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TRANSFORMATIONS OF THĂNG LONG: SPACE AND TIME, POWER AND BELIEF

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 January 2013

John K. Whitmore
John K. Whitmore*
Affiliation:
University of Michigan E-mail [email protected]
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Abstract

2010 saw the millennial celebration of Thăng Long/Hà Nội as capital of an independent Vietnam, and archaeology has tended to confirm this strong sense of continuity. Yet study of written texts shows us how political power, administrative style, and religious belief have shaped the city and how a cyclical pattern in this history has appeared twice and may be in its third time. In this pattern, each cycle saw the city begin as the provincial capital of an external power before becoming capital of an independent Vietnamese state. Then a local base draws power to itself and displaces Thăng Long, eventually dismantling it, before a new external power enters and begins the cycle anew. In this way the Tang and Ming dynasties of China and the French made the site their local administrative center. Lý Công Uẩn, Lê Lợi, and Hồ Chí Minh in succession drove them out and established Thăng Long/Hà Nội as their capital, bringing Buddhism, Confucianism, and Socialism to it. But first the Trần and Hồ, then the Mạc, Trịnh, and Nguyễn, shared power with, and eventually displaced, the Royal City. Will it happen again?

Keywords

VietnamVietnamese historyHanoiThăng Longgeomancy
Type
Research Article
Information
International Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , January 2013 , pp. 1 - 24
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2013

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