Statue of An Dương Vương in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
An Dương Vương (Vietnamese:[ʔaːnzɨəŋvɨəŋ]), personal nameThục Phán, was the founding king and the only ruler of the kingdom ofÂu Lạc, an ancient state centered in theRed River Delta. As the leader of theÂu Việt tribes, he defeated the lastHùng king of the state ofVăn Lang and united its people – known as theLạc Việt – with his people, the Âu Việt. An Dương Vương fled and committed suicide after the war withNanyue forces in 179 BCE.
According to traditional Vietnamese histories, An Dương Vương came from theKingdom of Shu (in modernSichuan), which was conquered byKing Huiwen of Qin in 316 BCE.[1][2] Many chronicles includingRecords of the Outer Territories of the Jiao province,[3] theĐại Việt sử lược, andĐại Việt sử ký toàn thư state that he was a Shu prince (ms. "蜀王子", literal meaning: "son of the Shu king") or the king of Shu. Some historians doubt the authenticity of this origin. The kingdom of Shu was conquered by theQin in 316 BCE, making An Dương Vương's position as either king or prince of Shu chronologically tenuous. However the connection between Proto-Vietnam and a region to their northwest may have some merit. There is solid archaeological evidence linking the culture ofYunnan in southwest China to the Proto-Vietnamese. According to Stephen O'Harrow, the exact origin of An Dương Vương might not have been Shu but somewhere else even further away. Due to the gap in time between the origin of the story and when it was recorded, the location could have been changed out of contemporary considerations, or simply mistaken due to an error in geographical knowledge.[4] In theKhâm định Việt sử Thông giám cương mục, the writers expressed doubts about An Dương Vương's origin, claiming it was impossible for a Shu prince to cross thousands of miles, through forests, and many kingdoms to invade Văn Lang. However in the 1950s, historians Trần Văn Giáp and Đào Duy Anh argued that An Dương Vương's Shu origin was in fact true.[5][6]
In 1963, an oral tradition ofTày people inCao Bằng titledCẩu chủa cheng vùa "Nine Lords Vying for Kingship" was recorded.[1][7][8] According to this account, at the end ofHồng Bàng dynasty, there was a kingdom called Nam Cương (lit. "southern border") in modern-dayCao Bằng andGuangxi.[1] This was a confederation of 10mườngs, in which the King resided in the central one (present-day Cao Bằng Province). The other nine regions were under the control of nine lords.[9][10] When King An Dương's father (Thục Chế [vi]蜀制) died, he was still a child; yet, his intelligence enabled him to retain the throne and all the lords surrendered. Nam Cương became more and more powerful while Văn Lang became weak.[1][7] Subsequently, he invaded Văn Lang and founded the state of Âu Lạc in approximately 257 BCE, proclaiming himselfKing An Dương (An Dương Vương).[1]
The story of An Dương Vương's origin in Nam Cương is considered suspect by some historians. The story was published in 1963 as a translation of a Tày story by Lã Văn Lô. In 1969 the Institute of Archaeology attempted to find the origin of this story in Cao Bằng but failed to identify any archaeological evidence for the tale. The investigation did find that the story was originally written down by Lê Đình Sự. Lê Đình Sự was Tày and collected various Tày stories and recorded them in prose. This was supposedly what Lã Văn Lô translated into Vietnamese but the investigation could not confirm whether or not this was true since the person who owned Lã Văn Lô's text had died. As such, some historians doubt the story's validity as a historical document. There is no extant copy of the original Tày version of the story. The title in Tày isCẩu chủa chenh vùa but with the exception of "Cẩu"("nine" inTai languages), the rest of the words are simply Vietnamese words with different tones or a minor difference in spelling.[8]
Historical accounts claim, after purportedly taking power, Kinh An Dương ordered to construct a fortified settlement in Tây Vu known to history asCổ Loa as his seat of power.[11][12] It looked like a snail shell design (its name, Cổ Loa古螺, means "old snail": according toĐại Việt Sử Ký Toàn Thư, the citadel is shaped like a snail[‡ 1]).[13][14]
The events associated with the construction of this spiral-shaped citadel are remembered in thelegend of the golden turtle. According to this legend, when the citadel was being built, all the work done was mysteriously undone by a group of spirits led by thousand-year-old white chicken seeking to avenge the son of the previous king.[13] In response to the king's plea, a giant golden turtle suddenly emerged from the water, and protected the King until the citadel's completion. The turtle gave the King one of his claws before leaving and instructed him to make a crossbow using it as a trigger, assuring him he would be invincible with it.[‡ 2][13] A man calledCao Lỗ (or Cao Thông) was tasked to create thatcrossbow. It was then called "Saintly Crossbow of the Supernaturally Luminous Golden Claw"(靈光金爪神弩; SV:Linh Quang Kim Trảo Thần Nỏ); one shot could kill 300 men.[‡ 3][15][13]
