by Jim Goodman
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| villager passing by the walls of the Hồ Citadel |
Thanh Hóa is Vietnam’s fifth
largest province, situated between Nghẹ An, the country’s largest, to
its south, the plains and rivers of the Red River Delta to its north and bound
by the mountains of Laos on its western side. The provincial capital, also called Thanh Hóa, lies 153 km
south of Hanoi on National Highway 1A and 15 km from the beach at Sầm
Sơn. While the scenery in the province is
pleasant, it doesn’t boast of anything spectacular and foreign travelers generally
pass it by, making it one of the least known places to foreigners in Vietnam.
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| typical Thanh Hóa landscape |
For the Vietnamese, however,
Thanh Hóa is part of the ancient heartland of their culture, where the bronze
drum originated and where human habitation began over 6000 years ago. Unlike the Red River Delta, prehistoric
Thanh Hóa’s plains were not swamps that had to be cleared, for only two rivers,
the Mã and the Chu, run through them.
Hills are moderate in the eastern half of the province and higher in the
west, where the valleys are also home to Thái and Mường minorities. Thanh Hóa’s Vietnamese have a reputation
for cultural conservatism, thrift and fondness for traditional folk music and
dance.
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| flooded rice fields near Vĩnh Lộc |
The province is also important
for its role in Vietnam’s history.
It was part of the Hùng Kings’ realm from the 19th to 3rd
century BCE at the dawn of the Bronze Age. Under the thousand years of Chinese domination it was part
of the administrative unit of Cưu Chan, which included present-day Nghẹ An and
Hà Tĩnh. It suffered and repelled
Chăm invasions in the 3rd and 5th centuries and after
Vietnam regained its independence it later became the birthplace of four famous
families—the Hồ, Lê, Trịnh and Nguyễn—that played important roles in the nation’s
history.
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| southern entrance of the citadel's south gate |
The most direct route to Thanh
Hóa city from Hanoi is via Highway 1A.
Even with the heavy traffic it takes only three hours or less. Aside from Sầm Sơn beach, Thanh Hóa
province’s main attraction is the Hồ Dynasty Citadel in Vĩnh Lộc district, two
hours drive northwest of Thanh Hóa city.
But a better way to reach this historical vestige, and to appreciate the
landscape of the province, is by beginning at Xuân Mai, 35 km southwest of
Hanoi, one of the starting points of the Hồ Chí Minh Trail during the Vietnam
War.
Largely a footpath through
thick jungle back then, Đường Hồ Chí Minh is now a paved road in good condition
with very little traffic, rolling through forested hills with gradients at a
maximum of 10%. Skirting around
Cúc Phương National Park as it enters Thanh Hóa province, the scenery is
especially delightful. Villages
lie far apart from each other, but many restaurants and petrol stations
punctuate the route.
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| triple arches of the Hồ Citadel south gate |
At the Cẩm Thủy junction, the
Trail turns southwest and then south, eventually passing near Lam Kinh, Lê Lợi’s
birthplace, where a modest shrine marks the spot. The other road turns southeast, along the Mã River, to Vĩnh Lộc
and the Hồ Citadel, which lies a few kilometers outside the town, in what is
now a rural agricultural area. The
gates and portions of the walls are basically all that’s left of the citadel,
but that was enough, along with its historical significance, to earn it the
award of World Heritage Site.
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| citadel wall |
The site is large, nearly
square, measuring 870.5 meters north-south by 88ê.5 meters east-west. The triple-arched south gate, the
ceremonial entry point, stands 9.5 meters high and over 15 meters wide. The other gates have a single arch, the
east and west gates rounded. Local
stone provided the construction material, quarried from nearby hills, with their
sometimes sheer cliffs often striated, as if to give the masons guidelines
where to cut the stone. Thanh Hóa
stone has a national reputation for high quality and in the early 20th
century was used to build the cathedral and subsidiary churches at Phát Diệm in
Ninh Bình province.
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| interlocking stone blocks of the citadel walls |
The stone blocks used
in building the Hồ Citadel average 2 meters by 1 meter by .7 meter. Some are almost perfect cubes, while
others are longer. Usually the
masons simply stacked them on top of each other. But occasionally they cut out sections of the corners
to make the blocks fit together more snugly. Thick earthen mounds backed up the walls and wooden
watchtowers stood above the gates and at intervals along the walls.
