VIETNAM CHRONICLE

Vietnam is what was called Việt Thường [Ch. Yuechang] in ancient times. It is in the South Sea, reachable from Taiwan by sea in eighty-three watches.¹ The ocean is to the east of the landmass [of Vietnam], various barbarians are to the west (Laos and other places), Champa is to the south. (Champa was a separate country. It was once called Nhật Nam. During the Ming, the Lê absorbed it.) To the north it borders Sien prefecture in Guangxi and Lin’an Prefecture in Yunnan. What was called Nhật Nam in the past is now Quảng Nam; it is known as Tây Kinh. What was called Giao Chỉ in the past is now called Annam; it is known as Đông Kinh.² Now they are united as one country.

In the time of Tang and Yu, it was known as Nam Giao.³ During the Qin dynasty [221–206 BCE] it was Elephant commandery. At the beginning of the Han dynasty [202 BCE—220 CE], Zhao Tuo occupied it. [Emperor] Wu pacified Nam Việt [Ch. Nanyue; the kingdom founded by Zhao Tuo] and established Giao Chỉ commandery [in 111 BCE]. During Emperor Guangwu’s reign [25–57 CE], the women Trưng Trắc and Trưng Nhị rebelled. Ma Yuan pacified them and erected bronze pillars to mark the border. During the Jian’an reign period [196–220 CE], the name was changed to Giao Province. In the Tang dynasty [618–907] it was changed to Annam, and a military governor for the Peaceful Sea Army was established. It all belonged to the Central Land [China]. Later it was abandoned due to frequent uprisings, but tribute was received. During the Five Dynasties period [907–79], the local person Khúc Thừa Mỹ usurped power and [the territory] was annexed by the Southern Han dynasty [917–71]. At the beginning of the Song dynasty [960–1279], Đinh Liễn [940–79] possessed it and was granted the title King of Giao Chỉ. Đinh Liễn’s [family’s rule] lasted three generations, after which it was usurped by Lê Hoàn [941–1005]. The Lê family lasted for three generations; the throne was usurped by an official, Lý Công Uẩn [974–1028]. The Lý family lasted for eight generations. When there was no longer an heir, the throne was passed to the son-in-law, Trần Nhật Cảnh [1218–77]. The Yuan dynasty [1271–1368] conquered them and made his son Quang Nhuế the king of Annam commandery.⁴

At the beginning of the Hongwu reign of the Ming dynasty [1368–98], the Ming crowned Trần Nhật Khuê as king of Annam; at that time, [Annam] invaded Champa. After four generations, the throne was usurped by an official, Lê Quý Ly, who executed all of the Trần descendants. During the first year of the Yongle reign [1403], the Lê son Hồ Đê was crowned king.⁵ The next year, [Trần] Nhật Khuê’s son Thiêm Bình and the official Bùi Bá Kỳ knelt before the palace requesting vengeance. The emperor ordered that he be welcomed back as ruler of his country. The Lê duplicitously killed Thiêm Bình and the troops accompanying him. Subsequently, [the Ming] dispatched troops to launch a pincer assault. They captured the father and son. The search for Trần heirs was not successful, so [the Ming] incorporated the land as prefectures and counties. They established fourteen prefectures, forty-seven departments, one hundred and fifty-seven counties, and twelve guards and installed three offices to govern it. Later Trần Giản Định and his son [Trần] Quý Khoáng wreaked havoc one after the other; once they were pacified, Lê Lợi launched another rebellion. In the second year of the Xuande reign [1426], Lợi dispatched a messenger requesting that Trần Cảo be made king. Yang Shiqi and Yang Rongyi called a ceasefire and recognized him, dismissing the three offices. Cảo died and Lợi duplicitously claimed that the Trần line was extinguished. The emperor permitted him to take charge of state affairs. His son Lân inherited his recognition as king and annexed Champa. After ten generations, the throne was usurped by an official, Mạc Đăng Dung. In the sixteenth year of the Jiajing reign [1537], Đăng Dung was terrified because the prince Lê Ninh came [to Beijing] and requested an army. He surrendered and pledged loyalty [to the Ming], and his position was changed to commander-in-chief of Annam [demoted from king]. The Lê clan were resettled at Tất Mã River. The Mạc continued to pass on the throne until they were chased out by Lê Ninh’s son [Lê] Duy Đàm. The emperor appointed Duy Đàm as commander-in-chief, and the Mạc were settled in Cao Bằng, following the precedent of the Tất Mã River resettlement. During the fourth year of the Tianqi reign [1624], the Lê attacked Cao Bằng, and the Mạc were further weakened. Up until the fall of the Ming the two families divided the territory.

