Triệu Thị Trinh (chữ Hán: 趙氏貞), also known as Triệu Ẩu (趙嫗) or Bà Triệu (Lady Trieu) (225 - 248) was a female warrior in 3rd century Vietnam who managed to, for a time, successfully resist the Chinese during their occupation of Vietnam. She is described as the Vietnamese "Joan of Arc".
Traditional Vietnamese Account
According to modern Vietnamese history, Triệu Thị Trinh was born in Son Trung Village in the Trieu Son District of the Thanh Hoa province (situated in today's northern Vietnam) on the 2nd October AD 225. At this time, the area was under the control of the Eastern Wu Kingdom, one of China's Three Kingdoms. She was orphaned at a young age and lived with her brother Triệu Quốc Đạt (趙國達) and his wife until she was twenty years old. It was said that she was treated like a slave in their home.
When she was twenty, she could no longer stand by and watch Wu dominate her homeland. She fled into the jungle and set up her own military camp where she went on to amass an army of at least a thousand men and women soldiers. When her brother tried to persuade her from rebelling, she told him "I'd rather surf the rough waves, ride the strong winds, kill the whales of the East Sea, fight the Wu to gain independence than be a slave."
Triệu Thị Trinh managed to successfully liberate an area of Vietnam which she claimed as her territory and from there set up her own administration. By the time Thị Trinh was 23 she had defeated Wu advances on thirty separate occasions. She managed to defend her territory for several months and it was said that she rode into battle on the back of an elephant, clad in golden armour carrying a sword in each hand. A quote from the Chinese at the times goes: "It would be easier to fight a tiger, than to fight the Lady Queen."
However in AD 248 Wu managed to defeat Thị Trinh's forces and recaptured the territory which she had previously liberated from them. To protect her honour and to elude death at the hands of the Chinese, she committed suicide by drowning herself in a nearby river. There is another version of her suicide, saying that she was trampled to death by elephants.
Some legends claim that she was a nine-foot tall and rode on a huge elephant with 3-4 foot long giant breasts laid over her shoulders. Her voice was as loud as a temple bell, and put all her male enemies to fear and she was able to eat a bushel of rice and walk 1,500 miles in a single day. She could bathe in the blood of enemies, but did not even like a tiny bit of dirt. So a Chinese general made his troops kick up lots of dust while naked, thus making her flee in disgust so her small army lost.
Historical Controversy
There is some controversy concerning the existence Triệu Thị Trinh. She is not mentioned in any Vietnamese historical records written before the 1600s during the Lê Dynasty and she does not appear at all in any Chinese historical records. She does however appear in many modern Vietnamese histories.
Chinese historical records however does mention of a revolt in the commanderies of Jiaozhi (交趾, Viet: Giao Chỉ) and Jiuzhen (九真, Viet: Cửu Chân) in AD 248 , but there is no mention of Trieu Au. Jiaozhi and Jiuzhen were two of the three commanderies, the other being and Ri' nan (日南郡, Viet: Nhật Nam), set up in present day North Vietnam. The recorded rebel leaders were named Gao Liang, Qu Shuai, and Huang Wu. The revolt was put down by Lu Yin (陆胤), a minor Wu officer and junior relative of Lu Xun (陸遜).
Because she is only mentioned in modern Vietnamese histories, some historians go so far as to contend that she is a fictional folk-hero. Others historians believe that she is an obscure character that was not recorded in earlier history because her revolt was rather short lived and was quickly put down by the equally obscure Lu Yin, or that her exploits were originally not as successful as they were later made out to be.
Impact
The stories of the Triệu Thị Trinh and of other famous women warriors, the Trưng Sisters, are cited by some historians as hints that Vietnamese society before Sinicization was a matriarchal one, where there are no obstacles for women in assuming leadership roles.
Triệu Thị Trinh is a greatly celebrated Vietnamese heroine and many streets are named after her in Vietnamese cities. She also has a national holiday dedicated to her, and a part of Hanoi with her name.