M.A. Nguyen Viet Huong
The State and Law Research Institute
In Vietnam, the feudal regime existed for many centuries with one dynasty after another, starting with the Ly, then Tran, Ho, Le, Tay Son and Nguyen. Throughout that process, the feudal states of Vietnam were generally organized in the form of a centralized monarchy with concentrated power, constituting a unified system from the central to grassroots levels. The King held the supreme power, the central Government played a very great role, strongly manipulating the local administrations and directing all activities thereof. Such a state apparatus was structured with the following major parts:
- The central government, which was headed by the king (lord or emperor) who had the full power to decide all national affairs. The king was the person who promulgated laws and at the same time ran all administrative affairs of the country, and who was also the supreme judiciary official. He was the leader of the national religion and the supreme owner of all the land in the country. He was assisted by a number of high-ranking mandarins and some agencies taking charge of different domains of the socio-economic life.
The operation of the system of agencies at the royal court was ensured by a troupe of mandarins appointed by the king. Besides, there were a large number of assistants for various agencies.
- At the local level, the administration was organized at different levels: regional, provincial, district and commune. Each administrative level was headed by a mandarin assisted by a group of assistants. From the Le dynasty on, the chief of the regional administration was assisted by an additional staff of three mandarins taking charge of three important domains: the army, the administrative affairs, the judiciary and supervisory work.
So, it can be seen through such organizational structure that the feudal regime employed a large number of mandarins and assistants. Despite their dissimilarities, feudal dynasties in Vietnam all paid due attention to the building, training, employment and fostering of such contingent of mandarins and assistants, which, in fact, constituted a main support for the feudal state to operate efficiently and which greatly contributed to the implementation of schemes and policies of feudal kings and lords. Through the study of the way in which a feudal regime built, selected, recruited, trained and employed mandarins and assistants, we can realize the following:
1. The recruitment and selection of mandarins and assistants were based on the uniform criteria on morals and capability.
The ideological support for the existence of the centralized monarchy in Vietnam was the Confucian politics and law.
Therefore, the prevailing viewpoint in the method of ruling was to rule by virtues. The king selected his subjects with good virtue as the first criterion. Being mandarins, they had to follow the king in ruling the country. The Confucian ideology pointed out the prerequisites for people to be recruited as mandarins and assistants, who had to satisfy two basic ethical criteria: loyalty and humanity. The loyalty here should be understood first as the loyalty to the king and to the country in a broader sense (because in the Vietnamese’s consciousness, the king synonimised the country). With loyalty, one must know how to do his/her best for the interests of the king and the country or even sacrifice his/her life for the king and the country. And the humanity means the love and sympathy for other people. For feudal mandarins, it was the concern and care for the people’s life, the guidance of people in their work and against wrongdoings. In final analysis, the virtues required from feudal mandarins, according to Confucian conception, demonstrated through their sense of self-sacrifice of their own interests, the full awareness of their duties, diligence in their work, the placement of the interests of the king and the country above their own.
Good virtue was the first but not the only criterion. In addition to ethical requirements according to the Confucian ideology, feudal mandarins had also to possess talents and wisdom. When recruiting mandarins and assistants, feudal lords and kings always focussed on the virtue and talent as the twin criteria. King Minh Mang of the Nguyen dynasty once affirmed: To govern the country, priority must be given to fostering talented persons. Yet, in the feudal society, the conception of the mandarins’ talents, wisdom and capability was also influenced by the Confucian philosophy, which held that a talented person had to be the one who was proficient in civility, protocol, literature, poems, the one who was skilled in retorting and flexible to circumstances… Yet, the criteria on capability were sometimes not restricted to the proficiency of literature and poems but broadened, more specific and practical. King Tu Duc of the Nguyen dynasty, when selecting mandarins for the royal court, paid attention to their capability, saying talented persons were those who were fully “virtuous and exemplary, or capable of fulfilling their assigned tasks, of pacifying the internal situation and conquering people outside the country, proficient in politics, being able to make the people rich, the country strong…”
2. The training and selection of mandarins were effected mainly through competitions and examinations.
In order to build the centralized State apparatus, the feudal regimes in Vietnam recruited mandarins by two ways: “Nhiem tu” (recruitment and selection from among children of aristocratic and royal families) and “thu si” (competitions and examinations). The regime of “Nhiem tu” was very popular during the Dinh and Le dynasties and maintained to the later years though only at a limited extent. From the Ly to Nguyen dynasties, the regime of “thu si” (recruiting mandarins through competitions and examinations) strongly developed in various forms.
