>>“Huong uoc” and its role in Vietnam today
>>From village codes to regulations in present-day society
To Dong Hai
It can be said that “huong uoc” is a part and parcel of the system of traditional culture passed from generation to generation among the population. It has contributed to regulating acts, behaviors and relations between individuals and individuals as well as between individuals and the community. In the context of social and cultural system of the population community, “huong uoc” has become a typical cultural activity of a village community, the conduct standard as well as the morality standard of the village community, first of all the family and clan communities. It has symbolized the village culture and the sense of village community. For all these, “huong uoc” has been voluntarily observed by every member of the village community.
Moreover, “huong uoc” has demonstrated the human behavior towards nature and ecological environment. Almost all “huong uoc” have contained provisions on common sanitation, the protection of clean water sources as well as the greenery, the village bamboo hedges and the natural environment which has played a very important role on human life. Formulated in the process of national existence and development, “huong uoc” has been supplemented and adjusted through many generations so as to become the typical cultural trait of the Viet majority people and an effective instrument for community management.
Unlike the customary laws of the ethnic minority people, “huong uoc” was nothing but the conventions in each rural village when the feudal State was formulated. The feudal administration under the regime of concentrated power time and again attempted to abolish “huong uoc” from the village life in order to make way for the State laws to become the sole legal system which must be strictly observed by all village communities. Yet, it was a failed attempt as many feudal dynasties had realized that the feudal State laws could not cover all aspects of life while “huong uoc”, as the product of a specific village community, was easily accepted and observed by every villager, old and young, male and female, and gradually became an effective instrument to further consolidate the central feudal administration, thus having enjoyed the State’s encouragement and support.
Different from the State law which was unified and binding nationwide, “huong uoc” was characterized by the particularities, diversity of each locality and each population community. Even within a community, “huong uoc” was applied flexibly to different cases, and its flexibility made “huong uoc” easily acceptable to and voluntarily respected and observed by all people in the village community. Unlike the State laws which were enforced with im-position and coercion, “huong uoc” exerted its effect on the basis of the community pressure, the family structure, the clan cohesion, the public opinion…, which all made people implement it voluntarily.
As a part of the rural people’s cultural and spiritual life, “huong uoc” always adjusted itself to be able to adapt to the social circumstances and cultural characteristics of a society within a given period of time and at a given stage. Being compatible with the social community as well as the customs and practices of the village community, “huong uoc” has shown its vitality in the community life.
When the feudal regime was in its prime time with “wise kings and good-mannered subjects,” with fair, just and transparent legislation, “huong uoc” was often unified with the royal court’s laws, thus contributing to the creation together with the State law the social stability and peace. On the contrary when the feudal regime was in decline with corrupted mandarins and social disturbance as manifested in the popular saying “ night robbers are enemy while daytime robbers are mandarins”, being a tool for rural management, “huong uoc” opposed the injustice done onto innocent people by the central feudal administration, the corruption committed by mandarins and troubles caused by the State laws. Perhaps for this reason, the saying “phep vua thua le lang” (the king’s laws submit to the village’s rules) appeared during that time, thus lively reflecting the relationship between “huong uoc” and the royal court’s laws when the feudal regime was counting its doomsday.
Nevertheless, having come into being under the feudal regime, “huong uoc”, besides its pluses, has shown some negative aspects in reflecting backward feudal ideas, such as sectionalism which greatly obstructed the national unification in terms of legislation and social organization, the superstitious practices which were greatly abused by local rulers to strangle people’s freedom and democracy, to suppress and exploit villagers, as well as strong discrimination against women, as typified through the best-known image of unmarried pregnant women having their head clean-shaven and painted white with lime before being let drift on rivers, a harsh penalty against female violators of the Confucian ideology and principle of “tam tong tu duc” (three obediences: to the father before marriage, to the husband after the marriage and to son after the husband’s death), and four virtues: “cong” (labor), “dung” (countenance), “ngon” (well-managed speech) and “hanh” (good behavior).
Despite all its minuses as mentioned above, “huong uoc” can have its progressive elements brought into full play, especially in the period of national renewal when the State law is the common instrument to effect the State management over the society. “Huong uoc moi” (new huong uoc) or new rural convention is the continuity and promotion of our forefathers’ traditional cultural values as well as precious experiences in the management of the society and communities in order to maintain village security and order, to promote the sense of mutual love and mutual assistance among members of the village community. This will further contribute to the sustainable development of the Vietnamese countryside in general and the village community in particular, and also to the long lasting and development of the Vietnamese society at present and in the future.-