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Vietnam The Le Dynasty and Southward Expansion
Le Loi, one of Vietnam's most celebrated heroes, is credited
with rescuing the country from Ming domination in 1428. Born of a
wealthy landowning family, he served as a senior scholar-official
until the advent of the Ming, whom he refused to serve. After a
decade of gathering a resistance movement around him, Le Loi and
his forces finally defeated the Chinese army in 1428. Rather than
putting to death the captured Chinese soldiers and
administrators, he magnanimously provided ships and supplies to
send them back to China. Le Loi then ascended the Vietnamese
throne, taking the reign name Le Thai To and establishing the Le
dynasty (1428-1788).
The greatest of the Le dynasty rulers was Le Thanh Tong
(1460-97), who reorganized the administrative divisions of the
country and upgraded the civil service system. He ordered a
census of people and landholdings to be taken every six years,
revised the tax system, and commissioned the writing of a
national history. During his reign he accomplished the conquest
of Champa in 1471, the suppression of Lao-led insurrections in
the western border area, and the continuation of diplomatic
relations with China through tribute missions established under
Le Thai To. Le Thanh Tong also ordered the formulation of the
Hong Duc legal code, which was based on Chinese law but included
distinctly Vietnamese features, such as recognition of the higher
position of women in Vietnamese society than in Chinese society.
Under the new code, parental consent was not required for
marriage, and daughters were granted equal inheritance rights
with sons. Le Thanh Tong also initiated the construction and
repair of granaries, dispatched his troops to rebuild irrigation
works following floods, and provided for medical aid during
epidemics. A noted writer and poet himself, he encouraged and
emphasized of the Confucian examination system.
A great period of southward expansion also began under Le
Thanh Tong. The don dien system of land settlement,
borrowed from the Chinese, was used extensively to occupy and
develop territory wrested from Champa. Under this system,
military colonies were established in which soldiers and landless
peasants cleared a new area, began rice production on the new
land, established a village, and served as a militia to defend
it. After three years, the village was incorporated into the
Vietnamese administrative system, a communal village meeting
house (dinh) was built, and the workers were given an
opportunity to share in the communal lands given by the state to
each village. The remainder of the land belonged to the state. As
each area was cleared and a village established, the soldiers of
the don dien would move on to clear more land. This method
contributed greatly to the success of Vietnam's southward
expansion
(see
fig. 5).
Although the Le rulers had ordered widespread land
distribution, many peasants remained landless, while the
nobility, government officials, and military leaders continued to
acquire vast tracts. The final conquest of Champa in 1471 eased
the situation somewhat as peasants advanced steadily southward
along the coast into state-owned communal lands. However, most of
the new land was set aside for government officials and, although
the country grew wealthier, the social structure remained the
same. Following the decline of the Le dynasty, landlessness was a
major factor leading to a turbulent period during which the
peasantry questioned the mandate of their rulers.
In the Confucian world view, emperors were said to have the
"mandate of heaven" to rule their people, who, in turn, owed the
emperor total allegiance. Although his power was absolute, an
emperor was responsible for the prosperity of his people and the
maintenance of justice and order. An emperor who did not fulfill
his Confucian responsibilities could, in theory, lose his
mandate. In practice, the Vietnamese people endured many poor
emperors, weak and strong. Counterbalancing the power of the
emperor was the power of the village, illustrated by the
Vietnamese proverb, "The laws of the emperor yield to the customs
of the village." Village institutions served both to restrain the
power of the emperor and to provide a buffer between central
authority and the individual villager. Each village had its
council of notables, which was responsible for the obligations of
the village to the state. When the central government imposed
levies for taxes, for corvee labor for public projects, or for
soldiers for defense, these levies were based on the council of
notables' report of the resources of the villages, which was
often underestimated to protect the village. Moreover, there was
a division between state and local responsibilities. The central
government assumed responsibility for military, judicial, and
religious functions, while village authorities oversaw the
construction of public works projects such as roads, dikes, and
bridges, which were centrally planned. The autonomy of the
villages, however, contributed to the weakness of the Vietnamese
political system. If the ruling dynasty could no longer protect a
village, the village would often opt for the protection of
political movements in opposition to the dynasty. These
movements, in turn, would have difficulty maintaining the
allegiance of the villages unless they were able both to provide
security and to institutionalize their political power. Although
it insured the preservation of a sense of national and cultural
identity, the strength of the villages was a factor contributing
to the political instability of the society as it expanded
southward.
Data as of December 1987
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