Jiaozhi
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Giao Chỉ (Han character: 交趾 or 交阯; pinyin: Jiaozhi) is a name of entire or part of Vietnam's territory in the history, from the Hùng Vương era to the middle of the Third Chinese domination and during the Fourth Chinese domination.
Giao Chỉ in the Văn Lang era
Giao Chỉ was a name of one bộ, an administrative level equivalent of district, of the former nation Văn Lang during the Hùng Vương era. Its territory include present-day Hà Nội and the land at the right bank of the Hồng river.
The Triệu dynasty
After annexing Âu Lạc (179 BC), The Triệu dynasty divided the Âu Lạc into two divisions: Giao Chỉ and Cửu Chân.
The Giao Chỉ district under the domination of the Han dynasty
The Han dynasty destroyed the Triệu dynasty in 111 BC and annexed its terrioty, including Âu Lạc. Similar to the Triệu, the Han divided Âu Lạc into 2 districts: Giao Chỉ, Cửu Chân. The head of the district was a Chinese thái thú. The Giao Chỉ district (Giao Chỉ quận) was an administrative unit in the Giao Chỉ bộ, whose head was thứ sử (the first one was Thạch Đái). The capital city of the Giao Chỉ was firstly Mê Linh, then was changed to Liên Lâu (a region is now at Thuận Thành suburban district, Bắc Ninh provision).
According to the book Tiền Hán thư, địa lý chí, the Giao Chỉ district contained 10 suburban districts (huyện): Liên Lâu, An Định, Câu Lậu, Mê Linh, Khúc Dương, Bắc Đái, Kê Từ, Tây Vu, Long Biên and Chu Diên. And the historian Đào Duy Anh stated that the Giao Chỉ's territory contain all the Tonkin, exclude the upstream of Đà river and Mã river[1]. Interestingly, the southwestern area of Guangxi was also a part of the former Giao Chỉ district[1]. And southwest area of current Ninh Bình province was the border area of the Cửu Chân district (behind Giao Chỉ, its territory now belongs to Thanh Hóa, Nghệ An, Hà Tĩnh). Afterwards the Han dynasty created another district named Nhật Nam, located at the south of Cửu Chân (located from the Ngang Pass to Quảng Nam).
The first native thứ sử of Giao Chỉ
During the rule of Han Ling Di (168-189), Lý Tiến was the first native Giao Chỉ's person was detached to be the thứ sử of Giao Chỉ. Lý Tiến then petitioned the Han emperor for allowing the native Giao Chỉ to be the officers and mandarins of the Han court, but the emperor only accepted the ones who graduated mậu tài or hiếu liêm degree in the acient Chinese examination, and they were only accredited to the low positions in Giao Chỉ. But another native Giao Chỉ named Lý Cầm tried his best to petitioned and finally, the natives are allowed to take the higher positions in another regions of the Han empire. For example a Giao Chỉ native named Trương Trọng was a thái thú of Kim Thành district in China.
Ma Yuan's bronze column
The Ma Yuan's bronze column was builded by Ma Yuan after he have repressed the uprising of Hai Bà Trưng (40-43). There were six Han letters carved on the column: Đồng trụ chiết, Giao Chỉ diệt (銅柱折 交趾滅), literally means: "If this bronze colunm collapsed, Giao Chỉ will be destroyed." Thus when passing the column, the Giao Chỉ's people always put some rocks beside so that the rocks could prevent the column from collapsing. Day by day, the rock's amount became so large that they totally covered the column and now nobody can see it anymore. There is another theory that the people threw rocks to the column as they simply hated it so much, not because they didn't want it to collapse.
The Giao Chỉ district under the domination of the Eastern Wu dynasty
The Giao Chỉ district under the domination of the Sui and Tang dynasty
The Sui dynasty divided Giao Chỉ district into 9 suburban districts: Tống Bình, Long Biên, Chu Diên, Long Bình, Bình Đạo, Giao Chỉ, Gia Ninh, Tân Xương và An Nhân. There was one Giao Chỉ suburban district belong to the Giao Chỉ district.
However, after replacing the Sui, Tang dynasty changed Giao Chỉ district into a phủ named Giao Châu. Then in 679, the Giao Châu phủ was renamed An Nam đô hộ phủ (Annam Domination phủ). The An Nam phủ was divided into 12 châu (administrative division), one of the châu had the old name Giao Châu. The Giao Châu administrative division contained 8 suburban districts: Tống Bình, Long Biên, Chu Diên, Giao Chỉ, Bình Đạo, Vũ Bình, Nam Định, Thái Bình. The Giao Chỉ suburban district was created in 622 due to the separation of Tống Châu. Then in the year 627 the Tang renamed Giao Chỉ to Nam Từ, and annexed suburban districts Giao Chỉ, Hoài Đức, Hoằng Giáo to the Tống Bình one.
