In:
Modern Asian Studies, Cambridge University Press (CUP), Vol. 29, No. 4 ( 1995-10), p. 741-764
Abstract:
Until 1971, when Alexander Woodside published his ground- breaking study, Vietnam and the Chinese Model , western scholarship on late traditional Vietnam was still locked within the narrow confines of French colonial understanding. Woodside's work, which drew extensively on Vietnamese historical sources, became an instant classic. So thoroughly did it dominate the field that two decades later it remains today the sole detailed discussion in English of the first half of the nineteenth century. Such is its stature that no-one has ever seriously questioned its findings, or challenged the author's vision of early nineteenth-century Vietnam. However, such a critique is long overdue. Despite the breadth of Woodside's scholarship, his conceptual framework assumes a continuity in Vietnamese history, culture, and politics from the Le to the early Nguyen that distorts the historical dynamic of the nineteenth cen tury, as well as contradicting some of his own evidence. His image of the nineteenth-century political elite provides a case in point. Like every scholar before or since, Woodside's conclusions about elite composition are extrapolated from the Sinic structures of its mandarinal organization, buttressed by anecdotal evidence and generalized impressions. But these are poor substitutes for quantification when enough readily-available biographical data exist to profile elite composition statistically. This article presents such an analysis. Its results contradict venerable French colonial views and Woodside's ideas alike; and do so in a way that suggests our present historical understanding of the late pre-colonial Vietnam needs serious revision.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
0026-749X
,
1469-8099
DOI:
10.1017/S0026749X00016164
Language:
English
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Publication Date:
1995
detail.hit.zdb_id:
1497348-0
SSG:
0
SSG:
6,24
SSG:
3,6
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