To Dong Hai
Huong uoc are considered regulations on social organization and relations of the members of the village community with the natural environment and ecology, with the village community, family clans and lines, among members of the village community themselves as well as with their own spiritual world. They are a product of the village community, elaborated step by step by members of this community themselves during the process of development of the community, and readjusted and amended gradually to conform with each period of development of society. These readjustments and amendments enabled huong uoc to meet the needs of the community and were accepted and willingly observed by it.
Huong uoc have assumed a variety of names: huong uoc, khoan uoc, dieu uoc, khoan le, huong le, uoc le, huong bien, hoi dinh, hoi uoc... depending on each locality and each period.
Huong uoc made its appearance very early in Vietnam along with the appearance of a full-fledged socio-economic unit, the nuclear unit of the social organization of the ancient Viet: the lang. In the course of its existence and development, the lang of the ancient Viet has preserved a considerable measure of autonomy while assuming its function as the stable grassroots administrative unit to serve as foundation for the stability of the society of the ancient Viet as well as of the present unified Vietnamese state. The Vietnamese society has evolved through many periods: the primitive age, the tribal period, feudal landlordism, absolute monarchy, colonial administrative period, then finally the status of an independent and sovereign state. Together with this evolution of society, huong uoc has gone through many ups and downs and on the whole has exerted positive effects on the development of present-day society.
On the basis of the difference of Huong uoc through different periods of its development, it has adopted the three following forms:
1. Ancient Huong uoc: Researchers agree that huong uoc made its appearance along with the appearance of relatively stable population areas formed during the “oath-taking” ceremonies of village communities. However, the Royal Edict issued in the 5th year of Quang Thuan reign (1464), the oldest document on the existence of huong uoc says: “The villages and communes should not elaborate huong uoc of their own because there are already the common laws of the State” (according to Hong Duc thien chinh thu - translated by Saigon College of Law in 1959 - Article 260, pages 102-103, recorded by Prof. Phan Dai Doan and Dr. Bui Xuan Dinh in their article “Three periods of development of Huong Uoc,” published in Customary Laws and Development of Rural Areas at Present in Vietnam, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi 2000).
Accordingly, researchers temporarily assume that the first period of development of huong uoc - which also corresponds with the first form of huong uoc or ancient huong uoc - covers the period from the 15th century to 1921.
The biggest characteristic of these huong uoc is that they were mostly written in Chinese characters (Han) or in nom (Vietnamese script using Han ideograms).Only a very small number were written in romanized Vietnamese characters. Because they were compiled by the villages separately, these ancient huong uoc differed greatly among themselves in both form and contents, as well as in their division into articles and clauses. Many were written on “giay ban” (hand-made paper made of locally prepared pulp). Some were carved on wooden planks, others were carved on stone slabs and a few were carved on thin sheets of copper (such as the huong uoc of Dong Lao village, now in Dong La commune, Hoai Duc district, Ha Tay province).
Huong uoc of these times also differed greatly in their names as indicated above because each village has its own initiative. In some places, they were called tuc le, in others they are called huong bien, and specifically in some places huong uoc are called chinh tri phong tuc ba (records of politics and customs).
Also diversified was the way the clauses and articles in each huong uoc were arranged. Some huong uoc have hundreds of articles, but some have only three or four articles. In the villages where many people had obtained high diplomas in scholastic pursuits, priority was given to the study promotion. In other villages where many scholars have achieved high honors in the literary contests organized by the king to recruit mandarins, priority was given to clauses and articles on ceremonies to celebrate the success of a new mandarin in the village and the prescriptions as to the ranks and honors accorded to each in the village.
In general, an ancient huong uoc dealt with the following questions:
- The social structure and social relations in the village.
- Protection of security and order in the village.
- Organization of ritual fetes and ceremonies.
- Assurance of fulfillment of obligations of villagers such as tax payment and community labor duty.
- Study promotion, production, protection of the ecological environment.
