The modern period in Vietnam’s history ushered in a series of new challenges and rapid changes engendered by French colonization and the impact of Western and Asian ideas. After the conquest of the entire country by the French in 1884, the Vietnamese were faced with European occupation and control as well as the question of how they could fit into the modern world. At first, the imperial court and its scholar-gentry allies mounted a series of sporadic, anti-French attacks, none of which succeeded, although they kept alive the flame of revolt. Although most officials switched their allegiance to the French, some Confucian scholars retreated to the countryside, refusing to serve the new rulers. By the start of the twentieth century, new voices and forms of organization had begun to challenge the French. The most notable among them was Phan Boi Chau, a scholar trained in the Confucian classics who rejected French rule on the moral grounds that it would lead to the extinction of the Vietnamese nation and race. His approach reflected a search for modernity based on the ideas of social Darwinism and the model of Japan, a rising power in Asia, while resisting the French through violent means.
The debates about modernity that preoccupied Vietnamese thinkers in the early twentieth century centered on how modern ideas could be brought to bear to “strengthen” the country and defeat the French. Like Phan Boi Chau, who left Vietnam for Japan in 1905, the reform-minded Confucian scholars who organized the Tonkin Free School (Dong Kinh Nghia Thuc) in 1907 forcefully argued that only “modern learning” (as opposed to Confucian learning) and cultural and national revival could save Vietnam. This new approach called for replacing Chinese characters with the romanized script, quoc ngu, a modern educational system that encompassed science and technology, modern political institutions, and business activities. Phan Chau Trinh, a founder of this school, was one of the principal proponents of popular rights and political democratization. In general, these modernist scholars sought to “awaken” and invigorate nationalist consciousness and forge a new Vietnamese identity despite French assimilation efforts.
By the 1920s, the ideological and nationalist options available to the Vietnamese in colonial Indochina had expanded while the political and social crisis had shifted and deepened. New forms of political, cultural, and religious activity were attempted in order to break out of the colonial straitjacket and the sense of cultural decline. Independence was still the overriding and ultimate goal among most of the Vietnamese educated class, but would it be achieved through violent or nonviolent means, reform or revolution, or some other form of renewal? Would Vietnam become a monarchy, a republic, or a socialist state? The different currents of thought now included Marxist ideology, democratic nationalism, and neotraditionalist collaborationism. The failure of the uprising by Nguyen Thai Hoc’s Nationalist Party (VNQDD) against the French in 1930 seemed to foreclose the option of a non-Marxist nationalist solution. All these new approaches grappled with which aspects of the traditional values to maintain while preserving an imagined “national soul” (except for Marxism). All entailed the formation of new elites and new organizational forms.
French culture, sometimes refracted through the lens of colonialism, inevitably had an impact on the evolution of Vietnamese modernity, even though only a fraction of the Vietnamese people were educated in French schools. The rest were illiterate. New Westernized ideas took shape against the backdrop of the older scholars’ reliance on Confucian scholasticism, and by 1919, the Confucian examinations for administrative appointments had been discontinued.
In the 1920s, quoc ngu, the romanized writing system, largely replaced Chinese characters, spurring an outpouring of new media such as journals and newspapers and new literary forms such as novels and European-influenced forms of poetry. A new national literature began to take form. The Self-Reliance literary movement of the 1930s enthusiastically embraced Westernization and modernization and advised discarding all the old ways. During this decade, literature was based on new themes of romantic love and personal self-expression (as opposed to familial obligations) while also exploring naturalism and surrealistic forms. At the same time, the cultural arena was crowded with neotraditionalist arguments, and Confucianism continued to influence Vietnamese society, morality, and politics. Buddhism also experienced a revival and a renewal, and in the south, two new religious groups, the Cao Dai, a syncretic movement, and the Hoa Hao, an offshoot of Buddhism, became popular.
By the 1930s, though, Vietnam had largely broken with the past. Economic dislocations engendered by the increasing commercialization and monetization of the economy and its links to global capitalism had profound repercussions in the country. Western individualism was not, however, universally accepted as the model for a new society. Instead, new visions emerged, including collectivistic solutions based on submerging the individual to the society’s broader needs. With the approach of World War II, various political parties competed with one another to determine the contours of Vietnam’s political and socioeconomic system. The country again faced the prospect of fundamental change as social, political, and international forces converged to grant Vietnam the possibility of political independence.
FAREWELL APOLOGIES TO THE EMPEROR (1882)
The French had completed their occupation of the south by 1867 and were looking for a way to extend their influence to the north, particularly to the strategic area of Hanoi and the Red River. In April 1882, French troops attacked Hanoi and took control of the citadel. Hoang Dieu, commander of the citadel and viceroy of northern Vietnam, failed to defend the city. He thereupon committed suicide to honor his loyalty to the emperor and as a protest against the court’s halfhearted efforts to mount an effective resistance. In so doing, Hoang Dieu provided a model of self-sacrifice and devotion to the cause of saving the country. By 1884, the French had annexed the north and the center, creating the colonial dependencies of Tonkin, Annam, and Cochinchina.
I, the undersigned, am convinced that the imperial confidence has appointed me to a position that far surpasses my abilities. I, who am a modest scholar inexperienced in managing frontier areas, was invested with the responsibility of maintaining order and peace in a strategic region where rebellions swarm like flies.
For ten years we have been negotiating, and yet the enemy’s intentions remain inscrutable.1 It will soon be three years since I came, on imperial orders, to administer the region of Hanoi. During this time, I have never dared neglect the training of our troops or the consolidation of our fortifications. Not only have these measures contributed to the maintenance of peace within these borders, but they also have discouraged evildoers from even initiating their plots. But who would have guessed that birds of prey were poised for flight or that ravenous carnivores were in search of meat?
In the second month of this year, many French battleships sailed toward northern Vietnam, and most of them anchored not far from Hanoi. The population of the citadel became uneasy at their approach.
I ventured to think of Hanoi as an opening to all the regions of northern Vietnam. It certainly is a strategic stronghold. Were this place to fall into enemy hands, the rest of the territory would sooner or later follow.
For this reason, I both sent instructions secretly to the governors of the neighboring provinces to warn them and memorialized the throne to ask for reinforcement. Imperial edicts rebuked me, however, for repeatedly being excessively concerned with military matters or for not knowing the proper way to resist the enemy.
I investigated myself and found that I was not in command of any real power. Nevertheless I could not, with decency, forsake my duties as I am, after all, an important official. Conforming my conduct to that of my predecessors, I maintained an unwavering loyalty to the emperor.
Almost daily, I discussed the situation with my subordinates. Some suggested that we open our citadel to the French so that they might come and go freely. Others proposed that we withdraw our troops in order to allay their suspicion of our planned resistance. I vehemently opposed these counsels and felt that even if I [ended up being] annihilated, I would not comply with such expedients.
While our plans and preparations for defense were still indefinite, the enemies suddenly broke their earlier agreement.
On the seventh day [April 24, 1882] they submitted their ultimatum, and on the following day they unleashed the main force of their troops against the citadel.
The enemy troops surrounded us, numerous as ants.
The Western cannon exploded, deafening as thunder.
In the city, fire spread throughout the houses in every street.
In the citadel, fear wrung the hearts of the whole population.
Although I had just recovered from an illness, I made every effort to command our troops. We killed more than one hundred enemy soldiers. We succeeded in defending the citadel for longer than half a day.
But what else could we have done?
We were weak while they were strong. In vain, we waited for reinforcements. In vain, we fought for certain strategic points.
What more could we have done when our military officers, terrified by the enemy’s advance, scattered in every direction and when our civilian mandarins sought only a means of escape?
My heart hurt me as if it had been cut with a knife. I could not, however, single-handedly hold the citadel.
A military commander of no talent like myself does not deserve to live longer. Responsible for the loss of the citadel and devoid of any hope of recovering it, I feel the death sentence too mild a punishment for my misdeed.
I dare not follow Zao Mo’s example and save my life for future revenge.2
My only recourse is to imitate Zhang Xun by ending my life in order to honor the great responsibilities entrusted to me.3
I can claim neither loyalty nor righteousness, for I have been compelled to make this decision.
I am filled with shame for having allowed the enemy to seize the capital of the North.
Will the scholars of this part of the country forgive me? Bound to the destiny of the citadel, I am determined to walk in the steps of my predecessor, Nguyen Tri Phuong.4
Will my sovereign, a thousand li [one li is approximately one-third mile] away from me, understand my situation?
The only wish I have is that the sun and the moon send their rays to witness my devotion.
Completed on the eighth day of the fourth month of the thirty-fifth year of Tu Duc [April 25, 1882]
[Adapted from Truong Buu Lam, Patterns of Vietnamese Response to Foreign Intervention, 108–12]
ROYAL EDICT ON RESISTANCE (1885)
Under the Patrenotre Treaty of 1884, the Vietnamese court had ceded control to the French over all of Vietnam. Despite this, the young boy emperor Ham Nghi joined forces with a royal faction to repel French troops by force when they arrived in Hue, the imperial capital, to set up their government. Upon their defeat, the emperor and his loyalists fled to the mountains, where they continued to mount and plan resistance efforts against the French. The Ham Nghi emperor was finally captured by the French in 1888 and was exiled to Algeria for the rest of his life. The Can Vuong (Save the King) movement, however, persisted until 1895. This edict was the Ham Nghi emperor’s call to arms and follows the pattern of previous proclamations that called on the people to help defend the ruler after the emperor had fled the capital, such as Le Duy Mat’s call to troops to overturn the Trinh and restore the Le.5
The emperor proclaims:
From time immemorial, there have never been more than three alternatives when planning military strategy: to fight, to resist, and to negotiate. We have missed the chance to fight. [If we] resist, we can hardly hope for the necessary strength. [If we] negotiate, we can never meet the enemy’s demands. Therefore, we now find ourselves in a thousand difficulties, in ten thousand hardships. Unwillingly, we now resort to expedients. There have been numerous such cases among the famous men of antiquity: King Dai moved to the mountains of Ji;6 Tang Xuanzong fled to Shu.7
Our country has recently experienced much suffering. Although I ascended the throne at a very young age, I have always been greatly concerned with the problem of strengthening and administering our country. But each day, the pressure from the Western envoys becomes increasingly imperious. Recently, they even brought in additional troops and battleships. Their demands were then all the more difficult to satisfy. As usual, we received them cordially. But they were not disposed to accept anything.
The people of the capital were keenly aware of the impending danger. The great ministers of the court tried to construct a policy that would maintain peace in the country and secure respect for the national authority. They were caught in a dilemma: should they bow their heads and take orders from the enemy, sit quietly and let opportunities pass by, or should they scrutinize the enemy’s movements in preparation for an appropriate reaction? Now, since we can no longer evade the course of events, we shall have to build on today’s gains for a better and brighter tomorrow. Such is, after all, the necessity imposed by circumstances. All those who have shared our anxieties surely appreciate the situation. If they do not, let them join the resistance, grit their teeth, and, with their hair on end, swear the destruction of every last enemy. Who would not be moved by such determination? Will there be no one to make a pillow of his sword,8 to beat his oars against the bark,9 to grasp the spears,10 or to roll the jar?11
Moreover, officials of the court should observe only righteousness. Knowing righteousness, they should live and die by it. Gu Yuan12 and Zhao Zui13 of the Qin dynasty, Guo Ziyi14 and Li Guangbi15 of the Tang dynasty were indeed persons who lived by it in antiquity.
My virtue is like gossamer; now that I am confronted with these changes, I am unable to take the lead. The capital has been lost. The imperial carriage has departed. I am responsible for all this, and I feel an infinite shame. However, since we still are bound by moral obligations, none of you—mandarins, ministers, literati, high, or low—shall abandon me. Those with intelligence shall contribute ideas; those with strength shall lend their force. The rich shall give money to buy military supplies. The peasants and villagers shall not refuse hardship or evade danger. It is right that this should be so.
To uphold the weak, to support the faltering, to confront difficulties, and to reduce danger, none shall spare their efforts. Perhaps with Heaven’s assistance, we shall be able to turn chaos into order, danger into peace, and finally retrieve our entire territory. Under these circumstances, the fate of the nation must be the fate of the people. Together we shall work out our destiny and together we shall rest. Is this not the best solution?
On the contrary, should you fear death more than you feel loyalty to your emperor, should your domestic worries override your concern for the affairs of state, should officials flee danger on every occasion and soldiers desert their ranks to hide; again, should the people withhold righteous assistance to the state in this time of danger, and scholars shun prominent positions for obscurity, would they not then be superfluous in this world? You might wear robes and headdresses, but your attitude would be that of animals. Who can accept such behavior?
The court has always had its tradition of generous rewards and heavy penalties. Act to avoid remorse in the future.
[Adapted from Truong Buu Lam, Patterns of Vietnamese Response to Foreign Intervention, 116–20]
THE HISTORY OF THE LOSS OF THE COUNTRY (1905)
Phan Boi Chau, the most important figure in Vietnam’s early anticolonial movement against the French, wrote this original and influential text while living in Japan. In it, he warns that the French colonization of Vietnam risks the disappearance of Vietnam as a country and the Vietnamese as a people. The first two parts of the text explain his reasons for the loss of the country and present detailed biographies of the “heroes” who fought for Vietnam’s independence in the past. In the third part, “How the French Entrapped Weak, Stupid, Blind Vietnam,” translated here from Chinese, Phan Boi Chau shows, as did Nguyen Truong To before him,16 how the Vietnamese were duped by the French and why they had to understand the extent of the colonizers’ perfidious intentions and oppressive rule. In particular, Phan Boi Chau attacks the French system of taxation, which weighed heavily on all Vietnamese. Note that Phan Boi Chau refers to Vietnam as the South and to the Vietnamese as the Southern people.
Alas! Within thirty years, the Vietnamese, after already battling with spear and shield, were faced with disasters of discord like fire and water. After these were finished, there came fights with dagger and sword. These many violent destructions left us with only a last gasp, so how could we defend ourselves against the poisonous meddling of the French? Every day they proceeded to carve us up like fish and meat. Alas! Soon will it not end with no survivors of our own kind in Vietnam? When someone speaks of the poisonous meddling of the French, people fear that he will be overheard [and cause trouble], so they blame people who talk like this. France is a strong and vigorous country, but it picks on and insults small and weak Vietnam. What kind of country does that? The French are supposed to be civilized, and yet they treat the stupid, blind Vietnamese as if they were fish or meat. What kind of laws are they supposed to have? This is why I speak, although I fear no one will believe me. I rely, however, on what I have seen and heard with my own eyes and ears, and I speak the truth without prejudice or false accusation. It is why I lay the blame on the French. If what I say contains even the tiniest untruth, then Heaven and Earth will not forgive me.
Vietnam has a ruler—how do the French treat him? The Ham Nghi emperor, the former ruler of Vietnam, was a minor on the throne for just one year. Did he commit an immoral act? Did he commit a wicked crime? He was no more than a weak and bookish leader, that is all. When the French attacked the capital, the Ham Nghi emperor fled, but every inch of the ground he trod on was the land of his ancestors, so what business was it of the French? But the French pursued him, captured him, and moved him to an isolated place called the city of Algiers in the south of Africa [sic], where they isolated him in a secret chamber, banned him from communication with outsiders, and strictly forbade any Vietnamese from coming or going with any news of him. They took a virtuous and innocent ruler and kept him captive in a foreign land. If the French wish to kill him, they should just kill him, but they keep him alive and take tens of thousands of taels of gold as a fee to provide for him!
(The tax that the French exact from the Southern Country is divided into three parts. Two-thirds go straight to the French, and the Vietnamese can do nothing about this. One-third is for a public fund for the upkeep of the ruler and mandarins and amounts to thirty thousand taels, which is paid to the French every year; this fund is called “Money for the Provision of the Vietnamese King.”) How do the people of Vietnam know whether they are actually providing for the emperor? The French just borrow these thirty thousand taels to keep his soul alive, stuck in a life that is unbearable, like death but not truly death.
Such poisonous cruelty this is! The French blatantly take these thirty thousand taels, and no Vietnamese dares do anything about it. The French use this as a pretext to earn themselves the false reputation of being kind and virtuous. Such is the treacherous cunning of the French!
The current ruler of Vietnam is the Thanh Thai emperor. The French have left him only the inner palace to live in and have allowed him to retain only the title of emperor. But the French actually have surrounded the palace gates with French soldiers. Whoever goes in or out is watched and controlled by French soldiers. If the ruler of the land takes so much as a step outside the gate of the capital, he must obey the commands of the French. All governmental proclamations and commands in the country must first be reported to the French, and only with the approval of the French do the Vietnamese dare to carry them out; otherwise, the French just issue their own directives. The Vietnamese act as slaves and do the five bows and three kowtows to them (which is the proper behavior for Vietnamese toward their rulers), answer them respectfully, and follow their orders. Toward the emperor, they put their hands together and bow their heads a bit, but they are not allowed to open their mouths to ask him anything. What is going on? Would it not be better for the French just to get rid of such a ruler and publicly declare themselves emperors of both Great France and Great Viet? Who would dare question this? Wouldn’t this be a much cleaner and clearer way of doing things?
The French keep the empty palace building and throne, so when news of their myriad evils and abuses spread throughout the land and is heard in foreign countries, they can say: “These are the wishes of the Vietnamese ruler and his mandarins” and “This is what your Vietnamese ruler and his mandarins have agreed to do.” The French think that the Vietnamese do not have eyes or ears or that foreigners do not openly discuss what they are doing. Since the French are not challenged, they believe their deceptions are successful. Who would dare dupe Vietnam so openly? Who would dare to trick foreign countries so openly? But the fact is that they have duped Vietnam and have tricked foreign countries. No one investigates their evil deeds. Now isn’t that treacherous cunning on the part of the French?
