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Lawyer TRAN THI TUYET
State and Law Research Institute
Following the defeat of Ho Quy Ly's successor in his resistance war against the Chinese feudal aggressors in 1407, Dai Viet (the name of the then Vietnam - Ed.) became a vassal of the Ming empire in China.
In their attempt to put an end to Dai Viet's national independence and enslave the country for ever, the foreign rulers implemented a policy of heavy economic exploitation and cultural assimilation, brutally repressing the population, annexing Dai Viet to the territory of the Ming empire and destroying the national cultural heritages.
Under the Ming invaders' harsh rule, the country was trampled upon, the people's right to live and dignity were scorned. All this gave rise to the anti-Ming movement for national liberation which spread so widely that the foreign invaders could not stamp it out though the resistance went through very difficult times. Only in 1414, that is seven years after their congest, could the Ming invaders fully occupy the country and establish their rule.
The continuous, vigorous and widespread uprisings waged by the people of Dai Viet created an important premise for the Lam Son uprising to take shape, develop then gain complete victory.
Led by Le Loi (1385-1433), who was born into a wealthy and influential family in Thanh Hoa province, the uprising broke out in February 1418 in the mountain area of Lam Son (Tho Xuan district, Thanh Hoa province), and quickly developed into a national liberation struggle. Ten years later, in 1428, it was crowned with complete victory. For three centuries afterward, Dai Viet enjoyed complete independence free from any other aggression by the northern feudal empire.
Le Loi was enthroned and founded the late Le dynasty, chose Dong Do (Thang Long, now Hanoi) as capital city, and renamed the country into Dai Viet. In more than 300 year's existence (1428-1788), the State and the law under the Posterior Le went through many reforms and modifications through different periods. However, on the basis of the organization, activities and nature of the State and of the legal documents promulgated then as well as their impacts on all aspects of the social life, the Le dynasty can be divided into two major periods:
1. The early period (called Le So), from 1428 to 1527. This was period of prosperity and development of the Vietnamese feudal State and law.
2. The late period of the Le dynasty (called Le Mat), from 1533 to 1789(1). This was the period of decline of the Le dynasty which led to its downfall, a period that witnessed the disintegration and crisis of the Vietnamese feudal regime.
The great victory of the Lam Son uprising created very favorable conditions for consolidating national independence and stepping up national construction. During the Le So period, the feudal regime actively contributed to consolidating and promoting the gains of the resistance war against the foreign aggressors and strengthening national sovereignty; and at the same time consolidating the ruling position, and the privileges and prerogatives of the feudal land lord class.
With the development of the Le monarchical system initiated by Le Thai To (Le Loi) as well as the post-war economic restoration and development, the feudal regime in Vietnam moved vigorously from the aristocratic monarchy (in the late Tran dynasty) to the bureaucratic monarchy (under the regime of Ho Quy Ly) to the absolute monarchy during the first half of the Le So period which was perfected in the late 15th century, particularly under King Le Thanh Tong's rule (1460-1497).
Right from the start, the State apparatus of the Le So dynasty was organized basically after the model of Ly and Tran States. All State powers were gathered in the hands of the Central Government (the Royal Court) headed by the king. However, the monarchy founded and built by Le Loi and other kings during the early Le So period was neither monarchical in nature nor heavily bureaucratic.
The difference between the king and the people was neither profound nor antagonistic. Le Loi manifested noble qualities such as great concern for the people's well-being; education of children; admonition against luxury, wastefulness, corruption and laziness among the mandarinate.
Right in 1427 when laying besiege to Dong Do (Hanoi), then under the Ming's occupation, Le Loi already established mandarin posts in the royal court: such as tu do, tu ma, tu khong(2). It can be said that the organizational structure of the Central Government during that time was very simple, intended mainly to meet the requirements of the liberation war and to strengthen the rear. After the liberation of Dong Do in 1428, the Central Government apparatus was strengthened with many high-ranking posts held by members of the royal family under the direct control of the king, and with two personnel classification scales: the civil servants composed of high-ranking mandarins to manage the administrative apparatus; and the military high-ranking officers to look after the military apparatus.
Under the reign of various kings of the Le dynasty, notably Le Thai Tong (1434-1442) and Le Nhan Tong (1443-1459), mandarinate ranks and posts were established in the same pattern as under Le Thai To, the founder king.
When King Nghi Dan took power (1459-1460), the central administration apparatus saw numerous changes and was consolidated with high centralization and autocratization. In addition to 2 ministries - “Lai” (Personnel) and “Le” (Rites) - set up under Le Thai To, 4 new ministries - “Ho” (Budget) “Binh” (Defense), “Hinh” (Justice) and “Cong” (Labor) were founded to manage internal and external affairs. This six-ministry regime was maintained from then till the collapse of the feudal state in Vietnam (in 1945). Apart from the six ministries, Nghi Dan established six departments to supervise the work of the six respective ministries.
