¹ This essay initially grew from many stimulating communications with Li Tana while she was preparing her doctoral thesis for publication. I am greatly indebted to her assistance and encouragement. The final version also owes much to Keith Taylor's critique of an earlier draft, for which I am most grateful. Finally, I want to thank the Australian Research Council for the funding that made this work possible.

² Baoyun, Yang, Contribution à I'histoire de la principauté des Nguyên au Vietnam méridional (1600-1775) (Geneva: Editions Olizane, 1992Google Scholar) and Tana, Li, Nguyen Cochinchina: Southern Vietnam in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (Ithaca: Cornell Southeast Asia Program Monograph, 1998Google Scholar).

³ Taylor, Keith W., “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 and London: Cornell University Press, 1993), pp. 42–65Google Scholar.

⁴ Dai Nam Thuc Luc Tien Bien [Veritable Records of Dai Nam, Early Volume], trans. Tinh, Nguyen Ngoc (Hanoi: NXB Su Hoc, 1962), pp. 9–10Google Scholar [hereafter TB]. A similar statement appears in the pre-dynastic official biographies, Dai Nam Liet Truyen Tien Bien [Arranged Stories of Dai Nam, Early Volume], trans. Khuong, Do Mong and Bang, Hoa (Hue: NXB Thuan Hoa, 1993), p. 9Google Scholar [hereafter DNLT].

⁵ Yang, PrincipautÉ des Nguyên, p. 1.

⁶ Ibid., pp. 169-70 for their supposed Chinese descent; pp. 136-46 for the Nguyen as sinophile Confucians (quote p. 146), and pp. 148-50 for their assimilationism.

⁷ Li, Nguyen Cochinchina, Chapter 5.

⁸ Both quotes, Taylor, “Nguyen Hoang”, p. 64.

⁹ Hegel, G. W. F. (trans. Sibree, J.), The Philosophy of History (New York: Dover Books, 1956), p. 115Google Scholar.

¹⁰ For Luro's recycling of his ideas, see Cooke, Nola, “Colonial Political Myth and the Problem of the Other: French and Vietnamese in the Protectorate of Annam” (Ph.D. diss., Australian National University, 1991Google Scholar), ch. 5.

¹¹ Taylor, K. W., “Preface” in Essays Into Vietnamese Pasts, ed. Taylor, K. W. and Whitmore, John K. (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, Studies on Southeast Asia No. 19, 1995), p. 5Google Scholar.

¹² Dai Viet Su Ky Toan Thu [Complete Historical Records of Dai Viet], ed. Dao Duy Anh (Hanoi: NXB Khoa Hoc Xa Hoi, 1965-1968), 4Google Scholar. vols [hereafter TT].

¹³ John K. Whitmore, “Chung-hsing and Cheng-t'ung in Texts of and on Sixteenth-Century Viet Nam”, in Vietnamese Pasts, Taylor and Whitmore, pp. 116-36.

¹⁴ For this period see Cooke, Nola, “Nineteenth-Century Vietnamese Confucianization in Historical Perspective: Evidence from the Palace Examinations (1463-1883)”, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 25,2 (1994): 277-82, 300, 303, 305CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

¹⁵ Or 27 from 501 Thanh Tong graduates; and 8 from 110 Board Presidents. My calculations from data in Hoan, Nguyen et al. , trans. Khai, Ta Thuc, Dai Viet Lich Trieu Dang Khoa Luc [Register of High Graduates of the Previous Dynasty of Dai Viet], I (Saigon: Bo Quoc-Gia Giao-Duc, XB, 1962Google Scholar).

¹⁶ Whitmore, John K., Vietnam, Ho Quy Ly and the Ming (1371-1421) (Lac-Viet Series No. 2, Yale Centre for International and Area Studies, 1985), p. 112Google Scholar.