During the fifth year of the Kangxi reign of our dynasty [1666], Lê Duy Hy was recognized as the king of Annam.⁶ In the fifty-fourth year of the Qianlong reign [1789], the Lê clan lost the country. [Nguyễn] Quang Bình was recognized as king of Annam.⁷ In the seventh year of the Jiaqing reign [1802], the title king of Annam was changed to king of Vietnam, because the name of the country had changed from Annam to Vietnam.⁸ Their historical records detail the information, so I will not venture to redundantly give more details. I, Tinglan, only heard about recent events while on the road and could not verify them in detail. Along with what I saw firsthand, this book will provide for discussion of what is happening abroad for now.

According to what people who have been to Vietnam say, at the end of the Lê period the country was in chaos. The country was divided in three. Gia Long (the reign name of the father of the current king, surname Nguyễn.⁹ It is the biggest taboo for the people of the country to mention the kings’ names) occupied Lũng Nại (now Gia Định Province).¹⁰ Thái Đức (I am not sure of his surname; the term here is his reign name) occupied Tân Châu (now Bình Định).¹¹ Quang Trung (I am not sure of his name. Originally he was a merchant from the hamlet of Tây Sơn. He called himself the king of Tây Sơn, and others called him the Tây Sơn rebel. And he illegitimately took the reign name Quang Trung) occupied Thuận Hóa [Huế] (now Phú Xuân).¹² They each ruled their region and became sworn brothers.¹³ When Thái Đức died, his son was threatened by officials and fled to the protection of Quang Trung. Quang Trung plotted to kill him and seize his kingdom. Angered by this, Gia Long raised an army to attack him and took over Tân Châu city, leaving his son-in-law to defend it.¹⁴ Quang Trung dispatched his junior mentor and grand minister of the masses to encircle Tân Châu city with troops.¹⁵ There was a stalemate for several years until he sent the commander-in-chief with reinforcements. They ran out of food within the city. The reinforcements were exhausted from their long trip. (From Tân Châu it takes eleven days to go north to Thuận Hóa and more than twenty days to go south to Lũng Nại.) They lost several battles, and the city fell. Gia Long’s son-in-law self-immolated.¹⁶ The commander-in-chief moved the troops to Lũng Nại. Gia Long’s troops were disbanded and fled to the ocean. Strengthened, Quang Trung annexed Đông Kinh and replaced the Lê king. When Gia Long fled to the ocean, the pirate He Xianwen (a Cantonese) surrounded him with several hundred ships.¹⁷ Gia Long was running out of options. In distress, he devised a plan: he came out on the deck of the ship, put on his crown, and shouted, “I am the king of Lũng Nại! Now my state has been destroyed, so I am going to seek troops from other countries to exact vengeance. We have nothing onboard, so there is no benefit to harming us. But if we join together and help each other to destroy our enemy, on the day of victory I will share the state with you and make you a king.” Delighted, Xianwen pledged his loyalty. They went together to Siam and requested several tens of thousands of elite troops, launched a pincer attack, seized Lũng Nại and Tân Châu, took advantage of their momentum to capture Thuận Hóa, and then pushed on to Đông Kinh. Quang Trung escaped to the mountains with his remaining troops.¹⁸ His junior mentor and grand minister of the masses went to Đông Kinh by obscure routes and were captured by hidden troops. Gia Long waxed them into torches and burned them as a sacrifice to his son-in-law. Đông Kinh also fell to him. All of Annam was his.

