The Nguyen imperial dynasty (1802–1945) emerged from the ashes of a brutal civil war fought over the last three decades of the eighteenth century. On taking power, its rulers faced enormous difficulties in establishing their authority. Thirty years of warfare had drained the country’s resources and exhausted its people. Moreover, at the outset of their reign, the Nguyen rulers’ legitimacy remained tenuous, and they repeatedly tried to secure a greater base of political support. Both partisans of the defeated Tay Son regime and, even more significantly, those remaining loyal to the Le dynasty in the north initially resisted switching their allegiance. Some actively organized armed resistance, while many others simply refused to offer their services to the new rulers. Socioeconomic problems also eroded the strength of the early Nguyen, as large-scale rural uprisings were a major problem into the 1830s. Finally, the Nguyen rulers needed to control the largest expanse of territory ever governed by a Vietnamese court.
The challenge of controlling a large territory was particularly intractable and, in some ways, was never fully resolved. The compromise by the first Nguyen ruler, the Gia Long emperor (r. 1802–1820), was to permit the northern and southern sections of the country, centered on Thang Long and Gia Dinh, respectively, to temporarily maintain some political autonomy under the authority of warlords answerable to the imperial court at Hue. This arrangement gave the Nguyen rulers breathing space to consolidate their authority at the center and to work on building up the court institutions. But in other respects, it merely deferred issues of regionalism, which continued to fester until the rule of Gia Long’s successor, the Minh Mang emperor (r. 1820–1840).
Gia Long was succeeded not by his eldest son, Prince Canh, who had died in 1801, but by another son, by a favored concubine. The choice of Prince Chi Dam was announced in 1816 and met with considerable opposition from a court faction that favored Prince Canh’s son, the emperor’s grandson. The selection of Prince Chi Dam may have been based on his being eight years older than the other prince but was surely determined partly by his considerable training in Confucian learning. Some scholars argue that Gia Long also selected the prince because he was known to be hostile to Christianity and that as founder of the dynasty, he wanted a successor who would confront any challenge from the Europeans. Whatever Gia Long’s reasoning, elements within the court continued to resist the choice of Chi Dam. As a result, the first years of Chi Dam’s reign as the Minh Mang emperor were spent consolidating his authority while confronting opposition within the court, as well as some distrust by the largely autonomous warlord Le Van Duyet (1763–1832), who governed in the south. Another consequence of this preoccupation with court matters was that the system of political autonomy for the southern and northern reaches of the kingdom continued into the first decade of the Minh Mang reign.
Once Minh Mang had consolidated his authority, however, he began to turn his efforts to integrating the realm more fully and directly. This attempt was met with substantial resistance in the southern provinces, eventually exploding into the Le Van Khoi rebellion of 1833, in which Le Van Duyet’s adopted son led an uprising against the central court in Hue. Le Van Khoi’s challenge was the most dramatic manifestation of the regionalisms that underlay the new Nguyen imperial regime. Minh Mang’s successful suppression of the Le Van Khoi rebellion in 1834 marked a significant turning point in the rise of centralized authority. Thereafter, Minh Mang worked aggressively to impose direct court control over the previously autonomous regions, and his edict of 1835 to the southern populations demonstrates this assertive policy. The last five years of Minh Mang’s reign thus might be regarded as the apex of the Nguyen dynasty’s power.
In the nineteenth century, the political commitment to Confucianist doctrine strengthened substantially, although the extent to which this permeated Vietnamese society at large is debatable. Both Gia Long and his successor sought to establish a government and a society substantially shaped by Confucian orthodoxy. This restructuring along Chinese and Confucian lines took place on a scale not seen since the height of the Le dynasty’s Hong Duc reign in the last three decades of the fifteenth century. The Vietnamese court sought both to emulate and to surpass its Chinese neighbors in its efforts, which were driven partly by a desire to legitimate itself in the eyes of the literati and partly by a need to restore order to a society emerging from years of warfare and dynastic decline. This commitment to Confucian doctrine is also reflected in the Nguyen restoration of the civil service examinations, in court rituals and commemorations, and in the Nguyen rulers’ paternalistic reiteration of behavioral and cultural guidelines. The rulers made an extensive effort to stamp out unorthodox religious practices as well as excessive expenditures on village and family celebrations. Early in his reign, Gia Long issued a lengthy edict (1804) in which he offered a detailed survey of various cultural excesses and improprieties and announced new regulations to curtail these practices. The edict also sought to curb lavish spending for local rituals and to halt the practice of what were regarded as unorthodox religious observances. Three decades later, in 1834, as part of his consolidation of central authority, Minh Mang issued another edict in which he standardized the state’s expectations of proper behavior and conduct through ten moral maxims. These maxims were to be read each year to all villagers, as a reminder of what the court expected from them.
While internal stability was a chief concern of the Nguyen rulers, Europe’s growing attention to the Asian mainland became a problem as well. In the nineteenth century, the Vietnamese court was characterized by a peculiar combination of engagement with and distancing from the European powers. The early Nguyen rulers kept a number of Europeans in their employ, including several holdovers from among the French missionaries and mercenaries who had helped the Nguyen defeat their Tay Son rivals. At the same time, Hue was concerned about Europe’s increasing interest in various parts of Southeast Asia. Both Britain’s colonial conquest of Burma (Myanmar) and its challenges along the Chinese coast were seen as possible signs of danger. While not entirely closing off their country to foreign trade and influence, the Nguyen rulers nonetheless sought to keep the Europeans at bay. In 1840, Minh Mang issued an edict in which he noted the plight of the Qing court, which was forced to yield to European demands for ports and trading access in the aftermath of the First Opium War. The Vietnamese ruler observed that the Chinese had been too lenient in permitting the Europeans access to their country, a mistake the Vietnamese would try to avoid, thus steering clear of the Qing court’s problems.
Although this stance was in some ways naïve, the Nguyen rulers had not merely buried their heads in the sand. Indeed, Minh Mang and his successors made numerous efforts to learn more about the Europeans, including sending officials to visit European colonial outposts in Southeast Asia. The literatus Phan Huy Chu, for instance, traveled to Singapore and Batavia in 1833 and wrote a report of his impressions of the European colonies there (“Summary Record of a Sea Journey”). In 1847, the Thieu Tri emperor (r. 1840–1847) sent a diplomatic mission to Paris, partly as an attempt to negotiate with the French, but also to gain information about challenges faced by his court. Then, in the 1860s, the Tu Duc emperor (r. 1848–1883) sent several missions to France, one of which included Nguyen Truong To (1828–1871), a noted advocate of reform, who drafted numerous memorials urging radical political and social changes based on what he had seen and read while abroad. Although Nguyen Truong To’s was a lonely voice for reform in Tu Duc’s court, it represented a singular perspective, for he was both a trained Confucian scholar and a Catholic who had received some education in mission schools. Nguyen Truong To’s sweeping advocation of the implementation of a new vernacular writing system, the transformation of the educational system, and greater freedom of religion, among other matters, was well ahead of its time. But even if the emperor had wanted to carry out any of these changes, there was a strong sense that their implementation would remove the very underpinnings of the court’s legitimacy, which were strongly tied to conventional Confucian education and ritual.
The nexus of Vietnamese engagement with the Europeans was the French missionaries, whose numbers and determination increased during the 1830s and 1840s. Even though Gia Long had tolerated the missionaries’ presence, he had done so in the Napoleonic years, during which France was preoccupied with events in Europe and few missionaries went to Vietnam. Then, both the post-Napoleonic peace in Europe and the rise of French religious fervor in the mid-nineteenth century contributed to the growing missionary activity in Asia, including Vietnam. Although Christianity was perceived as corroding Confucian bonds and familial relationships, the Nguyen rulers were not as concerned about its doctrines as about its contribution to political factionalism. Their concern stemmed from a feeling of weakness and fear of Christians’ participation in internal politics, in particular their siding with court factions or regional forces allied against the emperor. Despite the court’s pragmatic concern, imperial edicts opposing the religion were couched in ideological terms, invoking Christianity’s contributions to disrupting the social order. We have included here an extended critique of Christianity by the Minh Mang emperor after two officials refused to renounce their faith, arguing that to do so would be unfilial to their Christian fathers.
The increasing persecution of Christians, in the form of both edicts and, in some cases, the execution of missionaries, provoked outrage in France, which in turn served to justify more aggressive French imperial actions against Vietnam. Persecution of missionaries, however, was little more than a convenient rationale for French intervention. Although subsequent French demands did include the protection of missionaries and their freedom to preach, these appear almost as afterthoughts in long lists of other demands focused on trade, unfettered access to the Vietnamese territories, and the establishment of military installations. Moreover, the French dusted off the never-fulfilled treaty between Nguyen Anh and Louis XVI as evidence of French territorial claims in Vietnam.1 Even though the French claim rested on spurious legal grounds, the treaty nonetheless proved to be a useful tool during the internal French debates about whether and why to intervene. Meanwhile, there were fierce debates at the Nguyen court as well, regarding how best to respond to the French encroachment. The rationale of the so-called peace faction is central to the 1862 text “Debating French Demands,” arguing that resistance to the French would be futile and a temporary accommodation to French demands would be a more pragmatic response.
The independent dynasty of the Nguyen came to an end during the lengthy reign of the Tu Duc emperor (r. 1848–1883), who came to power only to face an uprising from court factions loyal to another member of the royal family. Even though Tu Duc succeeded in suppressing the uprising, it was an inauspicious start to his reign. Moreover, there had been suspicions that the rebels had been in contact with Vietnamese Christians, once again raising concerns about Christian involvement in political actions that challenged the throne. This, not surprisingly, led to additional crackdowns on Catholic missionaries and their Christian followers, a move that further fueled French antagonisms.
Despite the political turmoil it faced, the Nguyen dynasty saw a remarkable outpouring of literary texts, at both the official and private levels. At the private level, a wide range of scholars across the country produced historical accounts and local gazetteers. In fact, gazetteers became very popular in the nineteenth century, examples of which survey the entire realm and individual provinces or regions. These texts are particularly valuable for having preserved many local tales and traditions and for providing information about prominent local figures, whether military heroes, notable scholars, or even the mothers of important historical figures, as in Tran Dam Trai’s “Two Noteworthy Women.” The Nguyen court itself oversaw the production of numerous large-scale projects to compile histories, biographies, ritual manuals, and geographies, all the while keeping detailed records of daily court affairs. Indeed, the outpouring of texts in the nineteenth century represents a remarkably rich written legacy of the Nguyen dynasty. The wealth of material from the nineteenth century reflects its greater proximity to our own time, but it also reflects a period in which the Nguyen court was intent on establishing its legitimacy. Its production of these texts was a significant part of this legitimation project.
The early Nguyen period is, regrettably, often viewed as merely a prelude to European intervention and French colonization. The readings selected here attest to the European presence and include texts relating to Christianity, encounters with Europeans, and the negotiations that resulted in the loss of the six southern provinces. Most, however, focus on other issues, from the significant writings of the greatest nineteenth-century literatus Phan Huy Chu on taxation and natural resources, to the edicts concerning domestic politics issued by the Gia Long and Minh Mang emperors. Other texts deal with imperial concerns about morality and behavior. We also offer several extended excerpts from Trinh Hoai Duc’s Gia Dinh Citadel Records, a detailed gazetteer of the Gia Dinh region that describes customs and cultural practices in the southern realm. This we contrast with selections from Truong Vinh Ky’s description of his 1876 trip to the northern reaches of the country, in which he comments on cultural and social practices in and around Hanoi. These two readings, in particular, bring to life Vietnamese daily practices and beliefs, making concrete what often remains abstract in the more rarified documents produced by emperors and other elites. In both instances, the accounts are produced by scholar elites, but it should be fairly clear that their descriptions ring true, reflecting firsthand knowledge of ordinary people’s daily lives. We hope that the documents selected for inclusion here make clear that in the nineteenth century, the presence of Europeans and their increasing interest in Vietnam were not yet defining features of the Vietnamese worldview. Although Vietnamese rulers had to contend with these challenges, until the 1870s or early 1880s a great many other issues concerned them and attracted the attention of the Vietnamese literati.
NAMING THE COUNTRY VIET NAM (1804)
Although touching only on a brief episode in the history of the early Nguyen dynasty, the following edict deals with a significant element of Vietnamese national identity. It marks the moment at which the court formally adopted the name by which the country is known today. Before the early nineteenth century, the country called itself Dai Viet (Great Viet). This term of self-reference was not, however, adopted by its neighbors, most notably the Chinese court, which persisted in calling the Vietnamese state An Nam (Pacified South). Ironically, the very name Viet Nam set forth by the Nguyen emperor in this edict was bestowed by the Chinese themselves. Immediately after coming to power in 1802, the Nguyen had sent a diplomatic delegation to the Qing court, requesting permission to call their country Nam Viet (Southern Viet). To the Chinese court, however, this name had defiant historical overtones, for it recalled a third-century B.C.E. southern kingdom that had resisted Chinese authority. It seemed to suggest that there might be “Viets” both north and south of their mutual border, hinting at the possibility of Vietnamese territorial claims on Chinese lands. Moreover, the Quang Trung emperor had recently threatened a military campaign to “recapture” the two southern Chinese provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi, which also made the Chinese particularly sensitive to this possibility. Consequently, the Qing court insisted that the Nguyen reverse the order of the terms to Viet Nam, the present-day name of the country. Interestingly, the term was largely ignored by both the Vietnamese and the Chinese through most of the nineteenth century, with the Chinese continuing to use the name An Nam, and the Vietnamese reverting to Dai Viet in 1813 and later adopting Dai Nam, a name formalized under the Minh Mang emperor.
On the dinh suu day, the matter of establishing the national name as Viet Nam was brought before the imperial court. At the imperial palace, the emperor accepted the court’s congratulations and then issued a proclamation to be distributed to inform those both inside and outside [the court]. The edict stated: “When the ancestral emperors founded the country, they first had to decide on a name for the nation in order to clearly express its unity. In examining our lineage of ancestral sage kings, we see that they established the foundations and, in the beginning, devised the earth and fire sacrifices, and opened the territory of Viem Bang, which comprised the lands from Viet Thuong southward.2 At that time they used the character ‘Viet’ to serve as the name of the country. For more than two hundred years, continuous harmony and great brilliance in abundance were recorded. The gods and spirits transmitted, continued, and protected these foundations, and both inside and out all was calm because of this good fortune. Then suddenly, the country’s fortunes encountered hardship, and at this time, although we regarded ourselves as small in person, we were concerned with pacifying rebels and disorderly attacks. Relying on the help granted us by the spirits, we have been able to continue our mandate after the interregnum, and the entirety of our enfeoffed territories of Giao Nam has been returned to our domain. The extreme difficulties are obvious, so we intend to make intense efforts at upright conduct to bring about renewal. Accordingly, we chose the seventeenth day of the second month of this year to respectfully announce at the temples of the imperial palace a change in the country’s name to ‘Viet Nam’ in order to establish the great foundations, which will be bequeathed to the distant future. All matters of state pertaining to the name of the kingdom and all the documents that we send to inform foreign countries will use Viet Nam to serve as the name of the country, and they are no longer to use the old name of An Nam.” [The emperor] also sent down this edict to be announced to the countries of Siam and Luzon and to the dependent states of Cambodia and Laos so that they might all know of it.
