To Dong Hai
The ancient huong uoc is a convincing testimony to the two-way relations between the lang (village) in its capacity as a relatively independent social unit of the Viet people in the natural and irrevocable process of historical development of the Viet society, and the State. On the one hand, the village wants to consolidate its community and strengthen its community management, tries to influence and regulate the relations between individuals and the community and establish the ethical norms and lifestyle of the community. On the other hand, to strengthen the unity of the State power, the feudal State has progressively interfered in the traditional power structure of the village in order to turn the village into the nuclear administrative unit of the State administration. This transformation has taken place in a latent and persistent way resulting in the formation of a relationship between the village and the State characterized by mutual concession: the autonomy and independence of the village, which lie within the framework of the State regulations. In other words, it is self-management and self-administration within the framework of the State.
Right after their conquest of Vietnam, the French colonialists wanted to have a firm grasp on the administrative apparatus of the Viet and its forms of administrative management. According to researchers, following the First World War, the French decided to reform the administrative apparatus in Vietnam in order to make it more effective in service of their important goals at the time. Thus, the ancient huong uoc with many strict and cumbersome regulations some of which were clear affirmations of the independence and singularity of the ancient administrative system at the villages, was no longer suitable.
From August 1921, France decided to reform the administrative apparatus at the village level which it called rural administrative reform. This reform was focused on the replacement of the Council of Dignitaries, the traditional administrative management apparatus which was then considered by the French to be stagnant, corrupt and incompetent, by the Council of Representatives of Family Clans, and on the readjustment of the apparatus of functionaries running the affairs of the village. In a more concrete move, the French colonialists drafted reformed huong uoc to conform to the particularities of each village. The model huong uoc was written in quoc ngu, the romanized script. A number of them also have French and Han (Chinese) versions. The reformed huong uoc is basically divided into two parts, the general provisions consisting of regulations concerning the principles of organization and activities of the council of representatives of family clans, the management of the budget, the tasks and powers of the apparatus of functionaries, the judiciary and court system, preservation of order and security, regulations on agricultural production, education, communications, roads and bridges, rituals, protection of the ecology environment, registration of households and household memberships.
The second part deals with customs and habits. Since they could not set down model regulations for all villages, the French colonial administration only provided for general regulations on the reduction of intricated procedures and harmful habits in the observance of the village hierarchy, and the organization of weddings, funerals, celebrations, etc.
For instance, the huong uoc of Cau Mo village, Binh But canton, Vinh Loc district, Quang Hoa prefecture, Thanh Hoa province, compiled in 1942 (17th year of Bao Dai’s reign), sets down the following:
“The inhabitants of Cau Mo village, Binh But canton, Vinh Loc district, Thanh Hoa province, unanimously adopt this reformed administrative record of the village: The State must have public law so that the society can preserve order. Villagers must have their own conventions in order to reform the traditions and customs. Our village earlier had its own rules but these rules were laden with many intricacies and inconveniences and as such no longer conform to the present time when civilization is moving incontrovertibly forward. The aim of civilization depends chiefly on the reform of customs. That is why, we villagers have met and subscribed to the State decision to write new conventions in order to pick up what is useful and discard what is harmful to the people. This process will continue until all the regulations are uniformly reformed...
In this huong uoc, Article 15 of the opening clause, 1st item, provides that the representatives of family clans are members of the Council of Dignitaries.
Nevertheless, the Council of Representatives of Family Clans yielded little efficiency in its activities due to the dispute in the arrangement of the hierarchy among the clans and the lack of experiences in administrative management, and moreover met with bitter resistance from the old Council of Dignitaries. That is why, in 1927 the French colonialists had to restore the Council of Dignitaries. Thus, the two councils, the Council of Representatives of Family Clans and the Council of Dignitaries, jointly looked after the management of the village. In 1941 the Council of Representatives of Family Clans was abolished and the Council of Dignitaries with a wider representation became the sole managing body of the village. It played a crucial role in the villages as twenty years earlier. However, the ancient huong uoc has been in fact modified and reformed especially as far as the organization and activities of the village administrative mechanism are concerned. For the first time in the history of the development of the Vietnamese society, the conventions regarding all aspects of social life in the village were officially put into the written form. Once again the State tried to interfere in the life of the village. Only this time, it was not the feudal State but the protectorate State and the legal system of the French colonialists with some modifications to conform with a semi-feudal and semi-colonial society.
