¹ I would like to thank Do Minh Thien and Do Minh Dai, without whose assistance this essay could not have been written, and the anonymous assessor for his (or her) suggestions.

² Examples include Thao, Trinh Van, Vietnam. Du Confucianisme au communisme (Paris: L'Harmattan, 1990)Google Scholar and Confucianisme et sociétés asiatiques, ed. Mizoguchi, Y. and Vandermeersch, I. (Paris: L'Harmattan, 1991).Google Scholar

³ Woodside, Alexander B., “Conceptions of Change and of Human Responsibility for Change in Late Traditional Vietnam”, The Vietnam Forum 6 (1985): 74.Google Scholar

⁴ Chesneaux, Jean, The Vietnamese Nation. Contribution to a History, trans. Salmon, Malcolm (Sydney: Current Book Distributors, 1966), pp. 60–61.Google Scholar

⁵ Duncanson, Dennis J., Government and Revolution in Vietnam (London: Oxford University Press, 1968), p. 54.Google Scholar

⁶ McLeod, Mark W., The Vietnamese Response to French Intervention, 1862–1874 (New York: Praeger, 1991), pp. 13, 18.Google Scholar

⁷ Marr, David G., Vietnamese Anticolonialism, 1885–1925 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971), p. 22.Google Scholar

⁸ Whitmore, John K., “Social Organisation and Confucian Thought in Vietnam”, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 15, 2 (1984): 298.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁹ Smith, R.B., “Politics and Society in Viet-Nam During the Early Nguyen Period (1802–62)”, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society (1974), p. 153.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Jamieson, Neil L., “Culture and Development in Vietnam” (Indochina Initiative Working Paper No. 1, Hawaii, East-West Centre, 1991), p. 6.Google Scholar

¹¹ Hodgkin, Thomas, Vietnam: The Revolutionary Path (London: Macmillan, 1981), p. 101.Google Scholar

¹² Vien, Nguyen Khac, “Confucianism and Marxism in Vietnam”, in Tradition and Revolution in Vietnam, ed. Marr, David G. and Werner, Jayne, trans. Linda Yarr, Jayne Werner, and Tran Tuong Nhu (Berkeley: Indochina Resource Centre, 1975), p. 22.Google Scholar

¹³ For analyses based on a “timeless” cultural model see McAlister, John T. Jr and Mus, Paul, The Vietnamese and their Revolution (New York and London: Harper & Row, 1970)Google Scholar; Fitzgerald, Frances, Fire in the Lake (New York: Vintage Books, 1972)Google Scholar; or Jamieson, Neil L., Understanding Vietnam (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993).Google Scholar

¹⁴ Phuong-Nghi, Dang, Les Institutions publiques du Viet-Nam au XVIII^e Siècle (Paris: EFEO, 1969), pp. 43–53Google Scholar. SarDesai, While D.R., Vietnam. The Struggle for National Identity (Boulder: Westview Press, 1992Google Scholar, 2nd edition) continues to describe the Ly as “Confucian” [p. 21] he nevertheless dates Vietnam as a “Confucian state dominated by the mandarins” from the late fifteenth century [pp. 25–26].

¹⁵ For typical colonial examples, see Luro, J.-B.-E., La Pays d'Annam (Paris: Leroux, 2nd ed., 1897), pp. 76–77Google Scholar, 89–91, 97; Schreiner, Alfred, Les Institutions annamites en Basse-Cochinchine avant la conquête française, vol. I (Saigon: Claude et Cieie, 1900), pp. 53–54Google Scholar; Texier, Muriel, “Le Mandarinat au Viet-Nam au XIX^e Siècle”, Bulletin de la Société Etudes Indochinoises (ns) XXXVII, 3 (1962): 330–36.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Khoi, Le Thanh, Histoire du Viet Nam des origines à 1858 (Paris: Sudestasie, 1981), pp. 270–300Google Scholar, 350–56; Smith, R.B., “The Cycle of Confucianization in Vietnam”, in Aspects of Vietnamese History, ed. Vella, Walter (Asian Studies at Hawaii No. 8, University of Hawaii, 1973), pp. 2–20.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Smith, “Confucianization”, p. 20.

¹⁸ Woodside, Alexander, “Vietnam, 1802–1867” in In Search of Southeast Asia, ed. Steinberg, David Joel (Sydney and Wellington: Allen & Unwin, 1987, revised edition), p. 135.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Woodside, Alexander Barton, Vietnam and the Chinese Model (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1971 and 1988), p. 18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

²⁰ Ibid., p. 234.

