In almost every city in Vietnam exists a street named “Hai Ba Trung”, in honor of the two legendary sisters who led a revolt against the Chinese rule around 39 C.E. The date of their deaths marks Vietnam’s Women’s Day, and their legend has been told in Vietnamese children’s books for generations. Today, Trung Trac and Trung Nhi are considered two of the most important heroines in Vietnamese history. The pair, who had already come from a militarily strong family, led an army against the Chinese officials who controlled Vietnam at the time. They eventually took back Vietnam, and ruled for three years before an army was sent to destroy them. The Trung sisters used their social status and the general discontent the Vietnamese people felt towards the ruling Chinese to start a rebellion.
Traditionally, Vietnamese women have always had more freedom than their Chinese counterparts in the first century A.D. Although still not equal to men, they did have more rights and gained closer to equal inheritance. They could play a part in public life, and could be political leaders, judges, traders, and warriors. Meanwhile, women in Han China did not have any of these rights, as they were considered subservient to their husbands. The Trung Sisters were clearly not subservient to their husbands. Trung Trac, the elder sister, was married to Thi Sach, and he was most likely alive during the rebellion. However, it is probable that he did not play a large part in it, other than supporting his wife. When the Trung Sisters was established, Mi-ling, the birthplace of sisters, was made capital instead of his own birthplace. If he were the main leader of the rebellion, it would definitely be his own birthplace made capital.
The Trung Sisters had a...
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(1800)Topic 2: A Literary Analysis of the Historical Differentiation of Patriarchal Culture and Female Gender Identity in the Memoirs of Lady Hyegyong and the Tale of Genji
Yan Zhitui states that, "women take charge of family affairs, entering into lawsuits, straightening out disagreements, and paying calls to seek favor...the government offices are filled with their fancy silks." (Differences between north and south, 111). Yet, even in the Qing dynasty women were still restricted by and expected to uphold more traditional ideals, especially in the public eye. So, in the end, through her virtue, Hsi-Liu’s two children we able to become upright. Here, there is a split between what a woman is supposed to be according to old Chinese tradition, and the realities facing women in Tancheng. The loss of her husband, and economic hardship had forced His-Liu to behave in a different way, as if she were usurping the power from the eldest son so she could teach the two boys a lesson about being good family members. While she still maintains the ideals of bearing children, and being loyal to her husband, even after he dies, out of necessity she is forced to break from Confucian ideals of being only concerned with the domestic issues. This too put her at odds with the more traditional society around her, as the villagers pitied her sons, but vilified the Hsi-Liu for being so strict with them (Woman Wang, 65). Had she remarried, she would have been looked down upon even more because she would had broken her duty to remain faithful to her deceased
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Hayslip, Le Ly, and Jay Wurts. When Heaven and Earth Changed Places: A Vietnamese Woman's Journey from War to Peace. New York: Plume, 1990. Print.
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