The reasonable regulations in the ancient huong uoc were retained in the reformed regulations in the form of copies. The supplementary or new regulations were recorded in the reformed huong uoc in the form of supplements or additions. For instance, in the 3rd Chapter concerning patrol of the huong uoc of Cau Mo village mentioned above, there were four additions including the following on the registration of household memberships:
“Whenever a relative living in another village comes to visit a villager and spends the night with him, the host must bring betel and areca nuts to report to the village chief who shall certify the visitor as an honest person. Failing to do so, the host shall have to bear responsibility.”
Apart from the supplements and additions, the reformed huong uoc basically retained the provisions of the ancient huong uoc. For instance, in the regulations concerning administrative reforms, the reformed huong uoc retained intact the old provisions on finance, patrol, levies and taxes, social relief, charity activities, sanitation, road and bridge building and repair, education, village rules...
There were also additions in the reformed huong uoc concerning economic development in the village, the creation of the Economic Council, and assignment of functionaries to look after this work.
Concerning trade, the Economic Council would look after the embellishment of markets and devise measures to increase production in the village and to market the products.
It can be said that although the reformed huong uoc was itself a product of the colonial regime and an instrument for the colonialist administration to tighten its control over the localities, it must be admitted that many clauses of the reformed regulations were more progressive than in the ancient huong uoc. In particular, the punishments prescribed by the ancient huong uoc such as flogging, razing of the head and painting it with lime water with regard to guilty women, were abolished, the onerous celebrations, funerals and weddings were greatly reduced and a system of percentage was introduced into the mandatory contributions to make them simpler and more equitable for all strata of the population.
However, the reformed huong uoc itself did not escape the opposition of the elderly and dignitaries who wanted to preserve the traditional customs and habits of the past. For this reason, in many villages, beside the reformed huong uoc compiled on orders from the colonial administration, another huong uoc was written in Han (Chinese) characters with contents completely different from the reformed one. In particular, this huong uoc excluded the section on General Provisions which most manifestly represented the intention of the colonial rulers while preserving only the clauses on traditional customs and habits.
From the aforesaid, it can be noted that huong uoc is a forceful expression of the mightly and resilient vitality of the Vietnamese culture. At the same time it also represents the conservative and sluggish character of a backward agricultural society and is pervaded with vestiges of the feudal system with its isolationism and lordism. Accordingly, while developing the positive aspects of huong uoc, we must also take appropriate steps to gradually eliminate lordism and regionalism which still affect not only the subconciousness of a family clan, an ethnic community, and the a larger part of the nation but also our advance toward modernization and renovation.
Reformed huong uoc constitutes a form of village management compiled and enacted under the direction of the French protectorate administration. In a number of provinces, almost all villages and communes had compiled their reformed huong uoc. For instance, 443 hamlets, villages and communes in Thai Binh province, had compiled 451 reformed huong uoc. This shows that the sensitive protectorate administration had detected the role and great effect of huong uoc on the management of the countryside and had early known how to use huong uoc in service of its control of the countryside.
Since they reflected the customs, habits, lifestyles and ways of thinking of different localities, the huong uoc differed from one another in their contents. However, they all had this in common: to abide by all the regulations and laws of the (protectorate) State. In the foreword, all the huong uoc almost unanimously laid down the attitude and policy of the French colonial administration towards huong uoc. They invariably made it clear that while huong uoc recorded particular customs and minutiae in the village life, the political aspect (i.e. the policies, line and laws) had necessarily to obey the current decrees and laws of the government.
This viewpoint was clearly reflected in specific provisions of each huong uoc. Where there were already prescriptions by the State, these prescriptions must be the basis for the writing of the provisions in the huong uoc. For instance, in the huong uoc of Phi Liet village, Thuong Liet canton, Dong Quan district, Thai Binh province, in the Overall Political Regulation, Article 1 stressed:
“Political affairs in the village must comply with the decree of the Superior Resident of August 12, 1921 on the reform of the village administration and the guidance on implementation of the decree...”