²¹ N.J. Cooke, “French Genius, Annamite Soul: Self and Other in Colonial Annam” (unpublished manuscript).

²² Nola Cooke, “The Composition of the Nineteenth Century Political Elite of Pre-Colonial Nguyen Vietnam (1802–1883)”, Modern Asian Studies (forthcoming).

²³ Cooke, Nola, “Nguyen Vietnam and the ‘Chinese Model’ Reconsidered”, paper presented to the Conference on the Last Stand of Autonomous States in Southeast Asia and Korea, Bali, 19–21 August 1994.Google Scholar

²⁴ Smith, “Politics and Society”, p. 164.

²⁵ Woodside, Model, p. 199.

²⁶ Ibid., p. 228.

²⁷ Ibid., pp. 232–33.

²⁸ For Don, Le Qui, see Emile Gaspardone, “Bibliographie annamite”, Bulletin de I'École Française d'Extrême-Orient (1934): 1–150Google Scholar; and for Chu, Phan Huy, Lich Trieu Hien Chuong Loai Chi, IX, Van Tich Chi, trans. Due, Nguyen Tho (Saigon: Bo Van Hoa Giao Due va Thanh Nien, 1974), pp. 233–51Google Scholar.

²⁹ “One-off’ special examinations are excluded from the figures.

³⁰ Hoan, Nguyenet al., Dai Viet Lich Trieu Dang Khoa Luc, trans. Khai, Ta Thuc (Saigon: Bo Quoc-Gia Giao-Duc XB, 1962), 2 volsGoogle Scholar. [hereafter DVLT].

³¹ It was later extended until the last examination in 1919. Due, Cao Xuan, Quoc TYieu Dang Khoa Luc (Saigon: Trung-tam Hoc-lieu, 1962) [hereafter QTDKL].Google Scholar

³² The figures are my tally of individual entries, and are not always the same as totals provided by the authors. A further 206 passed in a number of special examinations or in metropolitan examinations not set on a triennial cycle, as with the Le before 1463 and during the latter half of the Restoration (1556–92). They give a grand total of 2,475.

³³ DVLT, p. 7.

³⁴ Kim, Tran Trong, Viet-Nam Su-Luoc, I (Saigon: Bo Giao-Duc, 1971), p. 124.Google Scholar

³⁵ Luoc Truyen Cac Tac Gia Viet Nam, I, ed. Giap, Tran Van (Hanoi: NXB Khoa Hoc Xa Hoi, 2nd ed., 1971), pp. 517–20Google Scholar. The 1406 graduates were clearly noted as cu nhan; and both DVLT, p. 21 and the Le annals said only three were considered good enough to be given a “de facto” higher title. Dai Viet Su Ky Toan Thu, II (Hanoi: NXB Khoa Hoc Xa Hoi, 1972, 2nd ed.), p. 242 [hereafter TT].Google Scholar

³⁶ Khoi, Histoire, p. 236, emphasis added. He sourced the figure to Phan Huy Le's 1960 history of the Vietnamese feudal system, which I have not seen.

³⁷ References to hoc sinh title holders imply a lower examination existed. As with the later Ly, the early Tran also held at least 2 “three doctrines” (Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism) examinations, in 1227 and 1247.

³⁸ TT, II, p. 21. In all DVLT and TT detailed ten such contests under the Tran (although TT, II, p. 194 also claimed one in 1381, an unlikely event in the midst of a Cham invasion). The annals' 70 year silence (1304 to 1374) in this regard makes it likely more were held, but we cannot know. Khoi's assumption of 17 such examinations under the Tran is thus speculative at best [Histoire, p. 176].

³⁹ TT, II, p. 99.

⁴⁰ TT, II, p. 150

⁴¹ TT, II, p. 217.

⁴² In Qing China it allowed the more populous, well-educated provinces to exceed their set cu nhan quotas, on a one to five ratio. Woodside, Model, p. 173.

⁴³ QTDKL, pp. 2–3.

⁴⁴ Khoi, Histoire, p. 219, reported the decision as a thi Huong every 5 years and a thi Hoi every 6 years. This misreads Toan Thu, which noted the first thi Huong would occur in the fifth year of Thai-ton's reign (1438), and the first thi Hoi in the sixth year; but that thereafter they would occur once every 3 years. TT, III, p. 91.