¹⁷ Chu, Phan Huy, trans. Nam, Vien Su Hoc Viet, Lich Trieu Hien Chuong Loai Chi, Binh Che Chi [Categorized Overview of the Regulations of Previous Governments, Commentary on the Military System] III (Hanoi: NXB Khoa Hoc Xa Hoi, 1992), pp. 11, 24Google Scholar [hereafter LTHCLC]. The order was issued in 1434.

¹⁸ Whitmore, John K., “The Development of Le Government in Fifteenth-Century Vietnam” (Ph.D. diss., Cornell University, 1968Google Scholar).

¹⁹ LTHCLC, Binh Che Chi, III, p. 11; TT III, p. 141.

²⁰ TT, IV, p. 123 says Hoang's father came from Bai-trang, which I cannot locate. Whether true or not, Gia Long recognized Gia Mieu ngoai trang as their ancestral village. Dai Nam Nhat Thong Chi [Commentary on Unified Dai Nam], trans. Diem, Pham Trong and Anh, Dao Duy, II (Hanoi: NXB Khoa Hoc Xa Hoi, 1970), p. 199Google Scholar [hereafter DNNTC].

^2l TT, III, pp. 175, 180, 213-14, 227, 236. Neither he nor his 3rd and 4th generation descendants, Van Lang and Hoang Du, feature in Don, Le Qui, trans. Long, Ngo The and Tan, Van, Le Quy Don Toan Tap. III Dai Viet Thong Su [Collected Works of Le Qui Don. General History of Dai Viet] (Hanoi: NXB Khoa Hoc Xa Hoi, 1978Google Scholar) [hereafter DVTS] or LTHCLC, Nhan Vat Chi [Review of Notables] I. A brief entry on Van Lang does appear in the section on Thanh Hoa notables in DNNTC, II, pp. 271-72.

²² Don, Le Qui, trans. Anh, Dao Duy et al. , Le Quy Don Toan Tap. I Phu Bien Tap Luc [Collected Frontier Miscellanies] (Hanoi: NXB Khoa Hoc Xa Hoi, 1977), pp. 47–48Google Scholar [hereafter PB]. The 1972 Saigon edition does not contain the genealogy. However, material identical to the Hanoi edition appears in Khoang, Phan, Viet Su: Xu Dang Trong 1558-1777 [Viet History: Dang Trong] (Saigon: Khai Tri, 1967), pp. 131–33Google Scholar, sourced to a manuscript copy in the then Saigon Institute for the Study of Antiquity.

²³ TB, p. 27, footnote 1.

²⁴ Marquis of An-hoa (hau). TT, IV, p. 72; PB, p. 47; and DNNTC, II, p. 272.

²⁵ Family register data from Gia Mieu ngoai trang published in Phuc, Nguyen Vinh, “Gop y kien ve bai ‘May van de dong ho, gia dinh va cuoc doi Nguyen Trai’” [“Some ideas about the article ‘A few questions about the lineage, family and life of Nguyen Trai’”], Nghien Cuu Lich Su [Historical Research] 198, 5-6 (1981): 85–86Google Scholar. A similar but less detailed genealogy appeared in the mid-nineteenth century in True, Phan Thuc, trans. Giao, Le Xuan, Quoc Su Di Bien [Transmitted Volume of State History], I (Saigon: Tu Sach Co Van, 1973), p. 52Google Scholar.

²⁶ PB, p. 47 also has a brief entry on him.

²⁷ Phuc, “Gop y kien ve bai”: 85-86.

²⁸ PB, p. 47. It is not in the Saigon edition.

²⁹ He also had a Nguyen relative murdered who had advised the dowager empress. TT, IV, pp. 41-43.

³⁰ Phuc, “Gop y kien ve bai”: 85 shows him as the first of Tang's 8 sons. PB, p. 47 says he commanded at Tay Do, the Western Capital in Thanh Hoa, although it wrongly identifies him as son, Duc Trung's. TT, IV, p. 51Google Scholar gives no prior career details and only describes him as “a relative” of the empress who had been sent away from court.

³¹ TT, IV, pp. 45-55.

