Ming occupation and Lê Lợi's war of liberation
Ming China occupies Đại Việt and tries to absorb it; Lê Lợi leads a ten-year uprising that drives the Ming out and founds the Lê dynasty.
- A History of the Vietnamese — K. W. Taylor, Cambridge University Press (2013)
- Việt Nam: A History from Earliest Times to the Present — Ben Kiernan, Oxford University Press (2017)
In 1406–07, using the usurpation of the throne by Hồ Quý Ly as a pretext, the Ming emperor Yongle invaded and annexed Đại Việt as a Chinese province. The Ming took local books and craftsmen to China, imposed Chinese customs and taxed heavily.
- A History of the Vietnamese — K. W. Taylor, Cambridge University Press (2013)
- Việt Nam: A History from Earliest Times to the Present — Ben Kiernan, Oxford University Press (2017)
In 1418 Lê Lợi, a landowner from Lam Sơn in Thanh Hóa, launched a rebellion that grew through guerrilla warfare into a national war. By 1427 the Ming had been defeated and allowed to withdraw. Lê Lợi became king as Lê Thái Tổ, and his adviser Nguyễn Trãi wrote the Bình Ngô đại cáo (“Great Proclamation upon the Pacification of the Wu”), which declared that Đại Việt had its own mountains and rivers, customs and dynasties, as China did.
- A History of the Vietnamese — K. W. Taylor, Cambridge University Press (2013)
- Việt Nam: A History from Earliest Times to the Present — Ben Kiernan, Oxford University Press (2017)
Why it matters today
Lê Lợi's victory and Nguyễn Trãi's proclamation, which declared Đại Việt a civilisation equal to China's, are cornerstones of national pride. The legend of the returned sword at Hoàn Kiếm Lake sits at the heart of Hanoi, and the episode is a reminder for many Vietnamese of what Chinese occupation once meant.