List of Vietnamese dynasties

Prior to the abdication of Bảo Đại on 25 August 1945 during the August Revolution, Vietnam was ruled by a series of dynasties of either local or Chinese origin. The following is a list of major dynasties in the history of Vietnam.

Background

Naming convention

In Vietnamese historiography, dynasties are generally known to historians by the family name of the monarchs. For example, the Đinh dynasty (; ) is known as such because the ruling clan bore the family name ().

Similar to Chinese dynasties, Vietnamese dynasties would adopt a (; "name of the state") upon the establishment of the realm. However, as it was common for several dynasties to share the same official name, referring to regimes by their official name in historiography would be potentially confusing. For instance, the "" () was used by the Lý dynasty (since the reign of Lý Thánh Tông), the Trần dynasty, the Later Trần dynasty, the Later Lê dynasty, the Mạc dynasty, and the Tây Sơn dynasty.

In the Vietnamese language, the word for "dynasty" may be written as either () or () depending on the context. The former is generally used to denote the ruling family whereas the latter refers to the dynastic regime. For instance, the Mạc dynasty can be rendered as "" () or "" ().

Origin of dynasties

Apart from over one millennium of direct Chinese rule, Vietnam was ruled by a series of "local" dynasties, although some of which could have their origins traced to China.

The founder of the legendary Hồng Bàng dynasty, Lộc Tục, was recorded as a descendant of the mythical Chinese ruler Shennong.

According to two historical Vietnamese texts, the Complete Annals of Đại Việt and the Imperially-commissioned Annotated Text Reflecting the Complete History of Việt, Thục Phán of the Thục dynasty was from Sichuan, China, which was previously under the rule of the ancient Chinese State of Shu.

The Triệu dynasty, established by Zhao Tuo from the Chinese Qin dynasty, was considered an orthodox local regime by traditional Vietnamese historiography. However, modern Vietnamese historians generally regard the Triệu dynasty to be a foreign regime that ruled Vietnam.

The founder of the Early Lý dynasty, Lý Bôn, was descended from Chinese refugees who fled Wang Mang's seizure of power in the final years of the Western Han in China.

The first emperor of the Lý dynasty, Lý Công Uẩn, could have his paternal bloodline traced to modern-day Fujian, China. Lý Công Uẩn's father, Lý Thuần An, escaped to Quanzhou from Hebei after Lý Công Uẩn's grandfather, Li Song, was wrongly accused of treason and executed by the Emperor Yin of Later Han.

The origin of the Trần dynasty was traced to modern Fujian, where the ancestor of the Trần imperial clan, Trần Kính, migrated from in the 11th century CE. The Later Trần dynasty was ruled by the same imperial clan as the earlier Trần dynasty.

The Hồ dynasty was ruled by the Hồ family which migrated from present-day Zhejiang, China to Vietnam under the leadership of Hồ Hưng Dật during the 10th century CE. The Duke Hu of Chen was in turn descended from the legendary Emperor Shun, who was recognized by Hồ Quý Ly as the progenitor of the Hồ imperial family. Accordingly, the Hồ dynasty adopted the official "" (; "Great Ngu"); "Ngu" () was derived from the Emperor Shun's lineage name, Youyu (). Rulers of the Tây Sơn dynasty, initially surnamed , were descended from the same line as the Hồ dynasty.

Familial relations among dynasties

Several Vietnamese dynasties were related:

Dương Vân Nga was originally an empress consort of Đinh Tiên Hoàng, the founder of the Đinh dynasty; she later became an empress consort of Lê Hoàn, the founder of the Early Lê dynasty
Lê Thị Phất Ngân, the empress consort of Lý Thái Tổ, the founder of the Lý dynasty, was the daughter of Lê Hoàn and thus originally a princess of the Early Lê dynasty
The final monarch of the Lý dynasty, Lý Chiêu Hoàng, was the spouse of Trần Thái Tông, the founder of the Trần dynasty. Later on, he would marry her elder sister, Princess Lý Oánh, the biological mother of Trần Thánh Tông.
Hồ Quý Ly, the founder of the Hồ dynasty, was the maternal grandfather of Trần An, the last emperor of the Trần dynasty
Giản Định Đế, the founder of the Later Trần dynasty, was a son of the ninth Trần monarch, Trần Nghệ Tông; he was also an older brother of the 12th emperor of the Trần dynasty, Trần Thuận Tông
The Primitive Lê dynasty and the Revival Lê dynasty are collectively called the Later Lê dynasty; the founder of the Revival Lê dynasty, Lê Trang Tông, was a son of Lê Chiêu Tông, the 11th Primitive Lê emperor
The ruling house of the Tây Sơn dynasty was descended from the same paternal ancestor as the Hồ dynasty
Gia Long Đế, the founder of the Nguyễn dynasty, was a paternal grandson of Nguyễn Phúc Khoát, the eighth Nguyễn lord

Champa

Champa (; ) existed as an independent polity until its annexation by the Nguyễn dynasty in 1832 CE, thereby laying the foundation for the territories of the modern Vietnamese state. Most of the rulers of Champa were of Cham descent, an Austronesian ethnic group distinct from the majority Kinh ethnicity of Vietnam.