[Dai Nam thuc luc (hereafter, DNTL) (1961–), 3:646–47; DNTL (2004–2007), 1:588; trans. George Dutton]
NAMING THE COUNTRY DAI NAM (1838)
By 1838, the Minh Mang emperor had fully consolidated his authority and had brought the previously semiautonomous northern and southern parts of the country under his direct authority. The decision to adopt a new name for the country was made in part to reflect this new era of unity. It also was a way to underscore the reality that the realm’s southward expansion had reconfigured its geographical orientation. The emperor justified this action by noting that Chinese courts had similarly changed the terms used to describe their realm, in part to reflect changing times. As the decree points out, the term “Viet,” which had been part of the national name since the tenth century, would remain at least an implicit part of the nation’s name. In contrast, the shift to using the name Dai Nam allowed the Vietnamese court to step away from Viet Nam, which it had adopted reluctantly in 1804 after it was bestowed on it by the Chinese court. Although the Vietnamese shifted to using the name Dai Nam on internal official documents and texts, the court retained Viet Nam for its official interactions with the Chinese court.
Since the time of the Great Ancestor, the Gia Du emperor [Nguyen Hoang (r. 1558–1613)], our state was able to establish its foundations in the southern regions. And the succession of sagely rulers steadily enlarged the realm, governing and controlling the lands of the Viet Thuong;3 previously, the country was called “Dai Viet” by the Central Plains [that is, China], and the calendars and books also gave precedence to these two characters. In the past, the characters “An Nam” were used to distinguish them from [those] for the name “Dai Viet.” Upon reaching the era in which our Exalted Ancestor emperor brought the country of An Nam under his control, he chose “Dai Viet Nam” as the name of the country, but the calendars and books still used the two-character simplification “Dai Viet,” which, on principle, did no harm. Only the ignorant who, seeing the calendars of the An Nam kingdom of the successive Tran and Le dynasties featuring the words “Dai Viet,” erroneously saw the two terms as interchangeable, which provoked perplexity and astonishment. This was not a trifling matter for the state’s prestige. We examined all the past eras, such as the Tang and Song dynasties and even earlier ones, which used the territory under the king’s control to serve as the name of the [governed] realm under Heaven. The Yuan and the Ming, both of which disliked following the old names, selected beautiful words to serve as their states’ name. Finally, during the era of the great Qing, the original name, “Manchu,” was later changed to “great Qing.” In all these instances, the names of the country responded to the needs of the times, and all were derived from a sense of righteousness. Now our court has put the southern regions under its control and is constantly expanding these territories. From the shores of the seas to the feet of the mountains, all these lands are being brought under our command. Earlier the territory was called “Viet Nam,” but now we shall call it “Dai Nam,” which will increasingly clarify and expand its righteous name while implicitly keeping the character “Viet” in the name. The kingdom thus shall be known as “Dai Nam,” so the records and calendars must be changed to use the characters “Dai Nam.”
[Minh Mang chinh yeu (hereafter, MMCY) (1972), 1:44a–45a; MMCY (1994), 1:61; trans. George Dutton, with Joshua Herr]
VIETNAMESE GEOGRAPHICAL EXPANSION (1806)
The Geographical Records of the Unified Imperial South was produced early in the Nguyen dynasty by Le Quang Dinh (1759–1813), a close confidant of the Gia Long emperor. He had actively supported Nguyen Anh during his campaigns against the Tay Son in the 1780s and 1790s. Le Quang Dinh had also served as a member of the Nguyen embassy to China in 1802, which had sought recognition of the new Vietnamese rulers. This gazetteer provides detailed measurements between localities throughout the realm rather than the conventional practice of focusing on geographical features, cultural monuments, and prominent local residents. Thus it is a very practical guide for the Vietnamese court or others calculating distances, borders, and administrative boundaries. This excerpt is from the introduction to the text and expresses an early-nineteenth-century scholar’s view of the territorial expansion of the Vietnamese state, an expansion that reached its apogee under unified Nguyen rule.
I observe that the Rites of Zhou records that Zhi Fangshi preserved the registers and prepared records of the distances of that under Heaven and that these were presented to the ruler. The lower officials complied with the king’s decree to receive them. This [practice] has continued since the Han and Tang dynasties and through successive generations that kept records. Consequently, how can one exaggerate the extensiveness of the lands and peoples? Now that the people already are many, we must determine which mountain and river routes are difficult and which ones easy and whether each route is long or short. We must determine the boundaries of the borders and cities and discover all the details concerning the rivers and seas. Then the ruler will gradually be able to comprehend everything by unrolling a single map, and all will be arranged in his grasp. Once he fully controls all under Heaven, there will be no deficiencies.
From the time of the state’s founding by the Dinh clan, our Viet emperor has stood together side by side with the Northern court. The Southern country’s rivers and mountains already had been divided and settled in the registers of Heaven. As the Ly and the Tran dynasties followed each other, the imperium was very broad. To the north, our national boundaries abutted the interior territory [China], and to the extreme south they reached as far as Nghe An. To the south of Thanh Ha lay Champa, and to its south lay Zhenla [Cambodia]. During the middle of the Tran period, there was a further expansion incorporating the two counties of O and Ly, although these were held in name only. Then during the Le dynasty’s Quang Thuan and Hong Duc reigns [1460–1497], there was a great attack on Champa, invading as far as the northern edge of the Thach Bi mountains. Prefectures and districts were established, and an effort was made to resettle people from the north in this area. The land from the Thach Bi mountains southward remained the territory of Champa and Zhenla. Then, from the time of our Great Ancestor emperor [Nguyen Hoang], the ruler’s true foundations were marked by the flooded fields of the southern region, and from Thanh Ha southward these were separated to become a single country. The ranks of talented and virtuous ministers followed in succession, and the attributes of civilization flourished while military feats continued to increase. Our first ancestral emperor belonged to the ranks of great military leaders and began to open Champa’s territories. He moved his people into the mountainous regions of Binh Thuan. He reorganized the towns in Thuan and Thanh and enfeoffed their tribal chiefs as hereditary kings in order to provide comfort to their common people. The sounds of Heaven resonated in all four directions, and the neighboring realms were greatly frightened as we succeeded in unifying the lands of Water Zhenla [Mekong Delta region] to create the prefecture of Gia Dinh. At that time, although our territory to the south was gradually expanding, to the north, the Le family remained, whose country was our close neighboring state. During the great disorder of the giap ngo year [1774], the country went into decline. Our subjects from Tay Son took this opportunity to rise up and attack, and they usurped authority and then seized the territory. Furthermore, they attacked and drove out the Le family. All the land, from its damasks and brocades to its rivers and mountains, was seized by rebellious bandits, who made it their own. Our supreme emperor was forced to submit to a time of wandering, sojourning to foreign lands while continuing to plan his restoration and return. In the dinh mui year [1787], he came back from Siam and, in the mau than year [1788], was able to recover Gia Dinh. Then, in the tan dau year [1801], he restored the old capital [Phu Xuan]. Then, under the reign title of Gia Long, in the nham tuat year [1802], he attacked to the north, captured the false rulers, and completed the pacification of the northern region. Now, after more than two hundred years, those borders and edges have all been brought together, in the north as far as Lang Son and in the south as far as Ha Tien. There are large and small units, market towns and military encampments: thirty in all, unified as one, all becoming units of imperial cultural enlightenment. It is true that in our country of Viet, from ancient times to the present, this territory had never before been as broad and vast as this.
[Le Quang Dinh, Hoang Viet nhat thong du dia chi, 1836–28, 11–12; trans. George Dutton]
TALES OF THE COUNTRY OF CAMBODIA (1862)
The expansion of Vietnamese political authority into the southern reaches of the Indochinese peninsula led to a growing need for information about this region and its people. The number of gazetteers grew during the nineteenth century. They gathered information about all parts of the country and the histories of the peoples whose territories had been taken over by the Vietnamese, especially the Chams and the Khmers. The following excerpt from The Complete Compilation of the Geography of Dai Viet recounts one of the Khmer foundation myths describing the origins of the Cambodian state when it was known to the Vietnamese as Zhenla and relates some of the earlier history of this region. Nguyen Van Sieu (1796–1872) was a noted scholar and native of the Hanoi region who filled a series of high-level posts in the Nguyen state’s educational hierarchy. He also was part of an embassy to China in 1849. Nguyen Van Sieu submitted a number of recommendations for administrative reforms, and when they were ignored he left his position to spend the rest of his life researching and writing. The Complete Compilation is probably his best-known text, although he also wrote a number of pedagogical works.
In ancient times, Cao Man, which also is called Zhenla [Cambodia], originally belonged to the country of Funan. In the Qin period, the people of Funan were the barbarians beyond the southern boundaries of the territory of the Tuong commandary and, during the Han period, of the commandary of Nhat Nam. Then it was a neighbor of Lam Ap and was in the region of the great waters of the Western Sea to the south of the commandary of Nhat Nam. That country was several thousand li [one li is approximately one-third mile] in circumference, and the capital was five hundred li [175 miles] from the ocean. It had a large river that was more than ten li [3.5 miles] wide and flowed toward the sea from the northwest to the east. The land was low, flat, and broad, and the climate was warm in the winter, with many clouds. For this reason, the mountains were called the Misty Warm mountains, and broadly speaking, the land was quite similar to that of Lam Ap.
There is a tale as follows: A woman named Lieu Diep was the first ruler of this country. A man from the country of Khich named Hon Dien dreamed that a spirit had given him a bow. When he awoke, he found the bow under a tree in the temple to this spirit. He went directly across the sea to a place outside the capital of Funan, where Lieu Diep summoned all her troops to attack him. Hon Dien took his spirit bow and shot an arrow that squarely struck the enemy boat’s commander. Lieu Diep became frightened and surrendered, and Hon Dien took her as his wife and seized control of her country. They produced seven sons, each of whom ruled over the country’s cities, and they and their heirs succeeded one another for six generations. Then a general named Pham Tam emerged as the king of Funan. From the Han period onward, Funan was cut off by the country of Lam Ap, so envoys from Giao Chau could not reach it. Then in the Sun Wu era [Eastern Wu (222–280)], a palace attendant named Khanh Thai traveled as an envoy to that country, where he studied its people, whom he ridiculed because all of them were naked. After this, Tam ordered his sons to wear long gowns; wealthy people wore brocade; and the poor wore cotton. In the time of the Jin dynasty’s martial emperor, during the Tai Kang reign period [280–289] that country sent an envoy to offer tribute, and in return its ruler was enfeoffed as the king of Funan. Later, a Brahman from India named Kieu Tran Nhu dreamed that the spirits told him that he should become the king of Funan. So he traveled south to the land of Ban Ban, and when Funan heard of his reputation, he was welcomed and installed to serve as their king. They then changed their practices to follow the laws of India, and through the [earlier] Song, Qi, and the Liang dynasties, India regularly sent tribute. In the third year of the Dai Dong reign [538 C.E.], the king heard that [Funan] had a Buddha whose hair was one truong and two thuoc [fifteen feet] long, so he sent an envoy to go there to look at it. Because Funan venerated the Buddha, during the Liang [502–557] era the court sent many decrees praising it. Thereafter, Funan gradually became weaker and was finally taken over by Zhenla.
The country of Zhenla was also called the country of Wendan and was known too as the country of Cat Miet. The name of its founding clan was Sat Loi, and the clan leader was named Chat Da Tu Na. Starting with this ancestor, the country gradually had become strong and prosperous. By the time of Chat Da Tu Na in the era of the Chen and the Sui dynasties [557–618], it had already invaded and taken control of Funan. During the Tang dynasty, at beginning of the Zhenguan reign era [627–649], it had taken all the lands of Funan. And all the neighboring principalities, including Tham Ban, Chu Giang, Thu Mai, Can Da Loi, and Sich Tho, became frontier outposts of Zhenla. (The Sui Dynasty History [Sui shu] states that “the country of Can Da Loi is on the edges of the Southern Sea, and its customs are like those of Funan and Lam Ap. Its local products include cotton and areca palm, with its areca palm being of the highest quality of all countries. To reach the country of Ba Loi, [one must go] from Giao Chi across the ocean and across all the countries of Dan Dan, Ban Ban, and Sich Pho to reach its border; and then stretching from east to west, it takes two months, and from south to north, it takes forty-five days.”)4 According to the histories, Ba Loi is the Siam of the present time, or essentially its equivalent. Trinh Hoai Duc’s work [Gia Dinh Citadel Records] states that the territory of Ba Dia is the country once known as Ba Loi, but it is not yet certain if this is true. Perhaps it was the country of Can Da Loi, and Sich Tho was the present-day province of Bien Hoa.
After the Than Long reign period [705–707], this country was divided into two parts. The very mountainous northern part was called Land Zhenla; its territory stretched for more than seven hundred li [245 miles]; and its king was called Dat Khuat. And the southern half, which was directly on the ocean and had many sloping, watery fields, was called Water Zhenla; it stretched for more than eight hundred li [280 miles]; and the king resided at the capital of Ba La De Bat. During the Tang dynasty, these two countries came to present ritual tribute, and both their rulers were enfeoffed as kings. Around the time of the Zhenyuan reign era [785–805], they regularly sent several dozen tame elephants from the southern Kinh Son mountains to serve as tribute. In the Song period, these two countries came together to form a single country called Zhenla [Cambodia].
[Nguyen Van Sieu, Dai Viet dia du toan bien (n.d.), A.72, no. 53; Dai Viet dia du toan bien (1997), 312–30; trans. George Dutton]
Phan Huy Chu (1782–1840) was a scion of one of the most illustrious literary lineages of northern Vietnam. His father, Phan Huy Ich, was a noted pro–Tay Son literatus. Phan Huy Chu is best known for his Categorized Records of the Institutions of Successive Dynasties, but he also wrote other significant works. The three sections here, from the Records of the Imperial Viet Territories, written in the 1820s, are examples of the genre of geographical compendia, which became quite popular in the nineteenth century. The first excerpt contains a geographical and historical description of the northern capital—Hanoi—and its numerous subdistricts. The text focuses on the area’s lakes, rivers, and mountains, all of which played important mythical and historical roles in the development of Ha Noi. Besides tracing the changing names used for the capital and its topography, the text describes significant historical events associated with particular locales. It relates, as well, important legends linked to the capital region, including that of the founder of the Le dynasty’s use and later return of a magical sword to a giant turtle living in a lake in the center of the capital, now called Hoan Kiem (Restored Sword) Lake.
