Ngo QuyenArticle Free Pass Ngo Quyen, (born 897?—died 944),
Vietnamese liberator, known for his military tactics, who
founded the first enduring Vietnamese dynasty and laid the
foundation for an independent Vietnamese kingdom, which he
called Nam Viet. Ngo Quyen was prefect, under Chinese
domination, of Giao Chau province in the valley of the Red River
in what is now northern Vietnam. In 938–939 he defeated the
Chinese at the Bach Dang River north of modern Haiphong and
declared an autonomous kingdom. He established his capital on
the Red River at Co Loa, believed to have been the capital of
Vietnam’s legendary Au Lac dynasty. Ngo Quyen could maintain
only a tenuous control over his domain because feudal lords,
known as su quan, refused to cooperate with his centralized
authority. They tried to wrest power from Ngo Quyen, who barely
managed to save the throne for his successors. Ngo Quyen’s
military tactics, used to expel the Chinese in 939, were
imitated by later generals in the course of Vietnamese history.