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VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES NGUYEN THI NGUON THE THOUGHT ON RULING THE COUNTRY OF EMPERORS GIA LONG, MINH MENH AND THIEU TRI AND ITS HISTORI

VIETNAM ACADEMY

OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

NGUYEN THI NGUON

THE THOUGHT ON RULING THE COUNTRY OF EMPERORS GIA LONG, MINH MENH AND THIEU TRI

AND ITS HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE

PhD THESIS Major: Philosophy Code: 9229001

HANOI - 2019

THE WORK IS COMPLETED AT Graduate Academy of Social Sciences

Supervisor: Assoc Prof Dr LE THI LAN

Opponent 1: Prof Dr Do Quang Hung

Opponent 2: Prof Dr Le Van Quang

Opponent 3: Assoc Prof Dr Nguyen Minh Hoan

The thesis is defended before the Board of Thesis Assessment at grassroots level at

Graduate Academy of Social Science – 477 Nguyen Trai – Thanh Xuan District– Hanoi

At on 2019

The thesis can be found in:

Library of Social Sciences

LIST OF AUTHOR'S SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH WORKS

RELATING TO THE THESIS

1 Co-author (2013), "Dialectics between the process of industrialization and modernization and cultural development and

improvement of the spiritual life of the people", Journal of Political Science (Vol 2), pp.46 - 51

2 Nguyen Thi Nguon (2015), “Understanding the thought on

ruling the country in ancient Chinese philosophy”, Journal of Theoretical Education (Vol 227), pp.37 - 39

3 Nguyen Thi Nguon (2018), "The basic thought on ruling the

country of the early emperors of the Nguyen Dynasty", Journal of Human Resources and Social Sciences (Vol 02/57), pp.34 - 41

4 Nguyen Thi Nguon (2018), “Achievements and limitations in the thought on ruling the country of the early emperors of the Nguyen

Dynasty”, Journal of Human Resources and Social Sciences (Vol

12/67), pp.57 - 65

5 Nguyen Thi Nguon (2018), "Education policy of Nguyen

Dynasty's emperors, especially for ethnic minorities", Journal of Education and Society (Special issue, December 2018), pp.68 - 71

INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

In history, when discussing the way of ruling the country, Confucianists of our country also mentioned concepts such as the people, the role of the people, the way to be the ruler, the way to be the subjects, the relationship between the ruler and his subjects, etc The views of Confucianists

in our country were also influenced by the views of Confucianists in China However, these views were built on the practical requirements of Vietnamese people at that time Therefore, Vietnamese Confucianists' thought also contributed significantly to the construction of the country and was appropriate for the development trend of the feudal society in Vietnam at that time with very positive significance

Up to date, there have been many studies on the sociopolitical ideology

of Emperors Gia Long, Minh Menh and Thieu Tri However, the thought on ruling the country hasn't been mentioned, even the concept of that idea has also not been clearly referred to and some researchers, when discussing about that thought, said that it actually is the thought on supervising bureaucrats In the process of researching, we think that the thought on ruling the country is the thought on the management, construction and development of the country, as well as the management of the state apparatus

Stemming from these urgent theoretical and practical issues, and on the basis of the research results from many branches of social sciences regarding the way of ruling the country of the early emperors of the Nguyen Dynasty, I decide to choose: “The thought on ruling the country of Emperors Gia Long, Minh Menh and Thieu Tri and its historical significance” as the topic for my

PhD thesis, with the desire to make a small contribution to the study of the history of philosophy in Vietnam, as well as the career of developing and perfecting the socialist republic rule-of-law state "of the people, by the people and for the people" under the current leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam

2 Theoretical basis and research methodology

The theoretical basis of the thesis originates from the dialectical materialistic and historical materialistic concepts of Marxism - Leninism, namely, the dialectical relationship between social existence and social consciousness, the relative independence of social consciousness manifested by its positive impact on social existence and the interaction between forms of social consciousness

