Department of History, National University of Singapore

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63

Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 34 (1), pp 63-76 February 2003. Printed ? 2003 The National University of Singapore

in the United Kingdom.

Vietnam

as a 'Domain of Manifest

Civility'

{VanHi?n chi Bang)

Liam Kelley

While

some scholarship has found the roots of the modern Vietnamese idea of 'nation in the distant past, this paper attempts to illuminate ways of thought ideas. These ways of thought had which were in conflict with Western nationalist to he transformed in the early twentieth century in order for the idea of a Vietnamese nation to take hold.

of the most profound and complex changes to take place in modern world is certainly the transformation towards nationalist history by the thought. Although nature for many people to view the world mid-twentieth century it had become second as a patchwork of separate nations, each demarcating the territory of a distinct people a common and culture, an astounding volume of scholarship from the sharing language One recent this vision of the world how comparatively past few decades has demonstrated was. In addition, we are also much better informed today of how intellectually actually to nationalist dramatic this transformation thought often was for the educated elite in many of history, the change to viewing the world as composed has not received the kind of scholarly attention that it separate but equal nations deserves.2 Indeed, so thoroughly did theWestern academy adopt the modern Vietnamese nationalist view of the past in the 1960s, 1970s and even 1980s that we have yet to fully this conceptual framework. The view of Vietnamese history which at that time played down the difficulty of the transition to modern, gained currency - or at in Vietnam nationalist for a distinct 'national' least 'proto thought by arguing in the past which nationalistic' consciousness facilitated the process of change to disengage modern modes of viewing the world.3 To be fair, the scholars who have argued for a Vietnamese national identity prior to the introduction in Asia of the Western idea of nationalism have not always entirely Alexander Woodside, for instance, has written that this equated these two worldviews.
C. Kelley is Assistant Professor at liam@hawaii.edu are numerous works on of History at the University Some of Hawai'i benchmark 1991) at Manoa. studies and The He include can be reached the following: of tradition, both of which

parts of the world.1 In the case of Vietnamese

from

Liam

by e-mail 1 There Benedict

the rise of nationalism. rev. edn

Press, 1983), (Cambridge: University Cambridge and its manifestations; Liah Greenfeld, Nationalism: thought five to modernity MA: roads Harvard for the Euro Press, 1992), which argues (Cambridge, University roots of nationalist American and Partha Chatterjee, Nationalist thought; thought and the colonial world: deal with the newness of nationalist a derivative Western discourse nationalist thought (Minneapolis: University in a non-Western of Minnesota context Press, 1986), which (i.e., South Asia). examines the adoption of

Anderson, ed. Eric Hobsbawm

communities, Imagined and Terence Ranger

(London:

Verso,

invention

64

LIAM

KELLEY

'intuition', but one which to the seemingly crustacean nonetheless 'reach[ed] through all social classes right down that there was a special Vietnamese politics of the bamboo-walled villages, [meaning] collective of some sort'.4 Meanwhile, other scholars have argued that modern identity Vietnamese nationalism enjoys amore powerful and direct 'link with the past'.5 The one on the historical that these authors all share is their emphasis of importance point consciousness may have simply constituted kind of foreign element The those of a supposedly intrusions, China, expansionist especially in the forging of this identity. As one scholar more recently put it: long-term as a major

some

nation against struggle for survival of the Vietnamese odds (including conquest by foreigners and chronic internal discord) explained by attributing to them a long entrenched proto-nationalism consciousness
and resistance.6

tremendous can best be or national

that later blossomed

in their 20th century assertion

of independence

its characteristics, is that it may have of modern, nationalist ideas in Vietnam. The late Ralph Smith the adoption for thinking in noted that at least the Vietnamese already had the necessary vocabulary of all of the problems with which such terms. Hence, they had to deal in the years identity was not spanning the turn of the twentieth century, the creation of a national facilitated the most vexing.7 necessarily If this is true, then the ease with which the Vietnamese nation stands in stark contrast to the tumultuous modern
2 This paper will use the words was 'Vietnam', coined 'Vietnamese',

Again, while the scholars who have written the exact form that this 'national consciousness' an earlier form of national identity, whatever

on this topic are not took, the implication

as to in agreement of the existence of

came

to view

their land as a that they

intellectual

journey

'China' and 'Chinese' The anachronistically. the early nineteenth and one could argue that century, are likewise to even later times. 'China' and 'Chinese' is better the term 'Vietnamese' applied historically terms are simply being used for the sake of clarity, as the article's terms. These focus is on problematic in very and 'modern, nationalist such as 'nationalism' refer here, other issues. Also, concepts thought' name 'Vietnam', for instance, not until general maintains 3 One this was centuries. Vietnam' 4 terms, of to the idea that the world and cultural scholars political the ways that Vietnamese the commemoration through For more (Ph.D. diss., on this, Cornell coterminous is rightfully boundaries. in the line of divided half among of equal nations, each of which

second

the twentieth who the new

of a long see Patricia Pelley, 1993),

'national

heroes'

demonstrated century in time for stretched back history and society in post-colonial the for struggle (New York: Asia

Alexander

B. Woodside, in David W

University, 'Vietnamese P. Elliott

pp.

