the last decade but then both communist countries so.......
ReplyDeleteNylon12, as it turns out there has been no love lost between Vietnam and Chinas in the last 1,000 years - which was a surprise to me. Just looking at labels, it is surprising how many things are manufactured in Vietnam - and the economy - and least in the some of the parts of the South we visited - reflects that.
DeleteThat thousand-year stretch of Chinese rule leaving such a deep Confucian imprint on Đại Việt really explains so much about how distinct Northern Vietnamese identity developed compared to its neighbors. And defeating two separate Mongol invasions is honestly a wild historical footnote — the Trần dynasty doesn't get nearly enough credit for that.
ReplyDeleteDiana, to be honest my historical of knowledge of Vietnam prior to this trip started around 1954 and ended around 1979. Everything before it was largely a blank. I guess to be fair to myself, prior to that there was not necessarily a need (I certainly have enough to track already). So this was a great opportunity to learn.
DeleteDoubly interestingly (to me, anyway) both victories were the result of naval victories - again, something I did not associate with Vietnam.
Although I've read an excellent book about the history of Vietnam in the decades leading up to the Vietnam War all the way to post war America (The Sacred Willow by Duong Van Mai Elliott), I don't know much about the history prior to those years so this was all new to me.
ReplyDeleteEd, I highly recommend A Brief History of Vietnam by Bill Hayton. It is what I read before going, and has a great historical reach and coverage of Vietnam for being a single book.
DeleteVery interesting. What ever I learned about Asian history in school has been completely abandoned by my brain. We live in such a huge world.
ReplyDeleteI recently finished reading The Antiquity of China: An Essay Toward the Primitive Language by John Webb. It was published in 1678. His premise was that China was first settled by early universal flood survivors and that they weren't affected by the confusion of the languages at Babel. He didn't convince me, but his arguments were fascinating because they were well supported, referencing resources like Sir Walter Raleigh's history of the world, and the first Jesuit missionaries to China and their translations of the original Chinese history at the time.
So when you write 2879 B.C., I now have a vague place to plug that into.
Leigh, it really is a big world.
DeleteMy knowledge of the history prior to the trip started at around 1954, so all of this was completely new to me (Although there is so much history in the world, it is hard for any one person to know it all. Sadly, one has to pick and choose.).
Randy Alcorn, in his book, Safely Home, treats a little bit with the idea of the ancient nature of Chinese language and its potential roots in the Flood.
The ancient claims of Chinese history are always interesting to me, as are the specificity of some of their dates.
That's interesting about Randy Alcorn. Dan watched a video awhile back that showed biblical symbolism in the Chinese characters.
DeleteOn the other hand, John Webb sited another author of his time who published a book arguing that the pre-Babel language was ancient Dutch. And in his Irish Pedigrees, John O'Hart states it was probably Scythian, from which the Celtic language descended.
I think what I find of interest, is how this was a topic of intellectual discourse several hundred years ago. Now it's all categorized as mythology.
The history of languages fascinates me. To think of all the languages that have disappeared saddens me, as when they disappear a whole world view disappears with them.
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