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Hanoi. City of the Rising Dragon.
Maryland, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.,
2002, 187 p.
with G. Boudarel (1926-2003), foreword by William J. Duiker,
translated by Claire Duiker
Hanoi. City of the Rising Dragon.
Maryland, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.,
2002, 187 p.
with G. Boudarel (1926-2003), foreword by William J. Duiker,
translated by Claire Duiker
§ A City which Remembers
The city under the Waters
The city of today was built, literally and figuratively, along the bends
of the Song Hong, or Red River, which cuts across Hanoi from the
northwest to the southeast. A high iron content gives the river its
brick-red color and its name. It has its source in the mountains of
southwest China and is joined by several tributaries around Mount Ba
Vi, one of which is the Black River (Song Da).
The
region around Hanoi was originally swampy and riddled with lakes,
which remained as vestiges of the river’s previous paths. The
current configuration of the city was carved out in part by the sea
and the powerful Red River—whose floods sometimes altered the
shape of the city overnight—and in part by the lush vegetation,
whose traces can still be found in certain place names, like Gia Lam
(forest of banyans) and Mai Lam (forest of plum trees). As a result,
the inhabitants of this flood plain area have always maintained a
high concern for the construction and integrity of the dykes that
protect them. Even today, the city lies below the water level in
times of flooding.
In centuries past, Hanoi was in a sense the Venice of the Far East, as
people traveled from place to place by boat along a complex network
of lakes, streams, and canals. The presence of water shaped both the
material and cultural life of the city, carrying with it both life
and death, to the point where the word “country” in
popular language is
dat nuoc (earth-water). The Vietnamese
people have always lived this duality. Since they could not
definitively master the water, they learned to make it their ally and
an integral part of their nation. Once again, language provides a key
for understanding the importance of water to the people of Hanoi: the
term for “our country” (
nuoc nha) literally means
“water-home,” and “the state” (
nha nuoc)
means “home-water.”
From
its founding in 1010 until the 18
th century, Hanoi was
composed of two distinct parts. The Imperial City was in the center,
ringed by the fortified walls of the citadel, and including the
Forbidden City. Surrounding this was a group of neighborhoods which
housed merchants, artisans, and the imperial servants. Writings such
as Nguyen Trai’s
Dia du chi [Treatise on Geography]
describe the scope of the city in the 15
th century. The
Imperial City underwent many changes throughout history, as best
illustrated by the successive constructions of its citadel: the old
fortress of Dai La [Great Citadel], built in the 9
th
century, was replaced by the citadel of Thang Long in the 11
th
century; this, in turn, was then enlarged by Olivier du Puymanel in
1805 under the Nguyen dynasty to emulate the French style of Vauban
As the seat of power, the Imperial City was laid out in the form of a
square, a reference to Confucian cosmology which holds that the
square symbolized the earth while the sky was represented by a
circle. It was delimited in the north by West Lake, in the south by
what is now the Street of the Bridge of Paper, in the east by what is
now called Ba Dinh Square, and in the west by the To Lich River.
Outside of this square lay old Hanoi, with its thirty-six commercial
neighborhoods. The capital was thus protected by natural defenses: on
the north and northeast by the Red River, separated from West Lake by
a dyke, and on the west by the To Lich River. Moreover, the fertility
of the alluvial soil was undoubtedly one of the reasons that
successive Vietnamese dynasties remained in Hanoi until the 19
th
century, taking advantage of the richness of the soil to develop and
prosper.
A city of Legend
One
of Hanoi’s most famous legends is that of Returned Sword Lake.
It is said that a mythical tortoise gave its sacred sword to king Le
Loi (reigned 1428 – 1433 ),
allowing him to expel the occupying forces of the Chinese Ming
Dynasty in the 15
th century after ten years of resistance.
The people from Hanoi also love to tell stories about the
etymological origins of Thang Long, the city’s first name. When
the boats of Ly Cong Uan, the founder of the 11
th century
Ly dynasty, arrived on the site from Hoa Lu, a golden dragon appeared
to welcome them and then flew off into the sky. This good omen
convinced the king to build the capital there, calling it Thang Long,
which means “the ascending dragon.”
The
dragon is an important symbol for the Vietnamese. One of their
national legends tells of the city’s ancestors, the mythical
couple Lac Long Quan and Au Co, the former a descendent of dragons
and the latter of fairies. Popular belief also contends that dragons
can cause rain, which is indispensable for growing rice. Lastly, the
dragon is a symbol of imperial power in Chinese ideography, a writing
system adopted by the Vietnamese court. The name Thang Long thus
brought together the monarchy and the common people, a meaning which
was ruptured in the 19
th century by the transfer of the
capital to Hue. The Nguyen dynasty then emptied the city of its
symbolic role by renaming it Ha Noi (the city in the water).