³² In particular, general Trinh Tuy. DVTS, pp. 207-213 for Trinh Kha and his ten ennobled sons, pp. 229-37 for Duy San, and pp. 237-38 for Dai, Duy. LTHCLC, Nhan Vat Chi, I, pp. 324–27Google Scholar.

³³ TT, IV, pp. 57-58. Though the Army Board (birth bo) is not mentioned, it was surely run by a supporter.

³⁴ TB, p. 27. He is not in the TT list, nor is Van Lu, Van Lang's younger brother, even though the king erected a stele to commemorate his role. Van Lu compiled the register published by Nguyen Vinh Phuc.

³⁵ Whitmore, “Chung-hsing and Cheng-t'ung”, pp. 118-21.

³⁶ TT, IV, pp. 68-69.

³⁷ For the Tran Cao revolt, see Cooke, “Vietnamese Confucianization”, pp. 288-92 or TT, IV, pp. 89-97.

³⁸ TT, IV, p. 72.

³⁹ DVTS, p. 229.

⁴⁰ DVTS, p. 258.

⁴¹ TT, IV, p. 123.

⁴² Trinh Duy Tuan, Trinh Duy Duyet and Trinh Duy Lieu, according to PB, p. 25. TB, p. 28 only mentions the most senior, the old Le official and grand duke, Trinh Duy Tuan.

⁴³ TB, p. 27.

⁴⁴ It was due to the spirit potency of the ancestral kings that Gia Long had defeated the Tay Son and won back his family's heritage, according to the Nguyen foundation myth analyzed in Cooke, Nola, “The Myth of the Restoration: Dang-trong Influences in the Spiritual Life of the Early Nguyen Dynasty (1802-47)”, in The Last Stand of Asian Autonomies, ed. Reid, Anthony (London: Macmillan, 1997), pp. 271–80Google Scholar.

⁴⁵ Dai Nam Thuc Luc Chinh Bien [Veritable Records of Dai Nam, Principal Volumes], III, trans. Tinh, Nguyen Ngoc and Anh, Dao Duy (Hanoi: NXB Su Hoc, 1963), p. 171Google Scholar [hereafter DNTLCB].

⁴⁶ For a longer discussion, see Langlet, Philippe, L'Ancienne historiographie d'état an Viet Nam (Paris: EFEO, 1991), Vol. 1Google Scholar, passim.

⁴⁷ While TB, p. 26, did record career highlights of Trung quoc cong, including his participation in the 1509 coup, it did not mention his relationship to its leader, his cousin Nguyen Van Lang.

⁴⁸ Yu, Insun, Law and Society in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Vietnam (Seoul: Asiatic Research Centre, Korea University, 1990), pp. 124–25Google Scholar.

⁴⁹ Ibid., pp. 56-57.

⁵⁰ Nguyen Hoang also married a Nguyen woman. DNLT, pp. 19-20.

⁵¹ TT, IV, pp. 84, 89.

⁵² Yu, Law and Society, pp. 81-88.

⁵³ TT, IV, p. 89.

⁵⁴ Interestingly, Whitmore notes that, after the Le Restoration, Trinh orthodoxy basically followed this line by emphasizing the sequence of dynastic legitimacy from Le Loi onwards, rather than stressing the Thanh Tong era as Mac historians had done. Whitmore, “Chung-hsing and Chengt'ung”, pp. 130-31.

⁵⁵ That the infant Nguyen Hoang was entrusted to his mother's brother to raise, and not to a patrilateral relative, also underlines the importance of bilateral kindred among these families.

⁵⁶ TB, pp. 31, 51.

⁵⁷ From the same district as Trinh Kha, but not from his descent line.

⁵⁸ When Ngoc Tu's daughter later became the empress of Le Than Tong (r. 1619-42, and 1650-62), it made the Nguyen maternal kin of the Le king who nominally presided over several rounds of their conflict with the Trinh. DNLT, pp. 66-67.

