Truong Vinh Ky and Phan Thanh Gian: the problems of a nationalist interpretation of 19th century Vietnamese history

Abstract

Viet-Nam, a famous proclamation of the fifteenth century states, has never 'suffered from a lack of heroes'. This assertion bodied the pride and capacity of a small nation to repluse the armies of China and to demonstrate that centuries of Chinese rule had not quenched the fiercely independent spirit of the Vietnamese people and their leaders. In the centuries which followed, the epic southern march of the Vietnamese population and the rivalries between the great seigneurial houses, the Trinh and the Nguyên, provided ample opportunities for displays of heroism. Historians of various political persuasions, both Vietnamese and foreign, have had little difficulty in discerning worthy figures in Vietnamese history. From the Tây-Son rebellion in the second half of the ighteenth century onwards, however, there has been substantial disagreement over the character and the achievements of the leading figures in Vietnamese history. Much of this disagreement can be readily explained in terms of the difference between the assessments of French and Vietnamese writers. It was with French aid that the Emperor Gia-Long gained the throne and united the whole of Viet-Nam in 1802. Generations of French historians have presented an account of Vietnamese history in which the Tây-Son brothers, men of poor antecedents and doubtful character, were ultimately defeated through Much of the research for this article was made possible by funds granted to the writer by the Carnegie Corporation of New York through the London-Cornell Project at Cornell University.