|
After a long period of subjugation by the Chinese feudal
empire, a period marked by numerous insurrections, the
Vietnamese people finally won back their independence in
the 10th century. Following the recovery of that
independence, the country gradually turned towards
creating a centralized monarchical state. This
centralization was made necessary by twin factors: the
construction of great hydraulic works, particularly
dykes and canals for the development of agriculture, and
the safeguarding of national independence against
attempts at recon quest by the Chinese imperial Court.
However,
before a well organized monarchical state could be set
up, the country went through a period of instability
during which tendencies towards feudal domination still
persisted. It was only with the establishment of the Ly
dynasty in 1009 that the monarchy was able to gain a
secure hold on power.
In 1010,
after his accession to the throne, Ly Cong Uan, whose
royal name was Ly Thai To, ordered the transfer of the
capital to Thang Long, the site of present-day Hanoi.
Thang Long was to remain the capital until the 19th
century. Ly Thai To decreed a general amnesty for
prisoners and the destruction of all instruments of
torture. In 1054, his successor, Ly Thanh Ton, renamed
the country Dai Viet
The king
owned all the land by right. The state, however,
directly utilized only a small portion of this land,
some of which was distributed to members of the royal
family and high-ranking dignitaries as fiefdoms and
personal domains. Taxes were levied on land owned by
villages and individuals. There was thus an agrarian
regime with several sectors:
- Land used
by the state;
- Fiefdoms
and domains;
- Communal
land; and
- Private land.
There were
two categories of land distributed to nobles and
high-ranking dignitaries. There were fiefdoms whose
beneficiaries had both the land and people at their
disposal; the peasants had obligations only to their
local lord, and were not required to pay taxes or
provide labor to the state. In the great domains, the
peasants paid rent and taxes to the owner and at the
same time had obligations to the state, and remained
directly subject to the monarchy. Marshal Ly Thuong Kiet,
for instance, received in appendage 4,000 peasant
households, but his domain comprised another 10,000
households. Appendages and domains remained the property
of the king. When a lord died, his heirs could inherit
his land but could also be dispossessed by the king.
Kings Ly attached great
importance to agriculture. At the beginning of each
year, continuing a tradition inaugurated by Le Hoan, the
king himself made a symbolic gesture by ploughing a plot
of land, following a ceremony in honor of the god of
agriculture. In 1038, when King Ly Thai Ton was advised
by a mandarin not to demean himself through such an
action, he said: "If I myself do not do some
ploughing
as an offering to the god, how can I set an example for
the entire people?".
Those who
stole or killed buffaloes were severely punished under
the law.
The dykes
were given particular attention and mandarins were held
responsible for their maintenance. The construction of
numerous dykes and other hydraulic works is recorded in
the annals, for instance the Co Xa dyke in 1108, and the
digging of the Dau Nai canal in 1029, the Lam Canal
in 1050, and the Lanh Kinh Canal
in 1089.
From the
beginning of their reign, the Ly endeavored to
consolidate the state apparatus. The country was divided
into 24 provinces entrusted to close relations of the
royal family. The centralized monarchy governed with the
assistance of this aristocracy. Princes of the blood had
their personal appendages and their own armed forces.
The court hierarchy was a strict one with a twin body of
civil and military mandarins. These mandarins received
no salaries and lived on the money from rent and taxes
paid by the population under their administration. But a
mandarin bureaucracy gradually came into being, paid by
the monarchy through taxes on landholdings, handicrafts,
forest products, and market sales. Little by little, the
administration lost its family-based character.
Bonzes
played an important role as advisers to the king. The
founder of the Ly dynasty was put on the throne with the
help of a prominent bonze superior, Van Hanh. The bonze
Vien Thong received honors reserved for the heir to the
throne.
The Ly also
introduced written laws. In 1042, King Ly Thai Tong
ordered his mandarins to "amend the laws and regulation
so as to adapt them to the present circumstances, to
classify them, to compile them into a penal code
that can be easily understood by all". It is
reported in the annals that the code, when completed and
made known to the population, was welcomed by all. The
rehabilitation of delinquents and criminals was
instituted; very severe punishment was decreed for the
"ten capital crimes", particularly that of rebellion.
Under the Ly, it was forbidden to sell 18-year-olds as
slaves; there were laws for the protection of draught
animals and on the mortgaging of land. Penalties were
prescribed against piracy and extortion by mandarins.
This legislation was perfected by the Tran. It should be
noted that the law paid special attention to the
prevention of rebellion.While
the delta had a homogeneous Viet (or kinh)
population, the mountainous regions were inhabited by
numerous ethnic groups, and the relationship between the
central government and these mountain populations
constituted a particularly difficult issue for the
monarchy. The historical relationship between the Viet
majority and minority groups was one of both integration
and antagonism. On the one hand, the delta and highlands
were integrated economically and needed each other; they
were also closely bound by the need for mutual defense
against foreign aggressors. The different groups were
therefore moving towards progressively uniting as a
single nation. On the other hand, the Viet feudalists,
particularly the monarchy and mandarins, sought to
exploit and oppress the minorities, leading to frequent
revolts and the ensuing reprisals.
