Nanyue
Nanyue, or
Nam Việt, (,
Quốc ngữ: Nam Việt) was an ancient kingdom that consisted of the modern
Chinese provinces of
Guangdong,
Guangxi,
Yunnan and much of modern northern
Vietnam. It was established by the
Chinese general
Zhào Tuō (
Chinese: 趙佗;
Vietnamese:
Triệu Đà) of the
Qin dynasty who assimilated the customs of the
Yuè peoples and Central China in his territory. Its capital was near
Pānyú in modern-day
Guangzhou.
The history of Nányuè was written in
Records of the Grand Historian by Han historian
Sima Qian, between
109 BC to
91 BC.
After the first emperor
Qin Shi Huang united China by conquering all six kingdoms in
219 BC, he ordered his generals to conquer the regions of present-day Guangdong and Guangxi. The conquest was completed in
214 BC. A new administrative unit, Nánhǎi Commandery (南海郡) was formed to rule the area corresponding approximately to present-day Guangdong. Zhào Tuō was appointed to manage a Lóngchuān (龍川), a strategic place in the military. He asked Qin Shi Huang to send 500 thousand people from Central China to Nánhǎi to assimilate the culture of Central China and Yuè.
Establishment
After the death of Qin Shi Huang, a wave of anti-Qin riots swept across central China and the
Qin Dynasty soon capitulated. In
208 BC, the head of Nánhǎi Commandery, Rèn Xiāo (任囂), appointed Zhào Tuō to succeed his position and suggested that Zhao establish a country in the south and take advantage the mountainous boundary with northern China. Zhao soon reinforced the defences in the
mountain passes north and replaced the Qin officials with his own followers. In
203 BC, he conquered another two commanderies, Guìlín (桂林郡, approximately Guangxi) and Xiàng (象郡, approximately Yunnan, north and central Vietnam), at the south of the mountain. The new kingdom of Nányuè was born, with
Pānyú as the capital; Zhào Tuō declared himself W" Wáng (武王, lit.
martial king) of Nányuè.
Liu Bang, after years of war with his rivals, established the
Han dynasty and reunified Central China in
202 BC. Liu and his successors adapted a policy of peace for letting his empire to have time to regenerate. In
211 BC, the emperor Liu sent Lù Jiǎ (陸賈) to Nányuè to appoint Zhào Tuō as the King of Nányuè. Trade relations were established at the border between Nányuè and the Han kingdom of
Changsha. Although formally a Han subject state, Nányuè retained a large measure of effective autonomy.
After the death of Liu Bang in
195 BC, the government was in hand of his wife, the Empress of Lǚ (呂后). The king of Changsha asked Lǚ to block the trade between two kingdoms and prepared to conquer the kingdom of Nányuè. Zhào Tuō was angry and felt alienated. In revenge, he then declared himself the emperor of Nányuè and attacked the kingdom of Changsha and returned. Lǚ sent general Zào (灶) to punish the Zhào Tuō. The hot and humid weather made soldiers fall ill and the army unable to go south of the mountain. The army withdrew. With the military success, Zhào Tuō bribed the surrounding kingdoms of Mǐnyuè (閩越) in the east and Ōuluò ("') in the west to become her subject kingdoms. The empress thus killed Zhao's clan in Han and damaged his ancestors' tomb.
In
179 BC,
Liu Heng ascended the Emperor of Han. He reversed the policy of the empress. He ordered officials to visit the family town Zh"ndìng (真定), garrison the town and made offering to his ancestors regularly. His prime minister Chén Píng (陳平) suggested to send Lù Jiǎ to Nányuè as they were familiar with each other. Zhào Tuō felt surprised on Lù's arrival. He then withdrew his title of emperor and Nányuè became Han's subject state.
Zhào Hú
In
137 BC, Zhào Tuō died. His son Zhào Hú (趙胡) succeeded the king of Nányuè. Yǐng Xìng (郢興), the king of Mǐnyuè, attacked Nányuè. Zhào Hú asked the Emperor
Liu Che to send troops to halt the attack of Mǐnyuè. The emperor sent two generals to Mǐnyuè. Before Han's advancing to Mǐnyuè, Yǐng Xìng's younger brother Yú Shàn (餘善) killed Yǐng Xìng and surrendered.
The emperor Liu Che sent Zhuāng Zhù (莊助) to Nányuè. Zhào Hú thanked the Emperor and sent his son Zhào Yīngqí (趙嬰齊) to the Han capital,
Chang'an. He also wanted to go Chang'an but was stopped by his minister for fear that he could not return and it would be the end of the kingdom. He thus pretended to be sick and stayed in Nányuè. He really fell sick later for over 10 years and died. He got his
posthumous name Wén Dì (文帝).