The State apparatus set up under king Le Thanh Tong (1460-1497) became a model of the centralized monarchical state in Vietnam. To concentrate more and more power into the king's hands, Le Thanh Tong redetermined the royal court's procedural system and changed the regulations on the mandarinate, affirming his desire to establish a model ruling apparatus of the Vietnamese feudal regime. In his royal edict “Hieu dinh quan che” (1471) on the establishment of the mandarinate regulations, Le Thanh Tong stressed the need to concentrate more power into the hand of the central administration headed by the king, while clearly stating his intention to manage by himself all the court's affairs. He attached importance to supervisory work, the supervisory agencies as well as the inter-relations among the various agencies and ministries. He laid stress on the clear division of work and responsibilities for each agency and each department in the State apparatus; on the absolute loyalty to the king; on the strict observance of law, etc.
In order to gather the power into the king's hands, the post of prime minister was abrogated; and the king himself handled important affairs and worked directly with high-ranking mandarins, with the six ministries, the six departments and other organs of power in the court... The intermediate agencies of the central administration were reduced to a small number in order to ensure efficiency of the State apparatus. Le Thanh Tong gave new names to the six departments corresponding to the six ministries and at the same time laid down clear definitions for their functions and powers, that is to supervise the activities and performance of the six ministries.
In 1466, King Le Thanh Tong set up six new sections to perform duties other than those given to the six departments which actually detained the real power in the State apparatus, supervising almost all major affairs in the royal court. A number of specialized agencies under previous administrations were dissolved, while some new ones were created and strengthened organizationally and functionally such as: “Ngu su dai” to supervise the work of the mandarins, both their achievements and defects and report them to the king, supervise the trial of major cases, under special assignment by the King; the “Han lam vien” to take charge of the drafting of all royal edicts; the “Dong cac vien” to make amendments and supplements to the documents drafted by the “Han lam vien”, and to advise the king on the royal court's affairs; the “Quoc tu giam” to take care of the Van Mieu (the Temple of Literature) and the education and training of the princes and princesses; the “Tu thien giam” to supervise the astrological work, making calendars, and forecast the weather in order to advise the king on good and bad omens; the “Thai y vien” to look after the health of king, and the whole royal family.
The local administration was organized in a tight-knit system so as to ensure the uniform and effective management by the Central Government. King Le Thai To divided the country into five “dao” (region), each headed by a high-ranking mandarin called “Hanh khien” who cumulated administrative, juridical and also military powers. Each “dao” was defended by an army corps headed by a military commander. Below the “dao” were the “lo” (provinces), “tran” (cities), “phu” or “huyen” (for the plains) and “chau” (for mountain regions). Such unit was ruled by a mandarin in charge of all the administrative, military and juridical affairs. “Xa” (commune) was the grass-roots administrative unit divided by Le Loi into three categories, Dai Xa, Trung Xa and Tieu Xa (Large, Medium and Small communes).
Under Le Thanh Tong, the country was administratively divided into 13 “dao” (regions), and the local administration underwent considerable reforms with the dissolution of such intermediate administrative units as “lo” (province), “tran” (city); and the replacement of the one-man rule in the “dao” by the rule by a number of agencies with a clear division of responsibility among the agencies. The administrative, juridical and military affairs in the “dao” were handled by three separate agencies - “Thua ty”, “Hien ty” and “Do ty”. More attention was given to the judiciary and the judgment activities. At the district level, besides mandarins specialized in judicial affairs, the local chiefs retained their firm hold on the juridical power. In fact, the Central Government under King Le Thanh Tong could control the communal administration by different measures. For instance, the election of the commune chief was conducted in accordance with strict regulations and concrete criteria. All the above-mentioned measures helped the Central Government to directly and easily control the local administration and to curb the tendency to concentrate more power on the localities, and any possible harm to the king's autocratic rule.
Like previous regimes, the Le dynasty also maintained the regime of regular examinations at the national level in order to select intellectually and morally qualified persons for different posts in the royal court.
During the Le So period, the regular army was strong in number, strictly organized and well trained for combat. The “soldier-cum-peasant” policy continued to be applied so as to reduce the number of people detached from agricultural production, and reduce State spendings as well. Armymen took turns to work the rice fields, with half staying in active service while the other half returning to the countryside to till the land.
The State set strict regulations on the recruitment and organization of the reserve force. Once every three years the State conducted a census and a “residence registration” in order to recruit men for the army.
The regular army of Le So regime was composed of two forces - the palace guard (defending the capital) and the local armed forces. The commander and men of the palace guard were carefully selected, chiefly from among children of State officials.