The French use the word protect to deceive the powerful nations of the five continents.17 When one [imperial] country benefits, other countries can share. This is the convention. But the French cover and conceal their misdeeds. They claim that Vietnam has a ruler here and that they are only guests “protecting” him. How does this benefit Vietnam? A strong guest never represses his host. If we think that powerful countries believe the French, then the French have concealed their misdeeds. Over the past thirty years, not a single trading ship from a strong nation has come to Vietnam; not a single powerful nation has opened a trading post or embassy. I would suggest that the French have not necessarily tricked these powerful nations. There might be another reason that I am just not able to explain yet. The French have bound and bundled up the royal family very tightly and check their names on the royal family tree two or three times a month, taking a roll call. If anyone is missing, the French will pursue him to the utmost, fanning out in every direction and punishing [the escapee] very harshly for his crime. Are the French afraid their secret will leak out? Also, the French have recently reduced the royal family’s allowance, so how are they going to live? But if no one goes abroad to accuse them, then things will just continue like this.
Vietnam has mandarins [who serve the court]. How do the French treat these mandarins? Let me tell you. The land of Vietnam was destroyed, and our ruler was lost. This was a painful and hateful affair. When this happened, how could these mandarins, who had enjoyed the royal favor, put up with this quietly? If all Vietnamese were made to bow their heads, listen to, and happily serve the French, what sort of world would this be? The power of the Vietnamese is far inferior to that of the French. If we were to fight the French to the death, it would be like a fight between a three-year-old child and Meng Bi, who could pull out the horns of live bulls.18 How could we not be defeated? When the Vietnamese were defeated, some could not bear to surrender. Some people killed themselves out of anger, and some bowed their heads and begged to be forgiven for their crimes. Those who would not surrender were like Phan Dinh Phung and Pham Doan. If the French had allowed them to escape into the mountain valleys, they would just have rotted away there with the grass and trees. What harm would this do the French? But the French did their utmost to be malicious and captured their wives and families, rounded up their fellow villagers, and dug up their family graves. If they did not submit, that was their own business. But of course, the French took retribution against them, like owls with no sympathy for the sick (as the popular Vietnamese saying goes). How would one dare bear any animosity toward corpses? One should feel pity for the dead. What crimes did they commit to justify the French violently disinterring and chopping them up, hanging them on the city gates, or casting them into fire and water? How could this not make us extremely bitter toward the French?
Those who killed themselves in bitterness and anger, as Nguyen Cao and Ha Van My did, and destroyed themselves without having committed any crime [meant that] their wives and children would live in poverty with no one to rely on, crying over the injustice and sobbing in distress, the sounds rending the heavens and cracking the earth. If the French had stopped there and allowed their blood to seep into the ground, what harm would it have done them? Yet the French instantly became enraged, went off and dug up their bodies and burned them, cut off their heads and put them on display. How can corpses still be rebels when their souls have been destroyed and their bodies decimated? The blackened skeletons underwent all the suffering between Heaven and Earth; the French tried to scowl at them like wolves or clapped their hands in joy. How could this not make people fear and loathe them?
Some people, like Nguyen Thanh, Phan Trong Muu, and Nguyen Quang Cu, bowed their heads and begged for forgiveness. The French did not kill them, as two of them were presented scholars19 and one a provincial graduate, so the French kept them as an enticement to others to surrender. These individuals are truly craven and foolish fellows! How can someone be considered a great man if he lowers his head in submission in defeat and begs for mercy? These worthless people! It is hateful that [the French] keep them alive and yet do not have not the heart to kill them. From the French point of view, they already have surrendered, so why is it necessary to kill them? Have pity on all those who surrendered outside the north gate of An Hoa and were put to the sword. After killing them, the French forbade their families and relatives from finding their bodies and taking them away for burial, [instead] leaving their blood to flow and their bones to dry, so that travelers would not pass by there anymore. Added to that, the French were extremely devious: at first, a few people came out to give themselves up, and the French spoke to them with sweet words and rewarded them in order to tempt others. This continued until all of them came out, leaving their mountain hideouts in the trees and caves. Then the French marched all of them to An Hoa gate. All the people who gave themselves up at that time received the gift of a sword; making the heroes who had been unwilling to give themselves up pound on the tables and shout “Hurrah!” Because the French had the reputation of killing all those who surrendered, [by not capturing the holdouts], they both satisfied the ambitions of these heroes and strengthened the hearts of those who longed for the old times. How can civilized people carry out these kinds of unspeakable punishments and massacres of innocent people?
You Vietnamese, open your eyes! Do not say that the French can be trusted! Before their hold on the country was secure, the French exhorted the people thousands upon thousands of times to give themselves up, saying that they would be not be charged with any crime. Now, how do you regard the French? Do you still believe the French can be trusted? The French have the most wicked and cruel methods; deep down, they are treacherous and tricky. When they first took Vietnam, they enticed the Vietnamese with extremely sweet words and good rewards and used good positions and big salaries as bait. They used Vietnamese like Nguyen Tan and Hoang Cao Khai (these two are very capable at quelling “banditry”), sending them off like hunting falcons for their various evil works. Those who grasp and gnaw away as they please are immoral good-for-nothing thugs in the land of Viet; they have the faces of monkeys and the innards of swine. In fact, the Viets usually do not regard these people as equals of themselves, but the French have the greatest respect for them, such as those like Vo Doan Nha, an interpreter for the provincial government. Others, like the governors named Loc and Phong, interpret for the French, helping Jie in his wicked work.20 All the evil things that the French do, they first tell to this servile bunch, commanding them to go east or west as they please. These types run and scurry about without rest while the French sit and enjoy the benefits of it all. The blood and grease they obtain by dividing up the fat and dirtying their fingers accumulates in piles and heaps over the months and years. As soon as the French know how much this is, they blow off the dust to look in the cracks, punishing this one and that one. Then they pick up the whole stinking lot that has been saved up for decades and present it to the officials of the protectorate, so that all the benefits will end up with the French, whereas the bad reputation will stick to this bunch of people. The methods of their evil and trickery are truly without compare in either the past or the present.
The land of Vietnam has common folk, let us see how the French deal with them. Common people of Vietnam, please look here. I think that in listening to the things that I have said up to this point, those people who do not pound the table and who cry out in despondency, or entreat Heaven in despair [must] have no eyes or ears or have no heart or blood or are not human. I dare to state categorically that this is not the will of Heaven! This is inhuman! If my compatriots keep listening to this, I fear only that I will suppress their tears and restrain their rage, and therefore I cannot bear to speak. But if I do not speak, then how would my compatriots be able to know such things? Would I then not have committed a crime punishable by death? I shall keep speaking.
Taxes
In the time before the country was lost, what the ruler of the land collected from the common people was called dung tien and to tien, and besides these there were no other sundry taxes. Dung tien was a tax on people, but it ranged from only eight or nine thousand up to twenty or thirty thousand people; that is, a single amount for each household, each amount being only three hundred dong. Because taxes were based on households and not on individuals, this was very little. Also, if one’s strength was failing, there was a tax exemption. The to tien was a tax on fields; if one owned thirty or forty mau of land, then one would have to pay a tax on each mau. The tax for one mau was set at an official bushel of grain. Because the common folk provided this openly and the official did not ask for anything beyond it, this tax was very light. So Vietnam was very lenient toward its common folk. This was an indulgent but peaceful way to govern, but it gradually resulted in habits of indolence and deception and, in fact, was not an effective way to make the country rich or strong. When the French got hold of the country, they gradually began to pay attention to turning such stagnation into prosperity and to relieving the poor. They made the people pay money in order to enlighten them and make things run profitably. How could it be that the common people were not happy about this? Why would they complain about it? The French, however, had no intention of benefiting the people, and all economic interests ended up passing into French control. Now the Vietnamese do not enjoy even so much as a tiny piece of it, and the French use many different methods to collect the people’s riches, the people’s strength, and the people’s fat. The people have to pay from dawn until dusk and then from dusk until dawn. If they continue like this for months and years, the Vietnamese people will have no food to eat and no clothes to wear. They can see various things happen with their own eyes, but since they perceive these things only in fragments, they are unable to talk about them [as a whole]. So allow me to select the most important aspects and explain them [as follows] to my compatriots.
In the beginning, the French ordered a complete assessment of all fields and pastures, with an open disclosure of the total. Deceptively underestimating one’s land was not permitted. People who attempted to do so were punished, and their land was confiscated by officials. Anyone who informed on someone else was well rewarded…. Taxes on fields were divided into three rates, the top rate being one silver tael for each mau [1 mau is 3,600 square meters]. Taxes on pasture were the same. The middle and lower grades of land were calculated according to the top rate; the French made a contract with the people that these rates would be permanent. But after assessing this rate for only one year, the French said that the Southern people were leaving too many fields and pastures fallow and that they should raise the taxes to make the Southern people work harder in agriculture. Whenever the French want to do something, they always try to dress it up as an act of kindness to deceive the people, which is why they speak of “protecting Vietnam.” Land taxes are like this, too—they increase each year; the lower rate becomes the middle rate, and the middle rate becomes the top rate. Since the top rate cannot be increased, the French just expand the numbers of fields to be taxed at the top rate; for every hundred mau, an extra ten mau are added, and one extra mau for every ten. After a few years, only the top and middle rates remain, minus the lower rate. Village dwellers who could not bear this [burden] begged the French to thoroughly investigate the tax situation, but the French made no effort to look into it. They just ended up giving the land [of the people who could not pay their taxes] to the French Bureau of Agriculture to cultivate and [then] made tax delinquents pay their taxes in the form of a fine to the thong-li [tax officers]. Now many people pay taxes on their fields for land occupied by the Bureau of Agriculture, and there really is no way they can complain about it.
TWO: HEAD TAXES
In the beginning, the French said that people must perform corvée labor for the government. If they wished to take time off at the end of the year, they would have to pay a labor tax in addition to their poll tax. The head tax was called “publicly collected money,” which meant that every year all able-bodied men had to pay two taels and twenty cents. Added to this was the corvée tax called the “public increase tax,” for which all able-bodied men had to pay eighty cents. Now all able-bodied men have to pay three taels. When this tax was first announced, it was only one tael, but with each passing year, it went up. The people of Saigon must pay five, six, or more taels per year. In the provinces of the other two districts [Annam and Tonkin], a man must pay three taels, but if he is in his first year of adulthood, he does not have to pay the full three taels. As the years have gone by, this tax has always increased.
The amount of money varies according to the house and is levied differently in every case. For those houses with surrounding walls and side chambers, the upper rate is ninety to one hundred taels per year, the middle rate is fifty to sixty taels, and the lower rate is twenty to thirty taels. For the front and back of houses, there are hallway and pavilion taxes; for the area outside hallways, there is a courtyard tax; for the area outside courtyards, there are gate and wall taxes; and for the area beyond the gates and walls, there are garden and residential taxes. There are no set rules, however, and the money must be paid on a case-by-case basis, increasing and decreasing in accordance with the rules for houses. It is compulsory to have a record of this tax in French posted outside on every gate. Not having this is considered to be tax evasion and is severely punished and is immediately taken care of. In small villages and the countryside, this tax is lighter.
FOUR: RIVER-CROSSING TAXES
Everywhere there is a place to cross a river or a separation of a few yards of water, there is a tax-collecting station. The responsibility for these stations is in the hands of the Southern people, but the money goes to French officials. Every time a person crosses a large river, he must pay thirty to forty copper cash, and for small rivers, he must pay six or seven copper cash. This causes extreme hardship for poor merchants and peddlers.
FIVE: TAXES ON BIRTH AND DEATH CERTIFICATES
When a boy or girl is born, his or her birth must be reported to the French registrar’s office and a reporting tax must be paid; and when a boy or girl dies, the death must be announced to the registrar’s office and a tax must be paid for announcing the death. The amount of these taxes depends on differences in wealth and are assessed to prevent the evasion of poll taxes. This [assessment] is carried out in Saigon, but not in other places. The French do not levy taxes all at once but do so gradually, surreptitiously, squeezing out the lifeblood of the people.
SIX: CONTRACT TAXES
The French knew that people made contracts when they borrowed, rented, bought, or sold land and houses. So they came up with the trick of affixing French seals to Vietnamese contracts, and for all such affairs, people must go to the French to pay a tax to buy permission to do so. If they do not use such contracts, they will be accused of breaking the law, and be prevented from further activity.
SEVEN: VARIOUS CEREMONIAL TAXES
To invite monks to perform the winter sacrifice or exorcisms, to change a beam or fix a tile, to conduct a funeral or a celebration or something similar—for all gatherings and parties, whether beating a drum for an hour or playing a flute, regardless of whether someone is rich or poor or of whatever station—they must give thirty to fifty cents to the French official. The tax is calculated according to the size of the ceremony…. This tax is assessed for larger houses in the cities and is not yet [assessed] in small villages and the countryside.
EIGHT: TAXES ON BOAT DWELLERS
The tax [on boat dwellers] also is divided into upper, middle, and lower rates, as is the tax on dwellings…. But boat dwellers have no land, no houses, no skills in trade or business. They rely on a tiny vessel as their livelihood. If they catch fish in the morning, they have something to eat in the evening. In the old days, the ruler of Vietnam did not levy taxes on these people but required them only to do some corvée labor, for which they received money.
NINE: MERCHANT TAXES
This most burdensome of taxes on inns and shops also is divided into three rates: high, middle, and low, and is based on income from sales. The high rate is around two to three hundred taels per annum, the middle rate is half that, and the low rate is half that again. So a tiny business set up to sell a few things, even those that sell very few things like starch, vegetables, kindling, or betel nuts, must have a tax certificate. Those who do not are [considered to be] tax evaders and are punished severely.
TEN: MARKET TAXES
Markets are divided into three sizes, large, middle, and small. The tax collected for these goes to the French official. For a big market, the tax is seven or eight hundred taels of silver, less for a middle-size market, and even less for a small market. Those who go on foot to sell their wares also must also pay a tax. If you carry a load of wood or a basket of vegetables, you also will have to pay a tax; otherwise you will not be admitted to the market. Woodsmen and country folk and those who rely on their hands and feet to do their business endure great hardship, and on the road home, the only thing heard in their chatter is “How much tax did you have to pay this morning?” and “How much tax did you have to pay this evening?”
ELEVEN: ALCOHOL AND SALT TAXES
At first, the French made the salt makers responsible only for paying a salt-field tax. But later, they saw how much the Vietnamese liked salt, so they began to get greedy and demanded that all salt producers pay a tax on their fields, basing it on the field and pasture tax and doubling its rate. Because the French monopolize the production of salt, they force all the salt-making households to carry out corvée labor and pay them a little for it. Once the salt is prepared, [the salt makers] pay money to sell it to the French. For the exchange of money for salt, they issue a certificate…. For one peck of salt, there already were two taxes, the field tax and the certificate of purchase tax. To buy salt one must go to a French company … and pay money to buy a certificate of purchase. The first two taxes are to prevent the clandestine production of salt, and this tax applies to only the salt itself. So now, three taxes are imposed on one peck of salt, and only after these three taxes have been paid is the salt allowed to go on the market. But when it goes on the market, the market tax must be paid. So now there are four taxes on salt! How can salt production survive? Is it possible for salt prices not to increase? Previously in this country, one peck of salt cost only fifty or sixty copper cash, but now salt costs four or five taels in silver! Alcohol taxes are the same as salt; those who sell alcohol must also get a certificate of purchase from the French, but this comprises only two taxes.
TWELVE: TEMPLE AND MONASTERY TAXES
The French do not worship gods or the Buddha. They divide temples and monasteries into three grades: large, middle size, and small, [all of which] must pay a tax to French officials. Only with a certificate from the French can they perform worship ceremonies. This costs fifty taels for a large temple, thirty for a middle-size one, and half of that for a small one. So now in Saigon, most temples are empty and can be seen only here and there in a few rich communities….
THIRTEEN: ARTISAN TAXES
Many artisans in Vietnam live in villages devoted to specific crafts. So where they live depends on their craft. For example, Bat Trang makes ceramics, and Phong Lam makes clogs, ironsmiths live in Van Lam, and so on. Besides the head tax, the French have ordered [the people] to pay an artisan tax, which is determined according to the wealth of their profession, and they also have to pay a certification tax. Those who have no certificate are prohibited from doing business and are allowed only to provide corvée labor for the officials. Poor people rely on handicrafts for a living, so how can they bear to clasp their hands together and wait for death? Alas!
There are too many [local product] taxes to enumerate. The mountain areas produce ivory, rhinoceros horn, ornamental stones, and jade; the sea produces tortoiseshell, coral, swallows’ nests, pearls and cowries, and so on. The cinnamon of Thanh Quy, the malt sugar of Quang Nam, ironwood and gardenias from Nghe An…. All these local products have specific taxes. Local people are not permitted to exploit those products that have been monopolized by the French, and they do not have to pay taxes on them, being obliged to pay only the land tax. In addition to this, calculating these taxes is extremely complex, and it is hateful to have to talk about them. I fear that to do so would make my compatriots run away with their hands over their ears! So for the moment, I shall give only an example of tobacco taxes, and from this you will know the rest.
FIFTEEN: TOBACCO-FIELD TAXES
Everyone who grows tobacco must pay a land tax to the French company, based on the number of fields usually in cultivation; only after this are they permitted to grow [the tobacco]. This is the first tax.
SIXTEEN: FRESH-TOBACCO TAXES
When tobacco leaves are brought in from the fields, they must be cut up into strips and made into catties and bushels within three to five days. The resulting tally of catties and bushels must be presented to the French company and a tax paid on them. This is the second tax. Both these taxes are paid by the growers.
SEVENTEEN: DRIED-TOBACCO TAXES
When a tobacco wholesale company buys tobacco from the grower … they cannot transport it elsewhere without paying a tax on the total amount and obtaining a certificate of approval from the French.
