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In 1983, Xianggang unearthed many tomb Chinese about the Nanyue king Zhao Wei.
This shocked scholars who studied cultural relics at that time, not that the tombs were as magnificent as Qin Shi Huang, but that many of the cultural relics were very exquisite and luxurious, making it difficult to imagine that they were produced in the country of South Vietnam.
Nanyue State is an ancient state in the late Qin and early Han dynasties, which did not exist for a long time and did not have a large sense of existence, which is easy to be overlooked.
You know, even in the southern Song Dynasty, the Lingnan area within the country of South Vietnam was very poorly developed.
People also think that the area around Guangdong during the Han Dynasty would not have a very developed economic and cultural level, and the cultural relics unearthed in South Vietnam really subverted this concept.
The cultural relics unearthed in the tomb of Zhao Wei, the second monarch of the State of South Vietnam, are astonishing: there are 138 musical artifacts in the tomb, second only to the Mawangdui Han Tomb and the Zeng Hou Yi Tomb, and their exquisite beauty is shocking.
Experts also found a golden-stranded jade garment, which has a total of 2,300 jade pieces and a total length of 1.73 meters.
This is larger than the regulations of King Zhongshan, and a gold seal was unearthed in the tomb, which was larger than the emperor at that time.
There is also the Bronze Tiger Festival: the markings on the tiger's body, composed of 60 pieces of gold leaf, are an example of art.
The burial objects in the tomb are not only numerous, but also extremely exquisite, taking the funeral belt hook as an example, you can peek into the leopard and glimpse the extravagance of the Nanyue king at that time.
The belt hook is equivalent to today's belt buckle, which was used by the ancients to buckle the belt and hang ornaments on the belt.
Similar to the combination of belt buckle and key chain, the belt hook in Zhao Wei's tomb is more delicate than the other.
For example, this gem-encrusted luang gold and silver belt hook is no less impressive than the cultural relics of the Tang and Song dynasties, regardless of artistic taste and carving technology.
This hooked all-over gilt, carved dragon and winged tiger, and inlaid with precious stones, indicates that the backward South Vietnamese country has mastered a lot of developed manufacturing technology.
In addition to the various hooks, the most amazing thing is the copper ginger unearthed in the tomb, which is used to rub ginger to collect ginger juice.
You know, this thing is also the embodiment of exquisite life today.
Lingnan is humid, and the seasoning ginger is also a seasoning to drive away cold and dampness today, and the unearthing of this thing in the country of South Vietnam shows that the ancestors at that time were skilled in using ginger to remove moisture.
Barbecue tools, kitchenware, and fine lacquerware were also found in the tombs, all of which show that the state of South Vietnam is definitely not a backward and isolated country.
On the contrary, he has a level of technological manufacturing comparable to that of the Central Plains Dynasty.
But why does such a developed country not have a sense of existence? What is the origin of this mysterious South Vietnamese country?
The first king of the State of South Vietnam, Zhao Tuo, was originally a general of the Qin Dynasty.
In 219 BC, in order to expand his territory to the south and completely calm the southern border troubles, Qin Shi Huang mobilized an army of 500,000.
At that time, the army was divided into five ways to attack the hundred yue, the main general Tu Sui and the deputy general Zhao Tuo, which was also the first hundred yue war.
The Baiyue here is not a unified country, but a separatist regime established by various ethnic minorities in the south, mainly distributed in the coastal areas of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Fujian.
Those in Jiangsu are called Wuyue and Yangyue; In Zhejiang it is called Ouyue; In Fujian it is called Minyue.
Although these southern separatist regimes were not opponents of the Qin state, relying on the favorable location and people, the hundred Vietnamese army and people began to guerrilla harassment, which dealt a heavy blow to the Qin army.
Coupled with the miasma in Lingnan at that time, the Qin Dynasty soldiers were not satisfied, logistics and transportation were inconvenient, and the army of 500,000 people was quickly lost by half, and even the main general Tu Sui was killed by poisoned arrows.
Qin Shi Huang, who was painfully determined, began to spend great efforts to improve logistics, build spiritual canals, and open up the Li River in Guangxi and the Xiang River in Hunan.
This allowed him to send troops from the Yangtze River to Guangxi, and Qin Shi Huang saw that the time was ripe to launch the Second Hundred Vietnam War.
This time, Qin Shi Huang increased his troops by 100,000, plus the remaining 200,000 soldiers, and the 300,000 army was in full swing, incorporating the two broad regions into the territory, and setting up three counties of Nanhai, Guilin, and Xiangxun.