Research methodology used includes: Method of analysis - synthesis, method of logic-history, method of comparison, etc

3 Research objectives and research missions

3.1 Objectives:

To clarify the basic contents in the thought on ruling the country of the first Emperors of the Nguyen Dynasty: Gia Long, Minh Menh and Thieu Tri; thereby point out the values, limitations and historical lessons of that thought in the development of sociopolitical policy in our country today

3.2 Missions:

To achieve the above objectives, the thesis focuses on accomplishing the following missions:

First, analyze and clarify the historical context and the basic premises for

the birth of the thought on ruling the country of Emperors Gia Long, Minh Menh and Thieu Tri

Second, present the basic content in the thought on ruling the country of

Emperors Gia Long, Minh Menh and Thieu Tri

on ruling the country of Emperors Gia Long, Minh Menh and Thieu Tri

4 Research subject and scope of study

* Research subject: The thought on ruling the country of Emperors Gia Long, Minh Menh and Thieu Tri

*Scope of study: The thought on ruling the country through the works

of Emperors Gia Long, Minh Menh and Thieu Tri from 1802 to 1847, historical text as well as research works on that thought of domestic and overseas scholars

to date

5 New scientific contributions of the thesis

First, the thesis clarifies the thought on ruling the country of Emperors

Gia Long, Minh Menh and Thieu Tri in the first half of the XIX century with a philosophical analysis of the organization and perfection of the state apparatus,

as well as the construction and perfection of the law for the development of centralized feudal state - the fundamental goal which was set up at the very beginning of the dynasty

Second, the thesis clarifies the values and limitations in the

management and administration in the fields of economy, politics, culture, education, religion, etc in the era of Emperors Gia Long, Minh Menh and Thieu Tri

Third, the thesis draws historical lessons from such values and

limitations in the thought on ruling the country of the early emperors of the Nguyen Dynasty for the sociopolitical life in our country today

AND ISSUES RELATED TO THE THESIS 1.1 Research works on the economic, political and social context of the Nguyen Dynasty in the first half of the XIX century

First is the very monumental research work of Alexander Barton Woodside: “Vietnam and the Chinese model: A comparative study of the Nguyen and the Qing civil administrations in the first half of the XIX century”,

published in 1971 by Harvard University Press Cambridge, Massachusetts, which was translated to Vietnamese The contents that are most related to the thesis are mainly in Chapter II, which refers to the central civil administrations

of the Nguyen Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty In Chapter IV, the author discussed the education and examination regime under the Nguyen Dynasty in Vietnam, and in Chapter V, he provided an overview of the trade during the reign of the Nguyen Dynasty, especially in the era of Emperor Minh Menh In this work, the author focused on Chinese culture and its limitations on political, literary, social and educational life in Vietnam The author focused on the study

of Vietnamese society after 1802, a period which, according to him, was the

"recovery" period of the Nguyen Dynasty

In his work, "Legal institutions and proceedings of the Nguyen Dynasty (1802 - 1885"), published by Thuan Hoa Publishing House in 2016, Dr Huynh

Cong Ba considers the Nguyen Dynasty the last one of the feudalism in our country Under the rule of the dynasty, our country was unified for more than two-third of the century After rising to power, the Nguyen royal court absorbed and learned from the experiences of the previous dynasty regarding the management of the country Therefore, under the reign of the Nguyen Dynasty, legal institutions were relatively complete Thus, the author thinks that the research on Vietnamese legal institutions in the Nguyen Dynasty will help provide us with an objective view of the law enforced at that time, as well as its contributions and values to our country's history in the current period

