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From Moral Exemplar to National Hero: Thetransformations of Trn Hng o and theemergence of Vietnamese nationalism

LIAM C. KELLEY

Modern Asian Studies / Volume 49 / Issue 06 / November 2015, pp 1963 - 1993DOI: 10.1017/S0026749X14000183, Published online: 24 March 2015

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0026749X14000183

How to cite this article:LIAM C. KELLEY (2015). From Moral Exemplar to National Hero: Thetransformations of Trn Hng o and the emergence of Vietnamese nationalism.Modern Asian Studies, 49, pp 1963-1993 doi:10.1017/S0026749X14000183

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Modern Asian Studies49, 6 (2015)pp. 19631993. CCambridge University Press 2015doi:10.1017/S0026749X14000183 First published online24March2015

From Moral Exemplar to National Hero:

The transformations of Trn Hng a.o andthe emergence of Vietnamese nationalism

LIAM C. KELLEY

Department of History, University of Hawaii at Manoa,United States of America

Email:[email protected]

Abstract

Trn Hng a. o (12281300), the Vietnamese general who led troops to hold offMongol invasions in the thirteenth century, is honoured across Vietnam todayas a hero of the nation (anh hng dn tc). This ubiquitous representation has,however, come about only recently, having been crafted in the twentieth century.

Prior to that time, Trn Hng a. o was honoured in other ways. This articlewill examine precisely how it is that Trn Hng a. o was represented andremembered in various worksfrom official histories to spirit writing textsbetween the fifteenth and twentieth centuries. It will trace the transformationsintheserepresentationsovertimeandarguethatitwasonlyintheearlytwentiethcentury that Trn Hng a. o began to be represented as a national hero. In itscoverage of the transformations in Trn Hng a. os representation, this article

will demonstrate how modern nationalist ideas emerged in Vietnam in the earlytwentieth century.

Introduction

Trn Hng a. o, the general who fought off Mongol invasions in thethirteenthcentury,isanextremelyfamoushistoricalfigureinVietnamtoday. Schoolchildren learn of his deeds, and streets are named afterhimallacrossthecountry.Invariably,heispresentedasanationalhero(anh hng dn tc), a heroic general who defended the nation against

foreign aggression. Yet, as ubiquitous as this representation is today,it is a novel way of characterizing Trn Hng a. o and his life. Overthe course of the more than700years since his death in1300, otherideas concerning the significance of Trn Hng a. o predominated.

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http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0026749X14000183http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0026749X14000183http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0026749X14000183http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0026749X14000183http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0026749X14000183http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0026749X14000183http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0026749X14000183http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0026749X14000183mailto:[email protected]://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1017/S0026749X14000183&domain=pdfmailto:[email protected]://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0026749X14000183


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It was only in the twentieth century that his position as hero of thenation emerged.

To argue that a historical figure was viewed in different ways inthe past and only became a national hero in the twentieth centuryshould come as no surprise, given all of the scholarship which hasbeen produced in recent decades on such topics as invented traditionsand the modernity of nationalism.1 The field of Vietnamese history,however,hasbeenslowtoadopttheseideas.Whilemanyscholarstodayare likely aware that much that has been written about Vietnamesehistory is presented through a nationalist prism, little work has beendone to determine exactly how and when that prism was created.2

Examining how Trn Hng a. o has been represented through time,

and how he was first transformed into a national hero in the earlytwentieth century, is one way of doing this, and is the focus of thisarticle. Given the restrictions of space, what this article will not beable to cover are the changes that Trn Hng a. os representation asa national hero underwent over the course of the twentieth century.That is a topic which will have to await further examination, but I willconclude this article with some thoughts on that matter.

The topic of this article has recently been briefly addressed by

anthropologist Pha. m Quynh Phng in her monographHero and Deity,on the resurgence in interest in the popular religious cult associatedwith the spirit of Trn Hng a. o over the past few decades. Pha. mQu`ynh Phng argues in this work that Trn Hng a. o has alwaysbeen viewed as both a national hero and a deity. In an introductorychapter on Trn Hng a. os life and his image, for instance, she notesthat His status as the great national hero who defeated the strongestenemy in Vietnamese history meant that the cult that surrounded himwas, from the outset, that of a national hero.3

At the same time, however, Pha. m Qu`ynh Phng argues that it wasin the colonial era that, for the first time, Vietnamese people came to

1 This body of scholarship is far too vast to cite here, but two essential studiesare: Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of

Nationalism(London: Verso, 1983); and Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger (eds),The Invention of Tradition(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,1992).

2 Some scholars, however, have sought to deconstruct the idea of the nation in

Vietnam. For a review of some representative works, see Tng Vu, VietnamesePolitical Studies and Debates on Vietnamese Nationalism,Journal of Vietnamese Studies2.2(2007), pp.203211.

3 Pha. m Qu`ynh Phng, Hero and Deity: Trn Hng a.o and the Resurgence of PopularReligion in Vietnam(Chiang Mai: Mekong Press,2009), p.26.


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conceptualise themselves as bearers of a distinctive nation, and as aresult, Trn Hnga. obegantoappearmoreasasymbolofpatriotismrather than as a specific personality. She notes further that it wasalso during this same period that members of the elite, influenced byWestern ideas of civilization and progress, began to criticize the cult ofTrn Hng a. o as superstitious.4 Pha. m Qu`ynh Phng also argues,following Shawn McHale, that at the turn of the twentieth centuryConfucianism ceased to be a philosophy open only to specialists, andinstead became the basis of a commonly shared idiom for intellectuallife, and as a result of this transformation, Confucian notions ofloyalty, the Four Virtues, and the Three Submissions, which TrnHng a. os cult promoted, resonated strongly during this period.5

Then in the post-colonial era, and particularly in the DemocraticRepublic of Vietnam, Trn Hng a. o came to occupy the mosthonored position in the symbolism of the state.6

Pha. m Qu`ynh Phng clearly sees that, historically, changes tookplace in the perception of Trn Hng a. o and his cult. However, sheonly discusses these points briefly, as the main focus of her work is onthe contemporary worship of Trn Hng a. os cult. Nonetheless, herwork brings to the fore important questions. If, for instance, it was

only during the colonial era that Vietnamese began to conceptualisethemselves as bearers of a distinctive nation, then how could TrnHng a. o have been seen as a national hero before that point?Further, what did Confucian notions such as the Four Virtues andThree Submissions have to do with a cult dedicated to a general? Andif these notions resonated strongly during the colonial era, whereexactly did they come from, and how exactly had they changed sinceearlier times?

These are some of the issues which this article will address. Inexamining how Trn Hng a. o was represented in writings from thefifteenth to the early twentieth centuries, the article will ultimatelydemonstrate that Trn Hng a. o has not always been viewed as anational hero. Rather, it was only in the early twentieth century that he

4 Ibid, p.35.5 Ibid, pp.3435. Shawn McHales ideas on the changing position of Confucianism

in Vietnamese society are presented in his Print and Power: Confucianism,Communism,and Buddhism in the Making of Modern Vietnam(Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press,2004), pp. 6695. The information below on morality books, on the other hand,strongly suggests that Confucian ideas had long been part of a commonly sharedidiom for intellectual life.

6 Ibid, p.39.


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begantoberepresentedinthatmanner.Priortothattimehehadbeenwritten about as a moral exemplar, a local general in a larger world,a deity with specific powers to cure certain womens illnesses, and aspirit who encouraged people to follow Confucian values. In tracingthese transformations, it is clear that what Prasenjit Duara termedthe superscription of symbols took place, as new representationsof Trn Hng a. o did not completely replace older ones.7 Instead,some ideas were kept while new ones were added or emphasized.Nonetheless, the effort in the early twentieth century to representTrn Hng a. o as a national hero was dramatic in the degree to whichit erased what had been emphasized prior to that point, and to whichit reinterpreted the past to suit the present. Further, the continued

dominance of the modern nationalist ideas that began to take format that time has prevented scholars in the succeeding century fromseeing clearly how transformative the early twentieth century was.However, by tracing the changes in Trn Hng a. os representationsover time, and examining how he was refashioned as a national heroin the early twentieth century, we can gain an understanding of howand when modern nationalist ideas took hold in Vietnam.

Moral exemplar

Trn Hnga. ofirstemergesinrecordedhistoryforactsforwhichheisnot usually remembered or honoured todayengaging in premaritalsex and thwarting an arranged marriage. In 1251,thefirstruleroftheTrn Dynasty, Trn Thi Tng, wished to marry the eldest princess inhis palace, Princess Thin Thnh, to a certain Prince Trung Thnh.8

Such unions between members of the same extended family wereacceptable, but they had to be arranged by the parents. Trn Hnga. o, however, intervened out of his own initiative before this marriagecould take place. More specifically, he snuck into Princess ThinThnhs chamber under the dark of night and had sexual relations

7 Prasenjit Duara, Superscribing Symbols: The Myth of Guandi, Chinese God ofWar,Journal of Asian Studies47.4(1988), pp.778795.

