This article lists the monarchs of

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

. Under the

emperor at home, king abroad Emperor at home, king abroad was a system of conducting relations between states within the East Asian cultural sphere, Chinese cultural sphere. Rulers of lesser regimes would adopt the title of ''emperor'' (皇帝; or other equivalents) and/or o ...

system used by later

dynasties A dynasty is a sequence of rulers from the same family,''Oxford English Dictionary'', "dynasty, ''n''." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 1897. usually in the context of a monarchical system, but sometimes also appearing in republics. A d ...

, Vietnamese monarchs would use the title of ''

emperor An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereignty, sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife (empress consort), ...

'' (皇帝, Hoàng đế; or other equivalents) domestically, and the more common term ''king'' (王, vương), ''sovereign'' (𪼀, vua), or ''his Majesty'' (陛下, Bệ hạ).

Overview

Some Vietnamese monarchs declared themselves kings (''vương'') or emperors (''hoàng đế''). Imperial titles were used for both domestic and foreign affairs, except for diplomatic missions to China where Vietnamese monarchs were regarded as kingship or prince. Many of the Later Lê monarchs were figurehead rulers, with the real powers resting on feudal lords and princes who were technically their servants. Most Vietnamese monarchs are known through their

posthumous name A posthumous name is an honorary name given mostly to the notable dead in East Asian culture. It is predominantly practiced in East Asian countries such as China, Korea, Vietnam, Japan, and Thailand. Reflecting on the person's accomplishments ...

s or

temple name Temple names are posthumous titles accorded to monarchs of the Sinosphere for the purpose of ancestor worship. The practice of honoring monarchs with temple names began during the Shang dynasty in China and had since been adopted by other dyna ...

s, while the Nguyễn dynasty, the last reigning house is known through their era names.

Titles

Vietnamese titles

Vietnamese monarchs used and were referred to by many titles, depending on each ruler's prestige and favor. Except for legendary rulers and the Sinitic-speaking Zhao dynasty and the Early Ly dynasty, the most popular and common Vietnamese designation for ruler, ''vua'' 𪼀 (lit. sovereign, chieftain), according to Liam C. Kelley, is "largely based on a pure semantic association based on the benevolent feature associated to the 'father' (but, on the other hand, the image of the father may also be terrifying, strict, or even mean)." Because there is no elaborated Chinese character or any attempt to standardize the Sino-Vietnamese

Chữ Nôm Chữ Nôm (, ; ) is a logographic writing system formerly used to write the Vietnamese language. It uses Chinese characters ('' Chữ Hán'') to represent Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary and some native Vietnamese words, with other words represent ...

script to render ''vua,'' the title was rendered in different ways. ''Vua'' in Ancient Vietnamese (10th–15th centuries) is attested in the 14th-century Buddhist literature Việt Điện U Linh Tập as ''bùgài'' (布蓋) in Chinese or ''vua cái'' (great sovereign in Vietnamese), in 15th-century Buddhist scripture ''Phật thuyết đại báo phụ mẫu ân trọng kinh'' as ''sībù'' (司布); in

Middle Vietnamese Vietnamese ( vi, tiếng Việt, links=no) is an Austroasiatic language originating from Vietnam where it is the national and official language. Vietnamese is spoken natively by over 70 million people, several times as many as the rest of the ...

(16th–17th centuries) as ''ꞗua'' or ''bua''; becoming ''vua'' in Early Modern Vietnamese (18-19th centuries) such as recorded by

Alexis-Marie de Rochon Alexis-Marie de Rochon, known as Abbé Rochon, was born in Brest, France on 21 February 1741, and died in Paris on 5 April 1817. He was a French astronomer, physicist and traveller. He worked on lens design and crystal optics, inventing the Ro ...

's ''A Voyage to Madagascar and the East Indies''. ''Vua'' is not found in any Vietnamese dynastic records which all were written in the lingua franca Chữ Hán through. According to Mark Alves, Vietnamese ''vua'' was seemingly a loan word borrowed from the

Old Chinese Old Chinese, also called Archaic Chinese in older works, is the oldest attested stage of Chinese, and the ancestor of all modern varieties of Chinese. The earliest examples of Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones from around 1250 ...

form of title ''Wáng'' (王, king), ''*‍ɢʷaŋ'', to Proto-Viet-Muong. Frédéric Pain, however, insists that ''vua'' is from a completely indigenous Vietic lexicon, derived from

sesquisyllabic Primarily in Austroasiatic languages (also known as Mon–Khmer), in a typical word a minor syllable is a reduced (minor) syllable followed by a full tonic or stressed syllable. The minor syllable may be of the form or , with a reduced vowel, as ...