EIGHTEEN: TOBACCO-OFFICE TAXES
If a wholesaler wishes to transport tobacco from one province to another … he must pay a certificate tax, and only then is he permitted to sell the tobacco.
NINETEEN: PRIVATE-TOBACCO-BUSINESS TAXES
Tobacco merchants who sell a small quantity of tobacco obtained from wholesalers … also must obtain a certificate before they sell it. Then when they enter the market with the tobacco on their shoulders or carried in their hands, they have to pay the tax to the manager of the market before they are allowed to sell it there.
Because of the heavy weight borne by the Vietnamese and the utter ruthlessness [of the French] in acquiring Vietnamese goods, the French plot and devise hundreds of ways and use myriad devices to snatch up and appropriate these goods for themselves. To sum up, the French are able to satisfy their desires, but the Vietnamese have no way to make a living.
[Phan Boi Chau, “Viet Nam vong quoc su,” 373–89; trans. Catherine Churchman]
A LETTER FROM ABROAD WRITTEN IN BLOOD (1907)
In this call to action, Phan Boi Chau conveys a sense of urgency and national responsibility in his appeal to his compatriots to wake up to the mortal dangers posed by French colonialism while at the same time condemning the behavior of the Vietnamese court and the mandarins. This text is notable for its new ideas about political sovereignty and how the will of the people must be mobilized to evict the Europeans. Phan Boi Chau claims that it is the responsibility and duty of the citizens to protect the country’s integrity and independence. By the time this letter was written, loyalty to the king had shifted to a concept of popular sovereignty. In his letter, Phan Boi Chau also further develops his ideas about the importance of collective unity and popular heroism. He stresses the need for violent action, contrary to the gradual political and social reform advocated by Phan Chau Trinh,21 as the most effective route to independence. The excerpt here, the second part of his letter, was translated from Chinese.
As a man of my country writing a letter in blood from abroad, after writing for a day or more, I feel only European fashions and American styles piercing and exciting my heart and mind, and my national spirit seems increasingly dulled, as though there is no Heaven to ask or any earth to seek.
Mountain mist and the tumult of the seas prick my eyes and stab at my ears.
If I were to kill myself in despair of my compatriots’ journey toward oblivion, it would be of no benefit.
Overcome by love and emotion, need I repeat my humble loyalties?
Beginning from the time of disasters, insults, and omens of warning, will my words not be used as our frontline force?
Alas! The country has perished! First, let me give here an account of the accumulated misdeeds that have led to this:
One is that the rulers of the land have never known their people.
Another is that the mandarins of the land have never known their people.
Another is that the people of the land have never known their country.
By the hard labor of the muscle of thousands upon thousands of millions, spending the flesh and blood of thousands upon thousands of millions, organizing the rice fields of thousands upon thousands of millions, the country was created.
This land is the people’s land, so how can it be owned by that one person?
By relying on good fortune as great as Heaven, expecting as sound a sleep as that of the black dragon, this single person can lie about on his belly above those thousands upon thousands of millions. Being bossy and forceful, acting arbitrarily only according to his personal interest, trampling not just on the grass but on our people too!
Looking back through thousands of years of history until now, searching up and down looking for something that was profitable for the people to rid them of disasters, researching the principles that protect the health to save them from death, I found that, like snow in the summer or stars at dawn, it was distant and unobtainable.
In the palace, the imperial physicians number in the tens of hundreds, but does the ruler show compassion for the diseases and sicknesses that plague the people?
His food tribute is worth millions of taels in gold, but does the ruler have compassion for those of the people who have died from famine and had their families decimated?
Those who are vile and lowly are interested only in following the wishes of the empress, the concubines, and beautiful women. Those who are upstanding and righteous are interested only in satisfying the wishes of the various officials and attendants.
Our people have become widows and widowers; they are starving, are in pain, they lack clothing, their hands are rotted, and their feet scorched. Although they have been abandoned and are in utter distress, that person [the ruler] sees and hears nothing, although he has eyes and ears.
In addition, this single person controls the land and lives of the common folk, so there are myriad evil corruptions whose total amount is difficult to ascertain.
In his mind, this person most likely thinks, “What do these rustics know? They are no more than flesh on corpses that provide labor and taxes and need to be whipped to work like horses.” But because this corpse flesh is there, one person gnaws on its fat and becomes glutted on it.
Whatever is left over, he gives to his oversexed, lazy, and stupid relations in the imperial household, or he collects it to feed, like swine, his spoiled and favored eunuchs and musicians.
Whatever may be left after that, this person gives to those who share his surname, their families, and their lackeys and running dogs.
Alas! The lives of thousands upon thousands of millions, the fat of thousands upon thousands of millions, what crimes have they committed to deserve to die pickled and peeled? The blue heavens shed tears for them, and the emerald seas flow backward on their account.
So it has gone on, until the incursions of foreign brigands and the collapse of our home forces. That person donates our people’s children to them and sells our people’s fields to them, in order to purchase for himself clandestine moments of comfort and pleasure.
When the Western armies first arrived, they took over three provinces for themselves. The next time they took six, and then the whole northern region. The Western armies kept coming and carved up the whole country and all its people.
Carving up our people so that [the ruler] might attain glory and get fat, so that he might be warm and full of food; these are the things he tells himself are the best policies.
Certainly he is unaware that the common people are the cornerstone of a state or that the king should consider his subjects as important as he does Heaven. When he casts away this cornerstone and loses what he should consider as important as Heaven, how can he continue to exist?
The ruler of the land of Japan respects his people as would a respected teacher or strict father, and he loves them with the love of a kindly mother for her child. In educating those without parents, caring for the sick, [providing] hospitals and schools, there is not one affair in which he puts his own interest before that of his people. Even affairs like peacemaking, declaring war, collecting taxes, and recruiting an army all must be decided by a house of representatives of the people.
Foreign countries treat their people like this. If we had taken them as an example, how could our nation ever perish before theirs?
Gradually up until the present day, even the blue heavens have not been able to avoid giving their love mistakenly. When a ruler behaves like ours does, it makes one’s teeth hurt to even think of it.
Even so, one or two officials serving the court had great wisdom and heroism, lofty and sturdy as Mount Dizhu;22 they stood in the middle of the stream and patched up the holes in Heaven with colored stones. They feared a rottenness that would easily snap off the branches, and therefore they strengthened the roots of the state.
I would rather commit an offense against one man than commit evil against all the common people.
Even though the branches and leaves have withered, the roots still flourish.
Why do swift winds and terrible frost blast toward them to cover them?
And how can it be that [recognizing] the poisonous fires of his cruel oppression, his officials follow after him and fan him? They are deluded and ignorant, concerned only for their own safety and that of their wives and children. The ruler has hundreds and thousands of greater concubines, as well crowds of lesser concubines and female servants. His imperial family is oversexed, lazy, and stupid. His mandarins have illegitimate children and grandchildren, like herds of beasts. Taking the fish and meat from our people just to flatter and fawn on this one person, whose ulcers they suck and whose shit they taste in their sycophancy, makes their eyes sparkle and their nostrils dilate with joy and makes their hearts puff up and excites their minds.
Outside the palace, in the dwellings of the common folk, there is sickness and pain, and the death of infants. They are like the people of Qin were toward the Viet.
One day, there will be great changes inside the walls and on the mounds, in the altars and houses, like vast oceans transforming into fields of mulberry bushes. Then they will change their expressions and their words. In the morning they will be European, and in the evening, Asian.
Then who will our people allow to treat them like rubbish, and for whom will they allow themselves to be sacrificed?
Anyway, for [the ruler’s] own protection and that of his family and their riches, there already are good methods, namely, getting down on his knees and begging for forgiveness.
Apologizing to one family and thanking another.
Then his command will come to an end and his status will be gone.
What shall the people do? What shall the people do?
Ah! Those fools who do nothing more than provide his mouth and belly with the stuff he desires.
Oh, woe! Turning back to observe the events of a thousand years past, through the black mists and bewitched clouds, my heart is in anguish for the millions who still survive, like the remnants of fish or leftover meat.
Those robbers of the people, the mandarins! Are they not already contented in their hearts and gratified in their mouths?
Oh, that ruler and those mandarins! Were the nation to be lost, it would be a blessing, and I would not have the heart to regret its loss.
[The ruler’s] role as leader is no more than that of a headman over a village or the manager of a trading company. Were we to be rid of them by their deaths, the village and trading company they oversaw certainly would continue to exist. [The ruler] is no more than one person in the country, so what difference could his nonexistence have on the nation? This is why I do not blame him.
The imperial mandarins make up only the tiniest percentage of the people in the country, so how could the survival or death of a country depend on them? Anyway, my love is not for these people, so I do not blame them.
Those whom I blame most deeply are my people themselves; my deepest love is for my people, and my deepest blame is on my people.
Will my countrymen awake and be repentant and wish to strengthen themselves? I regard them as if they acted as corpses at a funeral; I pray for them. Allow me to weep bitterly for them as I state my case.
Climbing and gazing northward from Kunlun Mountain, ascending and looking southward from Motian peak to the west of the great sea and to the east of the River of Nine Dragons; if my people did not exist, this place would be no more than a vast forest on a plain or an immense deserted wilderness, no more than the dwelling for wolves, leopards, jackals, and tigers, no more than a place where foxes and badgers make their burrows or where adders and vipers coil. Otherwise, it would be no more than the lair of the people of Linyi, Ailao, and Chenla [Champa, Laos, and Cambodia]. How could a nation exist there? Where would Vietnam have been?
Gradually cutting through the jungle and opening up the wild forests, carving the mountains and making a pattern of the rivers to create this 270,000 square li of our land, Vietnam. How wonderful it is! How glorious!
From such humble origins, riding carts in rags, opening up and developing this world; was this not the work of the hands and feet of our millions of ancestors? Did they not drag and transport loads morning and night to block up the mountain streams; was this not accomplished by the blood and sweat of our millions of ancestors? Our ancestors bequeathed this land to us, their descendants, and we, the descendants, inherited this land from them. This country is our family fortune, and our treasured heirloom.
We have such an unparalleled family inheritance and immeasurably valuable fortune, but we gave it up as though it were a paddy field full of stones. We balked at its being too sacred, then we shirked our responsibility for ensuring its existence by giving it to a tiny number of people, the ruler and his mandarins.
I say we should hold the ruler and his mandarins accountable for the encroachment of the bandit enemies. I say punish the ruler and his mandarins for the loss of the towns and cities. They are carefree and dazed by their fame and wealth, bound up in their desire for food, wine, and women. When someone comes kowtowing and asking whether they possess the country or whether the country exists, they are confused and cannot answer.
Alas! My country is no longer the precious heirloom of generations of our people. Our people are no longer the owners and masters of this precious inheritance. What is to be done when we cast off and wastefully discard our duties and rights of ownership? Having shirked the responsibility for the life and death, rise and fall of their entire inheritance to those who were paid to look after it, they not only have ensured that they cannot be the recipients of this inheritance, they now do not even consider this inheritance to be their own property! What a tragedy! A tragedy!
The human beings of all the countries of the five continents tread on the earth and eat its produce, but to be as stupid and weak as those of our land are is an immensely monstrous thing in the universe.
If we pulled the blindfolds from our eyes, we would see the surging waves of the seas and the sudden flashes of storm lightning, and what time would this be? Is it not time for nature to sift out the stupid and wash away the weak?
Taking these 270,000 square li of our precious inheritance and giving it to the most stupid and weak of masters to enjoy lavishly and squander, handing it down for a hundred years, this is what bends back the tongue and oppresses the heart, snatching away our people and delivering them to the French. What more can be said? What more?
Oh what a tragedy! The millions of our people, old and young, men and women are all my uncles and aunts, brothers and sisters. It would be unbearable if they were harmed or destroyed. It is unbearable. If I love them and have pity on them, what am I to do?
Our country has been handed down to our people as their inheritance, but our people also have abandoned it. Consequently, our people also must take it back. Our people were stupid in their honesty and yielded to their weakness. That is why things are as they are. But it still is not certain that our people will [be defeated].
Our hearts have been dead for a millennium or more under a barbaric government and its teachings, with our heads bowed to autocrats ruling from within palace walls. A few centuries ago, we were able to destroy the Yuan [Mongol] army and pacify the Wu [Ming] bandits, defeat the Qing armies and extend this great land, coiled in the south and bordered in the north, before wide in front and open behind [sic]. Thinking about our race, we are most definitely not a kind of ignorant, squirming, weak animal. The waves of the Bach Dang River brought forth the Tran king, and from the mists of Lam Son valley suddenly arose the first emperor of the Le. Moreover, there was glory and heroic valor in our ancestor the Quang Trung emperor, who once flourished in the region of and beyond the Hai Van gate and Mount Hoanh. Now Heaven has reopened the divine gate, so it is almost time.
My inheritance, my inheritance, return it to its master, let me rub my eyes in anticipation.
Here I shall relate the means by which we should repossess it. In all Heaven and Earth, the superior and matchless plan is as follows:
All the people of the country united in a common will.
This inheritance of who knows what worth is the common possession of tens of millions of people but was abandoned to others by tens of millions of people.
If we now wish to take it back, we must have the strength of the common purpose of tens of millions of people. How can tens of millions be united in strength? By virtue of their common will.
The enemies who occupy our land like coiled serpents are at the very most only fifty thousand in number, whereas even half the number of able-bodied men in our country is, in the most conservative estimate, five hundred thousand. If we were to pit five hundred thousand of our compatriots against fifty thousand of the enemy in a life-or-death struggle, not to speak of the speed of pistols or the effectiveness of cannons; if we were united together to drive them out, a small number would not be able to defeat the large number, and they would clasp their hands together and beg for their lives. If one has only 10 million men and they are united in purpose, so that one person sings and then the multitude sings in harmony, one shouts and then the multitude answers, we will not need our pistols to shoot rapidly and our cannons to be effective.
The enemy requires our labor and our money, but if no one in the whole country gives it to them, what could they do to us? If they have no soldiers, and not one person in the whole country agrees to [become a soldier], what could they do to us? If they threaten us as bandits or sentence us with guns, as a single person I would be in peril. But if a multitude of people come to save me, could they round us up and exterminate the entire population of the country? What could they do to us? We should not declare war, nor carry out banditry. We only should unite our arms and legs, clear our eyes, cultivate our courage, hold on to true principles, and uphold the law. If we approach them to ask for our inheritance, then what could they do to us?
By these numerous methods, we will surely be able to bring death to our enemy, by making them unable to swallow.
But our fellow countrymen are still unable to do this; why? Because they are not united in purpose. The person on the left has not yet said “chalk,” and the person on the right has already said “cheese.” One lights a fire, and right away another throws water on it! [This is] cruelly robbing their own race for the sake of enjoyment for those of another; trapping their compatriots to barter for the happiness of our enemies. But just as Guo was wiped out, so shall Yu certainly follow.23 If the beans in the pot burn, then the pot itself will also burn to ashes. If we have no common purpose, how will these disasters ever stop?
Ah! Why do our fellow countrymen know nothing of the joy of flocking together and think nothing of the tragedy of extinction? And where does the cause for this separation of minds lie? Only in stupidity! There is mutual suspicion and no mutual trust, mutual hatred and no mutual love, but only ambition to harm others and none for working together for others. With hearts filled with mutual trust, love, and the desire to cooperate, we can defend ourselves against the insults of foreigners. Will we then lag behind the Japanese in their swift rise to strength? Hearts filled with mutual suspicion, hatred, and harm lead to discord within our family, and this will lead only to the ruination of our country.
And now that our four limbs have failed and only a last gasp remains, the heart is the only small thing left we can rely on.
But we still seek the trail to doom following the ruts of an overturned cart, and in a daze, we do not turn back. Drinking the blood of our former kings, former lords, and forefathers, what hope remains? What hope remains?
Alas! If we treat our country as we should, treat our people as we should, treat our hearts as we should, who will be able to prevent our unity? In a flash, awakening to realization; in anger, rising up with determination, these millions with one mind. Let us begin now!
Let the elder brothers carry the kindling, and the younger brothers light the fire with it; let the elder brothers cut the timber, and the younger ones build fences with it. When the strength of the elders is insufficient, let the younger ones carry on their tasks for them; if the plans of the younger brothers do not reach their goals, then let the elder brothers make plans for them.
The sound of thousands of axes swinging in the forest, the commotion of hundreds of walls being erected for houses; with so many hands making the work light, what undertaking would not be successful?
We shall reconstruct our realm of mountains and rivers and take back this inheritance left to us by our forefathers! The glory of such united purpose will certainly rock the ages and illuminate history!
Let me go into more detail about the means by which such a purpose shall be attained and the requirements for a task like this to be completed.
These are the common purpose of the rich, the common purpose of the nobility, the common purpose of scholars and mandarins, the common will of all in the country who are trained in arms, the common will of the followers of Catholicism, the united purpose of ruffians and of the secret societies, the common will of heroic women, the common will of translators and clerks, the common will of the sons of families who bear a grudge, and the common purpose of those inside and outside the country.
What the stars gather together, when the mountains and seas unite as one, when the heroes whose fame resounds through the heavens and sears across the earth, the paladins will rock the past ages and shake up the present. What era lacks people like this? Why do they stay so deeply hidden and not come forth? We see and hear nothing of them; why do they remain silent? Is it because they have run out of energy or because their power has yet to be unfurled?
Without thousands of taels in gold, who would have gone with Zhang Zifang?24 Without a granary full of grain, who would have followed the Duke of Zhou?25 To take advantage of the times, we must wait for heroes, and of those heroes who create more heroes, none occupies a higher place than those who are rich. Certainly some of our countrymen already possess much capital, the richest men in the provinces. They squander a thousand taels to buy a smile and throw away millions on gambling. At times they lose their hard-earned capital for not an ounce of benefit. Certainly something that has been collected for a long time will one day be dispersed, and something that has been stored up in great amounts will one day be lost in large volumes.
