Department of History, National University of Singapore
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http://www.jstor.org
of 1428:
Nguyen Trai's Binh Ngo Dai Cao ??*!?
The Development
of a Vietnamese National Identity
STEPHENO'HARROW
The question of a national
identity for Vietnam has long plagued historians, both
and foreign. Some see Vietnam
Vietnamese
its pre-modern
throughout
history as a
minor appendage
of the Chinese Empire, one whose culture and institutions are so
individual
thoroughly influenced by the Chinese tradition that they evade meaningful
in such a way as to reach conclusions
scrutiny. A few apply the tools of Sinology
which, while cogent in themselves, cannot escape the confines of their methodology.1
of scholars from Vietnam
Others,
itself, reject the former
including a majority
view and are continuously
the uniqueness
searching for evidence to demonstrate
of the Vietnamese
There
is little merit' in the a priori assumptions
experience.
of either school, but this does not invalidate
It would be of par
the question.
ticular interest to know not simply whether
some significant differences
existed be
tween Vietnamese
and Chinese
institutions at various points throughout history but
whether
these institutional
differences
had a significant bearing on a sense of na
tionalism
and whether
such differences
resulted at least partially
from a self
on the part of Vietnamese
held and pursued.
conception
thinkers, one consciously
The Binh Ngo Dai Cao provides us with some intriguing clues. It is, as well, a nar
rative document
of great literary worth and the subject of constant allusion,
the
of which could bear illumination
for purely historical
background
interest.
Written
in the spring of 1428, the Binh Ngo Dai Cao proclaims
the victory of the
Vietnamese
over the forces of the Ming( ^ )
army of Le Loi (^ M 1385-1433)
since 1407 in ai* effort to reincorp?rate Viet
dynasty which had occupied Vietnam
nam into metropolitan
China. The text in Classical Chinese,
in the
though written
first person as if authored
by Le Loi, was actually
composed
by his principal
Trai ( Sb 16 1380-1442),
who not only played a
secretary and advisor, Nguyen
decisive role in the war for independence
but who in his day was the leading intellec
tual in Vietnam and its most talented man of letters.
In this paper is presented a new discussion of the background
to the proclamation
and of how Nguyen Trai addresses
the question of a separate national
identity for
Vietnam. Critical factors in the historical context must be singled out and particular
influences in the life of Nguyen Trai should be traced to help account for his views.
Certain problems
for the pro
facing Le Loi help identify the probable audience
i An
comment:
was subject to China
Annam
example might be Griffing's
for over a
"Historically,
thousand years, from the end of the third century B.C.
into the tenth century A.D.
It was later an
nexed by the Chinese
from shortly after 1400 until 1428. Clearly, Chinese
cultural
inspiration was
from early on. Even
dominant
there was a hiatus of some 500 years separating
though
the two
it is unthinkable
that the influence
of the advanced
periods of outside
control,
culture of China
could have diminished
to any significant
was politically
From
degree while Annam
independent.
this point of view the Chinese
of 1400-28
to solidify and strengthen
served merely
a
occupation
tradition already
R. P. Griffing,
Blue and White",
firmly established."
Jr., "Dating Annamese
Orientations
also E. Gaspardone's
7, no. 5 (1976): 35. Compare
"Les
langues de l'annamite
litt?raire", ToungPao
39, nos. 4-5 (1950): 213-27.
159
160
Stephen
O'Harrow
a number of passages within
in
clamation.
the text of the document,
Clarifying
of the title itself, will permit correction of errors of in
cluding a proper deciphering
It would be useful as well to suggest some
scholars.
terpretation by many previous
in which
the Binh Ngo Dai Cao differs
from earlier Vietnamese
ways
writings,
in response to foreign incursion, since it is still held in great
those written
especially
in modern
times.
Vietnam
is usually
said to have been an integral and dependent
part of China
to be a
from 111 B.C. to A.D.
still
the
considered
Chinese
Vietnam
939, although
the
of
and
continued
Vietnamese
until
the
French
rulers
tributary
practice
investing
as a vassal
of the nineteenth
of Vietnam
century. Chinese
occupation
recognition
state since the Sung did not preclude
several attempts on their part to invade the
veneration
in each instance in the more than four
country and subdue its inhabitants. However,
revolt of Ngo Quyen (^ttl) and
hundred years that passed between the tenth-century
were
the Ming occupation
they
repelled. Woodside,
perhaps reflecting Yamamoto,
maintains
that Vietnamese
"imitativeness
and dependence
upon China was a feature
of Vietnamese
if
that
was,
anything,
strengthened
history
by more than four cen
from political domination
But a tradition of suc
by China."2
over time, also begets a
to a foreign power, once established
of a nation's
at their
individuality. And while the Vietnamese
gradual consciousness
leisure may have chosen to imitate or continue certain Chinese
forced
institutions,
violent
reaction.
assimilation
the
Chinese
by
generally begat
Towards
and contem
the end of this first period of prolonged
independence,
to
with
of
in
the
the
rise
the
situation
destabilize.
poraneous
China,
Ming
began
turies of freedom
cessful resistance
in the waning years of the Tran dynasty ( E? 1225-1400),
beset with repeated
Vietnam
was clearly in the
and an associated
economic deterioration,
invasions by Champa
throes of decline.3 Land sales to large private domains and their increasing impor
as a consequence
of numerous
tance was
small
followed
by the enserfment
of state and those who operated it began to lose control
freeholders.4 The machinery
over events. Sizeable latifundia were being created in the hands of people who were
nor relations of the royal family and this potential
threat to the
neither mandarins
fabric of society caused some concern.
of the Tran, Le Quy Ly (S?*^
in 1397, the first minister
pro
7-1407),
a
of
the
size
decree
landholdings
limiting
by persons not of royal lineage to
mulgated
the decree could be fully implemented or not,
ten mau (roughly nine acres). Whether
it clearly marked Quy Ly an enemy of the rising landlord class. But Quy Ly's aliena
tion of the traditional elite was perhaps even deeper. Long powerful as the eminence
Thus
grise of the court, he shortly thereafter seized the throne of Vietnam and, changing
the Ho dynasty ( #J 1400-1407).
He then set about
established
his patronymic,
a certain amount of violence,
much needed reforms. Unfortunately
including the
of
and
of
Tran
the
heirs
the
wholesale
execution
extinction
mandarins,
questionable
the nature of his reforms nor this merciless
attended Quy Ly's rise to power. Neither
2
China's
Abortive
of Viet
Expansionism
(1406-1427):
"Early Ming
Conquest
on China
17, no. 4.
nam", Papers
3
see Phan
factors
Marxist
For a Vietnamese
precis of the socio-economic
leading to this decline
Lam Son va Phong-trao
Dat-nuoc
Dau-tranh
Giai-phong
Huy Le and Phan Dai Doan, Khoi-nghia
The standard view of the period, as currently
vao Dau The-ky XV
9-15.
(Hanoi,
1969),pp.
taught
in Lieh Su Viet Nam,
in Vietnam,
ed. Vietnamese
is reflected
Social Science Committee
(Hanoi,
41
A. Woodside,
1971), tap I, pp. 225-35.
