22. The Sisters Who Became Their Country’s National Heroines
The Trung sisters, Trung Nhi and Trung Trac (circa 12 AD – 43 AD), are probably the greatest national heroines of Vietnam. They led an independence movement and launched a revolt in 40 AD against Chinese domination of their country. Vietnam had groaned under Chinese domination for about a century by the time the Trung sisters were born. They managed to free their land from the Chinese yoke and established an independent Vietnamese state, which they ruled for three years.
Trung Trac, the older sister, was married to a Vietnamese nobleman who resisted Chinese hegemony, and objected to the ham-handedness of a particularly oppressive Chinese governor. For his troubles, he was executed by the Chinese in order to cow other would-be rebels. It backfired. After her husband was executed, his widow rallied and organized other Vietnamese nobles to resist the Chinese. With the help of her younger sister Trung Nhi, Trung Trac launched a rebellion in the Red River Delta, near modern Hanoi. From there, the revolt quickly spread up and down the long Vietnamese coast. After generations under oppressive Chinese rule, the Vietnamese were more than ready to rise up, and the uprising became wildly popular.