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Identify the date of birth of the name Tuong Duong

Van Thang • December 28, 2024 06:13

The name “Tuong Duong” appeared in March of the year Ky Suu, the 10th year of Quang Thuan (1469). In addition to the first appearance of the name, Tuong Duong also appeared for the first time as a district-level administrative unit under the prefecture, with the meaning of a unit equivalent to Tuong Duong district in modern times.

In history, the division of administrative units and names is a very important matter of any country and nation. The development history of our country from the time of founding the country to the present day, the division of administrative units, the change of names in each period is different, but all come from the need to manage, protect and build a State regime that represents a sovereign nation, marking the profound history and culture of the nation.

Tuong Duong is a mountainous district in the west of Nghe An province, the largest district-level administrative unit in Vietnam today. Tuong Duong has many ethnic groups including Thai, Kho Mu, Mong, O Du, Tay Pong and Kinh with different customs and languages ​​living together on an ancient land with a long-standing cultural tradition. In addition, the locality also has many historical relics, associated with many famous figures in national history such as Uy Minh Vuong Ly Nhat Quang, famous scholar Doan Nhu Hai... forming a locality - community with a long history and rich identity. Therefore, finding out and determining the year of "birth" of the name Tuong Duong is the earnest desire of the Party Committee and People of the district.

On January 12, 2022, the Department of Science and Technology coordinated with the Vietnam Historical Science Association and the People's Committee of Tuong Duong district to organize the scientific workshop "The name Tuong Duong". The workshop was chaired by comrades: Associate Professor, Dr. Tran Duc Cuong - Chairman of the Vietnam Historical Science Association; Master Tran Quoc Thanh - Director of the Department of Science and Technology; Master Lo Thanh Nhat - Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Tuong Duong district. Also attending were comrades: Lu Van May - Standing Deputy Secretary of the Tuong Duong District Party Committee; representatives of the Institute of Han Nom Studies, the Vietnam Institute of History, Hanoi National University of Education... The workshop chair and delegates basically agreed to propose that in 1469, the name Tuong Duong officially appeared as a district-level administrative unit, directly under Tra Lan prefecture.

On November 11, 2022, the People's Committee of Tuong Duong district, the Vietnam Historical Science Association and the Provincial Center for Social Sciences and Humanities organized the 2nd scientific conference to determine the name Tuong Duong. Prof. Dr. Tran Duc Cuong - Chairman of the Vietnam Historical Science Association, comrade Lo Thanh Nhat - Vice Chairman of the District People's Committee co-chaired the conference. Through the conference, many opinions were received and discussed, especially those of experts, researchers; district leaders and former district leaders through the periods. In summary, there were 10 reports sent to the conference on the content of the name Tuong Duong; 8 reports sent to the conference on the content of Tuong Duong: Land and People. Number of comments at the conference: There were 13 comments at the conference on the first topic and 3 comments on the second topic. At this conference, new proposals appeared, with many comments on taking the landmark for the appearance of the name Tuong Duong. Experts and delegates cited many valuable reference works to prove their proposals such as:Geography, Chronicle of the Dynasties, Hong Duc Map, Dai Nam Thuc Luc Chinh Bien, Imperial Dai Nam Code and Regulations, Complete Annals of Dai Viet...

Reaffirming once again the need to learn and determine the year of birth of the name Tuong Duong in history is the earnest desire of the Party Committee and people of Tuong Duong district. To know exactly the name Tuong Duong associated with historical events that took place in the history of the nation, as well as the historical evolution for a special district in the highlands like Tuong Duong is a job that needs to be thoroughly researched, mobilizing the collective intelligence of the team of scientists and researchers to be able to clarify the issue.

With a serious and responsible working spirit, the workshop chair suggested to pay attention to separate and clearly the issues: determining the name Tuong Duong and Tuong Duong in history as an administrative unit of the Vietnamese state during the monarchy period. Those two milestones are not completely identical, therefore, the milestones that the delegates mentioned need to be considered. The workshop has not yet concluded the time of the birth of the name Tuong Duong, because there are many conflicting opinions surrounding this issue.

Thus, at this second conference, there is still no consensus among opinions, making it impossible to draw conclusions. However, we continue to defend the 1469 timeline as presented at the first conference and further affirm it at the second conference. In addition, we would like to respond to other timelines, specifically as follows:

About the year 1334Mr. Hoang Kiem - Deputy Director of Phuong Nam Plus Center said:: "Taking 1334 as the year the title was first mentioned, based on the book "Lich Trieu Hien Chuong Loai Chi"(Detailed article attached).

