Hồng Bàng dynasty
The Hồng Bàng period (Vietnamese: thời kỳ Hồng Bàng),[4] also called the Hồng Bàng dynasty,[5] was a legendary ancient period in Vietnamese historiography, spanning from the beginning of the rule of Kinh Dương Vương over the kingdom of Văn Lang (initially called Xích Quỷ) in 2879 BC until the conquest of the state by An Dương Vương in 258 BC.
"Hồng Bàng" redirects here. For other uses, see Hồng Bàng (disambiguation).
State of Xích Quỷ
赤鬼
(legendarily 2879–2524 BC)
State of Văn Lang
文郎
(legendarily 2524–258 BC)
赤鬼
(legendarily 2879–2524 BC)
State of Văn Lang
文郎
(legendarily 2524–258 BC)
Kingdom
Ngàn Hống (2879 BC – 2524 BC)[1]
Nghĩa Lĩnh (29th c. BC)[1]
Phong Châu (2524 – 258 BC)[2][3]
Animism, folk religion
Monarchy
Hùng Vương I (first)
Hùng Vương XVIII (last)
The 15th-century Vietnamese chronicle Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư (Đại Việt, The Complete History) claimed that the period began with Kinh Dương Vương as the first Hùng king (Vietnamese: Hùng Vương), a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Vietnamese rulers of this period.[6] The Hùng king was the absolute monarch of the country and, at least in theory, wielded complete control of the land and its resources. The Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư also recorded that the nation's capital was Phong Châu (in present-day Phú Thọ Province in northern Vietnam) and alleged that Văn Lang was bordered to the west by Ba-Shu (present-day Sichuan), to the north by Dongting Lake (Hunan), to the east by the East Sea and to the south by Champa.[7]
The name Hồng Bàng is the Sino-Vietnamese pronunciation of characters "鴻龐" assigned to this dynasty in early Vietnamese-written histories in Chinese; its meaning is supposedly a mythical giant (龐) bird (鴻).[8]
French linguist Michel Ferlus (2009)[9] includes 文郎 Văn Lang (Old Chinese: ZS *mɯn-raːŋ; B&S *mə[n]-C.rˤaŋ) in the word-family *-ra:ŋ "human being, person" of Southeast Asian ethnonyms across three linguistic families, Austroasiatic, Sino-Tibetan, Austronesian, together with:
There also exists a phonetically similar Proto-Mon-Khmer etymon: *t₂nra:ŋ "man, male".[10]
The earliest historical mentions of Văn Lang, however, just had been recorded in Chinese-language documents, dated back to the Tang dynasty (7th- to 9th-century), about the area of Phong Châu (Phú Thọ).[11][12][13][14] However, Chinese records also indicated that another people, who lived elsewhere, were also called Văn Lang.[15][16]
Culture and economy[edit]
Agriculture[edit]
The economy was based predominantly on rice paddy cultivation, and also included handicrafts, hunting and gathering, husbandry and fishing. Especially, the skill of bronze casting was at a high level. The most famous relics are Đông Sơn Bronze Drums on which are depicted houses, clothing, customs, habits, and cultural activities of the Hùng era.
The Hùng Vươngs ruled Văn Lang in feudal fashion with the aid of the Lạc Tướng, who controlled the communal settlements around each irrigated area, organized construction and maintenance of the dikes, and regulated the supply of water. Besides cultivating rice, the people of Văn Lang grew other grains and beans and raised stock, mainly buffaloes, chickens, and pigs. Pottery-making and bamboo-working were highly developed crafts, as were basketry, leather-working, and the weaving of hemp, jute, and silk.
From 2000 BC, people in modern-day North Vietnam developed a sophisticated agricultural society, probably through learning from the Shang dynasty or the Laotian. The tidal irrigation of rice fields through an elaborate system of canals and dikes started by the sixth century BC.[28] This type of sophisticated farming system would come to define Vietnamese society. It required tight-knit village communities to collectively manage their irrigation systems. These systems in turn produced crop yields that could sustain much higher population densities than competing methods of food production.[29]
Kiernan, Ben (2019). Việt Nam: a history from earliest time to the present. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780190053796.