In earlier times, Ha Noi was called the city of Thang Long. The capital of many dynasties, it lies in the territory of Phung Thien Prefecture. At present, this place is referred to as the Thang Long city area. It has 11 military districts, 31 prefectures, 115 districts, 29 counties, and 1,053 cantons, each consisting of several villages, as well as 7,413 smaller divisions of territory, including villages, urban wards, and upland settlements.
Long ago, the area around Ha Noi belonged to the Kingdom of Lac Long. During the Qin dynasty [221–209 B.C.E.], it became the Department of Nam Hai. In the Han dynasty [206 or 209 B.C.E.–220 C.E.] the area became the Department of Giao Chi, and during the Tang dynasty [618–907] was changed to Giao Chau, or Giao County. Up to the Dinh and earlier Le dynasties [968–1008], it was sometimes called a circuit and sometimes a prefecture. The villages of Lam Dong, Duong Lam, and Phu Liet all were part of this area. During the Ly dynasty [1009–1224], the area was split up to create several circuits, [and extending] into the Tran dynasty [1225–1400], these circuits were known as Thien Truong, Kien Xuong, Ung Thien, Ly Nhan, Tan Hung, Khoai Chau, Truong An, Long Hung, Dai Hoang, and An Xiem. Sometime in the middle of the Quang Thuan reign of the Emperor Le Thanh Tong [1460–1469], Le dynasty [officials] mandated that Thien Truong serve as the seat for governing and managing all prefectures and districts. When they drew the map, they changed the name of this area to Son Nam, consisting of nine prefectures and thirty-six districts. Around the beginning of the Canh Hung reign of Emperor Le Hien Tong [1740–1786], Le dynasty [officials] divided Son Nam’s prefectures, districts, and villages into two circuits, upper and lower.
Tri Mountain lies in the western part of Son Nam. To the east, Son Nam borders the sea. Kinh Bac and Hai Duong border Son Nam to the north and northeast. Thanh Hoa lies to the south. The terrain is broad and expansive, the people’s circumstances flourish and prosper, and thus this area ranks the highest of the four provinces.
All Son Nam has an outstanding natural beauty. The inhabitants of the upper circuit have a reputation for being cultured, although lately they seem to be in decline. The lower circuit has many material things, but its people are rough and superficial. One could say that cultural/literary pursuits thrive in the upper circuit while rather attractive material riches prosper in the lower circuit. These represent the capital city’s protection and support, and the country’s storehouse.
Hoai Duc Prefecture (excerpt)
Thuong Phuc is the most lively of the three districts in the area of Thanh Tri renowned for its literary achievement. At present, twelve degree holders come from Thanh Tri, fifty from Thuong Phuc, and six from Phu Xuyen. Many famous officials are from Thuong Phuc, including a second-place finisher in the metropolitan examinations from the Nguyen lineage of Lan Xuyen, who himself was a first-place finisher when the country was founded, as well as the first-place metropolitan examination candidate from the Nguyen family of Nguyet Ang. At the time of the [Le] Restoration, many outstanding learned people came from this region, including members of the Bui family of Dinh Cong.
The great lineages of Son Nam have produced many notable laureates. The region, including Long Hoang and Nhi Khe, has been the most productive in regard to examination candidates. Thinh Duc and Linh Duong each have produced learned and skilled people up to the present day. The popular customs of the people of this region are, on the whole, distinctively civilized. In industry and small handicrafts, they have increasingly demonstrated their dexterity and expertise. Whether it is carpentry in Nhi Khe, lacquerware in Van Giap, hat weaving in Vinh Hung, or aquaculture in Ngoc Nu, it seems that whatever Son Nam people do, they always prove to be clever and sophisticated.
At Cung Hoang village in the district of Thanh Tri, Chu Van An (later honored with the title of duke) built a thatched dwelling facing the riverbank, a place to which many scholars and students were drawn. After [his death], a temple to honor him was built in the village, and it survives to this day. Nhi Khe village in the district of Thuong Phuc is the home of Nguyen Trai’s father, who used to build houses there. He later raised Nguyen Trai, a man of talent and ability who helped Le Thai To’s righteous uprising. [Nguyen Trai] was enfeoffed as the Kai duke of state and appointed as an official. When he died, the people of the village built a temple to honor him. Thinh Duc village in Phu Xuyen District has many storied lineages. The villages of Cuong Duc and Lang Xa also have been noteworthy in this regard through many dynasties.
Next to Linh Duong village in Thanh Tri District is a lake with water as clear as glass. In that village lived a woman of the Nguyen family who became a wife of Lord Trinh Nghi To. She gave birth to Trinh Thanh To.5
Bo Dau temple in Bo Dau village, Thuong Phuc District, was built in honor of the great saint Huyen Thien. According to local legend, the mother of the Celestial King had been abducted by the water dragon. The king then descended from Heaven to catch and kill the dragon. Although the creature had already fled, it left behind footprints. The villages of Huu Dinh, Nhue Giang, and Hop Kham erected a commemorative temple, which was recorded in the Records of Upper Son Nam.
In the winter and spring, the rivers of Son Nam become quite dry. But in the fall and summer, they can be navigated by a small boat. During the Tang era [dynasty] while Gao Pian controlled the area of La Thanh, he saw a gray-haired person with a very strange demeanor. Gao Pian followed him to a small river and asked him who he was. The man responded: “My surname is To and my given name is Lich,” after which he disappeared. Gao Pian realized that this was a spirit so named it the To Lich River. This tale is recorded in Strange Tales from South of the Passes [Linh Nam Chich Quai]. During the Ming rule, in the eleventh year of the Yongle reign [1413], Huang Fu, the minister of the board of public works, led his troops in an expedition against [our] people. When passing the To Lich River, he stopped his armies in order to change the name of the river to To Giang. This is recorded in Summary Records of Our Land [Ban Quoc Chi Luoc].
West Lake has also been called Lang Bac [during the Han dynasty] or Dam Dam [during the Tran dynasty]. It lies in Vinh Thuan District, Hoai Duc Prefecture. To the west, it borders the districts of Son Tay and Tu Liem. To the north, it is enveloped by the Nhi River. The To Lich River surrounds it to the south. According to legend, long ago a stone mountain stood there. In the middle of the mountain was a nine-tailed ghost fox. All who lived there were frequently troubled by [the fox], which made their lives very difficult. The divine dragon king heard of this and reported it to the head of the spirits. The head of the spirits became angry when told what was happening. He ordered the dragon king to take revenge. The dragon king then created a sea creature in the Nhi River to vanquish the ghost fox. The sea creature captured the ghost fox alive and then drowned it. As a result of this fight between the sea creature and the ghost fox, a lake was formed. This tale is recorded in Strange Tales from South of the Passes.
During the Han dynasty, Ma Yuan commanded his armies to attack here. During the Xian Tong reign of the Tang dynasty [860s], Gao Pian declared that this was a scenic place of the South. It was said that a phoenix came to drink the lake’s waters, at which the mountains to the south glowed brightly and, in that luminous light, had the appearance of a coiled dragon. Other stories told of a golden ox, which escaped from the mountain valleys and concealed itself in the middle of the lake, where it left marks as its eternal spirit.
One day, Emperor Ly Nhan Tong [r. 1072–1127] went for a leisurely outing on the lake, piloting a boat. His tutor, Le Van Thinh, disguised himself as a tiger and rowed out in another boat to attack the emperor. But a fisherman named Muc Chan used an arrow to kill Thinh, thereby foiling his plot. A temple to Muc Chan still stands at the lakeshore today.
During the Le dynasty, certain names were forbidden, so the name of the lake was changed to West Lake. Later, the Trinh lords, who enjoyed beautiful words, again changed the name to Doai Lake. The Trinh lords cultivated lotus blossoms in the middle of the lake and built a small temple to visit for pleasure, frequently ordering the court officials to compose poetry there. But during the reign of Canh Hung [1740–1786], the color of the lake suddenly changed. Stinking vapors appeared, forcing people to stay away, and the flowers soon withered away. In the end, the court’s splendor, as well as the scenery and its spiritual influence, declined because of these omens.
Ung Thien Prefecture
Ung Thien Prefecture is on the western side of Son Nam. Thanh Oai is the district that sits in the middle of the prefecture. From Chuong Duc southward, there is nothing but mountains. The forested hills of Son Minh and Hoai An districts border a vast and beautiful plain. Scenic locations include Tuyet Mountain, Huong Tich Mountain, Hinh Bong Mountain, and Tien Mountain, as well as other unusual sites like Tuong Son, Ninh Son, and Chuc Son. Very prosperous in regard to literary achievements, the land of Thanh Oai has produced many scholars and many degree holders, such as those from Chi Ne.
Hoan Kiem Lake sits in the center of Dai La city [Ha Noi]. An old story records that Emperor Le Thai To [r. 1428–1433] was rowing on the lake when he suddenly saw a large turtle break the surface. He unsheathed his precious saber and pointed at the turtle. The turtle snatched the sword and disappeared. For this reason, this place is called Hoan Kiem [Restored Sword] Lake. Later it was also called Navy Lake, because the court would use it to drill the royal navy. In the middle of the lake, a houselike structure rises up from the lakebed. With north as its left side and south as its right, it faces the middle of the city.
Tu Uyen Lake lies to the southwest, outside the city and in the ward of Bich Cau. In the middle of the lake is a pagoda called the Pagoda of the Southern Kingdom. According to legend, a young scholar named Tu Uyen was preparing for his exams when he encountered a fairy on the shores of the lake. For this reason, the lake is named for him.
The Ly court constructed the Temple to Literary Sages outside and south of the capital. During the Le dynasty, the court repaired the main chamber as well as each of the altars, left and right, front and back. The wooden rafters received a fresh coat of varnish. Stone walls surround the temple. In front of the main gate, an inscription once read “Gate of Great Learning.” It now has been changed to read “Gate of the Temple of Literature.” To the rear of the temple, the Minh Luan [Bright Discourse] Hall has steles on which successive dynasties carved the names of those who passed the highest level of the civil service examinations, and each placed steles there engraved with their names. Today, people still respectfully maintain the site, having added to it the Pavilion of Literature and decorative fringes in front of the interior altars. The architecture is quite elegant. Every spring and autumn, on “fourth stem” days, the court orders officials to make an offering at the temple. Also, in the summer, civil service examinations for scholars are held there.
Tuyet Mountain in Hoai An has a peak that stretches on endlessly and on which there is a pagoda. In it is a very strange cave containing hanging stones in, the shape of a coiled dragon. Looking toward the summit, one sees a stone Buddha whose gilded body is clearly visible from the immense pine forest below. The trees spread their branches as if a gusty wind had blown them apart.
Huong Tich Mountain, to the west of Tuyet Mountain, has a clear-blue arroyo that runs deep into its base. Inside the mountain is a cave of such depth and unimaginable magical qualities that it seems as if the spirits themselves carved it. It truly deserves being called the finest cave in Son Nam. According to legend, the bodhisattva Guanyin [Quan Am] once went south to banish a monk to exile in Huong Tich’s cave. A very imposing Buddha statue stood in the cave. The monks filled the air with incense and smoke, but the imposing statue never ceased to fill them with dread. Then, in the spring, a group of Buddhist monks and nuns came by on pilgrimage. The sounds of their prayers to the Buddha calmed the entire mountain and surrounding forest, which represented a grand and triumphant gathering.
[Phan Huy Chu, Hoang Viet dia du chi, 231–45; trans. Bradley Camp Davis]
CLIMATE AND GEOGRAPHY OF GIA DINH (1820)
Trinh Hoai Duc (1765–1825) was an ethnic Chinese (Minh Huong) scholar and poet from the Gia Dinh region who served the Nguyen during their lengthy struggle against the Tay Son in the last decades of the eighteenth century. For his loyalty and contributions, Trinh Hoai Duc was rewarded with posts in the new Nguyen court, serving both the Gia Long and Minh Mang emperors. He traveled several times as an envoy to China, including on the first Nguyen mission of 1802. Among his most significant prose works is the Gia Dinh Citadel Records, a geographical gazetteer summarizing the history, geography, climate, and culture of his native region. Gia Dinh was an important southern trading hub and had served as the Nguyen base during their wars against the Tay Son. The following excerpt is a close examination of the geography and climate of the region, looking at its features from both a material and a metaphysical perspective. It shows the importance of geomancy and astrology in the Vietnamese worldview and a sense of the correspondence between Heaven and Earth, which was often manifested in a belief that omens in the natural world were portents of change. The section on climate is a detailed description of the winds and waters as they combine to create weather conditions for the southern regions.
The south belongs to the diagram ly [in the Classic of Changes] and is sunny and fiery hot. The people who live near the sea in Gia Dinh always see the sun rise before others do, and it appears to be of great size; this is because Nam Dien is not far from the Valley of the Sun,6 so the sun appears to be large; moreover, its corona also is visible, thus making it appear large. The corona is the emanation of light, and the core is the light itself. When the sun first begins to rise, the corona already is visible but the light source is not, and thus there is yin but not yet yang. The sun is pressed down by the vapors from the mountains, forests, rivers, and swamps, and so it appears large but remains azure in color and still is cool. The climate of Gia Dinh always is hot. The first rains come at the end of spring and last until the summer. In the autumn there is some seasonal rain. There are frequent and heavy showers, during which the power of the water is as if it had been poured out of a bowl, and it is like this for one or two hours, after which the sky suddenly clears. Longer torrential rains last for a day or two; this happens only occasionally, and it never rains constantly for weeks or months. Even though there is rain during all four seasons, it is only around the winter solstice that it becomes somewhat cool. The climate is inconsistent, and flowers bloom in all seasons; there are many of them and they are pure in fragrance. Once the cool nights have arrived and the moon is bright, it is truly autumn, and one need not consider the day and month to determine it. Su Shih’s record says: “All seasons are like summer, but as soon as it rains, it becomes autumn.”7 It also says: “South of the passes are ten thousand households, and all appear cheerful.” This certainly seems to be the case.
The air of Viet is flaming hot, and the ground is low-lying and damp in places. When struck by phosphorescence, the sea vapors rush and surge, often clashing together and creating thunder, which is why rain is accompanied by thunder and lightning. Along the coast, the soil is very poor and cannot store up the fire of the lightning; being too full of yang essence, it sometimes strikes against the yin essence, and stagnant air and steam issue into each other, often resulting in a lightning bolt. Masts and trees and other tall things can be blown over by this harmful air, which forces, shakes, and hits them. But even if people or creatures are shaken by it, they seldom are killed. Lightning in winter is also very common.