The man responsible for the
construction of this citadel, Hồ Quý Ly, was a Thanh Hóa native from a nearby
village. Born in 1336, he first
entered the service of the Trần Dynasty court in Thăng Long (today’s Hanoi) in
1371, after the Chăm, under a charismatic leader Chế Bồng Nga, had sacked the
capital. The Trần Dynasty, which
defeated three massive Mongol invasions the previous century, was now in
decline. The Chăm continued to
menace the Vietnamese for nearly two more decades, sacking Thăng Long again in
1378.
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| Nguyễn Hoàng departs for Thuận Hoá |
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| the founder of the Lê Dynasty |
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| Trịnh Lords Palace in Đông Kinh (today's Hanoi) |
Trần Nghệ Tông died in 1394,
leaving Hồ Quỹ Ly de facto ruler.
Three years later he ordered the construction of the citadel in Thanh Hốa. Not merely a fortress, its walls contained
a complete city, which was named Tây Đô--the Western Capital. He forced the Trần Court’s removal to
his new capital and renamed Thăng Long Đông Đô---the Eastern Capital. Then he set about systematically
assassinating 370 members of the Trần family and in 1400 deposed the nominal
king, usurped the throne and founded the Hồ Dynasty.
His blood-soaked usurpation
condemns him in the opinion of Vietnamese historians, yet he was also a
progressive reformer. He
introduced paper currency and the use of nóm,
the Vietnamese version of Chinese characters, in official documents, expanded
traditional Confucian education to include mathematics and agriculture, and
instituted land reform, limiting holdings to ten acres (four hectares). Following a Trần tradition, he
abdicated in favor of his son Hồ Hán Thương in 1402.but continued to manage
state affairs behind the scenes.
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| local farmer outside the eastern gate |
However, two Trần princes
escaped to China, where they called on the Ming Dynasty Emperor Yong Le to
restore them. The Chinese
dispatched a huge army of 400,000 in 1407, chased the Hồ family all the way to
Tây Đô and captured them there.
The Chinese sent their prisoners to serve as common foot soldiers in
China and their ultimate fate has not been recorded. Instead of installing a Trần ruler, the Chinese annexed
Vietnam and stayed to loot and exploit the country to the greatest extent
possible.
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| planting rice inside the citadel |
Serious resistance to the
Chinese occupation began in Thanh Hóa in 1417. Organized by Lê Lợi and known as the Lam Sơn Insurrection,
after the name of the town hosting the first conclave, it won the support of
two other influential Thanh Hóa families—the Trịnh and the Nguyễn. Using guerilla tactics that were
adopted by the Việt Minh centuries later, Lê Lợi’s forces first survived, then
expanded, and after ten years captured the capital and expelled the
Chinese. In 1428 Lê Lợi founded
the Lê Dynasty to govern the liberated country.
Unfortunately, Lê Lựi died in
1433 and for nearly three decades palace intrigues, purges of lê Lợi’s
lieutenants and periodic fights with the Chăm dominated the Court scene. In 1460 the last two surviving Lam Sơn
generals intervened to install Lê Thánh Tông as Emperor, the one truly
successful Lê monarch after the founder Lê Lợi. He conquered Vijaya and annexed the Chăm state’s
territory, promulgated a new law code and reigned over a stable and prosperous
Vietnam until 1497.
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| two hundred year-old house outside the citadel |
His son Lê jiiến
Tông governed competently for six years, but upon his death in 1504 the country
plunged into protracted political chaos, with five successive teenaged kings,
who either died young or were murdered for their embarrassing debauchery. Finally, in 1527 the security chief Mạc
Đăng Dung seized the throne and proclaimed a new dynasty.