If not by sudden disaster from bandits or enemies, these bounties will meet their end in flood or fire. In these days of disaster and desperation, can there be anything better than to unfurl one’s treasures and abilities to do good and kind deeds, manifesting one’s bodhi heart and extending one’s generous hands, when all is said and done? To rear young dragons and send them off to make rain, to sell fine steeds and spur them to pursue the winds. This is one chance in a thousand years to spend small savings and attain great ones. Only those of my brothers who are rich have the means to be the heroes who create heroes. This is what I hope from those with common purpose among the rich.
Those poor folk who wear rough cloth and destitute scholars who live behind wicker doors, how could they not hope for salvation? [Listen to] the sound when they cry mournfully over the present situation. They have low status and enjoy little prestige. In uncultivated eyes, they are of little importance. With their purses empty and their hands bare, how can they explain their chivalrous ambitions? Looking in all four directions with urgency, they seek those who sing the same tune, but there are so few. They can rely only on the great bell- and tripod-owning families,26 those high households that own carts drawn by four-horse teams, people whose words have power and whose very breath is efficacious.
Gathering together determined men to see this succeed; raising heroes to await this change. Free and independent, raising the future roof for these people and this time. Rewarding virtue and paying back meritorious deeds, answering to the former kings and lords in the underworld. How strong are the sons of our noblemen! How great are the sons of our noblemen! They are truly an outstanding group of young men. This is what I hope from those with common purpose among our nobility.
If one plots against the enemy from outside their noose, the work is easy to do but success is difficult. However, if one plots against the enemy from within their noose, success is difficult and the work is especially difficult. The reason that Yi Yin went to Jie was to spy for Tang.27 The reason that Zhou Bo went into the service of Lu was to plot for the Han.28
Finally with the attack at Mingtiao, Xia was overturned, with a cry of “buttons on the right!” The Liu were safe. Truly these were very loyal people. How could these insignificant virtues be allowed to compare with those? Oh! When they were appointed to their official posts, they went down on bended knee to their rivals. In a biased discussion of these things relying only on superficial appearance, it could be said that this is “forgetting one’s rivalries and putting up with shame.” It also could be called “the root of the slave mentality.” But how do we know that among them there were no heroic, talented, or wise people? No one of the caliber of Yi Yin or Zhou Bo? Silently, quietly, go with your heart’s desire to secretly arrange your wicked plan; stealthily grasp the key, enter their chambers, suddenly snatch up their halberds, take hold of their spears, and stab them through their shields!
Upending the mountains and overturning the seas, doing wondrous deeds known worldwide.
Raising the rain and lifting the clouds, doing awesome heroic works.
All of you offering prayers with incense for our pursuit while we pursue it, this is what I hope for from our mandarins with a common will.
Those with hardened spears and bent backs, who are the frontline troops for the French, those who kick to the east and punch to the west, obeying the French with their blue and black sashes and their yellow and white hats. Are these people what we would call the trained soldiers of our land? Are they not our great sons of Vietnam? All of you are definitely the great sons of our land, but for ten pieces of silver a month, you give your bodies up to the French and attack and kill the people of our land. Originally grown from the same root, why do we burn so furiously together?29 But when raising our swords and letting bullets fly, you will become those whom their eyes and mouths cannot bear to see or speak of. The people who run around for the French, though, cannot help it and are mostly compelled to do it. They think of getting a chance to show that they have not forgotten their compatriots. One morning there will be a change in the wind, it will be an autumn in which strong men can do great deeds. I know for sure that our trained soldiers will use this time to repay their country. All you gentlemen see the French bossing around your sons and fathers every day, reducing your families and the folk of your villages to pulp through their oppression. This surely makes you harbor the deepest of grudges against them. However, being drilled with the weapons of the French, and going around with them every day makes it very easy for you to vent your anger. You bear the deepest of grudges but also have the easiest means at hand to vent your anger. You gentlemen can do great deeds, make a great name for yourselves, and do a great favor for our compatriots, if you would only turn your spears against [the French] in mutiny. The French treat the several thousands of lives of our compatriots as no more than fish and meat and give out only the tiniest bit of cash to keep our trained soldiers in their clutches. My brothers, our trained soldiers, how can it be that those white rogues keep you in their clutches? Alas, it now is critical! The situation is urgent! The lives of your brothers in all the land are in your hands, our trained soldiers! All you gentlemen who are trained as soldiers, do not be ridiculed and sworn at by those of another race! Do not be regarded with scorn by those of your own kind in the underworld. This is what I hope from those trained soldiers of our land with a common will.
Since the religion of Jesus came to the South, our countrymen have been suspicious of it, and this has stupidly given rise to suspicion and distrust. But some of them falsely teach the people to submit to the French and make enemies of the Southern people. Ah, I wish my fellow countrymen would realize this now! Do we all not tread on Southern soil, enjoy the Southern sky over our heads; who of our ancestors, fathers, mothers, brothers, or wives, is not a person of our Southern land? Suffering disasters and imminent danger, we all seek to push forward without stopping toward our salvation, what is the use of being enemies? What urges them on most are the teachings of the Catholics. The guiding idea of the Catholics is the salvation of the world; they see universal love as a virtue and view abstention from greed and killing as tenets of their beliefs. Seeing the unkind, virtueless, greedy, lewd, and cruel French, they should keep apart from them as ice does from hot charcoals and reject this submission! Even if Catholic believers do actually submit to the French and make enemies of the Southern people, our countrymen should entreat them with tears, use sorrow to make them repent and realize, certainly not by grasping spears pointed toward them, but with nothing other than love. If believers decide on principle not to submit to the French and make enemies of the Southern people—the same race loving those of the same race, and the same race saving those of the same race, advancing along different paths but joining forces to meet adversity—this will surely allow our Southern people to escape from the French hell. This is what I hope from those with common will among the Catholic believers of the land.
Then there are the strong sons of the green woods, the manly fellows of the embroidered sails, with short pistols hidden at their waists and sharp blades concealed in their sleeves. Some call themselves the Association of Heaven and Earth, and some name themselves the Disciples of the Roaming Staves. They kill folk for sport, and no grudge is left unpaid. Their attitude, disdainful of life and daring to die, and their manner of going straight forward as if nothing were in their way make me look up to them and respect them thousands of times over. I salute them a hundred times, a hundred times. But there is something about these gentlemen that I pity, and there is especially something about which I would like to give my advice. Oh you gentlemen! If dogs and sheep were to get what they wished for, jackals and tigers would eat men!
Now is not the time for our valiant to die gloriously. I wish only that you would be able to die meritoriously. Your recent deeds have been based mainly on personal anger or petty mindedness, if not just to scowl angrily at one of your enemies, then to brandish your swords at them in a fit of rage; then if that does not satisfy, you follow it up with murder. Although there really is no harm in this for grudges between bandits, it is harmful to your own people. Groping women’s breasts on the street and spilling blood for the sake of pretty maidens, getting involved in drunken fights, doing what you will in broad daylight. These are crude and lowly activities, yet you gentlemen throw away your lives in order to do such things.
The death of a great man can be graded. If one dies like Jing Ke30 or Nie Zheng,31 such a death is admirable and enviable; it makes gods weep and ghosts wail. The ways in which you gentlemen have died are horrible and detestable. The bodies are buried and the names disappear. So death is an awful thing, and not to fear death is very difficult. Why do you gentlemen not change your ways? The Westerners have entered our land. They presume to overawe us and do violent deeds, using thousands of ways to collect riches and hundreds of ways to take lives. They should be killed! They should be killed! They most certainly should be killed! In our country, one or two people have lost their minds and forgotten their own race; they assist the evil work of the tigers as their confidants and lead elephants to trample on graves. They should be killed a thousand times over! Ten thousand times! There is nothing as bad as these kinds of people.
If you gentlemen insist on treating your lives lightly and dare to die, why not do so with these sorts of people as targets, for the sake of our honor? Conceal secret letters in your breast, detail the crimes of helping wicked people to do cruel deeds, meet them on the roads, wait for them in hidden chambers, and finish them off with sword and pistol!
If I myself am fortunate and my body is whole, I shall be satisfied with my purpose in life; but if I am not fortunate, then I would certainly be willing to die for the sake of my countrymen. The Southern people would receive good fortune from it, and the French rogues would be in awe of it; all under Heaven would think of its grandness, and the glory of my name would be retold for aeons.
Those who have drunken brawls and grope women’s breasts, would you not, my brothers, prefer to distinguish honor from disgrace and right from wrong?
Alas! A rank smell offends my nose, and I lament that the swashbuckling swordsmen lack souls. Anger builds up in my breast, but I still have hope in our staff-wielding heroes and pray to them from afar. Emperor Heaven and Empress Earth, can you look into my heart? The wandering disciples of the secret societies, will you take heed of what I say? This is what I hope from those with common purpose among these gentlemen.
For a long time, the names of the female generals of our country have not been mentioned. Nonetheless, the strange airs of our mountains and rivers have produced extraordinary people. In the time we belonged to the North, the two Trungs were able to found a state by themselves. Bui Nguyen Xuan [Bui Thi Xuan] of the Tay Son also was good at leading armies. Heroes in head scarves can slay those with whiskers and eyebrows; wearers of hairpins and dresses are not ashamed to wear armor. Do not say that there are no shining paladins among them! Let me give some more recent examples of women who have a deep understanding of great virtue and are respectably courageous. Even a few of the redgirdled officials are inferior to them. I have noted the mother of Bac Ho Bich of Hung Nguyen and the mother of the examination graduate of Thanh Thuong. Others use their own wealth to provide for scholars, live a virtuous life and strive for their sons, help their husband make a distinguished name for himself, and follow the customs of the times to move the airs of the mountains and rivers. When pondering the great heroines of our Southern land, what do we lack? How, then, can I worship them respectfully and represent each one of them with pen and paper? At present on the five continents, heroism is burgeoning, and like the great welling up of the incoming tide, there is nowhere that it will not fill. In the war between Japan and Russia, a Japanese dancing girl beguiled a Russian general to get into the Russian mansions; she then stole all the books and maps of their plans and strategies, got away, and presented them to the Japanese generals. All the Russian plans were leaked, and the Japanese gained a great victory. How can we find this kind of female Huang Gai32 in the bordellos of our country? This is what I hope for from the heroines of our country with a common will.
For a great tree to fall, a swarm of bugs must first go inside and chew it up; for enemies to be captured, people must go among them to spy on them. How will we Southerners manage to go among the French to spy on them? Ah, at one time, did not our Southern land know great tricks of defense and clever methods of winning battles? I dare say we certainly did! Now the reason that you serve as translators and clerks and cooks for the white rogues is simply to feed and clothe yourselves; it is not in your mind at all to forget us Southern people. Your parents, brothers, and sisters, and wives all are Southern people, so how can you possibly forget them simply because [the French] feed and clothe you? Even if you were to become the eyes and ears of the French, this would not give you additional food or clothing. On the contrary, it would give you a bad name. But if you were to become the eyes and ears of the Southern people, this would not result in less food or clothing, but it would give you a reputation for doing good deeds. I would ask that you gentlemen write down your creed, which should be “My body is with the French, but my heart is with the Southern people.”
What is for your benefit is fortunately also for the people of our country, so please make your utmost effort to work for this. This is what I hope from those with a common will who are translators and workers for Westerners.
Now with the sentiment of Yu Rang on the bridge and Fu Chai outside the courtyard,33 have you forgotten that your enemy killed your fathers? Have you forgotten that your enemy killed your brothers? Have you forgotten that your enemy insulted your fathers and brothers? This is what is in the minds of the sons of families that have been wronged.
Through discipline, we shall certainly wipe out these grudges.
I wish to tell my brothers that we have the same ambition, the same ambition.
This is what I hope from the sons of families that have been wronged.
What I have just said applies to eight or nine of ten of our countrymen.
But there is a weakness in this. In some years, when forces are lined up to compete with one another at a time when Heaven has deemed it suitable, if we still have not adopted civilization from overseas or united our forces with those of strong neighboring lands and still rely on only our tiny selves to lock horns with this huge enemy, then we shall surely achieve nothing more than failure. How can we neglect people outside our borders?
If we use those people outside our borders, we would find that those who travel here and those who live here cannot make plans together and that they do not trust each other. One group would make the road go east while the others would make cart tracks to the west; one group would be masters of the lookout turret while the others take control of the oars. If they are unable to work together successfully, then they certainly will not be able to succeed together. Despite this, the common will of those inside the country and those overseas is still of the utmost importance.
My brothers young and old! My uncles! My parents! There is no mountain we cannot move, no sea we cannot cross! I worry only that our hearts are not resolute. If all of us are resolute in our hearts, there is nothing under Heaven that we cannot accomplish. I wish for my fellow countrymen who have a fixed abode to understand the bitter circumstances of those who are sojourners, and for the sojourners to forgive the difficulties in the hearts of those who have a fixed abode; they must trust each other and not be suspicious; they must work together for success and not for mutual harm; and they must not act rashly and spoil affairs or spend too long waiting and lose the moment; then Westerners and Japanese will truly trust each other. A request for money in the thousands, even though it might come from thousands of miles away but the recipient does not use deception, and the sender has no doubts—this kind of solidarity is of great importance. The people of Japan consider time to be extremely important. [So] in school when a teacher is teaching, even if an important guest arrives he will not receive him, out of fear that it would disrupt the schoolwork. Our own scholars have become all too wasteful with their time, which is a great pity.
If one makes broth by dripping blood into it, then Heaven will take heed of it. If one concentrates one’s spirit on a single arrow, it will be able to split metal and stone.
My brothers young and old! My uncles! My parents! What I hope from the people of like mind inside and outside the country is that our fellow countrymen might have a common ambition like this. Then what foundations will we not be able to establish? What structures will we not be able to complete?
If we say that the French will never lose and the Southern people will never become strong, this is just like saying “the sun doesn’t shine during the day” or “the moon doesn’t shine at night” or “Heaven is not high” or “the ocean is not deep.” Even with a sword put to my throat I will not accept it.
Even if I acted as though this were true, I still would not be able not to feel despair for my fellow countrymen.
My countrymen have grown up in a wild barbarous period, have been sunk in a river of immaturity; they are blind and dim and dull and stupid in a place with no government and no moral teachings. With a common purpose, we will certainly be able to protect the country, but a lack of common purpose will lead to the country’s destruction. Those who have a common purpose can make slaves of men, and those without it end up as the slaves of men. My countrymen still do not understand the reasons for this.
If the reasons are known, then the people will unite without effort. That is, if our people, the Viet people, are together in the same boat and encounter a great gale, they will quickly be able to save one another. But if the reasons are unknown, then even if one wants to force people to unite, they still will end up disunited, like the chickens in a cage pecking at one another or like fish in a bowl eating one another. Alas for the knowledge of our fellow countrymen! How far away are we really from the chickens in a cage or fish in a bowl? To sordid and lowly notoriety they flock like ducks to water; for as tiny a benefit as the tip of a hair they sacrifice themselves.
They fawn on foreigners as if they were the emperors of Heaven and look upon their compatriots as they would upon thorns and prickles. If one tells them the result to be gained from a common ambition and demand that they achieve this in a short period of time, they will be uncertain whether they can do it. Why are they lacking in joy and full of hate? Why do they not run toward good fortune but just try to avoid disaster? Only out of their own stupidity. When people are stupid, they suspect one another, hate one another, and harm one another. The miasma of mutual suspicion, hate, and harm has already resulted in a terminal illness that they cannot shake.
Speaking again and again of common purpose is almost like whipping a turtle to make it fly or trying to get a lame man to leap about. Oh alas and alack! These adverse billows and mad waves! Who will stand straight as a pillar among them? These black mists and dark vapors! Who will fan them away? The dreams of a visitor who has fled thirty thousand leagues are still cold and miserable, but the soul of a land that has been handed down for a thousand years by our forefathers may yet return.
Does our land have any scholars who have the foresight, and classes of people who are magnanimous as heroes, anyone who will cry out as loudly and with such urgency as I?
Manners and morals and the hearts of men are also the responsibility of ordinary people.
Restoring and protecting, rectifying and rescuing, how can our pens and tongues leave these tasks to others?
In the civilized laws of all nations, there is the right of freedom to publish and debate. My humble wish is for all my great brothers, you renowned people, you scholars with ambition, to hurry to awaken the people to their own fate. Rise up to the task of rescuing them from the flames and saving them from drowning. To one sort of people, explain these reasons, and to other sorts of people, explain other reasons. Let your mouth become a sword to vanquish evil; let your tongue become a mirror in which demons can be reflected.
I conceal no weapons to kill men and will not kill men with my hands. I lay out simply what is right and what is wrong and distinguish what brings disaster from what brings fortune in order to rescue the people of my country. I do nothing that will make me enemies of men; what could my enemies do to me, anyway? My brothers, my brothers, do not keep these things hidden. Today, one person awakes, tomorrow another. Then it will spread out to tens, hundreds, thousands, hundreds of thousands of people, spreading so that not one person in the land does not know of the solidarity of the masses, spreading so that not one person in the land cannot but be in solidarity with the masses.
The ten premises of common will that this humble writer has described will suddenly sweep through the land like wind and move through it like thunder. Then we shall ring our bell of liberty and raise our flag of independence. We shall demand back our inheritance from those robbers who snatched it from us in the past. Will those robbers who snatched it from us dare to take our inheritance again? Will they dare not to offer it back to its owners with both hands in supplication? They won’t dare! They won’t dare! They most certainly will not dare!
At this time then, let the lanterns of celebration shine resplendently on the earth; let the altars of happy welcome be raised majestically to the heavens; let a tower of remembrance stand loftily, grandly, in the capital of our land of Vietnam!34
Struggle on my countrymen! Be like Rousseau and Fukuzawa Yukichi35 and struggle on!