⁴⁵ The best account of court politics in this century remains Whitmore, John K., “The Development of Le Government in Fifteenth Century Vietnam” (PhD diss., Cornell University, 1968).Google Scholar

⁴⁶ DVLT, p. 101.

⁴⁷ TT, III, pp. 182–83. The prohibition on actors and singers was peculiar to the Le; the Nguyen allowed their participation. “Rebels” included former Ming collaborators, according to Huy, Nguyen Ngoc & Tki, Ta Van, The Le Code. Law in Traditional Vietnam, II (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1987), p. 323.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ TT, III, p. 185. He only failed to set the palace question once thereafter, in 1484.

⁴⁹ Khoi, Histoire, pp. 235–36.

⁵⁰ Locating “Tam Giang” poses a problem: while the Tran and Ming used the term to designate one part of what later became Son Tay province, the Le did not. In terms of graduate production at the time, however, it makes sense if “Tam Giang” referred to Quoc Oai and Tam Doi prefectures (Son Tay), which together accounted for 80 per cent of that province's doctoral graduates under the early Le.

⁵¹ TT, III, p. 280.

⁵² Unless otherwise acknowledged all calculations are my own. Error rates are normally below two per cent. For comparative purposes, province names remain those current in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries and refer to the same component districts, irrespective of administrative changes, unless otherwise stated.

⁵³ Whitmore, John K., Vietnam, Ho Quy Ly, and the Ming (1371–1421) (Lac-Viet Series No. 2, Yale Centre for International and Area Studies, 1985), pp. 8–57Google Scholar for these years.

⁵⁴ Wolters, O.W., “Assertions of Cultural Well-Being in Fourteenth-Century Vietnam”, in Two Essays on Dai Viet in the Fourteenth Century (Lac-Viet Series No. 9, Yale Centre for International and Area Studies, 1988), pp. 4–8, 14; Whitmore, Ho Quy Ly, pp. 2–8.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Whitmore, Ho Quy Ly, pp. 112, 122–26. They also established at least 69 medical and 54 astrological schools, plus Buddhist religious registries; but again none south of Thanh Hoa.

⁵⁶ TT, II, p. 99 and TT, III, p. 82.

⁵⁷ In 1490 the annals recorded 6,851 xa and 322 thon, all mostly inhabited by Vietnamese, plus 637 trang (estates); 40 sach and 40 dong (mountain villages) and 30 truong (?). This gives over 7,100 Viet villages [TT, III, p. 306]. However, citing the 1491 Hong Due map, Whitmore has reported 8,900 lowland villages, implying a huge 20 per cent discrepancy between contemporary sources. For my purposes the lower figure suffices. Whitmore, “Confucian Thought”, p. 301.

⁵⁸ TT, IV, p. 29. The Le Code [art. 98] even required the costly procedure of recopying each thousand character policy essay in the palace examination before marking, to ensure anonymity. For other legal requirements, see Huy and Tai, Le Code, I, pp. 135–36, and II, pp. 91–95.

⁵⁹ TT, IV, pp. 13, 31.

⁶⁰ Small villages did not have to send ten candidates if they had insufficient scholars. The regulations also gave special leniency to scholars from the outer provinces of Hung Hoa, Yen Bang, Tuyen Quang and Lang Son, who could attend if their village headman certified they were capable of passing three of the four papers. TT, IV, pp. 28–29.

⁶¹ Corvee and conscription exempt scholars numbered 19, 339 in 1872, according to the Nguyen veritable records, Dai Nam Thuc Luc Chinh Bien, XXXVIII (Hanoi: NXB Su Hoc, 1978), pp. 348, 350–51 [hereafter DNTL].Google Scholar

⁶² For 1475, TT, III, p. 254; and for 1514, TT, IV, p. 79.

⁶³ Huy & Tai, Le Code, II, p. 90 note 899 civil posts in the capital and 926 in the provinces at the end of Thanh-ton's reign.

⁶⁴ As listed in Due, Cao Xuan, Quoc Trieu Huong Khoa Luc, trans. Nga, Nguyen Thuy, Lam, Nguyen Thi (TP Ho Chi Minh: NXB TP Ho Chi Minh, 1993).Google Scholar

⁶⁵ TT, IV, pp. 27–28.

⁶⁶ “Shade” privileges, like exemption from corvée and other benefits, recognised the services of one's father or grandfather. I know of no such a regulation later, and certainly not in the nineteenth century. TT, IV, p. 40.

