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Improvising protocols: Two enterprising Chinese migrant families and the resourceful Nguyễn court

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 June 2019

John D. Wong
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Abstract

Chinese migrants fleeing from the incoming Qing regime assumed a range of political and economic positions as the Nguyễn court sought to extend its control to the south. A nuanced exploration of the historical experience of two powerful Chinese migrant families to Vietnam through their clan genealogies reveals two rather different paradigms — the Minh Hương paradigm and the Frontier paradigm. These paradigms reflect not only the Chinese migrants' varied, resourceful manoeuvres in their quest for a firm foothold in the evolving and expanding south, but equally, they demonstrate the Nguyễn court's flexibility in accommodating and capitalising on the strengths of different migrant groups it sought to incorporate into its realm.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies , Volume 50 , Issue 2 , May 2019 , pp. 246 - 262
Copyright
Copyright © The National University of Singapore 2019 

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Footnotes

The author would like to thank Hue-Tam Ho Tai, Professor Emerita at Harvard University, and Bruce Lockhart, National University of Singapore, for their insightful comments. All translations from the Vietnamese and Chinese are the author's.

References

1 Taylor, Keith, ‘Nguyen Hoang and the beginning of Vietnam's southward expansion’, in Southeast Asia in the early modern era: Trade, power, and belief, ed. Reid, Anthony (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1993), pp. 42–65Google Scholar; Wheeler, Charles, ‘One region, two histories: Cham precedents in the history of the Hoi An region’, in Vietnam: Borderless histories, ed. Nhung, Tran Tuyet and Reid, Anthony (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2006), pp. 163–93Google Scholar; and in particular, Tana, Li, Nguyễn Cochinchina: Southern Vietnam in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries (Ithaca: Southeast Asia Program [SEAP], Cornell University, 1998)Google Scholar.

2 Brian Zottoli maintains that this narrative was promoted by the Nguyễn Dynasty Historical Office (‘Reconceptualizing Southern Vietnamese history from the 15th to 18th centuries: Competition along the coasts from Guangdong to Cambodia’ (PhD diss., University of Michigan, 2011). Taking regionalism as an interpretive framework, Claudine Ang examines the underlying coherence among scholarly representations of Nam Tiến in works published in the Republic of Vietnam between 1954 and 1975; see C. Ang, ‘Regionalism in Southern narratives of Vietnamese history: The case of the ‘Southern Advance’ [Nam Tiến]’, Journal of Vietnamese Studies 8, 3 (2013): 1–26. For a critical view of the Nam Tiến paradigm, see Taylor, Keith, ‘Surface orientations in Vietnam: Beyond histories of nation and region’, Journal of Asian Studies 57, 4 (1998): 951CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 See, for example, Tana, Li, ‘The Water Frontier’, in Water Frontier: Commerce and the Chinese in the Lower Mekong Region, 1750–1880, ed. Tana, Li and Cooke, Nola (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004), pp. 5–6Google Scholar.

4 Li, Nguyễn Cochinchina, p. 11; Taylor, ‘Nguyen Hoang and Vietnam's southward expansion’, p. 46.

5 Taylor, ‘Nguyen Hoang and the beginning of Vietnam's southward expansion’, pp. 47–61.

6 On the terms Đàng Ngoài and Đàng Trong, see Taylor, ‘Surface orientations’, pp. 958–61. Also George Dutton, The Tây Sơn uprising: Society and rebellion in eighteenth-century Vietnam (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2006), pp. 18–19. Zottoli suggests that the story of Nguyễn Hoàng wanting to escape from Trịnh Kiểm could have been fabricated to justify the split from the Lê-Trịnh regime (‘Reconceptualizing Southern Vietnamese history’).

7 Li, Nguyễn Cochinchina, pp. 59, 77.

8 In his study of the pirate-refugee Yang Yandi (Dương Ngạn Địch), Robert Antony notes that Vietnamese sources date the arrival of the first Minh Hương to 1679 while the official records of the Qing dynasty provide a later date of 1682 (‘“Righteous Yang”: Pirate, rebel, and hero on the Sino–Vietnamese water frontier, 1644–1684’, Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review 11 [2014]: 6). Chen Ching-ho had dated Yang's arrival between December 1682 and May 1683 (‘Qingchu Zheng Chenggong canbu zhi yizhinanqi (shang) 清初鄭成功殘部之移殖南圻(上)’ [The migration of the Zheng partisans to southern Vietnam (Part 1)], Xinya xue bao 新亞學報 [New Asia Journal] 5, 1 (1960): 454.

9 Li, Nguyễn Cochinchina, p. 16.

10 Originally applied to migrants from the fall of the Ming dynasty in China, Minh Hương later came to stand for the offspring of intermarriages between these Chinese migrants and locals (Li, ‘The Water Frontier’, p. 6). In 1805, there were 20,241 Minh Hương in Quảng Nam province alone (Li, Nguyễn Cochinchina, p. 34).