8 Phan Thanh Gin et al., Khm i.nh Vit s thong gim cng mu.c [Imperiallycommissioned itemized summaries of the comprehensive mirror of Vit history](1881), A.2674, Chnh Bin6/34a.


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with her. Confronted with a fait accompli, Trn Thi Tng approveda marriage between Princess Thin Thnh and Trn Hng a. o.9

The fifteenth-century historian Ng S Lin had nothing but words

of disdain for this episode. In hisComplete Book of the Historical Recordsof a.i Vit (a.i Vit s k ton th), he chastised the Trn for notfollowing the proper rites in carrying out this marriage, and felt thatthe joining in matrimony of members of the same family was an actthat was simply unacceptable.10 Later, in the eighteenth century,historian Ng Th S placed the blame for this act on Trn Hnga. os youth and imprudence, as well as the improper family customsof the Trn.11 Indeed, Trn Hng a. os indiscretion followed othersuch acts committed by the Trn family which later commentators

likewise criticized. And finally, in the nineteenth century, EmperorT c stated that Trn Hng a. os martial and civil skills wereexemplary, as were his loyalty and filial piety. Yet because of hisdistasteful behaviour (x ha. nh), he could not be considered a perfectbeing (ton nhn).12

So, Trn Hng a. o had stained his stature with a moral failurewhich the literati prior to the twentieth century never allowed to beerased. At the same time, however, there were other aspects of Trn

Hng a. os life that these same men found praiseworthy, and nonemore so than his loyalty and filial piety. In his entry in theCompleteBook of the Historical Records ofa.i Vitmarking the death of Trn Hnga. o in1300, for instance, Ng S Lin recorded various stories aboutconversations that Trn Hnga. o supposedly had during his lifetimethat revealed these traits. One story claims that when Trn Hnga. os father was on his deathbed he entreated his son to take controlof the kingdom someday, to fulfil his own desire to have done the same.

Trn H

ng

a. o reportedly felt that this was not the right way to act.TheComplete Book of the Historical Records ofa.i Vitrecords that TrnHng a. o subsequently asked two of his servants about this matter.These two men noted that in taking control of the kingdom he would

9 Ng S Lin, a.i Vit sk ton th[Complete book of the historical records ofa. iVit] (1697edition, orig. comp. 1479), A. 3, Bn K 5/17a17b. Trn Hng a. osgiven name was Quc Tun. He was granted the title of the Hng a. o Prince/King(Hng a. o Vng), and today he is most commonly known as Trn Hng a. o, which

is how I will refer to him in this article.10 Ibid, Bn K5/17b18a.11 Ng Th S,Vit stiu n[Model cases from Vit history] (eighteenth century),

A.11,2/10a.12 Phan Thanh Ginetal.,Khm i.nh Vit sthong gim cng mu.c, Chnh Bin 6/33b.


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gain sudden riches, but would be reviled through the ages. The twoservants stated further that they would rather die as his servants thanbecome officials in a new government and thereby sacrifice their filialpiety and loyalty. Similarly, one of Trn Hng a

.os sons stated that

it was unacceptable to seize control from another ruling family, letalone ones own family.13

However, another son, Trn Quc Tng, held a different view. WhenTrn Hng a. o brought up the issue of his fathers dying wish, TrnQuc Tng noted how the founder of the Song Dynasty had been amere farmer, but then had taken advantage of the changing timesto take control of the empire, thereby implying that Trn Hng a. oshould do the same. According to theComplete Book of the Historical

Records ofa.i Vit, Trn Hng a. o became incensed and stated thatTreacherous officials come from unfilial sons. He then pulled out hissword to kill his son, but was prevented by the first son from doingso.14

Trn Hng a. o thus remained loyal to the monarch, and heencouraged others to do the same. He reportedly wrote documentsfor his soldiers, such as a work entitledA Brief Summary of the MysteriousTactics of Military Strategists (Binh gia diu l yu lc th) in which

he cited examples of people in the past who had loyally served theirmonarch in extreme ways. He noted, for instance, how in the ancientkingdom of Chu, a kingdom that flourished in the Yangzi valleythrough much of the first millennium bce, a man by the name ofYou Yu had allowed himself to be speared in the back in order toprotect the monarch, and how in the third century bce, a militaryofficial by the name of Ji Xin had let himself be captured and put todeath by the enemy in order to divert attention so that his commander,Liu Bang, the subsequent founder of the Han Dynasty, could escape.15

In addition to encouraging his soldiers to serve loyally, Trn Hnga. o also demonstrated to others his own loyal intent. There is anentry in theComplete Book of the Historical Records ofa.i Vitfor the year1285 that records that when Trn Hnga. o escorted the emperor healwayscarriedwithhimakindofmusicalinstrumentusedbymembers

13 Ng S Lin, a.i Vit sk ton th, Bn K6/9b10a.14 Ibid, Bn K6/10a.15 Ibid, Bn K 6/10b and 6/11b. It is not clear if this was a book or a single

document. A single document associated with this title is quoted in theComplete Bookof the Historical Records ofa.i Vit(Bn K 6/11b6/14a) and has been translated byTrng Bu Lm in hisPatterns of Vietnamese Response to Foreign Intervention: 18581900(New Haven: Southeast Asia Studies, Yale University,1967), pp.4954.


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of the military. It looked like a wooden staff with a bell at the end.According to this account, other people in the entourage kept an eyeon him, believing that he might follow his fathers advice and use thisinstrument as a weapon against the emperor. Aware of what otherswere thinking, Trn Hng a. o threw away the bell and just carriedwith him the more harmless wooden staff to demonstrate to everyonethat he had no such intentions.16

While we have no way of verifying whether such events ever actuallyoccurred, this is the earliest type of representation that we have ofTrn Hng a. o. Through the actions that were recorded about him,not only did Trn Hng a. o demonstrate his loyalty, but, in the eyesof subsequent generations of literati, he also revealed the depth of his

filial piety as well, for in their minds there was a direct connectionbetween these two virtues. Works such as the Classic of Filial Piety(Hiu kinh/Xiaojing), a common text for children to study, dating fromthe first millenniumbce, repeatedly emphasized this connection withstatements such as The exemplary man having served his parentswith filial piety, can therefore transfer his loyalty to the monarch.17

Hence, loyalty to the monarch was seen as an outgrowth of filial pietyin the home. If you seek loyal officials, Confucius is reported to have

said, you must proceed to the gates of [the homes of] filial sons.18

This is the same point that Trn Hng a. o made in negative termsto his scheming son when he said, Treacherous officials come fromunfilial sons.

As such, by demonstrating his complete loyalty to the monarch,Trn Hnga. o also demonstrated his filial piety. While both of thesevirtues were thus interrelated and essential, loyalty to the monarchwas the utmost virtue. Loyalty was the culmination of a process ofmoral development that began with the cultivation of filial piety inthe home. Further, loyalty was also the most important quality tomaintain in order to survive and prosper in a pre-modern kingdomruled by an absolute monarch. It is not surprising, then, that we findthis virtue emphasized repeatedly and employed to explain variousother human attributes. In the case of Trn Hng a. o, for instance,NgS Lin even attributed his success as a general to his loyalty, for ashe wrote in hisComplete Book of the Historical Records ofa.i Vit, It must

16 Ng S Lin, a.i Vit sk ton th, Bn K5/47a.17Xiaojing[Classic of filial piety], Guang yangming14.18 Fan Ye,Hou Hanshu[History of the Later Han] (fifth century), Wei Biao zhuan.


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be that the capacity to strategise and to be valiantly martial comesfrom always harboring in ones heart a sense of loyal righteousness.

Our kingdoms general

While loyalty was the main concern for the literati who compiledhistories and other texts in pre-twentieth-century Vietnam, theyalso clearly acknowledged Trn Hng a. os achievements on thebattlefield. The campaigns that he led against the Mongols wererecorded in detail, and he was recognized as a gifted strategist. Thatsaid, there are two aspects of the praise for Trn Hng a. os martial

skills that deserve note. The first is that his capability as a generalwas never viewed in isolation of characteristics that the literati whowrote about him cherished, such as learning, loyalty, and filial piety.The second is that his greatness as a general was usually expressedby either comparing him to, or associating him with, famous generalsfrom Chinese history. The following assessments by two of the mostfamous eighteenth-century literati, Ng Th S and Bi Huy Bch,respectively, illustrate these two points.

King Hng a. o was loyal, righteous, wise and brave. The Tangs Prince ofFengyang was second to him. Beyond his writings, his civil and martial skillsset the standard for the myriad polities. And beyond his accomplishments, hisheroism gained fame in the two kingdoms [that is, China and Vietnam].His power could overturn rivers and mountains, could drive off wind andthunder and cause fear in the Celestial awes closeness [that is, the Chineseemperor]. His loyalty pierced the sun and moon, and his integrity movedghosts and spirits. In comparison with Prince Fenyang, he was a big stepbeyond in terms of maintaining his loyalty and holding firm to righteousness.

