Viet people

History

Origins and prehistoric period

According to the Vietnamese legend The Tale of the Hồng Bàng Clan (Hồng Bàng thị truyện), written in the 15th century, the first Vietnamese were descended from the dragon lord Lạc Long Quân and the fairy Âu Cơ. They married and had one hundred eggs, from which hatched one hundred children. Their eldest son ruled as the Hùng king. The Hùng kings were claimed to be descended from the mythical figure Shennong/Thần Nông.

The earliest reference of the proto-Vietnamese in Chinese annals was the Lạc, Lạc Việt, or the Dongsonian, an ancient tribal confederacy of perhaps polyglot Austroasiatic and Kra–Dai speakers who occupied the Red River Delta in northern Vietnam.

One hypothesis suggests that the forerunners of the ethnic Kinh descend from a subset of proto-Austroasiatic people in southern China, either around Yunnan, Lingnan, or the Yangtze River, as well as mainland Southeast Asia. These proto-Austroasiatics also diverged into Monic speakers, who settled further to the west, and the Khmeric speakers, who migrated further south. The Munda of northeastern India were another subset of proto-Austroasiatics who likely diverged earlier than the aforementioned groups, given the linguistic distance in basic vocabulary of the languages. Most archaeologists, linguists, and other specialists, such as Sinologists and crop experts, believe that they arrived no later than 2000 BC, bringing with them the practice of riverine agriculture and in particular, the cultivation of wet rice.

Some linguists, such as James Chamberlain and Joachim Schliesinger, have suggested that Vietic-speaking people migrated northwards from the North Central Region of Vietnam to the Red River Delta, which had originally been inhabited by Tai speakers. However, Michael Churchman found no records of population shifts in Jiaozhi (centered around the Red River Delta) in Chinese sources, indicating that a fairly stable population of Austroasiatic speakers, ancestral to modern Vietnamese, inhabited the delta during the Han-Tang periods.

Another theory, based upon linguistic diversity, locates the most probable homeland of the Vietic languages in modern-day Bolikhamsai Province and Khammouane Province in Laos as well as in parts of Nghệ An Province and Quảng Bình Province in Vietnam. In the 1930s, clusters of Vietic-speaking communities discovered in the hills of eastern Laos were believed to be the earliest inhabitants of that region.

But so far, many scholars link the origin of the Vietic languages to northern Vietnam, around the Red River Delta.

Michael Churchman, Tuong Vu, and Frederic Pain argue that a distinct Vietnamese identity or language did not exist in full prior to and during the Han-Tang period. Churchman states that during this period, the tribes in northern Vietnam and southern China did not have any kind of defined ethnic boundary and could not be described as "Vietnamese" (Kinh) in any satisfactory sense. Vu believes that a Han-Viet group existed that spoke both a Chinese dialect called "Annamese Middle Chinese" and Proto-Viet–Muong, but the inhabitants of the Red River Valley did not have a single identity or language. Pain also argues that Vietnamese cultural identity was the result of Chinese influence on native elements that fully emerged in the post-Chinese rule period during the Song dynasty. Thus, attempts to identify ethnic groups in ancient Vietnam are problematic and often inaccurate.

Ancient to early medieval period

The Đông Sơn culture was pioneered by the Lạc Việt peoples, who also founded the Văn Lang chiefdom, ruled by the semi-mythical Hùng kings. To the south of the Dongsonians/Lạc Việt was the Sa Huỳnh culture of the Austronesian Chamic people. Around 400–200 BC, the Lạc Việt interacted with the Âu Việt, a splinter group of Tai people from southern China, and Sinitic peoples from further north. According to a late-third- or early-fourth-century AD Chinese chronicle, Thục Phán, the leader of the Âu Việt, conquered Văn Lang and deposed the last Hùng king. Having submissions of Lạc lords, Thục Phán proclaimed himself King An Dương of Âu Lạc kingdom, uniting the Lạc Việt and Âu Việt tribes.

In 179 BC, Zhao Tuo, a Chinese general who established the Nanyue state in modern-day southern China, annexed Âu Lạc, which initiated Sino-Vietic interaction that lasted for a millennium. In 111 BC, the Han Empire conquered Nanyue, which also brought northern Vietnam under Han rule.