Gia Dinh is a remote place where there is much yang and not much yin, and [it has] frequent southerly winds. Because the sun is in the south and the wind comes from the south, too, southerly storm winds are quite common, but one need not worry about typhoons. This is probably because typhoons contain winds from all four directions. Those that blow from the northeast are certain to come from the north and move west, while those that blow over from the northwest will certainly come from the north and move east, but they disperse when they reach the south. Moreover, the winds of Gia Dinh blow directly southward, and all typhoons cease when they move south, which is why there are no typhoons in Gia Dinh.
The mountains and swamps of Gia Dinh have been dredged and are well ventilated by many winds so there is no buildup of swamp gases or mountain mists. Also, it [Gia Dinh] lies beyond the Five Passes, so there is neither ice nor snow. Dew is the vapor from pure metal, and in the south the fire element is strong, but the metal element is weak. In the late autumn, it is particularly hot, and the vapor of the metal element cannot liquefy. As a result, there is little dew, and because there is so little dew, it cannot freeze to form frost. Not until the winter solstice do the leaves wither and turn yellow, and only then can one tell that some frost has formed.
The vapor from mountain marshes begins as steam, then changes into clouds, and finally becomes rain. Rain is formed by the clouds, and many clouds come from the mountains. When it is dark, much of the rain comes from the sea. In Gia Dinh there are many red clouds, and these come from the fire element. Other clouds rise up from the ground. Dark and misty, dusky black, the clouds and mists leap up for one or two li [one- to two-thirds of a mile]. In the middle of this, what look like the heads or tails of dragons flicker in and out of sight. The wind makes the water curl up in waves, and when the rivers have ceased flowing and the swamps are dry, the trees and houses rock in the wind; mists swirl around and rise up; then suddenly the rain begins to pour down in torrents. The common folk call this phenomenon “the dragon collecting water,” but people rarely see this.
Water is like a system of blood vessels for the land, and it ebbs and flows in accordance with the essence of the earth. The morning water is called the ebb, and that of the evening, the flow, and together they can be referred to as the tides. The tides correspond to the movement of the moon. Yin and yang fluctuate, always keeping time, which is why we say “as trustworthy as the tides.” It is often observed that when the tides are high, the wind is strong and that when the tides are low, the wind stops. In the two or three days around the first and fifteenth of each month, when the tides begin to rise, there is certain to be a strong wind. During the two or three days around the time of the crescent moon, the tides diminish and the wind is sure to be light. This is probably because wind is the mother of water and water is born from wind.
The tides in Gia Dinh are different from those in other places. For two or three days each month, there is no ebb or flow of the tides at all. In winter, this happens for three or four days but in the eighth or ninth month, the power of the tides is singularly great. In summer, it is greatest during the daytime, and in winter, during the night. On the twenty-fifth or twenty-sixth day of each month, the tides are high and rise to a peak on the last day of the month. On the third day of the new month, the tides peak again but gradually diminish thereafter. They rise again on the eleventh and twelfth days, strengthening once more on the fifteenth day. On the eighteenth day, the tides are at their highest and then recede again.
Everyone observes the waxing and waning of the moon in order to keep time. The high tide is commonly called the “water head” (in the tongue of the common folk, con dau nuoc or nuoc rong), and the low tide, the “water tail” (the common folk say cuoi con nuoc, and another name is nuoc khiem). The fisher-folk always observe the times of the high and the low tides while fishing. When there is a “water head,” the fish are plentiful, and when there is a “water tail,” fish are sparse. Also in autumn and summer, when the morning flow still has not yet receded, the evening flow overtakes it; it rides on the east wind, and the ebb and flow contract together. The sea waters splash and spurt upward; this is known as the “joining of the tides” (the common name is nuoc uong) and is caused by the water’s not being able to keep up with the change of the tide. Gia Dinh is near the ocean, and in the waters along the coast are many underflows. Because of this, the tides come in like a galloping steed, swiftly swell up, flood the beach, and hit the cliffs and shore. In addition, the lay of the land is very high in the north and west and very low in the south and east, so the tides go out very rapidly, returning to the east in an overwhelming rush. When this happens, all the streams and sandbanks empty and dry up. Once, someone waited and measured [the tide], to find out the level after it had gone out, and it was said to have a depth of thirteen thuoc [eighteen feet]!
All along the coast in the counties and districts of Gia Dinh, the soil is thin and the earth poor. The burning heat of the yang vapor often leaks out; the damp yin vapor often issues forth in steam. People’s circulation frequently blocks up, their pores become sore and restricted, and sweat collects on their backs. So in the summer they often drink cool, clear drinks, and in autumn and winter they often get malaria. This probably is caused by the cold vapor entering their spleen, and because the spleen is subordinate to the earth element, there surely is a connection here. Therefore malarial fever always breaks out in seasons when it is not warm.
Gia Dinh has prolonged yang, so it accumulates, and heat and humidity are stored up. During the year the wind and rain, cold and heat, rarely arrive at the expected times. So there are many wayward winds. When people’s pores are restricted, it is easy for them to catch diseases. Sicknesses often arise from the wind, and the bad air is polluted. It can even cause people to go mad, which is why the Chinese term for madness contains the character for wind, to indicate the origins of the affliction.
[Trinh Hoai Duc, Gia Dinh thanh thong chi (hereafter, GDTTC), 5–11 (3a–6a), 15–18; trans. Catherine Churchman]
Taxation and the government’s extraction of resources from its population were among the state’s central concerns and among the major causes of tension in the realm. During the eighteenth century, unhappiness with tax obligations that proliferated into many aspects of commercial and daily life was a chief cause of popular uprisings in both the Trinh and Nguyen territories. Indeed, the imperial court’s awareness of the importance of carefully calibrating taxes led to the detailed guidelines spelled out in the Le Code. In this excerpt from his Categorized Records of the Institutions of Successive Dynasties, Phan Huy Chu discusses the ideals of government control and management of natural resources and the need to tap into these resources, principally through moderate and systematic taxes on agricultural output, with secondary taxes on other natural resources. A harmonious relationship between rulers and subjects is the ideal, whereby tax rates are kept at manageable levels and taxes are collected and expended strictly according to the state’s need. By adhering to such practices, he concludes, resources will continue to remain abundant and taxation will not in any way harm people or hinder their livelihood.
None of the most important concerns of governing a country compares with the utilization of resources. Besides the gold and paddy rice in the six storehouses described in the Five Classics, which must be accounted for, are the eight policies, of which those concerning food and commodities are regarded as the most urgent. Since ancient times, emperors have governed that under Heaven, and all have managed [the earth’s] wealth in order to bring the people together. Our Kingdom of Viet has been expanding since the time of Guijiao [Giao Chi], when the bronze pillars marked the extent of the borders. Our styles and manners were already set in motion, and all the hundred goods had been gathered. The number of people and creatures increases by the day, and the products of the seas and mountains are infinite. We rely on benefits from the three riches to serve the country and truly have no worries about any kind of shortages.8 Nonetheless, even though these resources originate in Heaven and Earth, their management lies with men. If the [Confucian classics] had not put us on the correct course, how could we have circulated and sufficiently utilized these resources?
Now I want to discuss several important matters. The primary tax should be collected from the people and should reflect whether the number of households is growing or shrinking and whether their wealth is increasing or decreasing. Thus, the census records must be examined and checked very carefully. If there are fields, there must be field taxes; if there are registered villagers, there must be head taxes; and if there are households, there must be household taxes; and they should frequently be adjusted to be sufficient for the country’s needs. Thus, the regulations for levying taxes must be fixed and standardized. Money and coinage are necessary so people can exchange them for merchandise, and places that either have or lack certain goods can trade them. For this reason, the circulation of money should not be impeded. Fields exist [to supply] common benefits from the earth, and if their boundaries are not accurate, then the amount of food supplies cannot be determined. For this reason, the system of field land must be kept in balance. In addition, goods from the four quarters include those from the mountains and the seas, and the regulations on taxing these products should be spelled out. Merchants who travel to and fro should pay taxes for ferry crossings and market openings, which also must be scrutinized.
Those who govern that under Heaven must fully understand these financial policies and whether they can meet the country’s needs. Some officials must be responsible for taking from those below in order to give to those above, and the regulations for confiscation must be appropriate. The calculated capacities and amounts collected must stay in balance, and the rules for managing their use must remain constant. This is how the regulations for taking from the people are determined, and the implementation of this system must be cautious and restrained. Earlier kings’ systems for the use of the country’s resources have prevailed and did not overstep [their boundaries]. From the time of the Ly and Tran, the rules for using the country’s resources survive only in summary form. In the Le dynasty, these regulations began to be more thorough. The taxes were calculated to remain balanced and never to reach a point that they harmed the people. [The Le dynasty] had a very detailed and regulated system for expenditures, and our country experienced a time of great wealth. Thus, over the past three hundred years, despite changes and particular concerns, the system has been considered and organized very clearly.
[Phan Huy Chu, Lich trieu hien chuong loai chi (hereafter, LTHCLC), 6:1a–2a; trans. George Dutton]
POLICY FOR TRADING WITH EUROPEANS (1840)
In 1840, Vu Duc Khue, a court official, submitted a memorial to the throne arguing for a policy of isolationism to protect the Vietnamese from the dangers posed by the Western “barbarians.” Minh Mang answered with a lengthy reply in which he rejected the course of isolation, contending that proper management of interactions with Europeans would be sufficient to prevent the difficulties that the Chinese had encountered. In his response, Minh Mang describes the sequence of events that led to China’s Opium Wars with the British in 1839. Ostensibly having learned from the Qing court’s overly accommodating trade policies, the Vietnamese court sought to realize the benefits of trade while minimizing the opportunities for Europeans to gain any kind of foothold in its realm. In this respect, the emperor’s approach was similar to the Le ruler’s edict nearly two centuries earlier (1650), which also had sought to regulate and restrict the Europeans’ access to Vietnamese territory for trading purposes.9 Even though Minh Mang’s approach shows an awareness of the challenge posed by foreign traders, it does not fully acknowledge the extent of the threat. French missionaries were already proving that Europeans could penetrate the Vietnamese territories, and the Vietnamese military defenses that Minh Mang boasts of were no longer as effective as they had been earlier in the century. In any case, the court’s decision to treat the Europeans as simply another among many “barbarians” was an indication of its failure to appreciate the strength and complexity of their challenge.
Your memorial contains nothing that we have not already seen with our own eyes, [namely,] the Hong Mao [British] provoking hostilities with the Qing and their excessive precautions against the unexpected. This is being unaware of the roots of one’s limitations and being able to see only a matter’s unessential details. Besides those engaged in farming and sericulture, many of the people in our country cook and manufacture granulated sugar for their livelihood. But granulated sugar cannot be used as food when one is hungry, and it cannot be used as clothing when one is cold. Thus, the court thinks very seriously about the issue of food, and so every year during temporary shortages, the court uses disbursements from the public treasury to create harmony by giving rice to all the merchants to trade for sugar. In this way, the people will have enough food, which is the greatest benefit this [money] provides.
Accordingly, when official vessels are sent out on maneuvers, they take [sugar] in their holds, so that when they reach foreign lands they can trade it for firearms, gunpowder, cottons, satins, and such items. On the one hand, this [trade] supplies our military needs, and on the other hand, it provides supplies for the state’s use. Trade is a convenient means of procuring these things. Moreover, some of our country’s territory lies along the coast, and because the coastal route has both easy and difficult passages, we have expertise in navigation. In the past, delegations from the capital were dispatched to come and go by sea. They all were capable of handling waves on the open ocean, sailing, and anchoring, and this was necessary to be able to depart and return. Thus they were clearly prepared. But when people were dispatched to nearby seas, many were unfamiliar with setting out or anchoring their boats, and because of their haste, there have been repeated accidents. Therefore we must determine which officials and sailors have become skilled and which have not, which ones have succeeded and which have failed.
In fact, we have our own techniques for defending against barbarians, and if we take precautions to ward off disputes, then conflicts should not arise. The Ming permitted barbarians to come every year and to engage in commerce inside their country and also to live among the people. Thus, everywhere [the barbarians] went, they drew maps of those places, covering all parts of the Ming coastal areas and territorial seas and their dangerous or safe points; they knew every place well. Throughout the entire Ming dynasty, Japanese pirates were a worry, so no one paid attention to [other matters]. The Qing people benefited the most from the tax on silver and therefore permitted foreigners to come ashore at the thirteen cohang [authorized trading guilds] in order to trade. This was a great mistake. Recently, they have been confronted with the widespread use of opium, which has been very difficult to contain. Local officials again engaged in deceit, collecting the opium and promising that they would pay the British in silver at the set price. In the end, however, the officials did not repay them anything, so the foreigners incurred losses and withdrew. They used their warships to blockade the Qing coast. Therefore, when we examine the origins of this troublesome event, it is clear that the Qing brought it upon themselves.
Our own court treats foreigners as follows: we do not reject them when they arrive, and we do not chase them when they depart; we truly regard them as barbarians and deal with them as such. Occasionally foreign vessels come to trade, and we allow them to anchor only temporarily at Tra Son Bay, to exchange their goods, and then we force them to leave. We do not permit them to come ashore, much less allow them to live here. We do not permit the local people to trade privately with the foreigners, thus nipping the problem in the bud. Of course, [the foreigners’] intentions are not good, but if we leave no openings [for them to enter], how could they create any problems?
[DNTL (1961–), 12:359–60; DNTL (2004–2007), 5:828–29; trans. George Dutton]
PREFACE TO CATEGORIZED RECORDS OF THE INSTITUTIONS OF SUCCESSIVE DYNASTIES (1821)
The Categorized Records of the Institutions of Successive Dynasties is the single most important privately compiled encyclopedic work of the nineteenth century. Phan Huy Chu’s text, which took a decade to compile, is a wide-ranging examination of the pre–Nguyen dynasty historical record divided into ten sections, ranging from geography to biography and from natural resource management and taxation to literature. The text was designed as a guide and resource for the new Nguyen rulers. This excerpt, the preface, includes a discussion of the importance of economic and political record keeping. Phan Huy Chu notes the problems of maintaining good records and preserving texts in the face of warfare and political turmoil, echoing Le Quy Don’s comments in his introduction to The Complete Anthology of Vietnamese Literature.10 The text shows a scholar’s view of his role as a record keeper and the ways in which this serves the state and the rulers. The preface concludes with a reflection on Phan Huy Chu’s struggles in bringing the work to fruition and of its considerable limitations—a result of his “modest skills”—and of the hardships of compiling scattered texts. Despite the requisite humility expressed at the end of this introduction, the Minh Mang emperor interpreted the overall text as a criticism of Nguyen rule. Phan Huy Chu’s magnum opus was thus coolly received, and its author only modestly rewarded for his labors.