He changed the name of Lũng Nại to Gia Định [“Auspiciously Settled” 嘉定] and the name of Đông Kinh to Thăng Long [“Ascending Prosperity” 升隆].¹⁹ He changed the reign name to Gia Long [“Auspicious Prosperity” 嘉隆], because he started in Gia Định and succeeded in Thăng Long. Once his reign was established, he dispatched an envoy to present tribute to the Heavenly Court and request that his title be changed to king of Vietnam. He cut a prefecture out of his territory and gave it to Xianwen. Xianwen could not dare resist [so he took the prefecture]. But because he lacked supporters, the local people did not accept him, and they eventually left. Gia Long was grateful to him, so he always treated Tang people generously. The current king [Minh Mạng] succeeded to the throne more than ten years ago and bestows even more favors than in the past. Traveling merchants are safe there.

Later, a general of Gia Định rebelled.²⁰ Four prefectures were taken in one day. Many foreigners followed him. The king sent troops that surrounded it for several years, losing more than fifty thousand soldiers (many were crushed to death by battle logs on the city walls). The residents of Gia Định knew that the king had had a rift with Siam. (Siam had previously committed troops to help Gia Long take the country, and every year, hundreds of people went back and forth to that country to serve as replacements for those performing military service. But later, because they could not stand the maltreatment, they all fled back to their country. Substitutes were not sent, and good relations ceased.) They secretly sent a letter entreating the king of Siam, who therefore dispatched a navy one hundred thousand strong to help them, with Tang people as their local guides. When they were about to arrive at the city, [the guides] stole all the gold and fled. The navy got lost, and the Vietnamese government army intercepted and killed more than half of them. The [Siamese soldiers] retreated in defeat. Those within the city were without help, and the large army attacked them even more fiercely; they built outer walls, spied into the city from them, and used cannons to surround and fire on it. After another fifteen days, the city fell and was completely annihilated.

In the renchen year (the twelfth year of the Daoguang reign in our dynasty) [1832], a local bandit from Cao Bằng rebelled, joining with refugees in a border town in Guangxi.²¹ They ganged up and destroyed Cao Bằng city and then spread to Lạng Sơn. They created unrest for two years before they were put down. Since this, their king is more wary of Tang people, but he does not know that the chief instigators were all local people.²² There were only one or two foreigners among them who were cunning and took the opportunity to secretly attach themselves to them or were coerced into it against their will, but then, as a result, tens of thousands of migrants lost the favor and gained the enmity of the king, and even traders were subjected to higher taxes. Is it not unjust?

After the Tây Sơn rebel Quang Trung entered the mountains, he ruled the savages and assembled his gang to raid and plunder. He still referred to himself as “the king of Tây Sơn.” His son and grandson continued this. (Cảnh Thịnh and Bảo Điển were their spurious reign names.)²³

There was also a kind of Snake Demon Savage who belongs to the White Miao. It lives in the mountains and reproduces a lot. They are governed by a Snake Demon King. Sometimes they band together and go out to kill people.

When I, Tinglan, surreptitiously observed the circumstances of Vietnam, [I saw that] their royal city was solid and prepared [for defense]. They were sheltered by mountains and sea. They could claim sovereignty based on their geographical location. From north to south [the territory] is like a long rope, more than five thousand li long and all under their control. They are not concerned about annexation, so it truly is a great one among the foreign vassals. What they should worry about is that the whip won’t reach [the belly of the horse]; the people’s customs are degenerate and inconstant.²⁴

The current king [Minh Mạng] respectfully serves the Heavenly Court [which] deeply illuminates the way of governing [for him]. He is especially well versed in writings and history (he ordered the printing of his own collected works of poetry and literature), he respects the learning of the classics (high officials have mostly taken the imperial examination). He serves his mother in order for people to hear of his filial piety and saves money (the treasury is filled with gold and silver). He is good at making money and engaged in commerce everywhere. If any country has something that [Vietnam] does not have, he will import it. When it comes to a skill, he is sure to spread the techniques. Although the clothing follows the old system, standards fully comply with the system in China (such as in recruiting officials, reviewing officials, documents, and legal precedents, there is no difference with China). The king once said, “When it comes to what the Heavenly Court respects, among all those who comply with the morality of a vassal, the various barbarians [beside Vietnam] are not worth mentioning.” There has been no break in tribute missions up to the present. Chinese officials and scholars who have been blown off course and landed here have all been treated well.