⁵⁹ DNLT, pp. 21-22, 67, 81-82; and Cadière, Léopold, “Au sujet de 1'épouse de Sai-vuong”, Bulletin des Amis du Vieux Hué IX, 3 (1922): 221–32Google Scholar [hereafter BAVH].

⁶⁰ The first occurred in 1572, and the second in 1619.

⁶¹ LTHCLC, Nhan Vat Chi [Review of Notables] I, pp. 207-209, 213. TT, IV, pp. 322-24.

⁶² LTHCLC, Du Dia Chi [Geography], I, pp. 42, 49-54, 56. DNNTC, II, p. 199. Van Sieu, Nguyen, trans. Nghinh, Ngo Manh, Phuong-Dinh Du Dia Chi [Phuong Dinh Geography] (Saigon: Tu Do XB, 1959), p. 223Google Scholar.

⁶³ Hoan, Nguyen, Dai Viet Lich Trieu or LTHCLC, Du Dia Chi, I, p. 80Google Scholar for the Le, , and Duc, Cao Xuan, trans. Hieu, Le Manh, Quoc Trieu Dang Khoa Luc [Register of High Graduates of the Current Dynasty] (Saigon: Bo Quoc-Gia Giao-Duc XB, 1962Google Scholar) for the Nguyen. For the regional graduate, Duc, Cao Xuan, trans. Nga, Nguyen Thuy and Lam, Nguyen Thi, Quoc Trieu Huong Khoa Luc [Register of Regional Graduates of the Current Dynasty] (Ho Chi Minn City: NXB Thanh Pho HCM, 1993), p. 407Google Scholar.

⁶⁴ DNNTC, IV, pp. 200-201, 229-30. The Master Pagoda (chua Thay), closely linked with the famous Tran dynasty monk, Dao Hanh. Also see TT, IV, p. 5.

⁶⁵ Nguyen Hai and Trach Lam pagodas respectively. DNNTC, II, p. 257.

⁶⁶ Hai, Minh, Van Tai, Ha, Thu, Nguyen Tai, Buddhism in Vietnam (Hanoi: The Gioi, 1993), p. 147Google Scholar.

⁶⁷ Linh-Xung, founded by the hero Ly Thuong Kiet. There were also six in another hilly district, Son, Dong. DNNTC, II, pp. 257–60Google Scholar.

⁶⁸ My calculations from Ten Lang Xa Viet Nam Dau The Ky XIX [Names of Vietnamese Villages and Communes at the Start of the Nineteenth-Century], ed. and trans. The, Duong Thi and Thoa, Pham Thi (Hanoi: NXB Khoa Hoa Xa Hoi, 1981), pp. 25–121Google Scholar, Tong Son, p. 107.

⁶⁹ Quynh, Truong Huu, “Fiefs and Manors in Medieval Vietnam”, Viet Nam Social Sciences 3–4 (1986): 97–100Google Scholar; Sakurai, Yumio, “The Change in Name and Number of Villages in Medieval Vietnam”, Viet Nam Social Sciences 01–2 (1986): 127–32Google Scholar.

⁷⁰ Yumio Sakurai, “Peasant Drain and Abandoned Villages in the Red River Delta between 1750 and 1850”, in Last Stand, ed. Reid, pp. 137-39. Despite this, trang in Thai Nguyen, Lang Son and Hung Hoa still accounted for 25 per cent of settlements listed.

⁷¹ DNNTC, II, p. 240.

⁷² du Rhodes, Alexander, Tu Dien Annam-Lusitan-Latinh (Thanh Pho HCM: NXB Khoa Hoc Xa Hoi, 1991), p. 201Google Scholar.

⁷³ K.W. Taylor, citing Professor Nguyen Tai Can, in “Regional conflicts among the Viet peoples between the 13th and 19th centuries”, paper presented at the Conference on “The Conduct of Relations Between Societies and States: War and Peace in Southeast Asia”, Paris, 28-30 October 1996, pp. 7-8.