The Classic of Changes states that [the exemplary man] comprehends thatwhich is minute and that which is manifest. He perceives that which is soft andthat which is hard. The myriad people [therefore] look to him.19 Because ofthese [qualities], King Hnga. owasabletoenjoyauspiciousnessthroughouthis days and maintain his honor. He therefore can truly serve as a model forofficials throughout the ages.20

19 Yijing[Classic of changes], Xici xia5.20

This comment is quoted inKip Bc Va. n Linh t

in tch[Documentary traces ofVa. n Linh shrine in Kip Bc] (1863), in SVan Ho Thng Tin Tnh Hi Dng,Di sn Hn Nm Cn Sn - Kip Bc - Phng Sn[The heritage in Classical Chineseand Nm from Cn Sn - Kip Bc - Phng Sn] (Hanoi: Nh Xut Bn Chnh Tri.Quc Gia,2006), p.360.


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When people of previous generations praised good generals, they wouldcertainly speak of King Trn Hng a. o, and when they praised pure scholars,they would certainly speak of Master Chu Van Trinh [the famous fourteenth-century scholar, Chu Van An]. There has never been anyone to match them.

King Hng a. os talent, virtue, merit and accomplishments have stood outthrough the ages. Perhaps only the Tang magistrate can compare. Althoughhistorical works are not very thorough, nonetheless his accomplishments canstill be verified. King Hng a. o was from a privileged family, and MasterVan Trinh was a recluse. They did not follow the path of the civil serviceexaminations. However, those in later generations who were employed [bythe government], could all take these two as models.21

In both of these passages, Trn Hng a. o is compared to the sameperson. The Tangs Prince of Fengyang and the Tang magistrate are

both references to Guo Ziyi, a Tang Dynasty general who put down theAn Lushan Rebellion and who was later regarded as one of the greatestgenerals in Chinese history. I place Chinese in scare quotes here asNg Th S and Bi Huy Bch did not make such a distinction. To themGuo Ziyi was simply a great general who served a great dynasty, andwho set a standard for other generals to aspire to. Further, in theirminds, Trn Hnga. o had exceeded that standard, and they felt thatthis was due to the strength of such characteristics as his loyalty and

moral virtue. In the eighteenth century, the literati who would haveread these comments, like their counterparts throughout East Asia,believed strongly in the importance of moral virtue and loyalty. Theybelievedthatthesecharacteristicswereessentialinordertosucceedatany endeavour, and particularly at the endeavours that they engagedinstudying for the civil service examinations and serving in thegovernment. Trn Hng a. o had followed a different path, but hissuccess likewise came from the strength of such characteristics as

moral virtue and loyalty, and he could therefore still serve as a modelfor the literati.While Ng Th SandBiHuyBchcomparedTrn Hng a. otothe

recognized standard of Guo Ziyi in order to demonstrate the degree ofhis greatness, the L and Nguyn Dynasties created an institutionalsetting in which these men likewise coexisted. In1740, in an effort toincrease the L Dynastys power and prestige, an order was issued torevive certain ancient rituals. One institution which was dealt with as aresult of this was the Martial Temple (V Miu).Itisunclearwhenthefirst martial temple was constructed. By the time this order was issued

21 Ibid, p.361. Chu Van Trinh is more commonly known by the name Chu Van An.


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in 1740it appears that there were multiple martial temples, as thisorder says nothing about constructing such temples, but specifies thateach martial temple was to be supported by its surrounding district,indicating that the temples already existed but had perhaps not beenmaintained and were not all following the same rituals. This ordersought to standardize the ritual regimes in the martial temples in thekingdom, and it did so by stipulating who was to be honoured in thetemples. It stated that the main figure honoured in the temple shouldbe Taigong, the general who had helped the Zhou Dynasty come topower in antiquity. Both sides of the temple were then to be linedwith18other figures, all of whom we would today label as Chinesegenerals. The order then specifically stated that Trn Hng a. o was

to be honoured following these figures.22It is likely that these temples may again have fallen into disrepair or

been abandoned during the tumult of the Ty Sn Rebellion, for themartial temple was not re-established under the subsequent NguynDynasty until1835, during the reign of Emperor Minh Ma. ng. In thatyear an official from the Board of Rites memorialized the throne torequest the establishment of a martial temple. This official noted thatin establishing a kingdom, both the literati and the military needed

to be attended to. To date, this official argued, literati matters hadreceived strong attention, but not military ones. It was thus importantto promote martial teachings to provide a model for members of themilitary to emulate.23

This statement was not entirely true. After the Nguyn Dynasty wasestablished in1802, a shrine to Guan Yu (also known as Guan Gong,Guandi, and Guansheng Dijun) was set up next to Thin Mu.Pagodain Hue.24 GuanYuwasageneralwholivedduringthefinalyearsoftheHan Dynasty and into the Three Kingdoms period. By the nineteenthcentury, Guan Yu had served as the main figure of martial worshipin China for centuries, having surpassed Taigong in importance. Hispresence was not unknown in Vietnam, for in the same year thatthe L Dynasty ordered martial temples standardized (1740), it also

22 Phan Thanh Gin et al., Khm i.nh Vit s thong gim cng mu.c, Chnh Bin38/34a.23 Quc SQun Triu Nguyn,Minh Mnh chnh yu[Essential administration oftheMinhMa. ngreign],Tp 3 (Saigon:BGioDu. cVThanhNin, 1974), 8/13b14a.

24 NiCcTriuNguyn,Khm i.nha.i Nam hi in sl [Imperially commissionedcollected statues and precedents ofa. i Nam] (1851), A.54,92/4a.


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ordered shrines to Guan Yu be constructed next to martial temples.25

That said, the shrine to Guan Yu appended to a Buddhist pagoda in1802 could clearly not compare with the order that Gia Long, the firstNguyn emperor, issued in 1804 to support and regulate rituals atmultiple Temples of Literature (Van Miu) across the kingdom.26 Itwas likely this imbalance that the official from the Board of Rites wasspeaking of in1835.

To support his argument, this official noted that during the Kaiyuanera (731741 ce) of Tang Xuanzongs reign, the Tang Dynasty hadestablished a temple dedicated to Taigong. This event, this officialargued, constituted a precedent which the Nguyn Dynasty couldfollow. He thereupon requested that a martial temple be erected, and

that famous generals from antiquity and meritorious officials from thekingdom be selected to serve as models for later generations.

Emperor Minh Ma. ng agreed to this proposal, and ordered that atemple dedicated to Taigong be erected to the west of the capital.This temple was also to honour such famous personages from theNorthern Court (Bc Triu) as Guan Zhong, Zhang Liang, Han Xin,Zhuge Liang, Li Jing, Guo Ziyi, and Yue Fei, followed by figures fromwhat Minh Ma. ng simply labelled Our Kingdom (Ng Quc), namely

Trn Hng a. o, L Khi, and several individuals from the currentdynasty. Finally, officials were to make offerings there twice a year,which was the practice during the Tang Dynasty as well.27

Thus, in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Trn Hnga. os position as an exemplary general garnered for him entre intothe martial temples of the L and Nguyn Dynasties. However, hewas simply one among many individuals who were honoured in thesetemples. He may have been chronologically the first Vietnamese

general in these temples, but in the larger scheme of temples thathonoured Chinese figures before Vietnamese, his position was farfrom central. This was even more the case in another Nguyn Dynastytemple in which he was honoured, the Temple of Sovereigns fromSuccessive Generations (Li.ch a. i Vng Miu). This temple wasestablished by Emperor Minh Ma. ngin 1823, following a Ming Dynastyprecedent. The main figures honoured in this temple were Chineserulers from antiquity, such as Fu Xi and Shen Nong. They were

25 Phan Thanh Gin et al., Khm i.nh Vit s thong gim cng mu.c, Chnh Bin38/34a.

26 Ni Cc Triu Nguyn,Khm i.nh a.i Nam hi in sl,90/14a.27 Quc SQun Triu Nguyn,Minh Mnh chnh yu,8/14a.


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followed by Vietnamese rulers, from Kinh Dng Vng and La. cLong Qun to monarchs from theinh, L, Trn, and L Dynasties.The final individuals honoured in this temple were officials who hadserved monarchs well and benefited the people. While the recordsdo not use these terms, here again Chinese preceded Vietnamese,with Trn Hng a. o placed chronologically sixth in a group of 15Vietnamese officials and generals.28

Potent deity

Although the literati praised Trn Hng a. os loyalty and filial piety

and the L and Nguyn Dynasties honoured him by placing him intheir martial temples, there were other people who viewed Trn Hnga. o in still other terms, namely as a potent deity. These beliefs appearto have emerged around the area where Trn Hng a. o passed awayin Hi Dng Province. A shrine was erected there in his honour ata place called Va. n Kip, which was later renamed Kip Ba. c. As timepassed, certain stories and legends emerged about Trn Hng a. o inthis area. This information was eventually recorded in the second half

of the eighteenth century in a text called theSupplementary Compilationof Notes Made at Leisure (Cng d tip k tu.c bin), a work which wasassembled by a man named Trn Qu Nha, and in a history compiledby Ng Th S entitledModel Cases from Vit History(Vit stiu n).