Giao Chỉ district under the domination of the Ming dynasty
In 1407, The Ming dynasty invaded Đại Việt, destroyed the Hồ dynasty and began the Fourth Chinese domination (1407-1427). The Ming restored the Giao Chỉ district and at this time, the district's area contained all the territory of Vietnam under the Hồ dynasty. Giao Chỉ district was divided into 15 phủ and 5 independent châu (administrative division):
- 15 phủ: Giao Châu, Bắc Giang, Lạng Giang, Tam Giang, Kiến Bình (Kiến Hưng in Hồ dynasty), Tân Yên (Tân Hưng in the Hồ dynasty), Kiến Xương, Phụng Hóa (Thiên Trường in the Hồ dynasty), Thanh Hóa, Trấn Man (Long Hưng in the Hồ dynasty), Lạng Sơn, Tân Bình, Diễn Châu, Nghệ An, Thuận Hóa.
- 5 independent châu: Thái Nguyên, Tuyên Hóa (Tuyên Quang in the Hồ dynasty), Gia Hưng, Quy Hóa, Quảng Oai.
Together with the 5 independent administrative divisions, there were another administrative division which were under the phủ. There were totally 47 ones.
In 1408, the independent administrative division Thái Nguyên, Tuyên Hóa was promoted to phủ, increased the number of phủ to 17. Afterwards the phủ Diễn Châu was dismissed and its territory became an administrative division.
After the hero Lê Lợi defeated the Ming army and restored the Đại Việt's independence, he dismissed all the former administrative structure and divided the nation into 5 đạo. Thus since that time, the name Giao Chỉ and Giao Châu have never been called as a official adiministrative units any longer.
The name's meaning
Giao chỉ is also used to mention the ancient Vietnamese. Giao (交) means mix, intersect, communicate, combine. However the meaning of Chỉ has not been clear yet.
Chỉ in the books Sử ký Tư Mã Thiên, Tiền Hán thư,... is written with the phụ set (阯). However in the Hậu Hán thư, Từ nguyên, Từ hải, it is written with the túc set (趾).
However, the book Từ hải and the historian Nguyễn Văn Tố suspected that both of the Chỉ letters are alright. According ti Từ hải, the chỉ 趾 has four meanings:
- synonymous with "cước" (leg)
- means "cước chỉ" (toe)
- synonymous with "tông tích", means "original", "vestige", "trace",...
- thông nghĩa với chữ chỉ have thổ set (址), means base, basis, foundation (cơ chỉ, "trụ chỉ)
Thus the Chỉ is understood in many ways, and so the Giao Chỉ. Scholar Đỗ Hựu write in Thông điển book: "Giao Chỉ are the Southern People, the big toe points to the outside of the foot, so if the man stands up straight, the two big toes point to each other, thus people call them Giao Chỉ (Chỉ means big toe).". This idea is accepted by many Chinese and Vietnamese scholars.
However, the Từ nguyên book (volume Tý, page 141) have another explaining: "Theo nghĩa cũ bảo hai ngón chân cái giao nhau là Giao Chỉ, nhưng xét đời cổ bên Hy Lạp, có tiếng "đối trụ", có tiếng "lân trụ" để gọi loài người trên thế giới. "Đối trụ" là phía Nam, phía Bắc đối nhau, "lân trụ" là phía Đông, phía Tây liền nhau. Sở dĩ có tên Giao Chỉ là hợp vào nghĩa "đối trụ", vì dân tộc phương Bắc gọi dân tộc phương Nam, cũng như một chân phía Bắc, một chân phía Nam đối nhau, không phải thực là chân người giao nhau."
The Vietnamese historian Nguyễn Văn Siêu, Đặng Xuân Bảng, Trần Trọng Kim, Đào Duy Anh,... all agree with the second explaining.
In 1868, doctor Thorel in the exploring group of Doudart de Lagrée commented that the left and right big toes point to each other is "a characteristic of Annam people". Many later French scholar had the same comment.
Nonetheless, the "Giao Chỉ" phenomenon is not only occurs in the Indochina people, but in the Malaysian, Siam, Chinese, Arabic pepople, Melanesian and Negroid as well, but the level varies from race to race. But, that phenomenon is very rare in the European people. It's not pathological sign, but can be considered as a variation atavique, because the bones do not grow straightly as usual.