Vietnam is a small country lying to the south of China. From the old time, the country had many official names: Van Xuan, Dai Co Viet, Dai Viet, Viet Nam, etc. but the last name that still exists till these days is Viet Nam. In the past, in order to bring peace for the nation, although feudal dynasties like Ly, Tran, Le and so on always opposed to the invasion from the Northern (China), proclaimed themselves emperors and named the countries by themselves but normally they still kept a good relationship with China and even received conferment from it.
At that time, feudal reigns in China always had a spirit of "Dai Han" ("Great China" - China is the biggest one) and just considered Vietnam as a district of China. They called Vietnam "Quan Giao Chi" (Giao Chi District) and Vietnam's King "Giao Chi Quan Vuong" (Giao Chi District Chief/King).
In the 7th century, the name "An Nam" appeared due to Duong Reign (of China)'s resetting in its administrative regime in Vietnam. It called Vietnam "An Nam do ho phu" (An Nam administrative district) and appointed a chief observing and governing An Nam region. Until the 12th century, in Ly Dynasty (of Vietnam), the court of Tong Reign (of China) officially called "An Nam" or "Dai Viet" and recognised Vietnam as an independent country. In the beginning of the 19th century, after the national unity, King Gia Long delegated an emissary to China to petition for a conferment so as to change the country's name from "An Nam" to "Nam Viet". However, the name "Nam Viet" had been the national name of a region in China, containing Quang Dong province and Quang Tay Province, under the Trieu Reign (of China) in the previous time. Hence, Thanh Dynasty (of China, at the current time, in the 19th century) did not agree. King Gia Long said that: "If China' King do not allow us to change the country's name, we would not receive the conferment". Thanh's warriors had been lost to Tay Son (Vietnam's soldiers) in the preceding combat Dong Da - Ngoc Hoi; and Gia Long's soldiers have defeated the previous Tay Son soldiers to come to the throne. For that reason, Thanh Reign was afraid to be lost if being engaged in a war with Gia Long's soldiers and chose a reconcilement strategy. They reversed the name "Nam Viet" into "Viet Nam" to prevent from misunderstanding and officially awarded the conferment for this changing in 1804.
Until Minh Mang (of China)'s time, on 2 March 1838, the frontier of Vietnam has stretched to Ha Tien and Vietnam's area at that time was much bigger than previously. Thus, King Minh Mang decided to bestow a royal decree to change the country Vietnam's name from "Viet Nam" into "Dai Nam" or "Dai Viet Nam". After that, on 30 August 1945, after King Bao Dai gave the seal and the sword to the deputation representing for the government of "The Democratic Public of Viet Nam", the name "Dai Nam" came to an end.
See Also:
|