According to Ng Th S, at some point prior to Trn Hng a. osbirth,awomaninHi Dng Province, who was the wife of a merchantfrom Fujian Province in China, dreamt that she had relations with adragon sprite and that her son would create troubles for the SouthernKingdom. The Thearch () heard of this and ordered a greenimmortal boy to descend to earth to control him. The future motherof Trn Hng a. o then dreamed one night of a boy wearing a greenrobe who threw himself into her embrace. She woke up after this andsubsequently found that she was pregnant.29 As for the woman whowas married to the Fujianese merchant, she also became pregnant andgave birth to a son who did indeed eventually cause trouble for thekingdom. According to Ng Th S, his name was Nguyn B Linh andhe served as a general for the invading Yuan army. However, he was

28 Ibid, 11/23b24a; Ni Cc Triu Nguyn, Khm i.nh a.i Nam hi in s l,90/1a3a.

29 Ng Th S,Vit stiu n,2/42a.


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captured and killed by Trn Hng a. o. After Nguyn B Linh died, hetransformed into a demon (tuy. ). If women came into contact with thisdemon they would become ill. This was referred to as Pha. m Nhan,

and the only cure for this illness was to obtain and lie on a mat fromthe shrine to Trn Hng a. os spirit. Once a woman had done so, thedemon that was ailing her would depart.30

Trn Qu Nhas account, meanwhile, states that Nguyn B Linhsfather was from Guangdong Province. It relates further that NguynB Linh passed the exam to become a presented scholar (tin s) underthe Yuan Dynasty. Adept at using talismans, Nguyn B Linh enteredthe Yuan royal palace to cure illnesses. While there he would engagein intercourse with the palace women. He was caught and was set

to be executed for this, but was pardoned on the condition that hehelp guide the Yuan in their attack on the South. He was captured,and when Trn Hng a. o was about to give him his punishment,Nguyn B Linh taunted Trn Hng a. o by asking what he would givehim to eat. Trn Hng a. o angrily responded that Nguyn B Linhcould eat the blood of pregnant women. Then, apparently, after hedied his spirit travelled around the land and would step on pregnantwomen, making them incurably ill. Eventually, however, a cure for

this illness was discovered. It required that someone visit Trn Hnga. os shrine, exchange a new mat for an old mat at the shrine, andthen lie on the old mat. If a woman did this, she would be cured of thisailment.31

Even though Pha. m Nhan was a demon, there was seemingly a shrinededicated to him. Trn Qu Nha lamented that this licentious shrine(dm t) had been in existence for 500 years and that no one haddestroyed it.32 However, he did not say anything critical about Trn

H

ng

a. os spirit. Neither did literati who recorded information aboutthis cult in the nineteenth century.33 One nineteenth-century writereven commented positively on Trn Hng a. os power as a spiritby noting that while various members of the Trn royal family hadbecome spirits after death, Trn Hng a. os spirit was the most

30 Ibid,2/42ab.31 Trn Qu Nha,Cng dtip k tu.c bin[Supplementary compilation of notes made

at leisure] (eighteenth century), A.44,37a36b.32 Ibid,36a36b.33 See, for example, Nguyn PhChnh, Vit dphong vt tng ca ch gii ton tp

[Complete collection of the anthology of songs about the local customs and productsin the Vit territory, annotated and explained] (1811), A.1041.


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1976 L I A M C . K E L L E Y

potent. This literati attributed such potency to the fact that TrnHng a. o had been so loyal and filial when he was alive.34

Indeed, not only did literati not condemn Trn Hng a. os cult,

there is evidence that they participated in it as well. In hisRandomWritings amidst the Rains (Vu trung ty bt), the famous early nineteenth-century scholar-official Pha. m nh Hoffered an example of this inan account about an official by the name of Hong Bnh Chnh, aman who passed the exam to become a presented scholar in 1775and eventually served as a scholar in the Hn Lm Academy, an officethat provided literary services to the court. Hong Bnh Chnh wasthus highly educated and a member of the elite. He also saw peoplein his dreams. In particular, for a period of time Hong Bnh Chnh

often dreamed of a beautiful woman dressed like an imperial maidenwho would regularly come, and they would enjoy themselves togetherjust like a husband and wife. At first he suspected that this was ademon, but as time passed and he remained healthy and there wereno problems in his daily life, he no longer found it strange.

Not long after this, however, Hong Bnh Chnhs wife becameill. Her illness worsened and abated at random as if something waspossessing her. Hong Bnh Chnh sent someone to Va. n Kip to make

entreaties at the shrine to Trn Hng a. o and to obtain a mat frominside the shrine to place on the wifes bed. Her illness then slightlydissipated. But a short while later it went back to the way it had beenbefore. Hong Bnh Chnh then dreamt at night that the beautifulwoman said, I am not demonic (tuy. ) to people, so what can King Hnga. o do to me?

35 The story then goes on to cover issues unrelatedto Trn Hng a. os spirit. What is significant, however, is that itindicates that even high-ranking government officials were aware of,

and believed in the effectiveness of, his cult.We can gain an even stronger sense of this in the postscript to a textwhich was compiled in1851. Called theDocumentary Traces of Va. n LinhShrine in Kip Bc(Kip Bc Va. n Linh tin tch), this text gathered

34 Vit in u linh tp lu.c ton bin [Complete compilation of the collected recordsof the departed spirits of the Vit realm] (nineteenth century), in Chen Qinghao(ed.), Yuenan Hanwen xiaoshuo congkan[Compilation of Vietnamese literary accounts

written in Chinese], Series II (Paris and Taibei: cole Franaise dExtrme-Orient

andStudentBookCo.,1992),p. 220.Thisisanineteenth-centuryversionofatextthatwas originally compiled in the fourteenth century. Trn Hng a. o was not discussedin the original text.

35 Pha. m nh H, Vu trung ty bt [Random writings amidst the rains], (earlynineteenth century), A.145,50a.


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together information about Trn Hnga. oslifeandmilitaryexploits.ItcontainsapostscriptwhichwaswrittenbyacertainPha. m Vo.ng,whoat the time was assistant prefect under the provincial administration

commission of Nam

i.nh Province. Pha. m Vo. ng records that in theyears immediately prior to writing his postscript he was nearing50and still did not have a son. This was cause for worry. As it happened,a group of doctors visited him and told him that they worshipped thevenerable spirit (tn thn), meaning the spirit of Trn Hng a. o, andthat they wished to build a new shrine, but were not sure how to doso. While the text does not make this point explicit, perhaps thesewere doctors whom Pha. m Vo. ng had previously visited in regard tothe fertility problems that he and his wife were facing. In any case,

Pha. m Vo. ng reported the doctors wish to one of his superiors, thegovernor general of Nam i.nh and Hng Yn provinces, ng VanHo. Governor General Ho responded positively that Great KingTran is an orthodox spirit of the Southern Kingdom. From the past tothe present he has truly served as a model for the people and officials.He also stated that it had long been his wish, too, to construct sucha shrine, and now he suggested that they find an appropriate site onhigh and dry ground to do so.36

The shrine was built inng Mc Commune, My Lc District, Nami.nh Province. After it was completed Pha. m Vo.ng and some of theshrines other devotees went to the main shrine dedicated to TrnHnga. oinVa. n Kip in 1849 tobringbackanametablettovenerate.During this trip, Pha. m Vo.ng secretly made an entreaty to the spiritof Trn Hng a. o that his wife become pregnant. After reciting thisentreaty, Pha. m Vo. ng saw an immediate response in the smoke fromthe incense there in the temple. A month later, Pha. m Vo.ngs wife did

indeed become pregnant. The following year Vo.ng took up a post in adifferent location. On the occasion of the anniversary of the death ofTrn Hng a. o, he visited the new shrine. Heavy rains forced him tospend the night there, during which time he had a vision in his dreamin which Trn Hng a. o handed him a piece of yellow paper with thecharacters trn and khanh written on it. The following month Pha. mVo.ngs wife gave birth to a son, and they named him Trn Khanh.

37

Pha. m Vo.ng then noted in his concluding remarks in his postscriptthat he was over 50 and now had a son to whom he could entrust

36Kip Bc Va. n Linh tin tch, p.370.37 Ibid, pp.370371.


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1978 L I A M C . K E L L E Y

the familys poetry and writings, and who could take responsibility formaintaining the worship of the familys ancestors. All of this, Pha. mVo.ng felt, had been bestowed upon him by the spirit of Trn Hnga

.o. This was a gift which Pha

.m Vo

.ng knew he could never repay.