revolution: 'Writing 182-217. Confucianism, essays on history,

independence', Society, 5 This 1985),

history: et al, Vietnam:

colonialism, culture and

Buu Lam's in his Patterns the title of Truong from introductory chapter of Yale to foreign 1858-1900 Southeast Asia Studies, intervention, (New Haven: response came to think terms at least a century in nationalist that the Vietnamese 1967). Lam argues University, to the introduction has idea of the nation of the Western meanwhile, 31-2). Thomas (pp. Hodgkin, prior see his Vietnam: The revolutionary for much earlier roots; Press, (New York: St. Martin's path argued 1981), p. 5. Vietnamese 6 Craig A. Lockard, 'The unexplained miracle: 29, 1-2 Reflections on Vietnamese national identity p. 57. See and also survival', 7 Ralph Alexander Company, Journal B. and African of Asian and Viet-Nam Smith, Community 28-31. 10. (1994): the West (Ithaca: Cornell University in modern Vietnam and revolution Studies,

p. 5. comes phrase

Press, (Boston:

1971),

B. Woodside, 1976), pp.

Hough

ton Mifflin

VIETNAM

AS A

'DOMAIN

OF MANIFEST

CIVILITY'

65

in thinking through virtually every other aspect of their society.8 Was this such in fact the case, though? Indeed, as Christopher Goscha has recently demonstrated, a basic concept as the geographical that a post-colonial 'Vietnam' should take shape remained rather fluid throughout much of the first half of the twentieth century.9 Such did not slide so easily suggest that perhaps this fabled national consciousness findings the Vietnamese elite's into its modern form. Is it really accurate, then, to characterise as something in the early twentieth century nationalist of modern, thought adoption Or was there perhaps more akin to the 'blossoming' of an earlier form of consciousness? of a rupture with the past that transpired during these years? elite's adoption of This article will argue that the Vietnamese a significant break with prior in the early 1900s constituted thought world. However, rather than focusing on that particular period of study will attempt to delineate one of the discernable ways in which Vietnamese the pre-twentieth-century is a worldview which was perpetuated be argued that prior to the twentieth nationalist modern, of viewing the ways the transformation, certain members of

had to traverse

interest elite used to view the world. Of particular over the centuries by Vietnamese literati.10 Itwill century these literati were the proud but nervous

of something that they called a 'van hien chi bang ( ~ScM2-? ,Ch. wenxian zhi upholders in order to fully appreciate the transformation that took place as the hang). Further, we need to first equip Vietnamese elite came to think in modern, nationalist terms, of what this pre-twentieth-century ourselves with a better understanding worldview was like. Domains of manifest civility Let us begin by looking at the term van hi?n chi hang. The last two words in this can be translated as simply 'of and 'domain' respectively. The words that are expression critical for understanding this expression are the first two 'van and 'hien, especially the first word. V?n (Ch. wen) is a word or character which is now translated as 'writing' or 'literature' but which originally meant like 'pattern[s]' or 'patterning'. This something link between 'patterns' and 'writing' comes from the ancient East Asian belief that writing was invented to give human beings ameans to communicate with the patterns that they in the heavens and in the natural world.11 discerned More specifically, various sources record that in distant antiquity, people residing
8 These issues are discussed in more detail in David on trial 1920-1945 G. Marr, Vietnamese tradition Ho Tai, Radicalism and Hue-Tarn and the origins of the in Vietnamese to earn all of the a nationalism, living a through of the civil

(Berkeley: Vietnamese 9

Press, 1992). University (Cambridge, or Indochina?: E. Goscha, Vietnam concepts of space Christopher Contesting 1887-1954 NIAS Books, 1995). (Copenhagen: 10 The term 'literati' refers to those members of the educated elite who sought in the government, regardless or ever succeeded examination of whether or not

University revolution

of California

Press, 1981) MA: Harvard

they actually stages passed an official position. in obtaining To be sure, inmany ways there was a thin line (if any at all) between the world of thought of many like a traditional literati and someone in order to avoid exaggerating the claims made in this paper, the concepts discussed However, pharmacist. to literati alone. The below will be attributed reader should be aware, that other members of though, Vietnamese the same or similar ideas. society may have harboured service 11 For more Press, 1975), but context, on this, see James J. Y. Liu, Chinese theories ch. 2. This article will use both the Chinese it should be emphasised that scholars of this term. of literature (Chicago: 'wen and Vietnamese countries shared of Chicago University to the 'van according the same conceptual

career

in both

understanding

66

LIAM

KELLEY

along what is now theWei and Yellow River valleys in northern China looked up into the skies at night and saw patterns in the ways that the stars were arrayed; they called these and at animals, they saw more patterns 'wen. Looking around at the earth, at vegetation, patterns, which they also termed 'wen. Between these celestial and terrestrial realms with to be a human all of their patterns, there appeared realm which was relatively The people in this part of the world who realised that they were the only patternless.12 that this was not a positive patternless beings in a patterned world apparently concluded so they invented a form of patterning of their own the written attribute, script, also - as a means as a universe of to communicate called 'wen with what they perceived
patterns.