Supported by the Trịnh
and Nguyễn
families, the remnants of the Lê royal family fled to Thanh Hóa and then to
Laos. There they waited until
several years later, when an anti-Mạc revolt broke out in Thanh
Hóa. Under the leadership of Nguyễn
Kim, the Lê loyalists returned to Vietnam to engage the Mac armies and in 1443
captured Tây Đô. Re-occupying and
rebuilding the former Hồ citadel, the loyalists proclaimed it their capital
and the residence of Lê Trang Tông, the teenaged descendant of Lê Thánh Tông
whom they recognized as their sovereign.
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| carved brackets of the old house |
Tây Đô remained the capital of
the restored Lê Dynasty until the final ouster of the Mạc family from
power in 1592. In 1545 a Mạc
follower assassinated Nguyẽn Kim and command of the Lê
forces went to his son-in-law Trịnh Kiểm, who was
intensely suspicious of the Nguyễn family. Nguyễn Kim’s eldest son soon died in
mysterious circumstances and his other son Nguyễn Hoàng laid low for years and
eventually in 1558 secured appointment as governor of Thuận
Hoá, today’s Thừa Thiên and Quảng Trị provinces.
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| Sầm Sơn boat on the sea |
He did such a good job that in
1570 the Lê Court added Quảng Nam to his jurisdiction. In 1593 Nguyễn Hoàng returned to the
north to help mop up remnant Mạc forces, but fearing the intentions of Trịnh
Tùng, in charge since 1570, Nguyễn Hoàng returned to Thuận Hoá and turned it
into his personal fief. When he
died at the age of 87 in 1613, Vietnam was essentially split into two
realms: the north rued by the Trịnh
Lords and the south ruled by the Nguyễn Lords, both recognizing the same Lê
Emperor, who was basically a puppet of the Trịnh Lords.
Hostilities broke out between
the two sides later that century, but periodic Trịnh invasions all failed and
one Nguyễn invasion of the north only got as far as Thanh Hóa before it had to
turn back. The two sides made a
truce in 1674, dividing their realms at the Gianh River in Quảng Binh. Peace between them lasted a century and
then the Tây Sơn Revolt destroyed both regimes in the late 18th
century. Another protracted war
ensued until eventually the resurgent Nguyễn defeated the Tây Sơn and in 1802
established the last pre-colonial imperial dynasty.
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| morning market on Sầm Sơn beach |
Tây Đô was abandoned during
the Trịnh-Nguyễn conflict and today no trace of its former palaces or
watchtowers exist. Most of the area has been turned into rice fields. Only a pair of headless stone dragons
in the center remains within the walls as evidence of its former splendor. But
another kind of relic—a two hundred year-old house—stands in the village
outside the eastern gate. One
story, wide, with a tiled roof, it features nicely carved embellishments on its
beams, brackets and furniture and has been home to the same family for seven
generations.
No other vestiges of Thanh
Hoá’s famous families exist in the province. From Vĩnh Lộc, it’s two hours drive to Thanh Hoá city, which
is almost entirely new, reconstructed after heavy bombing in the Vietnam
War. But Sầm Sơn Beach is a short
distance away and very popular with Vietnamese tourists. It’s also a major fishing center. From dawn the fishermen go out in small
skiffs of woven split bamboo, covered with pitch, with an engine at the rear, a
wooden rudder and a triangular cloth sail, usually blue or brown.
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| hauling a boat up to higher ground |
At most, half a dozen people
can fit into these vessels, but usually it’s just two or three. They return from 9:00-10:00 and park
their boats temporarily at the edge of the water. Customers from the city and its vicinity, and even from as
far away as Hanoi, then come to the boat to purchase the morning’s catch of
fresh fish, squids, crabs, shrimps and other crustaceans. When the crowd of buyers has dispersed,
usually before noon, the fishermen move the boat to a higher spot on the beach,
beyond the tide line, by mounting it on a frame with wheels and rolling it up
the slope.
The province has a few other scenic attractions. But besides the Hồ Citadel and Lê Lợi’s
birthplace, it does not have much tangible evidence of its historic
importance. The main legacy of its
famous families does not lie in buildings. It is the spread of Vietnamese cultural and political
institutions across the entire territory of the Vietnam we know today. No other
province can make such a boast.
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| sunset over the Thanh Hóa plain |
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For the full story of Thanh Hóa's families, see my book Delta to Delta: The Vietnamese
Move South
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