The Bird Image On "Lac Viet" Ancient Drum

By: Trần Gia Phụng

Translated by Nguyễn Khắc Phụng

Excerpt:

The origin of the word "Lac" in "Lac Viet" (Lo Yueh) is traced to a paragraph in the Chinese book Giao Châu ngoại vực ký published during the Jin dynasty (265-420), which has been quoted in many Chinese history books such as Thuỷ Kinh chú - Lịch Đạo Nguyên published in the 6th century, and An Nam chí lược by Lê Tắc (who was a Vietnamese living in China in the 13th century), etc. Lịch Đạo Nguyên has the following quote from Giao Châu ngoại vực ký "When Giao Chi was not organized as districts yet, the cultivatable lands were called Lac farms and the farming depended on tides. The people who lived there were called Lac people. They later had Lac King, Lac Knights and many Lac Generals who ruled the districts, using bronze seal and green silk as their symbols of authority" .(1)