>>Feudal kings under various monarchies in Vietnam
Tran Thi Tuyet
State and Law Research Institute
Vietnam was, perhaps, among few countries in the world that, during the process of their historical development, had to cope with repeated foreign invasions or border troubles. Such conditions required proper State structure as well as the concentrated, unified and effective command of the administration system from the central to grassroots levels in order to prevent all tendencies of factionalism and regionalism and mobilize to the utmost the combined strength of the community for the survival and development of the nation.
Under the supreme command of the king, head of the centralized monarchical state, the system of local feudal administrations, together with the central administration apparatus, constituted a part and parcel of the centralized feudal state. The local administration apparatus varied from dynasty to dynasty, depending on the social management conditions and requirements of each dynasty. However, not a single dynasty failed to pay attention to consolidating the local administration at all levels and to raising the efficiency of their operations, particularly the administrations in key areas, distant border regions and at grassroots level.
The local administration was organized on the basis of unified administrative units which were interrelated and inter-bound, with 4 main levels: the highest local administration level was “lo”, “dao”, “tran” or “tinh” (equivalent to the provincial level), which was subordinated by “phu”, “huyen” (for delta district) or “chau” (for mountain district), and under the “phu”, “huyen” or “chau” administration was the grassroots level called “xa” (for delta commune) or “sach” (for mountain commune).
The feudal dynasties divided the local administration into various administrative units, based on the numbers of households and people and the arable land area in each locality, which all determined the complexity or simplicity, the work load of each local administration level as well as the size of each administrative unit. The Le So (pre-Le) dynasty based itself mainly on the number of households and land areas to classify communes into three types: the great commune comprising 500 households; the medium commune: 300 households and the small commune: 100 households. When the number of a commune’s households was greater or smaller than such prescribed level, such commune would be divided into two or merged with another. This helped to explain why the number of administrative units in delta region was greater than that in the mountain region while the land area of an administrative unit in the delta region was smaller than that of the mountain region. However, the division of administrative units also depended on other factors such as socio-political situation, the locality’s position in relation to the system of local administrations of all levels and to the central administration. It was, therefore, the local administration of the highest level of “lo”, “dao”, “tran” or “tinh” (province) as well as of the lowest level of “xa” or “sach” (commune) and the administrations in localities near to or too far away from the capital, in border regions, islands… were always given due attention by various feudal dynasties.
The system of local administrations was managed according to the supreme principle that all agencies and mandarins of the “lo”, “dao” “tran” or “tinh” administration were placed directly under the royal court and supervised by the court’s royal advisers stationed in such localities. Also according to that principle the district or commune administration took responsibility to their immediate higher administrative units.
The local administration of each level was run and managed by a high-ranking mandarin and his deputy. For instance, the administration of “lo” level was led by “An phu chanh su” and his deputy called “An phu pho su”; the “dao” administration by “Hanh khien” or “Tuyen chanh su”; the “tran” administration by “Tran thu” who was assisted by “cai ba” or “hiep tran”. During the Nguyen dynasty, each province was headed by a mandarin called “Tuan phu” and two provinces were placed under the leadership of a governor-general (selected from among the royal family members) who often concurrently held the position of “Tuan phu” of the province where he was posted to. The governors-general were not posted in provinces considered to be unimportant.
A “phu” was headed by a mandarin called “Tri phu” with “Dong tri phu” as his assistant; the “huyen” by “tri huyen” and his assistant called “huyen thua”; a “chau” by “tri chau”; and a “xa” by “xa quan” (or “xa truong” or “ly truong”. The “tong” level (also equivalent to the district level) was created in the early 17th century and headed by a mandarin called “chanh tong” who was assisted by his deputy called “pho tong”.
Chiefs of the local administrations of all levels were selected from among reliable mandarins with talents, high academic degrees, high-rankings or high grades. They were also given great powers by the royal court, holding all civilian and military powers in their respective territories. This ensured the concentrated and unified management in localities, particularly in the early days of a dynasty when the central administration was being consolidated and concentrating power.
However, the State powers in localities almost fell into the hands of the local chiefs, thus giving rise to authoritarianism and factionalism, thereby limiting the central administration’s powers in localities. So, in order to build a strong centralized central administration, king Le Thanh Tong launched the biggest ever administrative reform in the history of Vietnam by then. For the “dao” level, the king restricted the administration chief’s powers by setting up three agencies called “Tam ty” with powers and responsibilities clearly defined for each: “Do ty” was responsible for the military and security affairs; “Thua ty” was in charge of the administratively management over “phu”, “huyen” and “chau” directly under “dao” or “tinh”; and “Hien ty” was tasked to supervise and inspect mandarins working in the two above-mentioned agencies, district or commune administration, and rich people, who treaded on the people’s necks.