In 204 BCE, in Panyu (nowGuangzhou),Zhao Tuo established the kingdom ofNanyue.[16] Taylor (1983) believed that when Nanyue and Âu Lạc co-existed, Âu Lạc temporarily acknowledged Nanyue to show their mutual anti-Han sentiment, and this did not imply that Nanyue exerted any real authority over Âu Lạc. Nanyue's influence over Âu Lạc waned after relationship with Han dynasty become normal. The army Zhao Tuo had created to oppose the Han was now available to deploy against the Âu Lạc.[17]
Details of the campaign are not authentically recorded.Zhao Tuo's early setbacks and eventual victory against King An Dương were mentioned inRecord of the Outer Territory of Jiao Region (交州外域記) andRecords of the Taikang Era of the Jin (晉太康記).[note 1][‡ 4]Records of the Grand Historian mentioned neither King An Duong nor Zhao Tuo's military conquest of Âu Lạc only that afterEmpress Lü's death (180 BCE), Zhao Tuo used his troops to menace and his wealth to bribe theMinyue, theWestern Ou, and theLuo into submission.[‡ 5] However, the campaign inspired a legend whose theme is the transfer of the turtle claw-triggered crossbow from King An Duong to Zhao Tuo. According to the myth, ownership of the crossbow conferred political power: "He who is able to hold this crossbow rules the realm; he who is not able to hold this crossbow will perish."[18]
Unsuccessful on the battlefield, Zhao Tuo asked for a truce and sent his sonZhong Shi to submit to King An Dương and serve him.[19][18] There, he and King An Duong's daughter, Mỵ Châu, fell in love and were married.[18][20] A vestige of thematrilocal organization required the husband to live in the residence of his wife's family.[21] As a result, they resided at An Duong's court until Zhong Shi discovered the secrets and strategies of King An Dương.[21] Meanwhile, King An Duong mistreated Cao Lỗ, and he left.[22]
Zhong Shi had Mỵ Châu showed him the crossbow, at which point he secretly changed its trigger, neutralizing its special powers and rendering it useless.[20] He then asked to return to his father, who thereupon launched a new attack on Âu Lạc and this time defeated King An Dương.[21] History records that, with his defeat, the King was told by the turtle about his daughter's betrayal and killed his daughter for her treachery before going into the watery realm.[‡ 6][18]
Vietnamese historians typically view the main events of the era as having roots in historical fact. However concordance of the history with Soviet doctrine of history was incomplete in the 1950s.[23] The capital of King An Dương,Cổ Loa, was the first political center of the Vietnamese civilization pre-Sinitic era.[24] The site consists of two outer sets of ramparts and a citadel on the inside, of rectangular shape. The moats consist of a series of streams, including the Hoang Giang River and a network of lakes that provided Cổ Loa with protection and navigation.[25] Kim estimated the population of Cổ Loa possibly ranged from 5,000 to around 10,000 inhabitants.[26]
^ĐVSKTT (Peripheral Records/Volume 1:6a): "王於是築城于越裳，廣千丈，盤旋如螺形，故號螺城。" "The King then built a citadel atViệt Thường, one-thousand-zhàng wide, whirling and swirling like the shape of a snail. Therefore, it was called Old Snail City (Loa Thành)."
^Both were quoted inSJZ (Volume 37): "《交州外域記》曰：交趾昔未有郡縣之時，土地有雒田，其田從潮水上下，民墾食其田，因名爲雒民，設雒王、雒侯，主諸郡縣。縣多爲雒將，雒將銅印青綬。後蜀王子將兵三萬來討雒王、雒侯，服諸雒將，蜀王子因稱爲安陽王。後南越王尉佗舉衆攻安陽王，安陽王有神人名臯通，下輔佐，爲安陽王治神弩一張，一發殺三百人，南越王知不可戰，卻軍住武寧縣。按《晉太康記》，縣屬交趾。越遣太子名始，降服安陽王，稱臣事之。安陽王不知通神人，遇之無道，通便去，語王曰：能持此弩王天下，不能持此弩者亡天下。通去，安陽王有女名曰媚珠，見始端正，珠與始交通，始問珠，令取父弩視之，始見弩，便盜以鋸截弩訖，便逃歸報南越王。南越進兵攻之，安陽王發弩，弩折遂敗。安陽王下船逕出於海，今平道縣後王宮城見有故處。"
^Shiji (Volume 113): "佗因此以兵威邊，財物賂遺閩越、西甌、駱，役屬焉，東西萬餘里。" Watson (1961, p. 241):"He sent gifts and bribes to the chiefs of Min-yüeh, Western Ou, and Lo-lo, persuading them to submit to his authority, until the region under his control extended over ten thousand li from east to west."
^Patricia M. Pelley -Postcolonial Vietnam: New Histories of the National Past – Page 50 2002 "who relied more on the work of Lenin — most notablyTrần Quốc Vượng,Hà Văn Tấn, andPhan Huy Lê – published two pathbreaking studies, Primitive Communism and The History of Feudalism, from which they conspicuously omitted the .....proceeding instead directly from primitive communism to feudalism. Inspired by Lenin's assertions regarding the Slavic countries, historians at the university insisted that beginning with the Hùng kings and the kingdom ofVăn Lang... during the reign of An Dương Vương, who ruled the kingdom of Âu Lạc, and through the early era of the Chinese occupation (from 2879 BC to 43 AD) Vietnamese society was based on primitive communism "
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