In general, the above works still cause controversy regarding the merits and crimes of the early emperors of the Nguyen Dynasty Some authors deny their merits, while more recent studies have had a more objective view on the contributions of the early emperors of the Nguyen Dynasty It can be said that,

a summary of basic research works on the economic, political and social context of the Nguyen Dynasty in the first half of the XIX century has provided

a fairly clear picture of this period At the same time, some authors also pointed out the limitations in the policies of the Nguyen royal court, which had had significant impacts on the country development at that time, thus restrained the

socioeconomic development of the country

1.2 Research works on the thought on ruling the country of Emperors Gia Long, Minh Menh and Thieu Tri

“Administrative reforms under the reign of Emperor Minh Menh” by

Nguyen Minh Tuong, Social Sciences Publishing House, 1996 In this work, the author has focused on thoroughly studying the organizational structure and operation of the supervisory body under the reign of Emperor Minh Menh and made a comment that in this period, the idea of rule by law was promoted At the same time, this idea was also very strictly implemented in order to facilitate the efficient operation of the administrative apparatus and prevent the corruption of the court officials The work, however, did not provide an in-depth analysis of such idea and only stopped at generalizing the political thought of Emperor Minh Menh

The most recent article is "The thought on ruling the country of Emperor Gia Long" by Assoc Prof Le Thi Lan, PhD, which is published in the

Journal of Social Sciences, Vol 1, in 2016 According to the author, Emperor Gia Long was the founder of the Nguyen Dynasty And for the first time in the history of the nation, the Nguyen Dynasty ruled a unified and vast country expanding from Nam Quan Pass to Ca Mau Cape At the early stage of building the country, the Nguyen Dynasty faced many difficulties and challenges, thus Emperor Gia Long used a combination of Confucianism and Legalism in ruling the country As both a knowledgeable Confucianist and a war veteran, he succeeded in governing the country after the civil war, laying a solid foundation for the Nguyen Dynasty and consolidating his dominance all over the territory

of Vietnam His thought on ruling the country was the basis for the thought on ruling the country of the Nguyen Dynasty

1.3 Research works on the values and limitations in the thought on ruling the country of Emperors Gia Long, Minh Menh and Thieu Tri

In the seminar of "Nguyen Lords and the Nguyen Dynasty in the history

of Vietnam from XIV century to XIX century" held in Thanh Hoa on 18 October

2008, most scientists agreed and evaluated that the monopoly of Confucianism under the Nguyen Dynasty has many negative and irrational impacts They agreed that that period is a step backward of the history; however, their one-sided assessment failed to provide objective explanations for why the Nguyen Dynasty promoted the dominance of Confucianism, as well as how such monopoly had impacts on various aspects of social life at that time These are very important contents of the historical period of the Nguyen Dynasty

Author Do Bang, in the article "Nguyen Dynasty: Institutions for power concentration and institutions for attenuating totalitarianism" published in

Journal of Historical Studies in 2007, said that when the centralized regime reached its peak, the totalitarianism also reached an absolute level and transformed into an extreme absolute monarchy In order to maintain its

development, the Nguyen Dynasty had to apply the Eastern doctrine of ruling the country which proposes solutions to the management mechanism of the State The article provided an in-depth analysis of how the Nguyen Dynasty applied Eastern thoughts on ruling the country; however, it didn't point out the values and effects of this application in drawing lessons for those in charge of governance and for the contemporary society

To date, in the discussion of merits and contributions of the Nguyen Dynasty, due to objective conditions, the cognitive process of researchers still reflects an inadequate perspective Thus, historians often come up with harsh comments, such as a "completely reactionary dynasty" or a dynasty that "invited the snake into its home", etc From this new perspective, it can be seen that researchers have somewhat recognized the rather significant contributions of Emperor Gia Long (Nguyen Anh) to the country

1.4 Overview of research on the Nguyen Dynasty regarding the thought on ruling the country of Emperors Gia Long, Minh Menh and Thieu Tri and the issues that need to be further researched and settled in the thesis

Looking through the scientific works of researchers, it can be seen that there are two main points of view

