Post date: 19/10/2009

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History of the establishment of Quang Binh province

HISTORY OF THE ESTABLISHMENT OF QUANG BINH PROVINCE

In the history of the establishment and development of Vietnamese people, Quang Binh has always been a sacred and spiritual land area of Vietnam territory. Quang Binh land in the current time has experienced changes in the territorial border and title. According to the old documents about the time when Hung King formed the first nation of the ancient Vietnamese people, Quang Binh belonged to a territory of Viet Thuong tribe - one of the 15 tribes of the Van Lang nation.

In the periods of the Chinese dynasties, Vietnam was under the domination of the northern feudal regime and Quang Binh area was either in the territory of Tuong Lam district or Nhat Nam district at different times, under the domination of the northern feudal regime.

In 192, Dong Han dynasty was defeated and had to withdraw its troops to China. Then, Quang Binh was in the territory of Lam Ap. Until 758, Lam Ap territory was renamed into Chiem Thanh and then Quang Binh belonged to two administrative divisions of Chau Bo Minh and Chau Dia Ly.

In 1069, in order to break the plot to cooperate for negative reason of Tong and Chien Thanh aggressors, a troop of Dai Viet led and commanded by King Ly Thanh Tong and Marshal Ly Thuong Kiet, approached to and struck Cham-pa imperial city, arrested the King of Chiem dynasty - Che Cu. To atone for his sin, the King of Chiem divided his territory into 3 provinces, namely Bo Chinh, Ma Linh and Dia Ly (including Quang Binh and Quang Tri) to offer to Ly dynasty. And Quang Binh was returned to its origin Dai Viet since then.

In 1075, Ly Thuong Kiet changed the names of the provinces: Bố Chinh into Bố Chính and Địa Lý into Lâm Bình. Since then, Quang Binh land was officially inked on the map of the country. It was Ly Thuong Kiet - the first person contributing to the identification and laying the first foundation stone of Quang Binh, making it an integral territorial area as it is at present.

After the period of Ly Thuong Kiet, the borders and name of this area experienced many changes: In 1361, King Tran Due Tong re-changed the name of the administrative unit of Lam Binh province into Tan Binh district and in 1375, Tran Due Tong changed the district of Lam Binh into Tan Binh.

Under the Le dynasty, the period of Le Thanh Tong King (1460-1497), Tan Binh dsitrict belonged to Thuan Hoa province.

Until the period of Nguyen Hoang (1558-1604), the area in the north area of Gianh River was called as Dang Ngoai and the south area of Giang River called as Dang Trong. In 1605, Nguyen Hoang changed the province of Bo Chinh into Quang Binh administrative unit and the name Quang Binh was created since then.

Nguyen Hue was the contributor to the termination of the North-South internal war which had been prolonged for more than 200 years. With the Gianh River as frontier line, he set the unification of the North and the South, abolishing the 2 provinces of South Bo Chinh and North Bo Chinh and establishing the province Thuan Chinh (the word ‘Thuan” means living in peace and no more war).

In 1802, after suppressing Tay Son movement and establishing Nguyen dynasty, Nguyen Phuc Anh became a king and took the name “Gia Long”. The King Gia Long re-used the names for Quang Binh area as Bo Chinh noi and Bo Chinh ngoai to distinguish Dang Trong and Dang Ngoai to ease the conferral of titles for his officials and to set tax rates for local people living on either sides of Gianh river.

In 1832, in the time of Minh Mang King, Bo Chinh was re-named as Quang Binh again (and the name Quang Binh as an administrative unit used since then). From that time until the period of Thieu Tri King, the whole province had two administrative units and six districts (of which imperial city was an administrative unit with many districts). Quang Ninh administrative unit had three districts, namely Phong Loc, Phong Dang and Le Thuy (Dong Hoi belonged to Quang Ninh administrative unit). And Quang Trach administrative unit included three districts: Bo Trach, Binh Chanh and Minh Chanh.

After the Can Vuong (meaning Aid the King) movement until before 1945, Quang Binh had two imperial cities (at this time, imperial city excluded districts): Quang Ninh and Quang Trach and three districts: Le Thuy, Bo Trach and Tuyen Hoa (during the whole period under French colony in Nguyen dynasty, Dong Hoi was the center of Quang Binh province).

After the August war in Vietnam (19 August 1945), at the time the Democratic Republic of Vietnam was established, Quang Binh had 5 districts: Le Thuy, Quang Ninh, Bo Trach, Quang Trach, Tuyen Hoa and Dong Hoi town (until 1965, Tuyen Hoa was divided into 2 distinct districts namely Tuyen Hoa and Minh Hoa up to September 1975).
Since 20 September 1975, the Central Government issued a decision for mergence of 3 provinces of Quang Binh, Quang Tri and Thua Thien Hue province into one province, namely Binh-Tri-Thien with Hue City as the provincial center.

Since then, there was also the mergence of some districts of the old Quang Binh province, specifically the Quang Ninh and Le Ninh districts merging into Le Ninh new district and Tuyen Hoa and Minh Hoa into Tuyen Minh district.

Satisfying the expectation of the authorities and people of Binh Tri Thien province, the Central Government issued another decision, dated 01 July 1989, on re-dividing the province into the 3 old provinces as before. Since then, Quang Binh re-changed its districts into the same as it was before the mergence of the provinces. On 12 December 2004, the Government issued a decision on upgrading Dong Hoi to the third-grade city belonging to the Province.

Currently (2006), the whole province has 141 communes, 10 wards, 8 towns and 1 city.

Source: Quang Binh Website