⁶⁷ A similar pattern occurred at only one other time, in the second half of the eighteenth century when famines, civil disorder, war, and then dynastic overthrow all disrupted graduate production and recruitment.

⁶⁸ In the 1380s Cham wars Nghe An played a double-game, while Thuan Hoa men fought with the Cham against Tran forces. Whitmore, Ho Quy Ly, pp. 18–19, 29–31. We have Le Loi's word for the savagery of the local spirits. In 1425, sleeping in a Nghe An temple, he dreamed that a local spirit promised him success in exchange for one of Le Loi's wives (the mother of the future Thai-Ton). She was duly sacrificed the next day. Lam Son Thuc Luc, in Nguyen Trai Toan Tap (Hanoi: NXB Khoa Hoc Xa Hoi, 2nd ed., 1976), p. 58.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ Marginal note by Ly Thu Tan in Nguyen Trai, Du Dia Chi, Nguyen Trai Toan Tap, p. 235. The commentary supposedly dates from the late fifteenth century but cannot be verified.

⁷⁰ TT, IV, p. 17. Also see Huy & Tai, Le Code, II, p. 185.

⁷¹ Tong Son district never produced a tien si under the Le, nor a single cu nhan under the pre-colonial Nguyen. Thanh Hoa itself accounted for barely five per cent of laureates under the early Le (40), fewer even than Nghe An (48), although 18 more did graduate from the irregular, special Le examinations held there during the Restoration.

⁷² All details on the Nguyen examinations from Baoyun, Yang, Contribution a l'histoire de la principauté des Nguyen au Vietnam méridional (1600–1775) (Geneva: Éditions Olizanes, 1992), pp. 43–48.Google Scholar

⁷³ Quoted (in French) in Ibid., p. 48.

⁷⁴ DNTL, II, p. 49; Giap, Luoc Thiyen, pp. 341–42 for a short biography. The propagandist aim is suggested by the spurious imperial genealogy which made the famous northern scholar, Nguyen Trai, a ancestor of Nguyen Kim. Le, Phan Huy and Quang, Nguyen Phan, “Dong ho, Gia dinh, va Cuoc Doi Nguyen Trai”, Nghien Cuu Lich Su, 192 (1980): 17.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ Khoang, Phan, Viet Su: Xu Dang Trong, 1558–1777 (Saigon: Nha Sach Khai-Tri, 1967), pp. 631–34Google Scholar; Yang, Principauté des Nguyen, pp. 123–26; Tana, Li, “The Inner Region': A Social and Economic History of Nguyen Vietnam in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries” (doctoral diss., ANU, 1992), pp. 149–53.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ Cadière, Léopold, “La Merveilleuse Capital”, in Croyances et pratiques religieuse des Vietnamiens, II (Hanoi: EFEO, 1955), p. 303Google Scholar, originally published 1916.

⁷⁷ It is possible that Nguyen Hoang made a symbolic construction at an existing temple whose spirit had not been recognized by the Le court, as has been recently reported. If so, the political meaning of the act was the same. Anh, Nguyen The, “Thien-Y-A-Na, ou la récuperation de la déesse cam Po Nagar par la monarchie confucéenne vietnamienne”, in Cultes populaires et sociétés asiatiques, ed. Forest, Alain, Isizawa, Yoshiaki, Vandermeersch, Léon (Paris: L'Harmattan, 1991), pp. 83–84.Google Scholar

⁷⁸ Bonhomme, A., “La Pagode Thien Mau: Historique”, Bulletin des Amis du Vieux Hue 2, 2 (1915): 175–77 [hereafter BAVH] for Cadière translations of two slightly differing Vietnamese versions of the story. So closely was Thien Mu associated with Nguyen rule that a visiting Chinese monk, Da Shan, reported it had formerly been a royal palace. The “Heavenly Lady” seems an elision of the Tkoist Queen of Heaven and the Cham goddess Po Nagar, upon whose temple site the pagoda was raised. Li, “Inner Region”, p. 151; Yang, Principauté des Nguyen, p. 123.Google Scholar

⁷⁹ For instance, Minh-vuong (1691–1725), a fervent Buddhist who lavished huge amounts on pagodas, also acknowledged Confucianism's (subordinate) place in this line from a 1715 poem preserved at Thien Mu: “the beneficial action of Buddhism fortunately completes the influence of Confucianism”. Bonhomme, A., “La Pagode Thien-Mau: Les Stèles”, BAVH 2, 4 (1915): 435.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ Trinh, Ung, “Le Temple des Lettrés”, BAVH 3, 4 (1916): 370Google Scholar locates its first reference in the Nguyen annals as 1691, when Minh-vuong decided to move the existing building. The Imperial Gazetteer for Hue is even vaguer, noting only that it was built “early in the country's history”. Dai Nam Nhat Thong Chi, 6 (Saigon: Nha Van-Hoa XB, 1960), p. 39.Google Scholar

⁸¹ Khoi, Histoire, p. 247; Hodgkin, Revolutionary Path, p. 71.