Le Thanh Khoi, Le Vietnam:
histoire
et civilisation
(Paris,
1955),
pp.
198
-
99, passim.
Nguyen
Trais
"Binh Ngo Dai Cao"
161
the opposition
of his rivals was able to outweigh
which was building
elimination
as
such
the
of
of
extension
his
Certain
educational
him.
reforms,
oppor
against
to
use
of
efforts
the
the
demotic
centralize
the administration,
and
tunities,
script,5
the power of the traditional aristocracy and most especially the
obviously undercut
to alienate the mandarinate
in pre
It proved to be an essential mistake:
mandarins.
modern Vietnam was to render it virtually impossible to govern. This was a proposi
to royalty and revolutionaries
tion applicable
alike and was due in the main to the
over the means of intellectual com
hold
exerted
the
mandarinate
quasi-exclusive
and therefore the ability to transmit orders and to oversee their execu
munications
the memory
of his
tion. Yet like Richard
III, whose
bloody
intrigues eclipsed
a
was
more
and
clever
assassin
than
later
Quy Ly
positive
accomplishments,6
were
not
them
the
he
had
his
And
usurper.
admirers, among
though they
legion,
Nguyen Trai and his quixotic father.
as a member
were
of the aristocracy
Trai's
credentials
Nguyen
indisputable
rather
Trai's
father, Nguyen Ung Long (R M ft), is said to
though
peculiar. Nguyen
have been of plebeian origin. Poet and scholar of sorts, he rejoiced in the title of
which, by rights, ought to have
Bang Nhan (f? BS second in the palace examinations)
earned him an official post.7 But Nguyen Ung Long was a spinner of love verses and
to seduce one of his students, Tran thi Thai (B6ft S),
he had the maladresse
eldest
a
of
&
member
of
Tran
Dan
jc
1320
the
house.
Thai
Nguyen
90),
daughter
(g$
royal
young
official
gave birth to an
blessed event by
marry Thai if he
trary to standard
illegitimate child and Nguyen Ung Long was summoned after the
to "allow"
who was prepared
him to
his putative
father-in-law
would continue his studies and make something of himself. Con
the young scholar was thus taken into his
Vietnamese
practice,
in
wife's
father's household
due
course, several more children were born.
where,
a
commoner
of
the
However,
effrontery
particularly under
marrying a noblewoman,
such circumstances,
earned Nguyen Ung Long the enmity of the court and he was
to enter the mandarinate
in spite of his accomplishments.
forbidden
One can
reasonably suppose that his rancour at this injustice, which is reflected in his poetry,
was transmitted
to his eldest son, Nguyen Trai.
Trai was raised in his grandfather's
His
country residence at Con Son(?ill).
no
a
an
was
man.
than
his
il
less
disgruntled
Having pursued
grandfather,
father,
lustrious career at court and inmilitary campaigns, Tran Nguyen Dan was opposed
to the rise of Quy Ly and had given his resignation
in 1385. During the last years of
his life he witnessed
the continuing
disintegration
of the late Tran did little to stem and
monarchs
5
of the state which
the witless
in which he himself was now
"French Colonial
towards Vernacular
(% B ) . See Stephen O'Harrow,
is, Chu Nom
Policy
in Vietnam
of Pham Quynh",
and the Selection
Language
Development
Aspects
of Vernacular
in Asian and Pacific
Societies
Also discussed
in
1973), pp. 114, 116, passim.
(Honolulu,
Languages
Colonialism
and Language
in Vietnam
John DeFrancis's
pp. 46-47.
Policy
(forthcoming),
6
like Alison Hanham
III and his Early Historians
Scholars
[Richard
(Oxford,
1975)], trying to clear
That
the usurpation
of Richard
in 1483, bemoan
the lack of documen
up the controversies
surrounding
the events ?
with even the best known happen
tation surrounding
yet they are rich in comparison
Vietnam.
ings in medieval
7
It is commonly
stated that Nguyen
Phi Khanh
Ung Long (later known under the name of Nguyen
of 1374 (see Phan Huy Le and Phan Dai
(K JRW 1353?
1407?) placed second in the examinations
inter alia.) This contradicts,
the official
histories which hold the
op. cit., p. Ill,
however,
"bang nhan" of that year to have been a certain Le Hien Phu (MW? ), Kham Dinh Viet Su Thong
Chb. X: 35, and Dai Viet Su Ky Toan Thu (TT)
Giam Cuong Mue
(CM) (frfemtmmmB),
165.
i*tt*ie??),
Q. VII:
Doan,
Stephen OHarrow
162
the grand
to intervene. The thwarted patriotism of an ageing nobleman,
powerless
an
the
of
embittered
father, must
scholar,
father, mixed with the stifled ambition
to
and a
an
succeed
intense
drive
to
both
in Nguyen Trai
have combined
produce
were.
as
cast of mind to question
things
they
In 1400, the year of the accession of Ho Quy Ly, Nguyen Trai took first place in
the first to be held under the new dynasty, and was admit
the palace examinations,
At the same time his father, though previously ostracized by
ted to the mandarinate.
in spite of the fact that Viet
the Tran, was offered his first official post. Meanwhile,
the
in recent years had been somewhat more vigorous in fending off the Chams,
?
remained
and institutional
Quy Ly
impotence
problems of economic dislocation
those
aboard a badly leaking ship. While
had in effect led a successful mutiny
new
were
to
with
the
work
of the crew who, like Nguyen Trai,
cap
members
willing
tain laboured to repair and renew, others bided their time as a storm gathered to the
north which was soon to wreck the whole enterprise.
some three decades
to consolidate
their own rule in
It had taken the Ming
to Vietnam.
once
China and this
southernmost
done, -they turned their attentions
an
to
excellent
after it became clear
The nature of the Ho accession,
them, made
nam
to restore the rightful
in their role of suzerain, ostensibly
pretext for intervention
in their vassal state. It was also what one might be tempted to call a
succession
to control and increase the flow of precious metals8 and
opportunity
"golden"
to a degree not possible under the tribute
to China
from Vietnam
other goods
of
was
in
line with the more active commercialism
a
which
generally
policy
system,9
could be admirably
border disputes
the early Ming. Moreover,
any outstanding
the return at long
of the whole of Vietnam,
resolved by the simple reincorporation
in
1407. The Ming
last of the prodigal southern province. The invasion took place
so
in fairly rapid
did
succeeded where the Sung and Yuan had failed before and they
on
to
a
that they
the
effect
order. We know that they carried
propaganda
campaign
were about to replace the Ho usurper with the Tran of yore and that this campaign
had the impact desired.10 It would appear that the elite, the literati and leading of
forces led by them
simply refused to fight to save the Ho and that the military
now
for
the
the
support of this critical
losing
paid
price
eventually collapsed. Quy Ly
ficers,
element.
to have distinguished
themselves from
Nguyen Trai and his father seem, however,
the Ming. Having fought beside Quy Ly to the end, they
those who at first welcomed
his father to arrest and exile in China,
refused to serve the Ming;11 accompanying
8
of gold as one of the crimes of the Ming occupa
forced mining
The Binh Ngo Dai Cao specifies
as
found its way into the government's
tion. How much of the booty taken from Vietnam
coffers,
to affirm
is difficult
to being pocketed
op. cit.,
officials,
(see Woodside,
by occupation
opposed
Vietnamese
collaborationist
also be of interest to know whether many
pp. 25
28), but it would
In particular,
did those
of their compatriots.
from the increased
officials
exploitation
profited
to
of Ho Quy Ly use the new situation
as a result of the decrees
diminish
whose
landholdings
recover or expand
landholdings?
