The lê trịnh government’s documentary practices and relationship with the qing during the eighteenth century

In Lạng Sơn Province, the intermediarypoint for official documents traveling from the Lê-Trịnh government to theQing court, the Lê-Trịnh state constructed a system to create and transmit

K A Z U K I Y O S H I K A W A

The Lê-Trịnh Government’s Documentary

Practices and Relationship with the Qing

during the Eighteenth Century: The Roles

of Local Chieftains in Lạng Sơn Province

During the eighteenth century, the Vietnamese government still reliedlargely on local chieftains to govern the northern uplands, includingthe Sino-Vietnamese border region In Lạng Sơn Province, the intermediarypoint for official documents traveling from the Lê-Trịnh government to theQing court, the Lê-Trịnh state constructed a system to create and transmitofficial documents that relied heavily on local chieftains, who were grantedthe titles of frontier subject [phiên thần] or assistant leader [phụ đạo] Thissystem gave local chieftains an important but understudied role ineighteenth-century Sino-Vietnamese relations: the local chieftains re-searched the titles and positions of Qing officials to know to whom admin-istrative and diplomatic documents should be addressed, they purchasedQing calendars to know which date should be written on official docu-ments, and they forwarded official documents to Qing officials This articleanalyzes the Lê-Trịnh government’s documentary practices in Lạng SơnProvince, the intermediary point for diplomatic documents traveling toQing China Based on a close analysis of communications between theLê-Trịnh government and the Qing before the former dispatched envoys,this article argues that local chieftains in Lạng Sơn Province were crucial to

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Journal of Vietnamese Studies, Vol , Issue , pps – ISSN -X, electronic -.

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helping the Lê-Trịnh state manage its tributary relationship with the Qing.

As such, this article contributes to a growing literature that stresses thevariegated and multiethnic character of administrative practices in preco-lonial Vietnamese states.

The Lê Dynasty was established in  in northern Vietnam followingnorthern Vietnam’s independence from Chinese occupation in the earlyfifteenth century After being usurped by the Mạc Dynasty in , the Lêrecovered the throne in  and the Red River Delta in  In the earlyseventeenth century, conflicts escalated within the Lê Dynasty—particularlybetween the Trịnh and Nguyễn families In northern Vietnam, the Trịnhfamily, referred to as Trịnh lords [chúa Trịnh], usurped the authority of the

Lê emperor and established their own court In this article I refer to thiscourt as the “Lê-Trịnh government.” By the late sixteenth century, theNguyễn family had established its base in central Vietnam and established

an independent kingdom Thereafter, the Lê Dynasty separated into twodistinct territories and factions

The highest administrative units in the Lê-Trịnh government were vinces.Those in the northern plains were called the inner provinces [nộitrấn], consisting of Kinh Bắc, Sơn Nam, Hải Dương, and Sơn Tây Pro-vinces in mountainous and coastal areas were called the outer provinces[ngoại trấn], consisting of Hưng Hóa, Tuyên Quang, Thái Nguyên, YênQuảng, Cao Bằng, and Lạng Sơn In the inner provinces, the Lê courtnominally dispatched officials to the lower administrative units—prefec-tures [phủ] and districts [huyện] However, officials of the Trịnh court were

pro-in charge of tax collection, and as a result, the function of the prefectureand district officials of the Lê court became merely symbolic.Yet provin-cial officials in the outer provinces governed through local chieftains whowere granted the titles of native chief [thổ tù], frontier subject [phiên thần],

or assistant leader [phụ đạo], similar to the tusi system, which existed insouthwest China during the Ming and Qing dynasties.The local chieftainsbelonged to the ethnic groups known today as the Thái, Tày, and Mườngpeoples, who governed their lands and populations largely autonomously.Because the government relied on these local chieftains to administer theseprovinces, they granted these chieftains certain titles and positions andpermitted them a degree of political autonomy

