Đại Việt Sử Lược
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The ''Đại Việt sử lược'' ( vi-hantu, 大越史略; lit. ''Abridged Chronicles of Đại Việt'') or ''Việt sử lược'' ( vi-hantu, 越史略; lit. ''Abridged Chronicles of Viet'') is an historical text that was compiled during the
Trần dynasty The Trần dynasty (Vietnamese language, Vietnamese: Nhà Trần, chữ Nôm: 茹陳; Vietnamese language, Vietnamese: triều Trần, chữ Hán: ikt:朝ikt:陳, 朝wikt:陳, 陳), officially Đại Việt (Chữ Hán: 大越), was a List ...
. The three-book work was finished around 1377 and covers the history of Vietnam from the reign of Triệu Đà to the collapse of the
Lý dynasty The Lý dynasty (, , chữ Nôm: 茹李, chữ Hán: 朝李, Vietnamese language, Vietnamese: ''triều Lý''), officially Đại Cồ Việt (chữ Hán: 大瞿越) from 1009 to 1054 and Đại Việt (chữ Hán: 大越) from 1054 to 1225, was ...
. During the Fourth Chinese domination of
Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...
, the book, together with almost all official records of the Trần dynasty, was taken away to
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
and subsequently collected in the '' Siku Quanshu''. The ''Đại Việt sử lược'' is considered the earliest chronicle about the history of Vietnam that remains today.


History of compilation

The exact date of the compilation of the ''Đại Việt sử lược'' is unknown, but due to the last record of the book, which was the
era name A regnal year is a year of the reign of a sovereign, from the Latin meaning kingdom, rule. Regnal years considered the date as an ordinal, not a cardinal number. For example, a monarch could have a first year of rule, a second year of rule, a t ...
of Trần Phế Đế, the compilation was likely finished around 1377. The author of the book is unknown as well, but there are several sources who claim it was the historian Sử Hy Nhan who took charge of the compilation. Ranked first in the 1363
imperial examination The imperial examination was a civil service examination system in History of China#Imperial China, Imperial China administered for the purpose of selecting candidates for the Civil service#China, state bureaucracy. The concept of choosing bureau ...
, Sử Hy Nhan was so famous for his knowledge of history that the Trần emperor decided to change his family name from Trần to Sử (which means "history" in Vietnamese). Another source reckoned that the ''Đại Việt sử lược'' was a condensed version of the ''
Đại Việt sử ký The ''Đại Việt sử ký'' (, vi-hantu, 大越史記, ''Annals of Đại Việt'') is the official historical text of the Trần dynasty, that was compiled by the royal historian Lê Văn Hưu and was finished in 1272. Considered the first ...
,'' which was written by
Lê Văn Hưu Lê Văn Hưu (1230–1322) was a historian of the Trần dynasty. He is best known for his work the ''Đại Việt sử ký'', the first comprehensive historical record of the history of Vietnam. Although the book was lost during the Fourth Chin ...
in 1272, or only the book '' Việt chí'' (''Annals of Viet'') by Trần Phổ with the supplements of Trần dynasty's era names, but they could not verify these two hypotheses because of the lack of historical evidence. During the Fourth Chinese domination, many valuable books of
Đại Việt Đại Việt (, ; literally Great Việt), was a Vietnamese monarchy in eastern Mainland Southeast Asia from the 10th century AD to the early 19th century, centered around the region of present-day Hanoi. Its early name, Đại Cồ Việt,(ch ...
were taken away by the
Ming dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of ...
, including the ''Đại Việt sử ký'', and subsequently were lost. Although being transferred to China, the ''Đại Việt sử lược'' was still preserved in its original form and was published in the '' Siku Quanshu'' of the
Qing dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...
under the name ''Việt sử lược''; the first character ''Đại'' (大, means ''Great'') was left out to suit the Chinese notion of propriety and historical tradition. Therefore, the book is considered the earliest annals about history of Vietnam that remains today and the most important book which was brought back to Vietnam from China. In 1978, the ''Đại Việt sử lược'' became the first historical book of Vietnam that was translated directly from chữ Hán to
Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...
.


Contents

The ''Đại Việt sử lược'' was written in
chữ Hán ( , ) are the Chinese characters that were used to write Literary Chinese in Vietnam, Literary Chinese (; ) and Sino-Vietnamese vocabulary in Vietnamese language, Vietnamese. They were officially used in Vietnam after the Red River Delta region ...
and covered the history of Vietnam from the reign of Triệu Đà (2nd century BCE) to the collapse of the
Lý dynasty The Lý dynasty (, , chữ Nôm: 茹李, chữ Hán: 朝李, Vietnamese language, Vietnamese: ''triều Lý''), officially Đại Cồ Việt (chữ Hán: 大瞿越) from 1009 to 1054 and Đại Việt (chữ Hán: 大越) from 1054 to 1225, was ...
(1225) with a supplemental list of era names of Trần emperors from
Trần Thái Tông Trần Thái Tông (17 July 1218 – 5 May 1277), Vietnamese name, personal name Trần Cảnh or Trần Nhật Cảnh, temple name Thái Tông, was the first emperor of the Trần dynasty, reigned Đại Việt for 33 years (1226–58), being R ...
to Trần Phế Đế. The contents of the ''Đại Việt sử lược'' were divided into three volumes (''quyển''): The first called ''Quốc sơ diên cách'' corresponded with the period from the foundation of Văn Lang, the first nation of Vietnam in the 7th century BCE to the 12 Lords Rebellion (10th century); the second and third books were named ''Nguyễn kỷ'' (''Period of the Nguyễn'') and narrated the reign of the
Lý dynasty The Lý dynasty (, , chữ Nôm: 茹李, chữ Hán: 朝李, Vietnamese language, Vietnamese: ''triều Lý''), officially Đại Cồ Việt (chữ Hán: 大瞿越) from 1009 to 1054 and Đại Việt (chữ Hán: 大越) from 1054 to 1225, was ...
with the royal family name Lý was changed to Nguyễn by the Trần dynasty in order to avoid the given name of Trần Lý, grandfather of the emperor Trần Thái Tông, and make people forget the former dynasty. The quality of compilation of the ''Đại Việt sử lược'' was not coherent; there were periods which were recorded in detail but also some very brief sections. The author of the ''Đại Việt sử lược'' appeared to attach special importance to the reign of the Lý dynasty with extensive records while the compilation of the period up to the middle of the 10th century was mainly based on Chinese sources.


References


Notes


Bibliography


国学-越史略-越史略
* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dai Viet Su Luoc Trần dynasty texts 1377 books History books about Vietnam Chinese-language literature of Vietnam