9
Ibid., pp. 24-25.
10
Le Thanh Khoi,
op. cit., p. 204.
11
as
in his later writing,
in view of certain poetic allusions
has been raised, especially
Some question
with the
Trai himself might have briefly flirted with the idea of collaborating
to whether Nguyen
Trai co sang
See Van Tan,
Chinese
"Nguyen
shortly after his capture.
during a visit to China
or not?], Nghien-cuu
Lich-su
Trai go off to China
[Did Nguyen
hay khong?"
Trung-quoc
no. 53 (1963).
(NCLS),
Nguyen
Trais
Nguyen
Trai
163
'Binh Ngo Dai Cao"
is supposed
to have been sent back at the border by his father's
injunc
tion:12
the signs of Heaven
[and they tell me] that twenty years hence, a true lord will rise
Thou must steel thy heart and follow him, to cleanse the nation's
shame, to
me; truly that is the greatest of filial piety.13
I observe
up in the West.
avenge
have it that once he returned to the capital, Nguyen Trai's refusal
landed him in prison for several years, during the time the Ming
their hold over Vietnam. This still leaves unanswered
the ques
tions of why the Chinese permitted
him to live at all or why he was ultimately
released, questions which may never receive a satisfactory answer.
A detailed description
of the organization
of the Ming occupation
is available
to
it
suffice
it
here
that
of
elsewhere;14
say
represented on balance a combination
economic exploitation
and forced cultural assimilation,
carried out, at least at first,
with some measure of co-operation
from the indigenous elite. We are speaking here
about a question of degree for there were, none the less, several revolts against the
Chinese during the early course of the new administration,
by people claiming to be
the rightful heirs to the throne. What
should be noted in this connection
is: firstly,
these revolts took place after it became apparent that the Chinese were in fact not
the revolts took place in the name of the Tran
going to restore the Tran; secondly,
since those who organized
the revolts had little interest in restoring the Ho; thirdly,
it would be premature
to say flatly why the revolts were unsuccessful,
while
the
available evidence would lead us to believe that, among other factors, they were not
Tradition would
to serve the Ming
were consolidating
able to secure the co-operation
of sufficiently
large segments of the literati combined
with the classes in society who could provide numbers for a military operation,
the
and the closely associated
landlord class. (This latter group is not always
peasantry,
from people who might
as local
otherwise
be known
easily distinguishable
in
"notables",
particularly
outlying districts.)
One member of the landlord class who had participated
in the earlier resistance to
the Ming was destined to play a much greater role. His name was Le Loi and, if one
is inclined to believe in such things, it was to him that Nguyen Trai's father was
The story of
alluding when he spoke of the "true lord who will rise up in theWest".
Le Loi's early life is surrounded by the considerable
body of legend that always
seems to attach itself to national heroes in antiquity, particularly
those who come
from a class in society that was not normally
the subject of historical
record
do
to
We
know
that
Le
Loi
a
the
third
of
keeping.
belonged
generation
prominent
and powerful
landed clan in Thanh-hoa(?
ft?), an area largely populated
by non
12
All quotations
from the works of Nguyen
Trai hereinafter
have been translated by this researcher
from the Uc Trai Tap (UTT)
held by the Biblioth?que
lipfi
Nationale
(Manuscrits
orientaux,
fonds annamite:
in Paris,
unless otherwise
noted. The UTT
to represent
is supposed
the
A68)
works of Nguyen
Trai as assembled
in the twenty-first
(ffi f? ), i.e.,
year of the reign of Tu Duc
in turn ultimately
which
1868, from a manuscript
is another question)
derives
(though how directly
from an anthology
made
after 1464, when Nguyen Trai was posthumously
sometime
rehabilitated
in
by the crown and when such of his works as were still available
(they had been ordered burned
on trumped up charges of regicide) were first
1442 after his execution
in one place.
put together
The text of the Binh Ngo Dai Cao, with slight variations,
is to be found in the UTT,
the TT, the
Lam Son Thuc Luc (LSTL) (>$LM%$?), and several other works
but a
(hence its wide renown),
abbreviated
version occurs
in the CM.
curiously
13
UTT, Q. V., pp. 1-2.
14
op. cit., p. 4.
Woodside,
164
Stephen
O Harrow
of New Spain in his isolated
he was like some haciendado
minorities;
an "hombre rico y poderoso"
surrounded by Indians. To what extent he
backwater,
some scholars even
was schooled or literate in his younger years is doubtful ?
to him in later life.15
of the little bit of poetry attributed
doubt the authenticity
of his birth, it would be
circumstances
However,
given the social and geographical
of letters, he was familiar with
fair to assume that, though he possessed a minimum
the military arts and likely skilled in the man?ge. This is given some confirmation
by
Vietnamese
of the period which say that in the uprising of Tran Quy Khoach
S&?).and
14), Le Loi held the position of Kim Ngo GeneraK &?
(K*#,circa
to his surrender, he was reconfirmed
by the Ming Administration
that, subsequent
16For reasons
which are not
in his position of Phu-dao
(d 31 ) of Kha Lam ( "11? ).
over
love of freedom and country or dissatisfaction
clear, be it patriotic
abundantly
of a local rivalry and land dispute, Le Loi raised an army of revolt
the outcome
Chinese
sources
1409
again in 1418.17 The final result of this rebellion was the ouster of the Chinese
after ten years of war and the founding of a new independent Vietnamese
dynasty.
his long campaign
One problem which plagued Le Loi throughout
against the
of capable lieutenants. This
Ming was the need to attract and hold the allegiance
question
is spoken
At my
side,
alas,
of
in the Binh Ngo
worthy
men
were
Dai
Cao:
as rare as stars at dawn,
as autumn
leaves
of green.
capable of those who later came to serve him was Nguyen Trai. The ser
vices rendered to the cause by Nguyen Trai were many and varied; it is his role as
the question may be asked
And while
which begs our attention.
propagandist
in the event Nguyen Trai's intellect controlled Le Loi's actions, whether the
whether
the sword, our concern here is the use to which Le Loi put Nguyen
pen dominated
The most
Trai.
from the
some measure
of co-operation
As we have noted above, without
a func
itwas difficult to establish or maintain
educated elite in pre-modern Vietnam
it
must
have
structure.
the
This
administrative
case,
necessary
proven
being
tioning
to rule and worthy
of
to create for Le Loi the aura of a great man, destined
to
a
so
which
more
social
class
Le
Loi
since
All
the
normally
belonged
allegiance.
the later
would have precluded him from securing such co-operation.