for oracle may have begun with the practice of divination, in East Asia.13 Over time, though, as this the earliest evidence of writing provide written in what we now call China human beings script became more sophisticated, on their own through writing. in what they could accomplish became more confident as a means to communicate Rather than simply viewing writing with the celestial realm bones came to see it as a means ancestors certain individuals to through divination, or complete that which the celestial and natural worlds had left incomplete. perfect Foremost among these unfinished of the patterns of proper projects was the delineation human behaviour. The early educated elite in East Asia thus took it upon themselves to map all the while believing not that they were through their writings, out latent patterns that would but that they were simply mapping inventing something, in the celestial and terrestrial realms.14 blend harmoniously with those already manifest that writing recorded ideas and practices linked with the patterns of the it a key source of power and legitimacy. As such, it eventually came role in all aspects of the political, cultural, social and important as late as intellectual lives of the people who inhabited this region of the world. However, was still in many ways a fragile 551-479 the time of Confucius (ca. BCE), writing enterprise. He lived at a time when the area that we now refer to as China was divided larger universe made to play an extremely into many different kingdoms. The primary role that writing played during that period was probably to record information for the courts of these various domains, such as how to perform certain rituals. In this sense, Confucius sometimes used the term 'wen to refer to something in turn had to be maintained like 'institutional records', which who were capable of doing so. Here he used another term, 'xian (Viet, hien), by people to describe such 'wise men'. specifically time, however, had both 'institutional records' every kingdom during Confucius's the concept of a 'domain of institutional and 'wise men' (xian). Therefore records (wen) was created to identify those that did. and wise men' (wenxian zhi bang/van hi?n chi bang) in the Analects: between the two kinds of kingdoms Confucius makes such a distinction
12 The most version famous is in Richard of this progression is in the Classic of changes (Yijing, Xi xia 2). An English expression tr. Cary F. Baynes The I ching or book of changes, Princeton Wilhelm, (Princeton: 1967), pp. 328-9.

This

communication

or one's

out these patterns

This belief

Not

Press, University 13 The depiction of writing here is indicative of the way that it was perceived in of the origin presented are more East Asia. Today, however, scholars uncertain about what led to the invention premodern exactly or ceremonial?', et al, 'The evidence for early writing: Utilitarian of writing in China; Nicholas Postgate

Antiquity, 69 (1995): 459-80.

14 A much authority more detailed in early China

discussion (Albany:

of

State University

can be found this process of New York Press,

in Mark 1999).

Edward

Lewis,

Writing

and

VIETNAM

AS A

'DOMAIN

OF MANIFEST

CIVILITY'

67

The Master

said, 'As for the ceremonies of the Xia dynasty, I can discuss them. in the kingdom of] Qi are insufficient to verify [my the materials [However, As for the ceremonies of the Yin dynasty, I can discuss them. [However statements]. the materials in the kingdom of] Song are insufficient to verify [my statements]. This is because the institutional records and wise men [inQi and Song] are insufficient. If they were sufficient, then Iwould be able to verify [my statements].'15

to of the Xia dynasty Confucius's lifetime, descendants During (twenty-first of Qi and carried on some of the old Xia sixteenth centuries BCE) lived in the kingdom to rituals. The same held true for descendants of the Yin (Shang) dynasty (sixteenth of Song. In this passage, twelfth centuries BCE) in the kingdom Confucius though, lamented the fact that he could not say much about the ceremonies of the Xia and Yin as to maintain in their respective there were not enough 'wise men' the kingdoms 'institutional While records' which recorded the proper procedures for performing ceremonies dynasties. the term 'wen in this passage thus indicated writings which recorded proper over time this same term would come to include texts necessary ritual practices, for the administrative and legal structures of the realm, as well as what in the maintaining West might be referred to as belles lettres. As it did so, the educated elite in this region of the world came to view this concept of a 'domain of institutional records and wise men' in amore general sense than Confucius had. Here a secondary meaning of the character xian - 'to present' or 'to make manifest' facilitates the rendering of the particularly thus a 'domain in which wen, or patterns, were manifest'. these? They were the patterns of proper human behaviour which earlier generations in their writings. We could therefore of scholars had delineated like a 'domain of manifest humanist perhaps translate this broader concept as something now be called a for it signified a realm where there prevailed what would civility', humanist emphasis on the importance of texts, the written word and morality. However, 'manifest humanist and so for the sake of convenience it civility' is a bit of a mouthful, to amore manageable has been condensed 'domain of manifest civility'. reason for choosing a translation which Another reflects the term's more general 'patterns' were connotation institutional to its original sense as a 'domain of of 'civility', rather than keeping records and wise men', is because the root that this expression is based on a neologism later be used in created to signify a concept linguistically larger meaning A wenxian into English. zhi bang was from these two ancient

What

(wen) would related to the word concept nineteenth

of'civilisation'

neologism However, while nineteenth century, concepts traversed

'civilisation'. More the Western 'civility', namely, specifically, when first entered into an East Asian language (Japanese) in the late as 'bunmet a it was translated (Viet, van minh, Ch. wenming), century, were illuminated'.16 in which that literally signified a condition 'patterns 'civilisation' did indeed converge, as it were, in the late this does not give us the freedom to equate the journeys that these nor should we assume that the two terms prior to their meeting, 'wen and
3.9; James Legge, The Chinese to civilise: classics, Reflections vol. 1 (Hong on change', Kong: Hong Kong University History, 18,

15 Lunyu [Analects], Press, 1960), p. 154. 16 See Wang Gungwu, 1 (1984): 1-34.

'The Chinese

urge

Journal

of Asian

68

LIAM

KELLEY

similar ideas at the time of their pairing. As linguistically similar as this new was to the 'manifest patterns' of wenxian, the 'patterns' that were 'illuminated' expression and concept of 'civilisation' and more specifically by its late nineteenthby the Western signified in a pre usages were quite different from those made manifest early twentieth-century domain of manifest twentieth-century civility. To take one example, the concept which emerged in eighteenth-century Europe that there could be a plurality of civilisations, such as a German civilisation and an each of which was rightfully distinct and yet still 'civilised' - did not civilisation, English pertain to the world of domains of manifest civility. Instead, to state that a kingdom was such a domain indicated that ritual, educational, governmental, members of this same category, the proof of which could be found in the existence of a records' that recorded such practices, as well as the presence of'wise body of'institutional men' who maintained these records. Furthermore, accept distinctions kingdoms the time this category did allow for gradations of compliance, it did not on the basis of ethnicity or nationality. Hence, just as some more had maintained institutional records and wise men than others during so was there a discernible in this respect in later of Confucius, inequality was a disparity which, as and China. However, this especially between Vietnam made while to a category where it belonged it shared certain intellectual and social practices with the other literary,