I have heard that in the pursuit of knowledge, institutions are what is most important. The Master [Confucius] stated, “Those who have a broad learning in the literary arts, are called cultivated.” This is because they have found a congruence between the past and present. In arriving at the essentials of state statutes and rituals, the Confucian literati, beyond having read the classics and histories, have had to look broadly and deeply, searching and collecting near and far, investigating fastidiously, and selecting carefully among these [materials] so they might have a clear conscience and broad learning. How can one refer to these works, which extracted chapters and sections and cleaned up words, as literature?
Only when the emperor established the Viet state during the Dinh and then from the Le and the Ly to the Tran [dynasty] were common practices gradually expanded, with each generation having its own system. By the Le era, laws and rules were established, drawn up in detail, and announced. The famed reputation of these documents, they [literati] concede, is nothing compared with those of the Middle Kingdom. The regulations controlling all aspects of governance—the appointment of officials, the method for choosing scholars, the method for ordering the military, the regulations regarding finances, the rites pertaining to the state’s relations with its neighbors—all have their own chapter and articles, and all have their own standards. These regulations have been in force ever since the Hong Duc era [1470–1497]; all subsequent generations have conformed to them; and over this time, they have been consulted by brave rulers and upright leaders and supported by noted officials. Their reputation has been established, and for more than three hundred years, the preservation and observance of what are called statutes and rituals have been carried out continuously, although we know that there have been some additions and subtractions.
Before this, the collected laws of earlier dynasties had not yet been compiled into a book. Moreover, all the volumes of historical chronicles still had many inaccuracies. Then in the binh ngo year [1786], even with the raising of armies and the breakdown of the old statutes, which were scattered and lost, some people made plans for their preservation, and families of officials and other long-influential families concealed and stored them. But these texts were abbreviated or were missing parts, and some were mixed up or contained errors, and there even were some about which no clues have been found. So those who spoke about the past dynasties’ regulations had no concrete evidence to rely on. Consequently, I have compiled what I have seen and heard and separated [this information] into various categories in order to create a single work of institutions and regulations. Such is the responsibility of the scholar, is it not?
For the time being, I would like to summarize some essential matters like the determination and establishment of frontiers, which sometimes were divided and other times were brought together, and thus have varied; the selection and gathering of men of talent, which in earlier and later times was done differently; the appointment of officials whose ranks and duties differed over time; the establishment of rituals, with a system for the Mieu, Tu, Giao, and Xa rituals; the system for setting examinations and the rules for selecting the scholars, which sometimes was detailed and other times was less so; the regulations for using state resources and collecting from the people, which sometimes required large and at other times small contributions; a system of laws to help in governance with fixed regulations that varied over time; and an army to protect the state, whose name changed over time, even in the books and works narrating the successive dynasties and the rituals and our correspondence with the Northern dynasties. All these included the statutes and regulations that had a bearing on this [enterprise]. Thus, researchers should pay close attention to the past to find precise evidence.
The statutes from the Ly and Tran periods and earlier have been lost; only their broad outlines could be found in the histories. During the period of the Le dynasty’s founding and, later, its restoration, rules and regulations still existed but were scattered among the literary volumes that survived and were not properly organized. Certainly, we must not be ashamed to study and to seek out, to differentiate, and to classify the categories and minor details, for then they will be easy to verify.
I, your subject, have studied since my youth and, since then, have had the aspiration [to undertake this task]. I have had the good fortune of the accumulation of previous generations’ knowledge and have hurried to follow their teachings with regard to decrees and regulations. And yet, even this feels incomplete, and it is like looking through a narrow tube, so that I have only an inkling of their brilliance. The historical records have been scattered, and the people did not compile [complete] narratives. After I retreated to the mountains and closed my door, I worked hard to collect and gather the books. Then in my free time, I studied their methodologies and dared to return and follow their categories to examine and correct them, thereby enabling me to find hidden meanings. Thus, over the course of [many] discussions and deliberations, the days accumulated and the months piled up, and ten years passed before I finished my project. The edited records consist of ten sections: geography, biography, official positions, rites and protocol, examinations, state expenditures, legal structures, military systems, literature, and diplomatic relations. Each of these records has a summary and then a narrative of the main ideas. And each section has subsections and a table of contents, which is divided into different articles. I have called this work The Categorized Institutions of the Successive Dynasties. There are forty-nine books in all.
[Phan Huy Chu, LTHCLC, 1:4b–13b; trans. Will Pore and George Dutton]
The Categorized Records of the Institutions of Successive Dynasties is broken into ten sections, ranging from geography to foreign relations. Each section includes a general introduction in which Phan Huy Chu highlights the fundamental aspects of that particular sphere of knowledge. In the following excerpt, he is reflecting on the role of men in supporting and serving the state. He describes the differences in individual moral qualities and capacities, emphasizing the importance of recognizing worthy, talented, and heroic individuals. Such men must be remembered for their accomplishments and contributions, he argues, for this is a debt that the state owes them for their service. In turn, Phan Huy Chu also sees that his responsibility as a historian is to highlight those individuals who might otherwise not enter the historical record. This echoes the thoughts of Duong Van An, which were set forth in the sixteenth century.
States use men to serve as their foundations, and men can be divided according to their qualities, for they range from high to low and are not uniform. At the top is the emperor, who relies on officials to arrange and organize matters of state, while below him are the scholarly men, some of whom participate in outside affairs, while others remain in private life. Men’s virtue also varies; consequently, whether a country is under stable rule or in chaos varies as well. Thus when one speaks about the matters of each era, one must single out the men of talent. When we collect ancient tales, we must look for details as we examine the historical mirror. These records have helped in the preparation of dynastic annals and biographies. The records show the classification of clans as having nine different ranks of men, and each has a detailed record of their affairs in order to distinguish among them.
The quintessence of the airs and vapors in our country of Viet has already been developed and brought together. There was a period in which virtuous emperors and shining lords frequently appeared and in which noteworthy and upright officials were common. And each generation produced heroic men capable of producing outstanding accomplishments, as well as great achievements in administration. Some people performed labors with the sword or the woolen banner; other people were renowned as writers; and still other people revealed great courage during times of need. All of them were people who had many outstanding talents worthy of being recorded and who had accomplished feats, both above and below, for whom praise will endure for more than a thousand years and will be displayed for the generations yet to come. Therefore, aside from the historical records and biographies, there still are some omissions, and people who investigate the past must be able to distinguish clearly among them.
I often muse that when people and creatures are born, they need someone to watch over and nurture them, and thus the emperor must teach and also examine them systematically. Each dynasty has people who accept its commands, so the meritorious achievements of generals or noted officials should be recorded. Moreover, cultured men and Confucianists who display scholarship and moral conduct, and loyal officials who disregard their own situations when times are bad all are linked to the fate of their generation and are truly linked to the emperor’s rule. Thus, we must record everything from the beginning to the end and write down events in detail, for only then can we research and compare all the persons from the past to the present without leaving out anyone.
[Phan Huy Chu, LTHCLC, 2:1a–2a; trans. George Dutton]
EDICT TO THE LITERATI AND COMMONERS OF THE SIX PROVINCES OF SOUTHERN VIETNAM (1835)
In 1833, tensions between the imperial capital at Hue and the largely autonomous southern region culminated in an uprising by Le Van Khoi (d. 1834). Le Van Khoi was the adopted son of the long-ruling southern warlord Le Van Duyet (1763–1832). Based in Gia Dinh, Le Van Duyet had governed the southern provinces on behalf of the Nguyen court from 1813 to 1816 and then again from 1820 to his death in 1832. By the time of Le Van Duyet’s death, the Minh Mang emperor had already begun his project of consolidating the central court’s authority over the autonomous southern and northern parts of the kingdom. Le Van Duyet’s death provided an excellent opportunity to implement this process in the south. There was, however, a strong southern reaction to these efforts, led by Le Van Khoi and supported by various groups, including Vietnamese Christians and exiled convicts. The rebellion lasted for two and a half years before finally being suppressed by imperial troops. The edict translated here, which was issued after the rebellion had been put down, represents Minh Mang’s reassertion of control over the south. It conveys in particular the emperor’s sense that the region and its people had strayed from cultural and political ideals, which he had to restore. The document has echoes of earlier regional tensions, such as those in expressed in Trinh Can’s 1672 edict to the peoples of Quang Nam on the eve of the last Trinh invasion of the defiant southern Nguyen realm.11 In each case, the edicts chastise wayward populations for following renegade leaders while promising compassion for the contrite and strict punishment for the recalcitrant.
The people of the six [southern] provinces have enjoyed the consideration of our saintly ancestors, which for a long time permitted them to lead comfortable lives accompanied by great appreciation and benevolence. The people have enjoyed virtue and harmony for more than two hundred years. When our imperial father, the Great Exalted Ancestral emperor [Gia Long], was rising like a dragon, they, also with a single mind and common strength, contributed materials and labor in the face of great difficulty. At the time, there were only gentle and honest customs and neither lecherous nor cunning practices.
In recent times, the officials in charge of this region have been voracious and dirty. For example, Huynh Cong Ly was arrogant, while Le Van Duyet did not think about the proper ways to instruct the people. All this led the people to become accustomed to ill manners, causing them to violate the higher path and gradually leading to the literati’s becoming accustomed to idleness, while the people’s customs degenerated into arrogance and luxuriousness. Lecherous musical plays were performed, and people became addicted to opium. They regarded the value of grain as trifling but at the same time wore only extravagant clothes. They cunningly violated laws repeatedly, sometimes resulting in their being executed.
More seriously still, the region had become accustomed to practices and customs in which they claimed about themselves that the “remote and distant people know only the existence of the local leader but do not know the existence of the central court.” The hearts of the people did not follow the past, and Heaven’s teaching was full of hatred toward this. This was the reason for the rebellion by Le Van Khoi. Although it was caused by the inferior man Nguyen Van Que and the cruel man Bach Xuan Nguyen, if we examine its spread, the manner in which it became a disaster, and also its origins, it was clearly the unavoidable consequence of such circumstances.
At the time the rebellion broke out, the southern people, inspired by their good nature and encouraged by loyal anger, gathered a righteous army, made a common enemy with the central court, and contributed their strength, which was in no way inferior to that shown by others. There also was, however, a group of wicked people who regarded this disaster as their own good fortune, enjoying it and carrying out cunning deeds by following and praising the revolt. Some of them destroyed or stole the stores of government offices during the rebellious episodes, and some of them threatened the local villages by relying on the power of bandits. And some even cooperated with the rebels by contributing elephants, while others captured the heads of the government offices and turned them over to the rebels. Chinese settlers and groups of Christians also contributed to these vicious deeds. The mobs were like foxes, and the bands were like dogs, and they grew larger by the day, finally leading to the formation of this exceptionally large incident. For three years, it caused suffering for generals and soldiers, and only now have they finally reported success.
When I think of this, it fills me with great anger. I think about when the bandits had just started this rebellion. The number of Hoi Luong’s and Bac Thuan’s rebel soldiers was only between thirty and fifty, and the number of convicts helping them was also only between one hundred and two hundred. If only a few people had followed them, the weak power of such a gathering of ravens could easily have been scattered and the flames of these fireflies easily extinguished. How, then, could this have led to such a disaster that it engulfed the Six Provinces and resisted the court’s orders for three years?
Moreover, the groups of those who supported Hoi Luong and Bac Thuan must have anticipated that their crimes could not be pardoned and so readily defended themselves at the expense of their lives. But what gives me mixed feelings is the southern people. In the past, they said that fierce cruelty forced them to act and that they could not escape this threat. But when the court’s army arrived to put down the revolt, why did they not immediately surrender to us but [instead] persisted for a long time in defending their walls and attacking the besiegers? It is greatly regrettable that they had to die along with the bandits.
It is unfortunate that whereas previously the air of loyalty and generosity was fulfilling, there came a time of extreme foolishness, in which the people waited until the lonely castle had already fallen and these violations of the state’s laws were difficult to forgive. We have now reached the point at which we must kill them all to appease the fury of the gods and people and to console the hearts of the generals and soldiers. This is truly unavoidable, but when my consideration extends to thoughts of the people’s foolishness, I truly feel troubled and a sense of pity.
Now, this calamity has been brought to an end. I cannot avoid teaching and advising you again to repent the past and be cautious in the future, and so I expect you to return to a state of purity and honesty. Previously, I enlightened and ordered you to move in the direction of justice and to rectify your mistakes, to be cautious, not to be arrogant and ostentatious, and to respect thriftiness. I repeated it again and again, and it is without tiring that I repeat it yet again.
Truly, all my people have enough knowledge and understanding that any claims not to comprehend and repent their errors are nonsense. Henceforth, be assured that you will give up your erroneous ways. Although the land of the southern region is distant, it cannot be compared with hidden valleys and remote forests, thus the rays of the central court’s light do not remain distant, and its mirror-like warning remains very bright.
As we think about the time when this disturbance took place, the persons who followed the path of righteousness were compensated with official ranks; those who contributed materials also were rewarded; and anyone who had been threatened but who then changed the direction of his spear to kill the rebels was recorded in the list of the contributors. Those who had loyalty and righteousness and did not yield but instead scolded the rebels and were killed for doing so were posthumously promoted and generously rewarded. Although they have died, they have glorious names; so why did you continue to follow the rebels, to the point that this led to your being beheaded along with the barbarian herds and your being given pejorative names, and why did you permit this disaster to reach your wives and children? The causes and consequences regarding disaster or good fortune, which depend on betrayal or obedience, are already clear. The chance of going or escaping according to one’s goodness or wickedness can serve as a bright mirror.
Each of you must repent and acknowledge your errors and should be mindful of our common laws. Refine yourself to make your name only by piety, sympathy, loyalty, and trust, and regard justice and common sense as being of paramount importance. If you are scholars, cleanse your bodies and bathe your virtue, so that you might make yourselves talented men capable of governing the state and aiding the world. If you are peasants, make efforts in farming and working in the fields so that you have stores and your bins are full. If you are craftsmen, stay in the workshops and carry out your trade, and make an effort to achieve even greater skills. If you specialize in trade, you should strive to enrich your stocks by working diligently. All who are commoners should know how to preserve their duties and abide by the laws. Whoever belongs to the army must not again act deceptively by fleeing.
As a rule, if something lies outside the correct cause and effect, then you should certainly cut it off and stop doing it. If there already is a law forbidding such actions, you should respect it and avoid breaking it. Fathers and elder brothers should lead sons and younger brothers harmoniously to practice this teaching without violating it. Everybody must obey it with dignity, and every generation must not lose it. Therefore, you should push yourselves to return to the ancient customs, and then you will receive the coming good fortune. This is what I, in fact, desire greatly. I have great love for the people of the southern area and also have great expectations of them, and that is why I do not hesitate to speak so extensively.
[DNTL (1961–), 10:223–25; DNTL (2004–2007), 4:742–44; trans. Choi Byung Wook]
A PLAN FOR MAKING THE PEOPLE WEALTHY AND THE COUNTRY STRONG (1867?)