Throughout
Trai
from
scribed
available
the
half of the military
evidence,
Nguyen
campaign,
as if
in
and
orders and proclamations,
signed
profusion,
correspondence
dispatches
written by Le Loi, which were notable for their wit, irony, and the obviously
deep
15 See Dinh Gia Khanh et
Tho-van
Viet-Nam,
al., Hop-tuyen
(Hanoi,
1962), vol. 2 (Van Hoc Viet
?
201.
Nam
the -ky X
the-ky XVII),
16 Emile
to the Chinese
a case for Le Loi's submission
after his first attempt at
makes
Gaspardone
aux Ming de Le Loi",
in Silver Jubilee
Volume of the Zinbun-Kagaku
revolt [see "La supplique
historians:
1954), p. 159] but this view arouses great ire in some Vietnamese
(Kyoto,
Kenkyusyo
to the Ming Army
is totally without
that Le Loi had surrendered
To be of the opinion
as well as [other] trustworthy
documenta
histories
official
and contradicts
foundation
tion of ours.
op. cit., pp. 103-4).
(Phan Huy Le and Phan Dai Doan,
17
that it was a
in his assertion
again flies in the face of convention
(op. cit., passim)
Gaspardone
a land claim and the subsequent
court of law involving
in by a Ming
decision
brought
disputed
cause of his deci
rival in the affair which was the major
of Le Loi by his Vietnamese
denunciation
of
the operations
it is precisely
will also displease
this conclusion
sion to revolt. While
some,
to which we refer in note 8 and which merit further
courts during
the occupation
period
elite loyal to the Ming,
of the Vietnamese
It may turn out that members
(if possible).
investigation
at the expense of
to profit
from the Chinese
such as Luong Nhu Hot (? ik %), sought
presence
to Le Loi.
themselves
later attached
such as those who
elements
anti-Chinese
Chinese
Nguyen
Trai's
165
'Binh Ngo Dai Cao"
raised
grasp of classical learning they displayed. However, while they undoubtedly
Le Loi's prestige in the eyes of those who read them, these writings were probably
not immediately
available
for wide distribution.18
After military
victory had been
it remained for Nguyen Trai to write a victory proclamation
in the new
achieved,
ruler's name which would seat him among the immortals, fit to govern and to com
mand the respect not only of the troops and peasants, his cronies and kin, but of the
mandarins
It is in the Binh Ngo Dai Cao, this victory proclama
heretofore hesitant.
national
tion, that Nguyen Trai appeals to a sense of Vietnamese
identity, revealing
some interesting elements of what apparently
the educated
fifteenth
composed
view of themselves.19
century Vietnamese
The title of the Binh Ngo Dai Cao is a puzzle. It literally means "Great Proclama
tion upon Laying Low20 the Ngo",
and it is the use of the term "Ngo" which is the
not recognized
have unfortunately
the existence of any issue
problem. Historians
themselves with a simple footnote,
for example, Ung Qua's "Ap
here, contenting
en g?n?ral et d?signant
donn?e aux Chinois
or T. B.
ici les Minh"21
pellation
Lam's" a generic name for the Chinese".22 This cursory sort of explanation
can on
or at relatively frequent
ly be justified if in fact the term "Ngo" was in continuous
use in the pre - fifteenth-century
for the Chinese. But such
period as a designation
does not seem to have been the case. Indeed, official Vietnamese
practice was to use
the title of the reigning Chinese
quent use of the term it "Bac"
18
On
the other
dynasty
(north,
for specific reference. One also finds fre
/$*W
northern,
etc.) and, occasionally^!!!
of Nguyen
Trai's
letters to enemy generals,
in Quyen
available
IV of the
intended for the eyes of
"Quan Trung Tu Menh Tap" W 41 tajft % )were obviously
other people
than the addressee.
in nature and designed
to incite those
They were propagandistic
who read them to abandon
all support for the Ming overlords.
A kind of medieval
military
special
of a besieged
delivery
system seems to have been in use: a letter to the commander
city, dispatched
his
would
be
in wax, attached
to an arrow, and shot over the city walls.
by
tormentors,
enveloped
Of course more
than a single copy could be sent, with the hope that the text would
end up in the
hands of those who were capable of sedition. See H. Franke
in Chinese Ways
in Warfare,
ed. Kier
man and Fairbank
(Cambridge,
1974), pp. 171, 176, 180.
19 It
must be noted that while
several translations
of the proclamation
some
exist, none are without
defect. The original
is poetic
major
f? ) and is of such literary grace as to
(a form called "phu"
merit a proper poetic rendering. Truong Buu Lam's version
[in Patterns
of Vietnamese
Response
to Foreign
Intervention:
1858
1900 (New Haven,
but is in
1967), pp. 55
62] is the best available
certain errors (as noted
in this paper) which are also found in a French prose
prose and contains
translation
du XVe si?cle, Le Binh Ngo Dai Cao", Bulletin
by Ung Qua ("Un texte vietnamien
de
l'?cole Fran?aise
d'Extr?me
Orient 46 (1952
the version
in French
54): 279
95). Unfortunately,
and Pierre Gamarra
sur la Pacification
poetry by Cao Xuan Huy
des Ngo",
["Proclamation
no. 387-88
is plagued by inaccuracies
(1961): 106-10J, though sonorous,
Europe,
while a French
from Hanoi
de la litt?rature vietnamienne,
poetic rendition
(Nguyen Khac Vien et al, Anthologie
vol. 1 (Hanoi,
is more faithful,
lacks resonance
and the offering of some
1972), pp. 143-48), which
one
to us only as "D.T.B."
identified
Sketch
[Vietnam: A Historical
(Hanoi,
1974),
pp.
86
that a number of versions are available
92] is downright
turgid. This is not to omit mentioning
in modern
as
such
Dinh
Gia Khanh et al., op. cit., and elsewhere)
Vietnamese,
and
Buy Ky's (in
Dao Duy Anh's
Social Science Committee's
modern Vietnamese
[ in the Vietnamese
translation
of
the TT, vol. 3 (Hanoi,
and elsewhere],
both laconic but quite accurate.
1968): 51-55,
20
The term "binh"
(*P) is rendered "to lay low (i.e., to cut down)"
because of the overtones
it car
ries above and beyond
the more standard
"to pacify" which
translation
is closer to the meaning
of
"an" ($) as used in the appellation
oc
"An-Nam"(
?f? ), Pacification
usually
implied subsequent
or administration
whereas
the Vietnamese
or administer
did not occupy
cupation
ter
Chinese
the Chinese
from their own. Curbing Ming
ritory; they merely
ambition
expelled
and inflicting
defeat on their army might
bloody
them low".
rightly be called "laying
21
Ung Qua, op. cit., p. 279.
22
Lam, op. cit., p. 61.
UTT
(subtitled
hand, many
166
Stephen O'Harrow
and "Trung-Chau"
(central country, middle
region).23 When
"Trung-Quoc"
over
in
it
is
found
modern
"Chinese"
carries
speech
"Ngo"
meaning
derogatory
can be traced back to ?t least the seventeenth cen
tones ?
this colloquial pejorative
in the title
But its appearance
listed itwith the same meaning.
tury when DeRhodes24
a
from
of a fifteenth-century
the
the foun
upon
throne,
proclamation
proclamation
a
to
of
warrant
is
further
dynasty,
ding
peculiar enough
investigation.