The first is, the Nguyen Dynasty did not make any contributions to the country, is even considered the author of "the dark picture that shadowed the history of the nation", and the first emperors of the Nguyen Dynasty were those who "invited the snake into its home " In short, that viewpoint completely denies the contributions of the Nguyen Dynasty to the country

The second one is, contrary to the above point of view, researchers

have had a new and more objective view on the contributions of the dynasty

to the development of the way to rule the country based on the combination of rule by benevolence and rule by law, taking territorial unification and integrity as well as people pacification as the basic goals

Results from the research of the scholars which we refer to in this Chapter are the basis for us to have a philosophical approach to the thought on ruling the country of Emperors Gia Long, Minh Menh and Thieu Tri During the research, we will continue to study and clarify the following issues of the thesis:

First, based on the viewpoint of historical materialism, the thesis will

research more deeply into Emperors Gia Long, Minh Menh and Thieu Tri At the same time, it will point out the factors affecting the process of forming the thought on ruling the country of the first emperors of the Nguyen Dynasty and its significance for the current period

Second, the thesis focuses on systematizing, analyzing and clarifying

the basic contents in the thought on ruling the country of Emperors Gia Long, Minh Menh and Thieu Tri

Third, the thesis assesses the positiveness and limitations in the thought

on ruling the country in the early Nguyen Dynasty At the same time, it draws lessons and proposes recommendations on the inheritance of positive values in the process of building the State of Vietnam in the current period

Conclusion of Chapter 1:

The philosophical history of the Nguyen Dynasty in general and of the early period of the Nguyen Dynasty in particular is very rich and diverse According to researcher, this is the most complicated period of Vietnamese history, leaving many imprints as well as cultural and historical works to the country However, researchers, experts and scientists still have many different views on the contributions of the first emperors of the Nguyen Dynasty as well

as the early days of the Nguyen Dynasty

On this basis, research works in some other fields will be used by the author as scientific premises From there, the author will approach from many different directors to form a comprehensive system for the complete study of the thesis

Chapter 2: VIETNAMESE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND IN THE EARLY XIX CENTURY AND PREMISES TO GENERATE THE THOUGHT ON RULING THE COUNTRY OF THE FIRST EMPERORS

OF THE NGUYEN DYNASTY 2.1 Vietnamese historical background in the early XIX century

2.1.1 Political situation

The beginning of the XIX century is considered the most brilliant

period of the Nguyen Dynasty Gia Long's victory over the Tay Son court had helped the Nguyen Dynasty enjoy the sweet fruit of a unified country that expands from Nam Quan Pass to Ca Mau Cape

* Regarding administration and organization:

After ascending to the throne, Emperor Gia Long chose Phu Xuan as the citadel, re-checked the old administrative units and appointed officials to

be in charge of them In particular, Emperor Gia Long merged 11 towns of the North into Bac Thanh province, which was headed by the imperial military protector Nguyen Van Thanh He also merged 5 towns of the South into Gia Dinh province, which was headed by protectors Nguyen Van Nhân (1808 – 1812) and Le Van Duyet (1812 - 1816) Emperor Gia Long ordered the construction of traffic roads from the central to the local, as well as stations to send and receive documents In order to unify the domestic administrative units, in the 1831-1832 period, Emperor Minh Menh eliminated the two provinces above and divided the country into 30 provinces and Thua Thien

city (the centrally-controlled city today) Below provinces, there are municipalities, districts, towns and communes Statistics available in 1840 showed that the whole country had 90 municipality, 20 sub-municipalities, 379 districts, 1742 towns and 18265 communes, villages and hamlets This division remained until the end of the Nguyen Dynasty

*Regarding home affairs

Emperor Gia Long advocated the policy of “Confucianism on the outside, Legalism on the inside”in order to develop the economy and culture,

thus stabilize the society, suppress the rise of forces rebelling against the royal court and consolidate unification throughout the territory One of the very important causes leading to this policy was that the dynasty was newly established, thus it was not strong enough to control the whole territory Therefore, in this period, the Emperor only had the supreme power in the Central region

