Real Little China
In contemporary times, many netizens regard ancient Japan or ancient Korea as a small China, but the most similarity with China is actually ancient Vietnam.
For example, the centralized system of Tianzi in ancient China was not emulated by ancient Japan, and the authority of the emperor could not be compared with that of the Chinese Tianzi; ancient Korea pursued a "two-class system", and the class solidification was very serious, but in ancient China, since the Sui and Tang dynasties, the imperial examination was implemented, and the class solidification was not the same as in ancient Korea.
On the contrary, ancient Vietnam is very similar to China. Moreover, Vietnam is also the last country in history to abandon the use of Chinese characters.
The reason for this is that historically, Sino-Vietnamese relations have been very close.
Sino-Vietnamese relations
In Chinese history, there is no record of direct rule over Japan, and ancient Korea only maintained a long-term tributary status to China, but this was not the case in Vietnam.
In the last year of the Warring States period, after Qin Shi Huang unified the Six Kingdoms, the Qin army crossed the Five Ridges and ruled over the land of Lingnan (including present-day northern Vietnam). From the Qin Dynasty to the Northern Song Dynasty, successive Central Plains dynasties directly administered the entire territory of present-day Vietnam (southern Vietnam was the homeland of the ancient Champa State) – and even the famous poet Wang Bo (author of the "Preface to the Pavilion of king Teng" in the early years of the Tang Dynasty) died at Jiaotong (present-day Hanoi, which belongs to the Territory of the Tang Dynasty).
Vietnam, which has been ruled by the Central Plains Dynasty for a long time, is most deeply influenced by Chinese culture. After the Song Dynasty, Vietnam became independent from the Great Song Dynasty, but culturally, Vietnam modeled on the tributary system of the Great Song Dynasty of the Heavenly Dynasty, and created a tributary system belonging to Vietnam in Southeast Asia - Vietnam accepted tributes from Chenla, Champa and other countries, and in the Qing Dynasty, the Vietnamese king called himself "Emperor of the Great South", which means that the Relationship with the Qing Dynasty is a northern and southern dynasty.
However, it is incomprehensible that in China, the surname Nguyen is rare, but in Vietnam, the surname Nguyen dominates.
cause
It is generally believed that the reason why vietnamese Nguyen surnames are more is mainly due to two historical events.
The first time, in 1232 (when China was in the Southern Song Dynasty), There was a change of dynasty in Vietnam: the Vietnamese Chen Dynasty overthrew the Vietnamese Lee Dynasty. The rulers of the Trần Dynasty forced all the people of Vietnam to change their surnames to Nguyễn, and this incident increased the base of the Vietnamese Nguyễn surname.
The second occurred in modern times. The royal family name of modern Vietnam is Nguyễn. In modern times, Vietnam was annexed by France and reduced to a French colony. After the French colonial authorities took control of Vietnam, they made some demographic counts of the Vietnamese people, but when registering, the French encountered an embarrassing thing: that is, many Vietnamese people did not have the concept of surnames, which led to the disadvantage of statistical work. The French thought of the vietnamese royal family name Nguyen before, so they counted people without a surname into the Nguyen surname. This incident laid the foundation for the Nguyen population to become the largest surname in Vietnam, and has influenced it to this day.