superintendents’, with the status of Chinese ministers. All conducted
their official relations with China via Yunnan.
None of these ‘pacification superintendencies’ had ever been
administratively part of China. But there was one area that once had
been part of the empire, and that was, of course, Vietnam. The Ming
attempt to reimpose Chinese rule over Vietnam coincided with its pro-
jection of naval power into the Nanyang and beyond, and clearly
formed part of a concerted policy both to expand the empire and to
strengthen and extend Chinese influence.
In 1400 a powerful Vietnamese mandarin named Ho Quy Ly took
advantage of the political turmoil in China to replace the child
emperor of Vietnam, last of the Tran dynasty, with his own son and to
proclaim a new dynasty. Once the Yongle Emperor’s victory was
assured, tribute was sent to the new Son of Heaven, who graciously
recognised the new Vietnamese dynasty. However, in response to
appeals by supplicants claiming to be members of the Tran royal family,
Yongle saw an opportunity to reassert Chinese control over Vietnam,
and seized it.
The pretexts given for the Ming invasion of Vietnam in 1406
focused on the crimes committed by Ho Quy Ly and the need to
punish them in order to protect the Vietnamese people. Forgotten
were the reassurances of Hongwu that Vietnam need not fear Chinese
attack. As always, aggressive Chinese action was given moral justifi-
cation by placing all the blame on Vietnam. Twenty crimes were listed,
the most serious of which were that the Vietnamese had murdered the
legitimate Tran ruler and his family, and assassinated the Chinese-
backed Tran pretender; that they had deceived the Chinese about the
Ho usurpation; that they had insulted China by sending a criminal as
an envoy; that they had encroached on Chinese territory; and that
they had attacked Champa, a vassal of China, and annexed some of
its territory.^9 In other words, Ho Quy Ly had disrupted the peace and
order that China desired to maintain on its southern frontier. All
Yongle intended in invading Vietnam, so he claimed, was to restore
Sea power, tribute and trade