Two Asian heroines who rose up against the Han dynasty for Nanyue (Vietnam) independence. Following the Han dynasty that enslaved Vietnam in 111 BC and executed Trung Trac's husband for protesting against inflating tax prices in an unfair trial, the enraged Trung Sisters joined the Vietnamese military to ride on elephants with swords to rally up their troops against Han soldiers, who prohibited women from joining the military to remain as house wives due to Confucius' sexist teachings. In spite of the Trung Sisters managing to hold off the Hans for a few years, most of the Trung Sisters' forces were suppressed and they were surrounded by the Hans. In the Vietnamese records, the Trung Sisters jumped off a cliff to commit suicide to avoid capture. In the Chinese records, the Trung Sisters were caught and decapitated by the Hans to keep their heads as souvenirs. After the Trung Sisters' deaths, the Hans executed all of the Trung Sisters' supporters and banned Yue customs in favor of Han customs more strictly than before. Fortunately, in 939 AD, Vietnam regained independence from the collapsed Tang dynasty. Hence, Vietnam recovered its own culture and freedom until the French took over in 1887, but it regained its own nation after the Vietcong won in the Vietnam War of the 20th century.
The will of the Trung Sisters influences the Vietnamese to stay together as a country and to never be slaves to any foreign nations, such as China, Japan, France, or the USA, ever again. Without the Trung Sisters' righteous actions against the Hans, Vietnam would have still been a territory of China today, unlike Asian territories, such as Manchuria, Tibet, Xinjiang (East Turkestan), the Minyue Kingdom (present-day Fujian/Hokkien) and the Nanyue Kingdom (present-day Guangxi and Guangdong, except for present-day North Vietnam). Even in the present, the Vietnamese people pay respects for the Trung Sisters yearly at a Hanoi temple, which is named after the sisters.
by TheUnknown21 February 8, 2020