Princes (not Kings) in Đàng Trong

In the world of English-language scholarship on Vietnamese history there is a subfield that has focused on “Đàng Trong” (also known as Nam Hà, Cochinchina, etc.), the area to the south of what is now the Gianh River in Quảng Bình Province.

This area came under the control of the Nguyễn family starting in the sixteenth century.

First appointed to govern over this region by the Lê Dynasty emperor, members of the Nguyễn family went on to rule over this southernmost region of the Lê Dynasty empire until the time of the Tây Sơn Rebellion in the late eighteenth century.

Throughout this time period, although the Nguyễn continued to recognize the Lê Dynasty, they ultimately ruled on their own. Meanwhile back in the north, the Lê emperors were increasingly dominated by another powerful clan, the Trịnh.

The Nguyễn and the Trịnh did not like each other, and engaged in warfare against each other, but neither side was able to defeat the other. In the end, the Tây Sơn defeated the Trịnh, the Nguyễn and the Lê, but were then eventually themselves defeated in 1802 by a surviving member of the Nguyễn family, Nguyễn Phúc Ánh, who then established the Nguyễn Dynasty.

The scholars who have written about Đàng Trong in English have created a narrative about the region that sees the Nguyễn as willfully abandoning what these authors argue was a rigid, Confucian world of the Red River Plain to embrace what they argue was an ethnically/culturally/religiously diverse world of “the south.”

Accordingly, these historians have also argued that Confucian ideas and scholarship were not as important in Đàng Trong as they were in the north. Instead, these scholars argue that in the south the practical world of military generals prevailed over the erudite pursuits of Confucian scholars.

In the south, the Nguyễn discovered “a new way of being Vietnamese,” or so this narrative goes. And the ways of that distinctly southern form of Vietnamese society, some scholars argue, continued to be present in the early years of the Nguyễn Dynasty as well.

I’ve never found these ideas to be convincing. However, it is only recently that I’ve started to look closely at the historical records for this time period. Doing so has revealed to me exactly what I had long suspected: this narrative about the Nguyễn’s supposedly less-Confucian/less-scholarly way of being Vietnamese in Đàng Trong is not supported by what is actually recorded in the historical records for that time and place.

An important event for the English-language-scholarship narrative about Nguyễn rule in Đàng Trong is when in 1744 Nguyễn ruler Nguyễn Phúc Khoát 阮福濶 (1714–1765) adopted a new title; that of “vương” 王.

Scholars have repeatedly translated this term as “king,” and have pointed to this event as a kind of a culminating moment when the Nguyễn finally broke their ties with the world of the Lê Dynasty in the north, a kind of official acknowledgement that they were pursuing their “new way of being Vietnamese” in the south.

Translating “vương” as “king,” however, is problematic, and definitely doesn’t fit with what is recorded in the historical sources.

First of all, “vương” can be translated in two ways in English: as “king” and as “prince.”

The term is Chinese in origin, and virtually every dynasty in Chinese history granted certain men the honorary position of “wang/vương.” In that context, this term is usually translated into English as “prince,” as these men were not “monarchs” who governed over their own kingdoms, but instead, were simply officials who were granted a rank of nobility, that of “vương” or “prince.”

“Prince,” or sometimes “prince of state” (quốc vương 國王) was the highest rank in the hierarchy of noble titles. Below it were other titles such as “commandery duke” (quận công 郡公), “duke of state” (quốc công 國公), etc.

Prefixes, like “grand mentor” (thái phó 太傅) and “grand guardian” (thái bảo 太保) were sometimes added to these general terms to create gradations between the ranks.

As for actual princes, meaning the actual children of an emperor, they were referred to as “hoàng tử” 皇子 or sometimes as “thân vương” 親王, a term that is often translated into English as “princes of the blood.”

With regards to the Nguyễn, the forefather of the Nguyễn clan, Nguyễn Kim 阮淦 (1476–1545) was granted the noble title by the Lê Dynasty of duke of state, and more specifically, as the Duke of the State of Trừng (Trừng quốc công 澄國公).

His son, Nguyễn Hoàng 阮潢 (1525－1613), the first member of the family to govern in the south, was granted a slightly higher title by the Lê Dynasty of Grand Mentor Duke of the State of Trừng (Thái phó Trừng quốc công 太傅澄國公).

His son, Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên 阮福源 (1563－1635), was then granted an even higher title by the Lê Dynasty, as a grand guardian commandery duke (Thái bảo quận công 太保郡公).

(As far as I can tell) this is the final mention in the Nguyễn chronicles of the Lê Dynasty granting titles to the Nguyễn. From this point onward, the Nguyễn granted themselves their own titles. However, in doing so they never rejected their position as subjects of the Lê emperor.

They continued to use the Lê Dynasty calendar, for instance, and they continued to take the title of commandery duke until 1744 when the eighth Nguyễn ruler, Nguyễn Phúc Khoát 阮福濶 (1714–1765), elevated himself one step higher in the hierarchy of nobility to “prince,” a position that was still below that of the Lê Dynasty emperor, and one which the Trịnh, the Nguyễn’s rival clan in the north, had held since 1599.

So in 1744 Nguyễn Phúc Khoát declared himself to be a “prince,” not a “king.” What is more, he did so in explicitly Confucian terms. That aspect of this event is a topic that historians have not discussed, and is the topic that we will address in the next post.