Maidens, Mavens, & Magic Series: The Trung Sisters of Vietnam
Vietnam is a beautiful country with a long history. It is a coastal nation laced through with rivers and crowned by rolling green mountains, with miles upon miles of rural countryside as well as hyper modern cities that seem to grow up from the sandy beaches of the South China Sea.
It is also a country that has seen more than its fair share of conflict. Over the centuries, Vietnam has been conquered, divided, liberated, and reconquered countless times. In the West we tend to be familiar only with the conflicts that directly involved us––namely the Vietnam War. But this last conflict was merely another moment in a history that spans millennia.
Like all nations, Vietnam has its heroes, its villains, and its stories. Sometimes real people and myths are one and the same, and this is the case with two of the most important figures in Vietnamese historical legend. These were the country’s real-life superheroes, fierce rebels who challenged tyranny and brought about a new era for their people. They were warriors, leaders, philosophers, and nation-builders.
They also happened to be women––sisters, in fact. Here’s the story of two real-world wonder women: the Trung sisters.
From Ladies to Lionesses––How Two Pampered Heiresses Became Fierce Rebels
The Trung family was a wealthy one, and they prospered as aristocrats and local politicians for many generations before the two sisters’ lifetimes. Their father was a regional general and governor with significant influence. This influence continued after the invasion of the area in around 39 CE by the army of China’s imperial Han dynasty.
The Han empire had a habit of appointing existing leaders such as the Trungs’ father to representative positions after they annexed a region. For the most part, this system prevented rebellions and allowed the Han to forge positive relationships with the aristocracy of the lands they conquered.
In the case of the two sisters, however, things took a dramatic turn in the opposite direction. The elder sister, Trung Trac, married to the handsome and charismatic general Thi Sach when she came of age. It was both a political marriage and a love match for Trung Trac, a situation that was far from the norm at that time.
For a while Thi Sach was content to act as an appointed leader under the Han. For the most part, his people and allies were able to continue with their lives and business without interference from the foreign Han officials, and like Trung Trac, Thi Sach was accustomed to this system. A major shift came when corruption crept into the Han ranks.
When Han officials began to overreach and demand exorbitant bribes from Thi Sach, the Trungs’ father, and other native aristocracy, both Thi Sach and Trung Trac became outraged. Both of them were influential leaders in their own right, and they were known as charismatic speakers, capable fighters, and intelligent strategists. Their fury only intensified when the Chinese invaders began a campaign of “sinicization” in the region. Chinese officials attempted to usurp the local culture and replace it with that of the Han dynastic court.
They did this through forced schooling, the introduction of Chinese-centric philosophies into the structure of Vietnamese society, and by implementing new marriage laws––laws which undermined a long regional history of powerful women and their extensive financial, legal, and personal rights.
At the time of Trung Trac’s upbringing, it was customary for women to hold their own property, run their own businesses, govern their own affairs, and make their own choices without any interference from men. Trung Trac and her sister had learned to lead their people, maneuver through politics, and fight as warriors from a young age.
Trung Trac and her husband soon had a number of regional allies who shared their anger against the Han interlopers and their increasingly corrupt behavior. Had the couple not been betrayed, history might have looked much different for both the Trung sisters and their country.
Tragically, Thi Sach was eventually turned over to the Han government. He was soon assassinated by one of the Han’s fiercest and least liked governors, Su Ding.
Grief stricken, widowed, and forced to watch the extrajudicial beheading of her own husband, Trung Trac became more than a strong-willed wife: she became a rebel. Trung Trac’s sister, Trung Nhi, shared her sibling’s outrage and grief. She joined the cause with enthusiasm, and so the two began to foment a full-scale revolt against the Chinese.
Vengeance, Vows, and Vietnam––The Sisters Crown Themselves In Blood
The Trung sisters lived during a time of high tensions between the common class and the ruling elites in Vietnam. Repressive laws and excessive taxation had overburdened the peasants and other non-ruling residents of the country, and the Chinese governors’ policy of brutality against suspected dissent had left deep rifts amongst Vietnam’s people.
Like all great legends, the sisters had to prove themselves worthy of their story before it could unfold.
There are many versions of how they achieved this. One story states that, in order to win the loyalty and trust of the common people, Trung Trac and Trung Nhi defeated a ferocious tiger that had been terrorizing the countryside for months. They brought the tiger’s head to the village leaders, and in return gained their respect.
Other versions have them taming a herd of elephants and riding on their backs, armored and ready for battle. Some say they earned their following with fiery speeches, patriotic poems, and emotional appeals by Trung Trac, who tore her clothes and demanded justice for her slain husband––a man who had been well-liked by both his peers and the common people he ruled over. Beside her was Trung Nhi, who allegedly mocked the men for allowing women to be bolder and braver than they were. How can you call yourselves men, she challenged, when it is the women who are ready to die in the name of their honor and their country?
However they did it, the sisters were able to gather an army of at least 80,000 soldiers under their shared banner. At the head of this army they placed thirty-six female generals, including their mother. As they prepared to fight for their honor and their country, people reported omens, miraculous signs, and prophetic symbols surrounding the sisters.
Heroines Become Martyrs, Martyrs Become Goddesses–The Short, Legendary Rule of The Trung Sisters
If you ever visit the beautiful Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, you may find yourself exploring the lovely landscape surrounding Hoan Kiem Lake. This area is dotted with gorgeous temples and shrines to a number of beloved deities, from ancient, polytheistic gods to peaceful Buddhist saints and bodhisattvas.
