Le Minh Khai's SEAsian History Blog (+ More)

Because I’ve always realized that the history of the Ming occupation of Đại Việt is not a simple story of “the Vietnamese” fighting “the Chinese,” but instead is a very complex story of a competition between “multiple sides” (Vietnamese who supported Lê Lợi, Vietnamese who opposed Lê Lợi, Vietnamese who collaborated with the Ming, Vietnamese who were loyal to the Trần, non-Việt peoples who fought for the Ming, rich people who just wanted to protect their own interests, Chinese who fought against Lê Lợi, Chinese who fought alongside Lê Lợi, factions at the Ming court, different Ming Dynasty emperors, the Ming officials on the ground in Đại Việt, etc.), I’ve always understood that the “Bình Ngô đại cáo,” like the đại cáo/dagao in the Classic of Docments (Kinh Thư), has to be addressing these divisions between people rather than celebrating some unity (as most writings by Vietnamese historians on this topic have done) that clearly did not exist at that time.

I have therefore always tried to see in what way the “Bình Ngô đại cáo” addresses the problems of the time, and particularly the problems within Đại Việt that Lê Lợi faced as he came to power.

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After defeating the Ming army that had occupied Đại Việt for some 20 years, Lê Lợi faced a new problem, one that he was unprepared for. He had to find a way to rule over Đại Việt and to show people that he had the legitimacy to do so.

Why was this a problem? There are a couple of main reasons.

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Shortly before he died in 1043 BC, King Wu of the Zhou (周武王 Zhou Wuwang) succeeded in overthrowing the Shang Dynasty and establishing a new dynasty under his family name – the Zhou. With his death, however, this newly established Zhou Dynasty faced an uncertain future.

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Does the “Bình Ngô đại cáo” represent a decision to break away from an empire and to enter “a pre-existing international order” as “equal to other, similar states” by seeking the approval of the other states in that international order?

“No.”

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Let’s now look at the “Bình Ngô đại cáo” to see to what extent we can find evidence that it was created by “representatives of the people” who had decided together to break away from an empire and to enter “a pre-existing international order” as “equal to other, similar states” by seeking the approval of the other states in that international order.

Let’s begin by looking at who the “Bình Ngô đại cáo” talks about and try to see to what extent it represents the expression of “representatives of the people.”

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On July 4, 1776 a group of representatives from thirteen British colonies in North America, known collectively as the Continental Congress, met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and signed a document which stated that those thirteen colonies were now independent from British rule.

The men who signed this document claimed to represent “the people” from their respective colonies, and they stated that the content of the document was “The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,” meaning that the representatives of “the people” from the thirteen colonies all agreed on the content of the document that they signed.

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As anyone who reads this blog knows, I’ve written many posts over the years about a fifteenth-century Vietnamese document known as the “Bình Ngô đại cáo” (The Great Proclamation on Pacifying the Ngô), or on issues related to that document.

While I still haven’t had the chance to research that period to the level of detail that I hope to find the time to do someday, nonetheless, what I do know about that period has long made it evident to me that the way in which the “Bình Ngô đại cáo” is usually depicted and explained today simply does not fit the historical context in which it was produced.

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