The north

For seven weeks in late 1618 and early 1619, sky gazers around the world watched what came to be called “the great comet of 1618.” Europeans called it “the angry star” because of the remarkable length and reddish hue of its tail and because it was visible even during daylight. Astronomers, astrologers, and doomsayers in all parts of Europe wrote about it, whether as an interesting natural phenomenon or as a portent of calamity. The comet prompted such a degree of popular fear and agitation that King James I of England penned a poem to remind his subjects that, although it may well be a divine sign, there is no way to know what it means, for human thought cannot penetrate the purpose of God.

Vietnamese also watched this comet, and the recorded reactions to it in the two Vietnamese realms show that northerners and southerners were on different paths of historical experience. Southerners may have felt wonderment, if not fear, as they viewed the comet but made no recorded connection between it and public affairs; they simply noted it as a celestial event. Men in the north, however, viewed it as the climax of a series of heavenly warnings that public affairs were in disorder.