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Vietnam – Annam
Bronze Khai Noa Tong Bao Cash Token 24mm (3.00 grams) Struck Circa 1600.
Reference: Novak 229, Terui Pg 77
Chinese Symbols.
You are bidding on the exact item pictured, provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of Authenticity.
 After the death of Le Thanh Tong in 1497, the social-political orders he had built gradually fell apart as Dai Viet was entering its chaotic disintegration period under the reigns of his weak successors. Social upheavals, ecological crisis, corruption, irreparable failing system, political rivalry, rebellions pushed the kingdom to a climatic burst of civil war between rival clans. The last Le king was overthrown by general Mạc Đăng Dung in 1527, who promised to restore “Le Thanh Tong’s golden era and stability.” For the next six decades, from 1533 to 1592, the raging civil war between the Le loyalists and the Mạc had ruined much of the polity. The Trịnh and Nguyễn clans both assisted the Le loyalists in their struggle against the Mạc.
After the Le-Mac war ended in 1592 with the Mạc ousted from the Red River Delta, the two clans of Trịnh and Nguyễn who revived the Le dynasty emerged as the strongest powers, and resumed their own infighting, from 1627 to 1672. The northern Trịnh clan had installed themselves as regency for the Le dynasty by 1545, but in reality, they hold most power of the royal court and de-facto rulers of the northern half of Dai Viet, and began using the title Chúa (lord), which is outside of the classical hierarchy of nobility. The Le king was reduced to a figurehead, he ruled in earnest, while the Trịnh lord had total power to select and enthrone or remove any king the lord favors. The southern Nguyễn leader also began to proclaim as Chúa lord in 1558. Initially, they were considered subjects of the Le court, which was controlled by the Trịnh lord. But later, by the early 1600s, they ruled southern Dai Viet like an independent kingdom and became the main rival to the Trịnh domain. Le Thanh Tong’s legacy such as his 1463 Code and bureaucratic institutions, was revived in the north and somehow continued to persist and lasted until French Indochina period.
Before and after the war, the two Thanh Hoá clans divided the kingdom into two simultaneously coexist but rival regimes: the northern Đàng Ngoài or Tonkin ruled by the Trịnh family while the southern Đàng Trong or Cochinchina ruled by the Nguyễn family; their natural border is the city of Đồng Hới (18th parallel north). Each polity had its own independent court, however, the Nguyễn lord still sought to subordinate himself with the Royal House of Lê, which also stayed under Trịnh supervision, trying to pretend an imaginary unity. Paying homage and respect to the Le king remained a source of both lords’ legitimacy and of adherence to the idea of a unified Vietnamese state, even if such a thing no longer existed or was loosely emptied.
The Tay Son rebellion of the late 18th century Dai Viet was an extraordinary movement of Dai Viet’s chaotic period when the three Tay Son brothers divided the kingdom into three subordinating but independently realms ruled by them who all declared kings: Nguyen Hue controlled the north, Nguyen Nhac controlled the central, and Nguyen Lu controlled the Mekong Delta.
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