Nguyen Truong To (1827–1871) was the rare intellectual who combined Confucian training with a Catholic education received both in Vietnam and abroad. He learned French from missionary priests and then traveled to Italy and France, gaining first-hand insights into Europe’s colonial ambitions. When he returned to Vietnam, he became a voice for political reform at the court of the Tu Duc emperor. Between 1863 and 1871, Nguyen Truong To submitted at least fourteen lengthy memorials to the emperor suggesting numerous and wide-ranging reforms of political institutions and, indeed, of the entire method of governance. He strongly emphasized the need for European-style practical education, with a focus on scientific knowledge and a departure from the traditional Confucian-style instruction and examination system. He urged the adoption of a modified vernacular script to facilitate this educational reform. The kinds of changes being urged in his memorials were again echoed in the early twentieth century, particularly in the textbooks of the Dong Kinh Nghia Thuc.12 The excerpt here is the introduction to one of Nguyen Truong To’s prominent appeals, in which he lays out the sources of Vietnamese shortcomings and discusses the changes necessary to overcome them. This document is noteworthy for showing some awareness of world historical trends and of Europe’s exploration and exploitation of the Americas. Reflecting his Confucian training and his audience, Nguyen Truong To’s memorial begins with references to the Mencius and other ancient texts before launching into its wide-ranging contemporary analysis. This memorial parallels a contemporary discourse in China that regarded the East as the origin of civilization and cultivation, a primacy that it eventually lost to a formerly barbaric but rapidly developing West.
In my humble opinion, there are many troubles in the country. Men urgently worry about matters concerning their lives, and Heaven’s will is to help them. This stemmed from something unforeseen. It is for this reason that Mencius set forth the maxim “Hostile powers carry out foreign aggression.” The ancient literati had the phrase “The will of Heaven has humaneness and compassion.” Thus, looking at this from the perspective of the affairs of men, this is common to each and every country in the world. All have had times of trouble but have [also] had men capable of driving the carriage over great distances. Viewed from the perspective of the Way of Heaven, we have had even more wonderful things. Nature has provided blessings to people. These blessings have come only gradually and have only slowly been discovered and only then could they be seen. People do not understand Nature because of the misery they see but, rather, because of the sorrows conveyed by Heaven. Because of this, Nature has given birth to the myriad creatures for people to rely on, and yet there is no love for the Way, but only for wealth.
Many people stubbornly remain idle, unwilling to search out and develop what has been hidden from them. Consequently, the precious treasures that Heaven has hidden in the mountains and seas have not yet been fully exploited. Since people and creatures first appeared seven thousand years ago, calculating in accordance with Heaven’s system, not even 40 percent of the benefits found on the earth’s surface have been exploited. Moreover, it is Nature that has brought people into existence, and they all are from a single source. Nowadays, however, across the face of the earth, civilized people are few in number, while barbarians are numerous. How has Nature [caused] such a gap between the well-off and the indigent? It is because the time has not yet come. This is just as it is with fathers and mothers with respect to their numerous children. The older ones are sent out to create businesses in order to earn a living. The younger children are taught their numbers and how to reply appropriately and are also held back because of their birth order. And even though it is contrary to Nature’s intentions that they be pushed to take steps on their own, [children] inevitably make careful calculations. But Nature desires that people broaden their knowledge and learning in order to clarify and open up the quintessence of Heaven and Earth, so as to provide humankind with countless aspirations, to search out the marvelous, and to strive for success. Nature also fears that people have become content with the ordinary and are consequently unwilling to communicate with one another. Each person has suitable land, and each has some things in abundance while lacking others, and this will cause them to open communications and contacts so that these visionaries can later transform and civilize the barbarians. This [process] is necessary to provide what Nature has not yet fully provided, and this will produce changes in a timely fashion, as well as demonstrating all the marvelous uses of humankind’s intelligence.
If we consider the issue of people’s seeing and hearing and eating and breathing, and just let Nature take its course, this would be acting like creatures who do not have souls and lack the power to control their own movements. How, then, can we differentiate people with souls from the myriad creatures? Thus, the five continents have four directions that are surrounded by and lie inside the great seas and that are in turn transected by the great rivers that link up and connect the flatlands and that flow and connect the boats and carriages. These continents also are separated by mountain ravines and passes that block routes, which force people to open the passes and roads themselves in order to reach the places where the precious veins [of minerals] can be found. Throughout the earth it is like this; the wonderful arrangements of Nature are innumerable.
To summarize, then, what has been discussed: all these races of people are covered by a single heaven and carried on a single earth. A single sun shines on them. A single moon illuminates them. A single atmosphere fills them. A single water source moistens them. A single breeze perfumes them. A single principle channels them. A single nature binds them. This all began from one, and then divided, and in the end it all must be brought back together, for only then will it have created Heaven and Earth’s great usefulness. For this purpose, the Creator could not bear having Heaven and Earth’s great principles end up somewhere obscured and obstructed and also could not bear to think that the daily necessities of the earth’s people would end up being limited by territorial divisions, and so he set forth many ways to inspire and induce people to move along the path toward achieving the Great Harmony.
The East, 3,500 years ago, was the first place in which people began to clear fertile land, and in this secret place they gradually established their common practices. Furthermore, they used the hundred tasks in order to achieve prosperity, and so by the time of the Middle Ages, prosperity was increasing day by day. During this time, the West was a place of wilderness and beasts and had not yet been transformed, and for this reason all the barbarians of the northwestern regions of the East repeatedly invaded these territories. Consequently, the West was gradually transformed by the East. Because of military actions on both sides, there was movement in both directions, which caused each side to seek out information about the other. Each side did not have certain things, so each thought about crossing its borders to seize these things. Thus, each was humiliated by the other and so thought about various ways of capturing, defeating, and taking the enemy.
This looked not unlike ancient times when our country was invaded by China and was cut and broken apart. Although this looked like Nature had sown misfortune, it also provided benefits. It was because of this that ours became a civilized country. In the region of the Southern Seas there were three countries: ours, Burma, and Siam. But those two [other] countries still preserve the dark and vulgar and are far behind and inferior to our country. Isn’t this because of the reasons I have already described? During the time of the Zhou dynasty, a scholar from the country of Phat Lam [Fu Lin] had already traveled to China,13 and during the time of Emperor Wu of the Han dynasty [r. 141–86 B.C.E.], some had already come from India and gone to Bactria [in Central Asia]. Then, during the time of the Northern and Southern dynasties, the northern barbarians had already seized all four directions. And in the time of the founding emperor of the Yuan dynasty, when they had not yet finished looting the Jurchen, they already were opening up the northwestern part of the eastern region, the southwestern part of the eastern region, the northeastern part of the western region, and the northern part of the southern region. Every place had productive and advantageous terrain, and none was able to avoid being overrun, and because of this the overland routes between East and West made contact with each other. At the end of the Yuan dynasty, the imperial horse escort commander Tat Ma Nhi Tu Thien of the country of the Khazaks spread his majesty as far as the Western citadels, and some Westerners joined him and became a part of his army. Because of this they were already bringing back firearms and all sorts of other unusual instruments. Westerners had long been in chaos, but now they thought about restoring order and so they imitated [Eastern] methods of manufacturing to make firearms, and they used these in warfare and also took all the various types of ingenious technologies that were from the East to serve as their models. From then on, studying the skills for making these instruments became increasingly in demand, which gave birth to ingenuity. And this ingenuity reached a point that it produced bravery, and this brought about changes regarding the earlier weaknesses and ignorance.
Consequently, by the time of the Ming dynasty, the [Westerners’] rising and flourishing was increasing daily, and there was no place that tested their bravery. For this reason, they moved to the West for their search, suddenly discovered the Western Continent (that is, the New World),14 seized it, and made it their land. They cleared the grand lands that had lain uncultivated for many thousands of years, changing the customs and habits that had been barbaric for many thousands of years. In the beginning, the native people grasped their swords as they faced them, but gradually they became like relatives. They studied exhaustively to obtain the Western region’s ingenuity, and after less than a hundred years, they were able to brandish weapons and to expel [the barbarians]. Countries that had once been colonized by the West, instead became allied with the West. Countries that had relied on the West changed their old habits and became wealthy and strong, and the Westerners relied on the benefits of these lands in order to become self-sufficient. Where formerly there had been teeth-gnashing animosity, now there were enduring good feelings like those among brothers.
After the Western people’s access to the benefits of these lands declined, their greedy hearts still were not satisfied. They repaired their boats and inspected their weapons and then turned them toward the East. Although the people of the countries of the East were the ancestors of the hundred skills, their basic nature was to be absorbed in leisure and pleasure, and they did not welcome change. Moreover, in earlier times, they had already asserted control over that under Heaven and had become contented and self-sufficient and thought that no one under Heaven could triumph over them. Consequently, they focused on esteeming empty writings and venerated the study of the enchanting, and gradually they had an abundance worthy of great esteem; in the end, their fate was of the worst kind (this is something that can be said of all countries). Thus, when foreign enemies suddenly arrived, they regarded them merely as a different kind of people, with a different type of wisdom and cleverness, and they did not know that the other’s current ingenuity came from the surplus from earlier times in our Eastern region. Earlier, Nature’s Creator had given this to us, but we had not yet made full use of it, so Nature used our misfortune to take it from us and give it to them. They took our surpluses and regarded them as highly valuable; every day they increased and embellished them, and then sold them back to us to collect a substantial profit.
I reflect on the fact that Nature has created the Earth, which is primarily for the common use and the benefit of all the races of people and not for the private use of a single person. Therefore, when the wildernesses had not yet been cleared, the races of people scattered and settled in places where each established their own power and leaders, cultivated land, established governments, and expanded their territory. When there was contact across the mountains and rivers, and the dangers and difficulties had been overcome, trade developed between those who had and those who did not have certain resources, helping the people prosper. When examining their history, people gradually came to realize that in the beginning they had been like close brothers and were of a common root and had a mutual and deep affection. So they used their surpluses to supplement those who had shortages; this was like a division of labor, each gaining a mutual benefit. Thereafter, all under Heaven could come together to form a single family to balance the use of the wonderful resources of those under Heaven. If it is not like this, then the people of the mountains would lack fish and salt; the people of the coast would lack animals and wood; some places in our country would lack medicines; other places in the Central Plains [China] would lack rice. Nature is such that sagely men have love for all, regarding all children as their own children. When, then, cannot they use one country’s self-sufficiency to help another country? And why can’t one person’s self-sufficiency aid other people out of friendship rather than for money in order to stop going back and forth in ways that create problems?
The earlier feelings were uncongenial, but later changed to beneficial relations. The hardships of earlier generations led to successes in human affairs, and these successes will surely be enduring. For this reason, at the inception of future cooperation and future successes, there surely will be misgivings that will cause people to pause and think about possible harmful consequences, and only then will they be able to achieve enduring and eternal mutual benefits. If there are misgivings, they must seek to understand them, since there is usually a reason to pause and rest. But soon they will clearly understand them and will know Nature’s plans for dividing and distributing its bounty, which they must not oppose or change. At first, it seems as if all creatures have [someone] who is master over them, and all are frightened of one another. But if we look further, we see that all provide mutual assistance to one another, with appropriate levels for each type. Not all types of people are equal children of Nature. If they are big and powerful, they will always gain benefits; if they are yin, they will be weak and small, and consequently a great divide will be produced between them with respect to their benefits, which will cause great harm. How can we call this just?
This discussion is from one part of an essay in the Theory of the General Trends and Synthesis and Analysis of That Under Heaven. All these are the actual circumstances and the true principles in heaven and on earth. From the beginning of creation until the present, it has always only been like this. Although strong people have been able to distinguish themselves temporarily, they have not been able to do so forever.
Now I would like to highlight parts of my earlier discussion, because at present, the majority of scholars in our country hold onto the old and not the new; their methods of discussion cause disorder and chaos in governance; and their noisy discussions encourage the formation of cliques that then dare to slander the imperial court. They can hardly understand the changing circumstances of the current period. The old methods are no longer practical in the current age. The ancient sages had the saying “Heroic individuals are those who take note of the current situation, not those who take note of past circumstances.” To ignore a crisis by not putting down disorder is not wisdom but a lack of ability. This is just like praising those of former times, even if they were extremely foolish. Therefore, when discussing the events of their generation, the sages would examine these specific plans and make whatever changes were necessary for that particular period in order that men might be in accord with Heaven. This is just like nowadays, when all men of character inquire into the various matters of the common people, with no concern for the common patterns.
[Nguyen Truong To, “A Plan for Making the People Wealthy and the Country Strong,” Nam Phong, no. 119 (1926): 3–11; trans. George Dutton]
NGUYEN COMMENT ON THE FATE OF THE LE (1884)
Writing histories of its predecessors was one of the imperatives of a new dynasty. This gave the new rulers an opportunity to comment on the past, noting both the successes and the failures that necessitated the establishment of a new dynasty, thus legitimating their authority. Earlier generations of court historians, perhaps most famously Ngo Si Lien in the latter half of the fifteenth century, had carefully scrutinized the past and noted the shortcomings of previous generations of rulers and their advisers. Given the circumstances under which they came to power, the Nguyen paid particular attention to the reasons for the final collapse of the Le dynasty. Despite their interest in this project, it was more than fifty years before it was initiated, and then another twenty-eight years before the Nguyen record of their imperial antecedents was completed. The Imperially Ordered Mirror and Commentary on the History of the Viet contains the Nguyen dynasty’s official historical record of the rise and fall of the Le dynasty, which the new dynasty viewed as its immediate predecessor, pointedly ignoring the Tay Son interlude. This excerpt is the concluding comment in the work, which offers a critical assessment of the Le court’s rocky trajectory. The commentary praises the Le dynasty’s founder, Le Thai To (r. 1428–1433), as well as emperor, Le Thanh Tong (r. 1460–1497), but then describes the dynasty’s descent into chaos and its only partial recovery under the Trinh. It also includes a critique of the Trinh lords’ oppressive rule, which is contrasted with the enlightened and humane rule of the Nguyen lords who governed the southern realm. Finally, the commentary touches on the important question of why the Trinh never formally displaced the Le, noting the Le dynasty’s great reputation, which the lords continued to fear and respect.
From the time of its founding by the Great Ancestor, the Le dynasty did not follow an unbroken succession through many generations. Only Emperor [Le] Thanh Tong can be said to have been truly wise, whereas many other rulers were slow-witted and incapable and unworthy of consideration. From the time of the Restoration [1592], formal power had devolved entirely to the Trinh clan, and the Le dynasty survived only as a useless word. At the time of its founding, this dynasty’s course was straightforward and direct, but later the throne’s transmission became confused, stunted, and disorderly, and one could not know whether the matters being reported were really true. How could it be that the standards for establishing the country still were not in good order? Despite these problems, the Le dynasty’s authority was transmitted through many generations, longer than that of the Ly dynasty and the earlier Tran dynasty, which must be attributed to the labors and virtue of the Great Ancestor [Le Thai To (r. 1428–1433)]….
