Person
Trung Nhi
Younger sister of Trung Trac, who rose up with her in Giao Chi in the year 40. The sources barely name her except beside her sister, and her end in 43 is recorded together with her sister's, in different words in each history.
At a glance
- Role
- Rose up with her sister in the year 40; the Complete Annals record that Trung Trac, with her younger sister Nhi, raised troops, attacked and took the seat of the province12
- Family
- Younger sister of Trung Trac1
- End
- Recorded together with her sister, in different words in each source. The Book of the Later Han: Ma Yuan beheaded Trung Trac and Trung Nhi — the biography of Ma Yuan says in the first month of 43, with the heads sent to Luoyang, the chapter on the southern peoples says in summer, the fourth month; the Complete Annals: the sisters resisted the Han army and, their position isolated, both were overwhelmed and perished; the Cuong muc: defeated and died; the Viet Nam su luoc of 1920: the two sisters threw themselves into the Hat river and took their own lives34567
Life
The old chronicles say
In the histories she appears almost only as a name standing beside her sister. The Book of the Later Han records that in the year 40, under the governor of Giao Chi, To Dinh, Trung Trac rose up together with her younger sister Trung Nhi; the Complete Annals record that Trung Trac, with her younger sister Nhi, raised troops, attacked and took the seat of the province. By 43 the two share a single ending: the Book of the Later Han says Ma Yuan beheaded Trung Trac and Trung Nhi, though one chapter says the first month and the other the fourth; the Complete Annals say the sisters resisted the Han army and, their position isolated, both were overwhelmed and perished, and stop at those words: no manner of death, no place, no date.12345
How later ages remembered
By the fifteenth century the Trung sisters were already deities. Ngo Si Lien writes that Lady Trung could still ward off calamity after her death; whenever drought or flood came and people went to pray, there was never a time the prayer went unanswered, and her younger sister, Trung Nhi, was the same. Earlier, in 1160, in the reign of Ly Anh Tong, the Complete Annals record that the Ly court built a temple to the Trung sisters in Bo Cai ward.98
Mentioned in
- Episode 4The Trung sisters rise up, AD 4015 min
- Episode 5The three years of Queen Trung10 min
- Episode 6Ma Yuan: Lang Bac and Cam Khe14 min
Sources for this page
Every row of the profile and every passage below points to one of these documents. How we choose and check sources