Battle of Bach Dang ends Chinese rule over Vietnam
- Date
- December 938 CE
- Category
- Military & conflict
- Region
- Northern Vietnam (Bach Dang River, Red River Delta)
- Era
- Post-Classical / Medieval
- Significance
In December 938, the Vietnamese commander Ngo Quyen decisively defeated an invading fleet of the Chinese state of Southern Han at the mouth of the Bach Dang River, near present-day Ha Long Bay in northern Vietnam.
Anticipating the enemy advance, Ngo Quyen had iron-tipped wooden stakes planted in the riverbed so that they lay hidden beneath the surface at high tide; his light boats lured the heavy Southern Han warships upstream and, as the tide fell, the enemy fleet was impaled and immobilised on the stakes, then destroyed, with the Southern Han prince and commander Liu Hongcao killed. The victory ended the Third Era of Northern Domination and brought to a close roughly a thousand years of Chinese rule that had begun under the Han dynasty in 111 BCE. In 939 Ngo Quyen proclaimed himself king and established the Ngo dynasty with its capital at Co Loa, founding the first durable independent Vietnamese state. The battle is celebrated as a defining turning point in Vietnamese history, marking the birth of national independence that endured, apart from a brief Ming reconquest, for centuries.
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Empires active in December 938 CE
- Samanid Empire819 CE – 999 CE
- Byzantine Empire330 CE – 1453 CE
- Abbasid Caliphate750 CE – 1258 CE
- Kanem-Bornu Empire700 CE – 1900 CE
- Tui Manuʻa Confederacy900 CE – 950 CE
- Pala Empire750 CE – 1161 CE
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Further reading
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