Question : During the 1000 years of Chinese occupation in Vietnam, did the Vietnamese consider themselves a separate people from the Chinese, or did they think of themselves as similar in heritage?
Answer : Surely, No-one could answer your question which could persuade all of us much due to lack of evidence or historical documents. In each period of Vietnamese history, especially 1000 years of being occupied and colonized by China, China, and the Chinese Empires have tried to erase all the Vietnamese identity and assimilate the Vietnamese into the Chinese Han but failed miserably. However, through the indirect evidence and also indirectly historical documents, We see that the concept of the Vietnamese identity has always attached tightly with the concept of the Southern nation - Vietnam in contrary to the Northern Nation - China which led to countless rebellions of the Vietnamese against the Chinese colonization within around 1000 years. There are some points to confirm that the Vietnamese ( Southern people ) consider themselves a separate people from the Chinese ( Northern people )
Firstly , the Vietnamese have always seen their first state - Van Lang led by the Hung Kings of the Hong Bang Dynasty 2879–258 BC , not the Chinese Xia Dynasty 2070–1600 BC. From generation to generation of the Vietnamese have always been taught that they are descendants of the Lac Hong, of the Hung Kings instead of the Chinese Huaxia.
After 1000 years of being occupied by China, the exchange of culture between the two nations is unavoidable which led to the similarities. But the Vietnamese have never identified themselves as having the same heritage as the Chinese even though they have learned much from the Chinese civilization. Just as now, Vietnam also has learned much from the western civilization but they have never seen themselves as the westerners.
Secondly , The Vietnamese language and the Chinese language are different and even have not the same root. The Vietnamese people at that time speak their own language - the Vietic language instead of the Chinese language. So, about language, the Vietnamese often see themselves as different from the Chinese.
According to Google, the Vietnamese language is classified as the Austro-Asiatic language family and the Chinese belong to the Sino-Tibetan language family.
Thirdly, There are countless rebellions and uprisings of the Vietnamese against the Chinese colonial rules during the Chinese occupation era such as:
Trung Sister's revolt against the Chinese Han occupation and restored the independence of Vietnam and ruled Vietnam briefly until 43 AD. The Trung Sisters Kings only retook the short independent period for Vietnam with Linh Nam Kingdom but it has inspired the next and next rebels of the Vietnamese against the Chinese rules until completely restoring full independence in 938AD.
“…with a single cry [the Trưng sisters] led the prefectures of Cửu Chân, Nhật Nam, Hợp Phố, and 65 strongholds heed their call. They… proclaimed their rule as easily as their turning over their hands. It awakened all of us that we can be independent… i n the span of more than one thousand years, men of this land only bowed their heads and accepted the fate of servitude to the people from the North”
(Vietnam was under the Chinese Han colonial rule
After defeating the rebellion, the Han forces also appear to have massacred most of the Lạc Việt aristocracy, beheading five to ten thousand people and deporting several hundred families to China. After the Trưng sisters were dead, Ma Yuan spent most of the year 43 building up the Han administration in the Red River Delta and preparing the local society for direct Han rule.[20] General Ma Yuan aggressively sinicized the culture and customs of the local people, removing their tribal ways, so they could be more easily governed by Han China . He melted down the Lac bronze drums, their chieftains' symbol of authority, to cast a statue of a horse, which he presented to Emperor Guangwu when he returned to Luoyang in the autumn of 44 AD. [1] In Ma Yuan’s letter to his nephews, while campaigning in Jiaozhi, he quoted a Chinese saying: “If you do not succeed in sculpting a swan, the result will still look like a duck.
Lady Trieu's revolt 248 AD
She is quoted as saying, "I'd like to ride storms, kill orcas in the open sea , drive out the aggressors, reconquer the country , undo the ties of serfdom, and never bend my back to be the concubine of whatever man.
Ly Bi revolt in 542–545 AD and restored another short period of independence of Vietnam from 545–602AD with his early Ly Dynasty.
Mai Hac De revolt 713–722AD
Phung Hung revolt 776–794 AD
Khuc Thua Dua revolt 905–906 AD and retook the autonomous right for Vietnam.
Duong Dinh Nghe revolt against the first Chinese Southern Han invasion and retook the autonomous right for Vietnam 930–931 AD.
Ngo Quyen revolt against the second Chinese Southern Han invasion and officially restored the full independence for Vietnam in 938, established the fourth Dynasty of the Vietnamese - Ngo Dynasty 939–965AD after the Hong Bang Dynasty 2879–258BC, Thuc Dynasty 258–180BC, the Early Ly Dynasty 545–602AD, and ended about 1000 years of the Chinese domination from 180BC-938AD.
The question is that if at that time, the Vietnamese considered themselves as the Chinese Han, Why the Chinese states and rulers must try to erase the Vietnamese culture and customs, assimilate the Vietnamese people?
In conclusion: From What I have said above, the Vietnamese identity has been attached to the establishment and development of the Vietnamese states and the Vietnamese nation which is always perceived as different from the Chinese states and the Chinese nation even during the period of being Chinese domination about 1000 years. So, we could conclude that during the 1000 years of Chinese occupation in Vietnam, the Vietnamese or the people in Vietnam consider themselves separate people from the Chinese.
P/s: Another attempt of the Chinese state trying to erase the Vietnamese identity happened around 1407–1428, the fourth and also last period of the Chinese domination of Vietnam .
An entry in the Ming Shilu ( traditional Chinese : 明實錄; simplified Chinese : 明实录) dated 15 August 1406 recorded an imperial order from Emperor Yongle that instructed for Vietnamese records such as maps and registers to be saved and preserved by the Chinese army:
己未敕征討安南總兵官成國公朱能等曰師入安南下郡邑凡得文籍圖志皆勿毀。 [24]
In addition, according to Yueqiaoshu (Chinese: 越嶠書, Vietnamese: Việt kiệu thư), on August 21, 1406, the Yongle Emperor issued an order to Ming soldiers in Annam:
兵入。除釋道經板經文不燬。外一切書板文字以至俚俗童蒙所習。如上大人丘乙已之類。片紙隻字悉皆燬之。其境內中國 所立碑刻則存之。但是安南所立者悉壞之。一字不存。 [25] "Once our army enters Annam, except Buddhist and Taoist text; all books and notes, including folklore and children book, should be burnt. The stelae erected by China should be protected carefully, while those erected by Annam, should be completely annihilated. Do not spare even one character."
On the 21st day of the 5th lunar month of the following year, Emperor Yongle issued another order to Ming soldiers in Annam:
屢嘗諭爾凡安南所有一切書板文字。以至俚俗童蒙所習。如上大人丘乙已之類。片紙隻字及彼處自立碑刻。見者即便毀壞勿存 。今聞軍中所得文字不即令軍人焚毀。必檢視然後焚之。且軍人多不識字。若一一令其如此。必致傳遞遺失者多。爾今宜一如前敕。號令軍中但遇彼處所有一應文字即便焚毀。毋得存留。 [25] "I have repeatedly told you all to burnt all Annamese books, including folklore and children books and the local stelae should be destroyed immediately upon sight. Recently I heard our soldiers hesitated and read those books before burning them. Most soldiers do not know how to read, so it will be a waste of our time. Now you have to strictly obey my previous command, and burn all local books upon sight without hesitation.
The Chinese colonists encouraging the Ming Confucian ideology, bureaucratic and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C