centuries, we will see, Vietnamese instead

as a people but scholars did not associate with their distinctness tried to overcome, for the goal was never to develop one's own style of van hien into full accord with the ideal of chi bang, but always to attempt to bring one's domain this larger category.17 a domain of As the passage from the Analects suggests, however, simply maintaining

manifest

and this was certainly the case for enterprise, civility could be a precarious Vietnam. When this domain first gained autonomy from direct Chinese control in the tenth century, its literati worked hard to demonstrate that their realm was a van hien chi they then strove to ensure that bang. And once they had done so to their own satisfaction, itmaintained this status. Both of these tasks proved to be extremely difficult. not discuss in detail the Vietnamese of the scholars' description which their kingdom became a domain of manifest What should process through civility. at least be noted, though, is that the task of creating a history of their realm which traced to craft its development into such a domain appears to have taken a few centuries a state of fruition by the late fifteenth century when the together, but had largely reached This article will Ng? Si Lien drafted his Dai Viet su ky to?n thu [Complete book of the historical source for early records of Dai Vi?t], a work which remains to this day the authoritative Lien noted the ways in which the people residing in the area that his Vietnamese history. to domains covered had gradually learned to follow the practices common of kingdom historian
17 Domains of manifest of the Western thus existed prior to the introduction of'culture', concept civility a the root 'wen for which, the Japanese also coined (Jpn. bunka, interestingly, neologism by employing as a van hod, Ch. wenhua). and especially Viet, This Western idea of culture, its characteristic of signifier was a sharp from the traditional, difference between holistic world outlook that had peoples, departure in East Asia; Lydia Liu, Translingual literature, national culture, and translated previously prevailed practice: A. 1900-1937 Stanford Press, China, (Stanford: 1995), p. 240; and Laurence modernity University Schneider, alternatives pp. 57-8. 'National essence and the new ed. Charlotte in Republican China, in The intelligentsia', Furth (Cambridge, limits MA: of change: Essays Harvard University on conservative Press, 1977),

VIETNAM

AS A

'DOMAIN

OF MANIFEST

CIVILITY'

69

manifest

to mastering the from learning to write, everything in the classics, to discovering the geomantic recorded proper patterns of behaviour was to Lien all of this information is more, of the land. What according principles introduced to the region gradually over the centuries by various Chinese administrators civility. This included that Vietnam was part of successive Chinese empires.18 during the millennium While Ng? Si Lien linked this southward spread of ideas with the labours of specific on the whole their realm's educated Vietnamese individuals, appear to have viewed as part of some larger, natural process. In into a domain of manifest civility development the late eighteenth century, for instance, summarised this process nicely: Our kingdom establishment a scholar-official by the name of Nguyen Vinh

is old Nanjiao.19 The emergence of the great sages in the past; the the drafting of laws, of the proper robes, caps, rites and music; and rules for governing; and the recording of the classic texts, all of regulations this occurred north of Jing and Yang [i.e., what is now central China]. During the Yellow River changed its the years of the Song dynasty [960-1279], when the great talents all emerged in the south. The paramount southward, at Jianfzhou]. Ah, it was at this scholar, Master Zhu [Xi], gained prominence time that we came to be called a domain of manifest civility!20

course

We can see here that for Nguyen Vinh, the development of his kingdom into a van hien chi bang was part of a process that began in distant antiquity with the emergence of the great sages. The place where these men had flourished was far to the north of where now stood. Nonetheless, Vinh's kingdom distance had not proven to be an geographic from the proper caps and obstacle to the spread of all that the sages had established to the classics. Instead, these ideas and practices had made their way southward, robes albeit slowly, so that by the time of the Song when the great Neo-Confucian synthesiser in Zhu Xi (1130-1200) was expounding his ideas became well established they finally it into a domain of manifest old Nam Giao, transforming civility. Vinh was obviously proud of the fact that his kingdom had become such a Nguyen domain. However, throughout the period that Vietnamese literati considered their kingdom in this way there appears also to have been an omnipresent anxiety that gnawed at this sense of pride. This sense of anxiety stemmed mainly from the fact that there never seemed to be records and literary works to thoroughly justify the kingdom's claim enough institutional to van hien chi bang status. This anxiety comes through clearly, for instance, in a preface by the fifteenth-century scholar Ho?ng Duc Luong to an anthology of poetry that he compiled in 1497, during the Le dynasty. The anthology consisted of a collection of the small quantity of poetry that remained from the earlier Ly (1010-1225) and Tr?n (1225-1400) dynasties. In his preface Luong addressed the question of why so little poetry remained from those of this dearth: dynasties, and considered the possible consequences
Vietnamese on this see Liam C. 'Whither the bronze and poetry pillars? Envoy Kelley, in the 16th to 19th centuries' of Hawaii, (Ph.D. diss., University 2001), relationship 19 'Nanjiao' is an old name for the area of what is now northern Vietnam. (Viet. Nam Giao) as the Shangshu in such early Chinese works [Venerated documents]. 18 For more the efflorescent Fran?aise Sino-Vietnamese trail] (1799), A. 1361, la-2b. the Sino ch. 2. It appears