This view is incorrect, because the year 1334 belonged to the Khai Huu era of the Tran Dynasty. Under the Tran Dynasty, the entire land from Con Cuong to Ky Son (today) had a single common name, Mat Chau. This is clearly shown in the stele.The Devil's Stone Slabcomposed by the Imperial Doctor Nguyen Trung Ngan and engraved on the Thanh Nam mountain wall in the 7th year of Khai Huu (1335) to commemorate the victory of the Supreme Emperor Tran Minh Tong against the Ai Lao army. Up to now, after nearly 700 years, the writing of this stele is still fresh. First, we translate the full text as follows:

Transcription:

The sixth emperor of the Tran Dynasty, Emperor Truong Nghieu Van Triet, received the mandate of heaven. He was in the middle and lower regions, but the nets inside and outside the sea did not submit. At Ai Lao, he was forced to become king. In the autumn of At Hoi, the emperor personally led six troops to tour the West. The crown prince of Champa, Chenla, Tiem, and the barbarian prisoners of Quy, Cam, Xa, Lac, the new wife of Boi Bon barbarians, and the barbarian prisoners of Thanh Xa, all submitted to the local customs and materials, all competed to see him first. Doc Rebellious Bong, who was afraid of his crimes, did not come to the court immediately. The emperor was stationed at Mat Chau, Cu Don, where he was originally from. He ordered all the generals and barbarian soldiers to enter his country. Doc Rebellious Bong, facing the wind, fled, and was given an imperial edict to give orders. It was the seventh year of Khai Huu, the twelfth month of the lunar calendar, the twelfth month of the lunar calendar.

Translation:

During the reign of the sixth king of the Tran Dynasty of Hoang Viet, the Supreme Emperor Truong Nghieu Van Triet received the mandate of heaven, ruling over all four regions, everywhere in the world, and no one did not submit. However, Ai Lao was small and stubborn, and defied the teachings of the court. At the end of autumn in the year At Hoi, the Supreme Emperor led six armies on a patrol in the West. The crown princes of Champa, Chenla, and Siam, and the chieftains of the Taoist gods, Quy, Cam, Xa, and Lac, and the newly dependent tribes, the barbarian chieftains of Boi Bon and Thanh Xa, all offered local products and competed to welcome them. Only the bandit Bong remained ignorant and afraid of punishment, so he did not come to pay his respects immediately. At the end of winter, the Supreme Emperor stationed his troops in Cu Don field in Mat Chau and ordered his generals and barbarian soldiers to go to their residence. When the bandit Bong heard of his power, he fled, and the Supreme Emperor issued an edict to bring his troops back. December, winter, year of the Pig, Khai Huu 7th year, engraved in stone.

This stele clearly states the time as "the 7th year of Khai Huu era", which is 1335. If Tuong Duong was born in 1334, then why does this stele not say "Tuong Duong" but "Mat Chau"?

Furthermore, we have consulted the original Chinese text of the book.Chronicle of the DynastiesWe can see that the author Phan Huy Chu wrote very clearly the three words 襄陽縣 “Tuong Duong district”. Through these three words, we can see that the author Phan Huy Chu used the present name to talk about the past place name. Because in the Tran Dynasty, the entire land from Con Cuong to Ky Son had the common name Mat Chau, but there was no administrative unit “district”. Therefore, we affirm that the milestone 1334 as the year the name Tuong Duong was born is completely incorrect.

About the year 1435:Mr. Lu Van May - Standing Deputy Secretary of Tuong Duong District Party Committee: TBased on the source of information, the book "Du dia chi" by Nguyen Trai, it is assumed that the year 1435 should be taken as the year the name was mentioned earliest.(Detailed article attached).

This view is incorrect. Because the book Du dia chi 輿地誌 (also known as Uc Trai di tap Nam Viet du dia chi 抑齋遺集南越輿地誌, Dai Viet dia du chi 大越地輿誌, An Nam vu cong 安南禹貢, Nam Quoc vu cong 南國禹貢 or Le trieu cong phap 黎朝貢法), is a geography book compiled by Uc Trai Nguyen Trai, a famous mandarin of the Later Le Dynasty, in Chinese characters in 1435, briefly recording the administrative and natural geography of Vietnam through historical periods. However, the original book is no longer available, the Du dia chi book currently circulating is the version engraved and printed in the year Mau Thin (1868), under the reign of King Tu Duc. That is why this book has been known to people. Later, it was revised and supplemented many times, making the original no longer original. For example, names such as Hai Duong, Son Tay, Son Nam, Kinh Bac... all appeared after Nguyen Trai's time. That is why in Vietnam, no locality or researcher has ever used the book Du Dia Chi to determine the date of birth of the name.

About the year 1448:Mr. Luong Thanh Hai - former Secretary of Tuong Duong District Party Committee said:In 1448, Tuong Duong district was named. The reference source is the article "The history of the name Nghe An in the world documentary heritage of Nguyen Dynasty woodblocks" by author Tran Trung Hieu - Phan Boi Chau High School for the Gifted and Tran Minh - National Archives Center IV. (Detailed article attached).

