The Sông Cái (Red River) Delta, the Chinese Diaspora, and the Trần/Chen Clan of Ðại Việt

Abstract

The expansion of the Sông Cái (Red River) delta combined with the first Chinese diaspora and settlement in the region led to the Chen/Trần clan emerging and rising to power in the polity of Ðại Việt 大越. Emerging among the Ngô (吳 Sino-Vietnamese) community in the lower delta, the Trần 陳 emphasized the agricultural development of this area as they built their power. I approach Trần rule in three phases: 1220s–1260s, 1260s–1330s, and 1330s–1420. In the first phase, under the tight clan control of Trần Thủ Ðộ, the Trần developed Ðại Việt in their own form within the existing Viet pattern, politically, administratively, and economically. After Thủ Ðộ’s death, the clan reformed, as a new generation of princes first fought off the Mongols, then retired to their country estates, leading to a decentralization of power. To counter this decentralization, the kings and the court developed their Thiền Buddhism of the Trúc Lâm school. But in the end this was not successful, and in the third phase the court turned to a brand of Chinese Classical thought (that of Han Yu) in the face of many calamities, natural and social. Eventually three political and ideological crises emerged, the Champa invasions (1370–1390), the seizure of power by Lê/Hồ Quý Ly (1380–1407), and the Ming conquest and occupation (1407–1427) turning Ðại Việt into its province of Jiaozhi. Each crisis led to deeper Sinic ideological penetration.