Their king makes a tour once or twice during the first month of every year. Sometimes he is carried in a sedan chair, sometimes he rides a horse or an elephant, [outfitted] with gorgeous attire and exquisite weapons, and [accompanied by] a thousand armed soldiers. When he passes by markets and stores, households line up altars to welcome him. He bestows three strings of cash on each to demonstrate his exquisite courtesy. When he has no business to attend to, he often stays in the palace. There are more than a hundred princes who live in other palaces. Some study civil matters, and others study the military arts. They have a quota for food, and if they break rules, then their allotment will be decreased. If anyone from the royal family, their affines, and below uses their influence to bully people, even if they are relatives of the king, they must be punished according to the law.

The ranks and names of their civil service inside and outside the court follows the system of the Heavenly Court. In the past, those who became officials were all from the families of government clerks. The clerks outside the nine ranks of official position move up according to vacancy. Now the examinations are more important. There is one examination held every three years, and the officials of learning enforcement are requested to come up with examination questions. Child candidates need to go to their provincial capital to be tested on literature and art, essays and the classics, and prose and poetry. The most outstanding ones win the Provincial Graduate title, while those who are acceptable become cultivated talents. Cultivated talents who are over forty years old are selected as teachers, while provincial graduates are selected as county magistrates. Those who have not taken up a post should take the metropolitan examination. If they pass, they become palace graduates. The king personally chooses staff for the Hàn Lâm Academy and to fill in for county magistrates from the palace examination. There is no title from the palace examination.²⁵ Their military positions follow the country’s old system; there is no examination. Although the salary of office holders is low, those who manage lawsuits do not dare accept bribes. Criminals are prosecuted very harshly, [so] even high officials like the provincial administration commissioner and surveillance commissioner have not accumulated a lot of money. They usually do not wear hats or shoes, their feet are bare, whether meeting the commoners or the king. Those who have achieved merit are granted a belt and shoes. When they enter the royal hall, they are allowed to wear crimson slippers (nicknamed “slides”).

Only during important ceremonies do they wear the apparel accorded to their rank: the court dress, tablet, boots, and headgear of the Han system. Some people have two shoulder bags (shaped like a purse but bigger) to store all of their writing implements and provisions in. Those with official posts carry it on their person. They open a dark green waxed canopy when they come and go (they use a big umbrella to make the canopy); they do not distinguish color. Those who achieve merit are granted an extra layer of the canopy. It is a great honor to have several layers of canopies. “Wheels” are always carried by two people, no matter the social rank of the rider. (A “wheel” is a sedan chair. It is made of one strip of bamboo. The bottom is made of silk netting held together at the two ends with horizontal crossbeams. Two turtle-shell-shaped bamboo-leaf cushions are on the two ends enclosed by reed mats. Someone enters the seat by opening the reed mats from the side and laying down on the cushion. Officials use wooden strips colored in red. Those at rank three or above have red and the rest have blue or black.)²⁶ They are guided by ten strong soldiers, each carrying just a rifle, a wooden baton, a sword, and several pairs of rattan ropes.

The soldiers do not belong to specific generals. There is a set number of [soldiers] attached to the yamens of civil officials according to their hierarchies. The ones supplied to provincial [yamens] are called provincial troops. They wear bamboo helmets (the helmets are so small that they barely cover their heads) that are painted gold with a chicken feather stuck in it. Their uniforms are red serge with green margins and green sleeves. At the prefectural and county levels, they are called prefectural troops or county troops, and their helmets are painted green or black, with a chicken feather in it. Their uniforms are made of black cloth with red hems and red sleeves.²⁷ Their weapons are of the highest quality, but the country produces no iron and very little gunpowder. (They frequently drill by just going through the motions without firing them.) Ordinary soldiers are unskilled and weak. Since military law is so strict, just before a battle they will still proceed even if it means certain death. In leading troops, their commanders especially use schemes to luck into victory. The people submit or rebel depending on whether an army would succeed. Therefore disorder breaks out easily when people come into contact with or depart from [the government], and kindness and trust are not enough to solidify [the loyalty] of the people.