2. Reformed huong uoc: To strengthen the management over the villages, the French colonial administration decided to make use of the ancient traditional customs and reform the administrative apparatus at the villages and communes which had become increasingly corrupt and ineffective. This was actually the rural administration reform undertaken by the French in Tonkin (North Vietnam) from August 1921.
To institutionalize this policy, the French worked out a model huong uoc - called reformed huong uoc- for the villages to base themselves on it to work out their own huong uoc. The model huong uoc was written in romanized Vietnamese (in some huong uoc, it was written also in Chinese characters and French). There were two distinct parts in this huong uoc:
The first part, called General Provisions or Political Provisions, included 106 articles dealing with:
- The organizing and operating principles of the Council of Family Lines’ Representatives (18 articles).
- Budget revenues and expenditures (17 articles).
- Tasks and powers of the administrative apparatus (5 articles).
- Levies and taxes (7 articles).
- Complaints, suing and judgment (5 articles).
- Guard and patrol (9 articles).
- Protection of farming (10 articles).
- Rescue in case of alert (2 articles).
- Sanitation (7 articles).
- Repair of roads and bridges (10 articles).
- Protection of public properties (3 articles).
- Prohibition of alcoholism and gambling (3 articles).
- Ceremonies to welcome a higher official on a visit to the village (3 articles).
- On education (4 articles).
- On residence and interment of people from outside the village (3 articles).
The second part was devoted to customs and habits. This part was compiled by the villages themselves. Nearly all the huong uoc written by the villages in the early years of the 20th century had an identical General Provisions part (since they directly came from the model Reformed huong uoc. As to the Customs and Habits part, all the villages had kept intact the articles already written in the earlier huong uoc).
In the Reformed huong uoc, with a view to reorganizing the governing body at the village, the French intention was to replace the Council of Dignitaries with the Council of Representatives of Family Lines, but this was a total failure. In 1941 the Council of Representatives of Family Lines was abolished and there remained only the Council of Dignitaries which detained all powers to run the village affairs.
Though a failure, the French policy in elaborating the reformed huong uoc had some positive effects that had impacted strongly the feudal society in the former Vietnamese countryside. For the first time in Vietnam’s history nearly all aspects of life in the villages were set in document for enactment. This was a wise method to transform the State laws into village rules and vice versa in order to channel all aspects of the village life in Vietnam into a common framework. In fact, in the reformed huong uoc, the too austere rules had been alleviated and the too onerous and time-consuming rules and rites abolished. Meanwhile, other rules and customs were preserved and continued to exert their benevolent effect on life in the village.
3. New huong uoc:
After the August 1945 Revolution, especially after 1954, changes in the social structures took place everywhere. This has downgraded the role of the villages and consequently, there was little chance for huong uoc to continue their role.
But not until 1980 when the Central Committee of the Communist Party issued its 10th Resolution on the contract system in agriculture was the village given back its traditional role of an autonomous economic unit, an important factor to promote the development of the countryside. The reappearance of the village in its capacity as a traditional population unit with a relatively independent cultural identity has enabled the re-establishment of huong uoc under a new appellation: quy uoc lang (village conventions), first in a number of villages in the former province of Ha Bac and in 1991 in the whole of this province. The resolution of the Fifth Plenum of the Party Central Committee (7th Congress) held in June 1993 stressed “the need to encourage the building and implementation of the village huong uoc”. On June 19, 1998, the Prime Minister issued Directive No. 24/CT-TTg on elaborating and carrying out the huong uoc at the villages.
The new huong uoc actually are the regulations in the new countryside aimed at developing democracy at the grassroots, giving full play to the strength of tradition in order to develop the rural areas allsidedly, economic, cultural and social, at the village, the important strategic base for renovation, industrialization and modernization and sustainable development of the country.
In any case, huong uoc, through three periods of development under three different forms, has always been a product of the village community. It is actually an effective instrument to regulate relations in the modern countryside of Vietnam. It is a motive force to develop the countryside while contributing to effectively preserving the traditional cultural identity of the country and the nation.-