Nonetheless he recorded this information in an attempt to at leastrepay a tiny fraction of what he had gained by spreading news of thespirit of Trn Hng a. os great deeds.38

Confucian moralizer

Whilesomeliteratithereforeparticipatedinandrecordedinformation

about Trn Hng a. os cult in the eighteenth and nineteenthcenturies, in the 1890s Trn Hng a. o began to express himselfdirectly. He did this through spirit writing (ging bt). Spirit writingis a phenomenon where a spirit possesses a person who then writesout a message from the spirit in a bed or tray of sand by holding aspecial writing implement and letting the spirit indicate what to write.Someone standing by the tray of sand then reads out the characters astheyarewritten,andathirdpersonrecordsthemessageonpaper.This

is a practice that literati traditionally looked down upon, as such directcontact with spirits was considered a form of heterodoxy. However,in the late nineteenth century in Vietnam, parts of China, and inJapanese-controlled Taiwan, this practice enjoyed an intense periodof activity.39 While this outburst of spirit writing may have occurred asa kind of reaction to the troubles of the times, and particularly to theonset of colonial rule, as a genre of writing it was intimately relatedto a kind of text known as morality books (thin th).

Morality books were texts which had been revealed in China byspirits such as Wenchang Dijun and Guangsheng Dijun. Such textsfirst appeared during the period of Song Dynasty (9601279)and,likeNeo Confucianism, can in some ways be seen as a Confucian responseto Buddhist ideas. They encouraged people to live in accordancewith Confucian moral standards, but they used the logic of karmicretribution to encourage people to do so, arguing that if you did goodthings, good things would happen to you, and if you did bad things, bad

38 Ibid, p.371.39 Spirit writing in Taiwan has received the most scholarly attention. See David K.

Jordan and Daniel L. Overmyer,The Flying Phoenix: Aspects of Chinese Sectarianism inTaiwan(Princeton: Princeton University Press,1986).


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things would happen to you. This karmic logic, however, was justifiedthrough reference to passages in the Confucian classics, such as aline in theClassic of Documents(Shangshu) which states that, On thosewho do good are sent down a hundred blessings, and on those who doevil are sent down a hundred calamities.40 That said, as texts thatwere said to have originally been revealed, they were also consideredsomewhat heterodox by the elite. Nonetheless, they were tolerated aseffective tools for encouraging common people to follow Confucianmores. At the same time, some members of the elite would also chantthese texts on a daily basis in an effort to create merit for themselves,so that their wives could produce sons, or so that their sons could passthe civil service examination.41 What literati were not supposed to

do, however, was to contact the spirits directly themselves, but thisis precisely what started to happened at the end of the nineteenthcentury in Vietnam.

At some point in the late nineteenth century, Vietnamese wentfrom reading these texts to creating their own, and Trn Hng a. owas directly responsible for the production of what was perhaps thefirst such text in Vietnam, one which appears to have been createdat some point in the1890s.42 This text, revealed in classical Chinese,

was called theOrthodox Scripture of the Great King Who Manifests the Divine(Hin Thnh a.i Vng chnh kinh), and will hereafter be referred toas the Orthodox Scripture. Trn Hng a. o revealed some prefatoryremarks to this text in which he stated that as he looked down onthe world from above, he started to worry about the condition of hisdisciples (t). He found that they acted with sincerity, but theirhearts were not introspective, so when they sought a response [fromthe spirits], that response did not last. Trn Hng a. o then took pityon his disciples and commissioned his deputy, Pha

.m Ngu Lo, to take

a spirit carriage to visit H La. c Shrine [in Kip Ba. c.], descend into

40 Shangshu[Classic of documents], Yixun.41 For the origins of morality books, see Cynthia Brokaw, The Ledgers of Merit and

Demerit: Social Change and Moral Order in Late Imperial China (Princeton: Princeton

University Press,1991).42 The same transformation from reading morality books to creating new textsthrough spirit writing occurred at the same time in Taiwan. See Philip Clart, TheRitual Context of Morality Books: A Case-Study of a Taiwanese Spirit-Writing Cult(PhD thesis, University of British Columbia,1986).


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1980 L I A M C . K E L L E Y

the brush, and transmit theOrthodox Scripture.43 The actual text of theOrthodox Scriptureis then recorded as follows:

People live between Heaven and earth and must engage in the enterprise of

the sages. What is this enterprise? It is nothing more than loyalty and filialpiety. Loyalty and filial piety are essential for the five relationships. Neithercan be lacking. You must consider how you can be filial as sons, how you canbe loyal as officials, how you can be harmonious as brothers, how you can berespectful as wives, and how you can be trustworthy as friends. Above, onerespects the Heavenly spirits and serves ones ancestors. Below, one holds inmeasure the dark souls and engages in hidden virtue. In conducting oneselfsuch, will one not fully carry out the Way? Otherwise one will fall prey tothe laws of the King of Hell, and upon ones death, receive the censure ofHeaven. One will be eternally divorced from the proper human Way [nhn

a.o]. To not follow the proper human Way, how sad that is!Those of you who are my disciples, make haste and return to carrying outgood deeds. In order to eradicate the various forms of evil, first uphold thefive relationships, then carry out hidden virtue. Absolutely abstain fromwine, licentiousness, wealth and arrogance. Completely reject arrogance,parsimoniousness and graft. Carry out my benevolence and justness. Do notassist others in their idle talk. Maintain my loyalty and filial piety. Do notget involved in base complaints. Organise ones home with pure simplicity.Grant ones descendents trust and tolerance. Scholars, farmers, workers

and merchants should follow their allotted occupations. They should notdegenerate into opulence, but always return to what is generous and moral.[In so doing] the spirits will naturally respect the king of the underworld;disasters will depart and good fortune will arrive. There will be no needto make blasphemous entreaties of my spirit, for auspiciousness will collectand blessings arrive en masse. Is that not joyful? You must strive to carrythis out. If you violate my teachings, then you must not chant my scripture.Respectfully [presented].44

In this scripture we see Trn Hng a. o as literati saw him, and

promoting the ideas that they valued. In particular, his claim that theenterpriseofthesages(thnh nghip)isnothingmorethanloyaltyandfilial piety makes him the perfect spokesperson for this enterprise asthose are the two values which literati associated with him. At the sametime, Trn Hng a. o brings in many more values that were part of theConfucian repertoire at both the elite and popular levels. Filial piety,

43 This scripture is contained inTrn gia in tch thng bin[Complete compilation

of the documentary traces of the Trn family] (1899), A. 324, 25a. Pha. m Ngu Lowas a general who served under Trn Hng a. o in some of the battles against theMongols in the thirteenth century and who was married to Trn Hng a. os adopteddaughter.

44 Ibid,25b26a.


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loyalty, respect, harmony, and trust are all values which were discussedin elite texts but likely known by common people as well. Hiddenvirtue (m cht), meanwhile, was a concept that the morality booktradition was based on, and which the elite encouraged commoners tofollow. The idea of hidden virtue was that those who carry out virtuousacts with no calculation of the positive consequences of such acts willdefinitely reap a positive response. For many men at the time therewas no more positive response that one could reap than having a son,andthiswasoneblessingwhichthe Orthodox Scripture could help obtain.

The Orthodox Scripture isincludedinalargertextentitledthe CompleteCompilation of the Documentary Traces of the Trn Family. This compilationalso contains testimonials of men who succeeded in obtaining sons

after seeking Trn Hng a. os aid. These stories follow a similarpattern in that the men were married to women who did not bearsons. The men then travelled to Trn Hng a. os shrine where theypetitioned him for help, and where they obtained a copy of hisOrthodoxScripture. Then, after a long periodin some cases yearsof regularlyreciting the scripture, their wives finally gave birth to sons.45

These ideas that we find in theOrthodox Scripturewere very commonthroughout the late imperial period in East Asia. In the first dozen

years of the twentieth century, Trn Hng a. o revealed many moremessagesalongtheselines.Hewasbynomeanstheonlyspirittorevealmessages at that time, but he gradually became the most importantSouthernspirit,andinmanywaysservedasadeputyintheSouthforthe Northern spirits who had originally created morality books in theNorth, such as Wenchang Dijun and Guansheng Dijun. Hence, TrnHng a. os role in revealing messages through spirit writing to someextent mirrored his position in institutions like the Martial Temple,where he was an important Southern representative of a world whichwas centred in the North. Trn Hng a. os spirit made this pointexplicit when, in1900, it explained that in the past, after a kingdomhad first emerged in the region, its social mores were depraved andits customs decrepit. I greatly lamented this fact. Ah, but with thetraining of King S/Shi and the transformative teachings of Wengong,the Southern Kingdom ceased to be confined in the south.

King S/Shi was S Nhip/Shi Xie, a Chinese administrator whoserved in the region in the third century ce, and whom centuries

later Vietnamese literati honoured as the figure who had introduced

45 See, for example, ibid,119a120b.


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writing and Confucian teachings to their land. Wengong, meanwhile,was the Song Dynasty philosopher Zhu Xi. What Trn Hng a. oexpressed here was an idea which was common among literati priorto the twentieth century, that their land had only taken its matureform with the spread of elite cultural practices from the North. As apotentdeitywhorevealedmoralmessagesthroughwriting,Trn Hnga. os spirit contributed further to this process in the early twentiethcentury. However, just as this was happening, the Southern Kingdombegan to transform in dramatic ways, such that soon this world whichTrn Hng a. os spirit was endeavouring to support would come toan end.