It can be said that the Nguyen Dynasty was very well aware of the increasing conflicts between the State and the people, which was why Emperors Gia Long and Minh Menh ordered the execution or dismissal of many major officials who committed acts of corruption as a deterrence However, it was not enough to prevent local officials from harassing people

* Regarding the law and legal system

After ascending to the throne, Emperor Gia Long carried out a lot of works to stabilize the country Especially, he rebuilt the legal system of the royal court by ordering his officials to consult Hong Duc Code and compile 15 most important laws to be enacted and disseminated among people However, these laws primarily referred to lawsuits and leave out other fields of social life, thus they were unable to meet the needs of the society In 1811, the Nguyen Dynasty ordered Bac Thanh province protector Nguyen Van Thanh to compile the new legal code of the royal court in order for it to preserve disciplines and laws of the country, prevent moral degeneration and deterioration, and become the indispensable standards of the royal court Emperor Gia Long said: “Kings and Emperors have long been setting up the legal system for ruling the country

If the system is inappropriate, people will have nothing to depend on As the law is not determined and the legal system is not established, it is against my

desire to be respectful, merciful and wise, and trust the right persons You

should wholeheartedly examine the legal codes of the previous dynasties as well as consult Hong Duc code and the Great Qing legal code, carefully consider them and compile a book of laws I myself will review it for promulgation” [60, pp.807 - 808]

* Regarding the military

In addition to other fields, the military was highly regarded by the Nguyen royal court in order to consolidate its position and create a solid

foundation for the development and survival of the dynasty Emperor Gia Long built the army into 3 parts: The Emperor's guards, the Citadel's guards and crack troops in the citadel and other localities In addition, there are also soldiers and guards in charge of ensuring the safety of the court officials [9, vol.5, p.52] During this period, the Nguyen Dynasty had a large army which

is fully armed, as well as applied a harsh military service

However, despite gaining some achievements, the military policy of the Nguyen Dynasty was unable to improve the army's quality; in fact, the morale and quality of soldiers were declining day by day, thus rendering them unable

to cope with foreign invasion

* Regarding diplomatic relations

The Nguyen Dynasty came to power in the context of lots of changes

in the world The strong development of Western countries led to their expansion to the market of Eastern countries At that time, many countries in the East either were colonized or became subordinates to Western capitalist countries Even China became a delicious target In addition to maintaining relations with other countries in the region the same way that the previous dynasty did, it is also notable that the Nguyen Dynasty established diplomatic relation with some Western countries, namely France, England and the US

2.1.2 Economic situation

In the year of Ren-Xu (1802), after defeating Tay Son army, Emperor Gia Long (Nguyen Anh) became the one to rule the country from the North to the South As a new chapter was turned, the Nguyen Dynasty had to face many

difficulties and challenges, especially in terms of economy

* Regarding agricultural production

In the first half of the XIX century, people mainly relied on agricultural production Farmland and agriculture were considered the foundation of the society Promoting agricultural production was what chosen by Emperor Gia Long as the basic economic policy to restore the agriculture that had been depleted in the war and to stabilize social life Under the reign of Emperor Minh Menh, many surveys and measurements had been carried out to established records of farmland in many communes This was done over and over again to help the royal court govern the public farmland across the

country

* Regarding industry and trade

Policies on industry and trade of the Nguyen Dynasty was outdated The royal court controlled various lines of business such as firearm production, minting, shipbuilding, construction of palaces and temples, etc The royal court also managed large workshops and forced skillful workers to work there Workers in such workshops were often forced labor: they were abused with

very hard and arduous work, yet their wages were very cheap and did not commensurate with the efforts they spent

Thus, in the first half of the XIX century, agriculture, industry and trade had had certain development However, due to the economic policy of

“promoting agriculture and limiting trade” as well as the lack of knowledge of

natural science and technology, Vietnam's economy in this period did not change much