Many of the outer provinces were mountainous and were generallylocated in either the northwestern (such as Hưng Hóa Province) or north-eastern (such as Cao Bằng and Lạng Sơn provinces) regions of the northernuplands According to scholars, northwestern chieftains maintained com-paratively high levels of political autonomy from the Vietnamese dynasties,and northeastern chieftains had comparatively lesser autonomy.Althoughrecent studies have emphasized the importance of local chieftains in pro-vincial governance, scholars have not fully considered the roles of localchieftains in Sino-Vietnamese tributary relations This article will do so

by examining their role in helping create and transmit documents sentfrom the Trịnh lords or the Lê emperor to the Qing These documentswere often classified according to their purpose For instance, khải were thetype of document generally sent to the Trịnh lord, tấu were generally sent

to the Lê emperor, lệnh chỉ and lệnh dụ were generally sent by the Trịnhlord, and sắc and sắc chỉ were generally sent by the Lê emperor.

After regaining control of the Red River Delta in , the Lê-Trịnhgovernment regularly dispatched tributary envoys to the Ming emperor, who

in turn granted the title of Annam (literally “Pacifier of the South”) visor [Annan dutongshi / An nam đô thống sứ] to the Lê emperor After theQing occupied Beijing in , the Lê-Trịnh government still dispatchedenvoys to the Southern Ming (–), and the Southern Ming grantedthe title of Annan king [annan guowang / an nam quốc vương] to the Lêemperor In the s, the Lê-Trịnh government dispatched envoys to theQing for the first time; in , the Qing granted the Lê emperor the title ofAnnan king.In the same year, the Lê-Trịnh government requested that theAnnan king send a tributary envoy every six years for two regular tributes.After this, the Lê-Trịnh government dispatched twenty-five envoys to theQing.Both the Ming and the Qing ruled that the rank of Annan king wasequal to that of governor general [zongdu] in each region, so in communi-cating with the Qing, the Lê-Trịnh government sent official documents,which were called zi in Chinese or tư in Vietnamese These documents wereused for correspondence between the governor general of Liangguang (aregion comprising Guangdong and Guangxi) and officials of equal rank.Most studies of the Lê-Trịnh government’s communication with the Qinghave not focused on the period before it dispatched these envoys, with two

super-exceptions: Wang Chengguang’s study of documents that the Lê-Trịnh ernment sent to the Zuojiang circuit [Zuojiang dao], and Liam Kelley’sexamination of interpreters, who were dispatched to deliver drafts of “officialdocument[s] requesting approval to cross the border on a given day,” or toawait the response of the Qing court. Below, this article discusses howKelley’s argument is inaccurate because these interpreters delivered drafts

gov-of tributary memorials, not gov-official documents, to Qing gov-officials This is animportant oversight to address because, as this article will show, the Lê-Trịnhgovernment requested that Qing officials revise drafts of tributary memorialsbefore it dispatched tributary envoys, a key aspect of how the Lê-Trịnhgovernment managed its tributary relationship with the Qing

This article examines the Bắc sứ thông lục (BSTL) [北使通録, A plete Record of an Envoy to the North] in order to fill the gaps left byprevious studies.The BSTL should be considered an important historicalsource for the following reasons: First, it includes over eighty official docu-ments concerning preparations to dispatch tributary envoys—including itsauthor, Lê Quý Đôn 黎貴惇 These documents enable us to analyze specificoperations within the Lê-Trịnh government’s various documentary andadministrative processes Second, these records include diplomatic docu-ments exchanged between the Lê emperor, the governor general of Liang-guang, and the Zuojiang circuit, which allow for a deeper investigation ofthe Lê-Trịnh government’s communications with the Qing before theLê-Trịnh government dispatched its envoys

Com-The Documentary System in Lạng Sơn Province in the Eighteenth Century

Lạng Sơn Province is in the eastern portion of northern Vietnam It bordersChina’s Guangxi Province Non-Việt ethnic groups, known today as theTày and Nùng peoples, constituted most of the region’s population in theeighteenth century The Lê Dynasty relied on the hereditary chieftains ofthese peoples to administer this province.The mountainous border withGuangxi witnessed continual private traffic.The Kỳ Cùng River in LạngSơn Province connects to the Zuo Jiang (or Zuo River) in Guangxi and hashistorically played a key role in regional river traffic and trade.In addi-tion, Lạng Sơn Province was on the tributary route to China during the

