I recently came across a fascinating text from the early twentieth century that contains a critique of the Dông Kinh Nghĩa Thục. The Đông Kinh Nghĩa Thục (東京義塾, Tonkin Free School) is a school that was set up in Hanoi in 1907 where “modern” (Western) subjects where taught, and where students were encouraged to learn to read and write in Vietnamese using the Romanized script (quốc ngữ) rather than classical Chinese (Hán).

This school was shut down by the French colonial authorities a year later. The usual explanation for this is that the French accused some of the leaders of the school for being involved in tax protests that broke out at that time in central Vietnam.

In the modern (nationalist) history of Vietnam, the brief existence of this school is regarded as an important moment in the nationalist struggle against French colonial rule when Vietnamese sought to take steps to modernize their society, but ultimately were stopped by the French).

The text that has a critique of this school is called the Addendum to the Brief Compilation of Unofficial History (Dã sử lược biên tục kỷ 埜史略編續紀), and it contains historical information about events from the time that Emperor Tự Đức ascended the throne in 1847 to the seventh year of Emperor Duy Tân’s reign, or 1913.

That it is called an “unofficial” history signifies that it was compiled by a private individual. Indeed, the information in this text clearly reflects what one (anonymous) educated person knew and recorded.

As for the Đông Kinh Nghĩa Thục, the author of this text referred to that school as the “Gia Ngư School“ (Gia Ngư học trường 嘉魚學場), and explained that it was located “in the city [of Hanoi] on the new street of Gia Ngư (on top of the filled-in lake).” [于城庯嘉魚新巷（塞湖處上）]

Today Gia Ngư Street is a couple of streets to the north of Hoàn Kiếm Lake. In the late nineteenth century, however, there were two smaller lakes in that area. By the early twentieth century those lakes had been filled in. Gia Ngư was apparently a “new street” that was built in the area of one of these filled-in lakes.

The author also states that this school was established by French officials and that it was run by a scholar-official by the name of Nguyễn Đình Tuân, with the assistance of scholars who had passed the lower levels of the civil service exam.

Nguyễn Đình Tuân is usually described as an acquaintance of the people who led the Đông Kinh Nghĩa Thục, rather than being directly involved in it. This could be a detail that this author got wrong, but the rest of the information seems accurate.

In particular, the author talks about the curriculum of the school, and how the Vietnamese vernacular was taught at the entry level using the Romanized script, and that French and classical Chinese were taught as specialized subjects.

The author then goes on to criticize the curriculum of the school by saying that it followed the ideas of French officials and focused on practical matters like taxation, and that it did not address what this author considered important – (Confucian) moral principles and inner knowledge (nghĩa lí để uẩn 義理底蘊).

In addition to stating that the French set up the Đông Kinh Nghĩa Thục, this author also documents numerous other cases where he claims that the French were taking control of the educational system.

To take one example, in 1908, the same year that the Đông Kinh Nghĩa Thục was closed, this author states that a “Teachers School” (Sư Phạm học trường 師範學場) was established in the old quarter of Hanoi and that local teachers from across the North were ordered to attend the school for six months. This school, the author states, was run by the French.

A couple of years ago (I think) I wrote several blog posts about the educational reforms that started to take place in 1906 when Emperor Thành Thái (under French pressure) issued an edict calling for the reform of the civil service examination system. That reform included introducing vernacular Vietnamese (using the Romanized script), French, and Western learning.

While changes came more slowly to the Center, in the North the French had more freedom to make changes. And the author of this text documents some of their actions.

In that context, what exactly was the importance of the Đông Kinh Nghĩa Thục? If the French were getting Vietnamese scholars across the North from 1906 onward to learn the languages and knowledge that were only briefly taught in that school, and which were supposedly important for “modernizing” Vietnam, then why is the Đông Kinh Nghĩa Thục seen as being so important?

This author clearly did not see it as all that important. From his perspective, it was just one more example, of many, in which the French were seeking to transform the educational system and the world of Confucian morality that he valued.

While today we may or may not share this author’s view of the importance of focusing on Confucian morality, his text should make us think twice about our own ideas about this period and what we think was important about it.