There may be two possible sources for the word in Sino-Vietnamese
usage. During
of the Han (81), a time
the greater part of the third century, after the dissolution
called the Three Kingdoms
commonly
period in Chinese history, Vietnam was tied
to the Wu (that is, Ngo) dynasty. The period of Wu hegemony was relatively short
some nominal,
some
and was followed by a succession of other Chinese overlords,
to
from
time
of
But
rather more powerful,
time
brief
interludes
revolt.
separated
by
even in China,
as the Vietnamese
of the time
the Wu were never all-powerful
to
and the term "Wu" does not seem to have been applied officially
realized,
let alone during succeeding
China or the Chinese as a whole contemporaneously,
then could explain its use by Nguyen Trai some 1,200 years later?
centuries. What
in the celebrated
A possible answer can be found in the earlier history of China,
of
states
Wu
Yueh
of
the
1?
^
)
)
(or
(Viet
during the Warring
Ngo
rivalry
States period.
Ssu-ma Ch'ien's(w],l|ji)
description25 of the state of Y?eh outlines alternating
weakness
between the early fifth and the middle fourth cen
of
and
strength
periods
turies B.C. At the height of its vigour, Y?eh was led by King Kou Chien (?j@l ). In a
war against the Wu, who had previously
The
humiliated
him, he was victorious.
come
to
the
<of
Kou
has
since
Chien
symbolize
carefully plotted triumph of
story
we
to
it
which
is
this
As
shall
see,
saga
revenge.
Nguyen Trai most pro
righteous
a
as
serves
for
the
basis
broad
and
which
refers
literary and psycho-political
bably
allusion.
later written accounts of the history of Wu and Y?eh are mostly based on
Various
the Wu Y?eh Ch'un Ch'iu (g M * $0 , a Han work by Chao Yeh ( jffi# ), Both this
work and the Shih Chi ($. IE) of Ssu-ma Ch'ien were probably known to Nguyen
sense. The story of
of broad learning in the traditional Chinese
Trai, a gentleman
Wu and Y?eh was also the subject of a number of popular legends, so allusions to it
in a public document
such as the Binh Ngo Dai Cao would not be useless pedantry.
it should not be overlooked
that Chu Y?an-chang(^7C^),
founder of
In passing,
and
the invading Ming dynasty, originally
styled himself "Wu Kuo Kung(^IH?:)"
This fact, to the extent that it
in 1364 took the name of the "King of Wu{S?)".
was known abroad, could not help but strengthen the identification
of the Wu with
still further.
the text of the proclamation,
Within
Nguyen
to those of Kou Chien:26
in the wilderness
the Ming
Trai
implicitly
likens Le Loi's
trials
fc'C?am?-r#?
With
aching heart and anxious mind
for more
than ten years running,
I tasted gall and slept amid the pines
and
23
sought
not one day's
shelter.
for general
titles for specific
Trai uses dynastic
reference
and "Trung-quoc"
Nguyen
in letter to Luong Nhu Hot.
e.g., see below
himself,
24 Dictionarium
, Lusitanum,
et Latinum
Annnamiticum
[ sic]
(Rome,
1651), p. 529.
25 In the Shih Chi (?
fe>), ch. 41 (m ?^j m tftfO.
26 Ibid. The allusion with
which Nguyen
Trai was clearly familiar:
reference
Trai's
Nguyen
the theme of the
While
is evocative of
the "Ngo"
it
Trai makes
doubly clear
sees the Odyssey of Le Loi
At
that time was
How
167
"Binh Ngo Dai Cao"
is this unlike
he
future emperor undergoing
hardship in the wilds to fight
Kou Chien, especially given paraphrase IHlEhfr ?Nguyen
that he
Son Phu&MiUW,
in another work, the ChiLinh
to that of the King of Y?eh:
as equivalent
not
[Le Loi]
like Kou
of Y?eh
the King
Chien
besieging
on high
perched
of Wu
the King
at Kuei
at Ku Su T'ai?
Chi?
in the
This all goes a long way towards explaining the presence of the term "Ngo"
title, yet the story remains incomplete. The traditional foe of theWu
proclamation's
"Viet"
were the Y?eh and, as is well known, it is from this latter term, pronounced
derived their name.27
that the Vietnamese
in modern Vietnamese,
In 1923, Aurousseau
presented evidence for the direct descent of the modern Viet
namese from peoples of southern China called the Y?eh,28 whose ethnic origins are
sscenario30
as yet unclear.29 Some later scholars have tended to dismiss Aurousseau's
but, while it surely does not provide us with a complete or accurate picture, it is none
the less certain that traditional Vietnamese
forebearers. And this latter fact alone would
Nguyen Trai to complete his analogy. Le Loi
cessor to Kou Chien and Le Loi's enemies,
sources accept the Y?eh among their
have been necessary and sufficient for
in some way, the direct suc
becomes,
are no better than the Wu.
the Ming,
separate states of equal stature and antiquity contend, and the battle is decided
in favour of the more worthy.
Lest anyone doubt that the image which Nguyen Trai is conjuring up for Le Loi
on a par with the greatest of Chinese Emperors,
be of less than imperial dimensions,
he adds in the Chi Linh Son Phu:
?
Sjltiu?jlti^^A^lttAa???31*W
Two
Thinking
of
Emperor
was
at Mang
vast
the mould
that
time,
how
is it any
different
from
when
the Han
Tang?
KfcA?;?aifl!?5ftiEttlM4
However
at
that mountain
B?*
?
from which
Han
Kao
[ -tzu] came,
is not
today
our Emperor
the
same?
about Le Loi in these lines. But in
is almost the hint of reincarnation
no
a
Le
whom
Loi
need be ashamed
Trai
essence, Nguyen
upright mandarin
paints
of a
to follow, whose credentials are beyond reproach, and who is the embodiment
of which
confers
the cachet of Confucian
the very antiquity
classical concept,
respectability. We may infer from this that Nguyen Trai perceived a national yearn
and that by creating a literary figure to
ing for an authentic hero of epic proportions
match the flesh and blood man, he thought to be able, in a stroke, to supply not only
There
with
Its first use in connection
to have been in the appellation
the Vietnamese,
and the one to which all later uses allude,
to the kingdom
-MI&)as applied
Viet(
(?) established
ismentioned
in the Binh
Da( 0t
)at the end of the third century B.C. The Trieu Dynasty
Cao (see below),
the first so listed, which
leads one to believe
that it was held in some
it was probably
the first relatively
Sinicized
and
Trai, perhaps because
Nguyen
dynasty
Nam
of Y?eh.
traced, at least in his view, back to the even earlier kingdom
L. Aurousseau,
"La premi?re
chinoise
des pays annamites",
conqu?te
?aise d'Extr?me-Orient
21 (1923):
137-264.
29
in South China(Hamden,
H.J. Wiens, Han Chinese Expansion
Conn.,
30
137-38.
Le Thanh Khoi, op. cit., p. 86. See also Stephen
Asian Perspectives
21 (in press).