⁷⁴ For the armed forces see LTHCLC, Binh Che Chi [Review of the Military System] III, pp. 17-21, 31-34. LTHCLC, Quan Chuc Chi [Review of Officialdom], I, p. 450 says Thanh Tong used it to differentiate officials working in the capital from those in the provinces dealing directly with the people.

¹⁵ DNNTC, II, p. 240 for the Pho Cat wall; DNNTC, III, pp. 225-26 for outer Thanh Hoa (later Ninh Binh).

⁷⁶ TT, IV, p. 144.

⁷⁷ LTHCLC, Binh Che Chi, III, p. 13.

⁷⁸ Quoted in Cooke, “Myth of the Restoration”, p. 272. For spirit vitality or the geomantic power of tombs, see p. 276.

⁷⁹ DNTLCB, III, p. 179.

⁸⁰ Cadière, Léopold, “Le Mur de Dong Hoi. Etude sur L'Etablissement des Nguyen en Cochinchine”, Bulletin de I'Ecole Française d'Extrême Orient [hereafter BEFEO] 6,1-2 (1906): 93 n. 2Google Scholar.

⁸¹ DNLT, pp. 75-76, quotes, p. 76. The account also included an omen on arrival that supposedly revealed Heaven's intention for Hoang to rule the south.

⁸² TB, pp. 30-33, quotes pp. 31, 32.

⁸³ TT, IV, pp. 142-44.

⁸⁴ TT, IV, p. 141.

⁸⁵ Taylor, “Nguyen Hoang”, pp. 42-65.

⁸⁶ From a 1844 edict. A slightly different formulation appears in the foreword. TB, pp. 10, 14.

⁸⁷ “Nostalgie de Dong Kinh”, as Yang Baoyun translated Da Shan's memory of a conversation with Minh-Vuong. PrincipautÉ des Nguyên, p. 20. A later, more elaborate version of the claim that the Nguyen had once ruled Dong Kinh appears in Koffler, Jean, “Description historique de la Cochinchine”, Revue indochinoise 15 (1911): 453Google Scholar. This hints that a compensatory Nguyen mythologizing of the Restoration era formed part of their process of detaching from it.

⁸⁸ All quotes Taylor, “Nguyen Hoang”, p. 64.

⁸⁹ TB, p. 44.

⁹⁰ TB, p. 66. Cadière, “Mur de Dong Hoi”: 123 says one source claimed Chua Sai was preparing to march on the north within a few years when hostilities began in 1627.

⁹¹ Phoeun, Mak, Histoire du Cambodge de la fin du XVIe siècle au début du XVIIIe (Paris: Ecole Francaise d'Extreme Orient, 1995), pp. 182–83Google Scholar.

⁹² TB, p. 98.

⁹³ They also took back the Portuguese cannon maker, Jean de la Croix. Mak Phoeun, Histoire du Cambodge, pp. 297-300 for several contemporary accounts.

⁹⁴ PB, p. 58.

⁹⁵ Cadière, Léopold, “Geographie Historique de Quang Binh, d'après les Annales Impériales”, BEFEO 2,1 (1902): 64–68CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

⁹⁶ DNLT, p. 78.

⁹⁷ DNLT, pp. 87-88.

⁹⁸ LTHCLC, Quart Chuc Chi, I, pp. 476-77; Langlet, Philippe, La Tradition vietnamienne: un Ètat national au sein de la civilisation chinoise (Saigon: BSEI, 1970), pp. 33–35Google Scholar.

⁹⁹ LTHCLC, Quan Chuc Chi, I, p. 477. TT, III, p. 227.

¹⁰⁰ TT, IV, p. 144.

¹⁰¹ LTHCLC, Quoc Dung Chi [Review of State Resources], II, p. 222; PB, p. 151.

¹⁰² Also known as “the old dinh” (Dinh Cuu) or colloquially as “the sandy dinh” (Dinh Cat).

¹⁰³ TB, p. 42.

¹⁰⁴ Perhaps echoing the Le “imperial camp” (ngu dinh) of the Restoration. Hien Chung, Quan Chuc Chi, I, p. 476.