The instruments of punishment used to control people are rattan switches, long cangues, handcuffs, execution, and military exile.²⁸ When it comes to capital punishment and banishment, they observe the legal precedents of the Heavenly Court to set punishments without exception. The arm of the law is long. When criminals hear that the constable has arrived they turn themselves in. They use one strand of rattan to bind together several hundred people and none dare to flee.

Their villages each have a village chief and neighborhood chiefs. When there is an issue they hit a wooden clapper. If there are robberies in the village, the village chief will hit the clapper three times in a row. The neighboring villages will hit their clappers in response, and people will come out from every corner of the village to apprehend [the robbers]. No one can escape. When they capture robbers, they need the stolen goods as proof. If they are caught outside of the house and do not have stolen property on them they let it go, therefore, there are many petty robberies. When people fight, regardless of whether it is men or women, if no one wants to budge, then they fall to the ground and do not get up, then they call that “lying down.”²⁹ (The first one to get up is said to have the weaker case.) Even if their relatives are strong, they do not dare to help. When the village chief hears about it, he will strike the clapper to gather a group of people to mediate. If they cannot resolve it, then he will allow a lawsuit to be filed at the government office. The injured party will be moved to lie down at their enemy’s house, moaning and groaning night and day without eating. The officials would pressure the enemy to cure the victim and then handle the litigation. Because of this people tend not to fight and rarely beat others to death. They especially do not assault pregnant women. (If a pregnant woman is beaten and injured, the punishment is doubled.) In cases of adultery, whether the woman is already married or not will be taken into consideration. (When an unmarried woman engages in illicit sex, if the woman agrees, the official will order them to marry, but if the woman is already married, the perpetrators will be beheaded.) There are no brothels. Smoking opium is strictly prohibited; those who sell it and those who smoke it are sentenced to death and their family property seized by the government. They do not stop people from gambling. There are drifters who do it for a living, and even more migrants are addicted to it. There are those that gamble away a mound [of money] and draw one another into bad habits, and although the culture deteriorates, officials do not look into this. It is worrisome. They are also forced to pay excessive taxes. (For local people, each family member must pay twelve strings of cash in taxes every year. For Tang people, the amount is reduced by half.) Every seven people need to support the food of one soldier. The people from the hinterlands are lazy and do not do much in the way of livelihood. Even the rich ones have less than ten thousand pieces of gold, and the poor ones make a living by portering and selling firewood.

Tigers cause a lot of problems in the mountains. One can often see a crowd of firewood gatherers presenting a tiger to an important official, who then gives them five strings of cash. They release the tiger and then snare it in a net, remove its teeth and claws, and take it to the military training ground.³⁰ They drive a herd of elephants in, and the tiger roars. The elephants then yield—pissing and shitting themselves. Only an old elephant will charge straight at the tiger and drive it into a corner to fight. The tiger will then fall to the ground without moving. Then the herd of elephants will jostle each other trying to trample the tiger, which will be crushed to meat in no time. I asked why they do this and was told, “To provoke the elephants, so that they will no longer be afraid of tigers.” Elephants are really strong and they can understand what people say. Each provincial office raises a dozen or more, and they engage in military exercises twice a year. (Every time the elephants are inspected, first the troops are lined up in formation, the elephants are driven into the formation, straw men are made to put into the front line, and the elephants will stretch out their trunks to attack them, immediately breaking the straw men. Only lighting a fire will make them evade.) They are called the Strike Force, and they are hard to beat. (The method of resisting elephants, as recorded in the History of the Ming: In the fourth year of the Yongle reign [1406], when Zhang Fu defeated Annam, he encountered elephants with torches tied to their tails. [The Chinese] painted lions onto their charging horses to deceive them, making the elephants retreat.) Although these beasts are fierce, they are not as reliable as people.