Ming-Qing period Tributary envoys to China passed through this regionand entered Guangxi via Trấn Nam Pass (present-day Hữu Nghị Pass) In

, a postal road from the Lê-Trịnh capital Thăng Long (modern-day HàNội) to Trấn Nam Pass was built along this route.This made the central area

of the present-day city of Lạng Sơn, where river traffic and the postal roadintersect, an important economic and diplomatic hub The first market town

in the Lạng Sơn region was established in this area in the latter half of theseventeenth century, and Chinese merchants from Guangdong and Guangxiconducted commercial activities there This promoted an influx of Chineseminers into northeast Vietnam during the eighteenth century.

The influence of the Vietnamese court at Thăng Long in the northern lands declined during the early sixteenth century, when political disorder began

up-in the Lê court, and contup-inued to do so as the Mạc Dynasty faced contup-inuousconflict with the restored Lê throne Even after , when the restored LêDynasty regained Thăng Long from the Mạc, the Lê did not immediatelygain control of the entire northern Vietnamese region In fact, a stronghold

of Mạc clan members in Cao Bằng Province, adjacent to the northern

Thái

Nguyên

F I G U R E 1 : Map of the Sino-Vietnamese border area in the eighteenth century

region of Lạng Sơn and supported by the Ming court, continued to resistthe Lê Dynasty.The Lê-Trịnh government could not immediately subju-gate the Mạc because of the conflict with the Nguyễn family in the south.

In , the Lê-Trịnh government finally expelled the remaining Mạcfrom Cao Bằng.After this, the government took no major military action

in the Sino-Vietnamese borderlands In , the government orderedprovincial officials (frequently identified as trấn quan in documentarysources) to occupy their respective upland provinces and govern directly.

In , the government dispatched Đinh Phụ Ích 丁輔益, an official withthe title of dispatched grand governor [đốc trấn], to Lạng Sơn.In ,the government imposed taxation and military service upon the inhabitants

of the outer provinces.These early eighteenth-century policies were thefirst phase of more far-reaching reforms that would appear during theMinh Mạng period (–), when the ruling Nguyễn Dynasty abol-ished the hereditary status of local chieftains.

The Documentary System in Lạng Sơn Province

As previous studies have not adequately touched upon local governance,this section will examine the roles of chieftains in local governance in LạngSơn by examining official documents sent between local chieftains and theLê-Trịnh government

Lạng Sơn tỉnh Văn Uyên châu Cao Trĩ nha Cao Lâu tổng các xã cổ chỉ(CLTCXCC) [諒山省文淵州高峙衙高樓總各社古紙, Old Papers of EachCommune in Cao Lâu Canton, Văn Uyên District, Lạng Sơn Province]contains twenty-three official documents exchanged between the Lê-Trịnhgovernment and the Vi family—local chieftains at the Suất Lễ Commune,Lộc Bình District.The structure of the documents is as follows:

– Thị 示: Top-ranking officials sent this type of document to low-rankingofficials These documents begin, “Sender + thị + receiver.” In Lạng Sơn,the dispatched grand governor sent these documents to local chieftainswhen he needed to forward an order or permit regarding certain affairs.There are seven thị in the CLTCXCC

– Phó 付: Top-ranking officials sent this kind of document to low-rankingofficials This type of document begins, “Sender + kê: nhất, phụng phó +

receiver.” In Lạng Sơn, the dispatched grand governor sent these ments to local chieftains when he needed to send an order or permitregarding certain affairs There are three phó in the CLTCXCC.– Phụng truyền 奉傳: Court officials called the “five commissions” [Ngũphủ, 五府] and “court officials” [Phủ liêu, 府僚], who were officialsserving the Trịnh lord, sent this type of document to low-ranking offi-cials to announce the Trịnh lord’s orders.This type of documentbegins, “Sender + phụng truyền + receiver.” This article uses the termphụng truyền because each textual source employs this one-nounterminology.