The Le dynasty began with the Great Ancestor, who rose up in righteousness from Lam Son, destroyed the Ming, established the kingdom, and triumphed over the barbarians. He did away with killing and was magnanimous toward the common people, and his virtues were profound and his accomplishments lofty. Compared with the earlier Ly and Tran dynasties, there had never been anything like this. Rule was then transmitted to Emperor [Le] Thanh Tong [r. 1460–1497]. Inside the country he developed civil administration, while outside it he vigorously used his military. His splendid brilliance and increasing efflorescence exceeded that of earlier generations. It can also be said that this was an era of great prosperity.
From the time of the Uy Muc emperor [r. 1505–1509], there were continual challenges, seizures [of the throne], and regicides. So it was that the blessings of the Le began to decline, and the Mac family overstepped its authority with false accusations. The Mandate of Heaven, however, had not changed, and so to help the emperor, our founding ancestor [Nguyen Kim] initiated a righteous uprising and then found Le Trang Tong [r. 1533–1548] and put him on the throne. In this manner, orthodoxy had again been restored; the former guiding principles had once again been made correct; and the restoration of order could then inspire and encourage for a thousand generations. The Trinh clan, however, took advantage of the disorder and seized political power. The Le emperor merely held empty ritual vessels and dared not demand anything of anyone. His only consolation was that he was still regarded by all under Heaven as the joint ruler.15 During the reign eras of Chinh Hoa [1680–1705] and Vinh Thinh [1705–1719], there were no problems in the four directions; things in the country were calm, just as things had been during the reign of Emperor Shaokang [of the Xia dynasty].
Then there was [Le] Hien Tong [1740–1786], who, after having been imprisoned, undertook the great enterprise of unifying the country. He concealed his clear-sightedness and followed the course of events. He was calm and silent and did not carry out any actions. He arranged for Trinh Sam’s accession to power, even though Trinh Sam was arrogant, rash, and unrestrained, and he dared not act forcefully despite Trinh Sam’s cruelty. Consequently, Le Hien Tong was able to remain on the throne for more than forty years.
The Trinh clan ignored the Way, so Heaven forced it to reflect a desolate wall. Hostilities rose within their family, and the soldiers and officers became arrogant and overbearing. The rebel Nguyen Huu Chinh took this opportunity to lead external troops [the Tay Son] to destroy the country. As a consequence, the Trinh were defeated, and the Le then also followed them.
When the Le dynasty began to decline, they never were able to restore order, and the Trinh lineage, in that and subsequent generations, continually acted with cruelty and oppression toward the imperial tombs. In the end, however, they never dared to seize the throne, and so they permitted the Le throne to remain for more than two hundred years. It may be that this was because of our court’s lineage of sagely kings, who in the southern regions had begun acting with benevolence and establishing righteousness, and their sacred reputation spread everywhere. Therefore, despite the covetousness of their hearts, the Trinh were fearful and did not dare to displace them.
The Man De emperor [r. 1787–1789] encountered a period of disaster, and the officials who assisted were nothing like those of earlier eras of the Restoration. Consequently, even though they did not wish to suffer destruction and loss, how could they avoid it? But during his exile, the emperor manifested righteousness, and his officials showed unswerving loyalty. This moved the hearts of the Chinese, which is made clear in the historical records. Is it not thanks to our ancestors’ benevolence and generosity in founding the country that kindness and charity continue to flow and be transmitted up to the present time?
[Kham dinh Viet su thong giam cuong muc (1884), 49:49–51; trans. George Dutton, with Matthew Cochran]
The following excerpts are from the Records of the Customs and People of Hai Duong, a local history and geography written by Tran Dam Trai, a minor literatus from Hai Duong Province. Besides describing geographical features, these texts typically contain brief biographical sketches, including figures of national prominence as well as locally important individuals. This volume contains several tales of significant local women from Hai Duong Province who distinguished themselves through their intellectual prowess and accomplishments. The first tale is about the mother of Nguyen Binh Khiem, a famous scholar-adviser of the sixteenth century, and suggests that he inherited from her his own abilities as a noted seer. The second tale is about a brilliant young woman, Nguyen Thi Du, who was forced to disguise herself as a man in order to sit for the examinations, which were restricted to men. Stories about her already had appeared in eighteenth-century biographical compilations and were later included in the Nguyen court’s gazetteers. The stories of these two women are significant, too, because both are connected with the Mac dynasty, which was regarded by subsequent official histories as having usurped Le imperial authority.
An Intelligent Matriarch
In the hamlet of lower An Tu, in the district of Tien Minh, there was an offspring of the Nhu clan, who was the daughter of a Ministry of Public Works official. She was very intelligent, had read the Confucian classics and histories, and was skilled in composing essays. She also was expert in the arts of fortune-telling and divination. While the Hong Duc reign was flourishing [1470–1497], she foresaw its collapse in forty years, but she also predicted that the eastern region would prosper. Even though she exerted her will just as a man would, she had not yet married. Several decades later when she first saw Van Dinh, she realized that he had a favorable appearance, and only then did she agree to marry. Then one day while she was crossing on the Tuyet Giang ferry, she met a young man and, sighing deeply, said, “Why is it that we did not chance to meet sooner?” When she asked his name, it was none other than Mac Dang Dung [r. 1528–1541],16 and she then was moved by regrets for the rest of the day. After that, she gave birth to the future duke, Nguyen Trinh [Nguyen Binh Kiem].
A Girl of Talent
In the hamlet of Kiet Dac, in Chi Linh District, there was a young woman named Nguyen Thi Du. The graves of her ancestors had been in the Tri Ngu mountains, and according to a [local] tale, “A geomancer prophesied: ‘A single mirror will reflect three kings.’” After this, her mother had a dream in which she saw a star come down and enter her womb. She then gave birth to a girl who was very beautiful and unusually intelligent. When she was twelve years old, the Mac dynasty ended, and her father brought [the girl] to Cao Bang [which the Mac still controlled]. There she dressed to disguise herself as a boy in order to find a teacher with whom she could study. She gained broad knowledge, and her writing became very skilled.
At that time, the northeastern region was supporting the Mac family, which organized a metropolitan civil service examination in Cao Bang. A huge number of people came to take the examination, in which the young woman placed at the very top and her teacher finished second. When she entered the court to pay her respects to the Mac lord, he saw through her disguise and realized that she was a woman. He asked her about this and then invited her into the palace. After the Mac were defeated, the girl went to live alone in the mountain valleys until she was captured by the Trinh lord’s soldiers. She asked the soldiers to take her to pay tribute to the lord but told them she would not become his concubine. All the scholars regarded this as strange but immediately took her into an audience. In her later years she became a Buddhist nun, and when a new ruler ascended the throne, he searched for a female scholar to teach those in the palace. Everyone tried to persuade the woman [to accept the position] and summoned her to enter the palace. She accepted the command to teach in the palace and was called the “instructor of rituals.” The woman served two dynasties, and her writings were used to help the court, and when a metropolitan civil service examination was held, this woman served as the censor. During the examination in the tan vi year of the Duc Long reign era [1631], Nguyen Minh Triet passed at the top of the lists, but few people fully understood his essays. The Nghi Chua [Lord Trinh Trang] asked the woman to explain them, which clearly revealed her remarkably wide knowledge.
[Tran Dam Trai, Hai Duong phong vat chi, 155–59; trans. George Dutton]
Descriptions by Vietnamese of early modern Vietnamese social and other daily practices are relatively rare, which makes Trinh Hoai Duc’s gazetteer Gia Dinh Citadel Records a particularly valuable document. It combines elements of Confucian and Sinic textual references with what amount to ethnographic descriptions of a wide range of social, religious, and cultural habits of the peoples of the southern Vietnamese territories. The account was written by a particularly sympathetic insider, a native of Gia Dinh, who became familiar with many popular practices through his residence, travel, and official service in the region. This series of excerpts examines such issues as the status of women, religious practices, marriage and clothing customs, birth practices, New Year and other rituals, the written vernacular language, and the influence of rivers on the southern peoples. It is interesting to compare Trinh Hoai Duc’s description of marriage rituals with those of his near contemporary and northern counterpart Pham Dinh Ho.17 The importance of ritual in various stages of the life cycle, as well as the seasons of the year, also reasserts the age-old concern with proper behavior that can be traced to ancient Chinese practices and that was periodically reinforced by Vietnamese courts and scholars. As did Nguyen Trai and Luong Dang, his predecessors who debated appropriate musical forms in the 1430s,18 Trinh Hoai Duc discusses scholars’ concerns with the need for appropriate music and dress to ensure ritual efficacy.
The chapter of the Zhou Rituals entitled “Duties of Regional Clans” says: For every two men in the southeast, there are five women, and the land has little yin but much yang. Its people have only rudimentary customs, and its birds and beasts have sparse feathers and fur but, because of these qualities, can endure the hot weather.” The Gia Dinh region of the country of Viet has many broad regions with abundant amounts of food, and its people need not worry about want or disease. For this reason, few people set aside supplies, the customs are extravagant, and its scholars compete with one another to display their talents. The peoples of the four directions are mixed in with one another, and each family has its own, distinct customs….
The Gia Dinh region lies in the southern realm, in a place with bright sunlight. Many of its people are loyal, brave, and righteous. They, including the women and girls, place greater importance on righteousness than on wealth. Many of its beautiful women are single, and the majority of those who are wealthy, long-lived, astute, and cunning are women as well. They venerate the Buddha and believe in sorcery, and many of them admire such female spirits as the Lady of Jade, the Lady of the Grotto (the common term for women who are held in such esteem is ba), the Lady of the Fire Spirit, the Lady of the Water Dragon, the Red Miss and the Apricot Miss, and so on. This practice is contrary to the “broken line trigram” [of the Classic of Changes] and can cause mishaps. These people also worship the [Daoist] kitchen god with the image of two men on either side and an image of a woman in the middle. This, too, contradicts [the Classic of Changes] in that there are two yangs but the yin is taken to serve as lord in the place of honor….
The rituals for marriage rely on a matchmaker, and the use of baskets of betel nuts and hibiscus is important for preparing the six rituals, which can be performed only by scholars. Sometimes a man takes up residence in his fiancée’s home before actually getting married. Families with both boys and girls may sell their rice fields and buffalo to one another in order to cover their marriage expenses. To carry out funeral rites, people study the Family Rituals of Wen Gong [Van Cong Gia Le]19 and the Kham Clan Book of Protocol [Kham Thi Nghi Tiet]. Most funeral rituals entail music. People wear either dark-blue or green silk clothing to funerals, in accordance with Su Dongpo [To Dong Pha]’s instructions: “The sounds of bell and drum cannot be distinguished in matters of sorrow or happiness, [just as] the gowns and hats of people who are in mourning and those who are not cannot be differentiated.” At present, ritual regulations are starting to be followed, and customs have completely changed. Because they now are so refined and elegant, they have become the state’s accepted rituals….
I think that our Viet people are continuing to practice the old customs of Giao Chi. People in official positions wear the cap of Cao Son; their clothing is a kind of cloak; and they wear leather shoes. Commoners leave their hair loose and go barefoot. Both men and women wear stiff-collared, short-sleeved tunics whose sleeves are sewn directly to the tunic, and they do not wear skirts or trousers. Instead, the men wear a long cotton turban that stretches from their back down to their buttocks and is knotted at the end. These are called kho pants. Girls wear an unlined skirt and, on their heads, a large, conical bamboo hat. People smoke pipes. Their houses are built low to the ground; people sleep directly on the floor; and they have neither chairs nor tables. In the mau ngo year [1738], Nguyen The Tong’s20 first year as the Hieu Vu emperor [the fourth year of the Le emperor Y Tong Vinh; and the third year of the Qing emperor Qianlong], the color of clothing was changed, and the outfits of all civil and military officials had to conform to the regulations of the dynasties from the Han and Tang to the Ming. Accordingly, they had to create a new pattern, which was just like the mandarin’s outfit of all the officials in those days. These rules and regulations concerning both ornamental and substantive [matters] were then disseminated.21 The commoners’ clothing and their tools also had to conform to the styles of the Ming, and the people were supposed to abandon the corrupted customs of the Bac Ha [northern] region, in order to create a country with civilized styles of dress….
In Nong Nai (that is Dong Nai), on the evening of the twenty-eighth day of the last lunar month, a troublemaker (popularly known as Nau Sac Bua),22 beats the barbarian drum, shakes the castanets, and assembles fifteen people to form a group. They circle the canals, looking for the homes of the rich and powerful. They then open the gate without ceremony and enter, attaching amulets to all the doorways. They read and chant incantations to the spirits, still beating the drums and castanets, and follow this by singing words of well-wishing. The master of the house then sets out plates of meats and cakes, as well as tea and wine, and also distributes envelopes with money as rewards and expressions of thanks. Then the group goes to another house and does the same thing. They do this until New Year’s Eve and then stop. The idea behind all this is to chase off the evil spirits and discard the old year while welcoming the new….
The people in each village build a village hall for the sacrificial rituals. An auspicious day is selected in advance for the veneration ritual. On that day, as the sun begins to set, older and younger people all gather together, spending the night [in the village hall], which is called “staying the night to pay one’s respects.” Early in the morning of the following day, the people put on their tunics and hats, beat the gong, and go in pairs to perform the ritual of veneration. On the day after that, they carry out continuous sacrifices, which is called the “great gathering.” When this ritual is completed, the people return home. They follow the customs of each village for setting the times in which they hold these ceremonies, which usually differ from one another. Some villages hold the ceremony in the first month, regarding spring as the most appropriate time to pray for good fortune, while others hold the ceremony in the eighth or ninth month, seeing the fall as the most appropriate time. Yet others hold the ceremony during the three winter months, seeing this as an appropriate time to celebrate the success of their labors. All, however, understand that the reason for celebrating the twelfth month ritual is to give thanks to the spirits. All of these are referred to as “praying for tranquillity.” In addition to these rituals, there also might be a water buffalo sacrifice or ritual singing, depending on the particular village’s customs. When carrying out the rituals, once the seating order has been suitably arranged, everyone in the village is allowed to participate, with the local official serving at the head. If there is a village scholar, he will perform the “village wine-drinking ritual,”23 recite the national laws, and explain the local village regulations. This is a praiseworthy village. These days, generally without exception, each village annually gathers and submits paddy rice money and taxes for cultivating new fields and for labor service. They examine the surpluses or deficits, the number of people, the amount of field land, and whether and why these have increased or decreased. Then they all gather to examine and calculate this [information]. They also select someone to manage the village affairs. There are regulations determining the date on which this transfer of duties must take place….
