Pham Diem
The State and Law Research Institute
Village (or “lang” in Chinese-transcribed Vietnamese or “thon” in Chinese) was formerly a basic residence form and a self-sufficing economic unit of the Viet people, where live petty-farmers’ families. Socially, it was a more a less self-governed residence community. Politically, it was the grassroots administrative unit of the feudal State, wherefrom human and material resources were mobilized for feudal monarchies. All these economic, cultural and political elements have constituted the village culture identity of the Viet people, a typical feature of Vietnam’s traditional culture. The village administration structure and management mechanism are the products and also the vivid manifestation of the politico-cultural identity of the Viet people.
I. The village administration structure
The managerial machinery of Vietnam’s traditional village was composed of two major section: the decision-making body and the executive body.
1. The decision-making body
“Hoi Dong Ky Muc” (the Council of Village Notables) was the decision-making body in the village. Having acted on behalf of the village population, “Hoi Dong Ky Muc” was fully empowered to discuss and decide all village affairs, including the allocation of public land to families for farming, the tax collection, the sending of villagers for public labour or military services, the maintenance of public law and order, the preservation of village environment, the settlement of disputes among people.
“Hoi Dong Ky Muc” was elected by villagers, but only the male villagers, called “dinh” in Vietnamese, at certain ages. “Dinh” was categorized into six:
- “Chuc sac”: the village dignitaries who once worked as mandarins or got various academic titles.
- “Chuc dich”: the village officials working in the local executive body.
- “Thi khoa sinh”: Confucian scholars having failed at various exams.
- “Lao hang”: the elderly men who have held a ceremony for recognition of their elderliness (from the age of 50, 55 or higher, depending on each village’s customs).
- “Thuong dinh”: male villagers aged from 18 to before the elderly age.
- “Tre em”: the minor aged under 18.
Among those “dinh”, the minors were not entitled to vote while retired mandarins, scholars, elders could stand for the election to the “Hoi Dong Ky Muc” (The Council of Village’s Notables), depending on each village’s customs and practices. In villages where longevity was highly respected (because longevity, according to Viet people’s perception, is bestowed by the Heaven), “Hoi Dong Ky Muc” was composed mainly of prestigious village elders. In villages where the office and titles were respected according to their customs, such council was composed largely of retired mandarins, scholars and learned persons. Meanwhile in other villages, both longevity and titles were respected by people, the Council was, therefore composed mixedly of prestigious village elders, retired mandarins and scholars.
“Hoi Dong Ky Muc” was the power organ of the village, but not entitled to represent the village in its relations with the higher-level State authorities. The council election results needed not to be recognized by the feudal State.
“Hoi Dong Ky Muc” was headed by a person titled “Tien chi” meaning the person competent to sign first in the resolutions of the village council (“tien” meaning first; “chi” meaning to sign). He was seconded by a person titled “thu chi” (meaning the person competent to sign second). “Tien chi” and “thu chi” were elected from among the members of the “Hoi Dong Ky Muc”.
2. The executive body
In a village, “Hoi Dong Chuc Dich” (the Council of Village Officials) was the executive body of “Hoi Dong Ky Muc”, functioning to enforce the resolutions of the latters. Actually being the grassroots administration of the feudal regime, “Hoi Dong Chuc Dich” represented the village population in its relations with the feudal central State.
“Hoi Dong Chuc Dich” was composed of a number of village officials and assistants. The number of village officials in “Hoi Dong Chuc Dich” varied from village to village, depending on the village size. For instance, in 1483 King Le Thanh Tong issued a decree classifying villages as follows:
- The big village: with 50 family households or more, and the number of village officials for Hoi Dong Chuc Dich in such a village amounted to 4 or 5.
- The medium village: with 300 households or more, and 3 to 4 village officials in “Hoi Dong Chuc Dich”.
The small village: with around 100 households, and 1 or 2 village officials in “Hoi Dong Chuc Dich”.
This classification, however, might change according to each village’s population growth. If the number of households in a small village rose to 300, such village would be categorized as medium and naturally have more village officials in Hoi Dong Chuc Dich. If the number of households in a medium village rose to 500, such village would be graded as big and the number of its officials in Hoi Dong Chuc Dich would rise correspondingly. If a big village got the number of its households rising to 600, 100 households would be separated therefrom for the establishment of a new small village.
Hoi Dong Chuc Dich was headed by an official titled “xa truong” or later “ly truong” (from the time of King Minh Mang (1820) of the Nguyen dynasty on).
“Xa truong” or “ly truong” and other officials of “Hoi Dong Chuc Dich” were elected by “Hoi Dong Ky Muc” and approved by the higher-level State authorities. From the Le dynasty (the 15th century) on, the feudal State, while continuing to let villages elect their officials, set criteria for the village officials. Those who stood as candidates for such positions had to meet the following criteria:
- Being among the prestigious village elders or members of good families, who aged 30 or higher and were not subject to conscription.
- Being literate and well-mannered persons;
- Having no brothers and/or relatives to join Hoi Dong Chuc Dich in order to avoid factionalism;
- Being incorrupt, in good health and capable of performing assigned tasks.
Besides village officials, Hoi Dong Chuc Dich also included a number of assistants such as “Truong Tuan” who was in charge of public order and security in the village, urging people to fulfill their corvee labour, military service and tax obligations to the State...; “chuong ba” (village registrar) who was in charge of registration work, recording and keeping village books. Usually there were two books for a village. One was called “so dinh” (the book of all male villagers) recording ages and names of all male villagers, which served as basis for Hoi Dong Ky Muc to select people for corvee labour or military service and Hoi Dong Chuc Dich to urge such people to fulfill their obligations. The other was called “so dien” (land registration book), recording all public land in the village and the public land already allocated to households for farming, which served as basis for tax collection.