National hero

Right as Trn Hng a. os spirit was revealing moral messages inthe early twentieth century, the first generation of scholars to beinfluenced by Western ideas began to transform Trn Hng a. ointoanationalhero.Whatthesereformersbecameawareofisthattheworld-view that was exemplified by such politically charged structures as the

Temple of Sovereigns from Successive Generations and the MartialTemple, was very different from the world-view of the Westerners whowere extending their dominance over the region. Westerners saw theworld as divided between nations, each of which had its own historyand culture. As reformist intellectuals came to realize this, they soughtto change the way in which people in their land thought. In doing this,they created a shared discourse which is easily recognizable in theirwritings and which through their use of neologisms is very distinct fromearlier writings. In particular, these reformist intellectuals started tomake use of such new terms as nation (quc gia), fatherland (t

quc), and compatriots (ng bo), words that had been coined byJapanese reformers in the second half of the nineteenth century totranslate Western terms that did not exist in Japanese (or Chinese orVietnamese) at that time.46

46 For an example of the use of these terms in a work produced by a Vietnamesereformer, see Hong a. o Thnh (comp.), Vit s tn c ton bin [Complete

compilation of a new summary of Vit history] (1906), A. 1507, 1a1b. For adetailed discussion about the creation of neologisms in Japan in the nineteenthcentury that were then adopted into Chinese, see Lydia He Liu, Translingual Practice:

Literature, National Culture, and Translated Modernity: China, 19001937 (Stanford:Stanford University Press, 1995). The same terms that Liu discusses in this work


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First, reformers contrasted the way in which people in Westerncountries educated their populace with the way in which people wereeducated in their own land. In particular, they noted that Westernnationsnation (quc gia) being a new concept at this time forVietnamese, although the term that was used to express it had longexistedtaught students about their own nation, whereas studentsin what they termed our nation or our kingdom, studied theNorthern Kingdom or China. This marked a major intellectualtransformation. For instance, what had long simply been history nowbecame Chinese history. The National History Textbook for Reformed

Elementary Studies, a textbook created by reformers in the earlytwentieth century, makes these points clear in its introduction, where

it states that,Studies in the Occident [Thi Ty] place first importance on national history.All of the male and female students in each school are first taught their ownnations history . . . Studies in our nation just stick stubbornly to the rottenand base Chinese [Chi N] writings. As for this nations [writings], they knownothing, as if they were in a fog.47

Second, reformist intellectuals placed the blame for this lack ofconcern for the nation on the fact that education in the past hadfocused on preparing students to take the civil service exam. Forinstance, a text published by the ng Kinh Ngha Thu. c, a reformistschool in Hanoi which ran from19071908, stated that the studentswho studied for the civil service exam buried their heads in Northernhistories, and the famous people and great events of our fatherlandwere indifferently put to the side.48 Or, as scholar-official Hong CaoKhi stated in1914in his Summary of Vit History, because studentshad studied Northern histories to prepare for the exams, none of the

educated people in the kingdom knew about the race [chng tc] of ourland.49

entered into the Vietnamese world as well; however, that process has yet to be clearlydocumented.

47 Ci lng mng ho.c quc sgio khoa th[National history textbook for reformedelementary studies] (early twentieth century), R. 1946, nguyn t 1a and 1b. ChiN is the Vietnamese pronunciation for a term, Shina, which the Japanese began touse in the second half of the nineteenth century to refer to China. It had derogatory

connotations.48Nam quc giai s [The Southern Kingdoms great matters] (early twentiethcentury), A.3207, t1b.

49 Hong Cao Khi,Vit syu[Summary of Vit history] (1914), R. 173, t 4a4b.Race was, of course, a new concept at the time in East Asia.


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1984 L I A M C . K E L L E Y

Third, reformist intellectuals then provided specific examples ofthe effect of this focus on studying for the exams. They did thisby contrasting the knowledge that people had of Chinese historicalindividuals with the lack of knowledge that people had of Vietnamesehistorical figures. As the above text, published by thengKinhNghaThu. c,stated,IfyouasksomeoneaboutHanGao[zu]orZhuge[Liang],even a three-foot tall youngster can respond with ease. However,If you ask about the achievements of L [Thi] Tor Trn [Hnga. o], teachers and scholars can search but still not find sufficientinformation.50 Hong Cao Khi similarly lamented that people in thepast who studied for the exams knew about Han [Gao]zu and Tang[Taizong], but did not know thatinh Tin Hong and L Thi T

had served as sovereigns. They knew about Kongming [Zhuge Liang]and Di Renjie, but did not know that T Hin Thnh and Trn [Hnga. o] had served as officials.51

This unfortunate state of affairs, reformers argued, needed tochange. Getting people to learn the history of their nation was thekey way to do this. They therefore produced textbooks on the historyof the nation with the declared aim of imprinting the word nation inpeoples brains so that they would realize that they were citizens of a

nation and thereby identify with the nation. As one such text stated in1906, When people reach the age of seven and enter primary schools,they should be made to learn the nations literature, and to intone thenations history. The same should be true for women, for this is howwe can get the word, nation, imprinted in each persons brain.52

The ideas that Vietnamese reformers were promoting were verysimilar to those of Westernizing Chinese intellectuals like LiangQichao,andoftheJapanesereformersfromwhomhelearned.Further,from memoirs and historical accounts it is clear that intellectualsat this time read some of the New Writings (Tn Th), whichwere written at the turn of the twentieth century by Chinesereformers.53 However, it is relatively rare that specific texts are

50Nam quc giai s, t1b.51 Hong Cao Khi,Vit syu, t4b5a.52 Hong a. o Thnh (comp.), Vit s tn c ton bin, A. 1507, 1a. For another

example of this use of the expression imprint the word nation in peoples brains,

see Ng Gip Du, Trung ho.c Vit s tot yu [Summary of Vit history for middleschool] (1911), A.770,2b.

53 See, for instance, Vnh Snh and Nicholas Wickenden (trans.),Overturned Chariot:The Autobiography of Phan-Bi-Chu (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1999),p.58.


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mentioned. Nonetheless, from the similarities between the writingsof Chinese intellectuals like Liang Qichao and reformist Vietnameseintellectuals, such as the authors of the texts cited above, we can seethat the ideas of Chinese reformers were either adopted in Vietnam,or that the historical trajectories of these two societies were so similarthat intellectuals in the two places responded to the changing timesin very similar ways. Given, however, that we can often find similarideas expressed by Chinese intellectuals earlier than their Vietnamesecounterparts,itwouldappearthattherewasaflowofinformationfromnorth to south during this period.

For instance, in 1902, a few years before Vietnamese reformerscalled for a national history in the texts above, Liang Qichao had

argued in an essay entitled New Historiography that China likewisedid not have a national history. He noted that although Chinesehad recorded historical information for centuries, this informationhad focused on imperial courts, rather than on the nation, andthat, therefore, Chinese did not think in nationalist terms. However,without a history of the nation, he argued, there would be no way forthe people of the nation to unite.54 Liang Qichao therefore wantedhistorians to write a new type of history, which would take the nation

as its main focus so that China could unite and be strong.However, as Xiaobing Tang has pointed out, when Liang Qichaoprovided examples of the form in which a new history could bewritten, he did so by narrating heroic biographies, thereby creatingan ambiguity as to the importance of the individual hero versussociety.55 At the time, discussion of heroes was widespread amongChinese intellectuals as there was a worry among Chinese reformersat the turn of the twentieth century that China was passive anddid not have dynamic heroes like Western countries did.56 Manybiographies of influential Westerners were produced which discussedtheir vitality and achievements. In1902, for instance, Liang Qichaowrote biographies of Louis Kossuth (18021894), Giuseppe Mazzini(18051872), Giuseppe Garibaldi (18071882), Count Camillo diCavour (18101861), and Madame Roland (17541793).57 He wroteabout such people as positive examples for Chinese to follow, but he

54 Lin Yi (ed.), Liang Qichao shixue luanzhu sanzhong [Three discussions of

historiography by Liang Qichao] (Hong Kong: Joint Publishing Co., 1980).55 Xiaobing Tang,Global Space and the Nationalist Discourse of Modernity: The HistoricalThinking of Liang Qichao(Stanford: Stanford University Press,1996), p.81.

56Joan Judge,Print and Politics: Shibao and the Culture of Reform in Late Qing China(Stanford: Stanford University Press,1996), pp.9495.

