Several months ago, or maybe longer, I downloaded a new article that I wanted to read, but I’ve only now had time to do so.
The article is by Trần Thị Xuân and it is a study of the granting of official recognition to local spirits during the first several decades of Nguyễn Dynasty rule in the nineteenth century.
Actually, to be more accurate, it is more about the “re-evaluation” by the Nguyễn Dynasty of spirits that had earlier been granted official recognition.
In premodern Vietnam, the emperor would grant his approval for certain spirits to be honored in individual villages. Such villages would receive an official edict from the court that would grant the local spirit official status.
When the Nguyễn Dynasty came to power in the early nineteenth century, they gradually “re-evaluated” the spirits that were officially honored across the realm, and in the process, they eliminated official recognition for some spirits and offered their recognition to new spirits.
What kind of spirits did Nguyễn officials not like?
They did not like the spirits of people who had supported earlier regimes that the Nguyễn viewed as illegitimate.
This is how it worked. After a loyal official died, a Vietnamese dynastic government would honor that man by allowing a shrine to be established so that offerings could be made to his spirit. That spirit would also receive official recognition from the dynasty in the form of an edict.
When the Nguyễn came to power, they gradually came to realize that in the area they now controlled were many shrines that honored the spirits of men who had served what the Nguyễn considered to be illegitimate (earlier) rulers, such as the Mạc, the Trịnh lords, and the Tây Sơn.
In her article, Trần Thị Xuân documents the efforts of the first few Nguyễn Dynasty emperor to rid the land of these spirits and to replace them with “orthodox sprits” (chính thần 正神), such as the spirits of individuals who had meritoriously served the Nguyễn.
Why does this matter?
This matters because this is a fundamental aspect of premodern Vietnamese governance that scholars have not taken seriously. In particular, it shows the degree to which Nguyễn Dynasty rule was “religious.”
The Nguyễn Dynasty operated in a “sacred space.” The emperor was recognized by a divine power called “Heaven,” and interconnected elements of this divinity were worshipped across the empire, from mountains to city gods (thành hoàng 城隍) to local spirits.
The spirits of former officials were part of this interconnected sacred space. Here, Trần Thị Xuân points out a fascinating example of this in her article where she notes that when an epidemic broke out in 1839 in Bắc Ninh and killed some 20,000 people, an official speculated that this was the response of spirits who had been angered when Emperor Minh Mạng removed their official recognition and banned their worship several years earlier.
In other words, the granting of recognition to local spirits was serious business, and it was serious because it was intimately connected to powers that could determine the fate of the dynasty.
What is more, there were MANY spirits that were officially recognized by the Nguyễn Dynasty, and therefore, many nodes in this network of sacred power that spread across the empire.
Trần Thị Xuân notes that when Từ Đức came to power in 1847, he ordered that new edicts be distributed to the officially recognized spirits, and in 1851, 13,069 such documents were distributed across the realm.
She notes further that when the French carried out an ethnographic survey of the center and north in 1938, they collected records for 13,211 local spirits.
That’s A LOT of local spirits!! And now think of the bureaucratic effort that must have been involved in officially documenting and recognizing those spirits. That’s A LOT of work.
Clearly, the Nguyễn Dynasty saw that work as important. So why haven’t we (modern scholars) taken this aspect of Nguyễn Dynasty rule seriously?
There are various reasons, and I explain some of them in the video above. However, the gist is that modern scholars have largely dismissed the importance of the Nguyễn Dynasty, and in the process, they have not made the effort to actually understand it.
To understand “Nguyễn Dynasty religion” requires effort, like the effort that Nguyễn Thị Xuân has made in this wonderful article. It’s a really good article!!
Trần Thị Xuân, “Nghiên cứu về việc sát hạch ban cấp sắc phong thần nửa đầu triều Nguyễn (1802-1883) [Study of the examination of the granting of spirit titles in the first half of the Nguyễn] Tạp chí Hán Nôm [Hán Nôm Review] Issue 5, No. 162 (2020): 62-76.
This Post Has 6 Comments
Hurray for the Nam Giao! I think that Fitzgerald was on the right track in that the communists understood the importance of local spirits and ritual and transformed them into something new – martyrs (liệt sĩ) and exemplary revolutionaries took the place of local spirits. Ritual shows of solidarity (mít tinh) became part of a new system of legitimacy.
LMK: ‘This matters because this is a fundamental aspect of premodern Vietnamese governance that scholars have not taken seriously. In particular, it shows the degree to which Nguyễn Dynasty rule was “religious.”’
The obvious question prompted by this insight is whether it could help explain the persistence with which Nguyễn Dynasty had persecuted Catholics, a policy many modern Vietnamese have deemed extremely foolish.
For sure!
At the same time, however, I still don’t understand how by the twentieth century Catholocism could become a normal part of the Nguyen Dynasty world. I would like to see someone explain that (with good evidence).
Hallo, I just happened to read the comment of Saigon Buffalo and you. I just have some thought on this issue you are discussing. On the attutitue of the Nguyen toward Catholics in the reign of Minh Menh who started prosecuting Catholics, I think what Wynn Wilcox writes in the book Allegories of Vietnam (2003) is rather convincing. And the reason Tu Duc so keened on granting edicts to local spirits, is because he was against Catholics, and wanted to promoting something “Lương”, not the other way around. About the reason Catholonism became a normal part in Vietnam, I think first, because it was part of all the treatries that the Nguyen cited. And there is one book from Charles Keith (2012), Catholic Vietnam: A Church from Empire to Nation. Have you known about this book?
Xuan Tran
I don’t think I explained what I was thinking clearly. When I said that I don’t understand how Catholicism became a normal part of Nguyen life, I mean things like: How is it that it became ok for the empress to be Catholic? How is it, that it became ok for there to be Catholic officials (like Ngo Dinh Kha and Ngo Dinh Diem)? This was not ok in the early 19th century, but it was ok in the early 20th century. Treaties don’t explain that, because no treaties said that the emperor had to marry a Catholic, etc. Something changed in the worldview of the Nguyen Dynasty.
Then at the same time, some Catholics became very strong “protectors” of the “traditional” and “Confucian” world of Vietnam.
In the 20th century, there seems to have been a convergence of interests between the Nguyen and certain Catholics. That is the issue that I have never seen anyone fully document and explain.
I see what you mean. In fact, the treaties only stipulated on the “freedom” of Catholics in the Nguyen domain. For what you concerned, it should be relevant to the policies of civil examination and recruitment. I will pay more attention to this issue and hopefully can write more about it. In fact, for example, in the reign of Tu Duc, it was requested to allow Catholics to attend the civil examination. And after 1885, many positions were appointed by the suggestion of the French.