The First Era of Northern Domination refers to the period of Vietnamese history during which present-day northern Vietnam was under the rule of the Han dynasty and the Xin dynasty. It is considered the first of four periods of Chinese rule over Vietnam, and the first of the three in which were almost continuous and was referred to as ("Northern Domination").
In 111 BC, a militarily powerful Han dynasty conquered Nanyue during its expansion southward and incorporated what is now northern Vietnam, together with much of modern Guangdong and Guangxi, into the expanding Han empire. Vietnamese resistance to Han imperial rule culminated in the rebellion of the Trưng sisters, who expelled the Han in 40 AD and briefly ruled Vietnam until being defeated by the returning Han Chinese army in 43 AD.
Background
Pre-sinification Yue identity
Due to the fact that the Han Dynasty did not keep detailed records of the personal and cultural identities of the Yue people, much of the information now known is in relation to their political and governmental roles that the Imperial Han court came into contact with by means of trade and colonization.
Those who were referred to as Yue may not have claimed the identity signifier for themselves. It was rather a term placed onto them and their culture by outside forces. There was not one “Yue” culture, as the term encompasses several different groups of people with varying cultural identities that ranged throughout the East Asian mainland into what is now the southern Chinese Provinces and Northern Vietnam. People native to the southernmost territories were referred to as the “Hundred Yue” to reference the numerous different cultures included in this one identity.
Qin campaigns against Yue kingdoms
After Qin Shi Huang defeated the state of Chu in 223 BC, the Qin dynasty in 221 BC undertook a military campaign against the Baiyue in Lingnan to conquer the territories of what is now southern China and northern Vietnam. The emperor ordered his armies of five hundred thousand men to advance southward in the five columns to conquer and annex the Yue territories into the Qin empire. By 214 BC, Guangdong, Guangxi, and parts of northern Vietnam were subjugated and annexed into the Qin Empire. However, Chinese domination was brief and the collapse of the Qin dynasty led the Yue tribes to regain their independence.
Formation of Nanyue
Following the collapse of the Qin dynasty, Zhao Tuo, a general of the Qin dynasty, took advantage of the Qin’s decline and the South region's crumbling political structure to set up his own kingdom, Nanyue. Nanyue was centered on Panyu (modern-day Guangzhou) and stretched from present-day Vietnam to modern-day Hunan. Despite coming from the North, Zhao Tuo assimilated into the Yue culture and created a new identity as the King of Nanyue. Zhao Tuo identified himself as Yue, married a Yue woman, incorporated locals into his army, and even fought off Han invasions later on to protect his kingdom. He was able to successfully pull away from his past and make a name for himself in Vietnamese history. Some historians do not see him as a foreign conqueror, but as the defender of Vietnam against the Han Chinese, and the legitimacy of the Triệu dynasty continues to be the source of debate among Vietnamese historians. Nevertheless, Zhaotuo sought to extend his territory further south to the Red River Delta region.
Even with Zhao Tuo’s commitment to assimilate, Chinese influences were still introduced to the Yue people. He brought Han culture with him to Nanyue, leading to a fusion of Han and Yue art styles in music, handcrafts, and motifs. Artifacts uncovered from the Nanyue Kingdom display cultural mixture between the two cultures, especially from the tomb of Zhao Mo which displayed Han grandeur. Besides Zhao Tuo, the Han court and other Chinese people who migrated to the South have also influenced Yue culture. Despite being autonomous from the Han Dynasty, Chinese influences were still prominent in Nanyue. The kingdom was a vassalage to the Han, and often had to make tributes leading to constant interactions. Furthermore, the Nanyue kingdom’s elites were a mix of Northern people who moved to the south and the former Yue elite bringing a mixing of cultures. The elites during this time became culturally mixed and would later take advantage of their skills during the Han conquest as the link between the Yue and Han Chinese.
