The Trưng Sisters (40–43 CE)

The Trưng sisters lead the first chapter of any Vietnamese history book. Their rebellion against Han Chinese rule in the first century lasted only three years, but it founded a long tradition of resistance and made them national symbols.

Background

By 40 CE the Red River delta had been under Chinese rule for about 150 years. The Han empire administered the area as the commandery of Giao Chỉ, with garrisons at Long Biên (near modern Hanoi) and Mê Linh. Local Lạc Việt aristocrats, the Lạc lords, kept their titles and managed villages on Han's behalf, but Chinese officials collected taxes, organised forced labour and increasingly insisted on Han law and ritual.

A new and aggressive governor, Tô Định, arrived in 34 CE. His exactions provoked widespread resentment, and his execution of a local nobleman named Thi Sách brought matters to a head.

What happened

Thi Sách was the husband of Trưng Trắc, herself the daughter of a Lạc lord at Mê Linh, near modern Hanoi. Together with her younger sister Trưng Nhị she raised an army of local lords and their tenants, recruiting heavily from villages across the delta. Vietnamese tradition holds that many of her senior commanders were women, including the general Phùng Thị Chính, who is said to have given birth on the battlefield and continued to fight.

The uprising began in early 40 CE. The rebels captured Mê Linh, then took 65 walled settlements across Giao Chỉ and the neighbouring commanderies of Cửu Chân and Nhật Nam, an area covering most of modern northern and north-central Vietnam and parts of Guangxi. Tô Định fled to China. Trưng Trắc was proclaimed queen and established a court at Mê Linh, ruling jointly with her sister.

She abolished the tribute system the Han had imposed and, according to Vietnamese chronicles, exempted the population from taxes for two years.

The Han response took time to organise. The emperor Guangwu appointed his most experienced general, Ma Yuan, to retake the territory. Ma Yuan arrived in 42 CE with around 20,000 troops, a fleet of ships and the engineering corps needed to build roads through the rugged border country. He moved overland down the coast from modern Guangxi, defeating Trưng forces in a series of engagements through 42 and 43 CE.

The decisive battle is traditionally placed at Cấm Khê on the Đáy River in 43 CE. Vietnamese accounts say the Trưng sisters, faced with defeat, threw themselves into the Hát River rather than be captured. Chinese sources, by contrast, claim Ma Yuan executed them and sent their heads to the Han capital at Luoyang. Either way, the rebellion ended in 43 CE.

Ma Yuan reorganised the commandery, abolished much of the Lạc aristocratic system and accelerated the imposition of Han administration. Direct Chinese rule of the delta would continue, with brief interruptions, for another nine centuries.

Why it matters

The Trưng rebellion was the first large-scale Vietnamese uprising recorded in history. It established three themes that would recur in later Vietnamese self-understanding: the legitimacy of revolt against foreign occupation, the use of guerrilla and conventional warfare in combination, and the prominence of women in military and political leadership.

Successive Vietnamese dynasties have honoured the sisters. The Lý emperor Anh Tông is said to have prayed at their shrine before going to battle. Modern Vietnam observes a national festival in their memory on the sixth day of the second lunar month, drawing large crowds to the temples at Hát Môn and Mê Linh.

The image of Trưng Trắc on a war elephant, sword raised, is one of the most reproduced images in Vietnamese popular art, appearing on banknotes, postage stamps, school murals and shrine paintings.

What you can see today

• The Hai Bà Trưng Temple at Hát Môn in Phúc Thọ district, on the western edge of Hanoi, marks the traditional site of the sisters' last battle and their death. The annual festival in the second lunar month draws pilgrims from across the country.
• The Hai Bà Trưng Temple at Đồng Nhân in Hanoi's Hai Bà Trưng district, founded in the twelfth century, is the most accessible shrine in the capital.
• The Mê Linh Temple in Mê Linh district, north-west of Hanoi, sits at the traditional birthplace of Trưng Trắc and preserves a richly carved hall dedicated to the sisters and their generals.
• The Vietnamese Women's Museum in Hanoi devotes a substantial display to the Trưng sisters and the broader tradition of women's leadership in Vietnamese history.

Related reading

• Overview of Vietnamese history
• Vietnamese dynasties at a glance
• The Lý dynasty
• Battles on the Bạch Đằng River
• Hanoi region guide