Yuèshǐ Lüè 越史略
A Brief History of Việt also titled Đại Việt sử lược 大越史略 by anonymous (Vietnamese, Trần dynasty)
About the work
The Yuèshǐ Lüè (Vietnamese: Đại Việt sử lược 大越史略), in 3 juàn, is the earliest extant systematic history of Vietnam as a self-conscious dynastic state — older than the Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư 大越史記全書 of Lê Văn Hưu’s tradition, and the principal Vietnamese narrative source for the early Đại Việt period. Anonymous (the original title was Đại Việt sử lược; the Sìkù editors here transmit it as Yuèshǐ lüè); composed by a Vietnamese scholar of the Trần dynasty, probably in the late 14th century. It was lost in Vietnam itself and survived only in Chinese transmission — the present text descends from a manuscript brought to China during the Míng Yǒnglè 永樂 era (1407–1428), when the Míng briefly annexed Đại Việt and confiscated its book collections. The book covers Vietnam from the legendary southern emergence of the Triệu-shì 趙氏 (Zhào, the Zhao Tuo / Triệu Đà dynasty of the 2nd c. BCE) down to the reign of the Trần ChénWěi 陳煒 (Trần Phế Đế, r. 1377–1388, ending year), with a closing chronological appendix on the Wújīng 無經 era of Chén Rìjiōng 陳日煚 (Trần Thái Tông) onward.
Tiyao
The compiler is unnamed. The book records the events of Annam. Upper juàn: Guóchū yángé 國初沿革 (origins) — for the Triệu-shì (Zhao Tuo / Triệu Đà) and following kings; Lìdài shǒurèn 歷代守任 — Western-Hàn through HòuJìn Jiāozhōu 交州 governors and prefects; Wújì 吳紀 — the late-Five-Dynasties 吳權 Ngô Quyền and his sons Chāngjí 昌岌 and Chāngwén 昌文; Shíèr Shǐjūn 十二使君 — after Chāngwén’s death, the yájiàng 牙將 杜景碩 Dỗ Cảnh Thạc and others contesting succession; Dīngjì 丁紀 — the Dīngshì (Đinh) under 丁部領 Đinh Bộ Lĩnh and successors; Líjì 黎紀 — the Líshì (Lê) under 黎桓 Lê Hoàn and successors. Middle and lower juàn both titled Ruǎnjì 阮紀 — narrating in detail the events of the kingdoms of 李公蘊 Lý Công Uẩn (Lý Thái Tổ, founder of the Lý dynasty) and successors. It writes Lǐ 李 (Lý) as Ruǎn 阮 (Nguyễn), against the standard histories. According to 黎崱 Lí Trắc’s Ānnán Zhìlüè KR2i0020, “the Trần family on succeeding to the throne ordered all of the Lý clan and any commoner of the surname Lý to change their surname to Nguyễn — to deprive the people of [the Lý’s] political claim.” So this book must be the work of a Trần-dynasty chén 臣 (subject). Lí Trắc’s zhì further records: Chén Pǔ 陳普 once wrote a Yuèzhì 越志, and Lí Xiū 黎休 also revised a Yuèzhì — both Trần-period scholars under Trần Tàiwáng 陳太王 (the posthumous name of Trần Rìjiōng 陳日煚, Trần Thái Tông). So this book may itself be a work of those two; not certain. Annam from the Hàn through the Táng was a zhōu / jùn of China; only at the end of the Five Dynasties did its native lords seize control; only in the early Sòng did it stand as a kingdom on its own. The pre-Táng matter follows the Chinese histories closely; from 丁部領 onwards, it draws on its own indigenous sources and is in places at odds with the standard Chinese histories. The dynastic histories give the hōngzú 薨卒 (passings) of these kings only by formal report, often a year off in date; the kings’ titles and offices, sometimes only used domestically and not communicated to the Sòng court, are disordered in the zhèngshǐ. The discrepancies are useful for parallel reading. The Sòngshǐ records that Trần Rìzūn 陳日尊 (Trần Thánh Tông) declared imperial title in his domain, posthumously naming 李公蘊 Tàizǔ Shénwǔ Huángdì, and the country DàYuè 大越; this book’s original title is DàYuè Shǐlüè 大越史略 — taking the country-name as title — and lists eight Wáng of the Lý from Công Uẩn down to HàoChèn 昊旵, all using the imperial title — not just Trần Rìzūn’s reign. This is detail not in the Sòngshǐ. The Yùhǎi 玉海 records Annamese era-names Tiānkuàngbǎoxiàng 天貺寳象, Shénwǔ 神武, Zhāngshèng 彰聖, Jiāqìng 嘉慶 — all confirmed by this book; the Lí and Ruǎn (Lê and Lý/Nguyễn) kings bùgǎiyuán 不改元 — that is, no change of niánhào — but the standard histories do not list them, so they were carefully concealed and not communicated to China. The end of the book also records a Chén Rìjiōng 陳日煚-onward chronological appendix, listing only the jiànshì hào and changes of yuán, without details of events. The Tàishàng 太上 named is, by zhīshǐ 質史, Chén Shūmíng 陳叔明; the Jīnshàng 今上 named is Chén Wěi 陳煒. The standard Yuánshǐ / Míngshǐ lists 12 generations from Chén Rìjiōng to Chén Wěi — this book lists only 10, the discrepancy unexplained. Liánzhōu Fǔzhì 廉州府志 records that in Kāngxī 13 (1674) a bell was found at the seashore inscribed HuángYuè Chāngfú 皇越昌符 9 yǐchǒu 乙丑; commentators thought it Sòng-period 李乾德 Lý Càn Đức (Lý Nhân Tông) era. But this book has Chāngfú 1 = dīngsì 丁巳 = Hóngwǔ 12 (= 1379, Míng Hóngwǔ); the 9th year would be yǐchǒu — that is, the era of Trần Wěi (Trần Phế Đế, 1377–1388). Beyond doubt. The book is also useful for attesting these. Annam from the Sòng on regularly sent tribute, but in earlier disorders had usurped the imperial style and self-aggrandized in writing — to be censured. Yet, as the Chūnqiū censured Wú and Chǔ for usurping the title Wáng yet still recorded their facts, so we follow the Wěishǐ 偽史 precedent and record this book — both to preserve the censure and to supplement what the Sòngshǐ / Yuánshǐ wàiguózhuàn 外國傳 omits.
