Prof. Phan Dai Doan
(Hanoi National University)
PhD Bui Xuan Dinh (Ethnology Institute)
I. The emergence of huong uoc (village codes)
Until now historians and ethnologists still try to trace the time point of appearance of the first huong uoc or village codes in Vietnam. Their opinions still differ on this question.
Basing themselves on documents evidencing the early appearance and the long existence of the village codes in the villages of three Northeastern Asian countries (China, Japan and Korea) which have the same tradition of self-management as Vietnam, a number of scholars believe that the huong uoc in Vietnam have a “foreign origin”. Others base themselves on the temple stela dating in the Ly - Tran dynasties which provide among other things for the worship of the founder of the temple to presume that these are the primitive forms of huong uoc. In fact, from very early times, there have appeared in the basic habitats of the Viet some elements which may be called “primitive codes”. These are oral regulations on boundaries, on the security of the villages, on the mutual behavior among different strata of the population, on the organization of worship...In particular, in many villages there appeared from very early times rituals called minh the (oath taking) which used to be an activity of secret organizations at the end of the primitive ages preserved until the years prior to the August 1945 Revolution such as in Trung Liet village, Tu Son district, or Hoa Binh and Lung Giang villages in Tien Du district, both in Bac Ninh province, or Ha Loi village in Thach That district, Ha Tay province...). As the population density grew, social and economic relations diversified, customs and rites diversified and life in the villages was no longer “homogeneous”, the oral conventions could no longer meet the needs in communal management, there arises the need to record these oral conventions in written documents. This is the requisite for the emergence of huong uoc or written records of rules and conventions of villages.
However, for huong uoc to come into existence, some other conditions are requred:
1. The village from a population community has become a complete socio-economic unit. Inhabitants of a village are bound together by geographical relations (associated with a concrete social space) combined with blood relations (family and family line) and other relations such as trade, age group, social position, belief and religion... While the conventions of the family lines, guilds, hamlets and branches of family line have a regulatory effect only on a sector of the population, huong uoc regulates all the institutions and members of the village or directs a civil society outside the administration system of the State.
2. The feudal State has intervened deeply in the village, turning each population-social unit into an administrative level at the grassroots of the type “one commune - one village” or “one commune - two or three villages” even though these villages still preserve some degree of their autonomy, shown in a number of traditional customs.
3. There has appeared in each village a council of dignitaries and a group of men of letters, who are educated in Chinese characters enough to compile documents including the huong uoc.
In studying the process of formation and development of the Viet villages in the Red River delta Mr. Bui Xuan Dinh presumes that the huong uoc made its appearance at the end of the Tran dynasty and early the Ho dynasty (late 14th century and early 15th century)(1). Basing themselves on the five-point edict promulgated in 1464 under the reign of king Quang Thuan which stipulates that “The villages should not have huong uoc of their own because there is already the common law of the State”(2), historians presume that huong uoc appeared in early the Le dynasty, became widespread under king Le Thanh Tong (1460-1497) and afterward when the villages of the Viet in the North Vietnam delta have developed quite comprehensively and been deeply feudalized.
II. Evolution of huong uoc
Researchers have now agreed that since their appearance huong uoc have gone through three periods of development:
- From the mid - 15th century to 1921: the villages compiled their own huong uoc, which are now commonly referred to as “huong uoc co” (ancient village codes).
- From 1921 to the August 1945 Revolution the village codes are compiled along the rural reform policy of the French colonialists and therefore are now called “huong uoc cai luong” (reformed village codes).
- From the early nineties of the 20th century up to present which may be called period of restoration of huong uoc — also called “huong uoc moi” (new village codes)”
Below are some essential traits of huong uoc in each period.
1. Huong uoc co (ancient village codes) are compiled by the villages themselves, hence are varied in both content and form. Most of them are written in Han (Chinese) characters on a kind of paper called giay ban. Some villages engraved their codes on wooden boards (as in Tho Trai village, now in Tam Son commune, Tu Son district, Bac Ninh province). The code was made in 1844 under king Thieu Tri. Some villages engraved their codes on stone slabs such as the code of Ngoc Hoi village now in Ngoc Hoi commune, Thanh Tri district, Hanoi. It was written in 1754 under king Canh Hung. Others, like the code of Dong Lao village, now in Dong La commune, Hoai Duc district, Ha Tay province, were engraved on copper sheets in 1681 under king Chinh Hoa.