I made a close study of their popular customs. Although many Han descendants live there, they have gotten mixed up with the ancient customs of the Yi and Liao. They are devious and stingy, and one should not get close with them. Men flit around gambling and relaxing and they sit around at home waiting to be fed. In domestic affairs, they heed their wives. They like to wear black tunics, red trousers, and bamboo rain hats (shaped like an upside-down cauldron). When they meet people, they doff their hats to bow their heads and clasp their hands to show respect. Their clothes are worn out, unwashed, and full of lice which they pick and chew on. They call it “sucking in your own life essence.” (This applies to the rich and poor alike. When officials are meeting with the people, they loosen their clothes to hunt for lice, and no one thinks it is weird.) They love bathing, and even in the winter months they will pour cold water from the crowns of their heads to their feet. Married women go out to engage in trade with their hair tied up and their feet bare. They use silk crepe headbands to tie on flat bamboo hats and wear narrow-sleeved red-and-black thin silk clothes that hang down low. Their jewelry is jade, pearls, or agate prayer beads or copper or metal bracelets. They do not wear skirts or apply cosmetics. All food products and groceries are carried to the market and then laid on the ground. They call this “the line-up.” (There are two a day, called the morning market and the evening market.) The markets are crammed with products. Their tea, medicine, porcelain, used clothing, and other goods are mostly imported by ship from China.

When men and women get married, the betrothal money is not fixed (it can be as little as ten strings of cash). When the time comes, the groom goes to the bride’s house with the matchmaker to fetch her. (The bride walks with her husband; she does not use a palanquin or horse.) Female members of the two households accompany the bride, but without lanterns or music. If a woman leaves her husband, she must give back the betrothal money. Women like to take Tang people as their husbands and call them chú [uncle].³¹ The custom is that sons and daughters inherit property equally. When they make sacrifices to the ancestors, they must simultaneously offer sacrifices to the wife’s parents. They do not make the sacrificial tablet. They write couplets to paste on the walls of the hall and light incense there. Spirits sacrificed to by the household are called Bản Đầu Công (it is like the Earth Lord of Fujianese people in China). In the main hall, they offer sacrifices to the Mysterious Lady of the Nine Heavens.³² (They put up a tall wooden board and display a shrine in front of it to place the incense. Below it they plant a lot of palm lily and different kinds of lovely flowers.) They have memorial tablets for the spirits in their temples, not carved statues. To welcome the spirits, one person will perform a song, while people alongside strike drums (sometimes four people), without other instruments. When they enter a temple, they light countless firecrackers for good luck.

The people mostly live in thatched huts (because tiles, bricks, and mortar are expensive). The center is high, and the four sides are low. They hang a bamboo curtain in front of the room to block the door, and they raise it during the daytime. Their dwelling places have no tables and chairs; they make low beds where they hang out night and day. They do not make bedding; when it is cold they just wrap themselves with mats. Only Chinese people who have emigrated there to live and wealthy people have built houses with roof tiles and high gates, and many tools. They are called “great family compounds.” They serve their food and drink on a copper tray (without the copper tray, it is considered rude). They set it on the mat, with meat dishes and delicacies arranged on it. Their alcohol is very strong and they serve it cold. They eat beef, pork, and fish half raw (they do not cook meat because they think it is delicious when it is uncooked and bloody; each morsel is very small, just enough to grab with the chopsticks). They arrange several overlapping large plates, usually with cut up fresh lettuce and various greens, with salty fish sauce to eat it with. (Their cooking pots are made of copper; they call them mộc khấu, so they eat a lot of fresh lettuce and greens to disperse the poison from the copper.³³ They also do not use soy sauce; they use fish sauce instead. It is very pungent.) When they are done eating, they use their hands to wash their faces. (They do not use washcloths.) Then a person will bring out a round bamboo basket with Thuận Hóa tea on it. (Thuận Hóa is the location of the royal seat; nowadays it is called Phú Xuân. The tea that is grown there can disperse the poison from copper vessels. It can also allay summer heat. It is bitter and astringent.) They use slips of paper to roll up tobacco leaves, then light them and inhale. (They do not use water pipes.) They often chew betel, and many have black teeth.