II. Village management mechanism and efficiency
During the feudal time in Vietnam, the village was the grassroots administrative unit of the State and at the same time a highly self-ruled community. All social relations in the village were governed by both the feudal State laws and the village rules.
Firstly, the feudal State introduced its laws to villages under two particular socio-political circumstances: the serious bureaucracy of the feudal State and the high self-rule of villages. For thousands of years, various monarchies, on the one hand, sought to restrict the villages’ autonomy and, on the other hand, had to rely on village organizations to enforce State laws. The feudal State ruled, exploited and controlled people through village communities, and State laws were applied in villages to certain matters directly relating to the vital interests of the State such as national security, royal safety, taxes, conscription... The legal proceedings prescribed in Quoc Trieu Hinh Luat (The Royal Court’s Penal Code) of the Le dynasty (in the 15th century) and the Hoang Viet Luat Le (The Vietnamese Royal Court’s Law and Practices) of the Nguyen dynasty (in the 19th century) stipulated: minor suits had to be settled in villages first and would be brought to district mandarins if they could not be settled there.
Secondly, the village regulations which were built by villages and usually called “huong uoc” (the village convention) or “bo luat” (code) of the village. Throughout the historical process, the feudal State, on the one hand, sought to restrict the expansion of “huong uoc” in order to limit the village autonomy, and, on the other hand, due to the popularity and effectiveness of “huong uoc” among the population, always found ways and means to “feudalize” and control “huong uoc” and considered “huong uoc” a source of State laws enforced in villages. Due to its widespread development in villages from the 15th century on, King Le Thanh Tong had to issue a decree on this matter as follows:
1) Villages are requested not to have “huong uoc” of their own because there have been general State laws.
2) Villages that have different customs and habits may elaborate “huong uoc” and set out prohibitions.
3) If so, “huong uoc” must be drafted by learned, virtuous and aged persons with official titles.
4) The drafted “huong uoc” must be examined and approved or disapproved by higher-level authorities.
5) When there existed “huong uoc”, those who failed to abide by them would be duly punished by higher-level authorities.
The above decree shows that the royal court, while seeking to curb the elaboration of “huong uoc”, still set its firm grip thereon and considered “huong uoc” a source of State laws enforced in villages.
Each village had its own “huong uoc” that regulated all social relations therein. State laws, when introduced into villages, were often “refracted” through village organization and regulations, and could exert their effect and influence only if they were “localized”. Such relationship between the State laws and “huong uoc” was reflected in the most popular and wellknown Vietnamese saying: “The king’s rule of behaviour comes after the village’s customs.”
The management mechanism in traditional villages of the Viet people proved highly effective due to the following factors:
- First, the practicality of activities of the village administration and of “huong uoc”. In the traditional villages, the Viet people were largely small farmers who were self-sufficing and practical-minded producers, caring only for what directly relating to their interests and daily life. The contents of “huong uoc” as well as operation of the village management apparatus all aimed to settle practical and concrete matters such as public land allocation, water drainage and irrigation in service of agricultural production, public order and security, cultural and religious activities, settlement of village disputes through conciliation... All these were actually related to villagers’ practical interests, material and spiri-tual as well, and to their obligations. For this reason, people always showed direct concerns to the organization and operation of the village administration which could not exist if proved ineffec-tive, failing to bring interests to people.
- Second, the application of rewarding and penalty remedies in order to raise the efficiency of the village management. Following are some rewarding or penalty measures:
+ Pecuniary rewards or fines.
+ Village rank promotion or demotion.
+ The increase or reduction of annual obligations.
+ Rod-beating or expulsion from the village if serious crime was committed.
Noteworthy is that the application of such measures was aimed at people’s vital interests (material or spiritual); that rewards or penalties were given or imposed equally on all villagers, regard-less of whether they were village officials or commoners; and that rewards and penalties were made in a timely manner and in accordance with the village regula-tions, then made public to all villagers.
- Third, the public and social opinions in the villages. Though not recorded in “huong uoc” as an implementation measure, the public opinion played a very important role in enforcing the village regulations. There have existed in traditional villages of Vietnam numerous social relations – the relations between neighbours, the relations within mass organizations, associations, families, relatives, villages... – That was why, any acts, good or bad, of any villagers would quickly caught the attention of all; then social opinions- the opinions from friends, the opinions of relatives, the opinions of organizations and associations, the opinions of the entire villages- were all directed at not only the persons in question but also their families, descents, as clearly seen in such wellknown Vietnamese sayings as “con dai cai mang” (The mother is responsible for the foolishness of her child); “mot nguoi lam quan ca ho duoc nho, mot nguoi lam nho ca ho ganh chiu” (the whole family line can get help from its member who becomes mandarins, the whole family line is responsible for filthy acts committed by one of its member).
The social opinions aimed first of all at the honour, one of the vital interests of people, thereby directly harming the material interests of people in question. The strength of the public and social opinions is summarized by the Vietnamese in the following saying:
“Tram nam bia da thi mon,
Ngan nam bia mieng hay con tro tro”,
Literally meaning:
“A stela will wear out in one hundred years,
While in a thousand years, a posthumous infame remains unchanged.”
It can be said that in addition to the rewarding and punitive remedies, the “posthumous infame”, i.e. the public opinions created great effects for the enforcement of State laws and village regulations as well, thus raising the efficiency of the management mechanism of the ancient villages in Vietnam.-