In 210, Qin Shi Huang launched the Third Hundred Vietnam War and sent Ren Yao and Zhao Tuo to attack northern Vietnam.
By this time, the territory of the Qin Dynasty had expanded into Vietnam, and in order to consolidate the gains of the war, Qin Shi Huang ordered the two to stay on the frontier.
However, Qin Shi Huang did not personally see his southern territory, and in the same year, Shi Huang died and Hu Hai succeeded to the throne.
The following year, Chen Sheng and Wu Guang rebelled, and the originally powerful Qin Dynasty fell apart within the next three years.
The southern expeditionary troops, who were far away from the fire of the Central Plains, did not mean to return to Beijing to savior, and Ren Yao and Zhao Tuo heard that the Central Plains were in continuous flames, and immediately blocked the road from Lingnan to the Central Plains, cutting off one side.
At that time, the Southern Expeditionary Army was actually very strong, in addition to the 300,000 strong troops mentioned above, there were also hundreds of thousands of forcibly conscripted people.
But Zhao Tuo knew that even if he went back to the Savior, he would have a long way and little chance of victory, so it was better to divide one side.
In 206 BC, after Ren died of illness and Zhao Tuo assumed power and eliminated his disobedient subordinates, Zhao Tuo became king in 204 BC, two years before the establishment of the Han Dynasty.
At the beginning of the establishment of the South Vietnamese state, the Central Plains had no time to take care of the south.
When Liu Bang stabilized the situation, although he did not recognize the sovereign status of the State of Nanyue and recognized the State of Nanyue as a vassal state of the King of Changsha of the Han Dynasty, the State of Nanyue was de facto independent.
Later, Liu Bang died, and relations between the Han Dynasty and the State of South Vietnam deteriorated for a time, and war broke out, but the country of Nanyue was located in a remote area, and the Han Dynasty was unable to conquer the State of South Vietnam.
During the reign of Emperor Wen of Han, the Han Dynasty changed its strategy and adopted a policy of softness, repairing the tombs of Zhao Tuo's ancestors in the Central Plains, and Zhao Tuo also symbolically submitted to the Han Dynasty.
This peace lasted for a long time, until 112 BC, when Emperor Wudi of Han led an army against the state of Nanyue, and the state of Nanyue was completely destroyed the following year.
The state of South Vietnam existed for a total of 93 years, which is not a short period of time.
You know, from the time Emperor Wudi of Han destroyed Nanyue to Wang Mang usurped Han, the state of the Western Han Dynasty followed in 119 years.
The state of Nanyue is a strange existence in Chinese history, it was born in the Central Plains Dynasty, but grew up in South Vietnam.
This allowed him not only to have the cultural characteristics of the Central Plains Dynasty, but also the local characteristics of the Yue people in the south.
Some of the inhabitants of the South Vietnamese state were 500,000 soldiers, some were forcibly recruited criminals, and some were local Baiyue people.
Some of the sergeants brought their wives and dependents, and some married with the local Yue people, until now, Longchuan's four surnames: Zhao, Wei, Guan, and Ren, are the families formed by the mixed living of sergeants and natives after the Qin Dynasty's conquest of Baiyue.
Zhao Tuo is a very magical king, the only one in ancient times, with a high life expectancy of one hundred and three years.
He survived Qin Shi Huang, Han Gaozu, Han Jing Emperor, and also survived his own son, and the Qin Emperor Han Zu did not live as long as him.
Therefore, many legends say that Zhao Tuo discovered the elixir of immortality, and a large number of five-stone scatters were also found in Zhao Tuo's tomb, which also made Zhao Tuo's character full of mystery.
Zhao Tuo was 61 years old when he became emperor, which is logically close to the age of antiquity, but no one expected that Zhao Tuo not only took root in the barbaric South Vietnam at that time, but also served as the emperor for forty-two years.
On the one hand, his health regimen worked, and on the other hand, his political skills and diplomatic strategy, which were important reasons for his ability to hold the throne.
After coming to power, Zhao Tuo changed the barbaric and cruel style of the Qin Dynasty.
In the face of numerous ethnic tribes and complex social relations, he did not choose to forcibly "assimilate", but pursued the national integration policy of "harmony and hundred yue" and "Hanyue family".
In the Han gathering and transportation arteries, Zhao Tuo implemented the Qin system.
In areas where the Vietnamese are concentrated, the customs of the Vietnamese are obeyed, and the purpose is to be bonded.