According to historical records, the first examination was organized in 1075 (during King Ly Nhan Tong’s time) to recruit people for the academy specialized in drafting the royal court’s documents, thus opening a new period in which the feudal mandarins were selected through examinations which were held more regularly, with more and more candidates, including commoners, with broader and broader contents covering not only literature and ideology but also important matters of the country. When selecting people with talents and virtues for high positions in the royal court, the king often put questions on method of ruling the country, the code of conducts, the solutions to national problems and difficulties.
Besides regular examinations to select mandarins for district to central administrations, the feudal states also held competitions and examinations to select personnel for State bodies. The candidates had to knowhow to compile documents and had certain knowledge (about mathematics and criminal laws). Such examinations were carefully recorded in many historical books.
Together with the recruitment of civilian mandarins and officials through examinations, the feudal dynasties in Vietnam also carried out the training of military officers through various forms. The selection of military mandarins was based mainly on their prestige and actual capabilities. Yet, the feudal lords and kings always paid due attention to the practice and training of military officers, particularly their commanding and organizational skills, in order to promote the really talented and capable people. Many kings of the Ly dynasty joined military officers in practicing the shooting while during the Tran dynasty martial arts schools were opened and king Le Thanh Tong himself repeatedly inspected the military exercises and way of commanding by officers.
Generally speaking, apart from its limitations such as its rigidity in examination contents…, the feudal way of recruiting and selecting mandarins through regular examinations is of positive significance. With this regime, the feudal dynasties in Vietnam succeeded in recruiting and selecting really capable persons (according to the then feudal views) for different posts in the royal courts and local administrations. Through competitions and examinations, the feudal dynasties trained out a contingent of learned mandarins. Basically, Confucian scholars having talents and graduating from such examinations were put in important positions, having met the country’s management requirement. In order to protect the royal interests and make up for the limitations of the above-said method, the feudal regimes in Vietnam also undertook to recruit and select talents from among children of aristocratic families. Moreover, they attached special importance to the way of recruiting capable, qualified and talented persons from among the mass through the regime of “tien cu” (recommending) in order to fully tap the great human resources among the population and not to miss any talents who, for this or that reason, could not participate in or failed such examinations.
In short, the training and recruitment of mandarins during the feudal time in Vietnam were conducted mainly through the regime of competitions and examinations besides the regimes of “nhiem tu” (selection and recruitment from among children of aristocratic and royal families) and “tien cu” (recommending by other persons). Each of the above-mentioned ways had its own pluses and minuses though all aimed to select right persons with virtues, talents, knowledge and capabilities for the ruling apparatus.
3. The employment and promotion of mandarins in the State apparatus were basically based on personal capabilities and forte.
On the above-mentioned training and recruitment principles, the feudal regimes were all consistent in employing talented persons suited for each domains even though the latter were not royal family members. That was why, Ly Thuong Kiet, an ordinary but talented person, was promoted to the rank of a general during the Ly dynasty and given the royal family name. Or under the Tran regime, feudal rulers paid due attention to the virtues and capability of individuals though important positions were also given to royal family members. “Toan thu” chronicle recorded the case where Doan Nhu Hai, talented and virtuous person, was appointed a high-ranking official, while Bao Hung, a royal titlist, was “not assigned any post for State affairs because he had no talent though being dearly loved by the king.” Or the case of Nguyen Si To and Thu Bo, who had once been the trusted courters of crown prince Tran Anh Ton before the latter came to the throne, were not assigned any important position because they were immoral.
On the basis of selecting virtuous and talented persons, various feudal States assigned tasks to them according to their capabilities and fortes in order to bring into the fullest play the mandarins’ inner resources and capabilities. For instance, honest, virtuous and upright persons were appointed to the post of royal court judge or chief inspector. Or knowledgeable persons were invited to teach crown princes, successors to the throne. Or persons who were familiar with customs and practices were assigned to take up inspection tours of distant islands or border regions. Because of this, many fully promoted their capabilities to work for the king and the country.
Taking the capability and strong points of people as the basis for appointing mandarins to suitable posts, the feudal States always paid attention to detecting mandarins’ capabilities and fortes through examinations, surveys, tests, inspection or even through the performance of their assigned tasks, or through public polls… in order to make proper arrangement, including the transfer of mandarins to other posts or dismissals, for higher efficiency in their activities.