proto-Vietic ''*k.bɔ.'' p. 15 While the monarch was commonly referred vernacularly as ''vua,'' Vietnamese royal records and official ceremonial titles kept bearing ''hoàng đế'' (emperor) or ''vương'' (king), which are Vietnamese renditions of Chinese royal titles ''Huángdì'' and ''Wáng''. They were employed to show the Vietnamese monarchs' credence, and the latter was used in tributary relations with the Chinese empires without being considered a Chinese subject. Buddhism exerted influence on a number of Vietnamese royal titles, such as when the late 12th-century devout Buddhist king

Lý Cao Tông Lý Cao Tông (6 July 1173 – 15 November 1210), born Lý Long Trát, courtesy name Long Cán, was the seventh emperor of the Lý dynasty, ruled Đại Việt for 35 years. He identified himself with Buddha, similar with Angkorian Khmer Empire c ...

(r. 1176–1210) demanded his courtiers to refer him as ''phật'' (Buddha). His great-grandfather and predecessor Lý Nhân Tông (r. 1072–1127), a great patronizer of the Buddhist sangha, in his stelae inscription erected in 1121, compared himself and his accomplishments with ancient rulers of the Indian subcontinent near the time of

Gautama Buddha Siddhartha Gautama, most commonly referred to as the Buddha, was a wandering ascetic and religious teacher who lived in South Asia during the 6th or 5th century BCE and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition, he was born in Lu ...

, particularly king

Udayana Udayana, ( Devanagari: उदयन) also known as Udayanācārya (Udyanacharya, or Master Udayana), (circa 975 - 1050 CE) was an Indian philosopher and logician of the tenth century of the Nyaya school who attempted to devise a rational theo ...

and emperor

Aśoka Ashoka (, ; also ''Asoka''; 304 – 232 BCE), popularly known as Ashoka the Great, was the third emperor of the Maurya Empire of Indian subcontinent during to 232 BCE. His empire covered a large part of the Indian subcontinent, ...

Cham titles

Cham rulers of the former kingdom of Champa in present-day Central and Southern Vietnam used many titles, mostly derived from Hindu Sanskrit titles. There were prefix titles, among them, ''Jaya'' and ''Śrī'', which ''Śrī'' (His glorious, His Majesty) was used more commonly before each ruler's name, and sometimes ''Śrī'' and ''Jaya'' were combined into ''Śrī Jaya'' onarch name Royal titles were used to indicate the power and prestige of rulers: ''raja-di-raja'' (king of kings), ''maharajadhiraja'' (great king of kings), ''arddharaja'' (vice king/junior king). After the fall of

Vijaya Vijaya may refer to: Places * Vijaya (Champa), a city-state and former capital of the historic Champa in what is now Vietnam * Vijayawada, a city in Andhra Pradesh, India People * Prince Vijaya of Sri Lanka (fl. 543–505 BC), earliest recorde ...

Champa and the Simhavarmanid dynasty in 1471, all Sanskrit titles disappeared from Cham records, due to southern

Panduranga Vithoba, also known as Vi(t)thal(a) and Panduranga, is a Hindu deity predominantly worshipped in the Indian state of Maharashtra and Karnataka. He is generally considered as a manifestation of the god Vishnu, or his avatar Krishna. Vithoba is o ...

rulers styled themselves as ''Po'' (native Cham title, which also means "King, His Majesty, Her Majesty"), and Islam gradually replaced

Hinduism Hinduism () is an Indian religion or '' dharma'', a religious and universal order or way of life by which followers abide. As a religion, it is the world's third-largest, with over 1.2–1.35 billion followers, or 15–16% of the global p ...

in post-1471 Champa.

Ancient period

Hồng Bàng period

According to tradition there were eighteen of the

Hùng king Hùng king (c. 2524 BC – ?; Chữ Hán: 雄王; vi, Hùng Vương (雄王) or ''vua Hùng'' (𤤰雄); ''Vương'' means "king" and ''vua'' means "monarch; could mean emperor or king") is the title given to the ancient Vietnamese rulers of the ...

s of the Hồng Bàng period, known then as Văn Lang at that time, from around 2879 BC to around 258 BC. Following is the list of 18 lines of Hùng kings as recorded in the book ''

Việt Nam sử lược ( vi-hantu, 越南史略, french: Précis d'Histoire du Việt-Nam, lit. "Outline History of Vietnam"), was the first history text published in the Vietnamese and the Vietnamese alphabet. It was compiled by Vietnamese historian Trần Trọng Ki ...

