>>The state and law under the Ly Dynasty (1009-1225)
>>The state and law of Vietnam in the 10th century
Lawyer Tran Thi Tuyet,
Institute of State and Law Research
By the middle of the 12th century, the Ly dynasty had weakened and was speeding toward its perdition. The nobles and mandarins were all interested only in repressing and exploiting the peasantry. They did not pay attention to flood control or economic development. Nor did they take proper care of the people's life. Everywhere, feudal factions were engaged in power wrangling, holding out against the weakening central government and seeking to impose their own rule. This only drove people deeper into misery and bitterness. Many uprisings broke out, shaking the Ly dynasty to the roots.
Emerging from these power strifes, the Tran family gradually gained control of the Ly dynasty's government, over the other families. In 1226, it took over the power, establishing a new dynasty, the Tran (1226-1400).
Under the Tran dynasty, the feudal monarchy continued to develop steadily on a firm foundation already set by the Ly dynasty. It was even more consolidated at the central level and in all aspects.
Unlike the Ly, the Tran Kings always chose to pass on the throne to their children earlier in life and made themselves State Fathers, still holding a direct control over State affairs. By doing so, they trained their children in managing the country's affairs and also helped prevent any usurpation of the throne.
Apart from the posts and agencies already established by the Ly dynasty, the Tran set new ones, paying particular attention to those for legal affairs. At the Court, they were the Supreme Court (Tham hinh vien), the Procuracy (Tam ty vien) and the Prosecuting Office (Binh bac ty). The Supreme Court was the highest juridical body. The Procuracy supervised the execution of laws by State mandarins and officials and was vested with the authority to recommend amendments of State laws to the King. The Prosecuting Office oversaw the execution of the Court's rulings and prosecuting activities.
At the local level, the administration was organized into a strict system. The Tran re-determined the administrative units. In 1242, the whole country was divided into 12 lo or provinces under which were districts (known as huyen in the plain and chau in the highland) and communes. A contingent of mandarins was appointed by the King to head each of these administrative units. All these head mandarins also had the juridical power to try criminals and handle other legal affairs.
Under the Tran dynasty, the nobility was given special privileges, enjoying many powers and prerogatives. Most of the key positions in the government were given to princes and royal relatives. In order to ensure its power monopoly, the Tran set a rule to force marriages among the royal clan. Consolidation of the royal relations through the provision of economic, political and military privileges and powers helped further strengthen the bond within the ruling class and promote the might of the dynasty.
The army was taken care of especially well in terms of number, organization and training. As under the Ly, the Tran army was composed of two forces - the palace guard (defending the capital) and the local armed forces - with recruits coming from peasant families. Local chiefs were authorized to form their own armies, recruiting among their servants. The central government continued the drafting practise for statutory military service and the policy of "farmers - cum soldiers" of the Ly dynasty. Therefore, when "war breaks out, the whole population will be mobilized for military duty,"(1). Under the guideline of "good training is more important than"(2), the Tran attached importance to recruiting commanding officers among the nobles. Most of the top military posts were held by royal nobles. The Giang Vo military school was founded as the center to train children of aristocratic families into military officers guarding the royal power. The then military genius of Vietnam, General Tran Quoc Tuan, compiled the Binh Thu Yeu Luoc, a military text book for this training. This text book later became a great work of military theory and training guidelines, marking a new step of development of Vietnam's military art.
The Tran dynasty's efforts to continue national construction and consolidation of the thriving feudal state included not only the strengthening of the administrative apparatus at all levels but also the promotion of economic development, with a view to protecting the interests of the feudal order and its ruling class and, at the same time, holding out against threats of foreign invasion.
Under the Tran, the reclamation of land and construction of irrigation projects were undertaken on a large scale. The state coordinated the efforts and, at the same time, allowed regional lords and nobles to recruit poor and landless people to reclaim virgin land and set up new farms. All the lords and nobles were recognized by the state as legal owners of their newly-reclaimed lands. This helped make the Tran lords and nobles owners of vast estates, thus creating a strong social base for the Tran feudal state.
Industry and trade saw a new development. Villages of traditional crafts, especially art crafts, reached the height of their trade and even spread to some rural areas. The Capital City of Thang Long broadened to include 61 wards. Outside the imperial city emerged markets, handicraft guilds and busy commerical streets.
The system of land roads and water ways linked up all localities in the country. River and sea ports were dredged to provide convenient accesses for trading missions. Domestic and foreign trade was thriving.