By the 7th century to 9th century AD, as the Tang Empire ruled over the region, historians such as Henri Maspero proposed that Vietnamese-speaking people became separated from other Vietic groups such as the Mường and Chứt due to heavier Chinese influences on the Vietnamese. In the mid-9th century, local rebels aided by Nanzhao almost ended Tang rule. The Tang reconquered the region in 866, causing half of the local rebels to flee into the mountains, marking the separation between the Mường and the Vietnamese.

According to Jennifer Holmgren, the first six centuries of Chinese rule saw more Vietnamization of local Chinese than Sinicization of local Vietnamese. Compared to the first six centuries of Chinese rule when demographics were relatively stable, Chinese migration during the Tang period was of sufficient magnitude to cause basic changes to certain portions of Vietnamese society in northern Vietnam. Most of these Chinese migrants came as soldiers or merchants, took a wife from the indigenous population, and settled down. They were individuals that settled down in a nuclear family, causing the average household size to decrease. Despite the increase of Chinese migrants to Vietnam, it was still much more constrained compared to Chinese migration to Guangdong and Guangxi due to the structure of Vietnamese society, which limited the ability of Chinese rulers to register and tax the local population. Vietnamese society retained their language and heritage. Other peoples like the Muong, Tay, and Nung people fled Chinese control into the uplands, where Chinese registers could not reach them. Non-Chinese foreign migration was also significant in the south due to pressures elsewhere such as the expanding Cham kingdom.

In 938, the Vietnamese leader Ngô Quyền who was a native of Thanh Hóa, led Vietnamese forces to defeat the Chinese armada at Bạch Đằng River. He proclaimed himself king over a polity that could be perceived as "Vietnamese".

Medieval and early modern period

Ngô Quyền died in 944 and his kingdom collapsed into chaos and disturbances between twelve warlords and chiefs. In 968, a leader named Đinh Bộ Lĩnh united them and established the Đại Việt (Great Việt) kingdom. With assistance of powerful Buddhist monks, Đinh Bộ Lĩnh chose Hoa Lư in the southern edge of the Red River Delta as the capital instead of Tang-era Đại La, adopted Chinese-style imperial titles, coinage, and ceremonies and tried to preserve the Chinese administrative framework. The independence of Đại Việt, according to Andrew Chittick, allows it "to develop its own distinctive political culture and ethnic consciousness". In 979, Emperor Đinh Tiên Hoàng was assassinated, and Queen Dương Vân Nga married Dinh's general Lê Hoàn and appointed him as Emperor. Disturbances in Đại Việt attracted attention from the neighbouring Chinese Song dynasty and Champa Kingdom, but they were defeated by Lê Hoàn. A Khmer inscription dated 987 records the arrival of Vietnamese merchants (Yuon) in Angkor. Chinese writers Song Hao, Fan Chengda and Zhou Qufei all reported that the inhabitants of Đại Việt "tattooed their foreheads, crossed feet, black teeth, bare feet and blacken clothing". The early 11th-century Cham inscription of Chiên Đàn, My Son, erected by king of Champa Harivarman IV (r. 1074–1080), mentions that he had offered Khmer (Kmīra/Kmir) and Viet (Yvan) prisoners as slaves to various local gods and temples of the citadel of Tralauṅ Svon. Many Kinh Vietnamese also lived in Champa and were well-assimilated, like other Austroasiatic groups living in the state.

Successive Vietnamese royal families from the Đinh, Early Lê, Lý, Trần and Hồ dynasties, who had Hoa/Chinese ancestry, ruled the kingdom peacefully from 968 to 1407. Emperor Lý Thái Tổ (r. 1009–1028) relocated the Vietnamese capital from Hoa Lư to Đại La, the center of the Red River Delta in 1010. They practiced elitist marriage alliances between clans and nobles in the country. Mahayana Buddhism became state religion, with Cham, Indian and Chinese cultures influencing Vietnamese music instruments, dance and religious worship. Confucianism also slowly gained attention and influence. The earliest surviving corpus and text in the Vietnamese language were dated to the early 12th century whilst surviving chữ Nôm script inscriptions were dated to the early 13th century, showcasing enormous influences of Chinese culture among the early Vietnamese elites.