[Phan Boi Chau, “Hai ngoai huyet thu,” 414–34; trans. Catherine Churchman]
A CIVILIZATION OF NEW LEARNING (1904)
“A Civilization of New Learning” lays out a program of reforms by the advocates of new learning at the beginning of the twentieth century. In the wake of the failure of the Can Vuong movement, the Tonkin Free School (Dong Kinh Nghia Thuc) advocated a “new learning” based on Western educational models in order to compete successfully with the West. Although the school operated for only nine months in 1907 before it was closed by the French, it generated a large number of texts that continued to circulate and have a long-lasting influence. Among the most prized was the text presented here, originally written in Chinese, which proposed fundamental linguistic, social, economic, and political innovations and which has been translated and excerpted from the romanized Vietnamese version. In the 1870s, Nguyen Truong To had begun to make the same arguments,36 but to a completely unreceptive audience. Much had changed in the intervening years.
We believe that civilization is a fine word, one that seems to connote a glittering facade of wealth. In truth, however, it consists of benefits that cannot be acquired in a short period of time. If we wish to acquire civilization, we must have a strong intellectual vision and a program of action. What do these consist of? They entail improving the intellectual level of the people. Some of the world’s countries are still quite backward; others are partly civilized; and only a few have become civilized. Civilization depends on the degree of development of the people’s knowledge that each country has acquired. A Western scholar once said: “Civilization does not come from [a country’s] values alone, but also from difficult challenges.” What did he mean by values? Values are ideology and intellectual accomplishment. What kind of challenges? Competition. The more intellectual endeavor there is, the more competition there will be. More competition brings about more intellectual accomplishment and intensive growth in the sciences, such as acoustics, optics, gravity, electricity, mineralogy, hydrology and hydrography, chemistry, geography, astronomy, mathematics, and engineering. This leads civilization to new heights. Civilization and the level of the people’s knowledge are mutually interdependent. In order to raise the people’s knowledge, one first of all must know where the gaps are and begin to address them. Otherwise, one can only sadly look out at an immense sea.
… In ancient times, Asia was the source of civilization. Our country of Dai Nam [Vietnam], located between the tropical zone and the temperate zone, with fertile land, a moderate climate, plenty of rice, silk worms, and forestry products, and a seacoast longer than most, was also a civilized country…. What is the current situation? We no longer have valuable forestry products and other resources. We no longer control hundreds of goods and benefits of our country, such as cloth, crepe, velvet, wool, silk, shoes, sandals, handkerchiefs, spectacles, umbrellas, gasoline, pottery, crystal glass, clocks and watches, thermometers, welding devices, telephone apparatuses, microscopes, camera glass, writing paper and pens, China ink, needles, thread, buttons, dyes, soap, perfume, watches, milk cakes, sweets and candied fruit, medicines, cigarettes, tea, and brandy, all of which must be imported from either France or China. Just look at the annual import and export figures and try to recover all the money spent on such items. What a pity indeed!
In today’s world, agriculture is controlled by agencies and associations and involves competition. But we still do things in the old way. Do we use tractors and electricity for improving agricultural production, and new methods for dealing with drought and insects? Trade [in other countries] is controlled by the Trade Ministry and involves competition. But we still do things in the old way. Do we have merchant ships, big companies set up by the government, and people’s shares for promoting trade? Industry [in other countries] is developed with companies and workshops and involves technological competition. But we still do things in the old way. Do we have talented persons like Watt and Edison who continually invent things? The lack of talent in this country is truly frightening.
Many people in our country indulge in musical entertainment, gambling, chess, poetry contests, horoscopes, geomancy, and fortune-telling, all of which is useless. People with some qualifications put on airs and cling to old-fashioned theories and do not care to learn about new civilizations. Other persons only care about rank and promotions to the exclusion of everything else. One dignitary even told his younger colleagues, “When you become a mandarin, take care to refrain from reading new books and journals.” Not reading new books and journals is bad enough. But it is even more painful to see people deprived of human dignity trying to conceal or ignore new books and journals, thereby further enhancing their condition of slavery.
For thousands of years, [Dai Nam’s] civilization was static in character and lacked the dynamism that characterized other countries. We should feel sad and grieved. In order to be civilized, improving the people’s knowledge must be the first principle. Yellow-skinned people are just as able as white people. But without seeing how things work, we cannot imitate [others] and make progress; without capital and money, we cannot go into business. Therefore, if someone does not show us the way, we cannot forge ahead….
Thus, having craned our necks and looked all around and thought about the matter deeply, we see six reforms as part of a program of action to develop the people’s minds and knowledge in the midst of countless difficulties.
1. Use our country’s writing system: … Not long ago, a Portuguese priest developed the quoc ngu alphabet, which has twenty-six European letters, six tones, and eleven vowel sounds, is spelled phonetically, and is simple and quick. Everyone should learn quoc ngu, which can be easily mastered in a few months by men, women, and children alike. One can use quoc ngu to record the past and use it in the present to write letters and messages. Learning quoc ngu is the first step in developing our wisdom and our minds.
2. Reform our system of textbooks: Our country has many books … which provide information and knowledge about geography, customs, regulations, and rules to be applied and followed by successive generations. Yet as a rule, most of our students in the past neglected our country’s own writings and read Chinese books…. Chinese books refer only to what happened in China, which is not at all relevant to Vietnam…. If this is what our classics and history books are like, what are the rest like?
Human beings live, at most, one hundred years and need to undertake many tasks and cannot devote all their strength and energy to digest a voluminous collection of ancient books! … Thus, reforming our system of textbooks is a necessity. To this end, it is essential to create an editorial committee to select the books to be read at the appropriate level of education…. The main books selected and recompiled should be Southern [Vietnamese] history books. Other books should focus on the rise and fall of regimes, the reasons for success and failure of great events, and the principles concerning the establishment of dynasties and regimes. Chinese history should be read to grasp only its general outlines…. Western history books … should be recompiled so that students can absorb the essential points….
3. Reform the examination system: Because today’s knowledge is wide and deep, how can we possibly use literary composition and rote learning to test the depth of a student’s knowledge? Therefore, reform of the examination system must accompany reform of the textbooks. Otherwise, it will be a halfway reform. Does interpreting passages in ancient Chinese classics, writing essays, poetry, imperial orders, memos to the emperors, and methods and rules for writing poetry and prose have any real utility for practical work? Do the old Confucian scholars know about the five continents of the world, about the history of the world, including the current century?…
Although we are not yet able to follow Europe’s specialized examination system, we can temporarily use dissertations and prose compositions to [create] specific questions as examination methods…. On the basis of [the Chinese classics] and Southern [Vietnamese], Chinese, and European history books, we should work out questions to which candidates can give free-form responses. Examination subjects should also include mathematical problems and quoc ngu prose compositions. All this will help candidates tackle practical questions relevant to their real work. This will be acceptable [for now].
4. Encourage and promote gifted students: … When the textbooks have been corrected and the examination system reformed, we can expect good performance from thousands and thousands of graduates and current mandarin officials…. The National School [in Hue]37 is supposed to be an educational and training institution, yet its current curricular emphasis on contemporary literature is unrelated to present practical realities. It has been in existence for eight to nine years now and has produced good graduates, but no one has employed them. If they finish their studies but are not employed, who will follow in their path? Mandarins should be instructed to appoint graduates to various ministries and departments. If circulars are issued, the graduates should be asked to translate them [into quoc ngu]. … Those who cannot study French should be sent to a new training institute to learn about texts like Public Law, Western History, Administrative Rules and Regulations, Collected Imperial Statutes, Maps, Mathematics, and so on, kept in that institute…. They should take annual examinations, and graduates should be appointed to available positions. In this way, in a few years, the older generation will start to change and join the new class of graduates.
5. Promote industry: … In the West, if someone invents and produces new goods, they are copied and improved by others, no matter how much time and effort it takes to learn how to do so. See how beneficial learning from others can be! If only a few people have the authority or exclusive right to use high-quality goods, how can they give orders to people below [to copy the models]? If we know someone who makes something better than we do and we do not try to improve it, how can our country possibly progress? Instead of restricting spending on foreign goods, why do we not allow more of our own goods to be produced and consumed?
Our country has only one well-known product: mother-of-pearl inlays. Although other goods, like conical hats made of feathers and pineapple leaves, rattan chairs, mats with flower decorations, ceramics, crepe, cloth, and silk are produced by both China and our country, the quality of our goods is inferior to that of Chinese goods. The reason is that we have not given enough attention to developing our industry. As reported in the newspaper, Tonkin has recently acquired a new method of raising silkworms, and an agriculture department and a vocational school have been established in Hanoi. These are good educational institutions. Our people should devote their time to studying these subjects in order to work more efficiently. But the imperial court has ignored these two institutions, and scholars hold them in contempt. As a result, students of the vocational school are regarded as coolies, and students of agriculture are seen as tree planters. This approach betrays our complete ignorance of industrial development.
Industry is very important to our country. If we cannot overtake others, we will lag behind. The worst will be if we lavishly spend our money in foreign countries by importing foreign goods. What we need are good teachers, good models, skilled and intelligent students; let the imperial court train them. Notice should be given to the whole country that whoever learns a new model and produces a new product will be given a financial reward, certificate of merit, or patent, as is done in European countries. Persons who perform well in the natural sciences, meteorology, and chemistry should be given greater honors than [are given to] the graduates of the imperial civil examinations, so that they will work and compete hard in order to surpass others. [If this is done], there will be no reason for talented individuals not to step forward.
6. Develop the press: Most countries have daily newspapers, weekly papers, and biweekly and monthly journals. These papers provide information and commentary on various subjects: the news, political issues, current events, and advertisements. Various sectors in the country—businessmen, legislators and lawyers, scientists, medical practitioners, farmers, workers—have their own papers. France has more than 1,230 newspapers and journals, Germany more than 2,350, Great Britain more than 2,180, Russia more than 430, the United States more than 14,150, and each Japanese province has its own paper; in recent times China also has had many papers. The press has a big impact on the development of the people’s knowledge. But Saigon and Haiphong have only French newspapers that are read by few inhabitants, and we have only one daily newspaper, which is in Chinese….
In our opinion, our capital city should establish a newspaper, with a senior mandarin as the editor in chief and a staff composed of scholars. Half the newspaper should be in quoc ngu and half in Chinese characters. Its content should include new ideas; new trade [ideas] and new methods from Europe and America; items from Vietnamese books, lives, and personalities in history and today, which can serve as models; and new techniques developed by our industrialists that can be useful to our country. Newspapers should be sold at a low price and should be free to both senior and junior mandarins and to various communes and villages. Individuals who subscribe to papers should be encouraged by rewards…. Sales should cover operating expenses, but what is most important is breaking through the barriers of nonsense and obscurity [and reaching all the sections of the population].
It takes years to learn a foreign language, and [even then,] one still does not know it perfectly, but [it takes] less than six months to learn our own writing system. Therefore, it is completely obvious that there is no excuse not to study our own language. If you study an ancient literature and its various forms of expression, which you learn by heart without giving much attention to the content, in the end you will learn something about mere formalistic literature. But if you focus on what is clear and essential [in quoc ngu], you will gain real knowledge. Thus, it is essential to reform our system of textbooks and the examination system and to promote and encourage gifted students. This could not be more apparent.
If we are contemptuous of industry, our gold, silver, wood, and quarries will become the raw materials used by foreigners; if industry is encouraged, our water, fire, wind, and electricity will serve the daily needs of our people. Therefore, developing industry is a basic necessity. There is no use in shutting yourself up in your own village. Instead, you should allow your mind to venture into the outside world and take a close look. There is no point in reading ancient texts over and over; instead, you should read current newspapers, which give everyone new and wonderful knowledge. Establishing newspapers and journals is obviously essential.
Some people say that as a country, our native Southern land has had clearly marked borders and old cultural traditions. We have the six ways of writing Chinese characters, so why do we need a new writing system? We have many books, so why do we need new ones? Our examination system is able to select officials, so why do we need new methods? Should we really drop our thousand-year-old cultural traditions and imitate the new ones, and how could we do this, anyway?
Regrettably, if we follow this reasoning, there will be no end to the darkness that will fall on the minds of our people, and there will be no way for our country to progress…. If the “closed door” does not give way to “electric wire and engineering,” the reasons for our predicament and the ways to solve it, as just mentioned, will never get far in the minds of our philosophers and statesmen. If something goes wrong, they will try to fix it, but they will inevitably gloss over the situation, all the while claiming that our civilization is adequate. The trouble is that you cannot varnish over the predicament in this way…. Liang Qichao, [the Chinese reformer], said that if the house is too old because people have lived in it for more than a thousand years, it has to be dismantled and rebuilt so that people can live in it again. If that is the case, there is no other way. Are you familiar with Japan? For the last thirty years or so, Japan has incorporated European thought and civilization and has achieved its goals. What about Siam? Thirty years ago, Siam [Thailand] came into contact with Europe and sent its students to Europe, and now its political system has changed and become quite adequate. What about China? An ancient country, yet both spurred from inside and outside, the Chinese have woken up and realized that European methods are well worth following…. The Chinese are now incorporating modern ideas into their ancient classical system.
Alas, we are asleep while the rest of the world is fully awake, and we are stationary while others have crossed the river. Accordingly, how can we gain access to the next level of civilization? As civilization continues to change, progress itself is always moving forward. What in the past was a civilized society is now only a half-civilized one. What previously was a partly civilized society is now a barbaric one….
As a result of their intellectual accomplishments and the economic means acquired over the past several hundred years, Europeans are now civilized and have embarked on continuous expansion into Asia…. If we continue to have singing parties while contemplating lakes and mountains without being concerned about [the plight of] our country, what will happen to our 25 million fellow compatriots? How will posterity judge us?
[Adapted from Dong Kinh Nghia Thuc, “Van minh tan hoc sinh,” 208–11, 215–27; trans. Jayne Werner and Luu Doan Huynh]
MONARCHY AND DEMOCRACY (1925)
Phan Chau Trinh, a founder of the Tonkin Free School, was a forceful proponent of reform and democratization. From early on, in contrast to Phan Boi Chau, he denounced any efforts to restore or reform the monarchy. Although Phan Chau Trinh urged his fellow modernizers to pursue popular rights and a nonviolent path to political independence, he retained the imprint of Confucian ideas in the mold of Mencius by identifying with the people. In this final passage from a speech given in 1925, Phan Chau Trinh sums up his ideas. Only when the people exercise their popular rights, he argues, will they truly learn to love their country and achieve self-determination.
Monarchy or Government of Men?
To make a long story short, quan tri [monarchy, autocracy] is nhan tri [government by men]. Autocratic countries have laws, but these laws are deliberately made by the king, and the people are completely unaware of anything. If a country is fortunate enough to have a wise and heroic king, one who understands the relationship between the people and their country and is able to punish corrupt officials so that people can live in peace and be content with their lives, that country will enjoy prosperity and peace as long as that king is on the throne.
But if the king is a despot, who lives with concubines and eunuchs, knows nothing of national affairs, and leaves his country’s governance to his deceitful ministers, his country will certainly collapse because the king, its ruler, is so negligent. Confucius thus said: “The government of King Wen and King Wu is displayed in the records…. If there are men, the government will flourish; but if there are no men, the government will decay and die.” Xunzi, in contrast, said: You zhi ren, wu zhi fa, literally, “There are men who are able, but there are no laws that are able”38 [implying that “there are men who are capable of governing their country but there are no laws that, by themselves, could govern the country”]. Mencius, encompassing the views of Confucius and Xunzi, said: “Virtue alone is not sufficient for the exercise of government, [and] laws alone cannot put themselves into practice.”39
For thousands of years, able kings and generals have done their best to prevent monarchy from being nhan tri, but without any success. This is because the laws were made by kings, and the laws also were abolished by them. These kings concerned themselves with modifying nhan tri before the Song and the Tang dynasties, because after that monarchies became extremely autocratic. The Hongwu emperor [1368–1398] of the Ming dynasty created a law against “having talents but not allowing the king to use them” in order to put everyone under tyrannical rule by not allowing anyone to retire out of frustration. The Qianlong emperor [1736–1795] added a law against “wheedling the king,” to punish those who had talents but forced the king to beg for their services. In ancient times, the kings looked for talented people, but those in later times just lay back, making no attempt at searching. Even so, they arrested those who had talents yet did not come forth.
I have spoken about the history and philosophy of monarchy as nhan tri. I would like to add a few concrete and easily recognizable illustrations. Nhan tri is a form of government that may be liberal or harsh, depending entirely on the joyful or sorrowful, loving or unloving, mood of the king, and it is a form of government in which the laws exist for nothing.
For example, Mr. Gia Long [r. 1802–1820] adopted the law enacted during the time of the Qianlong emperor [of the Qing dynasty] to govern the Vietnamese. This law stipulated that “without acquiring military merits, one cannot be given the rank of marquis.” Nguyen Van Thanh [1757–1817] was appointed to the rank of marquis and was even promoted to military secretary because Mr. Gia Long was fair in his assessment of the military achievements that Nguyen Van Thanh had accumulated since his youth. Afterward, however, when Mr. Thanh’s son composed a poem for pleasure, quite an innocent one, Mr. Gia Long ordered the execution of his three generations [Nguyen Van Thanh, his sons, and his father]. In other words, because he was so infuriated he ordered the execution, and this had nothing to do with the law!
