Âu Lạc


Âu Lạc was a semi-legendary Vietnamese state from 257 BC to 179 BC. It was a merger of the former states of Nam Cương and Văn Lang but was finally annexed by the state of Nam Việt. Its capital was in Cổ Loa, which was located in present-day Hanoi's Dong Anh district.

History

Foundation

was the first and only monarch of Âu Lạc and used the royal title of An Dương Vương. He created the Thục dynasty by uniting the mountainous Âu Việt region with the more southerly Lạc Việt. According to old Vietnamese historical records Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư and Khâm định Việt sử Thông giám cương mục, An Dương Vương Kaiming was a descendant of :zh:芦子霸王|Lô Tử Bá Vương, who was the last ruler of Shu. When Kaiming was a little kid, his relatives brought him and sought refuge in the southern Chinese provinces of Guangxi and Yunnan and then moved their people to modern-day northern Vietnam during the invasion of the Qin dynasty. Twenty-five years later, Kaiming married a Shu woman and had a child named Phán, who became a well known warrior. After assembling an army, he defeated King Hùng Vương XVIII, the last ruler of the Hồng Bàng dynasty, in around 258 BC. Then, he proclaimed himself An Dương Vương. After a successful resistance against the Qin invasion, he annexed the kingdom of Văn Langin, which was in the Red River Delta. Some modern Vietnamese believe that Thục Phán came upon the Âu Việt territory He then renamed Văn Lang as Âu Lạc, combining the names of the conquering and conquered peoples, and established a new fortress and capital at Co Loa on a rise overlooking the Red River about northeast of central Hanoi. An Dương Vương still kept the Văn Lang's state model, but he reformed and centralized the state with the king holding more power. He encouraged the development of blacksmiths and merchants, established towns and cities, which replaced the tribal society of previous Văn Lang. Âu Lạc encouraged trading with Chinese, Javanese, and Indians.

Downfall

Around 180 to 179 BC, Âu Lạc was conquered by Nam Việt, a kingdom that had its capital city, Panyu, around modern Guangzhou. Nam Việt rule lasted until 111 BC. In Vietnamese history, the rule of the Nam Việt kings is referred to as the Triệu dynasty.

Culture

Âu Lạc monarch family Thục probably spoke Sino-Tibetan language that closely to Ancient Chinese, but civilians in the kingdom mostly were southern non-sinitic agrarian people spoke various diversity of languages and cultures, such as Kra-Dai, Austroasiatic, Austronesian, Japonic and Sino-Tibetan.