The Origin of The Word "Lac"
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)
In An Nam chí lược Lê Tắc wrote "According to Giao Châu ngoại vực ký, when the districts were not formed yet, farmers cultivated depending on tides. The farmers were called Lac people; the ruler was Lac King, supported by Lac Generals, using bronze seal and green silk as their emblems".(2)
Despite some differences in wording and writing style, both quotes above point to the same fact: in the ancient Viet, the farms were called Lac farms; the farmers were called Lac people, with Lac King and Lac Generals.
The most important sign of the Lac civilization is the bronze drum. After his invasion of Viet in 41 BC, Ma Yuan (14 - 49 BC) took away so many Viet bronze drums that he had to melt them to cast a horse that he later offered to his King Han Kuang-wu (25-57 BC). Chinese history books called the bronze drums in ancient Viet "Lac Viet bronze drums".
Thus, following Lac farms, Lac people, Lac King, Lac Generals is the Lac bronze drums. In the above Chinese documents, "Lac Viet" refers to the ethnic Vietnamese living in ancient Lac farms, who are the ancestors of the Vietnamese.(3)
Many images are found on the Lac Viet drum, among which is the image of birds. No explanation could be found on the drawings, or the metaphor of the drawings, that were engraved on the drum. Also, ancient books did not explain the kind of birds found on the drum. In other words, the drawings on the Lac Viet drum are "unspeakable" figures. All explanations by scholars and writers can only be taken as interpretations or hypotheses; no one could fully decode the meaning behind the drawings.
In addition, the drawings on the Lac Viet drum are colourless. Colour is very important to birds because colour can help distinguish one bird from another. For example, in Ontario, Canada, the Azores sparrows look like other sparrows, except their red breasts and their whistling (sparrows are not songbirds!). Visitors to Niagara Falls, on the Canadian shore, can hear joyful bird whistling and they can spot the Azores sparrows on tree branches easily.
There is no Azores sparrow in Vietnam. If you took a black and white picture of Azores sparrows to Vietnam, and said that these birds whistle very well, then no one there would believe you because to them, sparrows do not whistle. So, the lack of colour in the Lac Viet drums makes it more difficult to trace and understand the image of birds on these drums.