When there is an opportunity to celebrate something, they put on a play and have fun. Once, on the road out of Thường Tín, I saw the owner of an inn who raised a troupe of pretty boys and beautiful women who could perform zaju operas.³⁴ Guests at the inn could pool together two strings of cash and invite them to demonstrate their skills. The actors painted their faces with red ink, wore short jackets with narrow sleeves, socks but no shoes. They jumped and spun around in Deva-māra dance, stretching their fists and kicking their legs, slapping their thighs and staging fight scenes, following the beat of a gong.³⁵ They then change to unmade-up faces, wearing brocade robes, and perform the story of the former lord [Liu Bei, 161–223 CE] of Shu [one of the Three Kingdoms] bidding farewell to Xu Yuanzhi [Xu Shu, ca. second century CE].³⁶ They alternated slow and fast rhythms, mournful melodies, with the troupe master playing along on the flute, the huqin fiddle, or drums for the songs. Soon after, four girls came out standing shoulder to shoulder, their slender waists swaying to tiny steps, and danced and sang with their arms linked. Their exquisite beauty was so seductive. When the song ended, they knelt and bowed with their hands pressed together before their foreheads to express their gratitude.

There was another time, in Lạng Sơn, when I saw an old woman plucking a mouth harp. (It is shaped like a common yueqin lute, but with a very long handle, four strings, and sound that was quiet and distant.) Two girls in dazzling attire came out to sing along. They sang together in a low key, the melancholy sound lingering. As soon as each song ended, they started talking to each other in murmurs, and I could not understand them.³⁷ They could also perform a sinuous dance, gracefully advancing and retreating, charmingly pirouetting while bending low. If people tossed them coins they would cast amorous side glances and smile enchantingly. Although this is a foreign custom, it has its own special characteristics. People often invite [performers like them] to entertain while they are drinking. If there are one or two people who can sing Chinese songs, they are especially favored by people.

Their spirit mediums, medical practitioners, diviners, and mathematicians are all Tang people. When a ship arrives everyone is ready. Of the places Chinese ships congregate, Gia Định Province (Lũng Nại) is the most popular. Next [most popular] is Quảng Nam Province (Hội An), and then Bình Định Province (Tân Châu) and Quảng Ngãi, then Phú Xuân (Thuận Hóa), Nam Định (commonly called Bi Phỏng), Nghệ An and other provinces. The liveliness of the market, taxes, and the amount of the gifts for the officials all depend on the size and number of the ships. Ships arrive in the winter and depart in the summer. It is commonly said, “When the peacock moves on, the Tang ships arrive; when the ‘suhe/Tô Hòa’ calls, the Tang ships depart.” (In the past there was a stepmother who gave birth to a son called Suhe. Because of some trouble he escaped to Annam and did not come back. The next year, the mother sent her stepson to look for him. When he arrived in Annam, his inquiries about his brother came to nothing. Not daring to return home, he died of illness and his soul transformed into a bird that calls “Suhe” everywhere. At the time when the Tang ships are about to leave, its mournful call is especially numerous, therefore they call it the “Suhe bird.” Nowadays this bird is really common, and its call really sounds just like “Suhe.”)