There were 15 dynasties in the history of Champa. According to Chinese historical sources, Champa officially used the "" () from the 1st to 4th dynasties, "" () during the 5th dynasty, and "" () from the 6th to 15th dynasties.

List of dynasties in Vietnamese history

This list includes the various dynasties in the history of Vietnam, of both local and Chinese origins. Dynasties of China that ruled Vietnam are highlighted in orange. The Triệu dynasty is highlighted in light orange due to its disputed status.

{| class="wikitable" style="width:1100"

!colspan="2"|Dynasty

!colspan="3"|Period of rule

!rowspan="2"|Status

!colspan="4"|Rulers

!Historiographical name

!Official name

!From

!To

!Term

!Surname

!First to rule

!Last to rule

!List

|

| <hr/>

|2879 BCE

|258 BCE

|2621 years

|Royal

|Kinh Dương Vương

|Hùng Duệ Vương

|(list)

| / /

|

|257 BCE

|207 BCE

|50 years

|Royal

|Khai Minh

|colspan="2"|An Dương Vương

|(list)

|- style="background:#FFFAF4;"

|(list)

|- style="background:#FFF1E1;"

| / /

|No independent Vietnamese dynastic title

|9 CE

|23 CE

|14 years

|Imperial

|Wang

|colspan="2"|Wang Mang

|(list)

|- style="background:#FFF1E1;"

|

|No independent Vietnamese dynastic title

|25 CE

|220 CE

|192 years

|Imperial

|Liu

|Guangwu of Han

|Xian of Han

|(list)

|- style="background:#FFF1E1;"

|

|No independent Vietnamese dynastic title

|229 CE

|280 CE

|45 years

|Imperial

|Sun

|Da of Eastern Wu

|Sun Hao

|(list)

|- style="background:#FFF1E1;"

|

|No independent Vietnamese dynastic title

|266 CE

|316 CE

|41 years

|Imperial

|Sima

|Wu of Jin

|Min of Jin

|(list)

|- style="background:#FFF1E1;"

|

|No independent Vietnamese dynastic title

|317 CE

|420 CE

|103 years

|Imperial

|Sima

|Yuan of Jin

|Gong of Jin

|(list)

|- style="background:#FFF1E1;"

|

|No independent Vietnamese dynastic title

|420 CE

|479 CE

|59 years

|Imperial

|Liu

|Wu of Liu Song

|Shun of Liu Song

|(list)

|- style="background:#FFF1E1;"

|

|No independent Vietnamese dynastic title

|479 CE

|502 CE

|23 years

|Imperial

|Xiao

|Gao of Southern Qi

|He of Southern Qi

|(list)

|- style="background:#FFF1E1;"

| / /

|No independent Vietnamese dynastic title

|502 CE

|544 CE

|42 years

|Imperial

|Xiao

|colspan="2"|Wu of Liang

|(list)

| / /

|

|544 CE

|602 CE

|58 years

|Imperial

|Lý

|Lý Bôn

|Lý Phật Tử

|(list)

|- style="background:#FFF1E1;"

| / /

|No independent Vietnamese dynastic title

|602 CE

|618 CE

|16 years

|Imperial

|Yang

|Wen of Sui

|Yang of Sui

|(list)

|- style="background:#FFF1E1;"

| / /

|No independent Vietnamese dynastic title

|621 CE

|907 CE

|271 years

|Imperial

|Li

|Gaozu of Tang

|Ai of Tang

|(list)

|- style="background:#FFF1E1;"

|

|No independent Vietnamese dynastic title

|690 CE

|705 CE

|15 years

|Imperial

|Wu

|colspan="2"|Shengshen of Wu Zhou

|(list)

|- style="background:#FFF1E1;"

|

|No independent Vietnamese dynastic title

|930 CE

|938 CE

|8 years

|Imperial

|Liu

|colspan="2"|Gaozu of Southern Han

|(list)

| / /

|

|939 CE

|965 CE

|26 years

|Royal

|Ngô

|Ngô Quyền

|Nam Tấn Vương <hr/>Thiên Sách Vương

|(list)

| / /

|

|968 CE

|980 CE

|12 years

|Imperial

|Đinh

|Đinh Bộ Lĩnh

|Đinh Toàn

|(list)

| / /

|

|980 CE

|1009 CE

|29 years

|Imperial

|Lê

|Lê Hoàn

|Lê Long Đĩnh

|(list)

| / /

| <hr/>

|1009 CE

|1225 CE

|216 years

|Imperial

|Lý

|Lý Thái Tổ

|Lý Chiêu Hoàng

|(list)

| / /

|

|1225 CE

|1400 CE

|175 years

|Imperial

|Trần

|Trần Thái Tông

|Trần An

|(list)

| / /

|

|1400 CE

|1407 CE

|7 years

|Imperial

|Hồ

|Hồ Quý Ly

|Hồ Hán Thương

|(list)

|- style="background:#FFF1E1;"

| / /

|No independent Vietnamese dynastic title

|1407 CE

|1427 CE

|20 years

|Imperial

|Zhu

|Yongle

|Xuande

|(list)

