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| 1257–58 |
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| The Mongols tried to surround the Southern Song by entering northern Dai Viêt, but they were repelled. After the defeat of the Song in 1279, the Mongols sent an emissary to Thang-long, as was their practice, to secure a Vietnamese surrender or tell them they would face Khubilai's wrath. Fighting ensued. | 1 |
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| 1272 |
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| The first comprehensive history of Vietnam, in 30 volumes, was published. | 2 |
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| 1284 |
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| Mongol armies swept into Dai Viêt, took Thang-long, and won a number of early victories. The Vietnamese counterattack trapped Mongol forces in the inclement heat and humidity, cut them off from troop support, and finally routed them. | 3 |
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| 1287–88 |
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| Immense land and seaborne Mongol forces descended on Dai Viêt. Far outnumbered, Vietnamese forces resorted to guerrilla tactics, cut off Mongol armies from their supply lines, and soundly defeated them. | 4 |
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| 1340s |
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| A series of domestic rebellions erupted as the Trân central leadership declined sharply through the 14th century. | 5 |
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| 1390s |
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| After two decades of regional wars, particularly with Champa, a modicum of stability was attained by Hô Quy Ly (1336–1407), leader of a powerful family. During these years the great Buddhist aristocracy was also in ruins. | 6 |
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| 1400 |
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| Hô Quy Ly seized the throne for himself, but his kingship was not widely accepted. | 7 |
| Probably during the 13th century, the Vietnamese developed their own written script, based on the Chinese ideographic language. Called chu nôm or nôm, its fortunes as a literary language waxed and waned over the centuries. | 8 |
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| 1406 |
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| In the disorder that ensued, Emperor Yongle in China, under the Ming dynasty, sent armies to Dai Viêt, occupied the country, and tried to transform it into a province of the Chinese Empire (See 1402–24). However, this plan soon foundered, and it was abandoned shortly after the death of Yongle in 1424. | 9 |
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| 1418 |
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| Lê Loi (1385–1433), a rich landlord, led Vietnamese forces in the first of a series of battles against the Chinese armies. The Ming forces were finally defeated in 1428. | 10 |
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| 1428–1527 |
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| Lê Loi founded the Lê dynasty. Lê Loi (or Le Thai-tô) himself reigned for only five years, followed by several short reigns dominated by regents. To placate China, Dai Viêt sent a tributary mission once every three years to the Ming court. Lê Loi started to rebuild the educational system with a national university and an examination system. There was as well an effort to redistribute land according to the equal-field system of China, in part to prevent the reemergence of great landed clans. | 11 |
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| 1460–97 |
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| During the celebrated reign of Le Thanh-tông (b. 1442), a wide range of reform measures in the realms of law, landholding, and government set the form of bureaucratic rule for all subsequent, precolonial rule. He continued the land distribution policies of Lê Loi. To enlarge the amount of arable land in Dai Viêt, Cham terrain was annexed in 1471. Eventually a decisive victory was sustained over Champa, giving Dai Viêt further access to the south. This was also an age of great cultural achievements and scholarship. | 12 |
| The Ming invasion had destroyed much of the aristocratic Buddhist tradition established in Ly and Trân times. The new elite was now comprised of military clans and scholar-officials, as in China, of the Neo-Confucian sort. Le Thanh-tông strongly supported Confucianization in Dai Viêt. The chaos that followed the reign of Le Thanh-tông threw Vietnam into a succession of civil a?pGnd regional wars that continued for many years. (See Vietnam, 1527–1802) | 13 |
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