With considerable trepidation we have undertaken a project that presumes to give substance to the conceptual sources of “Vietnamese tradition.” We are acutely aware that in these postmodern (or perhaps post-postmodern) times, to speak of “tradition” is to embark on a discussion sure to provoke criticism from all sides. We are equally aware that what a previous generation largely accepted as “tradition” can no longer be taken up without intense examination. “Tradition,” we acknowledge, is a concept invented, sometimes out of whole cloth, by scholars, politicians, religious leaders, and others to serve a wide range of agendas. Tradition is not “the way things have always been,” for there is nothing so constant as change, and it is ahistorical in the extreme to suggest otherwise. Under these circumstances, it is perhaps better not to speak of a single, much less fixed, “tradition” but to think of multiple ideational threads, sometimes marked by continuity and sometimes by rupture.
The works that we classify as part of the Vietnamese “tradition” are not meant to be exhaustive, nor are they intended to be canonical (though, of course, we recognize that their inclusion in this volume runs the risk of their becoming so). Rather, and much more modestly, the excerpts in this anthology reveal some of the ways in which peoples living in the Vietnamese lands thought and wrote about their society over nearly two millennia. Any effort to understand the Vietnamese people must begin by thinking in a series of sometimes imperfect dichotomies that define elements of their cultural heritage. These binaries include mountains and seas, China and Southeast Asia, war and peace, rice farming and trade, Buddhism and Confucianism, lowlands and uplands, men and women, scholars and soldiers. Among and between these dichotomous pairs, some geographical and others conceptual and even spiritual, we find the Vietnamese people. Although their heritage is confusing, it also is rewardingly heterogeneous, one whose essence cannot be distilled into a single volume or two. Because the “sources” of their “tradition” are many, they do not flow in a single stream but combine multiple streams to create admixtures viewed as “authentic” or “traditional.” Both Vietnamese and non-Vietnamese scholars have long sought to reconcile these many sources, complex and sometimes antagonistic histories, into coherent narratives. Such efforts have sometimes served the purposes of the state, justifying their political actions, and sometimes they have enabled rulers to sway popular sentiment. These efforts themselves have shaped the understandings and meanings of the past, as court histories have been borrowed piecemeal by local historians and literati to produce particularistic visions of the past and its heritage. As one scholar noted, it is perhaps better to “make the past strange” so as to prevent its being used as a weapon by one side or another. Our sincere hope is that this volume will not be seen as a weapon or justification for exclusive interpretations of the origins of the Vietnamese people. Rather, our intent is to contribute to a better understanding of a cultural heritage that is still appreciated only dimly by most outside that country.
This is why, despite the numerous challenges, this book seems all the more necessary and, indeed, long overdue. The lack of such a volume was particularly glaring given the rapid development of the field of Vietnamese studies over the past decade in both Vietnam and the West. In addition, despite a decade-long lull following the end of the Vietnam War, Vietnamese studies has recently enjoyed a resurgence in the United States, with scholarly exchanges and research between the United States and Vietnam similarly expanding and flourishing. New research has generated new understandings of crucial periods, turning points, and conceptual frameworks in Vietnamese history. In the course of this rapidly evolving scholarship, new texts have emerged to enrich or revise our insights into, and understanding of, the Vietnamese past. In addition to the many known historical texts, new texts are being added to the canon. This book reflects these advances.
Many people contributed to the gestation, support, and preparation of this book. Wendy Lochner, senior executive editor at Columbia University Press, first proposed to Jayne Werner the idea of including Vietnam in the Introduction to Asian Civilizations series. Jayne Werner then asked John Whitmore and George Dutton to join her as coeditors. All three of us have been hampered by the lack of teaching materials in the form of readily accessible translations and textbooks for classroom use, and when we launched the project, we realized we faced a time-consuming task. We asked the Henry Luce Foundation for support for the project, having been encouraged to do so by officers of the foundation and also by David J. Steinberg, president of Long Island University and a noted scholar of Southeast Asia. We are very grateful to Dr. Terrill E. Lautz, vice president and secretary of the Henry Luce Foundation, for his intervention and personal interest in this project. Because he had served in Vietnam in the U.S. Army’s Medical Service Corps from 1969 to 1970, he consequently had more than a passing interest in and appreciation for our project.
In assembling these texts, we relied on the talents and insights of many scholars in Vietnamese studies who generously contributed to shaping its final form. We are especially grateful to those who suggested texts and helped us narrow the list of readings, including Nguyen Ngoc, Alexander Woodside, Nguyen-vo Thu-huong, and Liam Kelley. In addition, we received commentary from members of the Vietnam Studies Group and two anonymous readers for Columbia University Press.
The organization of this book departs somewhat from that of the other Sources volumes. We divided Vietnamese history into three parts—“Premodern Vietnam,” “Early Modern Vietnam,” and “Modern Vietnam”—and we identified common themes for each period, around which the texts in each section are grouped. Although these themes vary somewhat from section to section, they generally follow the same pattern for each one. As a whole, the themes demonstrate the continuities in the texts from century to century and from section to section. Besides the more obvious categories of politics, economics, culture, and society, we added the category “The Land” at the beginning of each major section, as we believe it is a particularly strong historic theme in Vietnamese texts.
This book reflects the skills of numerous scholars in Vietnamese studies. We or other specialists translated many of the texts appearing in this volume for the first time. Other translations are from previously published sources, which we usually edited or updated. Several people helped us with the translations of texts from the seventeenth through nineteen centuries, most notably Liam Kelley, who also generously provided extensive, detailed feedback on a number of texts. Others who offered their expertise in reading classical Chinese include Joshua Herr, Hangmo Zhang, Yingzi Xu, Nathaniel Isaacson, and, especially, Matthew Cochran, who helped clarify a number of obscure passages. If an official translation by a governmental body, such as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam or the Republic of Vietnam, was available, we relied on that, checking it against the original Vietnamese if necessary. In some cases, several people worked on the texts, particularly those from the twentieth century. Both Pascal Bourdeaux and Jeremy Jammes helped with the modern texts in their areas of expertise. For twentieth-century poetry, Ton That Quynh Du and Kim N. B. Ninh offered exceptionally helpful advice regarding the final selections, which they translated. We also thank Nha Ca, who currently lives in California, for permission to include the translation of her poem.
In addition, we thank the South Asia and Weatherhead East Asian Institutes at Columbia University, which provided facilities for preparation of the manuscript, as well as Cindy Middleton and the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Michigan for help with facilities for our editorial meetings in the middle of the country. Graduate students Lauren Meeker and Mai Lan Ha provided research assistance, and Joshua Herr created the chronology. C. Jon Delogu and Christoph Robert provided additional editorial help with a number of French and Vietnamese texts. Anandaroop Roy gave us excellent maps.