The Mongol Yuan dynasty unsuccessfully invaded Đại Việt in the 1250s and 1280s, though they sacked Hanoi. The Ming dynasty of China conquered Đại Việt in 1406, brought the Vietnamese under Chinese rule for 20 years, before they were driven out by Vietnamese leader Lê Lợi. The fourth grandson of Lê Lợi, Emperor Lê Thánh Tông (r. 1460–1497), is considered one of the greatest monarchs in Vietnamese history. His reign is recognized for the extensive administrative, military, education, and fiscal reforms he instituted, and a cultural revolution that replaced the old traditional aristocracy with a generation of literati scholars. He also adopted Confucianism and transformed Đại Việt from a Southeast Asian style polity to a bureaucratic state that flourished. Thánh Tông's forces, armed with gunpowder weapons, overwhelmed the long-term rival Champa in 1471 and launched an unsuccessful invasion against the Laotian and Lan Na kingdoms in the 1480s.

16th century – Modern period

With the death of Thánh Tông in 1497, the Đại Việt kingdom swiftly declined. Extreme climate, failing crops, regionalism and factionism tore the Vietnamese apart. From 1533 to 1790s, four powerful Vietnamese families – Mạc, Lê, Trịnh and Nguyễn – each ruled their own domains. In the northern Vietnamese polity of Đàng Ngoài (outer realm), the Lê emperors barely sat on the throne while the Trịnh lords held power of the court. The Mạc controlled northeast Vietnam. The Nguyễn lords ruled the southern polity of Đàng Trong (inner realm). Thousands of ethnic Vietnamese migrated south and settled on the old Cham lands, with Cham inhabitants assimilating into the new Vietnamese state. Vietnamese also settled in the highlands of Vietnam and intermixed with the natives over centuries. European missionaries and traders from the sixteenth century brought new religion, ideas and crops to the Vietnamese (Annamese). By 1639, there were 82,500 Catholic converts throughout Vietnam. In 1651, Alexandre de Rhodes published a 300-pages catechism in Latin and romanized-Vietnamese (chữ Quốc Ngữ) or the Vietnamese alphabet.

Conflict among Vietnamese ended in 1802 as Emperor Gia Long, who was aided by French mercenaries, defeated the Tay Son kingdoms and reunited Vietnam. By 1847, the Vietnamese state under Emperor Thiệu Trị, a people that were identified as "người Việt Nam" accounted for nearly 80 percent of the country's population. This demographic model continues to persist through the French Indochina, Japanese occupation and modern day.

Between 1862 and 1867, the southern third of the country became the French colony of Cochinchina. By 1884, the entire country had come under French rule, with the central and northern parts of Vietnam separated into the two protectorates of Annam and Tonkin. The three Vietnamese entities were formally integrated into the union of French Indochina in 1887. The French administration imposed significant political and cultural changes on Vietnamese society. A Western-style system of modern education introduced new humanist values into Vietnam.

Despite having a long recorded ethnic history, the formation of the ethnic Vietnamese or Kinh identity, only begun by the late 19th and early 20th century, with the help of the colonial administration. Following the colonial government's efforts of ethnic classification, nationalism, especially ethnonationalism and eugenic social Darwinism, were encouraged among the new Vietnamese intelligentsia's discourse. Ethnic tensions sparked by Vietnamese ethnonationalism peaked during the late 1940s at the beginning phase of the First Indochina War (1946–1954), which resulted in violence between Khmer and Vietnamese in the Mekong Delta.

The mid-20th century marked a pivotal turning point with the Vietnam War, a conflict that not only left an indelible impact on the nation but also had far-reaching consequences for the Vietnamese people. The war, which lasted from 1955 to 1975, resulted in significant social, economic, and political upheavals, shaping the modern history of Vietnam and its people. Following the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, the post-war era brought economic hardships and strained social dynamics, prompting resilient efforts at reconstruction, reconciliation, and the implementation of economic reforms such as the Đổi Mới policies in the late 20th century.

Genetics

Several studies show close genetic affinities between the Kinh Vietnamese and Thais or Kra–Dai peoples, especially Dai people. Like Kra–Dai groups from mainland China, the Kinh possess "genetic characteristics of the Baiyue lineage." There's also evidence that the Kinh diverged from the Hlai, who have the most enriched Baiyue ancestry among Kra–Dai groups, much earlier than the Dai diverged from Hlai.