I would like to tell you another story about Mr. Tu Duc [r. 1848–1883].40 In the twenty-fifth year of the Tu Duc era [1873], people in the Trung Ky region nearly starved. After the government had provided a small measure of relief, officials requested that a portion of the tax collected in the provinces, prefectures, and districts be kept in the village granaries in anticipation of future food shortages. At that time, Mr. Tu Duc told the people that they could pay in money or rice, and in return, they would receive the titles of ba ho,41 eighth rank, or ninth rank. But the people were starving, how could they have money or rice to be collected? Mr. Tu Duc then issued a decree ordering his officials to allow them to pay on credit: with an initial installment of 300 piastres (of the 1,000 piastres required), they would receive a certificate, and when they paid the balance, the official title would be granted. The decree mentioned specifically that the money collected in each village was to be kept there. The following year another decree appeared ordering that all the money that had been paid or was still due on credit should be transferred to the provinces to be used as funds to stave off rebellions. Orders flowed down from provinces to prefectures and districts and then from prefectures and districts to villages. The people responded, saying that the king had allowed them to pay on credit, rather than requiring immediate payment and because the people had had a bad harvest that year, they simply did not have the money to pay—whatever disciplinary measures might be taken. Provincial officials reported [this news] to the ministry, and the ministry then reported to the king. The king decided that all the people should be punished.
Vietnamese law, however, has no clause dealing with transactions of money between the people and the government. The government officials thus could not find a legal basis on which to charge the people. They reported to the king. The king said that the law to be applied was thuong thu bat di that, that is, the clause concerned “an official who makes a political report to the king untruthfully.” The officials at the ministry level then brought charges against the officials at the provincial level [the very people who had received the titles for paying their taxes in full]. Some punishments were six years, some were eight years, and some were twelve years of imprisonment. In the midst of famine and with their family members scattered, these people had thought it would cheer them up if they could make the payment and earn a low-ranking title (eighth or ninth rank), but to their unforeseen dismay, they were put into prison instead. Their families and their clans were heartbroken. Fortunately, when this case reached Quang Ngai Province, the provincial judge was well versed in legal matters and took seriously the concerns of the people and those regarding national affairs. His name was Nguyen Thong, pen name Ky Xuyen [a native of Ben Tre, in Vinh Long Province, he had escaped to Phan Thiet following the loss of the six provinces (Nam Ky)].42 This man methodically demolished the charges, sentence by sentence, against the low-ranking officials. He wrote to the ministry, saying: “In this case, it was the king and officials who lied to the people—the people did not lie to anyone. It is completely out of place to apply the law thuong thu bat di that.” Mr. Tu Duc realized that it was his fault, but he was ashamed of himself, so he got somebody to sue Mr. Nguyen Thong by bringing a serious charge against him and had him deposed [removed from office]. But the people in Quang Ngai and elsewhere did all they could to support Mr. Nguyen Thong, so damage was limited to his expulsion.
These are only a few examples; if I were to talk about Chinese and Vietnamese histories, I could go on and on for days.
A Brief Account of Democracy
In the present world, in the countries that have, more or less, adopted European civilization or are exposed to liberalism and freedom of expression, everyone understands the meaning of democracy. Although several countries in Europe have monarchs, in every country, the upper and lower houses have a democratic party. In Vietnam, however, the French have dominated the six provinces [Nam Ky] for sixty years and the term république is continually bandied about, yet no one investigates its meaning and compares it with the meaning of monarchy. This is the situation in the learned circle, and it appears to me that this group prefers a monarchy. The people in rural areas know nothing about democracy; they worship the king in their heads as if he were a deity or a sage. Not only do they not dare think about the question of “whether or not we should have a king,” but they act as if a person raising this question would be struck by a thunderbolt, buried under rocks, trampled by elephants, and torn apart by horses.
Upon hearing the name of a king, whoever he is, people are jubilant and ecstatic, placing their hope and expectation in him. So silly was the recent case of Phan Xich Long.43 The poison of autocracy has therefore entered deeply into the minds of our people, and their intellectual level is very low. The people understand if someone tells them, “You must be loyal to this person, or respect that person,” but if anyone mentions the name of Vietnam and tells them, “That is your motherland, you must love it,” they do not understand because they cannot touch it with their hands or see it with their eyes. How is it possible for them to love it? They can love only a house, a garden, and some acres of land—things they can see with their eyes.
I have noticed in the last few years that whenever journalists and public speakers open their mouths, they mention the 20 million people of our country. The tone is a mixture of pride, boastfulness, and expectation. In my opinion, these 20 million people know only their family and do not know their country. For example, if a family’s sons have died and there is no heir, or a family has a lot of land and rice fields but is being sued, or a family has children who are addicted to gambling, or whatever—people consider these things the most important and gather to gossip. But if one talks about “the loss of national independence,” not a single soul cares. How deplorable if the attitude of a people toward their country is so indifferent and disinterested! Considering the state of the people, some of you might be surprised at the suggestion to abolish monarchy and create a republic. In my view, since the poison of autocracy has fatally injured the patriotism of our people, there is no better way to make them aware of the fact that Vietnam is indeed their country than to throw away those lackeys, and only after that is done will they be able to find out to whom this country belongs. One day our intelligent people will find that, in this land, handed down to them over thousands of years, much still remains of their interests, much is still to be found of their rights. They will realize that those who have been called kings and officials since the olden days are, after all, just their representatives acting on their behalf, and if they cannot do a good job, there is nothing wrong with chasing them away.
When the people begin to see things in that light, they will know how to love their country. Only when they know how to love their country may they hope for their freedom and independence; otherwise, they will remain slaves from generation to generation.
Why It Is Called Democracy
To the people in Europe, there is no need to explain “why it is called democracy,” but in our country, this is not so. I will therefore provide a brief explanation so that you will have a general understanding….
The author follows with a brief account of the origin of popular assemblies in Greece and Rome and the emergence of Parliament in England.
A Brief Description of Democracy
At present, all nations in Europe practice democracy, with the exception of those countries whose peoples still are ignorant.
Let me describe for you the political structure of France. The Lower House, that is, the Chamber of Deputies or the National Assembly, is the most important house. The number of seats is approximately six hundred. Citizens twenty-one years old and older have the right to vote. Those over age twenty-five have the right to become candidates in the election. If elected, one becomes a deputy in the Lower House. France’s fortune is decided by this house, which has legislative power. In addition, there is the Senate. The senators are not elected by the people, but indirectly by a collège électoral consisting of municipal councillors in each département, the administrative units into which France is divided. The Senate looks after fiscal matters. The president is elected by the two houses. The candidates for the presidency are members from these two houses, and the candidate who receives the most votes is elected. Once the president has been elected, he has to take an oath in front of the two houses, stating: “On the basis of our democratic constitution, I vow not to betray our people and not to be partisan; if I am guilty of breaking these promises, I will be subject to impeachment.”44 Because of their violations against the constitution, French presidents [Patrice de] MacMahon and, more recently, [Alexandre] Millerand were removed from office.
The government also is formed from members sitting in the two houses. The party that occupies the largest number of seats is allowed to form a cabinet. The current cabinet has a few dozen ministries, but their ministers are not dysfunctional and haughty like the ministers in our country. Each of them has specific responsibilities. If they do not meet the expectations of the people, they will be criticized. Because there are two political parties in the National Assembly, one left wing and one right wing, if the left-wing party holds the majority of the seats, the right-wing party will be the watchdog and be ready to level criticisms; therefore, it is difficult to do anything outrageous.
Everyone in the country must observe the constitution. The power of the government also is stipulated in the constitution, and therefore it has little room for negligence and autocracy. In addition, according to the law, anyone who violates the constitution is treated the same—from the president to a common person in the countryside.
The government officers have only administrative power; judicial power is entrusted to judges with the required training and qualifications. The judges specialize in making judgments in the courts. In making their decisions, they have independent power and rely on the letter of the law, fairness, and their conscience. They deal with government officials and private citizens in exactly the same manner. The judges belong to a separate department, the Department of Justice. The judicial power, the administrative power of the government, and the legislative power of the parliament are separate, not controlled by a single person.
The preceding is just a brief outline; to have a thorough understanding of democracy, one must be more specific.
Seen in this light, democracy is a government of laws. The rights and duties of everyone in the country are well described by the laws—like a road on which lines have been drawn clearly, so that you can walk freely, there is nothing to stop you, and you may go on as far as you like, as long as you do not violate the rights of others. This is because before the laws, everyone is equal, regardless of whether they are officials or common people.
Comparing the two concepts of monarchy and democracy, we see that democracy is far better than monarchy. To govern a country solely on the basis of the personal opinions of one individual or of an imperial court is to treat the people of that country as if they were a herd of goats—their prosperity and joy, or their poverty and misery, are entirely in the hands of the herder. In contrast, in a democracy the people create their own constitution and select officials who must look after their nation’s business in accordance with the will of the people. Even when there are no excellent talents among the government officials, the people do not have to submit themselves to becoming servants for a family or a clan [as has happened under monarchies].
History has proved that wise people who follow the path of self-strengthening and self-reliance to search for their common interests become happier each day. In contrast, ignorant people who remain idle without doing anything—only wait for help from Heaven or favors from government officials, and entrust their rights to the hands of a single person or government—suffer all sorts of hardships.
My compatriots! Now that you have seen the reasons, you should take part in tackling our national affairs; without doing so, we will not be able to raise our heads.
[Adapted from Phan Chau Trinh, Phan Chau Trinh and His Political Writings, 125–39]
THE IDEAL OF ANNAMESE YOUTH (1923)
Nguyen An Ninh (1900–1943) was the first of the Vietnamese elite’s French-educated youth to engage in modern politics, which followed his return from Paris, where he had obtained a degree in law from the Sorbonne in 1922. Nguyen An Ninh started the journal La cloche fêlée (The Flawed Bell), which ran from 1923 to 1926 in Saigon and was influential in the publication of other important newspapers. He also introduced new methods of mass engagement, such as organizing popular meetings, distributing tracts, and politicizing legal cases. He advocated the creation of a powerful national culture to elevate the Vietnamese from their colonial servitude, and he decried both low- and high-level Vietnamese officials who allowed themselves to be co-opted into the French colonial administration. Nguyen An Ninh’s speech, given in October 1923 and published in French in La cloche fêlée in January 1924, is remembered for its call to action directed to a generation of Vietnamese youth. Although Nguyen An Ninh agreed with Pham Quynh that both Western and Eastern ideas should shape Vietnamese culture,45 his emphasis was less on discipline and loyalty than new ideals and passions and a life of action. Note that Nguyen An Ninh uses the colonial French names Annam and Annamese for Vietnam and Vietnamese.
As I have said before, “It is not in Indochina that an Annamese youth, trained for the bureaucracy, will find the feeblest idea of the French culture.” Even of those favored by heredity and circumstance, precious few are capable of the efforts necessary to equal the cultivated minds of Europe. And in these times, all Asian minds must be nourished by two cultures, one occidental and one oriental…. I will soon speak to you of the social obligation that rests on the most intelligent and strongest among us. Here I want to discuss further the necessity of an intellectual culture for our race….
Many people owe to their culture the duration of their name, their influence in the world, and the messianic role that they play in the world. No people dominated by a foreign culture can know true independence if it does not possess an independent culture. A people’s culture is its soul. Just as a man of elevated soul knows the superior joys of existence, so a people of high culture knows the privileges denied to those less cultivated….
Let us take as an example a culture to whose influence we still are subject: the Chinese culture. Vanquished constantly by brute force, conquered by barbarian neighbors, China owes her continued existence to her culture. Moreover, the social changes that should have reduced her to servitude and eventual destruction in fact extended her boundaries and steadily increased her influence. The dominators, having conquered, were, in turn, conquered by the Chinese culture, abandoning the customs and literature, and even the language, of their own country. Thus China was frequently dominated, but every time she regained her liberty, she found her empire enlarged, thanks to the addition of new realms.
It is not very difficult to demonstrate our race’s need for a culture. The predicament is finding a solid intellectual heritage that can serve as the foundation on which to build our dreams. If we take stock of the purely literary and artistic achievements that have been produced here, the intellectual legacy of our ancestors would certainly be meager alongside the heritages of other peoples. This is the first great discouragement that our enthusiasms encounter. The sum of literary achievement bequeathed to us is sparse, and in general it gives off a strong scent of decadence, sickness, and lassitude—the foretaste of an impending agony. This is not the kind of heritage that will help us add more vigor and life to our race’s struggle for a place in the world.
Wasn’t the so-called elite fashioned by Chinese books obliged to cling to Confucian ideas like castaways to a wreck? Even in comparison with India, Annam looks like a pygmy standing next to a giant when one considers India’s glorious past. And today when India and Japan are producing thinkers and artists whose talent and genius shine forth as brightly as those of Europe, Annam is but an infant that does not yet even have the notion or power to grope toward a better destiny and genuine deliverance. There are those who dare speak of political autonomy and of liberty, but [only] in the hollowest speeches and in the most foolish demands, which only squander further the strength of our race. What liberty is being demanded? Liberty to do what? Does a child who is not yet sure of his steps need the whole earth to learn to walk? Liberty is not something that can be transmitted, given, or sold. It is a possibility for all. Those who are born free are free, even in servitude, just as those who are born slaves remain slaves, even those that ascend the throne. Finally today, a handful of enlightened minds are thinking of preparing a solid foundation for the future of our country. Everyone else is speaking of politics as if it were from there and from there alone that the grand promise so eagerly awaited can come—as if the vital problem of our race were a political problem and not a social problem. No, no! When ignorance extends this far, the silence of enlightened individuals can be called a crime. The vital problem of our race is a social problem; in fact, it is not even yet a social problem; it is the problem of a common ideal that could provide the seed from which the tree of a better future could emerge. These words of Tagore, speaking of India, must be meditated on by those who are contemplating firm creative action: “My spirit,” he said, speaking of an earlier time, “refused to allow itself to be seduced by the banal intoxication of the political movements of that time, empty as they were, it seemed to me, of all force proceeding from real national consciousness and completely ignorant of the country and indifferent at heart to any real service to the motherland.” …
“For the grand idealists among Indian youth,” continues Ananda Coomaraswami, “nationalism is not enough…. The only real importance of India to the world will derive from the great men whom she will offer to all humanity: A grand philosopher, a poet, a painter, a scholar, or a singer will count more on the day of judgment than will all the concessions extracted by all the congresses in a hundred years.”
Isn’t the tone of these sentences strangely new to your ears? How distant and, as yet, inconceivable to you this dream is. I would like these quotations to demonstrate how the young India stands next to the young Annam. I know it is too early to summon the arrival of the great men for our country. To speak of great men to human beings without energy or will, to people discouraged by the least effort—as though life itself were not a struggle—to speak of great men to a people who fear effort and seek only indolence and the absence of responsibility may indeed seem laughable. But really, why shouldn’t we talk about great men, since we need great men, a flourishing of great men, those personalities who can give status to their own people. Despite the oppression of the English, India has its philosophers and poets, its intellectuals, and its leaders who guide the actions of the masses. And more than India, we need men who understand the soul of our race, its needs, and what is best suited to it. We need men who can guide the steps of the people and illuminate their path. We need artists, poets, painters, musicians, and thinkers to enrich our intellectual inheritance. Thus, not only must we speak constantly of the need for great men, but we also must wish for their arrival. More than that, we must call with all the force of our lungs—in the marshes and mountains and in all places where the existence of a supernatural power reverberates and where the voice of man carries to the invisible infinities of space—with all the force of our lungs, we must call for the arrival of these great men. Perhaps then, from our sincere and ardent calls, will come the power that begets geniuses, those exceptional beings. May the waiting for those great men become for us like a religion; may our lips always murmur, as in prayer, the expectation of these great men. Let us call out, pray, and implore. May Annam, all Annam, in anguish and impatience, call and wait—then, I assure you, in a very short time, the echo of our voices will respond to our calls and our wait will not be in vain.
Below these superhuman dreams are more human ambitions, still too high for the majority but far from unattainable for those with energy. To possess the power of a king with all the force of a nation at his disposal, to be a financier whose coffers balance the destiny of an entire people, aren’t these the ambitions that make life worth living? I speak of ambitions still too remote for you. Because the ambition of today’s youth is to be a Bui Quang Chieu, a Nguyen Phan Long, a doctor like our Drs. Thinh and Don, or an engineer like M. Lang.46 Look at them, observe these ambitious young people who stroll amid the baskets of itinerant merchants and sniff at passing women; look at them for a moment, these youths with the strut of a duck and all dressed up in European clothing, and you cannot help but laugh…. To be a doctor like Thinh or an engineer like Lang takes the intelligence and tenacity of a Thinh or a Lang…. And of what effort is this youth actually capable? We are not prohibited from sketching out our ambitions or from having ambitions and dreams. It even is necessary to dream, since from human dreams innumerable and powerful realities have emerged; but one must dream only in order to act. Dream, dream, but act too. Life is action. To say action is to say effort. To say effort is to say obstacles. And they are many, the obstacles to our ambitions, the greatest of them being ourselves. We lack the breath that sustains those dreams, [and] above all, we lack the will to succeed….
People speak of ingratitude, immorality, anarchy; but do not listen to these reactionaries, these poisoners. Are they worthy of our gratitude, those who count their “good deeds”? Trammeling life, killing the energy of others, isn’t this an act of immorality, more than immoral, of barbarism? They speak of anarchy—but what are they calling anarchy? What are they calling order? What is their order if not forceful constraint, barbarism, and anarchy? But let us not make too much of this, and recall that vigor always creates a little trouble around itself. The law of life demands amorality. After all, upon reflection, for the continuance and progress of human society, isn’t anarchy necessary for unity, just as unity is a consequence of anarchy? … They speak to us about the perfection of the organization inherited from our forefathers, the doctrines of the ancient sages. But man lives with the present, and forgetting is the only virtue that sustains his will to live…. Those feeble voices that recall for us the advice of the ancient sages are nothing more than distant echoes that arrive only to die at our ears. The current generation needs new ideals, their ideals; a new activity, their activity; new passions, their passions. Under these conditions—under these conditions alone—will the realization of a better future be possible. Life, not just life in Annam, but all life, demands to be eternally new.