57 Tang,Global Space,pp.82114.


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was ambiguous about their ultimate role. For instance, on the questionof whether heroes create the age or the age creates heroes, Liangargued in an 1899work that the two phenomena were interconnectedand played off each other.58

The ambiguities that are present in the writings of intellectualslike Liang Qichao are a reflection of the difficulties he facedin creating a new form of history (a national history) with newprotagonists (national heroes) for a new audience (a nationalcitizenry). Vietnamese reformers faced the same difficulties, and wecan see this in their attempts to refashion Trn Hng a. o from a loyaland filial general into a hero (anh hng). To do this, reformers had tofirstintroducethisideaofaheroandconvincereadersthatsuchpeople

had existed in the past. As they did this, they mixed together old andnew ideas. We can see this in two texts published by the ng KinhNgha Thu. c. One, entitled Biographies of the Southern Kingdoms Great

People(Nam Quc v nhn truyn), states in its preface in very traditionalterms that, When the potent and exquisitekh[Chinese, qi] of themountains and rivers gathers for long, it eventually leaks forth, andthereupon magnificent and special people emerge. Then, reflectingsome of the ideas that had been circulating in Chinese reformist

writings, it states that in the past such heroes and worthies haveemerged and made the age.59 Meanwhile, another text published bythe ng Kinh Ngha Thu. c,The Southern Kingdoms Great Matters(Nam

quc giai s),notesinitsprefacethattheneglectofnationalhistoryhadled heroes to become buried. Nonetheless, using three neologisms, itargues that for centuries there had been great people in the land whohad taken self-determination (tch) as their creed (chngha), andpatriotism (i quc) as their spirit.60

Patriotism and self-determination were concepts that applied to thenew age of nations which Vietnamese reformers wanted their landto enter. Loyalty and filial piety belonged to the age they wished toleave. As such, neither of these virtues was mentioned in the shortbiography of Trn Hng a. o which appeared in theBiographies of theSouthern Kingdoms Great People. Instead, the text simply states that hewas stately in appearance and surpassed others in intelligence, andthat he read widely and was well versed in both civil and military

58 Zhang Pinxing (ed.),Liang Qichao chuanji[Complete collection of Liang Qichaosworks], Vol.1(Beijing: Beijing chubanshe,1999), pp.340341.

59Nam Quc v nhn truyn[Biographies of great people of the Southern Kingdom](early twentieth century), A.3207, t1a and1b.

60Nam quc giai s, t1a and1b.


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affairs. It then says that when the Yuan came to raid, Emperor TrnThnh Tng stated to Trn Hnga. o at some point during the ThiuBo era (12791285 ce), With the bandits strength like this, I can

surrender. Trn H

ng

a. o then replied, First cut off my head, andthensurrender.TheemperorthereuponputTrn Hnga. oinchargeof the army and he defeated the Yuan at Va. n Kip. Then, in thesecond year of the Trng Hng era (1286 ce) the Yuan again cameto invade, and the emperor summoned Trn Hng a. o to ask aboutstrategy. This time Trn Hng a.o said, This year the bandits arenot a worry.61

Information about conversations between Trn Hng a. o andEmperor Trn Thnh Tng does exist in the Complete Book of the

Historical Records ofa.i Vit; however, prior to the twentieth centuryliterati had not cited this information in praising Trn Hng a. o.This was a new development. It was also a selective reading of thesources. First, the conversation that this text states occurred duringthe Thiu Bo era is actually undated. It appears in theComplete Book

of the Historical Records ofa.i Vitin an entry for the year1300. Thatwas the year Trn Hng a. o passed away, and after reporting hisdeath, the text provides various pieces of information about his life,

including this undated exchange with Trn Thnh Tng.Earlier in the text, however, there is a detailed record of aconversation between these two men. In particular, in 1286 TrnThnh Tng asked Trn Hng a. o what he thought of the enemysstrength. At that time, Trn Hng a. o responded that,

Our kingdom has been at peace for a long time. The people do not knowabout military matters. Previously when the Yuan came and raided, therewere those who surrendered or fled. By relying on the potent awe of the

imperial ancestors, Your Highnesss divine [perspicacity] and martial [awe]wiped clean the dust of the nomadic barbarians. If they come again, our troopsare trained at fighting, while their army fears a distant campaign. They arealso dejected by the defeats of Heng and Guan. They do not have the heartto fight. As I see it, they are sure to be defeated.62

Far more complex than the undated first cut off my head statement,in this conversation Trn Hng a. o predicted success based in parton the lack of morale among the enemy troops, and noted that his ownkingdoms people were apt to surrender and flee. These were ideas

61Nam Quc v nhn truyn,6b7a.62 Ng S Lin, a.i Vit sk ton th, Bn K5/51ab. Li Heng and Li Guan were

two Yuan officers who were killed in the first invasion.


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which clearly were not appropriate for a national hero to express.It is understandable, then, why the information in the Biographies ofthe Southern Kingdoms Great Peopletook the form it did. At the sametime, however, the same dilemma which Liang Qichao struggled withappeared here, too. Trn Hng a. o was a national hero, but wherewas the nation?

TheNational History Textbook for Reformed Elementary Studies(Ci lngmng ho.c quc sgio khoa th), a text which was published in the earlytwentieth century for the purpose of creating a national history, founda way to address this dilemma. Employing several neologisms, thiswork notes that the kingdom used to be an absolute monarchy (qun chchuyn ch) and that the peoples rights (dn quyn) were restricted. As

a result, they could not participate in making decisions about mattersconcerning the kingdom or the army. However, during the period oftheTrnDynastythefeelofasovereign-citizenrepublic(qun dn cng

ha) existed. When the Yuan attacked, the emperor called togetherelders from the people and consulted them about strategy; it wasbecause of this that the people became determined to put up a strongresistance. The author then goes on to say that it is foolish to attributethe victory over the Mongols50,000troops to the achievements of

someone like Trn Hng a. o, because he relied on the aspirations ofthe people.63

The mention here of consulting with elders refers to an episoderecorded in the Complete Book of the Historical Records of a.i Vit forthe year 1284. Aware that the Mongols were coming to attack, theemperor emeritus summoned elders from around the realm, dinedthem, and asked them about strategy. They all reportedly respondedin unison, Fight!64 Ng S Lin made the following comments aboutthis event:

A raid by the Northern Barbarians is a great hardship for the kingdom. Ifthe two emperors meet to plan, and the officials hold discussions, how canthey not come up with a strategy for defense? What need is there to dineelders and ask them about strategy? It was probably that [Trn] Thnh Tngwanted to examine the sincerity of the lower peoples (ha. dn) support and toget them to feel moved and riled up upon hearing the official pronouncement.The import of the ancients taking care of the elderly and seeking [their]words is present here.65

63 Ci lng mng ho.c quc sgio khoa th,26b27a.64 Ng S Lin, a.i Vit sk ton th, Bn K5/44a.65 Ibid,44a44b.


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Ng S Lin clearly did not think much of this episode. Nonetheless,he found justification for it in the ancient ritual text the Record of

Rites(Liji), where a certain ritual is mentioned which is called eithertaking care of the elderly and seeking [their] words (yanglao qiyan) orsimply the taking care of the elderly ritual (yanglao li).66 This was aritual in which the king would throw a feast for elders. The words thatwere sought do not appear to have been words of advice, but merely ofapproval. For a scholar-official like Ng SLin,thiswasappropriateashe likely saw no need for a monarch to seek advice from anyone otherthan his officials. To justify this episode during the Trn period, hetherefore explained it as an instance in which the ruler simply sought

pro formawords of approval rather than actual advice, as was the case

with this ancient ritual.While Ng S Lin therefore looked to antiquity to dismiss the

importance of this historical event, the author of theNational HistoryTextbook for Reformed Elementary Studiesreinterpreted it in order to givepeople in the present hope for the future. If the land had once beena sovereign-citizen republic, then succeeding in the modern worldby becoming a republic in the future was not inconceivable, andTrn Hng a. o was enlisted to promote this and related causes. In

1914, for instance, L Van Phc, Phan KBnh, and Pha. m Van Thu.produced a historical novel about Trn Hng a. o with such purposesin mind. Their introduction contains the same lament that you findrepeated in the writings of reformers in the early twentieth century,namely that although Vietnam had a long history, because of theeducational system, people only knew about Chinese history. Peoplethus did not know who the heroes (anh hng) who fought against China(Tu) were, or who had performed meritorious service for the citizens(quc dn). It was now necessary, these authors argued, to forge anational soul (quc hn). To do this one needed to create a mechanism(my mc) that would develop the peoples intellects and imprint theword nation in their brains. This mechanism could take variousforms. Creating national histories was one; another was to createstories for common people to listen to or to watch as plays. It was

66 For the reference to taking care of the elderly and seeking [their] words, seeLiji[Record of rites], Wenwang shizi. For the taking care of the elderly ritual, see theWangzhi chapter.


