In 20000 BC, before the first history was recorded in writings, there had been already among people the legends and mythology about the origin of mankind and stories about the beginning of formation of Viet nation from HUNG VUONG. These are stories on HONG BANG dynasty, on offspring of dragon and fairy, bag of hundred eggs, eighteen kings of Hung Vuong dynasty, Son Tinh - Thuy Tinh's conflict, Thanh Giong's victory over An foreign aggressors, folk of betel and areca nuts, "banh chung banh day", watermelon ..... All these legends together can be regarded as a folk history comprising mythology characteristic as well as core of history in memory and tradition through many ages of people. Most of history of a nation of the world, with or without writing, is penetrated with treasure of folk and legends.
In era of TRAN (1226-1400) and LE (1428-1527), these historic legends were firstly collected and compiled by the contemporary authors' view. The two symbolic works of this aspect were Viet Dien U Linh by Ly Te Xuyen with a foreword in 1329, and Linh Nam Trich Quai by Tran The Phap in around end of Tran, then edited by Vu Quynh and Kieu Phu in Le era with prologue in 1492-1493.
The Vietnamese have attempted to give their country a history as hoary as China's. According to one of the numerous legends concerning the origin of their state, a Vietnamese prince named LAC LONG QUAN came to Northern Viet Nam from his home in the sea. He married a princess from the mountain, AUCO, who is also described as the wife of a Northern Intruder (Chinese?), on the top of Mount Tan Vien, sometimes around 2800 BC Instead of the commonplace results of a union, the princess laid 100 eggs - when they hatched, a son emerged from each of them. Afterward, the reason why the parents separated was told like this : The father someday told the mother because they were from different origin, he was dragon from the sea, she was lady fair from the mountain, and they couldn't live together. Therefore, the mother led half the progeny across the northern mountains, and became the ancestors of the Muong. While the remaining fifty followed the father to the sea and became ancestors of the Vietnamese. The most valiant of the sons was chosen to be the first of the eighteen HUNG VUONG kings. Lac Long Quan, a prince of the sea, and Au Co, a princess of the mountains, are regarded by the Vietnamese as their primal ancestors. Does this imply that the Vietnamese were originally of the Malay-Polynesian, sea-oriented race coming to terms with the Mongolians of the Southern Chinese plains?
Chu Nguyen
Tai lieu tham khao: Lich su Viet Nam & Trials and Tribulations of a Nation
Since the foundation of the first kingdom of the Viet, some 3,000 years ago, and the first Viet Chuong or Lac Viet kingdom in North Viet Nam 2,400 years ago, the name has been changed several times, depending on historical events.
| Viet Nam has been successively known as… | ||
| 257 BC | Van Lang | Hung or Lac dynasty |
| 257-207 | Au Lac | Thuc dynasty |
| 207-11 | Nam Viet | Trieu dynasty |
| 3 BC-203 AD | Giao Chi | Han dynasty [first part] |
| 203-544 | Giao Chau | Han dynasty [second part] |
| 544-603 | Van Xuan | Ly dynasty |
| 603-939 | An Nam | Duong dynasty |
| 968-1054 | Dai Co Viet | Dinh dynasty |
| 1054-1400 | Dai Viet | Ly and Tran dynasties |
| 1400-1407 | Dai Ngu | Ho dynasty |
| 1427-1802 | Dai Viet | Le and Nguyen dynasties |
| 1802 | Viet Nam | Gia Long |
| 1832 | Dai Viet | Minh Mang |
| 04/1945 | Viet Nam | First national government |
Viet Su Luoc is a work in Tran era mentioning about the formation of Van Lang, for the first time. In 15th century, Nguyen Trai gave affirmation on position of Van Lang in Hung Vuong dynasty in the first geography-history text of the nation. Ngo Si Lien especially brought Hung Vuong era into official history of Viet Nam under the title of "Hong Bang Dynasty" in addenda chapter of his Dai Viet Su Ky Toan Thu.
The "Hung Era" is rightly termed "legendary" by most historians inasmuch as no eighteen kings or generations could have spanned the nearly two millennia of prehistoric development in the Tonkin delta. Possibly, the Dong Son period was related to HUNG VUONG dynasty because the displacement of the economic and social leadership of primitive agricultural practices by a monarchial apparatus responsible for the building and maintenance of an irrigation system of dykes and canals, providing against nature's vagaries of drought as well as floods caused by excessive rise in the water level of the rivers.
The new state based on the irrigation system in the region of the three rivers in Upper Tonkin must have produced excess wealth, requiring protection against predatory enemies from the exposed borders to the North and the South. Therefore the need for extensive use of bronze technology for various weaponry. By the Dong son period, the kingdom of VAN LANG extended to Hunan in Southern China. The capital was moved to Vinh Phu where the three rivers - Song Da (Black River), Song Ma (Red River) and Song Chay meet.
What led to the fall of the HUNG rulers of VAN LANG, known to us partly through the Dong son cultural remains, cannot be established by historical evidence. By 300 BC, it seems the people in the region of Kwangtung and Tonkin were divided into AU VIET, namely, Vietnamese of the highlands and LAC VIET, Vietnamese of the plains. AN DUONG VUONG, about whom also not much is known, politically united them into the kingdom of AU LAC. It is not clear whether the AU LAC people were partly descendants of VAN LANG or whether they were the Viets, "real" ancestors of the Vietnamese people, migrated from their habitat in Lower Yangtse around 300 BC under pressure from Han Chinese southward into Tonkin delta. Most scholars by now, accept that the Vietnamese are not descended from one single racial group, that they are instead a racial mixture of Austro-Indonesian and Mongolian races.
