Bình Ngô Đại Cáo
12. The BNĐC Series: A Conclusion of Sorts
In the 1950s, students in America were taught that Thomas Jefferson was a great man because he wrote in the Declaration of Independence that “all
11. The BNĐC Series: Wang Tong, Ngô and Levels of Politeness
The term “Ngô” is one which scholars have long debated about. As we saw earlier, Ưng Quả explained the term “Ngô” as a general name
10. The BNĐC Series: Lương Nhữ Hốt and Heaven’s Delineation of South and North
So Nguyễn Trãi wrote about “southern people” and “northern people” in a letter to the Ming officers who were occupying Bắc Giang citadel. He then
9. The BNĐC Series: Cai Fu, the Fall of Bắc Giang Citadel and the Complexity of Southern-Northern Relations
In the previous post we saw that Nguyễn Trãi wrote to the Ming soldiers who were defending Bắc Giang citadel 北昌城 (also referred to as
8. The BNĐC Series: Southern People, Northern People, Customs and Civility
In the opening passage of the “Bình Ngô đại cáo” there is a section which states that: “Our kingdom of Đại Việt is truly a
7. The BNĐC Series: The South and North Issue
Because I’ve always realized that the history of the Ming occupation of Đại Việt is not a simple story of “the Vietnamese” fighting “the Chinese,”
6. The BNĐC Series: Lê Lợi’s Legitimacy Problem
After defeating the Ming army that had occupied Đại Việt for some 20 years, Lê Lợi faced a new problem, one that he was unprepared
5. The BNĐC Series: What is a Đại Cáo/Dagao?
Shortly before he died in 1043 BC, King Wu of the Zhou (周武王 Zhou Wuwang) succeeded in overthrowing the Shang Dynasty and establishing a new
4. The BNĐC Series: Multiple Discourses and No Independence
Does the “Bình Ngô đại cáo” represent a decision to break away from an empire and to enter “a pre-existing international order” as “equal to
3. The BNĐC Series: Who Were the Representatives of the People in the “Bình Ngô đại cáo”?
Let’s now look at the “Bình Ngô đại cáo” to see to what extent we can find evidence that it was created by “representatives of
2. The BNĐC Series: Declarations of Independence
On July 4, 1776 a group of representatives from thirteen British colonies in North America, known collectively as the Continental Congress, met in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
1. The BNĐC (Bình Ngô đại cáo) Series: Introduction
As anyone who reads this blog knows, I’ve written many posts over the years about a fifteenth-century Vietnamese document known as the “Bình Ngô đại
Khoa Học and the Bình Ngô Đại Cáo
Continuing from the entry below, there is another way to look at this same issue. Of course we can never be certain what a writer
Why did bắc nam become Bắc Nam?
“Nước non bờ cõi đã chia, phong tục Bắc Nam cũng khác.” This famous line comes from the fifteenth-century “Bình Ngô đại cáo” (Great Proclamation
The Problems with the Bình Ngô đại cáo as a Declaration of Independence
Someone had a question about an earlier post on the Bình Ngô đại cáo. Rather than respond to it there, I thought I’d just note
Phan Ngọc, Stalin and the Bình Ngô Đại Cáo
I came across a syllabus for a course on Vietnamese culture at one of the major universities in Vietnam. I was looking through the materials
North and South in the “Bình Ngô đại cáo”
The “Bình Ngô đại cáo” is today one of the most famous historical documents in Vietnam. Virtually everyone in Vietnam knows at least the opening