The Rebel Den of Nung Trí Cao: Loyalty and Identity along the Sino-Vietnamese Frontier

2. The Legacy of the Chinese Imperial Tribute System in the South: Balancing Ritual Harmony with Frontier Stability

The Legacy of the Chinese Imperial Tribute System in the South: Balancing Ritual Harmony with Frontier Stability In 1034, a local non-Han leader, Tran C6ng Vinh (dates unknown), along with more than six hundred followers, crossed the frontier into Song territory. C6ng Vinh had earlier announced that his home region should become a neifu (interior dependency) of the Song court. Neifu status placed a region under the direct protection of the Chinese court. After doing so, any disturbance in that region would be viewed by the Chinese ruler as an intervention into his domain. A frontier community that received this designation was treated administratively as a jimi, or "loose reins," district, giving it peripheral but legitimate standing within the network ofpolities supporting the Chinese court's venerable system of regional ties, later known in the West as the "tribute system" (chaogong zhidu). Acquiring neifu status implied that the region's local leaders had accepted China's ritual supremacy and the Chinese emperor's "exemplary power" (de), and that these leaders would be held responsible for the presentation of tribute to the central court. C6ng Vinh's efforts did not pass by unnoticed by the sovereign ruler, to whom the border chieftain nominally still owed loyalty. The Dl)i C6 Vi~t ruler Ly Ph~t Mil (Ly Thai Tong [r. 1028-54]) concluded that such a 15 16 Chinese Imperial Tribute System move was not in his best interests. When the Vietnamese ruler assembled more than one thousand soldiers in the frontier region to challenge C6ng Vinh's move, the Song emperor Renzong (r. 1023-1063) ordered C6ng Vinh's group to return home.I The Chinese emperor then sent an official warning to Ph~t Ma, instructing the ruler not to act rashly when dealing with the insurgents.2 It appears that although the Chinese emperor could not condone the rebellious behavior of C6ng Vinh's followers, he did not hide his pleasure upon hearing of their willingness to become his direct subjects. The Song ruler's order for leniency was the extent of direct Chinese action in this matter. Since the founding of the dynasty, the Song court had seldom directly addressed the affairs ofthe indigenous communities located along the southern frontier. Such communities were expected to police themselves, while the vassal D~i C6 Vi~t court at Thang Long nonnally handled the larger problems alone. Other Chinese court officials looked favorably on these requests from the borderlands, believing that the "defections" resulted from China's positive influence on the region. After hearing of Trftn C6ng VInh's request for an alliance with the Song court, the "military affairs commissioner" (shumishi) Cai Qi (988-1037) wrote in a court memorial that "the southern barbarians (Man) had turned away from their cruel ways and had returned to virtue" when they requested that the Song state annex them. Qi also suggested that the group be given land in Jinghu circuit (Jinghu lu) (in modem-day Hunan) in which to settle and to manage themselves.3 The image of a southern frontier community attracted by the superior culture of the Central Plains (Zhongyuan) brought with it reminders of Tang period (618-907) imperial glory. The request for resettlement within the Song empire was also a clear reference to ajimi system of frontier management in full working order. However, Cai warned, "if we now allow them to leave, they must not return to their old home. If these people spread out into the mountains and ravines, will not there be trouble?"4 Cai Qi described the chieftain's request for Song dependency as a sign of the Song's civilizing attraction, and his mild criticism of the emperor's rejection of this request reveals Cai's familiarity with the fragile nature of power sharing in this region. The emperor, in any case, saw no reason to change the existing arrangement in which the Chinese Imperial Tribute System 17 Vietnamese leadership had been given a free hand in managing frontier matters. However, this arrangement did not adequately address the issue of growing regional instability, and greater disturbances along the Sino-Vietnamese borderlands soon brought the region to the immediate attention of both Vietnamese and Chinese authorities. Throughout the first half of the eleventh century, the Vietnamese court gradually spread its influence throughout the region, while the Chinese court made very few attempts to exercise its own authority in more...