Trung Sisters' Rebellion

In March 40 CE, the sisters Trung Trac and Trung Nhi led an uprising against Han Chinese rule in the commandery of Jiaozhi, in what is now northern Vietnam, after the Chinese governor Su Ding had executed Trung Trac's husband, Thi Sach. Their rebellion spread rapidly from the Red River Delta across a wide area stretching from Hepu to Rinan, drawing support from an estimated sixty-five towns and settlements and briefly driving Chinese administrators from the region, after which Trung Trac was proclaimed ruler of the newly independent territory. The Han imperial court under Emperor Guangwu responded by dispatching the general Ma Yuan with an army of roughly 20,000 soldiers in 42 CE, which defeated the sisters' forces by 43 CE; Chinese sources record that the sisters were either killed in battle or took their own lives rather than surrender. Although their independent state lasted only about three years, the Trung sisters are honored in Vietnam as national heroines and as the earliest recorded leaders of Vietnamese resistance to foreign rule, a legacy still marked by temples, place names and their continuing prominence in Vietnamese national memory.