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military operations, a practice that continued right up until study the Chinese military classics (Wujing qishu 五經七書),
the end of the Ming dynasty. 83 by instituting military examinations modelled after those of
More significant perhaps than the sheer numbers of the Ming. Thus, while scholars such as John Whitmore
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weapons (inflated or not) are the kinds of technologies the have long contended that bureaucratic and administrative
Chinese acquired, or more accurately, the refinements to centralisation spurred by the Ming occupation was crucial
existing technologies. First of all, as noted above, the to the Vietnamese defeat of Champa, only recently have
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Vietnamese seem to have refined the design of the fire lance scholars recognised the fact that improved Chinese-derived
by placing a wooden wad behind the arrow made of military technology was a vital component of this process. It
ironwood, which was native to the region. This greatly also aided additional Vietnamese expansion to the west. In
extended the effective range of the weapon out to some 300 fact, archaeological and textual information suggests that so
paces. The technique is not found in older Chinese guns, many firearms were being manufactured in Vietnam in the
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but has been found in specimens dating from 1415. The late 15th century that the government had to establish
Vietnamese also appear to have devised a priming pan lid to additional weapons depots specifically for the storage of
prevent fuses on matchlocks from getting wet in the steamy firearms.
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tropical climate. Surviving Chinese guns from as early as In any event, it seems reasonable to assume that firearms
1415 possess this innovation, which has not been reliably played a critical role in state formation and consolidation in
confirmed in Ming weapons prior to 1410. Moreover, this Asia in the 15th and 16th centuries and that the majority of
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innovation was also apparently incorporated into European- the firearms in question – almost all of them prior to 1511 –
style cannon manufactured in China over the next 150 years, were Chinese in origin or derived from Chinese rather than
though the technique was abandoned in the late 16th European models. Likewise it is striking how many features
century as more modern European firearms made their of the Chinese bureaucratic state, whether consciously
appearance in East Asia. adopted and copied as in the case of the Vietnamese, or
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These improvements were most likely introduced by the coincidentally mimicked as in other cases, are present in
aforementioned Vietnamese craftsmen sent to Nanjing in these emerging polities. In this sense Peter Lorge’s assertion
the wake of the initial Ming invasion. Altogether some that European states became more ‘modern’ militarily and
17,000 captives were taken back to China and at least some organisationally by becoming more like the Chinese state
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were renowned as firearms experts. Their lives were spared seems perfectly tenable. It also reveals an unintended
in exchange for their service in the Ming Ministry of consequence of the Ming practice of overawing neighbours.
Works. Their descendants served the Ming until 1489, and In addition to its obvious significance for the histories of
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the official Hồ Nguyên Trừng (胡元澄, ?1374–?1446) was China and Vietnam respectively, the Ming decision to
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later honoured in China as a god of firearms. Later Ming invade its southern neighbour needs to be considered within
records indicate that certain firearms had been transmitted the broader context of Ming grand strategy and the desire of
from Vietnam and adopted to great effect against the the Ming to assert and maintain its hegemony in Asia. As
Mongols, but Li Bin and Sun Laichen have persuasively Geoffrey Wade has noted in Chapter 2 of this volume, Ming
argued that it was these improvements, rather than the efforts in Vietnam were certainly colonial in nature but also
weapons themselves, that were transmitted from Vietnam. carried out in conjunction with the great naval expeditions,
And a Qing era source specifically states that what the Ming which were a form of maritime proto-colonialism whereby
acquired in the invasion of Vietnam were ‘firearms the Ming sought to extend their own commercial and
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techniques’, after which they established the firearms political interests by means of both diplomacy and force. In
training division so as to drill the men in the use of this light the Ming needs to be viewed more dynamically as
firearms. Nonetheless, this testifies to the importance of an expansionist early modern gunpowder empire that
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technological diffusion and exchanges between the states of presaged the later activities of the Spanish and Portuguese in
Asia prior to the Western engagement in the region and certain key respects. And while some have interpreted the
highlights regional dynamism in the early modern era. Ming defeat in Vietnam as the ‘beginning of China’s fall
In the other direction, after the withdrawal of the Ming from her position of preeminence’, the fact that the Ming
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in 1427, the Lê dynasty (1428–1527) in Vietnam added successfully repulsed Japan’s invasion of Korea more than
specialised firearms units to its military and created many 150 years later as well as the reconstruction of the tributary
warships equipped with heavy cannon for its navy. Firearms system by the Qing attests to the viability of both the
arsenals were also added to pre-existing arsenals. To Chinese empire and the system itself.
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facilitate greater weapons production, much copper and Ming actions were also, as demonstrated herein, very
other materials were imported into Vietnam from Yunnan important for subsequent political and administrative
and other provinces of southern China, and illegal trade in developments in Southeast Asia and for commercial and
weapon-making materials flourished. The Vietnamese in technological dissemination. Though not as well known as
turn transmitted this technology as they fought their ceramics, Ming firearms also made their way around Asia
neighbours to the south and west, most notably in the and became an important commodity, despite the efforts of
decisive defeat of Champa in 1471. the Ming state to restrict their movement in hopes of
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Furthermore, in addition to manufacturing and maintaining their military superiority. Indeed, the
deploying Chinese-derived weapons against their Cham consequences of the Ming occupation of Vietnam would
foes, the Vietnamese reorganised their military organisation resonate for centuries and lead to just the kind of ‘domino
along Chinese lines and encouraged their military officers to effect’ feared by 20th-century Cold Warriors, with states

Causes and Consequences of the Ming Intervention in Vietnam in the Early Fifteenth Century | 43