As for the titles of the codes, besides the two most popular ones of huong uoc and khoan uoc, these “written village customs” are also called huong bien (Quynh Doi village), huong le (La Noi, Y La), khoan le (Vinh Lai) or khoan (Kieu Tri) or cuu khoan (Mo Trach), dieu le (Hoe Thi), tuc le (Duong Lieu), khoan uoc ba ky (Phu Coc) or so chinh tri - phong tuc (political and customary records).
As for the mode of expression, most of huong uoc are divided into articles and clauses or items. Some codes contain hundreds of articles such as the code of Quynh Doi village with 115 articles. In many codes, each article includes many ideas which are not recorded as items or clauses though they are portended as such. Some codes comprise very few articles but each article comprises from 4 to 7 clauses and each clause regulates a specific aspect of life accompanied with a penalty which gives it the value of an article. Typical of this case is the huong le compiled in 1752 under king Canh Hung by La Noi and Y La villages now in Duong Noi commune, Hoai Duc district, Ha Tay province. In the early 20th century, prior to the appearance of the reformed codes, a number of villages around Hanoi, under the influence of the modern legislation, divided their codes into two parts: The political part dealing with the organizational and administrative structure of the village, and other part on the customs or rituals (recording rites in worshipping, hierarchy, distribution of land, etc. in the village). Each part of the code comprises some concrete articles of the hinh muc (criminal affairs) (4 articles on the trial of quarrels or fighting, fornication, breaches of contracts, investigation in murder), ho muc (6 articles on borrowing, establishment of guilds, divorce, payment of marriage fees, collection of paddy on patrols, distribution of public fields and land), chinh tri (political affairs) (4 articles on the meeting of the council of dignitaries to discuss the village affairs, the election of dignitaries, the latter’s duties, maintenance and repair of bridges and roads), phong tuc (customs) (10 articles on worshipping, hierarchy, distribution of offerings, marriage and funerals...).
The order of articles in a village code depends on the way they are recorded by each village. Depending on specific conditions of each village, the village code may comprise many or few articles and the order and proportion of these articles concerning each aspect of life in the village may also vary. For instance, in the villages with many successful examinees in the triennial literary contests there are articles on study promotion, providing for the honorable treatment of these men whose names are featured on top of the list (for instance in La Noi and Y La villages).
In villages with many men in the mandarinate, those articles on celebrations and honors bestowed on such men took precedence over other provisions, (as in Mo Trach village in Hai Duong province). Likewise, in villages where worshipping is first order, the prescriptions for worship rites are more numerous (as in Co Ninh village, Nam Dinh province, or Tam Son and Trang Liet villages in Bac Ninh province, Yen So village in Ha Tay province). Where social stratification is complex, the articles on this aspect are given special importance (as in Yen So village). Some villages even compiled specific codes on some aspects of rural life (as the Kieu Tri tam phien khoan (contract on the organization of three patrols in Kieu Tri village, now in Phu Dien commune, Tu Liem district, Hanoi, compiled in 1832 under king Minh Mang), or the contract in La Khe village, in Ha Tay province, on the setting up and operation of the board of men of letters. In Trung Liet village, at the end of the 19th century, faced with the incapacity of the village dignitaries in assuring public security, the ten family lines in the village founded a convention on security safeguard, called Thap toc tan uoc (compiled in 1880 under king Tu Duc).
Leaving aside the disparities, we can find the following principal points of all village codes:
a/ Conventions related to the organizational structure and social relations in villages.
b/ Conventions on the safeguard of security in villages.
c/ Conventions on assuring the spiritual life of the community (chiefly prescriptions on offerings and prayers to the tutelary genie of the village).
d/ Conventions on assuring public duties to the feudal State: taxes, military service...).
In addition, some codes also pro-vided for study promotion, protection of the environment and ecology, protection of agricultural production, setting up of mutual aid fund...
