To Dong Hai
During the period between 1921 and 1945 when the August Revolution broke out, a series of village codes were compiled in service of the French colonialists’ rural reform policy aiming to further tighten their grips on Vietnam’s countryside, to ensure their political stability and at the same time to check the widespread revolutionary movement. Such policy also aimed to reform their grassroots State management apparatus which had become corrupt and ever shaky and to alter bad and degenerate customs and practices in Vietnamese villages.
Therefore, the first and foremost thing the French “protectorate” State had to concentrate its efforts to do was to replace the increasingly corrupt and impotent “Hoi Dong Ky Muc” (The Council of Elder Village Notables) with “Hoi Dong Toc Bieu” (The Council of Family Heads) and to replace the old grassroots administration apparatus with a new and more “democratic” one, reorganize the village officials’ machinery, and to control more tightly the budget revenues and expenditures in villages and communes.
To serve their attempts, the French colonialists advocated to replace old “huong uoc”, which had become obsolete and unable to better serve their domination, with the new one, called “huong uoc cai luong” (reformed “huong uoc”) and made according to a model “huong uoc” compiled by the French rulers though added with specific provisions depending on each village’s particular requirements.
The model “huong uoc” was written largely in romanized script, i.e, Vietnamese language (some were written in Chinese or French) with a view to disseminating it widely among the population. It was structured in two parts:
Part One, also called the Political Part, contained the general provisions (or disposition d’ordre gÐnÐrale in French) with 106 articles, including 18 articles on principles for organization and operation of the “Hoi Dong Toc Bieu” (Council of Family Heads), 17 on budget revenue and expenditure, 5 on tasks and powers of the village officials’ machinery, 7 on tax and levy collection, 5 articles on adjudication and lawsuits, 9 on watch and patrol, 10 on protection of agricultural production, 2 on emergency cases upon contingencies, 7 on environmental sanitation, 10 on repair of roads, bridges, sluice gates, 3 on protection of public property, 3 on combat against boozing and gambling, 3 on reception of superior officials, 4 on education, 3 on residence and provisional burial…
Part Two was on village customs. As each village had its own customs which were age-old and passed from generation to generation, the colonialist administration could not give a model “huong uoc” on village customs. So, what it could do in this Part of the reformed “huong uoc” was to state general ideas, urging provincial and district mandarins to advise villages under their control on changing their backward customs and bad habits. For this reason, almost all reformed “huong uoc” compiled during the early ’20s left this Part intact with provisions of old “huong uoc.”
Set up to replace “Hoi Dong Ky Muc” (the Council of Elder Village Notables), “Hoi Dong Toc Bieu” (Council of Family Heads) proved weak and inefficient in their operation, thus giving way to the French rulers to have restored “Hoi Dong Ky Muc” in 1927, then to have abolished “Hoi Dong Toc Bieu” in 1941. However, “huong uoc” saw a number of fundamental changes related to the organization and operation of the village-managing apparatus. For the first time in the history of Vietnam, almost all aspects of the village life, the operation of the village officials’ machinery, the regulations on operation of “Hoi Dong Ky Muc” were institutionalized in writing. The colonialist administration used “huong uoc” as their tool to intervene deeply into the village life and to introduce State laws to every villager. Or in other words, the French legalized the village rules in the State law on the one hand and legalized the State laws through village codes on the other hand, thus having put all aspects of the village life within a framework of the State law through “huong uoc” in order to make everyone strictly observe them.
However, the reformed “huong uoc” witnessed certain progresses. It abolished harsh and severe penalties commonly seen in the old “huong uoc” and minimized or replaced backward village customs and practices such as compulsory funeral feasts, nomination or promotion banquets.
It can be said that right from the ’20s of the past century, shortly after the establishment of their protectorate administration throughout Vietnam, the French colonialists knew how to take advantage of the village codes to expand the impacts of their protectorate laws to every citizen. This was clearly seen in every reformed “huong uoc” which began with the following statement: This “huong uoc” records specific customs and sets forth specific regulations in the village. Meanwhile, the political affairs (meaning the general provisions of the State law) must strictly comply with the decrees and current legislation of the Government”. This has explained why “huong uoc” had coexisted with the State laws and why the French colonialists’ administration still maintained the system of “huong uoc” in Vietnamese villages and communes besides its colonial State laws.
For example: On taxes, “huong uoc” clearly prescribed the villagers’ responsibility to pay taxes to the State with provisions on publicly posting up tax level of each person, each household so as to avoid over-collection by local tax officials.
On villain labor, “huong uoc” clearly defined the ages of all able-bodied male villagers (usually aged between 18 and 49), who had to contribute to public labor which was exempt only for persons who earned high academic degrees or village dignitaries.
All reformed “huong uoc” also dwelt on the villagers’ responsibility to maintain the village order and security against burglary, robbery, to prevent and battle fires and floods, as well as the village hierarchy.
It can be said that the reformed “huong uoc” was the product of a new form of village management during the domination by the French protectorate administration in Vietnam. On the one hand, it did not completely run counter to the feudal and colonial State law, but instead contributed to stabilizing the Vietnamese countryside, consolidating the colonial rule and strengthening the feudal and colonial laws. On the other hand, it continued maintaining and consolidating traditional customs as well as the traditional management of Vietnamese villages and communes. Found in the reformed “huong uoc” were many progressive and positive provisions, reflecting the vitality of the Vietnamese culture and promoting the nation’s fine traditions of humaneness, learning eagerness, industriousness in spite of the harsh colonial and feudal conditions.
Yet, the reformed “huong uoc” also revealed its shortcomings and weaknesses with backward provisions on village hierarchy, compulsory nomination or promotion banquets, wedding feasts funerals, worshipping…, which cost people money and efforts and must be abolished if we wish to inherit the reformed “huong uoc” in building new village convention.-