The
origin of West Lake can claim two legends. One goes back to the
founding of the country, and tells of how the region of Hanoi was
terrorized by a fox with nine tails. Lac Long Quan, the dragon god,
entered into battle with the fox to drive it from the area. The fox
fled and left behind him the tracks of his many tails, which then
collapsed and gave birth to West Lake. Some older story-tellers offer
another version: there once was a giant named Khong Minh Khong who
went to China to find a cure for a princess who had fallen ill. Out
of gratitude, the king offered him a piece of black bronze from the
royal coffers. Khong Minh Khong transformed the bronze into a bell,
whose peals could be heard all the way to China. A golden buffalo
heard the bell and thought he recognized the lowing of his mother, so
traveled from China to Vietnam, following the sounds of the bell. His
tracks became the river Kim Nguu (golden buffalo), a former arm of
the river To Lich; and the forest of
lim,
which was now trampled and flattened, became West Lake.
The
city of today was built, literally and figuratively, along the bends
of the Song Hong, or Red River, which cuts across Hanoi from the
northwest to the southeast. A high iron content gives the river its
brick-red color and its name. It has its source in the mountains of
southwest China and is joined by several tributaries around Mount Ba
Vi, one of which is the Black River (Song Da).
Temples: The Guardians of History
Hanoi
has more than a thousand historical buildings, with some 579 communal
houses ,
676 pagodas, and 261 temples spread out across the city. Since 1954,
more than two hundred have been classified as historical sites.
During the Ly dynasty, a number of Buddhist religious structures were
built. One of the most famous, the One Pillar Pagoda, was built in
1049 in the shape of a lotus, a symbol of Buddha’s
enlightenment. The pagoda was built in the middle of a pond on the
east side of the Imperial City and has been destroyed and rebuilt
many times. It was completely demolished by the French army during
the Franco-Vietminh War and was entirely rebuilt. Then in the 1970s,
a senior government official suggested that it be torn down because
it didn’t conform with the new mausoleum being built to house
the remains of Ho Chi Minh. The outspoken historian Tran Quoc Vuong
dared to protest against the proposal and was reprimanded by ignorant
opportunists hoping to impress key leaders. Fortunately, however,
other protests followed and the idea was finally abandoned.
A
short distance away to the south stands the Temple of Literature (Van
Mieu), built in 1076 in homage to Confucius and his disciples. The
site also served as an academy where court-appointed scholars could
meet to discuss classical literature. Shortly afterwards, the
Imperial Academy (Quoc Tu Giam) was built. Considered to be the
country’s first university, it attracted hundreds of students
who moved into the surrounding areas in order to profit from its
prestige. In 1442, graduates of the mandarinal competitions were
celebrated in inscriptions on stone tablets which were erected upon
the back of a sculpted tortoise, the symbol of longevity. The first
tablets were erected in 1484 under the reign of Le Thanh Tong (1460 –
1497), a ruler known for his humanism and erudition.
On
the shores of West Lake in the extreme northeast of the city, at the
beginning of what is now Thanh Nien Street (the Avenue of the Grand
Buddha in colonial times), is the temple of Quan Thanh. This Taoist
structure was built under the Ly in the 11
th century and
was originally dedicated to an ancient protector-spirit. It also
served as one of the sixteen gateways to the city. In 1677 a bronze
statue of the spirit, four meters (13 feet) high, was erected inside.
On the shores of Bay Mau Lake (Lake of Seven Mau ),
another temple was built in the 12
th century, dedicated to
the two Trung sisters. These two heroines tried in vain to evict
Chinese occupying forces in the 1
st century. They
committed suicide by plunging into a river in order to escape
humiliation.
To
the west of the Imperial City are two other historical monuments
dating from the 12
th century: the Temple of the Reclining
Elephants, now located in a zoological park, and the Lang Pagoda,
situated a bit farther south. The former was erected to protect the
western side of the capital, while the latter is known for its
picturesque location and ancient statuary, some of which date back to
the 17
th century. It is still in use today, and is the
site of one of Hanoi’s most popular annual festivals.
We
can now see that the Hanoi of today was shaped by the dynasty that
founded it. The dynasties that followed did little but preserve it,
renovate it, and construct palaces for various dignitaries. None of
these other buildings, however, could withstand the violence of
history. In 1216, the struggle between rival factions of the
declining Ly dynasty provoked a fire and the destruction of the
Imperial City, which later had to be rebuilt by the Tran dynasty
(1225 – 1400). From the 16
th – 18
th
century, royal palaces were built outside of the old Imperial City
because of the fighting between the reigning dynasty of the Le,
reduced to a nominal function, and the Trinh lords (an aristocratic
clan which had seized power at court) who held real power. This
infighting between the ruling classes led to chaos and political
instability, including the assassinations of several Le kings by the
Trinh lords. In 1623, one of the latter burned down the Imperial
City. In 1787, the last reigning Le ruler called for assistance from
the Qing Dynasty in Beijing, but the Tay Son brothers, leaders of a
rebel faction which had taken control in the South, took advantage of
the instability to intervene and liberate the capital from its
Chinese occupiers. In 1789, the battle of Dong Da (named for a hill
situated several kilometers to the south of Hanoi) put an end to the
Chinese intervention .
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