O'Harrow,
"Vietnam
Bulletin
de
1967),
pp.
as the Chinese
appears
by Trieu
Ngo Dai
regard by
could be
VEcole
41,
Fran
126-27,
Found
It",
168
Stephen
O Harrow
a unifier for various regions of the country,31 or different social classes, but also one
who would unify the best of the past with the present, thus providing a much needed
sense of virtuous historical continuity.
lines of the Binh Ngo
Turning now to the body of the text itself, in the opening
the natural
Dai Cao we find an important six-phrase unit which seeks to emphasize
Now
state. The
of the Vietnamese
independence
little problem:
land of ours;
Viet
think upon this Dai
is it a cultured
first two lines present
nation.
Truly
a country on a level with China, an in
is called a "van hien chi bang",
and institutions. And im
of all the necessary Sinitic cultural appurtenances
a
notion
that
the
be classified
of
the
Vietnamese
is
Chinese
herein
rejection
plied
among the Southern Barbarians.
some readers:
The next two lines have confused
**?*?**
Mil??*K*
the prosodie unity of the lines, see them as
Ung Qua and again T.B. Lam, following
Vietnam
heritor
emphasizing
the same
Cao Xuan
collaborated
Vietnam
les moeurs
donnent
and rivers have
from
itself:
? sa physionomie
et les coutumes
font d'autre
et les fleuves
morale].32
Our mountains
not
within
diversity
Les montagnes
sud au nord
north
their characteristic
du
des aspects diff?rents;
physique
la vari?t?
[de sa physionomie
part
features,
but our habits
and customs
are
to south.33
Huy (of the Writer's
with Pierre Gamarra
of Vietnam)
Union of the Democratic
Republic
on a 1961 translation which arrived at a similar in
terpretation:
ses montagnes,
a ses fleuves,
ses frontiers
de toutes parts.
et ses coutumes.34
Elle a ses moeurs
Elle
seems to have arisen from a misunderstanding
of Nguyen Trai's in
The confusion
tent in the use of Si "nam" and it "bac". Taken by themselves
they might appear
but both in the
( 4t ) areas of Vietnam;
to refer to the southern (W ) and northern
context of the poem and in the context of standard Sino-Vietnamese
usage of the
to
S
and
China
more
)
Mt
Vietnam
(
that
refer
). The
it
appears
they
likely
period
two lines which follow certainly stress the separation between China and Vietnam
(see below) which would lend weight to the latter notion, but it is in the light of a let
ter written by Nguyen Trai to the pro-Ming official Luong Nhu Hot ( tg :tk15 ) that
the author's views on the subject become clear and allow one to affirm the intended
meaning:
?a?
The
Han
mountains
Sui,
how
31 On
32
33
34
35
of old was
country of An-Nam
onwards.
Heaven
and great
could
fixed
rivers. Whether
they use
encroached
the frontiers
their power
starting from the Ch'in and
by China,
thus with areas of higli
and North
as with the
or wealthy,
as with the Ch'in,
upon
of
powerful,
to outrage
South
us?35
of
vs. the Hong-ha
at the beginning
of regional
the question
Delta)
(e.g., Thanh-hoa
loyalties
Viet
in Fifteenth
of Le Government
"The Development
Century
the Le, see J. K. Whitmore,
nam"
1968).
(Ph.D. diss., Cornell University,
Ung Qua, op. cit., p. 291.
Lam, op. cit., p. 56.
op. cit., p. 107.
Huy and Gamarra,
?
Trai must have known
did so anyway
The irony is of course that the Chinese
surely Nguyen
this?
169
"Binh Ngo Dai Cao"
Trai's
Nguyen
is drawn to the explicit use of "cao son dai xuyen chi phong vue"
Our attention
to
are intended by nature
and rivers which
( ?SlIj^cJII^?tiS ) , the mountains
It
that
the
of
"North"
and
the
boundaries
"South".
becomes
establish
plain
features described by Nguyen Trai in the Binh Ngo Dai Cao are not sym
geographic
intention to keep
bolic of variation within Vietnam but rather evidence of Heaven's
?
customs
in
in the two coun
this
results
from
Vietnam
China
separate
differing
a
two
of
the
in
of
lines
closer
rendition
the
tries,
meaning
question might be:
As mountain
and
river make
so our Southern
for various
must
ways
differ
lands,
from the North.
to the logic of geography
is
While
the importance which Nguyen Trai attached
from Hanoi,
of "North" with
in the two latest translations
the identification
missed
is recognized:
China and "South" with Vietnam
Terre de Sud,
du Nord.36
. . . With
elle a ses fleuves,
its own
rivers
ses montagnes,
and mountains,
Ses moeurs,
ways
and
ses coutumes,
customs,
different
de ceux
distinctes
from
those
of
the
North.31
in interpretation
of the terms
the difference
is tempted to wonder whether
and "South" which is to be found between these last two translations and
the Huy-Gamarra
version of the previous decade does not reflect a growing desire
on the part of the Vietnamese
to emphasize
their traditional in
through scholarship
two
from
In
China.
this vein, it is interesting to examine the following
dependence
lines of the Binh Ngo Dai Cao which read:
One
"North"
and which
The
the latest translation
Tran
Trieu,
stood
And
Dinh,
Ly,
as equals of
from Vietnam
built
the Han,
up our
Tang,
which
ruling
as equals",
an inference
entirely
lack
des Dinh,
des Le [sic], des Ly, des Tran ont b?ti ce pays libre et fier: En ces
sur la Chine
les dynasties
des Han, des Duong,
des Tong, des Nguyen.39
r?gn?rent
opts for only a vague chronological
namese
as:
independence
Yuan.38
one might wish to note the words "stood
translation:
ing in the earlier Huy Gamarra
temps-l?,
into English
Sung,
Here
Les dynasties
puts
connection
between
the Chinese
and Viet
houses.
T. B. Lam provides, perhaps because of the presence of the imperial "de"( ^),
reading which places China and Vietnam on an equal footing:
Since
ed
the formation
their
empire
a
of our nation
exactly
by the Trieu, Dinh, Ly and Tran, our rulers have govern
in the manner
in which
the Han,
and Yuan
did
T'ang,
Sung,
theirs.40
from
translation and the latest one in English
agreement and a good case can be made for an undertone
in the original text, the phrase "cac de
between China and Vietnam
?
the idea of "each in its proper place".
?? ).,really emphasizes
(#-Sf
two lines only serves to reinforce
sodie flow from the previous
While
essential
both Lam's
separateness.
This would
lead one
to prefer:
It was
the Trieu,
the Dinh,
the Ly and Tran
who
in succession
built this country.
Even
as the Han,
the T'ang,
and Sung and Yuan,
in its own domain.
each was sovereign
36
Khac Vien et al., op.
Nguyen
37
op. cit., p. 86.
"D.T.B.",
38 Ibid.
39
loc. cit.
Huy and Gamarra,
40
loc. cit.
Lam,
cit.,
p.
