Fourth Era of Northern Domination

The Ming Chinese built up their colonial administration in Jiaozhi Province. In July 1407, Yongle changed the name of Annam to Jiaozhi – an old Han dynasty designation – and made it a province of China.[18] The provincial government, included an administrative office, a surveillance office and a regional military commissioner was established, with Lu Yi (d. 1409) as its military commissioner and Huang Zhong as vice-commissioner. Huang Fu was appointed as both provincial administrator and surveillance commissioner. The Ming seized the kingdom's grain reserves of 13,6 million piculs of rice. The province was further divided into fifteen prefectures, 41 subprefectures and 210 counties.[18] By 1408, 472 military and civil offices had been established to govern over three million people and in excess of two million man (barbarians), and the number of offices peaked at about 1,000 in 1419. In major towns and cities throughout the occupied regions had moats and walls added, and troops alternated between defence and farming duties to provide their own food needs.[19] The Ming occupying army of Jiaozhi consisted 87,000 regulars, scattered in 39 citadels and towns in Northern Vietnam, but clustered in the Red River Delta area.[20]

Chinese armies had employed firearms before the fifteenth century, but they came to possess superior weapons from Annam during the Vietnamese campaigns of the early fifteenth century.[21] They also captured one of the leading Vietnamese firearms experts, Hồ Nguyên Trừng (1374—1446), the eldest son of Hồ Quý Ly, who was charged with manufacturing their superior muskets and explosive weapons. The Artillery Camp was thus built around these Vietnamese firearm specialists, who instructed Ming soldiers under the supervision of palace eunuchs.[21] The first record of firearm usage in Đại Việt was in 1390 when Vietnamese soldiers used cannons and killed the Cham king Chế Bồng Nga.[22]

The Ming government enjoyed some support from the Vietnamese, at least in the capital of Thăng Long, but their efforts to assert control in the surrounding countryside were met with stiff resistance. A general popular dissatisfaction with the colonial arrangement seems clear.[9] When the Ming entered the country, there were 5.2 million people according to Ming Shilu, however, it was seemed as exaggeration by historians.[23] By the end of Ming rule over Đại Việt in 1427, the population had declined to 1.9 million.[24]

An entry in the Ming Shilu (traditional Chinese: 明實錄; simplified Chinese: 明实录) dated 15 August 1406 recorded an imperial order from Emperor Yongle that instructed for Vietnamese records such as maps and registers to be saved and preserved by the Chinese army:

己未敕征討安南總兵官成國公朱能等曰師入安南下郡邑凡得文籍圖志皆勿毀。[25]

In addition, according to Yueqiaoshu (Chinese: 越嶠書, Vietnamese: Việt kiệu thư), on August 21, 1406, the Yongle Emperor issued an order to Ming soldiers in Annam:

兵入。除釋道經板經文不燬。外一切書板文字以至俚俗童蒙所習。如上大人丘乙已之類。片紙隻字悉皆燬之。其境內中國 所立碑刻則存之。但是安南所立者悉壞之。一字不存。 [26] "Once our army enters Annam, except Buddhist and Taoist text; all books and notes, including folklore and children book, should be burnt. The stelae erected by China should be protected carefully, while those erected by Annam, should be completely annihilated. Do not spare even one character."

On the 21st day of the 5th lunar month of the following year, Emperor Yongle issued another order to Ming soldiers in Annam:

屢嘗諭爾凡安南所有一切書板文字。以至俚俗童蒙所習。如上大人丘乙已之類。片紙隻字及彼處自立碑刻。見者即便毀壞勿存 。今聞軍中所得文字不即令軍人焚毀。必檢視然後焚之。且軍人多不識字。若一一令其如此。必致傳遞遺失者多。爾今宜一如前敕。號令軍中但遇彼處所有一應文字即便焚毀。毋得存留。[26] "I have repeatedly told you all to burnt all Annamese books, including folklore and children books and the local stelae should be destroyed immediately upon sight. Recently I heard our soldiers hesitated and read those books before burning them. Most soldiers do not know how to read, so it will be a waste of our time. Now you have to strictly obey my previous command, and burn all local books upon sight without hesitation.