This milestone is completely inaccurate. Because the authors of the above article wrote research but did not use the original documents, but only referred to the translation. In this article, the authors copied the timeline from the 9th Quang Thuan era (1469) and the 6th Thai Hoa era (1448) in the footnote. During the 6th Thai Hoa era, there was no change in administrative units or mapping, but the event "the king mapping the 12 provinces as later" mentioned in the article is correct for the 9th Quang Thuan era (1469).

About the year 1821:Mr. Vi Luu Binh - former Deputy Secretary, Chairman of the District People's Committee said: The 1469 milestone is difficult to convince, it must be from 1821 (Detailed article attached).

This milestone is completely inaccurate, because before 1821, the name Tuong Duong appeared many times in the official history of the Nguyen Dynasty. Here are some examples:

In the year of Nham Tuat, the first year of Gia Long [1802], the Tay Son rebels were completely defeated, taking all of An Nam land, all 14 towns, 47 prefectures, 187 districts, 40 provinces. (Nghe An town has 9 prefectures: Duc Quang, Dien Chau, Ha Hoa, Anh Do, Tra Lan, Quy Chau, Tran Ninh, Lam An, Ngoc Ma, 18 districts: Huong Son, Nghi Xuan, Thanh Chuong, La Son, Chan Loc, Thien Loc, Dong Thanh, Quynh Luu, Ky Hoa, Thach Ha, Nam Duong, Hung Nguyen,Xiangyang, Vinh Hoa, Hoi Nguyen, Ky Son, Thuy Van, Trung Son.

Quy Hoi, Gia Long year 2 [1803], Chieu Noi in Tran Ninh asked to be a vassal state. Previously, the king left Gia Dinh citadel to fight in the North, the head of the country of Van Tuong, Chieu An, repeatedly sent soldiers to follow the army in the upper region to fight the enemy. When Bac Ha was decided, the king gave the land of Tran Ninh to him. Now that the chief of Tran Ninh, Chieu Xanh, had died, Chieu An appointed his cousin, Xa Cuong, to take his place to guard the people. Chieu Xanh's son, Chieu Noi, did not submit, and brought his followers of 600 people to Tra Lan (that is,Xiangyang). The matter was reported. The King ordered the Nghe An Governor to distribute more than 200 square meters of rice.

Mau Thin, Gia Long year 7 [1808], June, appointed Luu Phuoc Tuong as Governor of Quang Binh, summoned Le Van Luan back to the capital. Changed the position of district chief of the districts of Quy Chau and Tra Lan to district chief, deputy district chief to district secretary. The Nghe An town god saw that the district chief and deputy district chiefs in four districts of Tra Lan prefecture (Ky Son, Hoi Nguyen,Xiangyang, Vinh Hoa) and two districts of Quy Chau prefecture (Trung Son, Thuy Van) worked for a long time, so they requested to be granted a decree for them. The King agreed. He ordered to change their positions to match the official system.

Year of the Cat, Gia Long year 18 [1819], April intercalary month, ordered Nghe An, Thanh Hoa, Thanh Binh to register the household... As many as four districtsXiangyang, Vinh Hoa, Hoi Nguyen, Ky Son belonging to Tra Lan prefecture, four districts of Tho Xuan, Lang Chanh, Quan Gia, Tam Chau belonging to Thanh Do prefecture, two districts of Thach Thanh, Cam Thuy belonging to Thieu Hoa prefecture, Ham Man cave belonging to two districts of Trinh Cu and Son Thoi, Lac Tho district belonging to Thien Quan prefecture, and seven cantons in the upper region of Quynh Luu district, sixty thousand on the water surface belonging to Dong Thanh district, all are allowed to keep the old books.

Thus, the four timelines mentioned above are completely unreasonable and inaccurate. History is the past, so no one can see with their own eyes or hear with their own ears what happened in the past. Thus, if we want to know what history is like, we can only rely on documents and witnesses that are sufficiently reliable through Original Evidence and Primary Documents. "Original" means that the document has never been copied or rewritten. And more importantly, that document must directly participate in the event being mentioned. All historical evidence in the above article does not directly participate in the events it itself mentions. Thus, the reliability is lower than original evidence and primary documents. Even the 1469 timeline that we presented and affirmed at the first and second conferences is still not original evidence and primary documents, but it is recorded in books.Complete Annals of Vietnamcompiled during the Nguyen Dynasty.