⁸² Chu, , Nhan Vat Chi, II, trans. Tho, Nguyen Due (Saigon: Phu Quoc-Vu Khanh Dac-Trach Van-hoa XB, 1973), pp. 217–35.Google Scholar

⁸³ Langlet, Philippe, La Tradition vietnamienne: une état nationale au sein de la civilisation chinoise (Saigon: BSEI, 1970), pp. 131–32, fn. 3.Google Scholar

⁸⁴ Their regional backgrounds reflected Thanh-ton's 1482 priorities for elite formation: 37 from the Red River plains and only four from Thanh-Nghe, the dynasty's home and Restoration base. They thus also duplicated the backgrounds of the rising educated officials in Trinh Tac's service like Pham Cong Tru, the one who suggested the court's recognition. Coming as delta literati were institutionalizing their waxing influence in government, it seems an unsubtle reminder that central provinces also boasted honourable Restoration credentials. Curiously, the Le annals of 1697 did not refer to this event. For this period, see Taylor, K.W., “The Literati Revival in Seventeenth-Century Vietnam”, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 18, 1 (1987): 1–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁸⁵ They were usually either Board presidents (thuong thu) or their deputies (thi-lang).

⁸⁶ The numbers were: Le loyalists — 13; high Mac officials — 38.

⁸⁷ Of Phan Huy Chu's 42 biographies, 29 were from the 1510s and 1520s. Of those, five committed suicide; five died fighting the Mac or otherwise on account of their fidelity; 18 either left the mandarinate, refused to pretend to accept the Mac, or went into seclusion; and one rejected Mac Dong Dung's request to support his attempt on the throne. Chu, Nhan Vat Chi, pp. 222–35.

⁸⁸ The two most recent general histories of Vietnam each only devote two paragraphs to the whole period and both use the Le Restoration to organize their accounts. Khoi, Histoire, p. 247; Hodgkin, Revolutionary Path, p. 71.

⁸⁹ Whitmore, Ho Quy Ly, p. 115. He rated Dang Dung's great-great-grandfather, Thuy, who died quelling a Lang Son revolt in 1412, as “instrumental in the Chinese success”.

⁹⁰ Don, Le Quy, Dai Viet Thong Su (Hanoi: NXB Khoa Hoc Xa Hoi, 1978), pp. 253–55 [hereafter DVTS for a fuller account, almost all of which the Le annals ignored in their 2 brief biographical notes. TT, IV, pp. 46–47, 119–20.Google Scholar

⁹¹ TT, III, p. 306. As I could not locate another 21 entries for this period, the real number was probably higher. Even so, it was almost twice the number of districts (from the same geographical area) as produced doctoral laureates under the Nguyen.

⁹² In Kinh Bac, 84 per cent compared to a province-wide average of 69.5 per cent before 1592, while in Hai Duong it was 81 per cent compared to 76 per cent generally. In Son lay, too, the mountainous prefectures of Lam Thao, Doan Hung, and Quang Oai produced 81 per cent of their 32 tien si before the Le Restoration, compared to 64.5 per cent for the whole province.

⁹³ TT, IV, pp. 47, 63, 68–69, 71, 80–87, 99.

⁹⁴ This interesting case combined Buddhist and animist beliefs with shamanistic healing rites. According to Mac Dang Dung, who finally repressed it, almost everyone in the area was a follower. TT, IV, pp. 89–91; DVTS, pp. 255–56.

⁹⁵ TT, IV, pp. 71, 80.

⁹⁶ Whitmore, Ho Quy Ly, pp. 3, 139 fn 16.

⁹⁷ That Dong Ngan was also the home district of the mother of the murdered Uy-Muc seems important in the first revolt there. Dai Nam Nhat Thong Chi, Bac Ninh (Saigon: Nha Van Hoa, Van Hoa Tung-Thu 28, 1966), pp. 64, 68 [hereafter DNNTC]Google Scholar. DNNTC, III (Hanoi: NXB Khoa Hoc Xa Hoi, 1970), pp. 399–401Google Scholar for Hai Duong.