11 Li Qingxin 李庆新, ‘Yuenan Mingxiang yu Mingxiangshe 越南明香与明乡社’, Zhongguo shehui lishi pinglun 中国社会历史评论 [Chinese Social History Review] 10 (2009): 205–23; Choi Byung Wook, Southern Vietnam under the reign of Minh Mạng (1820–1841): Central policies and local response (Ithaca: SEAP Cornell, 2004), pp. 19–44. On the evolution of Minh Hương identity, see Charles Wheeler, ‘Interests, institutions, and identity: Strategic adaptation and the ethno-evolution of Minh Hương (Central Vietnam), 16th–19th centuries’, Itinerario 39, 1 (2015): 141–66.

12 Li, The Water Frontier, pp. 85, 93.

13 Chen Jinghe (Chen Ching-ho) 陳荊和, Chengtian mingxiangshe Chenshi zhengpu 承天明鄉社陳氏正譜 [A brief study of the family register of the Trans, a Ming refugee family in Minh-Huong-Xa, Thua-Thien (Central Vietnam)] (Hong Kong: Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1964), p. 6.

14 Ibid., p. 8.

15 Ibid., p. 35.

16 Ibid., pp. 41, 61.

17 Ibid., pp. 35–41.

18 Ibid., p. 13.

19 Chen Jinghe, ‘Hexianzhen Yezhen Moshi jiapu zhushi 河僊鎮叶鎮鄚氏家譜註釋’ [The genealogy of the Mạc family in Hiệp village in Hà Tiên, with annotations], Wenshi zhexue bao 文史哲學報 [Journal of history and philosophy], 7 (Apr. 1956): 83n2; Vũ Thế Doanh 武世營 [Wu Shiying], Hà Tiên trấn Hiệp trấn Mạc thị Gia phả 河仙鎮叶鎮鄚氏家譜 [The genealogy of the Mạc family in Hiệp village in Hà Tiên], in Lingnan zhiguai deng shiliao sanzhong 嶺南摭怪等史料三種, ed. Dai Kelai 戴可來 et. al. (Zhengzhou: Zhongzhou guji chubanshe, 1991), pp. 231n1, 250. Niu Junkai's (牛军凯) recent study of the Mạc dynasty highlights pragmatism as the underlying principle in Sino–Vietnamese relations in the late Ming and early Qing periods (Wangshi houyi yu panluan zhe — Yuenan Moshi jiazu yu Zhongguo guanxi yanjiu 王室后裔与叛乱者 — 越南莫氏家族与中国关系研究 [Royal descent and rebels: The relationship between the Vietnamese Mạc family and China] [Guangzhou: Shijie tushu chuban gongsi, 2012]). Zottoli suggests that the Mạc of Hà Tiên might be related to the usurping Mạc although he acknowledges that the relationship between the two Mạc families remains unresolved (‘Reconceptualizing Southern Vietnamese history’, pp. 348–9).

20 Vũ Thế Dinh, Hà Tiên trấn Hiệp trấn Mạc thị Gia phả, p. 231.

21 Chen Jinghe, ‘Hexianzhen Yezhen Moshi jiapu zhushi’, p. 80.

22 Chen Jinghe, Chentian mingxiangshe Chenshi zhengpu, p. 41.

23 Vũ Thế Dinh, Hà Tiên trấn Hiệp trấn Mạc thị Gia phả, p. 231.

24 Chen Jinghe, ‘Hexianzhen Yezhen Moshi jiapu zhushi’, p. 84n3.

25 Kuhn, Philip A., Chinese among Others: Emigration in modern times (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2008)Google Scholar.

26 Chen Jinghe, Chentian mingxiangshe Chenshi zhengpu, p. 46.

27 Kuhn, Chinese among Others, p. 10.

28 Vũ Thế Dinh, Hà Tiên trấn Hiệp trấn Mạc thị Gia phả, pp. 231–2.

29 Ibid., p. 231; Chen Jinghe, ‘Hexianzhen Yezhen Moshi jiapu zhushi’, p. 86n5.

30 Chen Jinghe, ‘Hexianzhen Yezhen Moshi jiapu zhushi’, p. 85n4.

31 Chen points out the consistency among various historical records of the year in which the Mạc clan pledged allegiance to the Nguyễn court and concludes that 1708 should be the most accurate (‘Hexianzhen Yezhen Moshi jiapu zhushi’, p. 89n8).

32 Vũ, Hà Tiên trấn Hiệp trấn Mạc thị Gia phả, pp. 231–2.

33 Vũ Đức Liêm, ‘Vietnamese politics at the Khmer frontier, 1802–1847’, Cross-Currents: East Asian History and Culture Review 20 (Sept. 2016): 75–101.

34 The honours and names of offices the two families received paralleled official titles in China, especially those in the Ming dynasty. For instance, the attachment of Grand Secretary to a Hall in the palace (Văn Minh Điện Đại Học Sĩ 文明殿大學士) and the designation of military command (Đại Đô Đốc 大都督) followed similar naming patterns in the Ming court. See Hucker, Charles O., A dictionary of official titles in imperial China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1985), pp. 467, 474Google Scholar.