This marked a shift from the one-man and heavily military ruling regime in localities to the regime of ruling by various agencies with different and specific tasks, thus ensuring the smooth operation of the State apparatus as well as the better management of all aspects of the social life, avoiding authoritarianism in localities and concentrating powers for the central administration. The regime of managing the local administration through agencies, initiated by king Le Thanh Tong, was maintained and developed by subsequent dynasties. The second biggest administrative reform in the history of Vietnamese feudalism was the continuity of king Le Thanh Tong’s administrative reform and the higher-level development under the new conditions.
The local administrations at the grassroots level and in border localities, or areas far away from the royal court or localities inhabited by ethnic minority people became the primary concern of all feudal regimes just because the administration of such level was in close contacts with people, which governed key regions where terrains were rugged and difficult to access, where existed diversified customs and practices and where factionalism and separatism had grounds to grow. To firmly grasp the local administrations at grassroots level, in border regions and distant areas would create important condi-tions for enhancing centralism, strength and capabilities of the central monarchical state.
Yet, not all feudal states could stretch their hands to localities and control the local administrations particularly in difficult-to-access areas, localities inhabited by ethnic minority people. Therefore, each dynasty worked out its own and appropriate measures suited to the then historical conditions to broaden the scope of influence of the central administration to localities throughout the country, first of all grassroots localities.
Under the Tran dynasty, the central administration was strong enough to be capable of controlling the commune-level administrations though to a limited extent due to the age-old and deeply rooted existence of the vestiges of traditional communes. The royal court categorized communes into two: the big communes and the small communes. Even so, the central administration still failed to control the election of commune chief mandarins. During the tenure of king Le Thai To, particularly king Le Thanh Tong’s, the central administration deeply intervened in the self-rule regime of the traditional communes and villages. The royal court classified communes into three types: the big communes, the medium communes and the small communes. It determined the number of commune ruling mandarins, appointed them or approved those elected by local people. Concrete criteria were set for such commune rulers: aged over 30, with high educational degrees and good virtue. Through such local mandarins, the Le So (pre-Le) dynasty regime kept closer contacts with people and controlled more tightly the grassroots adminis-trations’ activities. During the feudal time in Vietnam, king Le Thanh Tong’s was considered the “golden time” with high economic growth, political stability, people’s hearts and minds won over, the border security maintained, the nation’s strong posture. This was attributed partly to the strict organiza-tion of the centralized and unified administration from the central to grassroots levels.
In border and mountain localities, the royal court often assigned the ruling power to local chiefs. Members of big and influential family lines that ruled such localities for many generations were given bonuses, royal titles and ranks by the court so that they became royal court mandarins and responsible to the royal court and joined the royal court in defending the country’s border and territorial integrity. They were referred to in historical books as “tho quan” (mountain area governors) with many big family lines having contributed great parts to defending the national independence and border security. Such family lines as “Vi” and “Than” in Lang Son province, “Nung” in Quang Nguyen of Cao Bang and Thai Nguyen, “Hoang” in Bac Quang region of Tuyen Quang were put into important positions by the Ly dynasty; or “Xa tho tu” in Moc Chau of Son La province, “Deo” in Muong Le (Lai Chau), “Cam” in western Nghe An province, “Ha” in western Thanh Hoa province, “Xa” and “Cam” in Hung Hoa (Tuyen Quang), “Vi” in Lang Son… became reliable forces of the Le So (pre-Le) dynasty and were given important positions and bonuses by the royal court. Some were conferred the royal family names, ranks and/or grades.
Besides “tho quan”, who were mountaineers knowledgeable about local customs and practices and having prestiges among the local population, the royal court also sent talented, devoted and reliable mandarins, or even members of the royal family to key and remote areas, acting as “eyes and ears” of the court, helping build the on-spot defense system and rendering regular and timely support for “tho quan” in maintaining land and population when necessary. Employing such mandarins, called “luu quan” (attached mandarins), besides “tho quan” became a good, effective and flexible way of organizing the local administration, which was applied by many feudal kingdoms of Vietnam.
In structuring the State apparatus, all feudal regimes in Vietnam thoroughly grasped the strategic idea that national construction had to be closely associated with national defense. Therefore, at each level of the local administration, military manda-rins were posted besides the civilian mandarins. For instance, at the “lo”, “dao”, “tran” or “tinh” level, a military mandarin called “kinh luoc su” or “phong ngu su” (under the Tran dynasty), “tong quan” or “dong tong quan” (Le So dynasty), or “de doc” or “lanh binh” (the Nguyen dynasty), was posted besides the civilian mandarin. At the “phu”, such military mandarin was called “do ho phu”, “do thong phu”, “tran phu su” or “tuyen uy su”; or at the “chau”, “huyen” level, they were titled “ve uy”, “pho ve uy”…
In addition to the civilian and military mandarins, functional bodies or mandarins were set up or appointed, depending on each level of local admi-nistration, to take charge of agricultural production development, flood control, irrigation, public land management, taxation, economic-cum-military activities by the army…