In many geographical works written about Hoang Sa - Truong Sa, there are extremely great contributions of Nghe intellectuals. These are all original documents (original texts) of great value in terms of science, history and law, contributing greatly to affirming Vietnam's sovereignty over the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagos.
Hoang Sa and Truong Sa, commonly known as “Bai Cat Vang”, are two archipelagos located in the East Sea under our country’s sovereignty from ancient times to the present. This is the folk name that the people of Dang Trong gave to the two large coral archipelagos in the East Sea. Later, some scholars translated that phrase into Chinese characters as Hoang Sa, Hoang Sa chu… By the end of the 18th century, with the maturity of maritime science in general and marine cartography in particular, people separated “Bai Cat Vang” into two separate archipelagos.
The Hoang Sa archipelago in the North is called the Paracel Islands by Westerners; the Truong Sa archipelago in the South is called the Spratly Islands. The names such as “Tay Sa”, “Nam Sa” and “Tam Sa” that the Chinese created in the 20th century to call Vietnam’s “Bai Cat Vang” are just “false names” to rationalize their invasion for long-term occupation. Vietnam has sufficient historical evidence to affirm its sovereignty over the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagos since ancient times and in accordance with international law today.
Vietnam's sovereignty over the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagos was affirmed early and continuously by famous people of Nghe An.
From the first work, Toan tap Thien Nam tu chi lo do thu, written by Confucian scholar Do Ba Cong Dao in 1686, to the work Giap Ngo nien binh Nam do by Doan Quan cong Bui The Dat in 1774, or Quang Thuan dao su tap by Doctor Nguyen Huy Quynh in 1774, Dai Viet su ky tuc bien by Hoang giap Pham Nguyen Du (co-editor) or the official histories of the Nguyen dynasty later, the above-mentioned Nghe intellectuals all had clear records and descriptions of Hoang Sa and Truong Sa.
The work Toan tap Thien Nam tu chi lo do thu is the first work in Vietnam (as well as the world at that time) that mentioned the ownership of the Vietnamese feudal state over the two archipelagos of Hoang Sa and Truong Sa today. Most notably, the Confucian scholar Do Ba Cong Dao went to the field and compiled, completed under the order of Lord Trinh and presented to the Lord in the years of Chinh Hoa (1680 - 1705) which can be considered a State document - an official work of the State.
And also from the name "Bai Cat Vang", the common name that the people of Dang Trong region gave to the two archipelagos of Hoang Sa and Truong Sa today, the Confucian scholars of Dang Ngoai region later transliterated into Chinese characters as "Hoang Sa chu" or "Hoang Sa" for short and officially used this name in the famous official history or geography books at that time such as Dai Nam Thuc Luc, Dai Nam Nhat Thong Chi, Dai Nam Nhat Thong Toan Do.
After that, Duke Doan Quan Bui The Dat drew the Giap Ngo Nien Binh Nam Do before the 35th year of Canh Hung and completed it to Lord Trinh before the Southern Expedition in 1774. After capturing Phu Xuan, this was the first time the Trinh army captured the capital of the Dang Trong government and brought officials to govern, and thanks to that, for the first time, the people of Dang Ngoai were free to learn and write about the Dang Trong land so much.
Therefore, many scholars in Bac Ha, in addition to political and military activities, collected documents from scholars in Nam Ha and conducted fieldwork in localities of Dang Trong to write valuable geographical works, including Quang Thuan Dao Su Tap by Doctor Nguyen Huy Quynh, compiled from around 1774 to 1785, which mentioned that the Hoang Sa Fleet appeared and operated early, at least before the years 1774 - 1785.
The authors were all born and raised in Nghe An, not the administrative area of “Bai Cat Vang”, however, they always considered the territory and territorial waters of Dang Trong as the flesh and blood of the Fatherland and the people. Therefore, they all had the responsibility to protect and record very early, fully, seriously, continuously, consistently, and consistently. Through that, it can be seen that the management of “Bai Cat Vang” under the Nguyen Lords had become a very tight and disciplined system, and more importantly, the Vietnamese people’s awareness of the territory and territorial waters regardless of the regime or political viewpoint, affirming the Vietnamese people’s right to mastery over the two archipelagos of Hoang Sa and Truong Sa since before the 17th century.
The geographical location, natural conditions and management and exploitation of Vietnam in the Hoang Sa - Truong Sa archipelago were recorded objectively and consistently by famous people of Nghe An.
