The Hồng Bàng period, also called the Hồng Bàng dynasty, is a legendary, semimythical period in Vietnamese history spanning from the political union in 2879 BCE of many tribes of the northern Red River Valley to the conquest by An Dương Vương in 258 BCE.
Vietnamese chronicles from the fifteenth century, namely the Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư, claim that the period began with Kinh Dương Vương as the first Hùng king (Vietnamese: Hùng Vương), a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Vietnamese rulers of this period.
The Hùng king is the absolute monarch of the country (then known as Xích Quỷ and later Văn Lang) and, at least in theory, wields complete control of the land and its resources.
The history of the Hồng Bàng epoch occurs in a series of eighteen Hùng king dynasties, divided by cultural periods.
The Hùng king period is thriving along with the water-rice civilization in the Red River Delta, throughout most of the Bronze Age.
Numerous wars are fought in the late stage of the period.