| / /

|

|1407 CE

|1413 CE

|6 years

|Imperial

|Trần

|Giản Định Đế

|Trùng Quang Đế

|(list)

| / /

|

|1428 CE

|1527 CE

|99 years

|Imperial

|Lê

|Lê Thái Tổ

|Lê Cung Hoàng

|(list)

| / /

|

|1527 CE

|1677 CE

|150 years

|Imperial

|Mạc

|Mạc Thái Tổ

|Mạc Kính Vũ

|(list)

| / /

|

|1533 CE

|1789 CE

|256 years

|Imperial

|Lê

|Lê Trang Tông

|Lê Mẫn Đế

|(list)

| / /

|

|1778 CE

|1802 CE

|24 years

|Imperial

|Nguyễn

|Thái Đức Đế

|Cảnh Thịnh Đế

|(list)

| / /

| <hr/> <hr/> <hr/>

|1802 CE

|1945 CE

|143 years

|Imperial

|Nguyễn Phúc

|Gia Long Đế

|Bảo Đại Đế

|(list)

Timeline of dynasties in Vietnamese history

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id:CN2 value:rgb(0.74,0.78,0.20)

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barset:Regimes

from: -2879 till: -258 color:VN text:"Hồng Bàng dynasty (2879–258 BCE)"

from: -257 till: -207 color:VN text:"Thục dynasty (257–207 BCE)"

from: -204 till: -111 color:CV text:"Triệu dynasty (204–111 BCE)"

from: -111 till: 9 color:CN1 text:"Western Han (111 BCE–9 CE)"

from: 9 till: 23 color:CN1 text:"Xin dynasty (9–23 CE)"

from: 25 till: 40 color:CN1 text:"Eastern Han (pre-interregnum; 25–40 CE)"

from: 43 till: 220 color:CN2 text:"Eastern Han (rule restored; 43–220 CE)"

from: 229 till: 266 color:CN2 text:"Eastern Wu (pre-interregnum; 229–266 CE)"

from: 266 till: 271 color:CN2 text:"Western Jin (pre-interregnum; 266–271 CE)"

from: 271 till: 280 color:CN2 text:"Eastern Wu (rule restored; 271–280 CE)"

from: 280 till: 316 color:CN2 text:"Western Jin (rule restored; 280–316 CE)"

from: 317 till: 420 color:CN2 text:"Eastern Jin (317–420 CE)"

from: 420 till: 479 color:CN2 text:"Liu Song (420–479 CE)"

from: 479 till: 502 color:CN2 text:"Southern Qi (479–502 CE)"

from: 502 till: 544 color:CN2 text:"Liang dynasty (502–544 CE)"

from: 544 till: 602 color:VN text:"Early Lý dynasty (544–602 CE)"

from: 602 till: 618 color:CN3 text:"Sui dynasty (602–618 CE)"

from: 618 till: 690 color:CN3 text:"Tang dynasty (pre-interregnum; 618–690 CE)"

from: 690 till: 705 color:CN3 text:"Wu Zhou (690–705 CE)"

from: 705 till: 907 color:CN3 text:"Tang dynasty (rule restored; 705–907 CE)"

from: 930 till: 938 color:CN3 text:"Southern Han (930–938 CE)"

from: 939 till: 965 color:VN text:"Ngô dynasty (939–965 CE)"

from: 968 till: 980 color:VN text:"Đinh dynasty (968–980 CE)"

from: 980 till: 1009 color:VN text:"Early Lê dynasty (980–1009 CE)"

from: 1009 till: 1225 color:VN text:"Lý dynasty (1009–1225 CE)"

from: 1225 till: 1400 color:VN text:"Trần dynasty (1225–1400 CE)"

from: 1400 till: 1407 color:VN text:"Hồ dynasty (1400–1407 CE)"

from: 1407 till: 1427 color:CN4 text:"Ming dynasty (1407–1427 CE)"

from: 1407 till: 1413 color:VN text:"Later Trần dynasty (1407–1413 CE)"

from: 1428 till: 1527 color:VN text:"Primitive Lê dynasty (1428–1527 CE)"

from: 1527 till: 1677 color:VN text:"Mạc dynasty (1527–1677 CE)"

from: 1533 till: 1789 color:VN text:"Revival Lê dynasty (1533–1789 CE)"

from: 1778 till: 1802 color:VN text:"Tây Sơn dynasty (1778–1802 CE)"

from: 1802 till: 1945 color:VN text:"Nguyễn dynasty (1802–1945 CE)"

barset:skip

</timeline></onlyinclude>

Legend:

denotes local Vietnamese dynasties
denotes dynasties during the First Era of Northern Domination
denotes dynasties during the Second Era of Northern Domination
denotes dynasties during the Third Era of Northern Domination
denotes dynasty during the Fourth Era of Northern Domination

List of Vietnamese dynasties

Background

Naming convention

Origin of dynasties

Familial relations among dynasties

Champa

List of dynasties in Vietnamese history

Timeline of dynasties in Vietnamese history

See also

Notes

References