⁹⁸ Seven from 14, with three not located in the text. DNNTC, Bac Ninh, pp. 72–75.

⁹⁹ A single monastery on Con Son mountain had housed over 500 monks under the early Tran. Of the 16 Hai Duong pagodas noted in DNNTC only four were outside the four hill districts [DNNTC, III, pp. 410–14]; while an 1840s geography only listed two famous pagodas outside the hill districts. Khe, Nguyen Dong, Bac Thanh Dia Du Chi, I, trans. Knh, Dang Chu (Saigon: Nha Van Hoa, 1969), pp. 59–72, 91–93 [hereafter BTDDC].Google Scholar

¹⁰⁰ The altar also commemorated two local women who had suddenly vanished, leaving only locks of their hair, while paying their respects to De Thich. They became attendant deities at the altar. Chu, Du Dia Chi, pp. 222–23; BTDDC, III, p. 48.

¹⁰¹ The temple's legend also contained shamanistic healing elements. Briefly, under the Ly, two local chessplayers unwittingly took on Indra in disguise. After the game, he revealed himself and rewarded them with magic incense, which their families burned when they died. Indra then appeared, and restored them to life. DNNTC, III, pp. 402–403; BTDDC, pp. 81–82.

¹⁰² This account follows TT, IV, pp. 81–87; and DVTS, pp. 240–47.

¹⁰³ Unfortunately, the first significant anti-dynastic rebellion, that of Tran Tuan in 1511, lacks documentation. However, we do know that, like Tran Cao, he was a charismatic figure who quickly gathered thousands of local followers in eastern Hung Hoa and western Son Tay, and moved them directly against the capital. On arrival they actually defeated Trinh Duy San's army, leaving Thanh-long defenceless and its people panic-stricken. Shortly after, Tuan was killed by unlucky chance and his army massacred. That he was described as dressed in red at the time suggests he may have been a Taoist sorcerer. One of his followers rebelled again in the same local area in 1512 but was isolated and beaten. TT, IV, pp. 68–69, 71; and DVTS, pp. 238–39.

¹⁰⁴ DVTS, p. 240.

¹⁰⁵ The Thin Cao revolt is often blamed for the destruction, but the annals clearly state Nguyen Hoang Dus army and the local people did the damage. TT, IV, p. 84.

¹⁰⁶ Marginal comment, TT, IV, p. 97.

¹⁰⁷ Both sources say it was at Sung Nghiem pagoda, which was in Dong Trieu and not Chi Linh. There was a Sung Nghiem mountain in Chi Linh, but both accounts agree the pagoda was on (or near) mount Trau Son, which was in Kinh Bac. The garbled account may run together a number of battles.

¹⁰⁸ TT, IV, p. 86. For the leader only, with up to 20 followers also eligible for rewards.

¹⁰⁹ Ibid., p. 94.

¹¹⁰ TT, IV, 87 does not locate Loc, Bao, Lac, An, and Nguyen, Chu; but Ten Lang Xa Viet Nam Dau the Ky XIX, ed. Thi, Duong The and Thoa, Pham Thi (Hanoi: NXB Khoa Hoc Xa Hoi, 1981), pp. 133, 156, 195 shows 3 villages with these names in the same district of Kinh Bac at the start of the nineteenth century. Chu, Du Dia Chi, p. 247 placed it near the boundary with Chi Linh.Google Scholar

¹¹¹ Tran Nguyen Dan retired to a retreat there as also did his grandson, Nguyen Trai; while the most famous late Tran Confucian, Chu Van An, established a school there after leaving the court.

¹¹² After the Mac, Thuy Duong produced none and Giap Son one under the Le and the Nguyen.

¹¹³ Woodside, Alexander B., “Medieval Vietnam and Cambodia: A Comparative Comment”, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 15, 2 (1984): 318. More than Woodside, I think the force of this revelation diminished over time.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹¹⁴ TT, II, p. 213.

¹¹⁵ Huy and Tai, Le Code, II, pp. 90–91, citing Le Quy Don's report that officialdom under the Restored Le did not exceed 500.

¹¹⁶ Taylor, “Literati Revival”, p. 4.

¹¹⁷ From 4.5 per cent to 18 per cent; or 31 from 184 compared to 40 from 882.