For small countries with strong independence in their neighborhoods, they directly took the form of giving money to encircle them in exchange for their submission.
He called himself the "Barbarian Great Elder", did not consider himself a Central Plains person, and absorbed a large number of Baiyue ancestors into the elite class, and many Baiyue people served as important ministers and generals in the imperial court.
The most famous of these is the Lü clan of South Vietnam, with more than 70 officials in the court, of which Lü Jiafu served as three kings of Nanyue.
Zhao Tuo also led by example, allowing his sons and daughters to intermarry with the Baiyue people, and the Yue people Lü Jia also encouraged his descendants to intermarry with the Central Plains.
After gaining the trust of the locals, Zhao Tuo began to vigorously promote the Central Plains civilization.
He taught Yue Chinese characters and Confucian morality and etiquette to Yue people.
He also vigorously promoted agricultural tools made of copper and iron and cattle, replacing backward slash-and-burn farming, and mobilized his army to dig wells and repair canals, and develop rice cultivation.
Since then, Lingnan has changed from a barbaric land to a land of fish and rice.
You can see Zhao Tuo's forward-looking decrees, as well as his strong support for the maritime industry, the country of South Vietnam was already able to build giant ships, which could carry 3,000 people at a time.
Spices from Africa were found in the tombs of the Nanyue kings, while fragments of porcelain from the Western Han Dynasty were also found on the east coast of Africa.
Experts speculate that South Vietnamese ships could reach the African coast, and if the speculation is true, the South Vietnamese state developed the Maritime Silk Road much earlier than the history books record.
The deep-sea fishing industry of Nanyue is also very developed, and it can be found from the tribute items recorded in the history books that Nanyue has very mature salvage technology, such as seabed corals, pearl oysters, and purple oysters.
Under Zhao Tuo's unremitting management, the state of South Vietnam was strong, which gave him the strength to compete with the Central Plains dynasty.
After Liu Bang pacified the Central Plains, he sent Lu Jia to persuade Zhao Tuo, who was dressed as a Yue and called himself a barbarian elder.
At the beginning, Lu Jia was very arrogant, claiming to be orthodox in the Central Plains, threatening Zhao Tuo: "If you do not become a minister, you will stubbornly destroy your grave, kill your relatives in the Central Plains, and send another 100,000 troops to annihilate South Vietnam." ”
Zhao Tuo, who was very confident in his strength, replied: "I can't afford China, so the king is here." Let me live in China, why not be a man? ”
It means that I just didn't participate in the Central Plains chasing deer, and if I did, I might not lose to your Han Dynasty.
The implication is that the state of South Vietnam already has the strength to be equal to the Han Dynasty.
But Zhao Tuo was a pragmatist, and he was unwilling to be hostile to the Han dynasty.
Finally, he formally became a vassal to the Han Dynasty, and presented Liu Bangjin with "a pair of white bi, a thousand kingfishers, five hundred shells, a vessel of gui cocktails, and forty pairs of raw cui" to conduct economic and trade exchanges with the Han Dynasty.
Her successor, Empress Lu, dissatisfied with nominally submissive relations, imposed an economic blockade on South Vietnam and detained South Vietnamese envoys.
But Zhao Tuo's performance can fully show his confidence in his strength: he proclaimed himself the Wudi of Nanyue, attacked the king of Changsha in the Han Dynasty, defeated the Han army, and the Central Plains forces stopped at Nanling.
Emperor Wen of Han saw that it was hard to come, so he adopted a policy of softness, sent people to repair Zhao Tuo's ancestral tomb in Hebei, and sent an envoy Lu Jia to make peace, and Zhao Tuo was also very knowledgeable, and made a courtier to the Han Dynasty for the second time.
Of course, this time the title of courtier is also the same as before, and he still continues to be called emperor internally.
Zhao Tuo relied on practical and flexible diplomatic and political means, and maintained the sovereignty of the South Vietnamese state.
It is not easy to transform a barbaric land into a civilized dynasty, and it is also very difficult to maintain equal diplomatic relations with the powerful central dynasty.
epilogue
Therefore, he was called the "Ancestor of Lingnan" by the Vietnamese people of Liangguang, and he really deserved his name.
The mysterious country of South Vietnam is actually seriously underestimated.
However, with the excavation of more and more cultural relics and historical materials, it is believed that more and more fragments of South Vietnamese civilization will be rediscovered and commented on to future generations about the greatness of their ancestors.