35 Chen, Chentian mingxiangshe Chenshi zhengpu, pp. 51, 53, 61, 63, 71, 75, 83, 97.

36 Vũ, Hà Tiên trấn Hiệp trấn Mạc thị Gia phả, pp. 232–3. Tam Công (三公; the Three Dukes) was a collective reference to the most esteemed members of officialdom who sat nominally at the top of the civil service hierarchy: the Grand Preceptor, the Grand Mentor and the Grand Guardian (Hucker, A dictionary of official titles, p. 399).

37 Vũ, Hà Tiên trấn Hiệp trấn Mạc thị Gia phả, p. 248.

38 Chen, ‘Hexianzhen Yezhen Moshi jiapu zhushi’, p. 81, quoting Đại Nam Thực Lục (大南實錄) [The Veritable Record of the Great South]), ji 1, juan 58. ‘Tây Sơn’ refers to the rebellions under the nominal rule of the Lê dynasty that concluded only with the establishment of the Nguyễn dynasty in 1802. For details, see Dutton, The Tây Sơn Uprising.

39 Trần Tiễn Thành, the leading figure in the seventh generation, perished in a power struggle at court when he served as one of three regents (alongside Nguyễn Văn Tường and Tôn Thất Thuyết) during the short reign of Dục Đức in 1883 (Chen, Chentian mingxiangshe Chenshi zhengpu, pp. 89–90).

40 Chen, Chentian mingxiangshe Chenshi zhengpu, p. 29.

41 Ibid., p. 30.

42 Ibid.

43 Claudine Ang, ‘Writing landscapes into civilization: Ming loyalist ambitions on the Mekong Delta’, unpublished MS. See also Li Qingxin 李庆新, Binhai zhi di: Nanhai maoyi yu Zhongwai guanxi shi yanjiu 濒海之地: 南海贸易与中外关系史研究 [The seaside world: Studies of the history of trade in the South China Seas and Sino–foreign relations] (Beijing: Zhonghua shuju, 2010), pp. 343–8.

44 Vũ, Hà Tiên trấn Hiệp trấn Mạc thị Gia phả, pp. 232–3, 251–2. There is no clear record on when exactly the Nguyễn court granted the Mạc clan this naming pattern. That Mạc Thiên Tứ changed his name to conform to this pattern indicates that the court granted the family this honour during his lifetime (1700–1780).

45 Chen, Chentian mingxiangshe Chenshi zhengpu, p. 42.

46 Ibid., p. 43.

47 Ibid., pp. 27, 47.

48 Ibid., pp. 53, 54.

49 Ibid., p. 58.

50 Ibid., pp. 63–4.

51 Ibid., p. 75.

52 Ibid., pp. 97, 99.

53 Ibid. p. 107.

54 Ibid., p. 120.

55 Ibid., p. 28.

56 Ibid., p. 131.

57 Shi Dashan 釋大汕, Haiwai jishi 海外紀事 [Chronicles of events overseas], in Shiqi Shiji Guangnan zhi xin shiliao 十七世紀廣南之新史料 [New historical materials on seventeenth-century Quảng Nam], ed. Chen Jinghe (Chen Ching-ho) 陳荊和 (Taibei: Zhonghua congshu weiyuanhui), juan 3, 3b, 16a; juan 4, 9b. Chen, Chentian mingxiangshe Chenshi zhengpu, p. 27. See also Charles Wheeler, ‘Cross-cultural trade and trans-regional networks in the Port of Hoi An: Maritime Vietnam in the early modern era’ (PhD diss., Yale University, 2001), pp. 142–9.

58 Chen, Chentian mingxiangshe Chenshi zhengpu, pp. 42, 53–4.

59 Vũ, Hà Tiên trấn Hiệp trấn Mạc thị Gia phả, p. 232.

60 Chen, ‘Hexianzhen Yezhen Moshi jiapu zhushi’, p. 87n6.

61 Vũ, Hà Tiên trấn Hiệp trấn Mạc thị Gia phả, p. 232; Chen, ‘Hexianzhen Yezhen Moshi jiapu zhushi’, p. 96.

62 Vũ, Hà Tiên trấn Hiệp trấn Mạc thị Gia phả, pp. 232–3. Hứa's maiden name suggests that she was almost certainly Chinese.

63 Taylor, ‘Surface orientations in Vietnam’, p. 966.

64 Ibid., p. 966.

65 Vũ, Hà Tiên trấn Hiệp trấn Mạc thị Gia phả, p. 235; Chen, ‘Hexianzhen Yezhen Moshi jiapu zhushi’, p. 104n22.

66 Chen, Chentian mingxiangshe Chenshi zhengpu, pp. 28, 29, 60, 69, 81.

67 Ibid., p. 81.

68 Ibid., pp. 69–70, 82, 114–15, 125.

69 Ibid., p. 81.

70 Ibid., pp. 114, 126.

71 Murray, Dian H., Pirates of the South China coast, 1790–1810 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1987)Google Scholar.

72 Vũ, Hà Tiên trấn Hiệp trấn Mạc thị Gia phả, p. 233.

73 Wheeler, ‘One region, two histories’.

74 Taylor, ‘Surface orientations in Vietnam’.