SetComplete Annals of Vietnamcompiled late around the end of the 19th century, but its reference systemOutlineabout 200 sets, including unofficial history, poetry, works of Le Quy Don, Phan Huy Chu... and Chinese history books. In particular,Outlinealso consulted and based on many other historical books such asComplete Annals of Dai Viet, Continued Edition of Dai Viet, with references to Chinese history books and other Vietnamese history books. This book is written in the "cuong muc" style of Chu Hi of the Song Dynasty, divided into "cuong" (a concise and clear summary) and "muc" (a more specific and extensive copying), in order of year, month, and day recording historical events, biographies of characters, careful judgments on a number of events, characters, and dates based on cross-references to historical books and documents of Vietnam and China, notes on names of people, places, examination systems, administrative organizations, and scattered comments by King Tu Duc.

Therefore,Complete Annals of Vietnamis the second largest history book of Vietnam, which has absorbed many achievements of previous historians, and at the same time has many valuable contributions of its own to history. Researchers today are allsee Complete Annals of Dai VietandComplete Annals of Vietnammade two important historical works as a starting point for researching related issues of Vietnamese history.Outlinehas "carefully investigated" many large and small events in history that previous history books did not record, or recorded but mistakenly.

For example, the event of the retired Emperor Tran Minh Tong personally leading the attack on Ai Lao, Toan Thu recorded the location as "Kien Chau", but the Ma Nhai Ky Cong Bi Van stele recorded the location as "Mat Chau"; Toan Thu recorded the time as the year Giap Tuat, but the Ma Nhai Ky Cong Bi Van stele recorded the year At Hoi. The data thatOutlineThe writing is the same as the stele inscription in the field, so the words of caution fromOutlineis completely correct. We believe that the event of King Le Thanh Tong mapping the whole country in the 10th year of Quang Thuan (1469) inOutlineis completely scientific and reliable.

OutlineIt is clearly stated that in the third month of the year Ky Suu, the 10th year of the Quang Thuan era (1469), King Le Thanh Tong determined the map of the country and established 12 governorates. Of which, Nghe An governorate governed a total of 8 prefectures, 18 districts, and 2 states. Specifically as follows:

1. Duc Quang Palace governs 6 districts: Thien Loc, La Son, Chan Phuc, Thanh Chuong, Huong Son and Nghi Xuan;

2. Dien Chau Palace governs two districts: Dong Thanh and Quynh Luu;

3. Anh Do Palace governs two districts: Hung Nguyen and Nam Duong;

4. Ha Hoa Prefecture governs two districts: Thach Ha and Ky Hoa;

5. Tra Lan Prefecture governs 4 districts: Ky Son, Tuong Duong, Vinh Khang and Hoi Ninh;

6. Quy Chau Prefecture governs two districts: Trung Son and Thuy Van;

7. Ngoc Ma Palace governs 1 district: Trinh Cao;

8. Lam An Prefecture governs 1 district: Quy Hop.

Most notably, a little-known but crucial piece of information in confirming the time of birth of the name Tuong Duong is that almost all the names of districts in Nghe An Ha Tinh (such as Tuong Duong, Thanh Chuong, Hung Nguyen, Nghi Xuan, etc.) were born in 1469.

During the Tran Dynasty, the names of some localities were as follows:

Nha Nghi (present-day Nghi Xuan),

Phi Loc (Current Can Loc),

Do Gia (present-day Huong Son),

Chi La (present-day Duc Tho),

Tan Phuc (between Dien Chau and Nghi Xuan today),

Tho Du (present-day Thanh Chuong),

Giang shelf (part of Thanh Chuong today),

Tho Hoang (present-day Huong Khe).

Ha Hoang (part of present-day Thach Ha),

Ban Thach (part of Thach Ha today),

Ha Hoa (present-day Ky Anh),

Ky La (part of Ky Anh today)

Thach Duong (part of Nam Dan today),

Dong Ngan (present-day Dong Thanh),

Lo Binh (present-day Hung Nguyen),

Sa Nam (part of present-day Nam Dan).

We see that the above titles under the Tran Dynasty were all changed and renamed since the event of King Le Thanh Tong mapping the whole country in the 10th year of Quang Thuan (1469). And to mark this event of great influence, in the year of Canh Dan, King Le Thanh Tong also changed the reign name from Quang Thuan to Hong Duc. Reforming the local government system has always been an issue that Vietnamese feudal dynasties were interested in implementing. In the history of our country, the reform of the local government system under the reign of King Le Thanh Tong (Le Dynasty) and the Minh Menh Dynasty (Nguyen Dynasty) was considered to be the largest and most successful and has almost lasted until today.Therefore, we can confirm that the name "Tuong Duong" has existed since March of the year Ky Suu, the 10th year of Quang Thuan (1469). In addition to the first appearance of the name, Tuong Duong also appeared for the first time as a district-level administrative unit under the prefecture, with the meaning of a unit equivalent to Tuong Duong district in modern times.What is more special is that during this map revision, many names of other localities of Nghe An such as Hung Nguyen, Thanh Chuong, Nam Duong, Dong Thanh, Quynh Luu... were born in 1469.