In the 11th
century, when the Ly dynasty was founded, the frontiers
of Dai Viet in the north and northwest had not yet been
clearly delimited. Particularly important was the
frontier with China
in the north and northeast; these regions were inhabited
by Tay
and Nung people whose allegiance was of prime importance
for the Dai Viet kingdom. It was vital to incorporate
them into the nation.
The Ly king
often sought alliances with local chiefs by giving them
princesses in marriage or by marrying their daughters.
At the
Chinese court, there still existed a faction which
advocated the recon quest of Dai Viet. In 1069, in an
attempt to find the remedy to a serious economic and
social crisis, the Sung emperor gave full powers to a
bold reformer named Wang Nganche. When the reforms
proved a disappointment, Wang Nganche, to save the
Sung's prestige and seize Dai Viet's wealth, decided to
send a great expedition against the Ly. In 1074, the
provinces of southern China
received the order to strengthen their armies, arm
combat junks, and stop trading with Dai Viet.
At the Ly
court, given that the reigning king was only ten years
old, all power was concentrated in the hands of General
Ly Thuong Kiet, who decided to take the offensive in
order to forestall the Sung.
Two army
corps totaling 100,000 men were sent to China
in 1075, one overland under the command of Tong Dan, a
Nung chief, the other by sea, under the command of Ly
Thuong Kiet himself. The latter cleverly exploited the
discontent of the Chinese population with Wang Nganche's
reforms, and appeared as the liberator of the peoples of
southern China.
Placards were put up denouncing the reformer and
proclaiming that Ly Thuong Kiet's only desire was to
ensure the welfare of the people. The Ly troops were
enthusiastically welcomed by the population and easily
occupied many localities. The general attacked the Yung
chow stronghold which fell after a siege lasting 43 days
on March 1,
1076.
The citadel was razed to the ground; other strongholds
suffered the same fate.
The Sung
prepared for a counter-offensive by forming a coalition
with the Champa and the Khmer kingdom. In April 1076,
having attained his objective to destroy the Chinese
staging posts, Ly Thuong Kiet withdrew his troops from
Chinese territory. Early in 1077, the Sung troops,
having forced their way through the frontier passes,
were facing the Ly army across the Nhu Nguyet River
(now the Cau). Fierce fighting ensued and the Sung army
was unable to cross the river. It was in the-course of
this battle that Ly Thuong Kiet composed a poem and had
it recited during the night, making his men believe that
the river god was speaking:
Over the
southern mountains and rivers, the Emperor of the South
shall reign
This was
written down in the Book of Heaven.
How dare
those barbarians invade our soil?
They
will surely meet with defeat.
Its morale
higher than ever, the Ly army repelled the attackers,
who were also being decimated by disease. Ly Thuong Kiet
then made a peace proposal, which included the ceding of
five frontier districts (now Cao Bang and Lang Son
provinces). The Sung accepted. This was in 1077. Two
years later through negotiations, the Ly recovered the
ceded territory.
Ly Thuong
Kiet was the architect of the victory. An outstanding
strategist, he was also a great politician who knew how
to win the hearts of the people and inspire his troops
with enthusiasm. The stability of the regime established
by the Ly was confirmed by this brilliant victory over
the Chinese imperial armies. The Tran further
strengthened the country's armed voices, enabling them
to repel a Mongol invasion two centuries later.
Buddhism was
at its peak under the Ly, whose accession to the throne
had been favored by the Buddhist clergy. In return, the
latter received the highest privileges. The kings
themselves were interested in the study of doctrine and
often took bonzes as advisers. The pagodas owned large
domains worked by serfs, and bonzes were exempt from
taxes and military service. Kings and princes had large numbers of pagodas built and bells cast, and
promoted the dissemination of sacred books. In 1018 King
Thai To sent a mission to China
to gather texts of the Tam Tang: in 1068, King Thai Tong
oversaw the creation of the Thao Duong sect, and several
kings became patriarchies of Buddhist sects. Princes and
nobles followed their example. Beautiful pagodas were
built under the Ly, some of them preserved up to the
present day, such as Quan Thanh in Hanoi built in 1102,
Dien Huu (1041), Bao Thien (1050), and Keo Pagoda in
Thai Binh Province. Queen Y Lan, accused of ordering the
assassination of one of her rivals, spent the rest of
her life building 100 pagodas to redeem herself.
Vietnamese Buddhist Sects and schools were founded.
In a society
whose members had to unite in the face of great natural
calamities and the permanent danger of foreign invasion,
and who came under the absolute power of a monarch
governing through a complex mandarin bureaucracy, a
doctrine was needed to direct the mind of each
individual towards his social obligations, obedience and
loyalty to the monarch, and unconditional respect for
the social hierarchy. Since the Han, Chinese imperial
dynasties made Confucianism the state doctrine; the
Vietnamese monarchy gradually adopted it.