20 Nguyen Vinh's preface is inNguyen D? K?S, Hoa trinh ti?u khi?n t?pWWn^?M [Collected diversions
from these of the ?cole d'Extr?me-Orient, manuscripts.) which with A.' refer to the cataloguing system (Designations is used by libraries around collections the world with of

70

LIAM

KELLEY

Ever since the Ly and Tr?n established the kingdom, it has been called a domain of manifest civility. Poets and talents [during those two dynasties] all did their best to
make a name for themselves, did they not? However, the great scholars and senior

to take the time to compile all too busy with official matters those retired from office, lower officials and scholars Meanwhile, anthologies. studying for exams paid no heed... When I go to study poetry I only see works by Tang dynasty poets. Writings from the Ly and Tr?n cannot be verified. Sometimes when I come across half of a couplet on ministers were some crumbling wall, Iwill open a scroll [from the past to try to find the rest of the poem], but only end up sighing. The blame for this I place on the worthies from
previous generations.

a domain of manifest civility, a kingdom that has been established for thousands of years, ifwe have not a single scroll as proof, and when all go back to reciting Tang dynasty poetry? Is this not distressing?!21 Goodness! How these lines not long after the historian Ng? Si Lien had Ho?ng Duc Luong wrote as was just noted, celebrated the drafted his Dai Vi?t s? ky to?n thu, a work which, In terms of the preservation into a domain of manifest civility. kingdom's development - a was that scholars believed essential for of poetry, form of writing though saw little to applaud, and in his criticisms we Luong transforming people's behaviour see a phenomenon efforts to maintain the kingdom's that would continue to undermine status
domain.

can we call ourselves

as a van hien literati

Vietnamese With some

to come: namely, chi bang for centuries in preserving the literary and institutional

the disinterest records from

of fellow their own

regard to this passage, it should also be pointed out that a 'Vietnamese' identity in Luong's comments sort can definitely be discerned about Tang dynasty one must not go too far in stressing this sense of difference. Luong was poetry. However, not saying that his fellow scholars should not read Tang poetry because it was not a domain that as the upholders of of Vietnamese. Instead, he was simply arguing of manifest civility, the Vietnamese his view, though, scholars who to do so. should lived under likewise produce and preserve quality verse. In two dynastic houses had failed the previous

Le Quy Don in the late eighteenth (1726-84) century, the scholar-official Writing stated that each time he read Luong's preface, he found himself 'sighing repeatedly'.22 in the close to 300 little had changed Indeed, if we are to believe Don's own writings, years that had passed since Luong wrote the above lines. In a preface to one of his works, Le Quy Don stated that:

Our Kingdom calls itself [a domain of] manifest civility. Above is the Emperor, and below, his officials. All have engaged in writing. However, when we compile their works together, they only number just over 100 volumes. Compared to writers in the Central Efflorescence of what [Trung Hoa, i.e., China], we have not produced even one-tenth they have. Not only has the volume of works that we have produced been
van seen and heard]

21 Ho?ng Duc Luong, Trich di?m thi t?p l^f?stA [Apoetry collection of selected beauty], quoted in Le
Quy 22 Don Ibid., ^M'W-, Kien 4:15a. ti?u lue %M'h%k [Jottings about things (1777), A.32,4:15a-16b.

VIETNAM

AS A

'DOMAIN

OF MANIFEST

CIVILITY'

71

small, have success. to their

our just

preservation been concerned they for

efforts with

have

also

been set from

haphazard.... standards an earlier they put

The

scholars to which

of

each

age

practicing a work

as a means dynasty it aside

examination is unrelated no note

Should studies

come the civil

across service

examination,

and make

of it. Or profoundly

if they do copy regrettable!23

it down,

they neglect

to collate

it carefully.... This

is

In the portion this passage, Don of the preface that preceded discussed the to level. He noted that writing was ameans importance of writing on amore theoretical in harmony with the patterns manifest transform the world by working in the celestial and terrestrial realms. To have one's writing work in harmony with the patterns of these other two realms, he argued, one had to first cultivate one's moral being, for only morally in the heavens upright individuals could actually perceive the natural patterns manifest to him, one did and on earth. And how did one cultivate one's moral being? According so by reading the writings of morally upright individuals from the past.24 to preserve Hence, for a scholar like Le Quy Don the failure of literati in his kingdom on which to destroy the moral written records threatened foundation the domain was to cultivate young minds, based. If there were not enough works then no-one would reach the stage of moral cultivation where they would be able to perceive the patterns in the celestial and terrestrial realms. And if no-one could perceive these patterns, then no one would be able to create writings that could help transform the domain for the better. Thus, as he saw it, his kingdom was caught in a downward spiral of self-destruction. seems to have bothered Le Quy Don, though, was the fact that there was What really no logical reason for this to be so. As he explained in his conclusion to the preface: Oh, my goodness! When Our Sage [i.e., Confucius] wanted to view the teachings of the Xia and Yin dynasties, he lamented that what remained in the kingdoms of Qi and Song was insufficient to verify [his statements]. This is only what happened to very ancient institutional records. As for the abundant and flourishing records of the Western Zhou [12th cent.-771 BCE], they remained brilliant and verifiable. How is it then that the works from before the time of Our Dynasty's restoration [1592] and those of the Ly and Tr?n have all come to naught?25 It is indeed

from the Analects, that the true, as we saw earlier in the passage institutional records of the ancient Xia and Yin had largely been lost by the time of Confucius. However, during his lifetime the records of theWestern Zhou - which came - were after the Xia and Yin but before the Eastern Zhou dynasty of his day still abundant and verifiable. How, then, could Vietnam, which began to flourish close to 2,000 years to show for itself? For Le Quy Don, after theWestern Zhou, have only 100 or so volumes this was an unmitigated tragedy. His kingdom had reached a point where it could hardly claim for itself the title of a 'domain of manifest civility'. one can see that Le Quy Don's worries proved to be unfounded. With hindsight For as a van hien to refer to their kingdom the next century Vietnamese scholars continued chi bang, and in fact one can argue that by the 1800s some of the more serious anxieties 23 Le Quy Don?($,
24 25 Ibid., Ibid., 63a. 64b-65a.