docu-– Lệnh chỉ 令旨: The orders of the Trịnh lord

– Thân 申: Low-ranking officials sent this type of document to top-rankingofficials This type of document begins, “Sender + thân.” Although this type

of document did not contain the name or title of the receivers, the BSTLincludes a khải, which is a memorial generally sent to the Trịnh lord by theprovincial official of Lạng Sơn, quoting a thân from local chieftains.Thisindicates that this is the type of document that local chieftains in Lạng Sơnsent to provincial officials There are three thân in the CLTCXCC.Notably, because the documentary system in Lạng Sơn included local chief-tains during this period, we can infer that these chieftains must have beenable to read and write classical Chinese A diagram of the functioning of theeighteenth-century documentary system of Lạng Sơn Province can befound in Figure 

Provincial officials [đốc

trấn ] in Lạng Sơn Province

Trịnh lord [chúa Trịnh ] Five commissions [ngũ phủ]

Court officials [phủ liêu ]

Local chieftains

Lệnh chỉ 令旨

F I G U R E 2 : The documentary system in Lạng Sơn Province in the eighteenthcentury

Politics and Society in Eighteenth-Century Lạng Sơn

At the end of the s, uprisings broke out throughout northern Vietnam,including in Lạng Sơn Ngô Thì Sĩ 呉時仕 was appointed as dispatchedgrand governor of Lạng Sơn in  According to a khải of his titled “Khải

to Request Leaving Kinh [ethnically Vietnamese] Soldiers in the Province”[Thỉnh lưu Kinh binh phụ Trấn Khải], recorded in Ngô gia văn phái [呉家

文派, Literati Group of the Ngô Family],the provincial castle was tured three times: by a frontier subject named Toàn Cơ 鑽基, by a group ofbandits named Đoan 端, and by another group of bandits named Hoàng Sĩ

cap-黄歯. In addition, another khải of his, titled “Khải to Again RequestRemoving Provincial Castle” [Tái thính di Trấn Khải], describes how nativeinhabitants and sojourners (the Nùng people [Nùng nhân]) also partici-pated in uprisings.

In Chinese sources, Toàn Cơ was recorded as Weifuguan / Vi PhúcQuan 韋福琯, who began to disturb the Sino-Vietnamese border regionaround ,occupied the provincial castle of Lạng Sơn in , and wascaptured in . According to Chinese sources, Yezhen 葉蓁, fromChongshan District, Guangdong Province, and Zhoulaoliu 周老六 be-longed to Toàn Cơ’s group (the latter as instructor of arms), which indi-cates that his group absorbed sojourners from China.

Vietnamese sources record that the Hoàng Sĩ bandits proclaimed selves as the Mạc remnants. According to Niu Junkai, though the Mạcremnants fled to Guangxi Province in China during this period, they re-turned to Bảo Lạc District in Cao Bằng as uprisings broke out throughoutnorthern Vietnam The Hoàng Sĩ exploited this situation, recruiting Chi-nese mine laborers in the northern uplands to participate in their groups.

them-Lê Quý Đôn’s Kiến văn tiểu lục [見聞小録, Small Chronicle of Things Seenand Heard] records that in Tuyên Quang Province, the Hoàng Sĩ peoplewere constituted by people from Xiangwu Subprefecture in Guangxi Prov-ince. This indicates that either remnants of the Mạc Dynasty led theXiangwu people or the Xiangwu people speciously proclaimed themselves

to be the descendants of the Mạc Either way, there is no doubt that theHoàng Sĩ came to the northern uplands of Vietnam from Guangxi.Thus, from the late s through the s, Lạng Sơn experiencedfrequent uprisings As Sakurai Yumio points out, large numbers of people

wandered throughout northern Vietnam during the eighteenth century as

a result of frequent natural disasters, which caused uprisings and the placement of large numbers of villagers in Lạng Sơn in particular.Thus,frequent natural disasters, uprisings, and inland traffic between southernChina and northern Vietnam in Lạng Sơn created a great deal of socialfluidity

dis-The Role of Local Chieftains in the Governance of

Lạng Sơn

As mentioned above, Lạng Sơn was a site of considerable social and nomic unrest when the Lê-Trịnh government began dispatching provincialofficials there in the early eighteenth century This was the principal reasonfor the government’s reliance on local chieftains in day-to-day governance,

eco-a key checo-areco-acteristic of the dyneco-asty’s presence in Lạng Sơn eco-at theco-at time