One of these spectacular temples is known as the Den Hai Ba Trung. Legend has it that King Ly An Tong visited a shrine here circa 1142 AD, and while he prayed for guidance he was granted a vision of the two Trung sisters. They took the form of water spirits and told him to build a temple for them on that exact spot. He obeyed, and the temple is still a significant place of pilgrimage to this day.
To understand the deification of the two sisters, we must revisit their story––specifically its tragic ending.
Victory Over Su Ting
After gathering their thirty-six female generals and their tens of thousands of supporters, the Trung sisters marched on Su Ting’s palace. In many versions of the story, the sisters arrayed themselves in their brightest, finest armor, rejecting requests from the men who wished to wear mourning clothes into battle.
This is not a funeral but a war, the widowed Trung Trac told them. She would not salute her husband’s flag and begin his funeral until after his death was avenged.
Together, the young sisters rode at the head of their army and attacked the encampment of Su Ting. The women were so beautiful, it is reported, that many of the Chinese soldiers were stopped in their tracks as the sisters approached. A fierce and bloody battle followed.
Alongside the sisters were a cast of other powerful female characters. One general, Phung Thi Chinh, was pregnant at the time. While fighting in the thick of battle, she went into early labor and gave birth. She placed the child on her back and continued to fight, commanding her soldiers to press on.
With fierce and awe-inspiring women leading them, the Trung army was relentless. Su Ting had no choice but to flee, disgraced, and abandon his men by escaping through a sewage pipe. He shaved his head for fear he might be recognized on his way out.
A significant portion of the Chinese force was made up of conscripted Vietnamese peasants. These men, now free to turn on their commanders and officers, welcomed the Trung sisters into the city and celebrated their nation’s victory. Trung Trac and her sister took up the title of Queens––and they finally mourned the loss of Thi Sach and countless other Vietnamese men as they established their rule.
For two years the Queens distributed stolen wealth and resources to the poor, and the Vietnamese people enjoyed a brief return to an era of unprecedented equality between the men and women of this region.
On the border, the furious Han Empire regrouped and began to gather strength once again.
End of An Era, Beginning of A Legend
For the strictly-patriarchal Han, the defeat of Su Ting was a disgrace of epic proportions. Not only had a “lesser race” thoroughly routed their own invincible army, but they had lost a valuable territory to two young women that were not even thirty years of age.
The empire poured its resources into a renewed campaign against the now-sovereign Vietnamese. They placed an experienced general named Ma Yuan in charge of the effort and waited to hear of his victory.
Accounts vary, but most sources agree that the Chinese army was many times the size of the Trung force at that point. The Queens had only been in power for two years. It was unlikely that they were able to gather significant resources during that short time, and because of their gender and relative lack of power they also had few, if any, real allies.
Still, once Ma Yuan and his force reached the sisters’ capital city, Me Linh, he faced considerable resistance from the Trung army. The Han expected a rout, but instead were forced to engage in a protracted battle in which their enemies knew the land and were vicious in their defense of the city. In the end, this fierce resistance was unable to achieve victory.
In most versions of the story, the sisters are injured in battle and witness the defeat of their army from a hilltop. Rather than face the humiliation and inevitable execution they would receive at the hands of Ma Yuan and his revenge-minded soldiers, they appear to have chosen ritual suicide. There are many paintings of the two women walking hand and hand into the violent juncture of the Day and Red Rivers.
Other sources say that they fought until the bitter end, even when it was clear that the day had been won by Ma Yuan. They refused any possibility of clemency and were executed before a crowd of their one-time supporters.
However it happened, the sisters’ rule ended with their deaths. Their story, however, would live on.
Spirits of Resistance, Goddesses of a Nation
Following their deaths, the Trung sisters were immortalized in art, poetry, and songs. People secretly built shrines to the Queens and celebrated the memory of their courage and fiercely independent spirits.
Over the decades, Vietnam would fall in and out of foreign hands many times. The nation had forged its own identity and unlike many other small kingdoms in East and Southeast Asia, they refused to merge with any of their conquerors.
The Trung sisters remained a divine symbol of pride, heritage, and the ferocity of the Vietnamese people’s determination to rule themselves. Other rebels followed in their footsteps and created their own heroic legacies.
Shrines became temples, and temples became sites of pilgrimage. You can find depictions of the Trung sisters in countless examples of Vietnamese culture, art, theater, and storytelling, whether it’s through informal folk songs or the elaborate temple rituals that take place on the anniversary of the Trung sisters’ deaths.
Questions To Consider In This Era of Empowerment
To some, the Trung sisters were villains, to others they were sacred heroes. In America, we love stories of underdogs fighting their way to freedom––at the same time, the Trung sisters were an important and unifying symbol amongst the Viet Cong, who were our enemies throughout the Vietnam War.
As we continue our superheroine series, we will explore the stories of heroines who represent more than comic book pages or blockbuster films. Many of our heroines bear checkered pasts. They are nuanced, multifaceted, and they possess stories open to interpretation.
Here are some questions to ask yourself:
What defines someone as a hero, super or otherwise?
Are any of our figures universal, or do they represent different things to different people, often at different times?
Even when we know that the story of a real-life heroine has been embellished, can we gain something by suspending our doubts and enjoying the narrative, lessons, and values she represents?
Thank you to our partners Shubha and Lalit Vadlamani for making this series possible! We appreciate your dedication to women’s empowerment and the wonders of storytelling.
The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed in this article belong solely to the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of The Fem Word organization. Any content provided by the author are based on their opinions and are not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, individual or anyone or anything.