安南志略

Ānnán Zhìlüè 安南志略

A Brief Record of Annam by 黎崱 (撰)

About the work

The Ānnán Zhìlüè (the Sìkù version transmits 19 juàn; the catalog meta gives 20, the standard count of the original recension), is the earliest extant systematic Chinese-language gazetteer of Đại Việt / Annam, written by 黎崱 Lí Trắc (Chinese: Lí Zé; zì Jǐnggāo 景高, hào Dōngshān 東山; born in Áizhōu 愛州 in modern north-central Vietnam, fl. 1300–1339). Lí Trắc was originally a Trần-dynasty official; he surrendered to the Yuán with his patron Trần Kiện 陳鍵 during Khúp̌ilai’s 1284–1287 campaigns, and lived out his life in Hànyáng 漢陽 (modern Wǔhàn) under Yuán protection as Fèngyìtàifū 奉議大夫. He composed the Ānnán Zhìlüè late in his life; the standard date is Zhìyuán 至元 6 (1340), with prefaces by Yuán Míngshàn 元明善, Xǔ Yǒurén 許有壬, and Ōuyáng Xuán 歐陽玄. The book treats the geography, ethnography, history, and administrative organization of Annam from earliest times through the Yuán; in pure documentary value it complements (and frequently corrects) the Yuánshǐ 元史’s account of Vietnam.

Tiyao

By Lí Zé 黎崱 of the Yuán. Zé, zì Jǐnggāo 景高, hào Dōngshān 東山, of Áizhōu in Annam — descendant of Ruǎn Fū 阮敷 (Eastern-Jìn Jiāozhōu cìshǐ), generations resident at Áizhōu. As a child, [Lí Zé] was made the foster-son of Lí Bāng 黎琫 and took his surname accordingly. At nine, he passed the Tóngkē 童科; under his service to Annam he rose to shìláng 侍郎, then transferred to the staff of Jìnghǎijūn jiēdùshǐ 靜海軍節度使 陳鍵 Trần Kiện. In Zhìyuán (= 1284–1287, Khúp̌ilai’s late reign), Shìzǔ campaigned against Annam; Trần Kiện led [Lí Zé] and others out and surrendered. The Annamese intercepted the surrendering force; Trần Kiện died. [Lí Zé] entered the Yuán court, was awarded Fèngyìtàifū 奉議大夫, and was settled at Hànyáng. He wrote this zhì with the conscious intent of vindicating his patron Trần Kiện’s name. Yuán Míngshàn 元明善, Xǔ Yǒurén 許有壬, and Ōuyáng Xuán 歐陽玄 all wrote prefaces. The book’s accounts of Annamese affairs differ from the Yuánshǐ lièzhuàn in many places. For example: Lǐ Gōngyùn 李公蘊 (Lý Công Uẩn) — the founder of the Lý dynasty — succeeded a Lí 黎 (Lê), not a Dīng 丁 (Đinh) as the Yuánshǐ has it. Zhāng Huáihóu 張懷侯 (Trần Hoài-hầu) was a guóshū 國叔 (royal uncle), not a son-in-law; Zhāng Xiànhóu 張憲侯 was the guóshū’s nephew, not a son-in-law. The man caught up in the Xīngdàowáng (Hưng Đạo Vương) affair was Míngchénghóu 明誠侯, not Yìguóhóu 義國侯. All these correct Yuánshǐ errors. Again: at Zhìyuán 23 (1286) the imperial decree against Annam mentioned the death of Yíài 遺愛 [Trần Di-Ái], without giving details; this zhì records that in Zhìyuán 19 (1282) the yuánshuài 元帥 柴椿 Chái Chūn was dispatched with 1000 troops to escort Yíài into the country, but the Annamese refused him entry; Yíài, fearing for his life, fled back to the Yuán by night, and the Annamese shìzǐ 世子 (heir) demoted him to commoner rank. [The zhì] supplements [the Yuánshǐ’s] omissions. Other matter on geography, persons, and administration is detailed and reliable. Annam had long-established cultural ties with China; its examination system was modeled on China’s. The book’s narrative is methodical and well-organized — not at all inferior to the Gāolì shǐ 高麗史 [for Korea].