2.1.3 Cultural situation

In the Nguyen Dynasty, similar to other previous eras, religions such as Confucianism, Buddhism, and Christianity had a great impact on the cultural and spiritual life of the people At the end of the XVIII century, some of the main principles of Confucianism, such as loyalty to the ruler had been re-established among the ranks of government officials and Confucian scholars, however it was

no longer as rigid as before At the turn of the XIX century, the Nguyen royal court sought all ways to strengthen the monopoly of Confucianism, such as prohibiting people to turn into Christians, banning the construction of churches, limiting people from building Buddhist temples In addition, the court also followed the step of the Le Dynasty by announcing the "Ten Articles of Instruction" for communes and villages to explain to their people Contents of education and examination were also consolidated

In summary, in the first half of the XIX century, there was a strong development of some major religions, especially Confucianism Confucian thought had greatly influenced the spiritual life of the people

2.1.4 Social situation

Like the previous dynasties, Vietnamese society in the Nguyen Dynasty was divided into two classes: the ruling class and the ruled class The ruling class consisted of the royalties, court officials, landlords and assistants

in the government system, who had many rights and privileges in the society Court officials often came from many different classes in the society; many of them became opposite to the people; the exploitation and harassment of the people often took place However, there were still court officials that were transparent, honest and truly cared about the life of poor people and social stability In the society, landlords accounted for a large number and were powerful in villages and communes across the country Despite the development of our country's private land regime, there were not many big landlord who owned lots of farmland across the country Therefore, in addition to being a foundation, the landlords in the Nguyen Dynasty also needed to rely on the bullies in villages and the political power of the state to maintain their existence

2.2 Basic prerequisites for the formation of the thought on ruling the country of the first emperors of the Nguyen Dynasty

2.2.1 The unification of the country

In terms of internal affairs, Emperor Gia Long implemented the strategy of "Confucianism on the outside, Legalism on the inside" in developing the economy and culture, thus bringing people a stable social life The Emperor's power, in fact, was only asserted over the Central region For the Northern and the Southern region, it was entrusted to the military protectors

Under the reign of Emperor Minh Menh, in order to concentrate the power to the hands of the emperor and at the same time strengthen the administration of the country, the seat of military protector was abolished The emperor directly governed the country and carried out reforms in 31 localities Along with inheriting the strategy of ruling the country from Emperor Gia Long, Emperor Minh Menh also built one of the most powerful, even absolute, feudal political institutions in the region

2.2.2 Confucian political theory

When the Nguyen Dynasty ascended to power, Confucianism was the ideological foundation of the royal court However, Confucian concepts were also used for political purposes in consistence with the ruling strategy The Nguyen Dynasty also strongly supported the thought of "mandate of Heaven", which believes the king/emperor is the son of the Heaven who represents the Heaven to rule the world Social administration and management is the will of the Heaven, and the Heaven’s son is only tasked with executing Heaven's mandate Thus, it was the mandate of Heaven that the Nguyen Dynasty rose to power and rule the people It can be said that the thought of "mandate of Heaven" had strongly manipulated the lives of people It was an invisible rope that bound and paralyzed their resistance to injustices and harsh laws of the Nguyen Dynasty

2.2.3 The role in the society of Confucian scholars in the early days

of the Nguyen Dynasty

In this period, the structure of four occupations, namely scholars, farmers, craftsmen and merchants was also reflected more and more clearly Confucian scholars played a very important role in this period In order to consolidate the power of the Nguyen Dynasty, the royal court restored the monopoly of Confucianism and maintained the traditional way of ruling the country Thus, innovations and reforms could not be implemented in this period Scholars were Confucianists, including both those who worked as court officials and those who did not This class was the most prestigious and influential in the society, as they were the pillars of feudalism They were considered the immediate class, the bridge between the emperor and the people Because of their reputation, their views were taken seriously by the emperor,