The task that is incumbent on the present generation is heavy. This period of our history renders that task doubly heavy. Every man has the right to think only of his well-being and his own life. Today, in order to achieve this well-being and not be considered suspect or be mistreated, men have to sell themselves. Under these conditions, how can they assume a role that demands, above all, the absence of constraints weighing on them, a role that demands the awareness of a mission and the obligation to constantly live up to that mission? Birth has placed us in a country where everything is to be created, and at a time when all intelligent initiatives are viewed with great suspicion. Here, two forces are present, two lives: one is weak and seeks its place in the sun; the other is strong and grasping, and sucks and exhausts on behalf of a distant body. And it is weakness that calls for our aid. Our birth and intelligence impose on us a mission. And who better than us to take on this mission? The blood that runs in our veins can alone reveal the needs of our race. Even France’s goodwill cannot prevent her from fumbling and wasting her efforts. In this work, France can do only one thing: help us. And it is her duty to assist us, since protectorate means tutelage, but tutelage does not mean being kept a minor forever. Since this work is to be created, today’s youth must turn their eyes to the future in order to make the creation as quickly as possible. They must have one foot in the present and the other in the near future that, for them, must be the true present. They must be at once inside and outside the present; present in order to be in touch with the aspirations of the race, and outside it because its main preoccupation is not in the present. They must accept certain facts and certain states as inevitable and, having mastered these social laws, create a new order to oppose this order, a force to oppose this other force, so as to reestablish an equilibrium. For when two forces are present, as long as disequilibrium endures, strife will as well. And in all strife, there is injustice, since there are conquerors and the conquered, and the latter are not always happy.
We should think only of creation, of creation above all else, and of being creative spirits. But those who would create must be mature enough to impregnate and give birth. What we need is not servile imitation that, far from liberating us, will attach us more closely to those things we imitate. What we need is personal creations that spring from our very blood or works that derive from an actual change within ourselves. People have often spoken of the educational and civilizing role of France as represented by the present caste of leaders. They have paid servile homage to the “bringers of light,” to the “makers of miracles in Asia,” as if the louts sent by the Ministry of Colonies and not by France’s intellectuals could quickly mold—as if from dough—the soul of a perfectly functioning race. People have spoken of the French miracle in Asia…. But what is that miracle? It is indeed a miracle to have, in such a short time, reduced into the thickest ignorance an intellectual level that was already much diminished; it is indeed miraculous to plunge a people with democratic ideals into the most complete servitude. Who could argue that this is not a miracle, a social miracle? The sudden achievement of a state that people have been pursuing for thousands of years, because aren’t ignorance and nonaction the two first conditions of happiness? … Those who officially represent France in Indochina can speak only of the expensive construction of railways, of ruinous enterprises to set underwater cables, of maintaining its formidable army of functionaries, of annual national borrowing; in short, of the exaggerated exploitation of Indochina understood in both senses as use and abuse. Her role must be, above all, economic, that is to say, devouring. But when it comes to more delicate questions like education and intellectual development, France ought to exercise greater circumspection. She can do nothing but offer us her intellectual heritage as a contribution to the nourishment of our researchers and creative thinkers. Assimilation demands liberty of choice, an absolute liberty. Any constraint leads to indigestion, and indigestion can be fatal.
One thing I mention in passing, and on which no authority can contradict me, since I carry within myself the proof of my proposition, is that on the contrary, thirsty men who run quickly in search of what they need and those who stumble forward to arrive at an awareness of themselves at an encounter inside their deepest self with the soul of their race—those individuals have thus far never been able to receive the least outside encouragement.
I say this to prove to today’s youth that in all things they can count on no one but themselves to rise to the level where man, conscious of his own strength, also begins to be conscious of his dignity. It is to show them that their struggle, which has hardly been encouraged by the achievement of knowledge or the desire for human pride and dignity, also encounters multiple unforeseen discouragements thrown up often by powerful forces. On the road they must travel, active young people who desire self-affirmation will find themselves in the presence of talents proclaimed with trumpet calls, and false gods elevated amid a simulated glory. Believing in appearances, the population disregards those talents that are nobly and laboriously acquired. The road that leads to deliverance of the individual is rough. And in this country more than anywhere else, free, elevated, proud, and noble spirits must endure a long torment. And why is that? What is the cause? Ignorance. It is the dull and heavy ignorance of the masses. It is the gilded ignorance, the hollow knowledge of today’s self-proclaimed elite. The masses, just as much as the so-called modern elite, fashioned by the school of this “democracy of bad taste” that is so rampant throughout all of Europe, do not know how to tell the true from the false. These sad observations are not designed to paralyze goodwill and enthusiasm. They are meant to serve as a demarcation between those energies that are determined, cautious, self-reflective, laborious, and directed toward their goal, and those energies that are sonorous but hollow. The latter should change course before the sign listing the obstacles, because otherwise their disillusionment and bitterness will later be sung in famous verses like the glorious actions of the failed heroes of antiquity.
For one’s personality to affirm itself, the first condition must exist. And to exist requires struggle, contraction, and wariness. I know that today’s youth cannot conceive of any struggle outside politics. Moreover, what they call political life is nothing like the noisy politics of the European nations; it is the daily chattering, high sounding and hollow, displayed in the newspapers of Indochina. Ah! If young people today could only glimpse what goes on under this crust of high-sounding and hollow quotidian gossip. They would be outraged and no longer insist on pursuing what they call politics, for it impairs and sullies the energies of this country, which already is almost without life or strength. I know, and it is sad to know it, that today’s youth pay exclusive attention to what they call politics—to the point that for them, to be under suspicion, to be spied on by informers, is a mark of glory and cause for bragging. I know youths, groping to find their way who, when they encounter one of the innumerable stumbling blocks erected by the government, use up all their energy opposing this enormous rock instead of going around it. And these youths call that the life of struggle. No, what you call the life of struggle is nothing but a waste of your strength against a shadow. What can be gained from such a struggle besides the utter fatigue that puts us in a state of constant inferiority and at the mercy of those who control this chimera? It is against your environment that you must struggle; against your family that paralyzes your efforts; against the vulgar society that weighs on you; against the narrow prejudices and snares that lurk around your actions; against ideals that lack vigor and nobility, that are humiliatingly base and further reduce the status of our race with every passing day. Here is where the struggle must take place, and it is much more weighty, ten thousand times weightier, than the other pretend struggle. Only this true struggle can give you real victory. The greatest idealists have always counseled those who would be their disciples to flee “their father’s house.” We, too, must flee the “house of our father.” We must escape from our family, escape our society, distance ourselves from our country. We must have a life of struggle that awakens the little vigor that is left to us; we must have a society that reveals our true worth. We need an environment that elevates our intelligence and our soul. We need a summit where, in solitude, we can sense all our strength and take possession of our soul and, with a glance that can encompass all of life and love, understand the world and our harmony with it. And then we will leave the summit that we have reached and that will have been for us a temporary place of exile, to return to a society where we can make maximum use of our creative strength. In other words, we Annamese who will have arrived at the consciousness of our own worth, of the highest possible worth of the individual and of the laws that govern the world, we will return to Annam, where the accident of birth has placed us in a position to understand better than others the needs of the race from which we are born, and where, as a result, our fertile and creative strengths will not be too wasted.
Today’s youth must especially avoid all talk of fatherland and patriotism. They must concentrate all their strength on seeking themselves. The day that they find themselves, the words fatherland and patriotism will have taken on a larger, more elevated and noble meaning; and they will be embarrassed to have confused, through their ignorance, the names fatherland and patriotism with ideas that were less noble and even mean. The day that the youth of Annam pay no regard to diplomas, social prejudices, the embroidered uniforms of valets, the imposing pomp of false gods, or the consideration enjoyed by false talents and ineptitudes; the day when the youth of Annam refuse to give the least credit to appearances and lies and instead march with heads high down the road cleared by their self-consciousness—on that day we will be able to closely examine all the beautiful dreams, on that day we will be able to joyfully resolve the problem of a culture for our race—then will the motto of our temples be restored: “Honor only those men whose genius or talent raised the rank of our people in the world and those who contributed to the improvement of the conditions of our race.”
[Nguyen An Ninh, “L’idéal de la jeunesse annamite”; trans. Judith Henchy]
INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL REFORM (1930)
No other figure exercised as much influence in espousing neotraditionalist ideas in early-twentieth-century Vietnam as Pham Quynh, a noted essayist and public intellectual. With his pro-French review Southern Ethos (Nam Phong [1917–1934]), Pham Quynh launched a cultural and literary revival in Vietnam that introduced the new Vietnamese elite to modern French ideas while helping offset the decline in Confucian learning. In the realm of politics, Pham Quynh’s legacy was ultimately less successful. He advocated a conservative nationalist agenda, with a Vietnamese government led by an elite educated in both French and Vietnamese schools, which would continue to rely on French colonial tutelage and only gradually acquire political sovereignty. In the following essay, originally published in French in Southern Ethos in 1930, Pham Quynh suggested that the new Vietnamese elite be disciplined and of high moral fiber, and he espoused a blend of both traditional and modern ideas. He suggests that Japan’s experience of training “good sons, good citizens, and good soldiers” could well serve as a model for Vietnamese intellectual reform.
I spoke in a previous article of the necessity of a true “intellectual and moral reform” that must be undertaken in this country, and I said that this reform must be, above all, the work of the Annamese elite, which must become conscious of itself and its duties and responsibilities.
Today I would like to give this opinion the development it requires, reserving for later an examination of the other necessary political and administrative reforms, because it is beginning to be of interest at high levels, and official commissions will soon be working in this direction.
Moreover, all these reforms are of a piece, and the moral and political perspectives are not far from one another and sometimes even seem to blend into one. One cannot conceive of the intellectual and moral reform of an entire people without the existence of a national government that would have in the area of education all the necessary powers for making and sustaining new initiatives. This government may be directed, controlled, and counseled in all branches of political and economic activity, but its total, concerted action is indispensable to the education of the people. No foreign authority, no matter how eminently well intended and tutelary, can take its place in this earliest essential stage of the project and not risk falling into inextricable difficulties and ending in certain failure. Perhaps an elite can receive a foreign culture as a useful complement to its national education, but the masses can be trained only by a national education, which can be provided only by a national government. Of course, this government must have the powers necessary to devote itself usefully to this project. And this is precisely the question we must ask. But we will not pursue it for the moment, our purpose here being simply to show that intellectual and moral reform is in fact closely linked to political reform.
No people can live and prosper without being able to keep to a certain moral and national discipline that is in harmony with both the hereditary tendencies of the race and the requirements for a healthy evolution. This discipline cannot simply be self-imposed. It must be recognized as necessary and accepted by the elite of the nation, who must set the example for the masses and who are ultimately responsible for their education. Therefore the elite first must impose this discipline on itself before imposing it on the people. The elite must choose between traditional and modern ideas, thereby forging the synthesis that would be most appropriate for favoring the development of a “national life” and one truly worthy of this name. This selection process is not carried out without sacrifices. The libertarian and individualistic theories that come from the West are certainly not without attractions, and these attractions are often irresistible to the minds of those who have barely escaped the rigors of a patriarchal organization over which absolutism reigns triumphant. [These theories] are not, however, without dangers, and therefore, it is best to incorporate them cautiously. They can give a positive character to old traditional ideas that tend to discount individuals a bit too much by inscribing them completely within the family unit or the community and in this way hinder often the full development of the personality. But [if they] act alone, without the solid base of good traditional training, these theories may cause dissolution and destruction. The delicate matter of the dosage must be respected, as it requires much foresight and tact and can be the work only of an elite truly conscious of its role as initiator and guide.
The basic elements of this elite exist. There remains the task of uniting them and giving them a common inspiration. There is absolutely no doubt that the only idea capable of achieving this union or spiritual unity is the national idea. One cannot deny that this idea exists in this country; the fact is that it is spreading, developing, and intensifying every day. Nothing is served by opposing or stopping it. One is better off using and directing it—making it the foundation of the education of the masses as well as of the elite. If one knows how to accommodate it, it can prove to be a great force capable of reconciling all.
Therefore, the formation of a “conscious and organized” elite (to borrow a well-known formula) that knows how to impose on itself a strong national and moral discipline—along with an education by this elite of the popular masses centered on the same beneficial and necessary discipline—is, in our view, the necessary work of intellectual and moral reform to be undertaken in this country.
The example of Japan shows us that this work is possible and can be achieved. If this country managed in so little time to accomplish a formidable evolution that provokes the astonishment and admiration of the world, it is thanks to the presence of a far-sighted elite infused with a national idea at the beginning of the Meiji period; an elite that, conscious of its role, took up with ardor the task of educating the people and creating a public spirit whose force and vitality have been felt on numerous occasions.
Served by a national dynasty that participates in the same ideal as the elite of the nation, Japan succeeded in completely transforming the mentality of its people, namely, by destroying the clan spirit that divided it and inculcating the worship of honor and the homeland as symbolized in the person of the emperor—in other words, by making it a most coherent and disciplined people and one that was highly compliant with the suggestions of its elite and the most capable, under the latter’s direction, of accomplishing grand projects for the glory of the entire nation.
What, then, is the secret of this marvelous transformation?
It is in a national education that, on the one hand, succeeded in forging a harmonious synthesis of the ideals of the Occident and the Orient and of the ancient moral tradition and the modern scientific culture, and, on the other hand, is inspired and animated by a single idea that dominates and absorbs all: a love for the homeland and the race for which the living symbol is the emperor.
This education, undertaken with both ardor and tenacity by men whose sole concern was the grandeur of the country, managed to galvanize the entire nation and to create the public spirit of which we spoke earlier, a spirit whose vigorous exercise contributed greatly to the glorious victory of Japan over czarist Russia.
A reading of [Japan’s] famous Imperial Rescript on Education promulgated on October 30, 1890, is particularly edifying. This document, which hangs publicly in every school and is read aloud on every holiday, can rightly be called a veritable catechism of the religion of the state, in other words, of patriotism.
The mikado [emperor] puts forward here before his people the essential principles of national education: …
Be respectful to your parents, affectionate to your brothers and sisters, united in your conjugal ties, and faithful to your friends; let your conduct be courteous and frugal, and your caring attention extend to all! Apply yourselves to your studies, and carry out your respective occupations; cultivate your intellectual faculties, and develop your moral feelings; [and] contribute to the public good and watch over the general interests of society. Obey the constitution and the laws of our empire; and if the occasion presents itself, devote yourself courageously to your homeland. In this way, you will give us your precious help in developing and maintaining the honor and prosperity of our empire, which is as old as the sky and the earth….
This rescript was the object of commentary in a 1891 ministerial circular in which teachers received the following instructions: “Because forming a character that is inclined toward virtue is the supreme goal of education, it is necessary that in all our teaching, we privilege those subjects that lend themselves to moral and patriotic applications.”
Moral and patriotic—this is the essential, fundamental character of Japanese education. And in it lies the secret of the astonishing transformation that, in just a few years, allowed a feudal people to become a great nation—one that was able to appropriate the most rational methods of modern organization while preserving the traditional virtues of the race. For this national education is itself organized scientifically….
This decidedly moral and national education has been completely successful, for it can be said that it truly shaped the modern Japanese spirit. That spirit has not fabricated a series of good little parrots capable of long, mechanical, and sometimes uncomprehending recitations of foreign words and who, once they have acquired the rudiments of that language, rush to exploit their meager knowledge by soliciting the outsized administration for jobs and subaltern positions with no future and no dignity. On the contrary, it has trained “good sons, good citizens, and good soldiers blindly devoted to the emperor and the homeland,” and this is certainly the secret behind the force and prosperity of the Japanese.
Japan has, it is true, undergone several crises over the course of its moral and intellectual evolution. The West’s most harmful theories caused much damage there, as they did everywhere else. But this damage was contained, we could say, thanks in part to a deeply moral and patriotic system of education that this country owes to the enlightened vision and wisdom of a singularly well-informed national elite, which from 1875 to 1900 worked to consolidate the nation’s moral cornerstones. Of equal importance was the vigilance of a national government that always considered its first duty to be the education of the people and never neglected to take the necessary steps to cleanse and preserve its moral health. Didn’t it forbid, if I’m not mistaken, the translation of La dame aux camélias and certain works by [Émile] Zola?
What the Japanese were able to do, we can do too—helped by France, which, we are certain, will prove itself generous and skillful enough to encourage the blossoming and growth of a good, conscious, and enlightened Annamese patriotism, which would be the most powerful antidote against the propagation of the most harmful theories imported from abroad.
[Pham Quynh, “Réforme intellectuelle et morale,” 36–38; trans. C. Jon Delogu]
LETTER ADDRESSED TO THE FRENCH CHAMBRE DES DÉPUTÉS (1930)
Nguyen Thai Hoc (1902–1930), who founded the Vietnam Nationalist Party in 1927, advocated seizing power from the French through violent means. In 1930, his party staged an abortive uprising in Yen Bai that was brutally repressed by the French and resulted in the party’s virtual destruction. Nguyen Thai Hoc became a revolutionary martyr for his implacable defiance of the French colonial authorities. In this letter, written on the eve of his execution, Nguyen Thai Hoc assailed the French for their callous treatment of the Vietnamese people and their refusal to countenance political reform. The letter, translated from Vietnamese, is addressed to the lower house of the French National Assembly.
Yen Bai, March 1930
Messieurs Députés,
I, the undersigned, Nguyen Thai Hoc, a twenty-eight-year-old Vietnamese, chairman and founding member of the Vietnam Nationalist Party [Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang], have been arrested and am being detained in the Yen Bai provincial jail, in the northern part of Indochina. I have the honor to present the following views:
It is a matter of truth that all citizens have the right to aspire to the independence of their fatherland. In the name of humanity, every citizen has the duty to provide relief and assistance to his endangered fellow countrymen.
