The lost “Middle Kingdom”: deciphering the erased tianxia in Vietnamese historical cognition

This contrapuntal review explores the theme of tianxia by analyzing the politics of translation in Vietnamese historical cognition. Starting with the 1427 proclamation by Le Loi, where Vietnam was explicitly styled as the “Middle Kingdom,” this review contrasts these historical realities with modern Vietnamese translations. It argues that the linguistic transition from Hán Nôm (Sinitic characters) to Chữ Quốc Ngữ (romanized script) has functioned as a filter of decolonization. By rendering the cosmological concept of tianxia as “the whole country” ( cả nước ), modern orthography executed an erasure of Vietnam’s imperial past and its dual strategy of external submission and internal hegemony. This case from the former Sino-script space illustrates that imperial hierarchies and center–periphery dynamics are not exclusively East–West constructs but intricately embedded within the Global South itself.