All these prescriptions were accompanied by provisions on reward and punishment. Reward chiefly consisted of cash awards, upgrading in the village hierarchy, sparing of one or a number of obligations or contributions. Those who are injured or killed in the pursuit of robbers or thieves are paid compensations. Penalties prescribed in the village codes included:
- Fines, forcible compensations for damage.
- Flogging (number of strokes depends on the seriousness of violations).
- Degrading or demotion on the hierarchy for a given time or indefinitely.
- Boycott from community life in the whole village or within an organization. In case of serious violation, the offender may be denied the eventual funeral by the village.
- Banishment from the village.
The foregoing are the principal contents of the ancient village codes. Of course, not all the codes had all the provisions mentioned above. The diversity in the compilation of the codes and the order of importance given to different aspects of life as well as the different forms of reward and punishment demonstrate the diversity and autonomy of the ancient Viet villages in Red River delta(3).
With such contents, the village code is a thread binding organizations and individuals in the village community to the common interests and obligations, and as such it is a tool to manage the village and constitutes a folk knowledge on community management and a component factor of lifestyle of villagers.
Nevertheless, due to the gradual transformation of the village by the feudal state into a grassroots administrative unit of the type “one commune, one village” or “one commune, two or three villages”, the village code from a folk knowledge on community management has been used or “statized” into a tool for the State to intervene in the village and control it to compel these population units to perform the tax payment and military service obligations.. Thus, the village code represents at the same time the reconciliation of interests between the communes and the State, and the autonomy and self-management of the villages in the framework of the feudal state. In fact, the village codes, though being compiled by the confucian-educated men, still were censored by the State in accordance with an edict of king Le Thanh Tong in 1464. On the other hand, the codes are not “invariable” but have been repeatedly amended and supplemented to conform with the policies of the State in each period. For instance, the code of Mo Trach village was supplemented and amended 16 times within 132 years from 1665 to 1797. Likewise, the code of Duong Lieu village was amended and supplemented 9 times within 134 years from 1666 to 1800, that of Quynh Doi village was also continually amended through more than two centuries up to the years prior to the August 1945 Revolution.
II. How are the present-day qui uoc elaborated?
a/ Why quy uoc (regulations) instead of huong uoc?
Huong uoc are the regulations or conventions of a village community which has stabilized over a long times, has a clearly delimited land territory and an apparatus of functionaries to manage all aspects of life in the village and discharge the public work of the State. But now the village has no longer the same connotation as in the past. It can be a former village but it also can be a new village, a new hamlet or a street or street quarter. The present village has a village chief but since it is not the grassroots administrative unit, the power of the village chief is restricted, hence the difficulties in putting the regulations of the huong uoc into effect. On the other hand, in many localities the cohesion of the residents of the same village, especially in the spiritual field (worshiping of the same tutelary genie), no longer exists which makes it difficult for them to carry out a common huong uoc. Moreover, not only the village but also a street or street quarter may also write its own regulations. Probably for these reasons huong uoc has been changed to quy uoc (regulations) which are understood to be the regulations adopted by a population community residing in a given area. This area may be a traditional village or a newly established village, or a street quarter, or a mountain village or a hamlet split from an old commune. These regulations deal with a wide range of questions concerning culture and society, security and public order, protection of crops, funerals and festivities, protection of the environment, weddings, funerals and festivities, building of cultured families (under a wider plan to build cultured villages, cultured street quarters and cultured hamlets). This is actually a newly established system of customary laws which is to exist in parallel with the State law.
b/ Who compiles quy uoc?
Judging by the population unit governed by a set of quy uoc, the compilers must be a board of functionaries in the hamlet, street quarter or village under the direction of the Party cell. However, through the study of a number of quy uoc in Nghe An, we see that quy uoc may be compiled by one of the following:
- The committee of the Party cell and the Managing Committee as is the case with Chan hamlet in Thach Giam commune, Tuong Duong district, or Hamlet 6, Quynh Loc commune, Quynh Luu district.
- The Fatherland Front Committee of the hamlet as is the case with Hamlet 4, Quynh Hau commune, Yen Thanh district.