The development of a multi-ethnic culture also achieved great progress. The Nom script became popular and was used in literature. Architecture, sculpture, painting, stage art and music were developed with their originality zealously kept. Astronomy, calendar designing, medicine and, especially, natural sciences and military art made considerable achievements. From the middle of the Tran dynasty, Taoism flourished and later became the ideology of the ruling class. Training and examination and the selection of leading officials were increasingly regularized.
Inheriting a diplomacy of great flexibility from the Ly dynasty, the Tran, however, was stronger in the ditermination to safeguard national independence. Combining it with the implementation of positive policy measures in favor of the ethnic minority tribes living in mountainous areas, this diplomacy helped secure and expand the Vietnamese borders, and mobilize the nation's aggregate strength to stand ready to cope with foreign invaders.
The stepped-up legislative activities further helped consolidate and develop the strength of the feudal monarchy. The drafting of written laws was given special attention. In 1230, the Tran King "set the regulations and approved books on criminal proceedings" and conducted a research on the laws of the previous dynasties to draft the "State Penal Laws". After a number of amendments and supplements, the penal laws were officially adopted. They were referred to collectively as the Hinh Thu or penal regulation. As the name (written penalties and penal procedures) suggests, they were essentially a penal code. A thorough research on these laws is now impossible because the texts of these two laws were confiscated by the invading troops from the Ming dynasty in China. However, we still can look at the way the Tran administrative system was organized and operated through the 20 volumes of the "Quoc Trieu Thong Che" (National State Rules)(3). The court proceedings were described in the "Quoc trieu thuong le" (Rituals of the State Court). The Tran Kings also issued many other legal documents in the forms of decrees, edicts, instructions and notices. The application of conventional practices and customs (then referred to as order) was allowed to regulate newly-emerging relations in the feudal system.
In terms of criminal law, whatever remained in practice until later showed that the Tran dynasty resorted to many harsh punishments. But there was a clear distinction between serious offenses (ten evil crimes) and minor offenses. All the serious crimes had the same punishment - capital punishment. This corresponded to the overriding idea behind the feudal criminal law and also to the need to cement the feudal rule of the thriving Tran dynasty. Historian Phan Huy Le once remarked, "While the criminal law of the Ly dynasty was tolerant and benevolent, that of the Tran was severe"(4).
Like the Ly, the Tran dynasty made not only laws on criminal offenses but regulations on civil affairs and litigation as well. All of its laws aimed to protect the monarchy, the privileges of the nobility and the orders of the feudal society. There was a clear line between classes and social castes. An example of this discrimination was the practice whereby one could use money to "buy back one's crimes".
The class character of the laws of the Tran dynasty was also demonstrated in the regulations on ownership rights, trade contracts, the application of detention measures, the torturing of defaulting debtors, the enslaving of their spouses and children, and the regulations on taxes and fees, etc. The regime of feudal patriarchal was for the first time given legal protection by the state, described in discriminatory legislation against women in their relations to men. Women, by law, were to accept a social status minor to men, both inside and outside the family. Take this provision for example: "If the wife is maintaining an extra-marital relation, the husband has the right to sell or barter her away, or to force her to become his slave."
In the whole course of development of the feudal regime in Vietnam, customary regulations of most of the ethnic groups in Vietnam co-existed with state laws, especially in the field of civil affairs and marriage and the family. It should be noted that the Tran dynasty was a continued but more perfect development of the Ly dynasty in all aspects. The state apparatus was constantly consolidated and strengthened, assuming a more adequate role and function in domestic and foreign affairs in its capacity as an independent and unified country. Law became an effective tool for the ruling class to manage and govern the country. The monarchical regime under the Tran dynasty was more stable. It is thus quite reasonable to conclude that along with the Ly dynasty, the Tran, with its all round achievements, helped take the Dai Viet civilization to a new height in the Vietnamese history of national construction and defense.-
Footnotes:
(1) The Institute of National History of the Nguyen dynasty - The almanac of Vietnamese history (official record). Volume V, the History Publishing House, Hanoi, 1987. p. H67.
(2) Vietnam Chronicle, complete work. The Social Sciences Publishing House, Hanoi, 1968. p.59.
(3) Phan Huy Chu, Lich trieu hien chuong loai chi - Hinh luat chi (Bibliology of Monarchical Publications - Texts of Criminal Laws).
(4) Phan Huy Chu, ibid.-