Dai Vi?t th?ng su ?Mm$.

[General history of Dai Vi?t] (1749), A. 1389, 63b-64a.

72

LIAM

KELLEY

about Don

this title appear to have calmed. Nineteenth-century literati, instead of following in bemoaning the dire straits into which that kingdom had fallen, made much more about the absence of certain kinds of documents. In specific and limited complaints Van Ly (1795-1869) for instance, the scholar-official noted in a preface to 1845, Nguyen had long been considered a domain of

a gazetteer of Hanoi that although their kingdom manifest civility, it still lacked local gazetteers.26 echoed a complaint which Ly's observation 'Rustic Scholar B?i' (B?i Da Si) had made for focusing too narrowly

an individual

in 1811. Whereas

on studying his predecessors the greatest written works, Rustic Scholar B?i took them to task for 'always accord[ing] to amusing themselves with Northern histories'. By spending all of their time on prestige to write of scholars had neglected Chinese history, he argued, these earlier generations unofficial histories and biographies, works which would have helped people in his own - a scholars, in the nineteenth type of text that Vietnamese generation compile gazetteers at least, felt a domain of manifest should possess.27 That Rustic Scholar century civility on a specific type of B?i and later Nguyen Van Ly could now focus their criticisms writing, lament that so little writing had been rather than simply echoing Don's were improving. was perhaps a sign that conditions in the nineteenth century preserved, there were still gaps that needed to be filled, perhaps enough literary bulk had Although severe anxieties about the kingdom's status finally been amassed to lay to rest the more as a van hien chi bang.

whom we know only as Le Quy Don had criticised for exams and failing to preserve

From domain to nation records were possibly starting to Just as the anxieties stirred by the dearth of written or late 1800s, new ideas appeared on the scene which injected an intense abate in the mid the energy back into this dilemma. These ideas were none other than those surrounding Western nineteenth often with to Vietnamese scholars Introduced of nationalism. concept and early twentieth centuries through Chinese writings, which in the late in turn were

of Japanese translations ofWestern works, these ideas dovetailed nicely literati had long felt regarding their status as a domain that Vietnamese We can see this clearly in the following lines from a preface to a of manifest civility.28 text that a certain Ho?ng Dao Thanh compiled in 1906: history translations the doubts There is nothing great or minor with regard to nations. If there is a nation, then itmust have a history. History is amoving picture of the people from all of the nation's land, its dynasties, governance and education. All of the civilised [van mink] nations in Europe, America and Japan revere the study of history. Among the myriad nations, history is a
professional science. However, in our country, history is just an average topic.

26 Le Chat ?,
(1845), A. 1565,

?i?le? Bac th?nh dia du chi lue

la.

[Gazetteer of the geography of theNorthern Citadel] [Record of mores and goods inH?i Duong]

?M#J;? 27 Tr?n Huy Ph?c WMtik, H?i Duongphong voit chi

(1811), A. 88,2a. 28 See the discussion California Press, 1971) in David G. Marr, Vietnamese The into as

and William

Cornell Press, 1976). For University see Vinh 'Chinese Vietnam, Sinh, from Japan to Vietnam modernisation

J. Duiker, an insight characters

1885-1925 of anticolonialism, (Berkeley: University 1900-1941 rise of nationalism in Vietnam, (Ithaca: to in which the manner these ideas made their way the medium century', Asian for transmitting Quarterly, the 25,1 vocabulary (1993): of 1-16. Pacific

in the early 20th

VIETNAM

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'DOMAIN

OF MANIFEST

CIVILITY'

73

When people reach the age of seven and enter primary school, they should be made to learn the nation s literature and to intone the nation's history. The same should be true for women, for this is how we can get the word 'nation [qu?c gia] imprinted in
each person's brain. It must be made firm there so that it can not move, entwined so

loose. Then when people become older and complete their there will be no-one who does not understand that there is an intimate studies, between the fatherland and their own person. relationship Thereupon
their into one

