Early Imperial China’s Deep South: The Viet Regions through Tang Times

T'ang Studies 15-16 (1997-98) Early Imperial China's Deep South: The Viet Regions through Tang Times CHARLES HOLCOMBE UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN IOWA In 627 the recently consolidated Tang empire was administratively reorganized into ten large Circuits (dao lli),determined in part by physical geographic considerations.1 One of these "circuits" was known as Lingnan ~1¥I("south of the pass"), a region that was defined by an arc of relatively low mountains setting apart the empire 's southeast coastal rim, and including the modern Chinese provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi, as well as the northern portion of what is now Vietnam. Lingnan Circuit was both a novel and a rather diffuse administrative unit, encompassing some seventy -three prefectures (zhou 1i~) and 314 districts (xian 8).2 In 679,moreover , the southernmost portion of Lingnan (based in the vicinity of modern Hanoi) was separately made the seat of a "Protectorate of the Peaceful South" (Annan duhufu ~m;m3-mJ&).3 Despite both the novelty of the "circuit"designation and the fissiparous tendency suggested by the establishment of a Protectorate in the south, however, in many ways Lingnan had long been and would long still remain the most meaningful broad geographic and political unit in early imperial China's deep south. Even the creation of a Protectorate in Annan (Vietnamese "Annam") did not decisively detach Annan from Lingnan, although it certainly did establish a more immediate center of Tang imperial authority there, since the Protector General's writ extended in particular to "the pacification, subjugation, and patrol" of the non-Chi1 Xin Tang shu ifmtlf (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1975),37.959. 2 Xin Tang shu, 43A.1095. Translations of offices follow Charles O. Hucker, A Dictionary of Official Titles in Imperial China (Stanford: Stanford Univ. Press, 1985). 3 Xin Tang shu, 43A.1111. 125 Holcombe: Early Imperial China's Deep South nese tribes under his jurisdiction.4 The subsequent appointment of separate Military Commissioners (jiedushi illllue) for each of Lingnan (based at Canton) and Annan in the 750s marked a more definitive rupture, but even then Annan remained no less a part of Tang than Canton itself.s In 792, for example, a leading imperial advisor counseled against policies favoring Canton over Annan, arguing that both were equally "the King's land" ~:1F::E±.6 This is not to argue that Vietnam was "Chinese" in Tang times, but, rather, that there was no "Vietnam" at all in this ancient period-only the places we now call Vietnam and China. In high antiquity all of Lingnan, including Canton, had actually fallen outside the pale of classical Chinese civilization.7 The First Emperor of Qin, however, motivated allegedly by a desire for the region's valuable exotic products, ordered a massive invasion of Lingnan in 214 B.C.,following his successful unification of the Warring States to the north.8 Thereafter Lingnan has always remained part of the Chinese empire (excluding Vietnam, which achieved independence in 939), but it also long retained a certain residual distinctiveness . In the late seventh century, for example, the fifth Chan patriarch Hongren SAle- purportedly even questioned whether Ling4 Tong dian J.I~ (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 1984),32.186. See also Xin Tang shu, 43B.1144-45. 5 Xin Tang shu, 69.1933-35. 6 Zizhi tongjian Wramm (Beijing: Guji chubanshe, 1956),234.7532-33. 7 Tong dian, 188.1005; Shui jing zhu 7l (Taibei: Hongye shuju, 1974), 47.183. 49 Annam chi luoc, 4.93-94. 135 Holcombe: EarlyImperialChina'sDeepSouth "Vietnamese" rebellion of the Trung ~ sisters in 40-42A.D. in fact straddled the modem border between China and Vietnam.50 In the final century B.C. soldiers from the northern imperial homeland who were garrisoned among the Vue peoples still reportedly felt isolated, remote, and homesick.51 During the first three centuries A.D., however, southward migration from the Central Plain, and the vigorous promotion ofChinese high culture, resulted in the extensive assimilation ofJiangnan-the region between Lingnan and the Yangzi River, and home of the original eponymous Vue/Viet state.52 By the first century Wang Chong x3t (27-ca.100)could already observe that the Vue people all dressed in Chinese clothing.53 In...