4. To apply the regime of regular inspection and test as well as good-treatment and penalty policies towards mandarins.
While paying due attention to the recruitment, selection and arrangement of mandarins, the feudal states also maintained the regime of regular inspection and test of mandarins’ virtues and capability, which served as basis for rewarding or punishing as well as for rearranging and promoting mandarins. While the recruitment examinations in the feudal regimes were rigid, more theoretical and scholastic, the virtue and capability tests were on the contrary more dynamic and practical, which aimed to reassess the capabilities and strong points of mandarins as compared to the requirements of practical work. The inspection and tests were conducted regularly and unexpectedly with not only rank-and-filers but also high-ranking mandarins in the court. King Anh Tong of the Ly dynasty set the rule for inspection and tests of civilian and military officials once every 9 years, which was also maintained by the Tran regime. Meanwhile the feudal states of the Le dynasty often organized tests for incumbent mandarins, particularly judiciary officials who had to take an examination called “Hoang Tu” in which the king directly set the examination themes and made on-spot inspections. “Toan thu” chronicle recorded that Luong The Vinh and Do Han, high-ranking mandarins who had once been persons with great talents and high academic degrees, were blamed by the king for poor results in such tests due to their negligence in furthering their self-studies and training. King Tu Duc of the Nguyen dynasty also set the rule that civilian and military officials were subject to tests every three years and in June 1054, King Tu Duc himself reset the rule for tests of mandarins in order to classify them into four grades: excellent mandarins who would be promptly promoted without any delay; good mandarins who would be promoted according to order and seniority; the average would remain in their old positions; and persons at the bottom of the list would be retired.
Through the above-said inspection and tests, the feudal regimes could not only assess and classify mandarins according to their capabilities and talents but also stimulate them in their self-training and fostering so as to be able to meet the requirements of work.
In order to use the contingent of mandarins more efficiently the feudal regimes attached special importance to the application of good-treatment policies towards mandarins. The mandarins were paid with salaries and bonuses adequately enough to ensure their family life at different levels, depending on their ranks. The bonus policies varied from time to time, in levels and distribution ways. Bonusses were paid sometimes in cash, sometimes in land or even in objects… but often at fairly stable and high levels to avoid corruption committed by mandarins. In addition, the regime of reward and sanction was applied to mandarins. Those who tried their best to fulfil their tasks and obtained good results would be properly rewarded while those who neglected their duties thus causing adverse consequences would be duly punished. This was an effective measure to encourage officials to try their best in their work.
5. The feudal states’ policies on training, appointment and employment of mandarins were institutionalized
Because of the nature of the public duty activities performed by mandarins, the feudal regimes paid due attention to the institutionalization of policies towards mandarins into specific law provisions.
Just studying the contents of some major feudal laws and codes such as “hinh thu” (Criminal law) of the Ly dynasty, “Hinh thu” of the Tran dynasty, “Quoc Trieu Hinh Luat” (the Criminal Law of Royal Court) of the Le regime, “Hoang trieu luat le” (Royal court law), we realize that a large number of law provisions were devoted to the mandarindom, prescribing the common crimes committed by mandarins. According some historical documents, there were at least a separate law on mandarindom during the Tran time and the “Quoc Trieu Quan Che” (Royal Court Regulations on Mandarins) during the Le dynasty (1471).
The institutionalization of feudal states’ policies on mandarins was rather detailed and concrete, with law provisions on ranks and grades of mandarins; criteria for rank and grade classification; the duties and powers of mandarins under each specific rank and grade; the regime of responsibility for assigned tasks and the violation of the regulations on mandarins…
Besides, laws also defined sanctions against acts committed by commoners towards mandarins such as insulting mandarins, attacking officials on public duty, causing disturbances that affecting the performance of public duties… in order to create favorable conditions for mandarins to fulfill their duties.
In reality, the systematic law provisions on mandarindom of the feudal regimes created good basis for the standardization of the contingent of mandarins with their specific powers and duties, the better assessment of mandarins in order to ensure the efficient performance of public duties.
Above are some progressive aspects of the training, recruitment and employment of feudal mandarins in Vietnam. However, all these factors, even those considered progressive, revealed their limitations, of course, due to their historical conditions. So, what should be inherited and what should be overcome in the way of recruiting, employing and promoting virtuous and talented persons for the State apparatus shall be of practical significance for today and the future as well.-