that it can not come

they will view the nation's

as band. compatriots. Then together large they

territory as their own property, and will

must can seek combine common into peace one and large group, ensure

treat
unite

countrymen

Everyone

common

prosperity. Everyone must

the nation. This is not

fulfil their duty to contribute

matter!29

to the task of strengthening

a casual

It is clear from this passage that Thanh no longer saw the world as one in which there were clear hierarchical differences between domains of manifest civility. Instead, he believed that the world consisted ideally of equal, civilised (van mink) nations, each with its own distinct history. However, had lagged behind in its efforts to just as Vietnam in its efforts to become become a van hien chi bang, so was it now experiencing problems a civilised nation. National history was not taken seriously, and the people did not have a sense of a national identity; therefore, one would have to be formed. This would be with the end result hopefully being that the word in everyone's brain (including women). imprinted To instil the idea of the nation in people's minds, scholars like Ho?ng Dao Thanh looked to the past and interpreted it in new ways. Thanh, for instance, argued later in this same preface that the period when Vietnam was part of various Chinese empires was as there had not been any 'Vietnamese' nation to speak of. What ismore, unimportant he also stated that the various Chinese administrators who had served in the region accomplished 'nation' would through become education, and whom of Vietnamese scholars had previous during those centuries, generations to their kingdom's honoured for their contributions of into a domain development were now no longer worthy of note. Instead, the only people manifest civility, deserving of reverence were the 'great heroes and great worthies of freedom and independence'.30 Who these and great worthies of freedom and exactly were 'great heroes These were individuals from the past who had to be rediscovered and independence'? invested with new meaning. The process of discovering and getting fellow 'citizens' to revere them proved to be as difficult as the previous task of getting fellow scholars to ensure the kingdom's status as a domain of manifest civility. Interestingly, though, these two processes took an almost identical form as Vietnamese in the early intellectuals twentieth century employed an old style of argumentation to promote the new ideas. We written can see this in the following passage from a preface to Nam quoc giai su, a work an anonymous Vietnamese scholar who was living in exile in China in the by century:

early years of the twentieth

29 Ho?ng Dao Th?nh ?il$c,

summary 30 Ibid., of Viet lb-2a. history] (1906),

Vi?t su tan u&c to?n bien %&?Mrf?^1? [Complete compilation of a new

A. 1507, la-b.

74

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We

[i.e., Vietnam] established our nation very long ago. The time from kings to the present easily encompasses 4,000 years. During those years, enlightened rulers, virtuous officials, great people and loyal martyrs all took self as their creed, and patriotism as their guiding force. The number of determination who have been like this is incalculable. Although the records are sparse and people in the South the H?ng scattered, having been destroyed by the elements, this proud and majestic spirit still inspires awe through the bits that remain, and instils endless respect in those who

view

it....

What

is regrettable, though, is that in the past people in our country expended all of their efforts on studying for the civil service examination. Scholars buried their heads inNorthern histories, and paid no attention to the famous people and great events of our fatherland. If you were to ask someone about [Chinese Emperor] Han Gao [zu]
or Zhuge [Liang], even a youngster could respond with ease.31 However, were you to

ask about

[the fifteenth-century [Thai] To or the Tr?n King [the Emperor] Prince Tr?n Hung Dao, then even teachers and great [Confucian] thirteenth-century Le

not be able to find enough information. Great figures have therefore disappeared. Not a single one of them is known to the world. It is no wonder, then, for them has dwindled, that as the appreciation has weakened patriotism scholars would
accordingly.32

in this As the reader can undoubtedly recognise, the tone and style of argumentation are largely the same as in the earlier pieces quoted. Like Ho?ng Duc Luong, Le passage And Quy Don, and Rustic Scholar B?i, this author was frustrated with his predecessors. as these earlier writers had done, he criticised previous generations of scholars for just on examination in concentration studies and for burying their myopic their heads his ideas diverged from those of earlier critics, though, was in on examination studies and interest in his understanding of just what this concentration Northern histories detracted from. The issue was not its effect on efforts to produce and preserve literary records befitting a domain of manifest civility, but rather the fact that it Chinese histories. Where of information about great figures who 'took the recording and preserving discouraged as their guiding force'.33 as their creed, and patriotism self-determination to note that the author cites as examples It is interesting the founder of the Le Le Loi (Le Thai T?), and a general who led Vietnamese armies successfully dynasty, was posthumously honoured with the title Tr?n Hung Dao (who against the Mongols, scholars did not know much about these individuals 'Tr?n King'). To say that Vietnamese was an exaggeration. Tr?n Hung Dao was of course very famous, but just not necessarily In 1855, roughly half a century before Nam in the sense that this author was emphasising. su was written, for instance, aVietnamese scholar by the name of Ly Thanh Lien qu?cgiai a work on Tr?n Hung Dao entitled the Tr?n Dai Vuong btnh Nguyen thuc had compiled
were Chinese. was Liu Han Gaozu 31 Both of these individuals the man who the Han founded Bang, was a in the third century in the early third century CE. BCE, while Zhuge Liang strategist dynasty su f?uf?^ 32 Anonymous, Nam from the Southern [Great matters (20th qu?c giai Kingdom/Country] romans & contes du Viet Nam in Yuenan Hanwen xiaoshuo ?crits en Han (sic), congkan/Collection century), d'Extr?me-Orient and vol. 7 (Paris and Taipei: ?cole ed. Chan Hing-ho and Wang San-ching, Fran?aise Student 33 Ibid., Book p. Company, 131. 1986), p. 135.

