Episode 31: Southeast Asia – Vietnam

Foundations of Eastern Civilization

Dr Craig Benjamin (2013)

Film Review

In this lecture, Benjamin explores the history of Vietnam and its troubled relationship with China. Genetic and archeological evidence indicates the Nam Viet (People of the South) were ethnically distinct from the Chinese. Intermarrying with people of Khmer and Thai ethnicity, they preferred to live in nuclear families, rather than extended families like the Chinese. Owing to the absence of Confucian influence, Vietnamese women had a much stronger presence in public life.

For many centuries Vietnam controlled the Red River Valley, presently part of southern China. Despite periodic raids in which Chinese armies took control of isolated Vietnam villages, China met strong resistance in its efforts to colonize the country. Yet the close contact increased China-Vietnam trade and adoption of Chinese inventions by Vietnamese elites. The Nam Viet traded ivory, tortoise shell and aromatic wood for Chinese silk.

The Han emperor Wudi eventually conquered Vietnam (and Korea) in the 3rd century BC. By introducing irrigation to Vietnam, the Han Dynasty made Vietnam the most productive region in Asia. When direct political control gave way to a tributary relationship in 111 BC, Vietnamese elites continued traveling to China to study Confucianism and learning to read and write Chinese. Many converted to Buddhism.

Vietnamese peasants eventually revolted against their rulers for the barbaric treatment they received under Chinese domination. Vietnamese women, who had controlled Vietnamese markets for centuries, especially opposed the Confucian family system that subjected them to the authority of men. The Trung sisters, famous for leading the peasant army on war elephants, led one of the most famous revolts.

In 939 AD, the Vietnam finally won their independence after a 30-year war. Following independence, Vietnamese rulers adopted a Confucian-style civil service exam and a Confucian bureaucracy that allowed significant autonomy for village government. Given their high status, women frequently held political power.

Both the Ming dynasty and the Mongols failed in their efforts to reconquer Vietnam.  Between the 11th and 18th century, Vietnam drove the Cham,** their new adversaries, into the highlands and took over their territory on the coastal plans and Mekong Delta (in modern day Cambodia). Due to intermarriage of South Vietnamese with Cham and Khmer, there began to be important cultural differences between North and South Vietnamese.

During the 17th century, French missionaries rebuffed by Japan began to visit Vietnam, where they were initially welcomed. During the 18th century French-backed Nguyen warlords unified Vietnam for the first time in centuries. When the Vietnamese tried to oust the French missionaries, Napoleon III launched a 30-year naval campaign  (1858-1885) that brought the entire country under French control.

*Heavy Confucian influence and respect for elders led Chinese tradition to favor extended families and subject women to patriarchal control.

**The original Cham are believed to have arrived in Vietnam from Taiwan and Borneo in the first millennium BC.

Film can be viewed free with a library card on Kanopy.

https://www.kanopy.com/en/pukeariki/watch/video/5808608/5808671