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Asia-Pacific Social Science Review

Abstract

The biography of the Hồng Bàng Clan is considered as a legend, a semi-historical document and an important part of the Viet’s cultural heritage. According to this work, the Viet people are the descendants of Shen Nong (an ancestor of the Han Chinese), migrating from China to the Red River Delta. A large number of scholars have built a Hundred Viet/ 百越 hypothesis, also known as “migration-from-the-north hypothesis” from this document. Throughout the long history, Hồng Bàng legend has created popular misunderstandings of the Viet about their origin and misconceptions for later researchers of various subjects, such as literature, linguistics, history, and ethnology. By using the interdisciplinary and ethnographic methodology, this research provides an overview of the Hồng Bàng legend, points out illogical statements, and gives a plausible hypothesis for it. In addition, by analyzing ancient historical documents and examining modern molecular biology, this paper supplies the supportive arguments for “migration-from-the-south hypothesis” which plays a crucial role in determining Vietnamese ancient history.

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