Old Thang Long

There has been a settlement at, or in the vicinity of, modern day Hanoi for well over two thousand years. When the first known independent Viet state, the Kingdom of Au Lac, was founded in the third century BC, its capital was established at Co Loa, just a few kilometres to the north of present-day Hanoi, but on the north side of the Red River. When Viet independence came to an end with the conquest of Au Lac by the Chinese in 208BC, the administration of the new Chinese dependency of Nam Viet was initially transferred from Co Loa to Fanyu in neighbouring Guangdong, but it seems certain that the area around Co Loa and present-day Hanoi remained important both in terms of Viet settlement and the national psyche.

When the Trung Sisters rose up against the Chinese and briefly re-established Viet independence (40–43 AD), they made their new capital at Me Linh, by the north bank of the Red River just 20 kilometres from Hanoi and a mere 15 kilometres from the old citadel at Co Loa. In 264 the Chinese colonial administration, finding it inconvenient to administer the Red River Delta from Guangdong, established a new capital at Long Bien, today an eastern suburb of Hanoi joined to the capital by the famous Long Bien Bridge across the Red River. Next the Chinese Tang Dynasty (618–907) instituted a series of administrative reforms resulting in the creation of a Protectorate of Annam – the “Pacified South”, a name much resented by the Vietnamese – with its capital at Tong Binh on the banks of the Red River, directly opposite Long Bien, on the site of present-day Hanoi. During the 7th and 8th centuries the Chinese fortified Tong Binh with brick walls and built a great citadel called Dai La. By this time Tong Binh had an estimated 50,000 inhabitants, not including the Chinese garrison troops, and was a major fortress.

Vietnam’s millennium of foreign occupation came to an end in 939 when the great general Ngo Quyen drove out the Chinese and proclaimed himself King Ngo Vuong. In a move clearly designed to emphasise national independence, he transferred the capital from the fortress at Dai La back to Co Loa, capital of the first free Viet Kingdom of Au Lac. Yet while this may have been an important gesture in political symbolism, in physical terms it meant a move of no more than 16 kilometres, leaving the Long Bien-Tong Binh-Dai La complex still very much at the heart of the country.

David Henley / CPA

The Ho Chi Minh mausoleum, Hanoi.

In 968 Tien Hoang De, the first ruler of the short-lived Early Le Dynasty, moved the capital from Co Loa to his home district of Hoa Lu, 80 kilometres to the south in Ninh Binh Province, apparently seeking security in a region further removed from the Chinese frontier. For the first time since the foundation of Au Lac twelve centuries before the Viet capital had moved from the immediate vicinity of modern-day Hanoi – though it was not to be for long. Just 42 years later Ly Thai To, the founder of the Early Ly Dynasty, felt dissatisfied with the isolated location of Hoa Lu and determined to move the capital back to Tong Binh. In 1010, he returned to Dai La, now emptied of its Chinese garrison. According to legend, as he entered the former capital a golden dragon took off from the top of the citadel and soared into the heavens This was taken by the emperor as an extraordinarily auspicious sign, and he promptly renamed the city Thang Long, or “Ascending Dragon”. In his Edict on the Transfer of the Capital, Ly Thai To declared:

The ancient capital… is situated in the heart of our country. Its features resemble a coiled dragon or a crouching tiger. The capital is laid out on a North-South East-West axis, and is favourably situated with regard to the mountains and rivers. The site is large and flat, the fields high and sunny. Everything here flourishes and prospers. In comparison with the rest of our Viet land, this is the most beautiful site, the meeting place for people from all four corners of the kingdom to gather and live together. This vital centre deserves to be chosen as the eternal site for our capital city.

Thang Long remained Vietnam’s capital for the next eight hundred years, though under the Le Dynasty in the 17th century its name was temporarily changed to Dong Kinh or “Eastern Capital” (using the same Chinese characters as the Japanese capital, Tokyo, pronounced differently in Japanese, but also meaning “Eastern Capital”). From Dong Kinh the European term Tonkin would derive, eventually being applied to the whole northern part of Vietnam as far south as the Ma River in Thanh Hoa.

Archival Image / CPA

The Trung Sisters driving out Chinese invaders. Traditional painting.

In 1802, having defeated the Tay Son rebels, Nguyen Anh proclaimed himself Emperor Gia Long and established the capital of the Nguyen Dynasty at Hue, far to the south. Thang Long was downgraded to the status of provincial capital, and its name changed to Thang Thinh because dragons – long as in both Thang Long and Gia Long – are associated with royalty, and the new emperor intended to make it quite clear that Hue, his new capital, was the seat of the Imperial Court. Yet this move was an aberration in historical terms, a transient period comparable to Tien Hoang De’s transfer of the capital to Hoa Lu between 968 and 1010. By 1873 Hanoi would be in French hands, and in 1887 it was made the capital of all French Indochina. Still the ancient city’s vicissitudes were not quite over. On independence from France in 1954, Hanoi became capital of the communist North, while Saigon remained capital of the anti-communist South. It was not until unification in 1975 that Hanoi would eventually become capital of a united Vietnam.

By any standards, this is a long history. It makes Hanoi by far the oldest capital city in Southeast Asia, and indeed one of the oldest capitals anywhere in the world. Although outmatched by such ancient metropolises as Cairo and Damascus, its age – if taken from the foundation of Co Loa – actually exceeds that of London or Paris. Even if reckoned from Ly Thai To’s proclamation of the restored Thang Long in 1010, it is still several hundred years older than Phnom Penh or Vientiane, its nearest Southeast Asian rivals in terms of age as continuing capital cities.