In Gia Dinh, people use the end of the year to clean [their homes] and offer sacrifices at the graves of their ancestors, which are tasks regulated by the state. Mindful of the approaching days of Tet, everyone makes things ready and puts them in order at the beginning of the year. When there are children and grandchildren, they wait upon the dead with the same courtesy due them when they were still alive, for how can one sit and look complacently at collapsed, decaying, and weed-infested tombs and not repair and redecorate them? In the old days, graves were not ritually venerated, but this began out of necessity. It can be compared with the ritual sweeping of the graves on the Thanh Minh date in China,24 although our country regards the last month of the year as having greater meaning….
In Gia Dinh, when guests arrive, they enter the house and are offered betel [nuts]. They then are offered tea, rice, and cakes, for it is essential to follow the correct customs. It does not matter whether [the guests] are close or distant relatives, whether they are strangers or acquaintances, or what their origins are; once they have arrived, they must be treated very generously. For this reason, when people travel, the majority do not take along provisions. Because so many places provide nourishment to guests, the number of people avoiding the village registers or fleeing [their native villages] is quite large….
In the past, the Chinese [Tang] people regarded the people of Gia Dinh as those who go barefoot. Previously, only officials and powerful individuals and people who circulated in the markets and streets wore shoes and socks. Nowadays, under the imperceptible influence of the Chinese, it has become common practice to wear either leather or cotton shoes, whether one is a wage earner or a servant girl….
[The territory of Gia Dinh] has many rivers with islands in them, [so] nine out of ten people are good swimmers and know something about piloting boats. They like to eat salted fish. They eat three meals a day, and everyone eats rice but very few eat congée [rice porridge]….
Just before a baby is born into a family, according to custom some firewood is cut into rods, which are wedged in front of the door. If the baby is a boy, the cut wood is pointed toward the inside, and if a girl is expected, it is pointed toward the outside. This is used as an indicator. It is absolutely forbidden for inauspicious women who are having a difficult pregnancy, are not able to produce a child, are dizzy, or have an illness of the uterus to enter [this house]. When the pregnant woman lies down on the bed, a blazing hot charcoal brazier is placed at her side and burns both day and night. A hot pot is used to press down on her abdomen once or twice a day. She eats various kinds of hot, salty, and dried foods and drinks soup. In general, pregnant women follow the customs of their village and their family and commonly take frequent doses of Southern [Vietnamese] medicine made from root plants, which are usually chopped and boiled in water. After a month, the mother and child are permitted to go outside. Anywhere they go, they are supposed to sit and rest for half an hour. When the child turns one month old, a noodle soup is made and given to the spirits of the twelve mothers as thanks for the birth. If the baby is a boy, the people calculate one month and subtract one day; and if it is a girl, they subtract two days to determine the day for the offering. For the one-year birthday, they take a tray, as is done in China.25 No matter whether the husband is a soldier or a civilian, he is exempted from labor service for one month, which is called “irrigating the auspicious.” This is considered important to preserving good health….
In the past, groups of shameless people would sometimes fight among themselves or with other people, regardless of whether they were in the right or not. They would throw themselves to the ground and tear one another’s clothing. They would scratch and injure each other’s bodies and moan and scream. This would bring disaster to a thousand people, which they would use to demand money and apologies. This was called “lying down for misfortune.” Recently, governmental regulations have become very strict, and every locality must suppress and punish this practice….
All the people in the country study Chinese books, which included, from time to time, aphorisms in the national tongue or a local dialect. From the books of Chinese characters, they find one that is phonetically similar and then add something to it. [For example], if a word has something to do with gold, they add the character for “gold”; if it is related to wood, they add the character for “wood”; or if it deals with speech, they add the character for “mouth,” and so forth. They imitate the methods of the six categories of [Chinese] characters or combine them to create compounds that have harmonious sounds as well as being mutually recognizable from their origins, even though they are not native to this country. When the people write characters in other scripts, they spread out the paper on a table and write in grass or zhuan-li characters, supplying the answer in whatever characters they see fit. When they write, some people take the paper in their left hand and the pen in their right and then write very quickly, using the broad, comma-like, and transverse strokes as in China, even though these structures have been modified and are no longer similar and people use only those that are convenient. As in China, the hundred families all use completely different methods of writing grass-style characters, and their meanings differ from one another as well. For this reason, [personalized] grass-style characters are not often used in administrative matters….
In Gia Dinh there are boats everywhere. People use boats as their homes or to go to market or to visit their relatives. Other people transport firewood and rice or engage in itinerant commerce, which is particularly profitable. The boats fill the rivers both day and night, and in coming and going, their sterns get so close that they are in contact with one another. For this reason, many of them collide, causing damage, leading to lawsuits. When determining who was at fault, each person blames the other, so it is very difficult to decide what really happened. Eventually, the Nghi Bieu marquis, the military counselor overseeing the military region, issued an order stating: “No matter what time of day and whether going upstream or downstream, whenever one boat approaches another [boat], each must shout out bat (or, more precisely, those passing on the left side shall call out cay, and those passing on the right shall call out bat).26 If a boat is traveling on the right side and another boat also is traveling on the right side, then depending on which is more convenient, they should steer and row so as to avoid a collision. If one [captain] has already called out bat and the other boat continues to travel to the left side and they are not able to avoid a collision, damaging their boats, then the second boat is at fault.” Nonetheless, some people refuse to follow this rule, using any convenient boat to transport light-weight items with the [flow of the] stream, and they do go more quickly. For this reason, people who pilot boats who wish to avoid one another usually just call out bat. They call out cay [only] when their boats approach their docks, if they have encountered a wind that might cause them to run aground, or if they have an accident that causes them to call out like this. Thus the shout of cay is seldom heard. This is a settled law.
[Trinh Hoai Duc, GDTTC, 363–89, 141–49; trans. George Dutton]
A DIRGE FOR ALL TEN CLASSES OF BEINGS (1815?)
“A Dirge for All Ten Classes of Beings” is arguably Nguyen Du’s best-known literary work after The Tale of Kieu. Written sometime in the 1810s, “A Dirge” is a useful contrast to the celebratory rhetoric found in state-sponsored verse, such as Gia Long’s “Commemoration of the Defeat of the Tay Son.” It is an extended reflection on the miseries of those who have died untimely deaths away from their homes. Such deaths are viewed as particularly inauspicious, since the body cannot be given a proper burial in the family plot and therefore cannot be properly mourned or visited in subsequent commemorative rituals. In particular, “A Dirge” reflects on the recently ended Tay Son wars and the great hardships and killings visited on the Vietnamese. Rather than a critique of either the Tay Son or their Nguyen rivals, the poem comments on the brutality and inhumanity of war itself and offers compassion to the soldiers and the suffering they faced. The poem is surprisingly critical of the Nguyen for a scholar who avoided serving the Tay Son court and who then was part of the Nguyen embassies to China. Like The Tale of Kieu, “A Dirge” is full of Buddhist elements, reflecting the strong Buddhist revival among scholars in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Throughout the seventh month, rain sobs and wails.
The chill of wind gnaws into aged bones.
An autumn evening—what dismal scene!
Reeds drown in silver, plane trees strew gold leaves.
Among the poplars twilight lingers still.
Upon the pear trees, drop by drop, dew falls.
Whose heart would not feel sorrow at this sight?
And if the living mourn, what of the dead?
Out of the darkness shrouding sky and earth,
let specters, ghosts, and phantoms all appear!
All creatures of ten classes, pity them!
Lost, lonely souls, they wander in strange lands.
They find no home where votive incense burns—
forlorn, they prowl and prowl from night to night.
They once sat high or low—what matter now?
Can you now tell the sages from the fools?
As autumn starts, let’s set up an altar.
Pure water sprinkles from the willow branch.
May Buddha’s mercy heal those suffering souls,
save them and guide them toward the Promised West.
There were proud men who followed glory’s path—
they warred and hoped to conquer all the world.
Why talk about the heyday of their might?
Remember their decline, their fall, and grieve.
A storm broke forth—their roofs came crashing down:
could they trade places with the meanest boor?
For pride and pomp breed hatred and revenge—
blood flowed in streams, bones crumbled into bits.
Killed young, they’ve left no heir—they drift unmourned
as headless ghosts that moan on nights of rain.
Defeat or triumph lies in Heaven’s scheme—
will ever those lost souls escape their fate?
Where are those ladies, veiled by flowered drapes,
who reigned supreme in cassia-scented bowers?
Once more the realm changed masters—hapless leaves,
did they know where they’d go, swept off by winds?
From lofty towers they toppled into waves—
the hairpin snapped in two, the pitcher sank!
A merry court had flocked round them in life—
once their eyes closed, none gathered up their bones.
Alas, no incense burns to keep them warm:
they hide in thickets, or they skulk near brooks.
Oh, pity their soft hands, their tender feet!
They wilt night after night, rot year by year.
Those who once wore tall hats and waved broad sleeves
meted out life and death with their red brush.
To rule—they did know how; their pockets stuck
with statecraft handbooks like so many knives:
they’d read Yi Yin, the Duke of Zhou by day,
study Guan Chong or Zhuge Liang at night.
Higher they climbed, more hatred they inspired,
creating all around more tombs, more ghosts.
No gold on earth can ransom back their lives.
Their halls lie shattered where gay sounds once rang.
No kinsfolk stay close by to offer them
a bowl of water or an incense stick.
Deserted souls, they stagger here and there,
far from salvation, loaded down with guilt.
There were those who mapped plans and marshaled troops.
They rushed to battle, seized batons and seals.
They raged like windstorms, roared like thunderbolts:
many laid down their lives for one man’s sake.
Stray arrows, errant bullets spelled their doom—
they squandered flesh and blood on battlegrounds.
Stranded and waifed upon some distant shore,
where could they find a grave, poor bones none claimed?
All through the sky’s abyss, rain wails, wind howls:
the mists of darkness blur and dim the world.
Forests and fields wear mourning shades of gray—
the cast-off dead receive no sacrifice.
There were those who once hankered after wealth.
They traded, losing sleep and appetite.
Estranged from kith and kin, they had no friend:
to whom could they bequeath their hard-earned goods?
Who would be there to hear their dying words?
All earthly riches come and go like clouds—
now dead, they could not take one coin with them.
The neighbors, squeezing out some ritual tears,
dumped them in coffins made of banyan wood
and buried them by torchlight after dark.
Bewildered, at a loss, they roam the fields—
where is an incense stick, a drop of drink?
There were those scholars chasing post and rank—
they’d all trek into town and try their luck.
In fall they would pack up and leave their homes
to go and measure pens with fellow scribes.
But was officialdom, their cherished goal,
a cause worth risking body and soul for?
When they took sick, bedridden at some inn,
they lacked their wives’ and children’s loving care.
Without ado, they were consigned to earth,
while strangers, and no brothers, would look on.
Far, far away from their ancestral soil,
their corpses dot unhallowed burial grounds.
Unarmed by fire and incense, exiled souls
must shiver as winds blow beneath the moon.
There were those travelers roving streams and seas,
whose sails unfurled and dared the east’s fierce gusts.
A tempest rose and struck them in midcourse—
they met their end inside the maws of sharks.
There were those who strolled round and peddled wares,
their shoulders mangled by the carrying pole.
As they fell victim to harsh sun or rain,
where did they wend their way, souls turned adrift?
There were those who, enlisted by main force,
left their beloved to go to serve the state.
With water scooped from brooks, rice kept in tubes,
they trudged along rain-swept, wind-beaten trails.
In wartime human life is cheap as trash—
stray bullets and chance arrows smote them down.
Will-o’-the-wisps, they flutter to and fro,
as night skies echo with their piteous moans.
There were poor girls whom fortune failed in need:
they sold their charms and threw their youth away.
Old age caught them alone and desolate—
unmarried, childless, where could they seek help?
Alive, they drained the cup of bitter dregs;
and dead, they eat rice mush from banyan leaves.
How sorrowful is women’s destiny!
Who can explain why they were born to grief?
There were those wretches tramping all year—
a bridge served as their roof, hard ground their bed.
They too belonged to humankind—alas,
they lived on alms and died beside back roads.
Some got locked up in jail for no offense—
they languished, clad in tattered mats, and died.
Their bones were tucked in nooks of prison camps.
When will they ever have their wrongs set right?
Some children, newborn at a baleful hour,
had to forsake their parents and pass on.
Who’s to hold them, walk and play with them?
Their strangled cries and wails distress the heart.
And there were those who drowned in streams or lakes,
those who climbed trees and fell when their foot slipped.
Some tumbled down deep wells when their rope broke.
Some washed away in floods, some burned in fires.
Some perished by wolves’ fangs or elephants’ tusks,
a prey to monsters of the hills or seas.
Some women bore a child, but left it soon;
and some, alas, miscarried of their babe.
Along the way, all tripped and fell head first
to cross the Bridge of No Return, one after one.
Those persons bound for separate destinies,
stray souls and vagrant ghosts—where are they now?
They crouch against a dike, behind a bush.
They dwell where rivers spring, where earth meets sky.
They lurk in clumps of grass, in shades of trees.
They hover near this hostel, haunt that bridge.
They find asylum at some shrine, some church.
They make abode in market town and ports.
They clamber up and down some mounds or knolls.
They wade all through the mire of bogs or swamps.
After a life of agonies and woes,
bowels and guts have shriveled, numb with cold.
For scores of years they’ve suffered gales and storms;
moaning, they eat and sleep on dirt or dew.
By cockcrow frightened, they all flee and hide—
at sunset they all venture forth again.
In rage they all slink out, hugging their young
or steering by the hand their tottery old.
All wandering, damned souls, both old and young!
For your salvation come and hear a prayer.
May Buddha rescue you from life and death
and ferry you to his Pure Land of Bliss.
Let his effulgent light dispel such gloom
as clouds the mind in ignorance and sin.
Then over all four seas his peace shall reign
to soothe all griefs and purge all enmity.
May Buddha’s power send the Wheel of the Law
through all three realms, to all ten cardinal points.
The Burnt-Faced King shall raise his holy flag
and lead all creatures on their joyous march.
May Buddha work his magic and awake
all beings from the dream of self-deceit.
All creatures of ten classes, are you there?
Women and men, young and old, all come!
All enter Buddha’s house and hear his word!
This life is just a bubble or a flash.
O friends, make room for Buddha in your hearts,
and you’ll escape the cycle of rebirths!
At his behest, we set a bowl of gruel
and incense candles on the hallowed board.
We offer paper gold and paper clothes
to help you speed your heavenward ascent!
All who have come, be seated and partake:
spurn not these trifles, gifts of our goodwill.
By Buddha’s grace they’ll grow a millionfold,
and all of you shall get your even share.
To all he brings compassion release:
no longer fear the curse of life and death.
Buddha, the Law, the Order—all be praised!
Glory to those who sit on lotus thrones!
[Huynh Sanh Thong, Anthology of Vietnamese Poems, 77–83]