The scholar Do Ba Cong Dao opened the recording and description of “Bai Cat Vang” in a truthful and complete way: “Rising in the middle of the sea (between) Dai Chiem estuary and Sa Vinh estuary. It takes a day and a half to cross the sea to get here from Dai Chiem estuary, and half a day to cross the sea from Sa Ky estuary to get here” , the area is: “about 400 miles long and 200 miles wide”, the natural conditions are: “Every time there is a southwest wind, merchant ships from countries near the shore drift here, and when there is a northeast wind…” , the related activities are: “merchant ships sailing offshore also drift here, and all starve to death. All goods and materials are left there”; At the same time, the most important thing is to affirm the management and control of the Nguyen government in Dang Trong: "Every year at the end of winter, the Nguyen family sends 18 boats here", and the exploitation of the islands by the Vietnamese is "to get goods, mostly gold, silver, currency, guns and ammunition" .
This work provided very basic information about the geographical location, natural conditions, and sovereignty of the Phu Xuan government over the “Golden Sandbank”. The notes here are quite accurate, although some figures about the length, width, and distance from the shore are approximate. This is understandable because the Confucian scholar Do Ba Cong Dao drew the map while he was a “spy” of the Trinh Lord’s government, so he had to do it in secret, and lacked many tools and means. However, such information shows the author’s seriousness and meticulousness.
The Giap Ngo year book Nam Do, which drew and annotated “Bai Cat Vang” in an extremely simple way and did not have any annotations other than the three Nom characters “Bai Cat Vang”, did not include the geographical location, natural conditions, management and establishment of sovereignty by the Phu Xuan government, nor did it mention the Hoang Sa Fleet. This is understandable, because this is originally a “Do” (map) and not a “Do Thu” (map and books).
Furthermore, this work is purely for military purposes and not a geographical or historical work, so the author Doan Quan Cong Bui The Dat only focused on describing and drawing points closely related to military activities such as forts, ramparts, guards, etc. This set of maps only serves military purposes, so why is "Bai Cat Vang" drawn and annotated so fully?
We know that under the Nguyen Lords, the Hoang Sa team was established to exploit economic benefits. In addition, the Hoang Sa team also had the task of being ready to fight if there was an invasion from the outside. Through this, we can clearly see that the management of Hoang Sa - Truong Sa under the Nguyen Lords had reached a level of perfection in both system and regulations. Therefore, when drawing the Giap Ngo Nien Binh Nam Do, Duke Doan Quan could not miss an extremely important area such as "Bai Cat Vang".
As for the Quang Thuan Dao Su Tap by Doctor Nguyen Huy Quynh, this work was more complete and detailed than the Toan Tap Thien Nam Tu Chi Lo Do Thu by Confucian scholar Do Ba Cong Dao in that it contained detailed information about the homeland of the Hoang Sa fleet. Doctor Nguyen Huy Quynh clearly recorded the geographical location and route as well as the travel time as "From Dai Chiem gate to Hap Hoa gate is 4 canh hours, from Hap Hoa gate to Chau O gate is 3 canh hours, from Chau O to Da Dien is 3 canh hours, from Da Dien to Dai Quang Ngai gate is 3 canh hours" , more specifically "Outside this gate is Ly Son island, on the mountain there are residents, called An Vang commune" , and the extremely important information was to specifically state the homeland of the Hoang Sa fleet as well as detailed information about the team's activities : "This commune has a fleet called Sa Hoang Nhi, every year eighteen ships go out to sea, to the Sa Hoang land to get goods and gold" . Through this we have seen the new point that the Hoang Sa Nhi team of An Vang commune, after collecting all goods and products, had to return to the capital Phu Xuan.
Through this detail, we can clearly see that Hoang Sa Nhi always had to comply with the regulations and institutions of the government in terms of both organization and operation. So why were the two previous works, Toan Tap Thien Nam Tu Chi Lo Do Thu and Giap Ngo Nien Binh Nam Do , not recorded? We can see that Confucian scholar Do Ba Cong Dao and Doan Quan Cong Bui The Dat had to carry out the recording and description work in secret and far from the capital city of Phu Xuan, so they could not fully understand the schedule set by the Nguyen Lord's government for the fleet. But after the Trinh army captured Phu Xuan, Confucian scholars from Dang Ngo like Doctor Nguyen Huy Quynh were free to refer to the regime and conduct fieldwork to record.