- The Party Representative Board of the street quarter as is the case with Street Quarter 7, Quang Trung Ward, Vinh city.
All the sets of regulations are compiled in consultation with the commune Cultural Board and all services and mass organizations in the village, street quarter or hamlet such as the Fatherland Front Committee, the War Veterans’ Association, the Association of the Elderly, the Women’s Union, the Youth Union... In particular, they are unanimouly adopted by the whole village community.
What is more, these regulations are all approved by the commune or ward People’s Committee. Many bear the signatures of representatives of the district Culture and Information Section or Culture and Information center.
This testifies to the democracy and increases the legality of the village regulations.
c/ Objective of the regulations
Through a number of regulations we have in hand we can see that the compilers have all raised the following questions:
- To directly safeguard the socialist regime, defend the right to mastery of the working people, defend the legitimate rights and interests of the citizens, defend discipline and law against criminal acts, at the same time educate everyone in the sense of defending law, preventing and fighting all law-breaking acts (Regulations of Hamlet 6, Quynh Loc commune, Quynh Luu district).
- To build the village, street quarter and hamlet in the present stage of the revolution, i.e. to continue and develop the fine customs and habits of the earlier generations of residents, in order to encourage everyone to observe a civilized way of life, respect and help one another (Regulations of Trung Thuan hamlet, Nhan Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district).
- To build a cultured environment marked with order and discipline in order to contribute to the renovation process, build the native land with the common aim of “making the people prosperous, the country strong, and society equitable and civilized”. (Regulations of Van Nam village, Khanh Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district).
d/ Method of compilation
There are two main forms:
- After a short introduction about the objective comes immediately the listing of the regulations (as in Hamlet 4, Quynh Loc commune, or Dong Hoa village, Dong Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district).
- Some sets of regulations are divided into chapters and clauses such as in Ngoai village, Nghi Hop commune, Nghi Loc district, of Toan Thang village, Dong Hop commune, Quy Hop district, or Phuong village, Nghia Xuan commune, Quy Hop district...
III. Tenets of present-day regulations
To see the contents of the present-day regulations, let us look into the two following examples:
1. Regulations of Van Nam village, Khanh Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district
The regulations are in two parts:
The first part includes:
a/ General description of the situation including a short history of the village and the present situation.
b/ The necessity to compile a regulation of the new cultured village.
The second part comprises concrete stipulations.
There are six general stipulations concerning the population of the village, the activities in the village, the social organizations, family clans and lines, urging them to unite in building a new and cultured village.
There are seven concrete stipulations:
1. To set up a board to direct the building of a new and cultured village.
2. To provide for the cultured lifestyle including the safeguard of security and order, monitoring strangers coming to the village, handling of burglary, fires, adultery.
3. To ensure a harmonious family life.
4. Stipulations on education at school.
5. Stipulations on weddings, funerals, death anniversaries, festivities...
6. Stipulations on the protection of crops.
7. Stipulations on the building of cultural infrastructures, the information group, art group and entertainment group in the village.
Each stipulation has several articles.
2. Regulations of Tan Thang village, Dong Hop commune, Quy Hop district
These regulations are arranged in the following chapters:
Chapter I: Building a new cultured village, with 3 articles:
- To live in concord, solidarity and mutual assistance.
- To observe the policies of the Party and the State.
- To observe simplicity in funerals and weddings, to fight against superstition and harmful practices.
Chapter II: Building a cultured way of life, with 3 articles:
- To protect and repair cultural relics and public utility works.
- To promote the fine traditions of the village.
- To uphold solidarity and mutual assistance.
Chapter III: Building an orderly and secure life in the village, with 10 articles such as ban on gambling and opium smoking and other drug abuses, ban on theft and burglary, protection of environmental hygiene, protection of the livestock, observance of regulations on the registration of household membership...
Chapter IV: Punishments comprising 5 articles.
For example: gambling and organization of gambling, apart from the punishments prescribed by the administration, the offender is also liable to these additional punishments:
First time: warning, publicization over the loudspeaker;
Second time: a fine of 30kg of paddy and publicization over the loudspeaker;
Third time: a fine of 30kg of paddy and publicization over the loudspeaker.