¹¹⁸ Taylor, “Literati Revival”, pp. 1–22.

¹¹⁹ See Langlet's excellent annotated translation of the Cuong Muc chapters covering 1663–1705 for more detail. Langlet, Tradition vietnamienne, pp. 88–268.

¹²⁰ Khoi, Histoire, pp. 286–93; Langlet, Tradition vietnamienne, pp. 70–73, 100 (fn. 3). Although Christianity was banned in 1662, Dao Duy Anh estimated upwards of 200,000 Christians remained in Dang-ngoai in the early 1680s (compared to 600,000 in Dang-trong). Viet Nam Van Hoa SU Cuong (Saigon: NXB Bon Phuong, 1951), p. 223.Google Scholar

¹²¹ Article 35, Huy and Tai, Le Code, II, pp. 114–15. Literature in the national script (nom) so flourished in the seventeeenth and eighteenth centuries that Durand, Maurice and Tran-Huan, Nguyen entitled their chapter on this period “The Development and Triumph of Nom Poetry and Verse Novels” in Introduction a la Litérature Vietnamienne (Paris: Maisonneuve et Larose, 1969), pp. 79–88.Google Scholar

¹²² They included bans on converting common or public lands, roads, and waterways to private ownership (22,23,24), on consulting witches and mediums (40), and on building unauthorized Buddhist pagodas (38). Even the legal ban on cutting trees or grazing cattle around the tombs of emperors of previous dynasties, or their meritorious subjects (37), had to be repeated. Huy and Tai, Le Code, II, pp. 113–15.

¹²³ For instance, in 1730 ten thousand men from Dong Trieu, Thuy Duong, and Chi Linh worked round the clock for a year to repair Quynh Lam and Sung Nghiem pagodas in Hai Duong. Thanh-Nha, Nguyen, Tableau Economique du Viet Nam aux XVII^e et XVIII^ee Siècles (Paris: Editions Cujas, 1971), p. 75 for other examples.Google Scholar

¹²⁴ Khoi, Histoire, p. 258.

¹²⁵ Deloustal, Raymond, “Ressources financières et économiques de l'état dans l'ancien Annam”, Revue indochinoise (ns), XLI, 9–10 (1924): 410, translating P.H. Chu's Quoc Dung Chi.Google Scholar

¹²⁶ In percentage terms, the joint share of Son Vi, Dong Lan, Tay Lan, Bat Bat, Phuc Loc, and Tam Nong fell from 17 per cent to 6 per cent, while that of Tu Liem and Dan Phung rose from 36 per cent to 62 per cent.

¹²⁷ Or 62 tien si and 13 thuong thu compared to Kinh Bac's 46 tien si and 13 Board Presidents.

¹²⁸ The Trinh levelled all the Mac tombs and monuments in their home district of Nghi Duong, and no one from here graduated tien si again until 1757. Chu, Du Dia Chi, p. 301.

¹²⁹ Thanh-Nha, Tableau Economique, pp. 42–43.

¹³⁰ Li, “Inner Region”, p. 20 cites the Cuong Muc entry on the famine which concluded: “Although Hai Duong used to be the most densely populated area, now in some villages only three to five families were left”.

¹³¹ Chu, Du Dia Chi, p. 269.

¹³² Comparing figures in DNTL, XXXVII, pp. 246, 250.

¹³³ At mid-century they had comparable cu nhan pools, with 126 in Hai Duong and 128 in Ha Tinh. My calculations from Due, Huong Khoa Luc.

¹³⁴ Thanh-Nha, Tableau economique, pp. 111–47 generally, and p. 138 for the doctoral laureates' urban marriage market.

¹³⁵ The census of 1819, for example, placed Lower Son Nam, with “more than 38,700” registered tax payers second only to Kinh Bac's “over 43,900” for the delta north. DNTL, IV, p. 397.

¹³⁶ Graduate shares of all others except Nghe An fell markedly under the Nguyen.

¹³⁷ Three other districts supplied a single graduate each.

¹³⁸ Gia Lam, Dong Ngan, and Gia Dinh (later Gia Binh), with eight other districts sharing the rest.

¹³⁹ Woodside, Model, p. 176.

¹⁴⁰ DNTL, III, p. 78.

¹⁴¹ Ibid., p. 323.

¹⁴² DNTL, IV, p. 18.