Zhào Yīngqí
Zhào Yīngqí returned to Nányuè and succeeded the king. He married a woman of family Jiū (樛) from
Handan and born a son Zhào Xìng (趙興) when he was in Chang'an. He asked the Emperor to appoint Jiū as his Queen and Zhào Xìng his prince consort. He sent his second son to Chang'an. Zhào Yīngqí died with posthumous name Míng Wáng (明王).
Zhào Xìng
Zhào Xìng succeeded Zhào Yīngqí as king. As the king was young, the King Mother Jiū took control of the kingdom. In
113 BC, the Emperor sent Ānguó Shǎojì (安國少季) to Nányuè ask the king and King mother to visit the Emperor. Ānguó Shǎojì was in fact Jiū's lover when she was in Chang'an. They got in love again that made the subjects mistrusted the king mother. To secure their positions, the king mother and the king wanted Nányuè to be a kingdom within Han Empire. The king, the king mother, Ānguó Shǎojì tried to persuade Lǚ Jiā (呂嘉) and other ministers to follow. Lǚ Jiā stood and left. The king mother tried to kill him but stopped by the king.
Lǚ Jiā refused to meet the king and planned to revolt. As he knew the king with no intention to kill him, the plan was not carried out for months.
Zhào Jiàndé
The minister Lǚ Jiā revolted and killed the king and the king's mother. He named Zhào Jiàndé (趙建德), the eldest son of Zhào Yīngqí, to be the king of Nányuè. In autumn
112 BC the emperor sent a navy of a hundred thousand strong to attack Nányuè. In winter
111 BC the capital Pānyú fell and many surrendered. Lǚ Jiā and Zhào Jiàndé escaped on the sea but were captured soon. Nányuè was official incorporated into Han.
| personal name | posthumous name | | | Quốc ngữ | Pinyin | | Quốc ngữ | Pinyin | | | 趙佗 | Triệu Đà | Zhào Tuó | 武王 | Vũ Vương | W" Wáng | 203"137 BCE | | 赵眜 | Triệu Mắt | Zhào Mò | 文王 | Văn Vương | Wén Wáng | 137"122 | | 趙嬰齊 | Triệu Anh Chai | Zhào Yīngqí | 明王 | Minh Vương | Míng Wáng | 122"115 | | 趙興 | Triệu Hưng | Zhào Xìng | "王 | Ai Vương | Āi Wáng | 115"112 | | 趙建德 | Triệu Kiến Đức | Zhào Jiàndé | " | " | " | 112"111 |
Among the Vietnamese, the Zhào/Triệu Dynasty was a controversial one. Many consider it a period of Chinese domination since it was ruled by a Chinese general, while others consider it a period of independence because they believed that he adopted Yuè/Việt customs and often ruled in defiance of the
Han emperor.
In June of
1983, The tomb of Zhào Hú was found in Guǎngzhōu. Thousands of artefacts were found, including bronze ritual utensils, musical instruments, weapons, farming utensils, lacquer, silk, and jewellery of jade, gold, silver and ivory. Others were also found buried with the king. In addition, the gold seal of Wén Dì was unearthed.
Nán/Nam (南) means in the south and Yuè/Việt (越) means Yuè/Việt people and the place of Yuè/Việt people. Nam Việt is a southern country in the place of Việt people.
The Chinese Character越 (Yuè/Việt) is also variant of 粤 (Yuè/Việt), the Chinese term that covers the languages and ethnicities of the southern Chinese province of
Guangdong and surrounding areas.
After the
Han Chinese controlled the Nányuè area for nearly 1000 years, people in northern Vietnam were partly sinicized while the areas of present-day Guangdong and Guangxi were largely
sinicized.
The people in northern Vietnam broke away from
Han China in 938 A.D. after their victory on the Bach Dang river. They formed their own kingdom and called it Đại Việt (The Great Việt State). This kingdom grew stronger; it expanded south and conquered the Champa kingdom (in central Vietnam) and most of the Khmer empire (in southern Vietnam), forcing the Khmer to migrate. In 1800s, Nguyen Anh, a Việt king, wanted to change his kingdom's name from Dai Viet to Nam Viet. But some people were afraid that it may be confused with the Nam Viet kingdom of Zhào Tuō, so he reversed the word Nam Việt and made it Việt Nam. The
Kinh people of the
hundred tribes of Yuè form the majority of the modern-day ethnic group of Vietnam.
Most of people in Guangdong and Guangxi areas were assimilated and became
Han Chinese.
*
Triệu Dynasty*
An Duong Vuong*Wiktionary, the free dictionary, has entries on all these Chinese characters:
南,
越,
粤
