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period — which lasted from the bronze age Dongson period of the third century B.C. to the end of the T'ang dominance in the early tenth century A.D. He has divided this long period into six distinct phases, constructing the main characteristics of each one as the centre-piece of a chapter.
The first (Chapter 1, "Lac Lords") covers the emergence of organized society in the plains of the Hong and Ma rivers (near present Hanoi) under feudal lords. Sources for this bronze age period are largely archeological and linguistic, with a heavy reliance upon the interpretation of myths and legends.
The second chapter or phase ("The Han-Viet era”) charts the invasion of Chinese forces and particularly the southern expedition of Ma Yuan, the great Han general, and the emergence of a mixed Sino-Viet ruling class.
The third phase (Chapter 3, "Regionalism and the six dynasties") covers the consolidation of Chinese political and cultural domination.
Chapter 4, "Local rule in the sixth century" is the fourth phase, which Taylor calls a "time of self-discovery” for the Vietnamese. It was a time when Chinese control weakened slightly before the consolidation of Sui-T'ang control of the south. And in this weakening the Vietnamese, according to Taylor, began looking to their pre-Chinese roots.
The Sui-T'ang period of rule is covered in Chapter 5, "The protectorate of An-nam". In this phase he chronicles the "intensity" of pressure upon Vietnam to conform to the Chinese model of civilized society, as well as the growing resistance to Chinese domination. That resistance bore success of sorts when in the tenth century the T'ang dynasty collapsed and Vietnamese rebellions succeeded in throwing off direct Chinese rule. This is Taylor's Chapter 6, "The T'ang-Viet confrontation", and Chapter 7, "Independence".
While critical of Chinese and French historians as treating the Vietnamese past as a “branch of Chinese history" Taylor uses