Nguyen Truong To - a patriotic Catholic from Nghe An with timeless thoughts
(Baonghean.vn) - He was a great thinker and reformer of our country in the late 19th century in the fields of politics, economics, culture, diplomacy, military... Until now, many of his innovative ideas still retain their value.
Nguyen Truong To was born in 1828, into a Catholic family in Bui Chu village, now Hung Trung commune, Hung Nguyen district, Nghe An province.
Born in a poor village, he was intelligent from a young age and also received an advanced education from a very early age. Thanks to his mastery of the Four Books and Five Classics of Confucianism, at the age of 27, he was sent by Bishop Gauthier to Tan Ap Seminary in Xa Doai parish to teach Chinese to the bishop and was taught French and European scientific knowledge by the bishop.
In 1858, Bishop Gauthier sent Nguyen Truong To to study and improve his knowledge in many areas in France. After more than 2 years in Paris, he not only learned a lot about science and technology, especially architecture and mining, but also read widely about politics, economics, military, diplomacy, law, etc. and learned about some technological achievements of the West, especially France.
 |
| Growing up in a Catholic family gave Nguyen Truong To the opportunity to be exposed to Western education through French bishops who taught him from a young age. Photo courtesy |
On his way to France and back to Vietnam, Nguyen Truong To had the opportunity to visit Rome, stop in Singapore and Hong Kong.
In 1861, Nguyen Truong To returned to the country when Saigon - Gia Dinh was occupied by the French and Spanish expeditionary forces. Nguyen Truong To translated the official letters exchanged between the Hue court and the French Governor's office in Gia Dinh. Many times, he edited the words in the official letters of both sides to avoid excessive words, insulting the court or harming the work."temporary peace"He also tried to inform the court's envoys such as Nguyen Ba Nghi, Phan Thanh Gian, and Pham Phu Thu about some of the French's intentions.
In 1863, after nearly 3 years living in enemy territory, reluctantly working with the French army, Nguyen Truong To found a way to escape from the French army area and contacted the Hue court. From then until his death in 1871, he wrote a series of petitions, theses, reports, and presented many strategic recommendations to modernize the country, creating a position for the nation to rise up and maintain independence in a clever and solid way.
 |
| The high school is honored to be named after Nguyen Truong To in Vinh City. Photo courtesy |
Economically,Nguyen Truong To was interested in industry, agriculture, and commerce. He advised the court to make every effort to expand occupations, expand domestic trade and trade with foreign countries, avoid closing the country, invite foreign companies to help us exploit resources, to gain more wealth and learn their advanced techniques and ways of doing business, amend taxes, tax the rich more heavily than the poor, and impose strong taxes on luxury goods, so that"rich country rich people"... Only then can we maintain independence in the position of host and guest...
In terms of culture, society and education,Nguyen Truong To proposed customs reform, advocated respecting the people, amending the examination system to expand education, and changing the content of education. He advised the court to find every way to improve the country's culture in the direction of respecting science and technology, in order to soon improve the people's lives. Nguyen Truong To criticized the state of the capital Hue for being sloppy, unsanitary, with dilapidated public buildings, and too little salary for officials...
He raised a series of important issues such as: merging provinces to reduce the number of officials and creating conditions to increase salaries for officials to reduce corruption and encourage integrity; on the other hand, people should not be banned from using beautiful and luxurious items, causing cultural relics to become increasingly poor and clothing to become increasingly poor; proposing to amend the examination system, focusing on nurturing talents in many aspects, establishing practical subjects, using the National language in official documents instead of Chinese characters, creating maps of the country and provinces, conducting population censuses, establishing poorhouses, orphanages, etc.
 |
| Saint Paul Monastery (HCMC) has a classical French architectural style designed by architect Nguyen Truong To. Photo courtesy |
Diplomatically,Nguyen Truong To analyzed for the Hue court to clearly see the political situation in the whole world at that time, the conflicts of interests between France, England and Spain, advised the court to have direct diplomatic relations with the French government to find ways to prevent the French invasion plot on this side, cleverly choose the opportunity to take back the 6 provinces of Nam Ky, establish"hostile posture to welcome guests"....
Militarily,Nguyen Truong To, although having ideology"peacemaker"but not "peace" without principles. He advised the court to reform military equipment, respect military and civil servants, favor soldiers, compile military strategies, train officers, purchase ships and weapons, build defense lines in both urban and rural areas, and prevent the French army from invading the whole country...
Reading Nguyen Truong To's testimony over 160 years ago shows that he, like a very few of his contemporaries (Nguyen Lo Trach, Pham Phu Thu...), were people who recognized the times and had a vision of the need for the nation to move forward. Nguyen Truong To's reformist thinking was like a flash of light before the times. With a passionate love for the country, he wanted to devote his heart and soul to implementing the policy of defending the country and reforming and strengthening himself.
However, unlike many other countries, in Vietnam in the mid-19th century, Vietnamese society did not have the basis to implement it, lacking wise national leaders like Meiji (Japan), Chulalongkorn (Thailand)... to implement the policy.
Nguyen Truong To's reform proposals were ahead of their time, but unfortunately they lacked other elements."heaven, earth, human"and was regrettably ignored by the Nguyen Dynasty. However, looking at his thoughts ahead of his time, we are even more proud of a son of Nghe An, a Catholic who respected God, loved his country, and was always concerned with the cause of national renewal./.