The Chinese colonists encouraging the Ming Confucian ideology, bureaucratic and Classical Chinese study to the local Vietnamese people, forced the Vietnamese to wear Chinese-style clothes.[27][8] The Ming forbid the local customs such as tattooing, unmarried boys and girls to cut short hair, and banned women to wear short skirts, in "order to change customs in conformity with the north."[28][29] Cultural incorporation was pursued with the new Jiaozhi administration advising to the Ming court:

The yi people of Annam venerate the law of the Buddha, but do not know to worship or sacrifice the spirits. We should establish altars for sacrifice to the spirits of the wind, clouds, thunder and rain... so that the people become familiar with the way to express gratitude to the spirits through sacrifice.[30]

In 1416, a large number of Confucian school, Yin-yang schools and medical schools were established within the province. Examinations for local bureaucracy were formalised in 1411. Chinese mourning rites and mourning leave were instituted among the official of Jiaozhi in 1419.[30] For the first time, Đại Việt experienced the sustained influence of Neo-Confucian ideology, which not only included the traditional doctrines of filial piety but also demanded an "activist, state-oriented service" based on officials' absolute loyalty to the dynasty and on the moral superiority of the "civilized" over the "barbarian" as the Ming viewed the Vietnamese as barbarians.[27] Yongle brought Vietnamese students to the National Institution at the Ming capital and appointed more natives to the minor local offices in Jiaozhi.[8] The Ming also destroyed or brought to the north many Vietnamese vernacular writing, historical and classic texts.[31]

After regained independence, Vietnamese monarch Lê Thánh Tông issued royal edict in 1474 to forbid Vietnamese from adopting foreign languages, hairstyles and clothes like the Laotians, Chams and the Ming Chinese, abolished the Ming forced customs.[32] The Mongol, Cham, and Ming invasions of 13th-15th centuries destroyed many Vietnamese important sites, buildings, artifacts, and archives of the Postclassical period.[33]

Ming goals in Jiaozhi also included labor control and economic exploitation.[27] Imperial orders dispatched in early 1407 required that:

When the troops overcome Annam, enquire far and wide within the borders for knowledgeable and moral men, as well as those who have abilities which can used or skills which can be employed. Such person could, with due ceremony, all be sent to the Court.[30]

The Ming government began a harsh rule of both colonization and sinicization. In October 1407, 7700 tradesmen and artisans from Đại Việt were sent to Beijing. The importance of goods and revenues to be derived from Đại Việt's formerly flourishing maritime trade was not ignored from the Ming administration. In order to draw revenues from their new province, the Chinese established or revived commercial taxes offices, fishing tax offices, transport offices and salt tax offices.[30] New gold-mining offices were established in 1408 to supervise the extraction and/or taxation of gold. The impositions on the indigenous populations must have been severe, through a 1411 announcement.[30] Private exports of metal and aromatic products were banned in 1416.[34] Valuable artifacts such as gems, jade, gold, pieces of art as well as craftsmen were transported to China. The Chinese had greatly encouraged the development and the use of gold and silver mines. But right after the silver and gold were extracted they impounded them and sent a fraction of these minerals to Beijing. They also imposed salt taxes, but a slightly heavier tax against those who produced salt in Annam. Yongle also repeatedly exacted from his newly conquered subjects such as local specialties as tropical green feathers, gold, paints, fans, silk fabrics, and a special sandalwood called the sumu that was used for building doors in the new palace and from whose bark a red dye was extracted.[8]

Through Yongle's reign, Jiaozhi was never able to provide enough rice to support the large occupation force of Chinese troops, with the consequence that the new province continued to be a drain on Chinese resources, rather than a source of revenue.[4]

• Vietnam under Chinese rule
• Ming conquest of Đại Ngu
• Lam Sơn uprising
• Bình Ngô đại cáo

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• Viet Nam Su Luoc by Trần Trọng Kim
• Viet Su Toan Thu of Pham Van Son