All army corps and services including the navy, infantry, elephant - mounted troops, cavalry, were strongly developed and well organized with concrete regulations for each service, and each unit. They were also equipped with new weapons: such as rudimentary cannon and flame throwers. Arsenals were built by the State to produce weapons and ammunition.
So, the army became a key instrument to protect the feudal State, and played a very important role in defending the territory and sovereignty of Dai Viet.
Le So was a prosperous and peaceful time of the feudal regime in Vietnam, which witnessed no foreign invasion, no peasants' uprising; the population enjoyed a happy life. This was brought about by the prescient internal and external policies of the then feudal State.
Economically, Le So abolished the system of fiefs and adopted concrete land and tax policies, creating conditions for the private ownership of land to develop while strengthening the central feudal government. The guideline of the Le So regime in the economic field was “agricultural promotion” which was reflected in different measures such as land reclamation for the construction of new villages; the ban on leaving land uncultivated; the reduction of tax on newly reclaimed land; setting up of plantations; building dykes and canals. Besides, traditional trades and crafts as well as handicraft production were encouraged to develop.
Politically, the Le So family implemented various policies to prevent and suppress the segmentarist tendency and ensure the concentration of absolute power into the king's hands. The royal nobles were not allowed to own farms and feuds, nor to organize their private armies. The State did not appoint aristocrats and mandarins to govern localities far from the capital. Only a few royal nobles were given key positions in the court while the majority of them were not allowed to involve in the court's affairs.
With its political prestige, the Le So regime actively contributed to strengthening the national unity bloc in a unified country. Like the previous regimes, the Le So sought ways and means to win over the mountain tribal chiefs, giving them prerogatives, offices and titles and more power over their localities, turning them into sort of representatives of the royal court. They were fully authorized to rule the local people by their own customs and practices. Those who were inclined to segmentarism or incited by foreign forces to oppose the royal court were mercilessly suppressed.
Ideologically and culturally, under the Le dynasty, especially King Le Thanh Tong, Confucianism asserted its dominant position and became the orthodox ideology of the feudal regime. When introduced into Dai Viet, it was more or less modified to suit the practical requirements and characteristics of the Vietnamese society. Confucian scholars were thought highly of; Confucian studies were encouraged by the State... The national culture continued developing; the “Nom” script - transliteration of Vietnamese language into Chinese characters - was used in literary creation; while new achievements were recorded in the fields of medicine, pharmacy, mathematics, history, etc. Folk arts inherited from the Ly and Tran dynasties continued flourishing.
At the peak of its development in the 15th century, Dai Viet became a powerful State in Southeast Asia. Yet, like the previous dynasties of Ly and Tran, the Le regime implemented a flexible foreign policy towards neighboring countries while remaining resolute in defending the country's territorial integrity and sovereignty.
The 15th century marked a new step of development in the legislative work of the Vietnamese feudal regime. King Le Thai To and his successors, particularly Le Thanh Tong, paid great attention to legislation and the enforcement of law in the management of the political, economic and social life of the country, thus consolidating and strongly developing the feudal regime. Laws promulgated during the Le So period were abundant in their number and rich in their contents; most of them were regulations on the organization of the State apparatus, on the mandarinate, land, taxes, rites, the organization of the army, maintenance of national security and social order.
Noteworthy among those legal documents was the “Quoc trieu hinh luat” (Penal Code of the National Court). It was amended in 1483 and renamed “Le Trieu hinh luat” (Penal Code of the Le dynasty), which was later commonly known as “Luat Hong Duc” (Hong Duc Code) considered the major and most important code in the feudal period, not only in the early period of the Le dynasty but also for the entire more than three centuries existence of the Posterior Le dynasty.
“Thien Nam du ha tap” was a giant 100-volume collection of regulations, royal edicts, decrees, compiled during the reign of King Le Thanh Tong.
“Hoang trieu thu khe the thuc” (1469-1471) and “Hong Duc thien chinh thu” (1470-1497) were the collections of legal documents concerning purchase and sale contracts, civil and penal proceedings.
According to Phan Huy Chu's “Lich trieu Hien chuong loai chi” (Bibliology of Monarchical Publications), it was under the Le So that the “Luat thu” (1440-1442) by Nguyen Trai and “Quoc trieu luat lenh” (1440-1442) by Phan Phu Tien were compiled.
In a word, the centralized monarchical regime of the Le So was a period of vigorous development of the Vietnamese society. The monarchy scored many achievements not only in the field of building State and legislation law but also in various respects of the political, economic, cultural and social life of the country. It was, therefore, thought by many that the Le So dynasty was the peak of the feudal regime in Vietnam.-
Footnotes:
(1) This period will be discussed in the next issue.
(2) “Tu do”: was in charge of foreign affairs, culture and to look after rites; “Tu ma” to look after military and juridical affairs; “Tu khong” to look after other aspects of social life.-