After Dai Viet Su Ky Toan Thu. the formation of Viet Nam in Hung Vuong era was affirmed in the course of history of nation, but still in a doubtful status. The knowledge level and method of studying and examining history in Middle age did not allow the historians of the current time prove the existence of a long pre-historic time ago. This situation was prolonged in a century from the beginning of Le dynasty to Nguyen dynasty.
In French colony, this viewpoint on Hung Vuong era still existed. In his, Viet Nam Su Luoc, Tran Trong Kim has reserved a chapter for "Hong Bang dynasty" however gave these remarks : "The historians only collected the traditional legends, which were deity and fairy tales, non-natural", and "the story of Hong Bang dynasty was possibly not true". Besides the works with traditional view, there were a number of studies of European, especially French scholars. On the other hand, the legendary nature of the document confused the historians at that time. Even Ngo Si Lien, who must both agreed to the existence of the Hung Vuong era and also showed caution, when he writes : "Let simply narrate the old story to transmit suspicions'.
Once furthermore, the formation of Van Lang of Hung Vuong was also recorded by Viet Su Luoc, the oldest history of Viet Nam that in Trang Vuong of Chu Dynasty (696-681 BC). In Gia Ninh there was a stranger, by his magic won over the tribals, declared himself Hung Vuong, and set the capital at Van Lang giving his kingdom the name Van Lang, with simple and good custom, and used the method of knots tying in his administration. His crown was transferred in 18 offspring, all declared himself as Hung Vuong.
It was unknown that based on what document the author of Viet Su Luoc gave the above affirmation. But the formation of a primitive state of Van Lang, in about 7th century BC, that was the beginning of Dong Son period, was suitable to results of to-day researches, and agreed with by many historians.
Based on the division into two Giao Chi (North Viet Nam), and Cuu Chan (Northern Central Viet Nam) prefectures in later times, and local differences of the two regions recounted in old bibliology, archeological documents, someone pointed out a hypothesis stating that at least two allies of tribes in North Viet Nam and Northern Central Viet Nam had participated in the process of formation of Van Lang and constituted the Lac Viet tribes.
The government is still very simple. Hung Vuong is the head of Van Lang. In Hung Vuong title, Vuong (a Chinese word, meaning King) is clearly to be added by later-time historians because of the concept of the head of a state should be the King (if not the King, should be the Emperor), as for Hung, a Chinese phonetic transcription from a very old Vietnamese term. In Muong language, there is term kun in lang kun indicating the eldest son of the first family in line of descent who ruled the Muong. In Mong-Khmer and Thai language, as Xinh-mun, Kho-mu, Khang, Thai, Lao..., there is a term khun indicating the chief of tribe, the leader; in Mun-da language the term khunzt indicates the first person in the family or any organization of the society. Probably, the word Hung is the Chinese phonetic transcription of an ancient Vietnamese which is synonymous and homonymous with kun, khun, khunzt ... to address the chief of tribe, the leader.
This title showed us that Hung Vuong was originally the chief of Van Lang tribe- the strongest one, with its domain in both sides of Song Hong (River) from Ba Vi Mount to Tam Dao Mount, and played the role of the chief coordinator with the central duty of unifying all the other tribes, then became chief of state. He was assisted by Lac Hau (civilian chiefs).
In Viet Su Luoc, we were also told about a series of significant legends relate to this period. Lord Lac Long Quan married Au Co, who bore him 100 sons. One day he said to his wife: "I am a dragon, you are a fairy. We can't remain together". He took 50 of his sons with him to the plains and coastal regions, while the others followed their mother to the mountains. One of Lac Long Quan's sons inherited his throne and was the founder of a dynasty of 18 rulers known as the Hung kings. Legends put the beginning of the Hung dynasty as early as 4,000 years ago.
The reign of Hung Vuong was hereditary and lasted for 18 kings. The number 18 in Hung Vuong story was brought in question with doubt by a lot of historians who proposed many different explanations. Traditionally, many numbers have only symbolic meaning not mathematical one. The number 18 as well as 9 and all its multiple (36, 991, 999... ) often imminently mean a lot, many, or a great quantity. Is it reasonably that 18 kings of Hung Vuong means many reigns of kings, lasts for long time.
Van Lang was composed of 15 "bo"(administrative division), and according to Viet Su Luoc, these "bo" were originally 15 tribes. Each "bo" was headed by Lac Tuong (military chiefs), or according to a number of legend and mythological tradition, these functionaries were also named bo chua, bo tuong, phu dao ( meaning chief of tribes). As phu dao term was also a Chinese word phonetically transcribed from old Viet as dao in Muong language, tao in Tay-Thai language, po tan in Gia-rai language, mo tao in E-de language, bo dao in Ra-glai language, ba dao in Ba-na language, pa tao in Cham language, and together had a same meaning chief of tribe, leader or chief of a region. If "bo" is tribe, we can say exactly "phu dao" or "lac tuong" is chief of tribe, then became the chief of regional tribe of Van Lang under Hung Vuong reign.
(from viettouch)
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