VIETNAM

AS A

'DOMAIN

OF MANIFEST

CIVILITY*

75

lue [Veritable records of the Great King Trans pacification of the Yuan]. The reason Lien this work was because Tr?n Hung Dao had recently started to function as a compiled (k? but), a form of revealing deity to amedium engaging in the practice of'spirit writing' amedium who would then use in which a spirit would communicate divination through on a table or the end of a special two-pronged stick to write out the spirit's comments covered with sand or incense ashes. This was a practice which the Vietnamese planchette (1732-98) had studied during the course of an embassy to envoy Nguyen Huy O?nh China in the eighteenth century and then brought back to Vietnam.34 was evidence That Tr?n Hung Dao was speaking through a spirit-writing medium to Ly Thanh Lien of two things. First, it demonstrated the supernatural power of this to Lien, it was well known that Tr?n Hung Dao had spirit. According now the fact that he was conversing communicated previously through people's speech; the brush - that is, through van - apparently increased the status of his through a spirit-writing In addition, these revelations medium potency. supernatural through were also proof to him that Vietnam was sufficient to engage in this practice. morally particular in China as the Scholars this form of divination for its moral respected emphasis, answers that spirits provided often contained comments of a clearly ethical nature.35 Not on Tr?n Hung Dao, Lien likewise to this work then, in his preface surprisingly the moral accomplishments in his kingdom and then asked, 'So how can the emphasised [i.e., China], and not prevail in the South [i.e., Vietnam]? Way only prevail in the North There is absolutely no such principle.'36 Indeed, Tr?n Hung Dao's revelations proved that there was no such principle. Rather, they demonstrated that what Lien referred to as 'our - that that Vietnamese scholars shared with their is, everything way' (ng? dao) in China, from Neo-Confucian to Daoist had counterparts philosophy spirit writing in a general direction moved from north to south, spreading moral virtue in its wake.37 Such connections, the anonymous however, were clearly not what twentieth-century author who composed the above piece had inmind when he mentioned Tr?n Hung Dao.

Conclusion better information for a important background transitions that took place in Vietnam in the early years of the twentieth century. It has argued that an idea which certain Vietnamese literati fretted about over the course of several centuries found an echo in new fears in 34 Ly Thanh Lien &WM, Tr?n Dai Vuong b?nh Nguy?n thuc lue W.J??.sF7t9$k [Veritable records of the
Great Richard Westview 35 227. King Tr?n's J. Smith, Press, Lien, of pacification Fortune-tellers the Yuan] (1855), and philosophers: b?nh Nguy?n A. of 336, la, 3a. For a discussion in traditional Divination Chinese lue, la; Smith, Fortune-tellers see spirit writing, (Boulder: society p.

to provide This paper has attempted of the intellectual understanding

some

Ly Thanh

1991), pp. 222-33. Tr?n Dai Vuong

thuc

and philosophers,

36 Ly Thanh Lien, Tr?n Dai Vuong b?nh Nguy?n thuc lue, 3a.
37 Ibid., 3b. incalculable. similar village Hong Upon Binh This of ideas and technologies that moved was in this direction of more mundane would reveal a ideas, but an investigation practices a scholar-official the case of Pham Don Le (1455-?), from Hung Nh?n Take, for instance, Binh defense who passed command the metropolitan examination the Le dynasty's during article focuses on the course of an embassy to the North he learned period. During he taught this technique to his home villagers and was honoured A. 82, 38a-b. of a way to weave mats. after his by the villagers Indeed the total number

picture. in Thai Due

reign

death as a tutelary spirit; Pham Van Thu f?StM, Thai B?nh t?nh th?ng chi ^?^S^
province] (1900),

returning,

[Gazetteer of Thai

16

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the colonial educated

period

as Vietnam

populace, (van mink) nation. and the narrative presented here has admittedly multifaceted left out the transformation, voices of many non-literati members of the Vietnamese elite. Monks, for instance, saw the past as the history of the spread of Buddhism from India through China to Vietnam, life to be a constant effort to fully understand while divination understood the experts were originally expressed in the ancient text, the Yijing (Viet. Dich kinh). Such ideas that men would have perceived in somewhat terms than their literati the world different therefore probably have come to terms with the new world of in their own unique ways.38 century it is argued here that while such members of the Vietnamese elite Nonetheless, roles in the intellectual transitions of the early twentieth undoubtedly played important for viewing the century, none of their ideas offered the same kind of emotive model compatriots, the twentieth and would literati fears about Vietnam's failings as a domain of manifest civility did. the well-documented What is more, when one considers with which certain intensity of the Vietnamese elite in the early 1900s embraced members the ideas of Social world which threat of'loss of country' (m?t nu&c), the importance with its accompanying Darwinism, all too apparent. of this earlier model of fear becomes the larger the importance of this earlier outlook for understanding However, despite in the early years of the twentieth century, it has intellectual transpired changes which not received serious scholarly attention. Instead, what has previously been implied in the of this issue is that the Vietnamese made the scholarly examination to viewing nation with the world from the perspective of a modern consciousness. The sources examined relative ease, thanks to a deeply felt, proto-national for this study suggest that this was hardly the case. Instead, like perhaps every other also had to imagine their nation into existence, a process people on earth, the Vietnamese absence of direct transformation which

transformed of its itself, in the minds of certain members a domain of manifest from civility (van hien chi bang) to a civilised To be sure, this was only one aspect of an extremely and complex

there were 'links to the difficulty. Nonetheless, a nagging sense of inferiority to the fore at this time, among them past' which at not living up to set standards and a dismissal of the activities of previous generations in the early years of the twentieth in of scholars. Perhaps what 'blossomed' century as a festering fear of a proto-national consciousness Vietnam, then, was not so much inadequacy. And while such an attribute may not fit easily into heroic narratives of the was completed did come with considerable if itmay not have served to motivate individuals past, one wonders than any idea of an imagined unity ever did. powerfully to seek change more

38

For

texts which

HiE?? [Theveritable records of the three patriarchs (of the Truc L?m sect)] (1903; orig. text dated 1765), A. 2048, especially 5b-6a; and the preface toNg? Th? Vinh ?M&, TrueDuong Chu dich t?y but t^lH^?
[Truc Duong's random writings on the Zhouyi] (19th cent.), A. 1153.

present

examples

of

these

other

worldviews,

see Lan D?mg

Temple,

Tarn

t? thuc

lue