The meaning of the character 粤 in the Complete Annals of Đại Việt.

Hello friends! I was reading the Complete Annals of Đại Việt and I saw this sentence:

“繄大越史記之書，載前代帝王之政，粤肇南邦之繼嗣，實與北朝而抗衡。”

The character 粤 makes me confused. In this sentence, it could mean the state of Yue in the Warring States period, but maybe it is only a particle without real meaning.

What is the meaning of 粤 in the phrase 粤肇南邦之繼嗣? Please tell me. Thank you!

Bit of a guess, but reads like 粤肇南邦 is an alternative/literary name for 大越 - the annals of Dai Viet contained records of the doings of the former kings; the line of succession of the Southern State could stand comparison with that of the Northern dynasties.

   Thank you for your idea. But I’m sorry, I don’t really understand what you mean.

   I think the character 粤 in the phrase 粤肇南邦之繼嗣 might be a noun, referring to the Yue people in southern China. Based on the passage “繄大越史記之書，載前代帝王之政，粤肇南邦之繼嗣，實與北朝而抗衡。”, with my level of Classical Chinese, if 粤 were only a meaningless particle, then I would understand the sentence as saying that the Đại Việt sử ký records the affairs of former kings, and therefore the book itself creates the line of succession of the southern state, making it powerful enough to stand equal to the northern dynasties. That seems strange, because how could a book itself create the political history of a land?

   (Sorry, I don’t have enough ability to translate the sentence “繄大越史記之書，載前代帝王之政，粤肇南邦之繼嗣，實與北朝而抗衡。” directly into English, because I am not very good at Classical Chinese. I can only share what I understand about its meaning).

On 2/5/2026 at 9:50 PM, 悅盟黎至豪 said:

But I’m sorry, I don’t really understand what you mean

I mean that the four characters 粤肇南邦 are another way of saying Dai Viet, just as Huaxia is an alternative, more literary, way of talking about China. Both 粤 and 肇 are present because of their geographical associations with locations in the kingdom; in that sense 粤 is indeed a noun.

The book creates a record of the doings of the Dai Viet kings; these successive generations of kings - this is what the 繼嗣 of the 粤肇南邦 refers to - can rival the the dynasties of the north, i.e. the implication is Dai Viet is every bit as great a nation as China proper and similarly ancient and storied.

I understand now, thank you very much! Your ideas have helped me gain a deeper understanding of Vietnamese history.

On 2/6/2026 at 1:15 AM, Just4reg said:

 肇: start

I did wonder; that would change the meaning a fair amount; something like "Dai Viet began a succession of kings of the southern states"?