¹⁰⁵ Thus while Thai Khang dinh was established to control the area from Phu Yen to Phan Rang in 1653, its first census only occurred in 1669. TB, pp. 83, 112.

¹⁰⁶ PB, p. 199.

¹⁰⁷ Cadière, Léopold, “Les Lieux Historiques du Quang Binh”, BEFEO III, 2 (1903): 191–94Google Scholar.

¹⁰⁸ Li, Nguyen Cochinchina, ch. 2.

¹⁰⁹ TB, p. 47. For the Le situation, see LTHCLC, Quan Chuc Chi, I, pp. 478-79.

¹¹⁰ TB, pp. 212-13 for an abbreviated version of PB, pp. 200-201.

¹¹¹ LTHCLC, Quan Chuc Chi, I, p. 476.

¹¹² My calculations from Le Trieu Lich-Khoa Tien-Si De Danh Bi Ky [Doctoral Graduates of the Former Le Court According to Stelae Inscriptions], I, ed. Trai, Cao Vien (Saigon: Bo Quoc-Gia Giao-Duc, 1961), pp. 219-20, 225-26, 237Google Scholar. Most were from Thanh-Nghe, with 4 from Son Nam, 1 from Son Tay, and 1 from Thuan Hoa.

¹¹³ PB, p. 152 claims a five-year system existed from Nguyen Hoang; while TB, p. 63 dates the “spring examination” from 1632, where it was linked to the six-year major census introduced that year. However, TB specifically says graduates were “exempted from personal tax for five years”, which makes no sense in a six-year cycle. Also, when the spring examination was suspended in 1684, TB, p. 129 says “at the major census” that year they “repealed the regulation of the [spring] examination at the census field”, once more linking it directly to the six-year census. It gives no information for the intervening years.

¹¹⁴ TB, p. 64. PB, p. 146 claimed 40-60 people were recruited into the three Offices per examination, but this seems more like an eighteenth-century situation.

¹¹⁵ TB, p. 75. The editors compared it to the Le regional contest (thi huong), but the southern examination mainly tested literary skills, with the Chinese classics only included once, in the 1740s, after which the system closed down for a generation. This deliberate omission makes Yang's claim, in PrincipautÉ des Nguyên, p. 140, that the Nguyen “took great care to popularize the doctrine of Confucius” rather puzzling.

¹¹⁶ In 1660, 1667, 1675 and 1683. TB did not record them all: a biography for the period mentions an examination in 1652 that the chronicle ignored. DNLT, p. 147.

¹¹⁷ Yang, PrincipautÉ des Nguyên, pp. 41-42.

¹¹⁸ In the countryside dinh officials appointed whomever they wished. PB, p. 146.

¹¹⁹ TB, pp. 126, 136.

¹²⁰ PB, p. 153.

¹²¹ Taylor, K. W., “The Literati Revival in Seventeenth-Century Vietnam”, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 18,1 (Mar. 1987): 1–22CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Cooke, “Vietnamese Confucianization”, pp. 293-95.

¹²² This governing ensemble comprised: “a concern for immediate behaviour rather than future goals, reliance on personal relationships, relaxed public behaviour, the agency of “favour” or “merit”, marriage alliances, entourages, a hands-off attitude towards villagers unless taxes and conscription were involved, the pervasive influence of Buddhism, … and a universal respect for the spirits of the soil”. Wolters, O.W., “What Else May Ngo Si Lien Mean?”, in Settlers and Sojourners. Histories of Southeast Asia and the Chinese, ed. Reid, Anthony, ASAA SE Asian Publication Series, No. 28 (Sydney: Allen and Unwin, 1996), p. 111Google Scholar. Wolters contrasts outward “appearance”, especially those elements that created a convincing “imperial appearance”, something of great concern to literati commentators, with the Tran regime's “countenance”, or the mode of operation that, for men of the time, held it together and made sense of its particular style of government [p. 105]. This sort of distinction can also be fruitfully applied to the Nguyen political reforms of 1744, designed to give the regime a different appearance, and thus deflect an ill-omened prophecy, without significantly changing the usual mode of governance. Cadière, Léopold, “Le changement de costume sous Vo-Vuong. ou une crise religieuse à Hué au XVIIIe siècle”, BAVH II, 4 (1915): 423–24Google Scholar.