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this second form that these three authors sought to create with thispublication.67

This idea of a national soul was adapted from German and FrenchRomantic nationalist ideas and was part of the new nationalistdiscourse in East Asia at the turn of the twentieth century.68 L VanPhc, Phan K Bnh, and Pha. m Van Thu. saw a national soul forVietnam in Trn Hng a. o and his relationship with the people.Echoing the argument of the National History Textbook for Reformed

Elementary Studies, they stated that while Trn Hng a. o was a hero,his accomplishments were made possible only because he was one withthe people. Just as a fish needs water, so did Trn Hng a. o need thepeoples support in order to succeed in defeating the Mongols. L Van

Phc,PhanKBnh,andPha. m VanThu.then developed this argumentfurther by stating that during the period of the Trn Dynasty, peoplefollowed Buddhism and were thus more altruistic, daring, and patient.They were willing to sacrifice themselves to save the world (xthn

cth). Further, the monarch and his officials interacted as equals,and much authority was given to local officials. This all made the soulof the nation strong. Unfortunately, the authors argued, histories didnot talk about these issues and this soul. Therefore, later generations

of citizens only knew about Tran Hung Dao through his role in fightingghosts and other superstitious practices.69

Hero and deity

Theearlytwentiethcenturywasthusaseminalmomentinthecreationof Trn Hng a. o as a national hero, for it was at that time that theconcepts of both the nation and its heroes were first conceived. Trn

Hng a. o was imagined in new ways to fit these new concepts. In theprocess, values which had previously been associated with him weredownplayed or even discarded. His loyalty to the monarch and his filialpiety, for instance, were no longer of prime importance. It was alsonecessary to take him out of the world-view that saw the South as alesser component in a larger world, and to place him at the forefrontof an individual nation. There was thus no longer a need to liken him

67 L Van Phc, Phan KBnh, and Pha. m Van Thu. , Hng a.o vng[The Hnga. o king] (H Ni: ng Kinhn Qun, 2

nd edition,1935; 1st edition, 1914), pp.iiiiv.

68 Lung-Kee Sun, The Chinese National Character: From Nationhood to Individuality(Armonk: M. E. Sharpe,2002), pp.5155.

69 Ibid, ivv.


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to Guo Ziyi or to envision him as furthering the efforts of Northerndeities to spread Confucian values. His role now was to serve as thehero of the nation.

Thatsaid,itstilltookalongtimeforTrn Hng Do to fully becomethe hero of the nation that he is widely recognized as today. It is beyondthe scope of this article to examine the transformations in Trn HngDos status as a hero that took place in the twentieth century, butclearly such changes did take place, and it evidently took a long timefor his image as a hero of the nation to become fully established.During the height of the colonial period in the1920s and 1930s, itwould appear that Trn Hng a. o was only discussed to a limiteddegree. For instance, he was part of a history contest which the Saigon

newspaperMorning Bell (Thnchung)heldin 1929 todeterminewhothegreatestpersoninVietnamesehistorywas,buthewaspresentedasoneamong numerous alternatives for that title.70 During the1940s, withthe promotion of Vietnamese nationalism by the Vichy government inan effort to counter Japanese pan-Asian, there was likely an increasein the mention of his name, particularly given that Governor GeneralJean Decoux visited his temple in Kip Ba. c.71Although the reformersin the early twentieth century had been the first people in Vietnam

to start thinking of heroes, in1943Hoa Bng criticized them for onlytalking about Charlemagne and Alexander the Great.72 He contrastedtheirsupposedlackofdiscussionofVietnameseheroestohisowntime,but in reality such statements probably indicate that the creation andpromotion of heroes had stalled in the intervening years, and were onlythen being discussed more freely. Finally, when TrnTro. ng Kim ruledover an independent Vietnamese nation in the spring and summer of1945, he had Paul Bert Street in Hue renamed Trn HngDa. o Street,a sign that Trn Hng a

.o was finally taking a place of prominence.73

However, the division of Vietnam in the1950s undoubtedly led todifferent interpretations of Trn Hng Dos heroic role. Benot deTrglod has written a wonderful volume on the use of heroes by theCommunists in the North, but there is much more that can be said

70 Quc thi quc sca Thn chung: 6 Trn Hng a. o [Morning Bells historycompetition:6Trn Hng a. o],Thn chung[Morning Bell]143(19July1929), p.1.

71 Eric T. Jennings, Vichy in the Tropics: Ptains National Revolution in Madagascar,Guadeloupe, and Indochina, 19401944 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001),pp.153154.

72 Hoa Bng, Quc sngy nay [National history nowadays], Tri tn[LearningAnew]97(27May1943), p.2.

73Vu Ngu Chieu, The Other Side of the 1945Vietnamese Revolution: The Empireof Viet-Nam (MarchAugust1945), Journal of Asian Studies45.2(1986), p.309.


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about the specific topic of Trn Hng a. o as a hero, and how hewas represented in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.74An articlepublished in 1956 in the North with the awkward title of Oppose

the worship of individuals, but it is necessary to recognise the role ofindividuals in history, for instance, was written shortly after NikitaKhrushchev had denounced Stalins cult of personality, and its authorengaged in a complex line of argumentation to defend the reverence ofTrn Hnga. o as a national hero in light of Krushchevs statements.75

Intellectuals in the South, meanwhile, did not have to respond to thesame ideological changes as their counterparts in the North. How theyrepresented Trn Hng a. o and what role he played in the South areissues that deserve attention.

Another topic that deserves attention is when and how the termhero of the nation (anh hng dn tc) came to be used. The term fornation (dn tc) which is used today in an expression like hero ofthe nation is not the same as the term which was used at the turnof the twentieth century (quc gia). Dn tchas connotations of bothpolitical nation-state as well as ethnic nationality, whereasquc gia hasthe political sense but less of the connotation of a nationality. Howthese terms were used over the course of the twentieth century and

how ideas about Trn Hng a. o changed with the changing usage ofthese terms are topics which remain unexamined.Also, while Pha. m Qu`ynh Phng has done a wonderful job of

examining the recent resurgence of interest in Trn Hng Dos cult,his status as a potent deity was discussed by intellectuals during thetwentieth century, and these views also deserve further attention.In 1942, for instance, an intellectual by the name of Nguyn DuyTinh visited Trn Hng Dos shrine in Kip Ba. c and was shocked

to find throngs of people there engaging in superstitious practicesand thinking nothing of Trn Hng Dos status as a hero.76 Onewonders how Trn Hnga. os continued status as a deity was treatedthroughout the twentieth century and ultimately silenced for severaldecades until the1990s.

74 Benot de Trglod, Hros et Rvolution au Vit Nam [Heroes and revolution inVietnam] (Paris: LHarmatttan,2001).

75 Minh Tranh, Chng sng bi c nhn, nhng cn nhn r vai tr c nhn trong

li.ch s [Oppose the worship of individuals, but it is necessary to recognize the roleof individuals in history], Van s i.a [Literature, History, Geography] 18 (1956),pp.113.

76 Nguyn Duy Tinh, n Kip Ba. c [The Kip Ba. c temple],Tri tn79(7January1943), pp.1820.


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Finally, today Trn Hng a. o has a prominent position in the Cultof the Mothers (a. o Mu), a cult dedicated to certain female deities.This cult has been written about extensively by Ngc Thi.nh, and

a study of its main deity has recently been published by Olga Dror.

77

Neither of these scholars, however, have documented Trn Hnga. osassociationwiththiscultpriortothetwentiethcentury,norhaveeitherof them consulted spirit writing texts produced in the early twentiethcentury. At that time, these female deities also revealed messagesthrough spirit writing, but their texts did not mention Trn Hnga. o,and in the texts that he revealed through spirit writing, Trn Hnga. o did not mention the Cult of the Mothers.

78 The fact that thesedeities were both revealing messages at that time, however, suggests

that it may have been through the spirit writing phenomenon in theearly twentieth century that someone brought these deities together.Nonetheless, this is a topic that requires further research.

So, while today Trn Hng a. o is a hero and a deity, his history ismuch more complex. In examining what literati thought and wroteabout him in the past, and in tracing how those ideas where abandonedwhen reformist intellectuals in the early twentieth century sought tocreate national heroes, we can gain a sense of how modern nationalist

ideas emerged in Vietnam. While those ideas were undoubtedlycontested and modified over the course of the twentieth century, thedirection that this nationalist discourse would take was set in theearly years of the twentieth century. Those were seminal years in thetransformation of the Vietnamese world-view, and this study of TrnHng a. os passage through that period hopefully makes that pointclear.

77 Ng c Thi.nh, The Mother Goddess Religion: Its History, Pantheon, andPractices, in Karen Fjelstad and Nguyen Thi Hien (eds), Possessed by the Spirits:

Mediumship in Contemporary Vietnamese Communities (Ithaca: Cornell Southeast AsiaProgram,2006), pp.1930; Olga Dror,Cult, Culture, and Authority: Princess Liu Ha. nh

in Vietnamese History(Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press,2007).78 For examples of spirit writing texts produced by the deities in the Cult of the

Mothers, seeMinh thin quc m chn kinh[True scripture in the kingdoms sounds forilluminating goodness] (1900) Paris SA. PD.2343;Tang qung minh thin quc m chn

kinh[Expanded true scripture in the kingdoms sounds for illuminating goodness]

(1904), AB. 143; La.c thin quc m chn kinh [True scripture in the sounds of thekingdom for taking joy in goodness] (1905), R.1787;Tam vi.Thnh Mu cnh thchn

kinh [True scripture of the three Holy Mothers warning to the world] ( 1906), A.2585; and Tra.ch thin chn kinh[True scripture for choosing goodness] (1909), AB.529.