Trieu Dynasty - Historiography

Historiography

The scholar Huang Zuo produced the first detailed published history of Nam Viet in the fifteenth century. Chinese historians have generally denounced the Trieu as separatists from the Han dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD), but have also praised them as a civilizing force. A particularly strident denunciation was produced by poet Qu Dajun in 1696. Qu praised Qin Shi Huang as a model of how to uphold the purity of Chinese culture, and compared Trieu Da unfavorably to the emperor. A more positive view of Trieu multiculturalism was presented by Liang Tíngnan in Nányuè Wŭ Wáng Chuán (History of the Five Kings of Nanyue) in 1833. The Cantonese traditionally reject or minimize any connection to Nam Viet with implausible stories that assert pure northern Chinese ancestry. Despite this, the Cantonese refer to themselves as Yuht, the Cantonese pronunciation of Yuè/Việt. In modern times, the character 粵 (yuè) refers to Cantonese while 越 (yuè) refers to Vietnamese. But historically, these two characters were interchangeable.

Meanwhile, Vietnamese historians have struggled with the issue of whether to regard the Trieu heroically as founders of Vietnam, or to denounce them as foreign invaders. For centuries afterward, Trieu Da was a folk hero among the Viets, and was remembered for standing up to the Han Empire. After Lý Bí drove the Chinese out of northern Vietnam, he proclaimed himself "emperor of Nam Viet" (Nam Việt đế) in 544, thus identifying his state as a revival of the Trieu, despite obvious differences in terms of location and ethnic makeup. In the thirteenth century, Lê Văn Hưu wrote a history of Vietnam that used the Trieu as its starting point, with Trieu Da receiving glowing praise as Vietnam's first emperor. In the 18th century, Ngô Thì Sĩ reevaluated Trieu Da as a foreign invader. Under the Nguyen dynasty, Trieu Da continued to receive high praise, although it was acknowledged that the original Nam Viet was not in fact a Vietnamese state. The current Communist government portrays Trieu Da negatively as a foreign invader who vanquished Vietnam's heroic King An Duong. Modern Vietnamese are descended from the ancient Yue of northern Vietnam and western Guangdong, according to Peter Bellwood.