This essay is about the state of rice agriculture in the Red River Delta in the tenth century, and is the second part of the historical study of the reclamation of that delta from the first century to the nineteenth century, which aims at understanding the characteristics of Vietnamese socioeconomical history in comparison with other Southeast Asian deltas.
In Part 1,the identification of Đường Lâm, the home base of Ngô Quyẽn, the first founder of a Vietnam independent of China, and Tiên Du and Vũ Ninh, the domains of the Sứ Quân (Twelve Lords), with present place names, it is shown that the economic power of those lords in the tenth century was based on rice cultivation on terrace and foothill areas, which can be traced back to the first reclamation period of the delta, conjectured to be in the Đông Sơn age.
In Part 2, by analysis of the situation of Cở Pháp, the home village of Lý Công Uẩn, the first emperor of Lý Dynasty, Xiêu Loại, Phong Châu, and Nguyễn Gia, domains of the Sứ Quân, Mạt Liễn, and Phù Đái, fiefs of the sons of Lê Hoàn, the first emperor of the Early Lê Dynasty, I conclude that their influence was founded on the natural levees along big rivers such as the Red River, Canal des Rapides and Canal des Bambous, which would make them almost the same in character as the lands and power base of native powers, that is dating from the first reclamation period.
In Part 3, however, Hong Châu, the home village of the Khúc family, the first native governors of Giao Châu (North Vietnam) when independent of China, Đỗ Đõng Giang, a domain of the Sứ Quân, and Đại Dê, home village of Đỗ Thích, an assassin of Đinh Bộ Lĩnh, one finds that a new reclamation type appeared on the small natural levees located in the western flood area (casier de Hadong) and the upper delta with the adoption of fifth-month rice cultivation in these lower-lying fields.
In Part 4, in other cases such as Chương Dương, a fief of Dương Tham Khả, a usurper of the throne from the Ngô family, and Đằng Châu, a domain of the Sứ Quân, a tendency to penetrate some sandbank areas to plant mulberry or for use as small navigation stations on the Red River is shown.
In Part 5, I point out that in places at the edge of the Red River Delta, such as Hoa Lu, the capital of the Đinh and Lê dynasties, Bõ Hải Khẩu, a domain of the Sứ Quân, Trà Hương, a base of Phạm Linh Công, a patron of a son of Ngo Quyen, and Hoi Ho, a domain of the Sứ Quân, a new type of political power had risen during the tenth century. These areas were not suitable for rice cultivation without dikes. So it is very difficult to explain the existence of powers in these areas by agricultural factors alone. One can suppose that more important to these lords would be control of navigation on the Red River, Sông Đáy River and the Thái Bình-Canal des Rapides river system.
In conclusion, in the tenth century, the reclamation of the Red River Delta was an extension of a traditional agronomic method introduced in the Đông Sơn age, especially in the Trung Du area (the middle part of the Red River Valley), and some commercial factors were introduced onto this base. However, this conclusion suggests that reclamation methods would be limited by the geographical situation. So, a new engineering method had to be introduced to reclaim such unfavorable areas as backswamps and tidal creeks. This happened from the tenth century with the power of new dynasties to mobilize manpower and the introduction of the dike construction method newly developed in the Yangtze River Delta during the Sung Dynasty. This can be regarded as the first application of engineering methods to reconstruct the delta geography for rice cultivation. This topic will be discussed in the third report of this series.
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