The above works are personal records, while Dai Viet Su Ky Tuc Bien, co- edited by Hoang Giap Pham Nguyen Du, is the official history, that is, the official history of the State. Thus, through the records about Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagos in the official history Dai Viet Su Ky Tuc Bien , this is the first time that information about "Bai Cat Vang" has been officially included in the national history system.
The works of Nghe An intellectuals are similar to the documents of many other countries on Vietnam's sovereignty over the Hoang Sa - Truong Sa archipelago.
In 1696, the book Hai Ngoai Ky Su by Monk Thach Liem Thich Dai San (1633 - 1704) recorded about Hoang Sa - Truong Sa, specifically as follows: "...the sand dunes lie straight along the coast, running from the Northeast to the Southwest; the high caves are as steep as walls, the low beaches are also at sea level; the sand is dry and hard as iron, if a boat accidentally touches it, it will be destroyed; the sandbank is hundreds of miles wide, the length is so deep that it cannot be counted, it is called Van Ly Truong Sa, during the previous King's reign, every year, "dien xa" boats were sent along the sandbank, collecting gold, silver, and tools from all broken ships" [1] .
In addition, many famous Chinese figures also had similar records. As in the book Hai Quoc Do Ky , the book Hai Luc by Ta Thanh Cao wrote: "Van Ly Truong Sa (Hoang Sa) is a long strip of sand in the sea used as a fence to protect the outer border of An Nam country" [2] . Many Chinese works directly affirmed that Hoang Sa - Truong Sa were under the management and exploitation of the Vietnamese people. This is even more meaningful when at that time there was no territorial dispute, so Chinese authors all had an objective attitude in recognizing Dai Viet's sovereignty over its territorial waters and island system.
Therefore, the Overseas Chronicles or the Sea Records and many other Chinese historical works such as the Taiping Huanwu Ji, Yu Di Guang Ji, Fang Yu Sheng Lan, etc. are all reliable original works. On the one hand, they acknowledge that Hoang Sa and Truong Sa belong to Vietnam's sovereignty, on the other hand, they clearly indicate, define, and record that the southernmost point of China is only Quynh Chau Island (Hainan). The two factors mentioned above have firmly affirmed that the Chinese have never been the owners of Hoang Sa and Truong Sa.
Besides the works of the Chinese, the system of maps and documents of the Europeans is also a very important framework of documents in affirming Vietnam's sovereignty over Hoang Sa and Truong Sa. Among the oldest maps of the East Sea region is the map set drawn by Van Langren of the Netherlands in 1595. This map set is rich with many clear details when the author drew the place names of our country. In addition to the mainland is the coast of Costa da Paracel, opposite Pulocanton (Cu Lao Re) in Quang Ngai province, and outside there are the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa archipelagos drawn as swallow-tailed flags [3] . Or like the 17th century map of Asia published by the Dutch East India Company, it shows the Hoang Sa area lying on the important strategic international maritime traffic routes under Vietnam's sovereignty.
Most notably are the two sets of maps: Partie de la Cochinchine printed in the Atlas Universel (1827) compiled by geographer Philippe Vandermaelen and published in Belgium in 1827. This map depicts the Hoang Sa archipelago with the international name Paracels and an introduction to the Kingdom of An Nam [4] ; and the map Tabula Gesographica imperii Anammitici - An Nam Dai Quoc Hoa Do by Bishop Jean Louis Taberd published in 1838, depicting the Hoang Sa archipelago with the international name Paracels located in the waters of Vietnam with the caption "Paracels seu Cat Vang" [5] ... Thus, it is clear that Westerners came to the Hoang Sa and Truong Sa waters from the end of the 15th century to the beginning of the 16th century, and recognized the sovereignty of the feudal state of Vietnam over these two archipelagos.
Thus, among the first 5 works written about “Bai Cat Vang”, 4 works were authored (or co-authored) by Nghe An people. This is truly a great source of pride for the land and people of Nghe An, and at the same time, a driving force to further stimulate the creative work of Nghe An people in the process of integration and innovation of the country in modern times.
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[1] Thich Dai San (2016), Overseas Chronicles, University of Education Publishing House, Hanoi, p. 182.
[2] 海錄, 粤東謝清高著, 補讀軒藏版.
[3] People's Committee of Da Nang City (2016), Hoang Sa Yearbook, Information and Communication Publishing House, Hanoi.
[4] People's Committee of Da Nang City (2016), Hoang Sa Yearbook, Information and Communication Publishing House, Hanoi.
[5] People's Committee of Da Nang City (2016), Hoang Sa Yearbook, Information and Communication Publishing House, Hanoi.
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