According to some studies, the Kinh can be modeled as having genetic input from a sister lineage related to the ancestors of Southern Chinese groups, and from a sister lineage related to Laotians, Malays (i.e. Proto-Malay, Negrito, and Bidayut) and Thais (i.e. Mlabri and H'tin). Gene flow between Khmers and Kinh is unidirectional with more evidence of Kinh contributing to the Khmer genome than vice versa. Likewise, there is no evidence of Chams contributing to the Kinh genome from the Nam Tiến conquests. Among ancient populations, Kinh Vietnamese are the closest to Núi Nấp and Vat Komnou populations although the latter most likely reflects shared East Asian-related ancestry. They are cladal with Iron Age and Historical Mainland Southeast Asian populations compared to other Austroasiatic-related populations.

The majority of the Kinh belong to maternal haplogroups M (39%) and N (61%). In particular, M's subhaplogroup of Haplogroup D (22%) and M7 (20%) and N's subhaplogroups of R9'F (27%) and Haplogroup B (25%) are common. In northern Vietnam, haplogroups, A, B4, F1a and G are common. Haplogroups A and C are particularly common in northwest Vietnam, with haplogroups M and M7 peaking in northeast Vietnam and settlements near the Gulf of Tonkin. Haplogroup M71 also peaks in central Vietnam. In contrast, haplogroups M and M7 are quite rare for northwest Vietnam and far south Vietnam, near the Mekong Delta. In southern Vietnam, haplogroups D (9%) and N peak (67%) and to an extent, R9'F (29%). R9'F is instead more common in the Red River Delta (32-36%), followed by central (21%) and northwest Vietnam (16%).

Meanwhile, common paternal haplogroups for Vietnamese are O1a1a2, O1b1a1a and N4-F2930.

Religions

A majority of the Viet may be unaffiliated with any religion, yet practice forms of folk religion or Mahayana Buddhism. Vietnamese folk religion is not an organized religious system, but a set of local worship traditions devoted to the "thần", a term which can be translated as "spirits", "Gods" or with the more exhaustive locution "generative powers". These Gods can be nature deities or national, community or kinship tutelary deities or ancestral Gods and the ancestral Gods of a specific family. Ancestral Gods are often deified heroic persons. Vietnamese mythology preserves narratives telling of the actions of many of the cosmic Gods and cultural heroes. A significant minority of the Viet follow Christianity, which was introduced by Catholic missionaries from Iberia and France in the 16th century, and later by evangelical movements from Canada and the US.

Diaspora

From northern Vietnam, the Viet have expanded south and conquered much of the land belonging to the former Champa Kingdom and post-Angkor Cambodia over the centuries. They are the dominant ethnic group in most provinces of Vietnam. Kinh Vietnamese mostly reside in the lowlands of Vietnam.

Beginning around the sixteenth century, groups of Viet migrated to Cambodia and China for commerce and political purposes. Descendants of Viet migrants in China form the Gin ethnic group in the country and primarily reside in and around Guangxi Province. Vietnamese form the largest ethnic minority group in Cambodia, at 5% of the population. Under the Khmer Rouge, they were heavily persecuted and survivors of the regime largely fled to Vietnam.

During French Indochina, Vietnam (then divided into three regions) was regarded as the most important colony in Asia, and the Viet held a higher social standing than other ethnic groups in the colony. As a result, educated Vietnamese were often trained to be placed in colonial government positions in the other Asian French colonies of Laos and Cambodia rather than locals of the respective colonies. There was also a significant representation of Vietnamese students in France during this period, primarily consisting of members of the elite class. A large number of Vietnamese also migrated to France as workers, especially during World War I and World War II, when France recruited soldiers and locals of its colonies to help with war efforts in metropolitan France. The wave of migrants to France during World War I formed the first major presence of the Vietnamese in France and the Western world.

After the First Indochina War, a number of Vietnamese migrated to France. During the partition of North Vietnam and South Vietnam, additional Vietnamese students arrived to study in France, along with individuals engaged in commerce to trade with France. Forced repatriation in 1970 and deaths during the Khmer Rouge era reduced the Vietnamese Cambodian population in Cambodia from between 250,000 and 300,000 in 1969 to a reported 56,000 in 1984.

The fall of Saigon and end of the Vietnam War prompted the start of the Vietnamese diaspora, which saw millions of Vietnamese fleeing the country from the new communist regime. Recognizing an international humanitarian crisis, many countries accepted Vietnamese refugees, primarily the United States, Australia, France, and Canada. Meanwhile, under the communist regime, tens of thousands of Vietnamese were sent to work or study in Eastern Bloc countries of Central and Eastern Europe as development aid to the Vietnamese government and for migrants to acquire skills that were to be brought home to help with development.