Looking back at Nguyen Truong To's reformist thoughts

Nguyen Truong To (1828 - 1871) was born in Bui Chu village, Hung Nguyen district, Nghe An province in a Catholic family. Being an intelligent person, Nguyen Truong To received an advanced education very early. He had the opportunity that few people had at that time (mid-19th century) to travel to many places in and outside the country and meet many people.

Statue of famous person Nguyen Truong To. Photo: Document

Nguyen Truong To was well-versed in 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 characters to the bishop and was taught French and European scientific knowledge by the bishop. In 1858, Bishop Gauthier took Nguyen Truong To to France to study and improve his knowledge in many aspects. After more than two 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... and learned about some technological achievements of the West, especially France. On the 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 "temporary peace". He also tried to inform some of the French intentions to the Court's envoys such as Nguyen Ba Nghi, Phan Thanh Gian, and Pham Phu Thu.

In 1863, after nearly 3 years of having to work with the French army reluctantly, 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 and sent to the Hue Court dozens of petitions, theses, reports, and presented many strategic recommendations to reform the country to be strong and rich, revive the people's knowledge, attach importance to science and education, create a position for the nation to rise up to maintain independence, protect the country with both military strength and a flexible, clever, and firm foreign policy.

In terms of economy, Nguyen Truong To paid attention to 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, impose strong taxes on luxury goods, so that "the country is rich and the people are also rich"... Only then can we maintain independence in the position of being the host and welcoming guests...

St. Paul's Monastery, No. 4 Ton Duc Thang, District 1, Saigon, designed by Nguyen Truong To. Photo: Document

In terms of culture, society and education, Nguyen Truong To proposed reforming customs, advocating for 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 situation of the Hue capital being sloppy, unsanitary, with dilapidated public buildings, and too little salary for officials, etc. He raised a series of important issues such as: merging provinces to reduce the number of officials, 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; proposed to amend the examination system, focus on nurturing talents, establish practical subjects, use national language instead of Chinese characters in official documents, create national and provincial maps, conduct population census, establish poorhouses, orphanages, etc.

In terms of diplomacy, 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 invasion plot of the French ruling part on this side, cleverly chose the opportunity to take back the 6 provinces of Cochinchina, established "the position of master welcoming guests"...

In terms of military affairs, Nguyen Truong To, although having a "peace" ideology, was not a "surrenderer". He advised the Court to reform military equipment, respect both martial arts and literature, 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...

King Tu Duc received Nguyen Truong To's petitions many times and invited him to accept some tasks such as preparing to open a technical school in Hue, negotiating peace with France... However, for many different reasons, these tasks were not successful, the petitions were gradually ignored by the Hue Court and forgotten...

The iron canal section through Nghi Yen commune lies between the old and new National Highway 1A. Photo: TH

In his hometown Nghe An, Nguyen Truong To also embarked on a number of large-scale projects. Notably, he helped Governor General of An Tinh Hoang Ta Viem dig the Sat Canal - a section of the Le Dynasty canal passing through the foot of Sat Mountain. This section of the canal had been dug by many kings but could not be cleared because of the large amount of iron ore underneath. During the reign of King Tu Duc, when Hoang Ta Viem was appointed Governor General of An Tinh, he relied on Nguyen Truong To's profound knowledge and directly invited him to the Sat Canal section even though Nguyen Truong To was currently receiving medical treatment in Xa Doai. With the geological knowledge he learned from France, Nguyen Truong To showed him how to dig the Sat Canal. After about a month, this section of the canal was cleared, ending a thousand years of effort to dig the canal with so much blood and sweat of the people.

During this time, Nguyen Truong To also designed and built 4 houses in the Xa Doai church area (1864 - 1866), which is considered one of the first European-style architectural works to appear in Vietnam...

Nghe An is proud to be the hometown of the great reformer Nguyen Truong To. Although his aspiration to modernize the country failed, Nguyen Truong To's thoughts demonstrated the timeless vision of a son of Nghe An. Until now, his reformist thoughts still hold true and leave many valuable lessons for future generations.