Ming China in Vietnam and Valois France in Italy: Political Actors and Public Narratives of Invasion and Occupation in the Premodern World ______
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MING CHINA IN VIETNAM AND VALOIS FRANCE IN ITALY: POLITICAL ACTORS AND PUBLIC NARRATIVES OF INVASION AND OCCUPATION IN THE PREMODERN WORLD ____________________________________ A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of California State University, Fullerton ____________________________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in History ____________________________________ By Joey Low Thesis Committee Approval: Gayle Brunelle, Department of History, Chair Jochen Burgtorf, Department of History Sun Laichen, Department of History Spring, 2018 ABSTRACT In 1406, the armies of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644) invaded Dai Viet, or present-day Vietnam. Zhu Di, or the Yongle emperor (r. 1403-1424), ousted Ho Quy Ly (1336-1407?) of the Ho dynasty (1400-1407), leading to an occupation of twenty years. Nearly ninety years later in 1494, the French army invaded Naples in southern Italy. Charles VIII (r. 1483-1498) then ousted the Aragonese dynasty, all the while proposing to use Naples as a base from which to start a crusade against the Ottomans. Both conquests did not last long. The Vietnamese defeated their oppressors in 1427. A coalition of European powers forced the French regime back to France in 1495. The French continued to invade Italy until 1559. Based on its comparison within a framework of narrative theory of the public narratives as presented by the Ming dynasty and French monarchy to justify their wars, this thesis shows that despite their geographical, contextual, political, and cultural differences, the Ming and French invasions possessed three major things in common and one disparity: (1) both the Ming emperor and the French kings utilized just war concepts rooted in ideological traditions in their public narratives; (2) these rulers relied on dubious historical claims to justify their wars; (3) internal and foreign ministers exerted tremendous influence on the creation of these wars; and (4) both narratives differed on the prevalence of prophecy, a recurring element in Italy, but not in China nor Vietnam. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................. vi A NOTE ON TERMINOLOGY .................................................................................... vii Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................ 1 The Main Issues and Their Significance............................................................... 4 Historiography of Global Comparisons ................................................................ 5 Methodology ......................................................................................................... 10 Roadmap and Argument ....................................................................................... 12 2. THE MING INVASION OF VIETNAM: THE BACKGROUND ...................... 15 Opening ................................................................................................................. 15 Origins of Chinese-Vietnamese Connections ....................................................... 15 The Two Usurpers ................................................................................................ 17 Tensions Build, Emperors Clash .......................................................................... 21 The Invasion and Occupation of Vietnam, 1406-1428 ......................................... 27 3. THE FRENCH INVASION OF ITALY: THE BACKGROUND ....................... 31 Opening ................................................................................................................. 31 Origins of French Intervention in Southern Italy.................................................. 31 The Call to Italy: Crusades, Prophecy, and Ministers .......................................... 35 “He Conquered before He even Saw:” The Invasion of Naples, 1494-1495 ....... 42 The Invasion and Occupation of Milan, 1499-1521 ............................................. 46 4. ZHU DI’S INJUNCTIONS AND CHARLES VIII’S MANIFESTO: A COMPARISON OF TWO CONQUERORS’ NARRATIVES ............................ 51 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 51 Just War Concepts from China and Europe .......................................................... 53 Zhu Di’s Public Narrative ..................................................................................... 57 Charles VIII’s Public Narrative ............................................................................ 64 Comparison of the Two Narratives ....................................................................... 70 iii Concluding Remarks............................................................................................. 72 5. THE SECOND COMING OF CHARLEMAGNE AND MAITREYA: A DIVERGENCE IN THE PRESENCE OF PROPHECY IN FRENCH AND MING PUBLIC NARRATIVES ................................................ 73 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 73 Christian and Buddhist Concepts of Messianism ................................................. 74 Supernaturalism and Millenarianism in France and Italy, 1494-1495.................. 77 Various Prophetic Literature in the French Invasion of Milan, 1499-1525.......... 82 Narrative Creation in French and Italian Prophecies ............................................ 85 Buddhist Millenarianism in Premodern China and Vietnam, 1000-1450 ............ 87 Comparison of the Two Case Studies and Concluding Remarks ......................... 94 6. JIAOZHI AND CISALPINE GAUL: COMPARISON OF THE RATIONALES OF TERRITORIAL CLAIMS .................................................... 96 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 96 Concepts of Historical Claims in Premodern China and France .......................... 97 Ming China’s Narrative of the Reclamation of Vietnam ...................................... 100 The Composition of a Narrative: Mac Thuy’s Petition and Zhang Fu’s Report .. 102 French Narratives of Historical Claims to Italy .................................................... 105 The Tonso-Rizzo Dialogues, April 17, 1500 ........................................................ 109 Comparison of the Two Case Studies and Concluding Remarks ......................... 113 7. AMBITIOUS AND GREEDY POLITICAL ACTORS IN COUNTER- NARRATIVES ..................................................................................................... 115 Introduction ........................................................................................................... 115 The Economic Background of Premodern Vietnam ............................................. 117 The Quest for Wealth: Exiles, Ministers, and Collaborators in Ming China and Vietnam .............................................................................................................. 119 The Economic Background of Premodern Italy ................................................... 125 “Chaos and Ladders:” Exiles and Ministers in the French Invasion of Naples .... 126 Patterns of Material Ambitions in the Invasion of Milan, 1499-1521 .................. 130 Comparison of the Two Case Studies and Concluding Remarks ......................... 137 8. CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................... 140 The Impact of Traditional Ideology on Premodern Foreign Invasions ................ 142 Suggestions of a Pattern ........................................................................................ 144 iv APPENDICES ............................................................................................................... 146 A. SOME PARALLELS BETWEEN THE MING INVASION OF VIETNAM AND THE FRENCH INVASION OF ITALY .......................... 146 B. FAMILY TREES ........................................................................................... 147 C. FIGURES ....................................................................................................... 149 BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................................................................................... 153 v ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I owe the completion of this study to many individuals, and I would like to take a moment to thank everyone who supported me. To my thesis committee members, Drs. Gayle Brunelle, Jochen Burgtorf, and Laichen Sun: without your guidance and encouragement, this research would not have been possible at all. I thank Dr. Brunelle for serving as my chair, reading over my research, giving me insightful comments, and pushing me to work harder. I appreciated her confidence and assistance in my graduate studies. Dr. Burgtorf was instrumental in helping me formulate my approach to this thesis. He was fantastic in giving me advice during his office hours, and I owe a great debt to his intelligent suggestions. To Dr. Sun, I want to thank him for being a great mentor and listening to my ideas in his office hours. He taught me much about the Ming invasion of Vietnam and led me to the wonders of Southeast Asian history. Finally, I thank my family and friends for encouraging and motivating me to finish this thesis.