Annan (Tang protectorate)
historical protectorate of China in northern Vietnam
The Annan Duhufu Chinese: 安南都護府; pinyin: Ānnán Dūhùfǔ; Vietnamese: An Nam đô hộ phủ, "Protectorate General to Pacify the South") shortened as Annan ( Vietnamese: An Nam) was an imperial protectorate and the southernmost administrative division of the Tang dynasty and Wu Zhou dynasty of China from 679 to 866, located in modern-day Vietnam.
In 679, the Annan Protectorate replaced the Jiaozhou Protectorate (Chinese: 交州; pinyin: Jiāozhōu) , also known as Jiaozhi (Chinese: 交趾; pinyin: Jiāozhǐ; Vietnamese: Giao Chỉ), with its seat situated in Songping County (宋平縣) (modern Hanoi). Annan was renamed to Zhennan for a brief period from 757 to 760 before reverting to Annan.
After coming under attack by Nanzhao in 864, the Annan Protectorate was renamed Jinghai Military Command (C. Jinghaiguan; V. Tĩnh Hải quân) upon its reconquest by Gao Pian in 866. Today the same area is sometimes known as Tonkin (Chinese: 東京; pinyin: Dōngjīng; Vietnamese: Đông Kinh), the "eastern capital" of Đại Việt. Locally, the area is known as Bắc Kỳ (北圻), the "northern area".
History
Predecessors
The territory was conquered by the Qin dynasty general Zhao Tuo after the death of Qin Shi Huang. In the chaos surrounding the Chu–Han Contention, he declared its independence as Nanyue and ruled from Panyu (modern Guangzhou). Jiaozhou was the Han dynasty country subdivision formed from the annexation of this tributary kingdom in 111 BCE and it initially comprised the areas of modern Guangdong, Guangxi, and northern Vietnam.
During the Three Kingdoms era, Eastern Wu split from Liangguang as Guangzhou in 222 CE. Tang rule in northern Vietnam began in 622 after Qiu He, the Chinese warlord recognized Tang authority.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Annan (Tang protectorate)” is historical protectorate of China in northern Vietnam. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Annan, Tang and protectorate, not as a finished interpretation.
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Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1155895. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Annan (Tang protectorate)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.