In some documents—such as the thị, phó, and lệnh chỉ recorded in theCLTCXCC—provincial officials or the Trịnh lord requested that local chief-tains administer tax collection and military service in each commune Forexample, lệnh chỉ addressed to members of the Vi family, Vi Trọng Dung

韋仲容 and Vi Đình Trinh 韋廷偵, in the eleventh year of Cảnh Hưng() enumerated the level of taxation and the number of soldiers at eachcommune [xã]:

Because Vi Trọng Dung and Vi Đình Trinh led familial soldiers in frequentendeavors to suppress bandits when the uprisings happened, the governmentrewarded them with positions and titles, and provincial officials grantedthem control of soldiers [quân] and inhabitants [dân] at each commune.Now, provincial officials, sending a khải to the Trịnh lord, wish you toreceive hereditary control of these soldiers and inhabitants Provincialofficials have already determined that such facts are true and agreed to yourinheritance of the titles of assistant leader [phụ đạo] and frontier subject[phiên thần] According to provincial officials, you must control five

communes and forty-three soldiers and obey the dispatched grand governor’sand the assistant grand governor’s orders to subjugate bandits and make theregion tranquil Every year, during the summer and winter seasons, you mustcollect the land tax [tô] and head tax [dung] at these communes, equaling quan  bác  văn  phân If you fulfill this quota, you can gain  quan persoldier as salary [ngẫu lộc], equaling a total of  quan, and you must deliver

the remaining  quan  văn  phân to the official storehouse You cangain tree tiles [mộc bài], rewards [thị phái],brushes, ink [bút mặc], pigs[trư], betel [lang], coins [tiền], and rice [phạn], conforming to establishedprecedents and not collected illegally .

You can lead soldiers from five communes, totaling forty-three people, asdictated below:

Five communes in Lộc Bình District

Cao Lâu Commune:  soldiers, yearly land tax and head tax,  quan  bác

a salary of  quan per soldier,” which indicates that local chieftains gained

a percentage of tax income as salary Furthermore, they were permitted tocollect “tree tiles, rewards, brushes, ink, pigs, betel, coins, and rice.” Theyprobably collected these items as fees at each commune, because in thenorthern plains villagers often used items such as brushes, ink, coins, andrice to pay officials who administered tax collection.It is also clear thatthe Lê-Trịnh government required the cooperation of local chieftains tosuppress the uprisings that frequently broke out in the region The Lê-Trịnh government sometimes awarded titles and positions to local chief-tains who made military contributions Thus, these documents indicate thatthe Lê-Trịnh government depended on local chieftains to administer taxcollection and military service at each commune and that it arranged forthe chieftains to benefit from fulfilling these duties Local chieftains, in turn,

utilized the policies of the Lê-Trịnh government to maintain their rights toadminister tax collection and military service at each commune.For both

of these reasons, they became important intermediaries in the Lê-Trịnhgovernment’s relations with the Qing

Local Chieftains and Diplomacy: Thủ ải in Lạng Sơn

Province

There is no doubt that documentary exchanges were necessary for the Trịnh government to maintain a tributary relationship with the Qing.Documents in the BSTL reveal the role of local chieftains in this process.Below, we see that a phụng truyền was sent to provincial officials in LạngSơn Province on the fifth day of the third month of the twentieth year ofCảnh Hưng ():

Lê-The five commissions and court officials send phụng truyền to the dispatchedgrand governor of the Lạng Sơn Province, Hương Lĩnh Marquis [Hương Lĩnhhầu], Mai Thế Chuẩn 枚世準 In this season, we have one official document:[zi/tư] to announce tribute for Zuojiang Circuit officials If the document isreceived, you immediately must forward it to the thủ ải 守隘, and make thethủ ải forward the board-fastened official document to the thủ ải of

Longping to complete official affairs Here, the five commissions and courtofficials send phụng truyền

Fifth day of the third month of the twentieth year of Cảnh Hưng.