Other examples may be cited but from the above-mentioned sets of regulations we can see some similarities and differences in the old huong uoc and the new regulations. Here we try to point out the good points and the inadequacies of the old and new regulations.
IV. Good points and inadequacies
1. Good points
a/ It can be said that the entire people have warmly welcomed the policy of the Party and the State on making the village regulations. While reports on this question from other provinces are not available, in Nghe An province alone, within only a short time, as many as one hundred sets of draft regulations had been sent to the provincial Culture and Information Service in response to the Resolution of the 5th Plenum of the Party Central Committee, 8th Congress, on formulating and implementing the regulations of the villages, hamlets, population clusters and Circular No. 04/1998/TT-BVHTT of July 11, 1998 of the Ministry of Culture and Information guiding the observance of civilized weddings, funerals and festivities.
b/ This policy has urged the citizens and particularly the grassroots officials to fully reappraise their outlook on their village, hamlet, street quarter not only in the political, economic, educational, security fields, but also on the historical plane, to see how the village has been formed and developed together with the customs and habits, lifestyle and traditional behavior among the villagers..., this to heighten their method of management and to show their exemplariness in performing their managerial function.
c/ Although many improvements still have to be brought to the compilation of the regulations, the wide response of the population to this undertaking proves that it is an objective necessity. It also shows the need to compile such regulations as to suit the particularities and traditions of each village.
d/ In villages where the regulations have been laid down and implemented, order and security are better preserved and the population more readily and voluntarily discharge their obligations toward the State and the locality. Also they are more open in criticizing the local officials, hence harmony has been step by step restored in the communal life and mutual understanding has been improved between cadres and villagers.
In fact,
- In many villages the main points in the regulations have been broadcast over the local loudspeaker network; or
- Written in big letters on the village’s outer wall or on panels placed at vantage points; or
- Printed in leaflets and distributed to the families.
2. Inadequacies and difficulties
a/ In the past, the villagers knew little or nothing of the laws of the Court but knew almost every stipulation of the huong uoc. Today, the regulations, as the concretization of the Constitution and State law in a population community, tend to refer to the same regulations for all villages, hence their generality and lack of persuasion in view of their incompalibility with realities in their village.
b/ Unlike the past when the villages had difficult access to the mass media, today the availability of many means of communication allows the citizens to compare the State laws with the village regulations. So, it is important that the regulations must have their particularities but at the same time must not contradict the State laws. In this sense, the village regulations must be a synthesis of the laws and also a system of norms of ethics and morality. From the thirty sets of regulations we have collected, we can see clearly their character of customary laws, but not much of their being a system of ethical norms even though they are claimed to be regulations of cultured villages.
c/ As pointed out above, in the past the huong uoc were effected through the village dignitaries who acted as representatives of the grassroots administration of the feudal State. Today the village is no longer the grassroots level of administration and the powers of the Party or administration cannot be compared to those of the village dignitaries. This inevitably leads to difficulties in the enactment of punishments and rewards, especially punishments, such as the banishment of a villager from the village community as prescribed in many ancient huong uoc.
d/ Until now we are accustomed only to the writing of resolutions and directives. In wording, we are accustomed only to exhortations and appeals, in thinking, we are used only to generalities. The same can be observed in the compilation of village regulations that have come to our hand. Not a few are similar to a resolution, others bear the character of many plans. Many regulations are written in the form of slogans. Some are almost the stereotypes of others. Meanwhile, some are too simplistic or go into too many trivial, unimportant details, not to mention some regulations which run against State law such as the regulations of Panat village in Que Phon commune that allow the villagers to leave their dead up to 72 hours in the house whereas the State only allows 24 hours.
e/ Many village regulations have not taken into account the market mechanism. For example, they do not provide for the ban on prostitution, probably on the assumption that there is no prostitution in the rural areas. Likewise, no regulations deal with the penalties against wrong-doing village officials, etc.
In spite of these inadequacies and shortcomings, the village regulations as they have been compiled so far have proved their great superiority over the ancient huong uoc and we strongly believe that this superiority will continue to increase over the years as the regulations will improve as necessitated by realities.-