In 1070, Ly
Thanh Tong had the "Temple
of Literature"
built. This was a school dedicated to Confucius and his
disciples and was where the sons of high-ranking
dignitaries received moral education and training in
administration. In 1075, the first mandarin competitions
took place, through which Confucian scholars could
accede to public office; the competitions were only open
to the sons of aristocratic families. In 1080,
competitions were held to recruit members of an
"Academy", whose task was to preserve the archives and
write royal edicts. In 1089, the mandarin hierarchy
began to be strictly organized. The appearance of
Confucianism on the scene was the consequence of a dual
phenomenon: on one hand was the necessity of creating a
mandarin bureaucracy and on the other, there was
the increasing accession of educated commoners to public
office. At first, these men were given only subaltern
positions, higher offices being reserved for members of
the royal family and of the aristocracy.
The Ly
period also saw the appearance of the first historical
works. Under the Ly Dynasty, Do Thien compiled a history
of the country which, now lost, was mentioned in
Viet Dien U Linh and Linh
Nam
Chich Quai.
Cheo
popular theatre, which first appeared in the 10th
century, continued its development. A prisoner captured
during the Mongol Invasion, Ly Nguyen Cat, made a
notable contribution to tuong Classical theatre.
It was
architecture and ceramics that reached a level of
excellence during the Ly period. With the spread of
Buddhism, many pagodas were built. Some of the most
famous have been preserved. Unfortunately, however, the
ravages of war and climate have destroyed the majority
of the works of art from this period. What remains can
only give us an idea of what was achieved at that time.
Some works from the Ly period have been erroneously
classified by French historians as being from an earlier
period, that of Dai La (9th century).
On the stele
of Linh Xung, erected in 1126, an inscription records
that "wherever there was beautiful scenery a pagodas was
built ". One of the essential characteristics of these
pagodas was harmony with the surrounding landscapes, the
building nestling amidst trees, and the gardens and
ponds, an integral part of the construction; most often,
the background was a hill or winding stream, and the
slow ringing of bells in the calm morning or evening
seemed part of nature itself.
Some pagodas
had to be of significant size, since they would
accommodate thousands of pilgrims coming to take part in
great celebrations. Dien Huu Pagoda, commonly known as
the One-Pillar Pagoda and built in 1049, is a graceful
pavilion built on a stone pillar standing in the middle
of a pond, the whole complex resembling a lotus flower
in bloom.
The lotus
flower motif often appears on monuments. The flower
symbolizes beauty and purity, for "though springing from
mud it is free from the stench of mud". Stone pillars,
some of significant size, often rest on "lotus flowers"; the remains of a pillar in Giam Pagoda, built in
1086, has a base measuring 4.5 meters in diameter and is
over 3.5 meters in circumference. At the foot of some of
these pillars are carved stones representing waves, and
the columns seem to emerge from a stormy sea. A couple
of dragons climb the pillar, forming graceful but
complex spirals.
The pagodas
have curved roofs and often comprise a tower with as
many as 12 storey. These pagodas are noted for their
architecture, statues and sculptures.
At Phat Tich
Pagoda, the bases of pillars have stone sculptures
representing the bodhi tree (of Buddhist enlightenment)
in the center with two worshippers presenting offerings
and behind them. four musicians dancing and playing
various instruments. The ground is littered with
flowers. The atmosphere is joyful and the gestures
graceful, far from Buddhist meditation on the unreality
of this world.
Relic found
in the northwestern suburbs of Hanoi, where the palace
of the Ly was located, show it great variety of
sculpture, statues and decorative motifs on ceramics. A
frequent motif is that of the crocodile, with head
raised, protruding eyes looking to the right and to the
left, and quivering nostrils; the body is lithe and the
beast standing on its hind legs seems ready to spring.
Stylized lions on ceramics have also been found.
Excavations
in 1965 on the site of the Chuong Son Pagoda built in
1105 unearthed images of birds with human bodies among
other motifs -chrysanthemums, phoenixes and dragons -
all frequently found on the works of the period. There
is a great variety of products: articles for both daily
use and decoration, and pottery and porcelain ware with
fine enamel. Among the most beautiful enamels are the
opalescent-green and brown-grey ones with a low shine
and in various shades. The decoration is varied -
flowers, dragons, lotuses, birds, and where the surface
permits, frescoes and landscapes with human figures. The
drawings and bas-reliefs always have a natural look with
graceful lines and a cheerful environment: the movements
of birds, elephants and dancers, harmonize with flowers
in bloom or contrast with the antics of warriors.
Particularly remarkable are the richly decorated
porcelain items. Ceramics were sent as far as China to
be sold or presented to the imperial court. Under the Ly
dynasty this art reached its peak.
|