When Thang Long was re-established in 1010, the city was already defined by the system of dikes that still protect it from the floodwaters of the nearby Red River. We know that Ly Thai To designated the innermost part of his capital the Royal City or “Hoang Thanh” and the area surrounding it the Commoners City or “Kinh Thanh”. Within the Royal City, which was protected by walls, four gates and a moat, was the Royal Palace or “Cam Thanh”. Here the king resided and his queen and concubines were kept in seclusion, spending their time in spacious edifices which have long since disappeared, but which archaeology has revealed were ‘made of vermilion lacquered wood, with columns adorned with gold dragons, dancing fairies and engraved ibises’. Outside each of the gates were markets, while the Commoners City comprised residential areas divided by guilds and interspersed with a number of Buddhist and Confucian temples, most notably the revered Van Mieu or Temple of Literature, which dates from 1070 and is older than any surviving Confucian temple in China. Other religious structures dating from this era (but which since have undergone significant reconstruction) include the famed Chua Mot Cot, or “One Pillar Pagoda” which – together with Hoan Kiem Lake – has become synonymous with the City of Hanoi, and the venerable Tran Quoc Temple.

By the 15th century, Thang Long had already acquired much of its present character and form. In the west, directly due south of Ho Tay or “West Lake”, the extensive grounds of the Royal City, secure within a fortified citadel, enclosed palaces and temples, lakes, gardens and audience halls. To the east, sandwiched between the citadel and the great dike that holds back the Red River, lay the Commoners City divided administratively into phuong or guilds and pho or streets. Commerce was concentrated in this area, especially in the oldest part of town known as the “36 Streets”, each named for a specific craft or trade that was plied there.

Viet annals of this time concentrate almost exclusively on politics and government, and have little or nothing to say either of society at the royal court or of the everyday life of common people. By the 17th century, however, Europeans had begun to visit the city to trade or to preach. Once such was the Italian Jesuit Giovanni Filippo de Marini (1666), who records of the Royal City that: ‘Although the king’s apartments are built of wood, the gold and embroidered ornaments, the fine mats of different colours, as well as the rich carpets, render them incomparable’. He also notes that: ‘The number of sentries, officers, workmen and people of all nationalities who work there; the order, the clothes, the gardens, elephants, horses, the weapons and other munitions are astonishing, beyond imagination’. To this may be added the account of Marini’s near contemporary, the British sea captain William Dampier who visited Thang Long in 1688 and writes of the Commoners City: ‘The houses are generally low, the walls are of mud and the covering thatch, yet some are built with brick and covered with tiles. The principal streets are very wide, though some are but narrow. They are most of them paved, or patched rather, with small stones, but after a very ill manner. In the wet season they are very dirty, and in the dry time there are many fragrant ponds’.

David Henley / CPA

Handicraft shop, Old Quarter, Hanoi

Thang Long suffered badly during the civil wars of the 17th and 18th centuries, especially when the Tay Son overthrew the Trinh Lords in 1786 and the Le Emperor ordered the Trinh palaces destroyed. Then, just 16 years later, the Tay Son were in turn overthrown by Nguyen Anh, the first Nguyen Emperor Gia Long, who not only transferred the capital from Hanoi to Hue, but did all he could to diminish the former royal capital of his family’s vanquished Trinh rivals. This vengeful sovereign ordered the Thang Long citadel reduced in size, and sealed off the southern gate to prevent malign influences issuing forth towards his new capital at Hue. His son, Emperor Minh Mang (1820–41) continued the process. Obliged to travel to the former capital for an audience with a Chinese delegation that refused to recognise the new capital at Hue, he changed Thang Long’s name once again – and this time finally – to Hanoi, also removing to Hue all the royal treasures that could be transported there. He then ordered the destruction of the Le Emperor’s Royal Palace, the Temple to the Royal Ancestors, the Temple of Heaven, and other buildings associated with the former royal capital, determined to ensure its permanent subordination to the Nguyen capital at Hue. The fourth and longest-reigning Nguyen Emperor Tu Duc (1848–83) continued the unfortunate process of despoiling Hanoi of its royal legacy. It seems sad indeed that Hue, which grew to be a magnificent imperial city under the Nguyen, should have done so, at least in part, at the expense of old Thang Long.

Not that Hanoi sunk into obscurity with its loss of status as capital in 1802. Indeed for much of the 19th century it continued to develop as the nation’s largest city and most important trading centre, and while the Trinh and Le palaces tumbled, other distinguished religious buildings were added to the Hanoi skyline, most notably the hexagonal Cot Co Flag Tower erected by Gia Long as a symbol of Nguyen power in the north, and the elegant Ngoc Son (“Jade Mountain”) Temple on a tiny island in the northern part of Hoan Kiem Lake. The 36 Streets of the Old Quarter continued to thrive, while official and administrative buildings still dominated the citadel to the west, though the latter was much reduced in both size and splendour. By the middle of the 19th century Hanoi’s population had reached an estimated 150,000 people, and its literati retained a reputation for learning which rivalled or exceeded that of upstart Hue. Nguyen Cong Tru (1778–1859) reflects this refinement, combined with a palpable nostalgia for the past, in a contemporary poem:

Whether it is blossom time or not, jasmine is always jasmine
Elegant or not, one is nevertheless a citizen of the capital
We look back and think, alas, that song and dance resounded
When this land was capital of the Empire
When these hills and waters were a sublime environment
For Dynasties to build their Empires under Viet skies

If you are interested in publishing this article please contact info@cpamedia.com (or use this page) for pricing and additional images. Should you wish simply to quote from the article or to use it for strictly non-commercial purposes please be sure to acknowledge CPAmedia copyright together with a link to our website at www.cpamedia.com.