143.
are in
Hanoi
of "equality"
nhat phuong"
And the pro
the notion of
170
Stephen
O Harrow
is
Taken as a whole
importance
then, this introductory
six-phrase unit, whose
tones in which it is set, stresses the natural and historical
framed by the axiomatic
state. The lines which follow it recount
for the independent Vietnamese
precedents
over a succession of invaders and thus serve to rein
the victories of the Vietnamese
force
the point.
iiMi3i?*raM*?^M^ft?Mi#ffl*^
sometimes
weak,
strong,
yet never lacking heroes,
Liu Kung
beat the ambitious
and crushed Ch'ao Chie with his dreams
Sometimes
we
was
There
and Black
come
at Ham
captured
the Mongol,
Horse,
So Tu
to grief
at Bach
Dang
of grandeur.
Tu Pass
Bay.41
is saying, in effect, that history and nature conjoined have anointed a
Nguyen
institutions derive from the same source as China's but
nation whose
Vietnamese
Le Loi, whose
whose
fate is separate from China. The new Emperor of Vietnam,
Han Kao
and
whose
rivals
the
and
Han
Ch'in
greatness
spiritual lineage predates
to
restore
the
within
and
historical
framework
acted
this
natural
has
rightful
tzu,
to have acted against the rightful order is for them to have
order. For the Chinese
Trai
contradicted Heaven
and,
share with the Vietnamese:
The waters
were
Nor
of
the Eastern
in so doing,
to have gone against
a tradition which
they
Sea
not
would
to wash away this rape.
enough
of the Southern Mountain
the bamboos
suffice
to list their
sins.
So men
in their rage;
and angels united
refused them further
Heaven
and Earth
pardon.
To act against the rightful order of nature is to invite defeat and Nguyen Trai at one
point in the text allows that the Ming must have been mad (? IE ) to have tried to do
it.
So now we know that Vietnam and China are by nature separate and see Le Loi
before
cast in the hero's mould. But the order of the universe must be understood
one can profit from its logic and Le Loi's comprehension
is said to have been rooted
to please the Confucian
in study, a conceit designed
mind:
Long
texts
military
gave no heed to eating,
angered,
old and new to understand
I studied
and,
meditating
the reasons
for grandeur
and
for decadence.
studies tempered his inborn valour with charity (t), justice (?), and mercy.
support to
Charity and justice were supposed to provide moral and psychological
the army, and the triumph of Le Loi's forces is said to be the triumph of these tradi
tional Confucian
virtues. In the emphasis paid to these two concepts in the Binh Ngo
we
see
for they seem to have been
the
hand of Nguyen Trai in operation,
Dai Cao,
His
41 Here
name
license won out. The Mongol
M (^ )], whose
the urge to employ poetic
general 0-ma (-nhi) [ j&
of
the literal meaning
of Omar,
is rendered as "Black Horse",
is in reality a phoneticization
to pass on the sensation
of animal-like
the characters
ferocity he is said to have possess
employed
in Vietnam.
hated
he was particularly
ed ?
Nguyen
171
"Binh Ngo Dai Cao"
Trai's
the linchpins of his political philosophy.42 The value in noting them here is their ob
elite. But what of mercy?
vious appeal to a Confucianized
The Binh Ngo Dai Cao, after an extensive rehearsal of the battles fought, replete
with gore (not unlike the sort of thing found inNorse drapa or in chansons de geste),
of the Chinese following
the inevitable Vietnamese
turns to the disposition
victory.
While military defeat of the enemy was most persuasive in itself to those Vietnamese
who may have collaborated with them, the true mark of Le Loi's superiority
the unassailability of his position was that he was able to dispense mercy:
and of
of War
seek not killing
do embody,
I, moreover,
on High,
like the Emperor
a heart of mercy,
loving life.
The Gods
and
To Fang Cheng,
five hundred
and
thus
the Colonel,
and
ships I gave
Ma
Ch'i
it was
the sea
they crossed
with fright.
benumbed
totally
the Commandant,
To Wang
T'ung,
horses
I gave a thousand
and
to the Eunuch
and
to the Counsellor
Ma
Ying,
they sped home with terror in their hearts,
still.
their hands are trembling
to spare the Chinese
it can be argued that Le Loi's decision
While
troops was
to
at
than
retaliation
considerations
other
motivated
prevent Ming
by
philosophical,
treatment in
some future date, for instance, the specific description
of his merciful
served quite the opposite purpose. It strengthened notions of Le
the proclamation,43
Loi's equality with his adversary and, by implication,
his suitability as ruler of the
Its appeal to what may have been a growing
nation whose honour he had recouped.
was paralleled by its reinforcement
sense of nationhood
of the image of Le Loi as
one
whose
the proper focus of Confucian
support,
"justice" had led him to defeat
had led him to spare them.
the Ming and whose "charity"
thread of Nguyen Trai's logic, as traced in the Binh Ngo Dai Cao, might ten
tatively be summed up thus: The natural order which separates and equates Viet
nam and China, when transgressed,
provides a righteous casus belli which can be
The
The
very
first words
of
the proclamation
pay homage
to these
concepts:
deeds charitable
and just
Though
to bring the people peace,
undertake
the army, their protector
and avenger,
first must fell the tyrant cruel.
later in the work he exclaims:
Somewhat
How
Justice triumphs over barbarity!
over wickedness!
How Charity
of the true significance
question
of these terms in Nguyen
The whole
Trai's political
philosophy
in Vietnam.
has been the subject of lively debate
'dan* cua
See, inter alia, Le Van Ky, "Tu-tuong
no. 81 (1965); Van Tan, "Tu-tuong
Trai voi chung ta", NCLS,
nhan van cua Nguyen
Trai
Nguyen
no. 54 (1963); and numerous
in this publication
other articles
to be found from the early
NCLS,
43
1960s'on.
A descriDtion
Shih W?)
(
which,
though
, ch. 154.
not
specified,
is not
ruled out by official
Chinese
accounts.
See Ming
172
O'Harrow
Stephen
taken up by a worthy
individual. After devoting himself to study, he can go forth
in battle. Once he leads the nation to victory, he re
armed with justice to persevere
establishes
the proper order, erases the national
shame, and dispenses mercy.
of the case for
One might well ask if the Binh Ngo Dai Cao's
exposition
an
to
was new,
the
which
Vietnamese
represents
approach
independence
question
which
echoes
from previous
of Ly Thuong
army that fought
differed
that
Vietnamese
Over
destiny
the mountains
and
The substance of Nguyen Trai's
arguments.
Kiet
commander
?t
( $ #
1019-1105),
the Sung( SO, as far as it goes:
rivers of
in the Book
is inscribed
the South
reigns
the Southern
Emperor.
Clear
cut,
position
of the
our
of Heaven.44
while Ly Thuong Kiet may have maintained
that the right of the Viet
However,
over
to
was
namese
he made no
his
domains
rule
ordained,
sovereign
celestially
no
a
case
for
of
that
fact.