According to this phụng truyền, court officials ordered provincial officials

in Lạng Sơn Province to forward zi/tư to the thủ ải there and order this thủ

ải to forward it to the thủ ải of Longping Here, thủ ải means “defendingfrontier,” and therefore, the thủ ải of Longping were probably defenders ofthe Longping brigade, who defended Vietnam’s borders at Pingxiang andLongzhou prefectures in Guangxi.Who then was this first thủ ải to whomprovincial officials in Lạng Sơn forwarded this zi/tư?

On this matter, the following nineteenth-century description in Đại Namthực lục (ĐNTL) [大南寔録, Veritable Records of Đại Nam] is instructive:

The Nguyễn court organized the frontier chieftains [ải mục] of Lạng Sơn.The former Lê Dynasty set up Left and Right units [hiệu] of thủ ải (Each unithad one seal, “Seal of the Commandant in Văn Uyên Prefecture” [Văn Uyênchâu quảng úy sứ ty chi ấn] They used these seals as evidence when

receiving documents of the Qing people) at Nam Quan Pass and Du ThônPass in Lạng Sơn (Official envoys pass through Nam Quan Pass whileextracting criminals and repatriating the drifted pass through Du Thôn Pass,both of which are located in Văn Uyên Prefecture) At this time (),provincial officials of the Lạng Sơn Province requested the Nguyễn court tohave former thủ ải [cựu thủ ải] Nguyễn Đình Minh 阮廷銘 and Nguyễn

Đình Giáp 阮廷玾 do these matters Then, the Nguyễn court appointedNguyễn Đình Minh as principal director [chánh thủ hiệu] to defend DuThôn Pass and Nguyễn Đình Giáp as vice director [phó thủ hiệu] to defendNam Quan Pass, and provided them copper seals (This carving, “Seal of thePrincipal Director in Văn Uyên Prefecture” [Văn Uyên châu thủ hiệu chichương], was in the style of zhuan).

According to this description, the early Nguyễn court continued the tice of the Lê Dynasty of appointing a former thủ ải as principal directorand vice director of the thủ ải, who were dispatched to defend Du ThônPass and Nam Quan Pass (in Văn Uyên Prefecture, Lạng Sơn Province).The ĐNTL also mentions that Nam Quan Pass (also called Trấn Nam Pass[Trấn Nam quan], or present-day Hữu Nghị Pass) was a place for officialcommunication with the Qing, while Du Thôn Pass (also called Do ThônPass) was used to extradite criminals and for the commercial activities ofChinese merchants.Two thủ ải, Nguyễn Đình Minh and Nguyễn ĐìnhGiáp, were from powerful local families in Lạng Sơn: the Nguyễn Đìnhfamily in Hữu Thu Commune, Thoát Lãng District (present-day HoàngViệt Commune, Văn Lãng District, Lạng Sơn Province), and the Nguyễn

prac-Đình family in Uyên Cốt Commune, Văn Uyên District (present-day Tân

Mỹ Commune, Văn Lãng District, Lạng Sơn Province).Further eration on the seal inscribed as “Seal of the Commandant in Văn UyênPrefecture” or the position of the “Commandant in Văn Uyên Prefecture”recorded in the above-quoted description of Đại Nam thực lục is impossiblebecause no contemporary sources refer to them

consid-Meanwhile, local chieftains in Lạng Sơn were broadly granted the title ofunit [hiệu] For example, the BSTL records a khải sent by a provincialofficial of Lạng Sơn in  quoting a thân of six local chieftains, whowere granted the title of frontier subject, in Lạng Sơn: Vi Thế Phiên 韋世