¹⁴³ While modern historians date the Le Restoration from 1592, when the Trinh entered Thang Long (modern Hanoi), DVLT placed it in 1554, when the first special Le tien si examination was held in Thanh Hoa. DVLT, I, p. 186.

¹⁴⁴ Cited in Liem, Vo, “La Capitate du Thuan-Hoa (Hue)”, BAVH 3, 3 (1915): 286.Google Scholar

¹⁴⁵ QTDKL, p. 58. The special payments saved would have paid the salaries of several lesser officials, according to Woodside, Model, p. 199.

¹⁴⁶ Average attendance was 170 per examination, with the range from 119 to 281. Woodside, Model, p. 179 gives the full figures. From them I calculate the success rate averaged 5.5 per cent, but ranged from 3.5 per cent (10/281) up to 9.2 per cent (11/119).

¹⁴⁷ Cooke, “Political Elite” (forthcoming) follows Due's criteria and includes pho bang in all calculations.

¹⁴⁸ Woodside, Model, p. 178.

¹⁴⁹ Ibid., pp. 172–80, 204–205.

¹⁵⁰ Ibid., p. 205.

¹⁵¹ A11 other quotes, Ibid., pp. 216–17.

¹⁵² Hoang Te My's family from Dong Ngan district, Son lay. QTDKL, p. 30.

¹⁵³ Only three ”the khoa” were from former Dang-trong.

¹⁵⁴ Counting up to 1904, after which the French restructured the metropolitan examination, reveals no more “great scholar families”, threee more southern ”the khoa” (grandsons of earlier graduates) and four more from former Dang-ngoai, or about 30 in over 80 years.

¹⁵⁵ For a longer discussion of this point see Cooke, “French Genius, Annamite Soul”.

¹⁵⁶ Khoang, Xu Dang Trong, pp. 621–22.

¹⁵⁷ For a longer discussion, see Cooke, “Political Elite” (forthcoming).

¹⁵⁸ As the edict described them. DNTL, IV, p. 230. Duc, Huong Khoa Luc, pp. 108–109 also reveals that, most unusually, none of the 1813 Gia Dinh graduates ever became officials.

¹⁵⁹ In 1810 the text merely noted “from now on” examinations were held every 6 years. DNTL, IV, p. 73. This was, of course, also similar to Dang-trong practice.

¹⁶⁰ The royal intervention was specifically couched in North-South terms. The king demanded to know why, if “Northerners and Southerners [were now] all my subjects”, and had the same education and studied the same syllabus, the jury had proposed nine northern laureates but none from the south. He then specifically directed them to accept “one or two people from Thua Thien south”. When the senior examiner proposed Phan Thanh Gian, Minh-mang agreed. DNTL, VIII, p. 29.

¹⁶¹ The other requirement was to be aged under 40. DNTL, XXVII, p. 389.

¹⁶² For the introduction of regional quotas, see Due, Huong Khoa Luc, p. 207.

¹⁶³ While Nghe An's quota rose by over 40 per cent, and Hue's by nearly 40 per cent, Hanoi's only rose by 22 per cent, although Nam Dinh did better (nearly 30%). DNTL, XXVII, pp. 106–107.

¹⁶⁴ Smith, “Politics and Society”, pp. 156–57 selectively quotes metropolitan examination results in support, while Woodside attributed it more to the natural scholarly advantages of living nearer the capital. Model, pp. 222–23.

¹⁶⁵ The Binh Dinh quota only accounted for 13.

¹⁶⁶ DNTL, XXVII, p. 175.

¹⁶⁷ The ratio of pho bang to tien si were: 28 to 41 in the first period and 25 to 15 in the second.

¹⁶⁸ He was senior examiner in five of the seven contests between 1838 and 1848 (after which, as Regent, high status precluded his acting as an examiner).

¹⁶⁹ Woodside, Model, p. 214. Cooke, “Political Elite”, also discusses northern disaffection with the examination system but without the benefit of the primary sources used here. In the light of the evidence now available, it is clear that the regional examinations, and not only the metropolitan ones as argued there, were biassed against northerners in the 1840s.

¹⁷⁰ The 9 contests from 1862 to 1880 represented one-third of Nguyen triennial palace examinations. The ratio of northern passes during this time to total passes was: 14 from 43 in Nghe-Tinh; 10 from 43 in former Son Nam; 4 from 20 in former Son Tay: 2 from 13 in former Kinh Bac; 2 from 7 in Thanh Hoa; and none from Hai Duong.