The sea edge of the kingdom from the Bạch Đằng mouth to the Ka Long: the islands of Bái Tử Long and Cát Bà, the Hạ Long coast, the headland of Đồ Sơn with the Tường Long tower, Yên Tử's mountain and Vân Đồn, the licensed foreign port (since 1149).
Foreign ships are meant to trade at Vân Đồn and go no further. Fishers and salt-makers live along the coast; the Bạch Đằng is the river where the Viet beat Chinese fleets in 938 and 981 (board).
Who holds it
- Title
- The island authority at Vân Đồn and the court's coastal officers
- Confidence
- low
English Wikipedia (Van Don); board
Overlord
The king.
How things stand that morning
Working; not pinned.
Wealth
Foreign trade dues, fish, salt, pearls.
Military
Coast-watching boats and island posts; no numbers.
Threats
- Pirates
- A Cham or Khmer raid by sea
What the year holds
What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.
- 1288Tran Hung Dao destroys the retreating Mongol fleet in the Bach Dang estuary (the campaign board).Depends on: A Mongol invasion and a Tran regime. Stopped by: No Mongol war.
Places of note
- Van Don: Port
- Do Son: Headland and tower
- Yen Tu: Hermitage
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: The campaign board entry description and a polygon built from modern districts; nothing in our sources dates the unit to 1200.
"The campaign board" is OMNIA's working map. These notes record where its earlier claims were checked against the sources.
On the map: A union of modern districts standing for the country; the real edge was not a line (a raiding belt or a day's walk of hills).
Primary sources for Dai Viet (Ly)
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- The Abridged History of Viet, Anonymous (attributed by some to Su Hy Nhan) (about 1377, probably as an abridgement of Le Van Huu's lost history of 1272). The oldest surviving Vietnamese history, a century older than the Complete Annals and in places fuller for the Ly dynasty, which fills its second and third books.
- The Complete Annals of Dai Viet, Ngo Si Lien, drawing on Le Van Huu's Dai Viet su ky (1272) and Phan Phu Tien; continued by Pham Cong Tru and Le Hi (1479; printed 1697 in the standard Chinh Hoa edition). The main narrative source for Dai Viet in 1200, compiled in 1479 from Le Van Huu's lost history of 1272. Read online
- History of Song, chapters 488 and 489: Jiaozhi, Dali, Champa, Zhenla, Pagan, Srivijaya, Java, Brunei, Chola and Tambralinga, Toqto'a (Tuotuo) and the Yuan history office, from the Song court records (1343 to 1345, from Song veritable records and court diaries). The Chinese court's record of its southern neighbours, compiled from Song archives. Read online
- The Unofficial History of Nanzhao, Yang Shen; revised by Hu Wei (16th century, revised 1775, from Dali and Yunnan traditions and lost local histories). The kingdom of Dali has no surviving text of 1200: its own records were destroyed in the Mongol conquest and after, and the Song shi's Dali entry ends in 1175. Read online
- History of the Song, the chapters on Xia and on foreign states, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345). The Song court's accounts of its neighbours, each arranged as an annal of embassies and wars. Read online
- Draft Compilation of the Collected Statutes of the Song, Various; the Song huiyao were compiled by the Song state, the surviving draft reassembled by Xu Song from the Yongle dadian in the nineteenth century (the original Song compilations date from the eleventh to the thirteenth century; the surviving extracts were recovered in 1809 to 1820 and printed in 1936). Dated extracts from the Song government's own statute collections, arranged by office. Read online
- Corpus of the Inscriptions of Campa (EFEO and ISAW), Various (the Cham kings and their officers), edited by Arlo Griffiths, Amandine Lepoutre, William Southworth and Thanh Phan (inscriptions of the 4th to 15th centuries; the online corpus from 2012). The online edition of the Cham inscriptions, with photographs, texts and translations, keyed to the C. numbers. Read online
- The Inscriptions of Cambodia, Various (the Khmer kings and their officers), edited by George Coedes (inscriptions of the 6th to 14th centuries; edited 1937 to 1966). The Khmer empire of 1200 is known almost entirely from the great foundation stelae of Jayavarman VII (reigning from 1181), which Coedes edited: the Ta Prohm stele of 1186 (K. Read online
Sources and studies
- Vân Đồn, English Wikipedia (read)
- OMNIA board notes for the Vietnam and Champa area (a lead, not a source)
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.