Aspects of Vietnamese History PDF
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ASPECTS OF VIETNAMESE HISTORY ASIAN STUDIES AT HAWAII The Publications Committee of the Asian Studies Pro- gram will consider all manuscripts for inclusion in the series, but primary consideration will be given to the research results of graduate students and faculty at the University of Hawaii. The series includes monographs, occasional papers, translations with commentaries, and research aids. Orders for back issues and future issues should be directed to The University Press of Hawaii, 535 Ward Avenue, Honolulu, Hawaii 96814, USA. Present standing orders will continue to be filled without special notification. Asian Studies at Hawaii, No. 8 ASPECTS OF VIETNAMESE HISTORY Edited by Walter F. Velia Asian Studies Program University of Hawaii The University Press of Hawaii 1973 This volume, the eighth in the series entitled Asian Studies at Hawaii, is the fourth to concern Southeast Asia. A complete list of all titles in the series may be found at the end of this volume. Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Hawaii is administratively part of the Asian Studies Program. The Program offers interdisciplinary majors in Asian studies at both the undergraduate and M.A. levels. The program also facilitates research, or- ganizes lecture programs, sponsors publications, and launches other efforts at broadening understanding of Asia. Further information about faculty and staff, degree requirements, course offerings, and other re- sources of Southeast Asian Studies may be obtained by writing Southeast Asian Studies, Asian Studies Program, 315 Moore Hall, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Hawaii 96822. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 72-619626 ISBN 0-8248-0236-5 Copyright © 19 73 by The University Press of Hawaii All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America CONTENTS Preface vii The Cycle of Confucianization in Vietnam by R. B. Smith 1 The Bong Kinh Free School Movement, 1907-1908 by Vu fliic Bang 30 Alexandre Varenne and Politics in Indochina, 1925-1926 by William H. Frederick 96 The Faithful Few: The Politics of Collaboration in Cochinchina in the 1920s by Milton Osborne 160 rj Quoc Ngtf and the Development of Modern Vietnamese Literature by Hoäng Ng<?c Thanh 191 Japan and the Disruption of the Vietnamese Nationalist Movement by Triton g Bifu Läm 237 Index 271 PREFACE Here is a potpourri of papers on Vietnam. They are by various authors and were written at various times for various purposes. No central theme or organizing idea directed the authors, yet through most a theme emerges. The uniting thread running through all but the first paper is Vietnamese nationalism. The first paper, which alone concerns the period of "traditional" Vietnam (during its age of independence from the tenth to the early nineteenth century), discusses Vietnamese society before the impact of the Western concept of nationalism. Most writers have typified this period of Vietnamese history as one in which Chinese Confucianism was the dominant idea and organizing principle in Vietnamese society. Professor Smith takes a closer look at this generalization and perceives that, as in China itself, Confucianism in Vietnam varied in strength and content through history. In Vietnam Smith postulates a cyclical pattern of Confucian strength, with periods of Confucian orthodoxy alternating with periods of absence of commitment to any politi- cal philosophy. Smith suggests that this cyclical interpretation may still have relevance in North Vietnam today, accounting for the fluctuations in policy between Marxist orthodoxy and nonphilosophic pragmatism. The next four papers presented here cluster in time around the first two decades of the twentieth century. This was an era during which affairs in Vietnam, and, indeed, in Southeast Asia in general, attracted scant notice outside the offices of colo- nial administrators. This was an era during which Southeast Asia was regarded, if it was regarded at all, as the epitome of peace, order, and profitable production. This view of Southeast Asia was, of course, the view of the colonial power, the colonial governor, the colonial investor. This was the view that "mattered." World War II not only transformed the history of the area--encouraging nationalist leaders and movements that weakened the colonial power both physically and psychologically, leading to removal of Western rule from one-time colonies--but it transformed the historical view of what was import- ant before the war. The meteoric rise of national heroes such as H6 Chi Minh, Sukarno, and Aung San, leading mass movements and politicized populations, produced a scholarly search for antecedents in the deceptive calm of the prewar years. This second look at peaceful, orderly, and productive Southeast Asia revealed a Southeast Asia in which resistance to the West had never died, in which indigenous cultures had been continually fighting for survival and a new expression, in which Western means had been conceptualized as contributing to Asian ends. The essays in this volume by Hoang Ngoc Thanh, •O / ^ Vu i)uc Bang, William H. Frederick, and Milton Osborne are parts of the growing literature that is making understandable the transformation of seas of apparent tropic tranquillity into raging oceans of revolution. The sixth and final paper, by Dr. Triidng BiAi Lam, also focuses on the theme of nationalism, but it brings the subject forward in time to the wartime years of the 1940s. The special relationship between the French and the Japanese had unique effects on nationalism in Vietnam and served to hinder rather than to foster the growth of a unified nationalist sentiment. A word about the authors and their articles: Dr. Ralph Smith, Lecturer in the History of Southeast Asia in the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, is the author of Viet-Nam and the West (Cornell, 1971) and of several articles on Vietnamese history. His essay here was written for presentation at the University of Hawaii during the week he spent as consultant to and guest of Southeast Asian Studies, Asian Studies Program, in 1970. , \ Dr. Vu Buc Bang produced his article on "The fiong Kinh Free School Movement," 1907-1908 as a master's thesis in education for his degree in Hawaii \ in 1969. Mr. B&ng completed a Ph.D. degree in education at the University of California at Los Angeles in 1971. He has recently returned to Viet- nam . The article "Alexandre Varenne and Politics in Indochina, 1925-26" was written by Mr. William H. Frederick for a seminar in Southeast Asian history at the University of Hawaii in 1968. Mr. Frederick is now completing research for his dissertation on the history of Surabaja between 1930 and 1950. The fourth article, "The Faithful Few: The Politics of Collaboration in Cochinchina in the 1920s" by Dr. Milton Osborne, was produced under the same auspices as the first article by Dr. Smith; that is, it was written for presentation at the Uni- versity of Hawaii during the week he served as guest consultant to Southeast Asian Studies of the Asian Studies Program. Dr. Osborne is currently a member
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