For the past several years, officials have forbidden the private export of cinnamon, raw sugar, and other commodities; set official prices; authorized the royal house to trade [these goods]; and increased the taxes on merchant ships. Because of this, Chinese ships are increasingly rare, down by forty or fifty percent, and the people are very resentful about it. In Hà Nội (formerly Đông Kinh), Bình Thuận (formerly Champa, within its borders is Flame Mountain. Once summer has started, the ground is as hot as fire, and one cannot walk there in the daytime without being burned up. Therefore there is no human trace during the daytime), and other provinces, all the ships are small and local ones and most of the goods are Cantonese. There are ships called “nha tử” ships. (The big ones can carry more than two hundred piculs. According to Records of Taiwan Prefecture (Taiwan jun zhi), in the fifty-sixth year of the Kangxi reign period [1717], a small warship held together with rattan was blown to Penghu by a storm—it is precisely this kind of ship.) The bottom of the boats is made with woven bamboo strips, and the outside is painted with coconut oil; only the deck of the boat is made of wood. The small ones are all like this. There are also ones with wooden bottoms, with rattan woven through it closely to hold it together.³⁸ If water gets in, they bail it out with a wooden ladle from time to time. (They have no iron there, so they make their small boats without any nails at all. Record of Things Heard and Seen in the Maritime Kingdoms says: “Woven boats have no stern or prow; if they are inundated with water, they put closely woven lashings at the bottom and the deck of the boat and use several hundred oars to tow it from a distance. If their ship runs aground, Western ships are terrified of running into these woven ships of Quảng Nam.” They are perhaps the nha tử ships.)³⁹ Generally speaking, in places that are adjacent to the coast, they prefer to have a lot of masted ships converging together with lots of money and goods circulating. Otherwise, there will be poor and unemployed people who will die in the ditches.

Farmers do not fertilize the fields (because they do not dare to eat vegetables that have been covered in filth), nor do they use well sweeps to transport water (because they do not have wooden barrels for home use, they use ceramic containers to draw water). When there is a drought, they allow the sprouts to naturally wither. They do not distinguish between early and late rice paddy, they just continually harvest and reap. In the highlands, they plant millet and peanuts (also called “tudou”), and to a lesser extent they grow sweet potatoes, but no sorghum, beans, or wheat.⁴⁰ Their local products include gold and pearls, tortoiseshell, coral, rare hardwoods, aromatic woods, incense, cinnamon, ebony, sappan wood, pepper, styrax benzoin, antelope horn, ivory, rhinoceroses and tigers, apes, baboons, peacocks, silver pheasants, tree kingfishers, boas, ant eggs, jackfruit, cane sugar, coconut oil, peanut oil, potato vine, betel nut, cotton, homespun cloth, crepe, patterned silk, finespun, mother-of-pearl inlays, and other products.

The land is divided into thirty-two provinces: Phú Xuân (the location of the royal palace), Quảng Nam, Quảng Ngãi, Bình Định, Phú Yên, Cao Miên [in present-day Cambodia], Khánh Hòa, Bình Thuận, Biên Hòa, Gia Định, Hà Tiên, An Giang, Định Tường, Vĩnh Long, Quảng Trị, Quảng Bình, Nghệ An, Hà Tĩnh, Thanh Hóa, Ninh Bình, Nam Định, Hưng Yên, Hưng Hóa, Sơn Tây, Tuyên Quang, Hà Nội, Hải Dương, Thái Nguyên, Bắc Ninh, Quảng Yên, Lạng Sơn, and Cao Bằng. It is somewhat more than five thousand li from north to south, but not even forty li across, all stretched out along the coast. Only the two provinces of Hà Nội and Gia Định have large territories and bountiful products. (Hà Nội produces many luxury items; Gia Định produces a lot of rice, paper mulberry, sugar, and oil.) Besides these two provinces, the goods produced by Vietnam do not surpass those produced by a single Chinese prefecture. Once you enter the interior mountains of the southwest, then it is all high ridges and remote forests. These mountains extend for several thousands of miles without a trace of human beings. Only [the legendary walkers] [Da] Zhang and [Shu] Hai could ever penetrate it.⁴¹

I, Tinglan, through the peril of wind and wave, journeyed in a foreign land. Although the details were lost in translation, I fortunately encountered many émigrés from my home province and was able to visit them and ask them about things everywhere I went and learned that our dynasty’s enlightening influence can make even the most wild locales look eagerly toward civilization. China and foreign countries are truly one family. I was gifted the resources I needed to return to my home soil. How could it not be that the sagely Son of Heaven’s lofty generosity gave rise to this? I am therefore offering my limited observations of my expedition, chronicled here in outline.

Master [Zhou] Yungao’s commentary: When writing of foreign places, he accurately records things as they happened, and the ethos of the foreign people is apparent. Through his ups and downs there, he completely rose to the occasion, and this is what we call being appropriate.