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Towards the end of the 14th century, a great crisis
shook the country. The Ming court, then reigning in
China,
took advantage of this to invade Dai Viet and to impose
a form of direct rule which was to last for twenty years
(1407-1427). However, the invaders encountered stiff
resistance from the beginning, and national independence
was eventually wrested back in 1427 by Le Loi, the
founder of the Le Dynasty.
Land system and economic development
After achieving victory, Le
Loi ordered the confiscation of all lands
belonging to Ming functionaries, traitors and Tran
princes and dignitaries who had died or left. State land
was utilized in part by the administration itself and
partly distributed to dignitaries and mandarins. In
contrast to the Tran estate owners, the benefiting
mandarins could only collect land rent, but not do as
they pleased with the peasants themselves, who were
subject to the direct authority of the state.
Administrative centralization was thus promoted and the
status of the peasants improved.
Le Loi in 1429 and then Le
Thanh Tong in 1477, regulated and improved the
distribution of communal rice fields based on the
following principles:
- All were entitled to
distribution according to respective title and rank;
- Distribution was to take
place every six years;
- Rent was paid to the
state and was generally lower than that demanded by the
landlords.
The distribution of
communal lands had been a practice since far back in
time, but it was the first time that the monarchical
state had intervened so directly in communal affairs.
Given that the area covered by such lands was
significant, the regulations resulted in increased
production.
The kings Le paid great
attention to the development of agricultural production.
Lands left fallow during war time were quickly brought
into cultivation, while the state set up state farms on
uncultivated land so as to, in the words of King Le
Thanh Tong, "concentrate our strength in agriculture and
increase our potential". Individuals were also
encouraged to cultivate virgin lands. New areas were
thus cleared, both in the highlands and reclaimed
coastal regions. Dykes were kept in good repair and in
emergencies, students and soldiers were mobilized in
order to repair them. Soldiers and palace staff were
sent in turn to the fields to work. Harvests and cattle
were given particular attention.
This policy greatly
encouraged agricultural production, and no serious
famines occurred during the 15th century.
Handicrafts were still a
subsidiary activity. However, they were widely
practiced, and many villages came to specialize in
certain occupations such as silk weaving, wine making,
pottery or porcelain making, lime burning, etc. Leather
processing was introduced from
China.
In towns, particularly in the capital Thang Long,
craftsmen lived in certain quarters and were grouped in
guilds with strict rules. Silver, tin, iron, lead, gold
and copper mines were opened.
Royal workshops were run by
a special royal department and produced items needed at
court, not to be sold on the market. They also minted
coins. The personnel comprised craftsmen forced into
service and slaves. This did not favor the progress in
handicrafts.
The development of trade
was encouraged by the spread of regional markets. Le Loi
abolished the paper currency issued by Ho Quy Ly,
ordered the use of copper coins and had units of
measurement (length, weight, volume, and area) and the
sizes of certain goods (fabrics and paper) standardized.
Foreign trade was strictly controlled by the state;
transactions could be conducted only with government
authorization and in specified places. Many foreign
trading vessels were banned from entering port. This
restriction on foreign trade remained one of the main
characteristics of feudal monarchy.
Administrative,
military and judicial organization
With the disappearance of
large estates, administrative centralization reached its
peak. The court was reorganized with six ministries; the
posts of prime minister and general were abolished,
these functions being taken over by the king himself.
Provincial and regional administration was handled by
the mandarin bureaucracy. Functionaries were appointed
to head villages in numbers which varied according to
population. The establishment of new villages and the
election of notables became subject to detailed
regulations. In 1467, Le Thanh Tong ordered maps of all
villages and one of the whole country, the first ever to
be drawn up. The country was divided into regions (dao),
provinces, districts, and villages.
The army, 250,000 strong
towards the end of the war of liberation, was reduced to
100,000 and divided into five sections which took turns
doing military service and agricultural work. The
peasant-soldier system inaugurated under the Ly was thus
maintained. Besides conscripts there were also
reservists.
The mandarin bureaucracy
enjoyed special privileges - land, houses and
special attire - but were no longer entitled to
own large estates with serfs and have their own
armed forces as in the time of the Tran. Members
of the royal family enjoyed even more privileges, but
not to the extent of being allowed to participate
in the nation's leadership or administer important
provinces, as had occurred under the Tran.
The legislative apparatus
was streamlined to serve the centralized administration
and evolving society. In 1483, the Hong Duc Code was
promulgated, grouping the rules and regulations already
in forte in a systematic way; this was the most complete
code to be drawn up in traditional
Vietnam
and remained in force until the end of the 18th century.
Completed under subsequent reigns, it comprised 721
articles and was divided into six books.
The Hong Duc Code sought in
particular to safeguard ownership of land by the state
and landlords, and ensure the authority of the father,
first wife, and eldest son. It also determined the rites
of marriage and mourning. The "ten capital crimes" were
severely punished, especially rebellion and neglect of
filial duties. Feudal and Confucian in inspiration, the
Hong Duc Code was, however, progressive in several
respects. The rights of the woman were protected; she
could have her own property and share equally with men
in inheritance. Where there was no male offspring,
daughters could inherit the whole family fortune. A wife
could repudiate her husband if he had abandoned her for
a certain time. All these points were to be suppressed
in its most reactionary form. The Hong Duc Code was
specific to the Vietnamese society of the time and
showed no Chinese influence.
With the first kings Le, Le
Thanh Tong in particular, the feudal monarchy in
Vietnam
reached its peak; for some more time, the monarchical
regime and mandarin bureaucracy were to play a positive
role in the history of
Vietnam.
Ethnic minority
policy
Vietnam
comprises many ethnic groups; minority groups live in
mountainous regions, while the majority group, the
Kinh (Viet), are
plain-dwellers.
During the insurrection
against the Ming, ethnic minorities living in the
highlands allied themselves with the Kinh to fight the
occupiers. After liberation, the feudalists in the delta
resumed their policy of exploitation and oppression
vis-a-vis the minorities. The Le monarchy ruled over the
highlands through tribal chieftains upon whom the
monarchy bestowed mandarin titles. These chieftains
collected taxes. Control over mountainous regions was
tighter than under the Tran. The Kinh mandarins ruling
over the uplands also sought to exploit the ethnic
minorities.
This policy provoked
frequent revolts among the mountain dwelling minorities,
which was for centuries one of the weak points of the
feudal monarchy. The Thai of the northwest rose in
revolt in Lai Chau in 1432, in Son La in 1439 and in
Thuan Chau in 1440; the Tay of Lang Son, Cao Bang and
Tuyen Quang also did so on many occasions. In the
western part of Nghe An, the head of the
Cam
family succeeded in holding out from 1428 to 1437.
All these revolts were
firmly suppressed by the Le troops. The secession
advocated by the rebel chiefs also ran counter to
historical trends of the deltas and highlands being
complementary economically. But antagonism among ethnic
groups was to disappear only with the advent of
socialism.
Cultural
development in the 15th-17th centuries
While the plastic arts and
architecture made little progress compared with the
Ly-Tran period, literature flourished. Buddhism was
relegated to second place. Confucianism becoming the
official ideology inspiring mandarin competitions and
national literature.
Confucianism
and the scholar
Confucian works, as
interpreted by Chu Hi (of the Sung period in
China),
made up a body of doctrine which had to be digested by
candidates entering mandarin competitions. In 1484, the
names of laureates at the central competitions were
inscribed on stone stele erected at the
Temple
of Literature
in
Hanoi.
The doctrine was carefully studied by the kings. Le
Thanh Tong was an outstanding scholar and wrote moral
texts intended for the people. |