There
is
indication
conscious appeal to ethnic
systematic
as opposed
to geographic
in
either
Kiet's
poem or in the later,
Ly Thuong
identity
more famous appeal of Tran Quoc Tuan ( EttI ($ 12? - 1300) on the occasion of the
S&fiK)
Mongol invasion, theDu Chu Ty TuongHich Van ( fifg?
is as
historical document
Apart from the Binh Ngo Dai Cao, no other Vietnamese
to
as
arms
are
as
in
Tran Quoc Tuan's,
modern
times
his feats of
often referred
just
a
com
same
as
in the
Le Loi's. So itmay be worth taking
breath
often mentioned
parative glance at the Du Chu Ty Tuong Hich Van. Indeed, while less than 150 years
from that of the Binh Ngo Dai Cao,
separate the authoring of this latter document
in approach between
the two.
the reader is struck by several obvious differences
a narrowly defined group, the military
vassals of the
Tran Quoc Tuan addressses
concern with economics
and what might
king, in words which betray an overriding
them:
be loosely called chivalry. On the subject of personal honour, he admonishes
if you do not trouble to weed out
If you do not care to wash away the stains of humiliation,
to train your soldiers,
it is then as if you reverse
if you are not anxious
the seeds of violence,
to the invaders.
in capitulation
your spear in sign of surrender and raise your empty hands
on you for thousands
of
the enemy
is expelled,
shame shall descend
If you do so, when
generations.
How
will
you be able
to face Heaven
and Earth.45
It was to escape the stigma of being known as "defeated
generals" and having their
tombs desecrated
that Tran Quoc Tuan's men were called upon to fight.
ancestors'
to abandon
their pursuit of
These wealthy men had to be pushed
temporarily
to fight an enemy they could not buy off :
their hunting and idle gambling,
pleasure,
Should
mour,
possess
your
44
the cock spur shall not pierce the enemy's ar
army invade our country,
for military
tactics. Then,
artifice
substitute
the gambler's
though you
to pay the ransom
for
and rice fields, you will not be rich enough
gardens
the Mongol
nor
many
can
life in thousands
of [pieces
in Tran Trong Kim's
Original
see Lam, op. cit., pp. 47-48.
45
Lam, op. cit., p. 53.
46
Ibid., p. 51.
of] gold.46
Viet-Nam
Su-luoc
(Saigon,
1951),
p.
108. For
another
translation
the literati, Tran Quoc Tuan
addressed
of classical learning among his vassals:
Trai who
the depth
Unlike Nguyen
illusions about
But having been brought
up
. . . 47
of literary allusions
so he makes
Not
173
"Binh Ngo Dai Cao"
Trai's
Nguyen
the financial
only will my
in the military
consequences
fief go, but your
salaries
you
tradition,
cannot
of the Mongol
too will
be
perceive
invasion
in the hands
suffered
very few
the significance
clear to them:
of others.48
need not be made
at all, but the probability
that the Binh Ngo
Perhaps
Dai Cao's primary intended audience was the literati is obviously
reinforced by the
choice of language in which it is written; and Nguyen Trai did in fact have a choice.
We have already stated that in the reign of Ho Quy Ly, use of the demotic script was
to which must be added that Nguyen
Trai was a very ac
briefly encouraged,
in
.49
in
author
his
native
If
written
the
demotic
tongue
script, the pro
complished
it in
clamation
could have been largely understood
when read aloud ?
writing
a
to
limited
direct
full
the
It
is
mute
Chinese
elite.
immediately
comprehension
to
of their social role that the Binh Ngo Dai Cao was apparently
acknowledgement
in public. Thus it ends:
be explained to the masses
the point
The
era of
and
at every place proclaimed
this be published
must
renovation
so that every man
be
shall know.
so much a fixture
is in Chinese,
if it is understandable
that the proclamation
of the elite, it ismore than a little ironic who it says rallied to the cause of Le Loi in
his hour of need, for it is these, neither the literati nor vassals of the king, who shall
in a socialist Vietnam:
be remembered
But
our
Around
standard
I mustered
forces
on a fragile bamboo
pole,
from a scattered populace.
they drank my wine so I drank their water
and we became
like son and father,
soldiers of one heart.
As
The words "scattered populace"
should be taken here to mean the common people,
the poor, though "manh let?R?fei)" can even refer to vagrants and criminals.
If at the first glance the Binh Ngo Dai Cao has always appeared to be moving
it has remained up to now for its significance within a demonstrably
Viet
poetry,
namese context to be explained. Having peered beneath the surface a broader pat
tern has emerged. Altogether,
Nguyen Trai's vision of the nation ismore reasoned,
more comprehensive
seen. Yet, at the same time, it is more par
than previously
Where
Tran
Vietnamese.
ticularly
Quoc Tuan chose to cite examples of great war
47
48
Ibid.,
p. 50.
p. 52.
Nguyen Trai's
seen Quoc Am
Ibid.,
the oldest
extant
vernacular
Thi Tap
of the 254 poetic
writings,
consisting
?f HI ] or Q. VII of the UTT,
( IS #
body of literature
in Vietnamese
known
to date.
pieces
which
represent,
comprise
from
apart
the rarely
fragments,
174
Stephen
O Harrow
from Chinese
Trai could list various
and even Mongol
history,50 Nguyen
of Chinese generals at the hands of the Vietnamese.
When he refers to the
so
most
he
does
"Chinese"
tradition,
artfully, readily implying Vietnamese
equality
within that tradition. Thus, for instance, he creates the saga of his lord in such a way
on a footing with the greatest of heroes, already
that Le Loi enters the pantheon
riors
defeats
alike.
acknowledged
by Chinese and Vietnamese
our
to
of the function of many aspects of the
view
time
rethink
It is probably
of
culture in Vietnamese
of
Chinese
Sinitic tradition,
Confucianism,
society, and
to
as
to
features
its
elite
cultural
in
the
relation
general
ruling
opposed
especially
of literate Confu
as a whole.
In some ways the paraphernalia
among the population
for
a
can
sort
the
most
of
advanced
with
be
cianism
technology
technology,
equated
cen
of
the
the
fifteenth
Vietnam
and
available
administration
social control
in, say,
tury. In this sense it is the framework within which events took place, but not
them. It is much as today, when Vietnam has
the motor which propelled
necessarily
or China,
let alone the
not
of
in
the Soviet Union
imitation
chosen Marxism
own
to
as
a
tool
its
ends.
of
but
Marx
achieve
Germany
nineteenth-century
to adopt Nguyen Trai's view of the world, we
If we were for a brief moment
to
the
conclude that
would have
concept of Vietnam as ever derivative of China was
and Vietnam
For
him, Sinitic institutions were not "Chinese"
profoundly mistaken.
a
were
within
at
sharers
an outside entity imitating them
all. Rather they
larger circle
?
one
which
united
and
of the Christian bond
peoples in an early
princes
reminding
It
for
this reason that
is
Norsemen.
medieval
precisely
Europe
facing the heathen
use
can
of
tradition to
the
Chinese
Dai
Cao
Binh
aspects
Ngo
Nguyen Trai in the
so
in
And
aims.
of
out
Chinese
the rightful thwarting
doing, he takes a
Ming
point
that tradition. It determines Nguyen Trai's world order,
step towards universalizing
its identity assured by nature and the vir
fits independently,
into which Vietnam
men
who
live
there.
tuous
50
Lam,
op. cit., pp. 49-50,
52.