Abstract

黎崱 Lí Trắc (Chinese reading: Lí Zé), zì Jǐnggāo, hào Dōngshān, was born in Áizhōu (the Trần-dynasty province of Thanh-hóa in modern north-central Vietnam) into a family that traced descent from the Eastern-Jìn Jiāozhōu cìshǐ Ruǎn Fū 阮敷. As a child he was adopted by the Lí (Lê) family and took the surname Lí. He passed the Tóngkē 童科 examination at age nine and rose under the Trần dynasty to shìláng (侍郎). In Zhìyuán 24 (1287), during the second of Khúp̌ilai’s invasions of Annam, his patron 陳鍵 Trần Kiện led him and others to surrender to the Yuán; Trần Kiện was killed by Annamese resistance fighters. Lí Trắc settled at Hànyáng (Wǔhàn), where he served as Fèngyìtàifū and lived for the remainder of his life; CBDB id 111996 gives fl. 1284. The Ānnán Zhìlüè was composed late in his life — the standard date is Zhìyuán 至元 6 (1340), the year of the Ōuyáng Xuán preface. The catalog meta gives fl. 1300–1339 for him, consistent with this. The book is the earliest surviving systematic Chinese-language gazetteer of Đại Việt and is consistently cited in modern Vietnamese historiography (alongside the Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư 大越史記全書, which postdates it). Its principal corrections to the Yuánshǐ on Trần dynastic genealogy and on the failed Yuán-Annam diplomacy of the 1280s have been broadly accepted by modern scholarship. The 19-juàn structure of the Sìkù recension does not match the original 20 juàn; one juàn is lost.

Translations and research

• Wolters, O. W. 1979. “Lê Văn Hưu’s Treatment of Lý Thần Tôn’s Reign (1127–1137).” In Cowan and Wolters (eds.), Southeast Asian History and Historiography: Essays Presented to D. G. E. Hall. Cornell UP. — Treats Lí Trắc’s source-relations.
• Whitmore, John K. 1985. Vietnam, Hồ Quý Ly and the Ming (1371–1421). New Haven: Yale Center for International and Area Studies. — Uses the Ān-nán Zhì-lüè as a key source.
• Anderson, James A. 2007. The Rebel Den of Nùng Trí Cao: Loyalty and Identity along the Sino-Vietnamese Frontier. Seattle: UW Press. — Major Western monograph drawing on Lí Trắc.
• Anderson, James A. and John K. Whitmore (eds.). 2014. China’s Encounters on the South and Southwest: Reforging the Fiery Frontier over Two Millennia. Leiden: Brill. — Multiple chapters use Lí Trắc.
• Modern Chinese critical edition: Wú Shàng-qīng 武尚清 (ed.), Ān-nán zhì-lüè (Zhōng-huá, 1995).
• Modern Vietnamese translation: Lê Tắc, An Nam chí lược, tr. Ủy Ban Phiên Dịch Sử Liệu Việt-Nam (Huế: Viện Đại Học Huế, 1961, repr. Hà-nội, 2002). Standard Vietnamese reference.
• No published English translation.

Other points of interest

The Ānnán Zhìlüè is, alongside the Mánshū KR2i0007 for Yúnnán, one of the two most important sources for premodern non-Han kingdoms preserved in the Zǎijì 載記 category of the Sìkù. It preserves a unique angle of vision: a Chinese-literate Vietnamese aristocrat in Yuán exile, writing in classical Chinese for a Yuán audience, with sympathy both for the Trần court he had served and for the Yuán that had taken him in.

Links

• Wikipedia (Vietnamese)
• Wikidata: Q4753196
• Sìkù tíyào (Kyoto Zinbun)