Article 2. “Pursuant to Article 24 of the decree of August 12, 1921, trip allowances accorded to the family clan representatives, village chiefs and deputy chiefs shall be made according to the following principle...”
All the provisions of huong uoc must, first of all, comply with prescriptions of the State because the provisions in huong uoc are in essence only prescriptions by customs and habits and are only minutiae in village life.
Though the reformed huong uoc aimed to consolidate and strengthen the control of the population by the French protectorate State, what in the huong uoc concerning the customs and habits as well as concrete lifestyle of a village was retained almost intact compared to the ancient huong uoc.
These regulations focused on three important questions in the rural life in Vietnam before the August 1945 Revolution:
- The question of study promotion:
This was a crucial question in the former countryside of Vietnam and was a clear manifestation of the latent thirst for learning of the Vietnamese people. Huong uoc laid down regulations aimed at promoting and maintaining the tradition of study in rural areas. The huong uoc of Hung Quan commune, Cat Dam canton, Thai Ninh prefecture, stipulated:
“It is the duty of parents to get their children to go to school when they are eight years old in order to acquaint themselves with morality and to know how to behave themselves. Parents must not leave their children in vagabondage thus depraving their conduct. When a village has got enough money, it should build a school and keep teachers for the children to get schooling. The expenses on learning and providing upkeep for the teachers as well as the making of benches and tables shall be taken from contributions by the citizens. After the school is built, the village should set aside a sum to buy books, papers and pens to supply children of poor families.”
It can be seen that the study promotion as written in the huong uoc took very concrete and practical forms, even more concrete and practical than the measures we are taking to encourage our children to go to school nowadays.
- The question of agriculture protection:
This question included both the protection and promotion of agricultural production. Formerly the Vietnamese countryside essentially lived on agriculture. The policies of protecting and developing agriculture were laid down very early in the huong uoc, ancient and reformed alike. The regulations on the protection and development of livestock raising and cultivation and the protection of the rice crop during preharvest days were set down very minutiously. These were regulations on the precautions against flood and drought and the fight and prevention of crop pest, on guard and patrol in the fields during harvest time, on the protection of canals, rivers dykes, roads and bridges, on the forbiddance to let cattle and poultry range freely in the fields, to fish with bowl nets or probe for crabs along field boundaries that would harm the rice plants, on the fight against rats and prevention of crop pest. There were also regulations concerning the allocation of public land and the ownership of land.
All these regulations had helped to promote agriculture.
- The question of ecological environment protection:
This question had received keen attention very early in the Vietnamese countryside. The consciousness of the necessity to protect the ecological environment was clearly manifested in the ancient huong uoc and continued to be stressed in the reformed huong uoc.
These were regulations on preserving hygiene at public places, protection of clean water sources, control of epidemics among the cattle and poultry as well as in the human communities, on the fight against rats, sanitation at the market places, on the prevention and treatment of diseases...
The consciousness of protecting the ecological environment appeared very early among the Vietnamese communities. It proves that our ancestors had since time immemorial profoundly understood the close relations between the ecological environment and human development. The reformed huong uoc continued this tradition in the ancient huong uoc and, more than that, developed it to make it more complete and more effective in the conditions of modern times.
It can be said that although it was formulated by the French to serve the aims of the French protectorate State, the positive effects of huong uoc cannot be denied. In particular, the reformed huong uoc had the credit of eliminating the backward and harmful provisions of the ancient huong uoc while inheriting the progressive points in these huong uoc.
Noteworthy is that the reformed huong uoc has provided us with a good model for the formulation of huong uoc based on customs and habits which, nevertheless, is not contrary to the enforcement of the laws promulgated by the State. Moreover, such a huong uoc could supplement the State laws and make them closer to and readily acceptable by the people who would implement it on their own free will.
By pruning the colonial elements in the reformed huong uoc and taking over their progressive points, we will have a good model for building new social norms in rural life to meet the needs of development of the Vietnamese countryside in modern times, especially the need to promote dynamism and autonomy of the people at the grassroots.-