339
ous. Even at the best of Chinese times local families enjoyed "virtual autonomy from the imperial court" (p. 163).
Rebellion against Chinese rule, indeed, was endemic throughout the later phases whether peasant led or fomented by leading families. The whole confrontation culminated in the major clashes with T’ang officialdom in the ninth century, which also saw an uneasy alliance of some Vietnamese factions with the inland Nan Chao kingdom.
For all his development of the Vietnamese pre-Chinese roots, this is not a unique position. Taylor's contention that scholars have tended to neglect this aspect (p. xvii) is not borne out by the work of others such as D.G.E. Hall (see his History of Southeast Asia, MacMillan, 1955) and George Coedes (see his The Making of Southeast Asia, Berkeley, 1966).
In spite of a heavy emphasis upon anti-Chinese rebellion and the throwing-off of Chinese rule, and earlier of the inculcation of Chinese cultural models, Vietnam at independence in the tenth century was not only a very impoverished and ravaged land, but also a pretty rude place. There was nothing of note in buildings; cultural levels were far below those expected in a T'ang province; and nothing to compare favourably with the grand styles of the contemporaneous Champa and Khmer kingdoms to the south and west.
This is an absorbing book, and a valuable contribution as filling some gaps in our knowledge of ancient Vietnam. It ends with fifteen appendixes—mostly descriptive essays on Vietnamese legends, migration, textual and geographic problems; a glossary of place names, titles, personal names, and terms and expressions in Vietnamese and Chinese.
LEIGH R. WRIGHT University of Hong Kong
Page 360
Page 361
339
ous. Even at the best of Chinese times local families enjoyed "vir- tual autonomy from the imperial court" (p. 163).
Rebellion against Chinese rule, indeed, was endemic through- out the later phases whether peasant led or fomented by leading families. The whole confrontation culminated in the major clash- es with T’ang officialdom in the ninth century, which also saw an uneasy alliance of some Vietnamese factions with the inland Nan Chao kingdom.
For all his development of the Vietnamese pre-Chinese roots, this is not a unique position. Taylor's contention that scholars have tended to neglect this aspect (p. xvii) is not borne out by the work of others such as D.G.E. Hall (see his History of Southeast Asia, MacMillan, 1955) and George Coedes (see his The Making of Southeast Asia, Berkeley, 1966).
In spite of a heavy emphasis upon anti-Chinese rebellion and the throwing-off of Chinese rule, and earlier of the inculcation of Chinese cultural models, Vietnam at independence in the tenth century was not only a very impoverished and ravaged land, but also a pretty rude place. There was nothing of note in buildings; cultural levels were far below those expected in a T'ang province; and nothing to compare favourably with the grand styles of the contemporaneous Champa and Khmer kingdoms to the south and west.
This is an absorbing book, and a valuable contribution as filling some gaps in our knowledge of ancient Vietnam. It ends with fifteen appendixes—mostly descriptive essays on Vietnamese legends, migration, textual and geographic problems; a glossary of place names, titles, personal names, and terms and expressions in Vietnamese and Chinese.
LEIGH R. WRIGHT University of Hong Kong
Page 360Page 361
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