'' by

Trần Trọng Kim Trần Trọng Kim (Chữ Nôm: ; 1883 – December 2, 1953), courtesy name Lệ Thần, was a Vietnamese scholar and politician who served as the Prime Minister of the short-lived Empire of Vietnam, a state established with the support of Impe ...

. There has been some archeologists proof of the existence of these legendary figures.

Âu Lạc (257–207 BC or 207–179 BC)

Kingdom of Nanyue (207–111 BC)

There is still a debate about the status of the Triệu dynasty (Zhao dynasty): traditional Vietnamese historians considered the Triệu dynasty as a local Vietnamese dynasty while modern Vietnamese historians typically consider the Triệu dynasty as a Chinese dynasty.Yoshikai Masato, "Ancient Nam Viet in historical descriptions",
Southeast Asia: a historical encyclopedia, from Angkor Wat to East Timor
', Volume 2, ABC-CLIO, 2004, p. 934.

1st, 2nd, 3th Chinese domination period (111 BC - 938 AD)

Trưng Sisters (40–43)

Mai rebellions (713–723)

Phùng rebellions (779–791)

Early Lý dynasty (544–602)

Đào Lang Vương is not officially considered as king of Early Lý dynasty as he was a self-claimed king.

Autonomous period (866–938) & Independent period (938–1407)

Tĩnh Hải quân Tĩnh Hải quân or the Jinghai Military Command ( Chinese: 靜海軍, pinyin: Jìnghǎi Jūn) (literally "Peaceful Sea Army"), also known as Annam (安南), was an administrative division of the Tang dynasty of China administered by Chinese go ...
(866–938)

At this time, the Khúc leaders still held the title of Jiedushi, hence they are not official kings of Vietnam.

Ngô dynasty (939–967)

Interregnum (944-968)

Warring states period

The throne of Ngô dynasty was upsurged by Dương Tam Kha ,the brother-in-law of Ngô Quyền and this led to anger among those who were loyal to Ngô dynasty. The local warlords decided to make the rebellions to claim the throne.

State of Đại Cồ Việt (968–1054) & State of Đại Việt (1054–1400, 1427–1804)

Đinh dynasty (968–980)

Early Lê dynasty (980–1009)

Later Lý dynasty (1009–1225)

Trần dynasty (1225–1400)

State of Đại Ngu (1400–1407)

Hồ dynasty (1400–1407)

Fourth Chinese domination period (1407–1427)

Later Trần dynasty (1407–1414)

Second independent period (1427–1883)

Later Lê dynasty – Early period (1428–1527)

Northern and Southern dynasty (1533–1592)

Northern dynasty – Mạc dynasty (1527–1592)

Southern dynasty – Revival Lê dynasty – Warlord period (1533–1789)

Tonkin – Trịnh lords (1545–1787)

Trịnh Kiểm never declared himself as Lord during his rule, his titles were posthumously given by his descendants. Hence he is not considered as an official Trịnh Lord.

Cochinchina – Nguyễn lords (1558–1777)

Nguyễn Phúc Dương was established by Tây Sơn leaders (

Nguyễn Nhạc Nguyễn Nhạc ( vi-hantu, 阮岳, died 1793) was the founder of the Tây Sơn dynasty, reigning from 1778 to 1788. From 1778 to 1788, Nguyễn Nhạc proclaimed himself Emperor Thái Đức ( vi-hantu, 泰德). In 1788 after his younger bro ...

Nguyễn Huệ Emperor Quang Trung ( vi-hantu, 光中, 1753 – 16 September 1792) or Nguyễn Huệ ( vi-hantu, 阮惠), also known as Nguyễn Quang Bình ( vi-hantu, 阮光平), was the second emperor of the Tây Sơn dynasty, reigning from 1788 until 17 ...

and

Nguyễn Lữ Nguyễn Lữ ( vi-hantu, 阮侶; died 1787), also known by the title of Đông Định vương (東定王, "king of Eastern Conquering") in Siamese records; ''Ong Tinh Wuang'' derived from the Vietnamese word '' Ông Định vương'' ("Sir ''Đ� ...

) as a puppet Nguyễn Lord for their political purpose during Tây Sơn uprising. Hence he is sometimes not considered as an official Nguyễn lord.

Tây Sơn dynasty (1778–1802)

Nguyễn Nhạc dropped his emperor title in 1788 after his younger brother – Nguyễn Huệ – declared himself as Emperor.

Empire of Great Vietnam (1802–1883), Annam and Tonkin Protectorates (1883–1945), and Empire of Vietnam (1945)