¹²³ Volume One, queens; Volume Two, royal offspring; Volume Three, meritorious subjects under Nguyen Hoang; Volume Four, meritorious seventeenth-century military families; Volume Five, meritorious civil officials, either century; and Volume Six, southern vassals, monks, or rebels from the royal family or maternal kin. That Nguyen Huu Dat and lineage appear in Volume Three probably reflects his father's office under Nguyen Hoang.

¹²⁴ Marriage links must be assumed only for Nguyen Huu Dat's ho, who were in any case fellow villagers from Gia Mieu ngoai trang. Not all princesses' spouses are clearly identified in DNLT and such data was not given for princes.

¹²⁵ For the two queens, see DNLT, pp. 25-26. Of the titled queens of Nguyen Hoang's successors, four came from Tong Son families, two from Thuan-Quang, one from Hai Duong, and the origins of two are unknown.

¹²⁶ DNLT, pp. 78, 82-83, 87-88.

¹²⁷ In addition to those mentioned in the text, DNLT, pp. 40-45, lists a further 10 kings' sons or grandsons who reached senior military positions as commanders of camps or regiments in the seventeenth-century.

¹²⁸ DNLT, pp. 38-39. Several must have commanded lesser military units.

¹²⁹ DNLT, pp. 39-40. Following his father, Phuc Nguyen, who had been Quang Nam tran thu from 1601 to his accession.

¹³⁰ Bui Hung Luong, who helped suppress Anh's revolt, but about whom nothing is known. TB, p. 69.

¹³¹ DNLT, pp. 34-35.

¹³² DNLT, pp. 36-37, TB, p. 74.

¹³³ The lineage entries of Nguyen Huu Dat, Nguyen Cuu Kieu, Truong Phuc Phan and, from the sixteenth-century, Tong Phuc Tri, all record 5 or more generations. Nguyen Due Bao records 4, and Tong Huu Dai 3. DNLT, pp. 95-111, 113-23, 123-27, 78, 128-29 and 127-28 respectively.

¹³⁴ A protege of Dao Duy Tu, the main court strategist from 1627 to 1634 who built the defensive wall at Dong Hoi. Significantly, their families both derived from Ngoc Son district, Thanh Hoa, though Tien's family had settled long before in Qui Nhon. DNLT, pp. 83-87 and 89-95 respectively.

¹³⁵ Some exceptions did exist. In the military a certain Hung Loc, of unknown origin, fought the Chams in 1653 and became tran thu of the newly conquered area. On the civil side Quang Tri born Tran Dinh An became a trusted advisor in the 1690s. DNLT, pp. 130 and 152-56 respectively.

¹³⁶ PB, pp. 153-54.

¹³⁷ Huy, Nguyen Ngoc and Van Tai, Ta, The Le Code, I (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1987), pp. 110–11Google Scholar. They mitigated offences committed, among others, by royal relatives, long serving officials, men with meritorious service, and men in the 3 highest grades.

¹³⁸ He married An's daughter. All details Rivierè, G., “Une lignée de loyaux serviteurs. Les Nguyen-Khoa”, BAVH II, 3 (1915): 287–95Google Scholar. This article rests largely on the Nguyen Khoa family register.

¹³⁹ TB, p. 190 notes the death without comment, but DNLT, pp. 116, 150, gives the details.

¹⁴⁰ DNLT, pp. III, 156 respectively.

¹⁴¹ Koffler, , “Description historique”, Rl 16 (1911): 282Google Scholar.

¹⁴² PB, pp. 154, 198.

