Long Biên
Long Biên (Vietnamese), also known as Longbian (龙编; 龍編; Lóngbiān; Lung-pien < Eastern Han Chinese: *lioŋ-pian/pen;[1] lit. "Dragons Interweaving") was the capital of the Chinese Jiao Province and Jiaozhi Commandery during the Han dynasty. It was located on the Red River in modern-day Bac Ninh. After Ly Bi's successful revolt in AD 544, it served as the capital of Van Xuan. When the Sui dynasty of China retook the territory in 603, the Sui general moved the capital to nearby Tống Bình. Long Biên flourished as a trading port in the late 8th and early 9th centuries. Thăng Long was founded in 1010 at the site of earlier Chinese fortresses nearby. This grew into modern Hanoi, which incorporated Long Biên as one of its districts.
Name[]
The name has been translated as "Dragons Interweaving" or "Dragon Twist",[2] traditionally in reference to a jiao seen in the river shortly after the founding of the city.[2] It was also known as Longyuan (Long Uyên),[3] briefly known as Longzhou (龙州; 龍州; Lóngzhou; Lung-chou) in the 7th century, and known as "Dragon's Gulf".[2] It was also known by the name of its city wall as Luocheng or La Thanh (Chinese: 羅城; pinyin: Luóchéng; Wade–Giles: Lo-ch'eng; lit. "Enveloping Wall"),[2] although this name was later transferred to Songping after the Sui conquest in 602[2] and to a third site which became present-day Hanoi in the later 8th century. It is also sometimes anachronistically referenced as "Hanoi".
History[]
The capital of the early Vietnamese kingdom of Au Lac had been at Co Loa in present-day Hanoi's Dong Anh district.[4] The area was conquered by the Qin dynasty general Zhao Tuo between 208 and 207 BC, a few years after the death of Qin Shi Huang. With China falling into chaos during the Chu–Han Contention, Zhao Tuo split off Nanhai Commandery as the separate state of Nanyue, which he ruled from Panyu (modern Guangzhou).[5] In the 110s BC, the royal family of Nanyue mooted incorporating their realm as a principality of the Han dynasty. The local nobility reacted violently, killing King Zhao Xing, the Queen Dowager (樛氏), and several Chinese diplomats.[6] The first army sent by Emperor Wu under was defeated in 112 BC,[7] but the next year a much larger force assembled under Lu Bode and , besieging Panyu, conquering the kingdom, and initiating the "First Northern Domination" of Vietnam.
The Han dynasty organised the region into a province, Jiao Province. administered it from () rather than Panyu.[3] In 106 BC, this was moved to (Quảng Tín) in Cangwu Commandery.[3] Long Biên is sometimes given as the provincial capital instead,[8] but this did not occur until the time of Shi Xie in the transition between the Han dynasty and Three Kingdoms period.[note 1] Long Biên was the capital of Jiaozhi Commandery and Longbian County, but it was not named before the erection of its citadel in AD 208.[3] Jiao Province also held the commanderies of Nanhai, Cangwu, Yulin, Hepu, Jiuzhen, and Rinan.[9][10] Jiaozhi also held the counties of Léilóu (羸