Abstract
The Yuèshǐ Lüè (Vietnamese title: Đại Việt sử lược 大越史略) is an anonymous Trần-dynasty Vietnamese chronicle of the late 14th century. The Sìkù editors persuasively argue, on the basis of the consistent rendering of “Lý” 李 as “Nguyễn” 阮 (a name-change ordered by the founding Trần emperors to suppress political claims of the Lý loyalists, as documented in 黎崱 Lí Trắc’s Ānnán Zhìlüè KR2i0020), that the writer was a Trần-dynasty subject. The closing reference to a Jīnshàng 今上 (the reigning emperor, identified by the Sìkù editors as Trần Phế Đế / Trần Wěi 陳煒, r. 1377–1388) places composition in those years — notBefore 1377, notAfter 1388. The original Vietnamese title was Đại Việt sử lược; the Sìkù editors’ rendering as Yuèshǐ Lüè drops the Dà (大) prefix on the editorial principle of refusing to recognize Vietnamese imperial title within Chinese-language historiography. The book covers (1) the Triệu-shì (Zhao Tuo / Triệu Đà) and the era of Chinese governance to the Five Dynasties; (2) the rise of Vietnamese independence under 吳權 Ngô Quyền (Wú Quán); (3) the Đinh, Lê, and Lý dynasties down to the Trần succession; with appendix on the early Trần. Lost in Vietnam itself (no Vietnamese manuscript survives), the Yuèshǐ Lüè survived solely through Chinese transmission, almost certainly via the Míng Yǒnglè annexation of Đại Việt (1407–1428), when the Míng court systematically confiscated Vietnamese book collections. Modern Vietnamese editions (e.g. Trần Quốc Vượng’s translation of 1960) re-import the text from the Chinese transmission. The book is the single most important indigenous source on early Đại Việt history before the Đại Việt sử ký tradition of Lê Văn Hưu and Ngô Sĩ Liên (15th c.).
Translations and research
- Trần Quốc Vượng (tr.). 1960 (rev. ed. 2005). Việt sử lược. Hanoi: Nhà xuất bản Văn Sử Địa. — Standard modern Vietnamese translation.
- Cherniack, Susan. 1994. “Book Culture and Textual Transmission in Sung China.” HJAS 54.1. — Discusses transmission of Vietnamese sources to China.
- Whitmore, John K. 1986. “Vietnam and the Monetary Flow of Eastern Asia, Thirteenth to Eighteenth Centuries.” In J. F. Richards (ed.), Precious Metals in the Later Medieval and Early Modern Worlds. — Cites the Yuè-shǐ Lüè.
- Anderson, James A. 2007. The Rebel Den of Nùng Trí Cao. Seattle: UW Press.
- Anderson, James A. and John K. Whitmore (eds.). 2014. China’s Encounters on the South and Southwest. Leiden: Brill.
- No published English translation.
Other points of interest
The Yuèshǐ Lüè is unique among the Sìkù’s Zǎijì texts in having been lost in its homeland and preserved only in China — making the Chinese transmission the textus receptus for modern Vietnamese historiography. It preserves Vietnamese imperial era-names (Tiānkuàngbǎoxiàng, Shénwǔ, Zhāngshèng, Jiāqìng, Chāngfú, etc.) deliberately suppressed from the Sòng / Yuán official record, recovered here by independent epigraphic evidence (the Kāngxī 13 / 1674 bell-inscription cited by the Sìkù editors). Together with the Ānnán Zhìlüè KR2i0020, it is one of the two principal premodern texts on Vietnamese history transmitted through the Chinese tradition.
Links
- Wikipedia (Vietnamese)
- Wikidata: Q3013706
- Sìkù tíyào (Kyoto Zinbun)
- ctext.org