藩, who was the principal director of the middle first unit [trung nhấthiệu thủ hiệu]; Nguyễn Khắc Đài 阮克臺, the principal director of the

main front unit [chánh tiền hiệu thủ hiệu]; Hoàng Đình Sinh 黄廷逞,the principal director of the main left unit [chánh tả hiệu thủ hiệu];Nguyễn Đình Lộc 阮廷祿, the principal director of the main right unit[chánh hữu hiệu thủ hiệu]; Hà Quốc Toàn 何國纉, the principal director

of the main back unit [chánh hậu hiệu thủ hiệu]; and Nguyễn Đình Duệ阮廷璿, the vice director of the thủ ải unit [thủ ải hiệu phó hiệu].Thethủ ải units were probably responsible for defending the frontier fromthe Qing

Other sources also indicate that some local chieftains in Lạng Sơnreceived the title of thủ ải According to documents recorded in the LạngSơn tỉnh Thoát Lãng châu Hữu Thu tổng Hữu Thu xã cổ chỉ (HTTHTXCC)[諒山省脱朗州有秋總有秋社古紙, Old Papers of Hữu Thu Commune atHữu Thu Canton in Thoát Lãng District, Lạng Sơn Province], Nguyễn

Đình Duệ also had the title of thủ ải.According to thị sent to him bythe dispatched grand governor of Lạng Sơn on the third day of the thirdmonth of the first year of Cảnh Hưng (), this chieftain had the titles ofthủ ải and Đề Trung marquis [Đề Trung hầu] He was also appointedprincipal director [chánh hiệu] because of his military achievements insuppressing uprisings during the previous year.In addition, the “MeritInscription of Tam Giáo Shrine” [Tam Giáo từ công đức bi, 三教祠功德碑]—which was engraved in  to list those who helped fund the con-struction of the Tam Giáo Shrine—lists about forty local chieftains, three ofwhom had the title of thủ ải: Nguyễn Đình Quyên [阮廷□] at Hữu ThuCommune, Thoát Lãng District, had the title of thủ ải [phụng thủ ải];Nguyễn Đình Bái 阮廷沛 at Bảo Lâm Commune, Văn Uyên District, hadthe title of former thủ ải [cựu thủ ải]; and Nguyễn Đình Liên 阮廷璉 alsohad the title of former thủ ải.Another document in the BSTL indicatesthat another chieftain, Vi Phúc Hồng 韋福洪, also had the title of thủ ải.The Vi family was a powerful local clan in Khuất Xá Commune, Lộc BìnhDistrict. Although a genealogy of the Vi family, entitled Vi gia phả ký[Genealogy of the Vi Family, 韋家譜記] does not record Vi Phúc Hồng, ViPhúc was the majority name of this family This suggests that Vi PhúcHồng was also a member of this family.

Thus, various local chieftains in Lạng Sơn Province had the title of thủ

ải, and according to the ĐNTL their major political responsibilities entailed

forwarding diplomatic documents to the Qing As mentioned above, vincial officials in Lạng Sơn Province usually ordered local chieftainsthrough thị or phó; therefore, in the process of sending diplomatic docu-ments, when provincial officials received phụng truyền from court officialsthey probably also ordered local chieftains through thị or phó to forwarddiplomatic documents to the Qing, as described in Figure .

pro-Documentary Practices in Lạng Sơn

The BSTL includes documents that detail the process of sending zi/tư to theQing According to the phụng truyền sent to provincial officials in Lạng Sơn

on the twenty-second day of the twelfth month of the nineteenth year ofCảnh Hưng (), court officials ordered the thủ ải to research the titlesand positions of officials to whom the documents were addressed andrequired the thủ ải to purchase a copy of the calendar of the year of KỷSửu () of the Qing for diplomatic affairs:

The five commissions and court officials send phụng truyền to the dispatchedgrand governor of Lạng Sơn Province, Hương Lĩnh Marquis, Mai ThếChuẩn This season is that of regular tribute, and in accordance with

precedents, we have zi/tư to send to the top-ranking authorities in theHeavenly Court [Thiên Triều, namely, the Qing] Mai Thế Chuẩn must have

The five commissions

and court officials

Defenders of the Longping

brigade [thủ ải of Longping]

Governor general of Liangguang

zi/tư

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