As I see it, my fatherland has been conquered by the French for more than sixty years. Under your tyrannical rule, my compatriots have had to bear countless sufferings; my nation will be completely and gradually destroyed in accordance with the law of natural selection. Therefore, in line with my duty and in the interest of my fellow countrymen, I am compelled to do my best to defend my fatherland, which has been seized by foreigners, and [to save] my nation, which has been endangered.
At first, I tried to work closely with the French in Indochina in the interests of my compatriots, my fatherland, and [my] nation, in particular to develop education and the economy. For economic purposes, in 1925, I sent a letter to Mr. Varenne, the governor-general of Indochina, in which I requested the protection of indigenous industry and trade; in particular, the establishment of a technical college in the north. In 1926 I sent another letter to the governor-general about a project designed to make the life of impoverished people more bearable. In 1927, I again sent a letter to the résident supérieur of Tonkin, seeking permission for the publication of a weekly journal, whose aim would be to defend and encourage indigenous industry and trade. In the educational field, I sent a letter to the governor-general in 1925, requesting (1) permission to open schools to provide free education to the people, particularly workers and peasants, and (2) permission to open public libraries in villages and industrialized towns.
But my letters went unanswered, my project was not implemented, my requests were not approved, and my newspaper articles were subjected to censorship and discarded. These rejections show clearly that the French are not well disposed toward my fatherland, my fellow countrymen, and my nation, so the only alternative is to drive them out of my country. Therefore, in 1927, I started to organize a revolutionary party named the Vietnam Nationalist Party. The party’s objective is to overthrow the oppressive rule of the French and establish a government of the Republic of Vietnam composed of persons genuinely dedicated to the welfare of the people. This was an underground organization that was discovered in February 1929 with the subsequent arrest and condemnation of fifty-two party members to prison terms ranging from two to twenty years. Despite the numerous arrests and arbitrary trials, my party was not completely destroyed. Under my leadership, it continued to try to achieve its goals. A revolutionary upsurge broke out in northern Vietnam, particularly in Yen Bai, resulting in the death of some [French] military officers. It was alleged that this movement was organized and led by my party and that as chairman of the party I had ordered the attack. In fact, I never gave such an order. I provided evidence to the Yen Bai tribunal to this effect. Many members of my party who knew nothing about the recent revolutionary upsurge also were arrested and were charged with participating in [the upsurge]. The government of French Indochina burned and destroyed their houses, and its troops confiscated their paddies and rice, distributing them among themselves. Not only were the members of my party the target of unjust measures—the word ruthless would be more accurate—but the majority of rural compatriots were treated like buffalo and horses, persecuted. At present, in Kien An, Hai Phong, Bac Ninh, Son Tay, Phu Tho, and Yen Bai, tens of thousands of innocent men, women, old folk, and children have been killed or have died of starvation or cold because the government of French Indochina has burned and destroyed their houses. Therefore, I earnestly request that you investigate and clarify that these unjust measures will lead to the complete destruction of my nation and to the degradation of human values.
I have the honor to inform you that I bear full responsibility for all political upheavals that have taken place in my country since I assumed the leadership [of the Nationalist Party] in 1927. Therefore, executing me will be sufficient. May I ask you to refrain from persecuting the other persons who are detained in your jails, because I am the only culprit and the others are innocent. Among them are a number of party members, but they are innocent. They joined the party because of my exhortations about their duties as citizens of their country and about the sufferings and ignominy of the people who have lost their country. The others are nonparty members who have been arrested because of false charges brought against them by the enemy, informers, or spies or by false accusations made by their friends under the duress of torture by the intelligence service, who had to make such accusations to avoid continued torture. May I reiterate my request: please execute me alone. If that is not enough, you can execute all the members of my family. But please release the afore-mentioned innocent persons.
In conclusion, I wish to tell you that if the French wish to stay in Indochina and remain free from attacks by the revolutionary movement, they must abandon their current ruthless and barbaric political agenda; they must behave like real friends of the Vietnamese and refrain from acting like ruthless and oppressive bosses. They must try to reduce the spiritual and physical sufferings and hardships of the Vietnamese by allowing them to enjoy elementary human rights such as the freedom of movement, the freedom to be educated, the right of assembly, and the freedom of the press. They must curb corruption and the debased lifestyle among Vietnamese officials [who work for the French], provide education to the people, and help develop indigenous industries and trade, free from harsh and wicked obstacles.
Please accept, Messrs Députés, the assurance of my highest consideration.
Nguyen Thai Hoc, the Revolutionary
[Nguyen Thai Hoc, “Thu gui Ha Nghi Vien Phap,” 813–15; trans. Jayne Werner]
THE REVOLUTIONARY’S CODE OF CONDUCT (1926)
Ho Chi Minh’s (1890–1969) view of what made a good Communist was based on his belief that human beings could always be trained and educated to improve their character. But Communist cadres had to follow a strict moral code, for morality and good character were the essence of an effective revolutionary. Without morality, Communists would fail to persuade the people to follow party policies. In The Road to Revolution, Ho Chi Minh’s training manual for young Vietnamese revolutionaries in Hong Kong, he enumerates a revolutionary’s virtues. This excerpt is the preface to the manual. This and the following text are lists of exemplary behavior similar in form, if not in entirely in content, to Confucian precepts, such as Minh Mang’s “Ten Moral Precepts.”47
For oneself:
Be industrious and thrifty.
Cooperate with others, and do not be individualistic.
Resolutely correct your mistakes.
Take care not to be too timid.
Often ask questions.
Be patient and endure difficulties.
Inquire about and investigate matters frequently.
Be public-spirited and not concerned with private matters.
Do not seek fame or be arrogant.
If you say it, do it.
Be steadfast and protect the doctrine. Be prepared to sacrifice.
Do not yearn for material things.
Maintain secrecy.
Toward others, one must:
Be tolerant.
Strictly follow organizational rules.
Go to great lengths to be kind.
Be watchful but not reckless.
Observe other people closely [as exemplary models].
Examine the situation carefully.
Be decisive.
Be brave.
Follow orders.
[Ho Chi Minh, “Tu cach mot nguoi cach menh,” 231; trans. Lauren Meeker and Jayne Werner]
REVOLUTIONARY CHARACTER AND MORALITY (1947)
Ho Chi Minh further elaborated the meaning of revolutionary morality in the pamphlet Reforming the Way We Work, which was distributed to Communist Party members in the early years of the Viet Minh war against the French (1946–1954). Ho Chi Minh’s list of revolutionary virtues permeates the essay excepted here. But he also admonishes party members that besides paying strict attention to self-discipline, they must reform their personal faults and mistakes, which inflict untold damage on the Communist cause. He goes on to describe the endurance, sacrifices, inner strength, and collective spirit required for the Communist cause to achieve victory.
The [Communist] Party should not conceal its mistakes or be afraid of criticism. It needs to admit its mistakes and correct them in order to make progress and educate its cadres and members. The party should select its most faithful and enthusiastic members to become leading cadres and must always expel corrupt and depraved elements from its ranks. The party should enforce strict discipline from the top down, which means unity in thought and action and unswerving loyalty in carrying out one’s duties and work. The party must always check to see how its resolutions and instructions are being implemented; otherwise, they will remain empty rhetoric and, moreover, will undermine the confidence of the people. To ensure the party’s success, these points must be observed; not a single point should be overlooked.
Duties of Party Cadres and Members
UPHOLD THE INTERESTS OF THE PARTY
The only interests of the party are those of the nation and the fatherland. Therefore, the party must try to organize the people in order to liberate them and improve their living, cultural, and political conditions. The liberation of the people means the liberation of the party. Each party member must understand that private interests must be completely subordinated to party interests, group interests to collective interests, and temporary interests to long-term interests. Party interests must be put above everything else because they are the interests of the nation and the fatherland….
Party members and cadres must never hesitate to sacrifice their own interests and, if need be, their own lives. This is what it means to be a party member. If party interests contradict those of the individual, the latter must absolutely give way to the former. Every party cadre and member must clearly understand this. It is because of this principle that our party has many martyrs who have gloriously laid down their lives for the party, the nation, and the fatherland and whose reputations will last forever. These martyrs set a heroic example for all party members and cadres to follow.
There are times when personal interests coincide with those of the party. Examples include party members and cadres who carefully maintain their health in order to carry out their work, and those who eagerly study to raise their educational level. The people trust, admire, and love party members and cadres who are industrious and thrifty, have integrity, and are upright in character. The party wishes its members and cadres to be like this. But other traits, such as seeking status and wealth, becoming a hero, and being arrogant, are contrary to the interests of the party.
REVOLUTIONARY MORALITY
It is not difficult for a party cadre or member to become a real revolutionary. It depends on one’s heart. If one’s sole interest is the party, the fatherland, and one’s compatriots, one will be selfless and serve the greater public good. In doing so, one’s personal faults will decline, and one’s good qualities will increase. In short, revolutionary morality consists of five things: benevolence, a sense of duty, knowledge, courage, and integrity.
Benevolence means genuine affection for and complete devotion to one’s comrades and fellow countrymen. Benevolence leads us to resolutely oppose people and actions that are harmful to the party and the masses. A benevolent person is the first to endure hardship and the last to enjoy happiness. He or she does not covet wealth or honor and is not afraid to fight people in power. Benevolent people fear nothing and will always succeed in doing the right thing.
Having a sense of duty means being straightforward, upright, not being egoistical, doing nothing unjust, and having nothing to hide from the party. It means having no personal interests in conflict with the party. Someone with a sense of duty devotes himself or herself completely to any task assigned by the party, large or small, and carries it out conscientiously. Duty requires that when one recognizes when something is right, he or she speaks out honestly to that effect. It also means taking criticism from others, and bearing in mind everyone’s interests when criticizing others.
Knowledge: If one’s mind is clouded by egotism, one cannot have a clear and judicious mind and find the right way to do things. A knowledgeable person is a good judge of other human beings and can weigh the pros and cons of an issue, thereby determining which actions are beneficial or harmful to the party and which should be avoided. He or she [can] recommend people for party membership; and is on guard against evil persons.
Courage: A courageous person boldly carries out what is right, is unafraid to correct mistakes, undertakes difficult assignments, and endures hardship. Courage means resisting the temptations of fame and wealth. If necessary, it means sacrificing one’s life for the party and the fatherland, without qualms.
Integrity means not coveting status or wealth, happiness, or flattery. Persons of integrity are levelheaded and straightforward and never become corrupt; they are eager to learn, work, and improve themselves.
These are revolutionary ethics, which are different from the old, conservative ethics. Revolutionary morality does not aim at increasing individual prestige but serves only the interests of the party, the nation, and mankind. A river cut off from its source will dry up. A tree severed from its roots will wither. A revolutionary lacking morality cannot lead the people, no matter how talented he or she may be. Liberating the nation and humanity is a great task. But if we ourselves are immoral, rootless, and corrupt, what can we accomplish?
OBSERVING DISCIPLINE
The party’s interests are only those of the nation; party members’ interests are only those of the party. Therefore, the success of the nation depends on the development and success of the party and its members. Only when the party is victorious can party members enjoy victory. Consequently, party members must always place party interests above their own interests. No one is forced to join the party and become a vanguard fighter. People volunteer to join the party to become the vanguard and do so out of enthusiasm. As such, all party members must do their utmost to be worthy representatives of the nation.
Cadres and leaders, in particular, must be worthy of the confidence of the party and the nation and must set an example for all party members and the masses. It is in the interest of the nation that the party encourages and praises its members for their merits and talent, helps them learn and work. Whenever necessary, the party must help its members improve their living conditions and take care of them in case of illness, thereby motivating them to work with enthusiasm and joy. All party cadres and members must fully serve the interests of the party and have no private aims or seek favors from the party. They should not complain if they feel that party has not helped them or praised them.
Party cadres and members must always strive to do their best work and study hard to improve their cultural, intellectual, and political knowledge. They must always observe discipline and remain worthy of their status as party cadres and members….
MISTAKES AND SHORTCOMINGS
Some people in our party are selfish, uneducated, and lack impartiality; as a result, they are afflicted by individualism. Individualism is very damaging and leads to dangerous traits like the following:
Greed: Greedy people put their own interests above the party’s and the nation’s. They use public resources to serve their private aims, relying on party authority to do so. They like to live in luxury and indulge in lavish spending. Where does their money come from? From the party and their fellow countrymen. Greedy people engage in black market activities and smuggling, without considering how this behavior damages the prestige of the party and their own reputations.
Laziness: Lazy people think they are good at everything and know everything. They are lazy when learning and thinking. They prefer easy work assignments, pass the buck when given difficult tasks, and try to avoid dangerous tasks.
Arrogance: Arrogant people have an elevated opinion of themselves, put on airs, seek power, and like to be flattered and give orders. If they do something well, they always brag about it and flaunt their merits. They refuse to learn from the masses and avoid criticism. They always want to instruct others.
Vanity: Vain people think they are terrific, great heroes. Their ambition leads them to perform unnecessary tasks. When they are criticized or attacked, their morale is shaken. They enjoy being promoted but cannot bear being demoted. Their only concern is to enjoy life and to avoid hardship. They are eager to be a chairman or committee member but avoid effective work.
Lack of discipline: Individualistic people put their own interests first in both thought and behavior, and disregard the guiding role of the party. They criticize comrades they do not like and promote cadres as a personal favor.
Narrow-mindedness : Narrow-minded people do not promote party members on the basis of merit because they are afraid such people will overtake them. They look down on people outside the party, considering them to be un-revolutionary and less capable. As a result, they fail to make contacts and alliances with people of good character and talent outside the party, making them angry and isolating themselves.
Parochialism: Although parochialism is not as bad [as narrow-mindedness], it also causes a great deal of damage. Parochial people are concerned only with their own group’s performance, not that of other groups. They are shortsighted and lack an overall perspective, failing to understand that minor interests must be subordinated to the general interest, partial interests to the whole.
Commandism: [Would-be commanders] think they are brilliant and heroic and should be promoted to the top after a few successful battles or achievements. Of course, our party wishes to have many heroes and leaders who enjoy the confidence, admiration, and love of the people. Heroes and brilliant leaders are extremely valuable to the party and the nation. But such people emerge in the process of struggle, having been tempered by experience and education and promoted on the basis of the confidence of the masses and other party members. Someone does not become a top leader or a hero out of sheer personal desire.
From earlier times until now, the masses have never given their confidence and love to arrogant people or to self-styled leaders and heroes. Heroes have played only a minor role in the world’s major accomplishments. If each of us tries to fulfill the tasks given to us, knowing that we have done our work well, that will be enough for us to make progress….
[Some party members] refrain from accepting self-criticism because they think their prestige and pride will be damaged. In sum, they believe that if we criticize our own faults, as well as those of our own comrades, our party, and government, the enemy will take advantage of this to attack us. This is wrong. Faults and mistakes are like a disease, and criticism is like taking medicine. Fear of criticism is like being ill but trying to conceal your illness and refusing to take your medicine. As a result, you will get worse, get weaker, and die….
If you refrain from criticizing party members, they will sink further and further into error, and the party will suffer. This is like seeing a sick comrade and refusing to give him medicine. Refraining from self-criticism allows faults and mistakes to accumulate. It is like poisoning yourself. A party that hides its mistakes is a damaged party. A party that has the courage to admit its mistakes, to clearly identify them and the reasons for them, and to try its hardest to correct them is a progressive party, a genuine party, a courageous party that can make steady progress. The party must be able to identify its mistakes and its shortcomings, to educate its members and the masses. Fear of criticism is like a cat chasing its own tail. This is arrogance and bureaucratism. Criticism, however, does not mean attacking, slandering, and insulting others.
REASONS BEHIND MISTAKES AND SHORTCOMINGS
Why are there so many shortcomings, and where do they come from? We are a big party, which comprises people from all social strata. The party attracts people with remarkable abilities, including those with unswerving loyalty and steely determination. But it also is affected by bad habits, poor character, and other personal failings from the society at large. This should not alarm us. We are familiar with these faults and can find a way to correct them. Every party cadre and member should honestly examine himself as well as his comrades and sincerely try to help one another correct their mistakes. The best and most effective way is to engage in criticism and self-criticism. Treading on stones eventually wears them down. Whetting sharpens iron. Thanks to our corrective efforts, faults can be reduced and behavior will improve. As time goes by, cadres and members will become genuine revolutionaries, and the party will develop further. [I] hope all of us will effectively improve ourselves.
Our party is a very progressive organization with many glorious achievements to its credit and includes very capable and ethical people. The most enthusiastic, patriotic, intelligent, steadfast, and courageous people in society belong to our party. As a result, we will certainly achieve success and victory. But not all our members exemplify good behavior, and not all that we do is good. Our party still has a number of second-rate members and has taken actions that are less than justified. A family with a stupid son-in-law or a dull daughter-in-law cannot prevent them from having contact with all the relatives. Similarly, even if our party wishes to hide its second-rate members and cover up its unjustified actions, this cannot be done. The masses are in constant contact with our party; many of them support the party’s program and work with us. Consequently, they see good party members and good actions but also bad behavior and bad actions….
While carrying out the task of national liberation, our party must educate its cadres and members and persuade bad elements to correct their bad behavior. Mistakes and failures need to be corrected in order to make the party stronger and safer….
In sum, when carrying out their work, struggle, and training activities, party cadres and members must constantly examine their behavior, review their work and that of their comrades, and always use criticism and self-criticism in a skillful manner. They should never leave things just as they are. If we work in this way, mistakes will certainly decline, behavior will improve, and our party will certainly achieve victory….
[Ho Chi Minh, Sua doi loi lam viec, 250–56, 260–63, 265; trans. Jayne Werner]