¹⁴³ All details from Cadière, “Mur de Dong Hoi”: 93, fn 2, citing his own research and an early history, Viet Nam Khai Quoc Chi [History of the Founding of the Kingdom of Viet Nam].

¹⁴⁴ PB, p. 184.

¹⁴⁵ Cited in Yang, PrincipautÉ des Nguyen, p. 112.

¹⁴⁶ For a military map of the area c. 1690, see Map 6 in “Maps of Southern Vietnam”, translated and interpreted by Bulbeck, David and Tana, Li in Southern Vietnam Under the Nguyen, ed. Tana, Li and Reid, Anthony (Singapore: ISEAS, ECHOSEA Data Paper No. 3, 1993), p. 48Google Scholar.

¹⁴⁷ PB, pp. 183-92.

¹⁴⁸ PB, p. 136 for the taxpayers, and pp. 185-92 for the military by units. I calculated on the basis of 42,500 soldiery. TB, p. 235, gives 126,850 for the taxpayers. There is no way to verify either figure.

¹⁴⁹ TB, p. 62.

¹⁵⁰ LTHCLC, Quoc Dung Chi, II, p. 222.

¹⁵¹ TB, p. 47.

¹⁵² TB, pp. 62-63.

¹⁵³ For Hong Due period details, LTHCLC, Quoc Dung Chi, II, p. 221. The Trinh replaced the 1470 system with a stabilised system in 1664. Problems managing the census field caused the Nguyen to drop that element in 1713. TB, pp. 175-76.

¹⁵⁴ TB, pp. 63, 129.

¹⁵⁵ As happened in the mid-eighteenth century. PB, p. 183.

¹⁵⁶ Hien Chu'ong, Binh Che Chi, III, p. 13.

¹⁵⁷ DNLT, p. 86.

¹⁵⁸ “A Chinese Buddhist Report”, translated by Li Tana, in Li and Reid, Southern Vietnam, p. 56. Both Vachet in the 1670s and Poivre in 1749-50 described recruits locked in cangues to stop them escaping en route to the camps. Cited in Yang, PrincipautÉ des Nguyên, p. 104.

¹⁵⁹ TB, pp. 147, 150, 153.

¹⁶⁰ TB, p. 63, gives the 1470 rates: dan paid 8 tien, compared to 20 from trang and 15 from quan. This is still only a quarter of the 83 tien reported by Vachet for the 1670s, but much closer to the 45-54 tien reported by Choisy in 1687, after the wars had ended. Figures from Li, Nguyen Cochinchina, ch. 2.

¹⁶¹ For the campaign, see TB, pp. 75-79, or Cadière, “Mur de Dong Hoi”, pp. 159-66.

¹⁶² TB, p. 78.

¹⁶³ PB, pp. 198-99.

¹⁶⁴ My calculations from PB, p. 198. Although the figures are internally consistent, they correlate poorly with figures for the same area in 1769 given at pp. 178-83. Generally speaking, therefore, both sets of figures should only be used indicatively.

¹⁶⁵ I assume ban refers to the original roots of the Nguyen. Phu can mean, among other things, “to lower one's head, to glance at one's inferiors”, “to care for”, or “to govern (through encouragement”), depending on the character. Gouin, Eugène, Dictionnaire Vietnamien Chinois Français (Saigon: IDEO, 1957), p. 1053Google Scholar. All could describe Chua Thuong's action. As this section is missing from the Saigon edition, the Chinese character used is unknown.

¹⁶⁶ TB, pp. 153-54.

¹⁶⁷ Dau, Nguyen Dinh, Che Do Cong Dien Cong Tho Trong Lich Su Khan Hoang Lap Ap O Nam Ky Luc Tinh [The Communal Land System in the History of Land Clearing and Village Establishment in the Six Southern Provinces] (Hanoi: Hoi Su Hoc VN, 1992), pp. 30–47Google Scholar argues that wandering peasants had settled the Mekong delta for at least a century before, but none of his evidence supports such a large figure for this area alone.

¹⁶⁸ (Gia-Dinh-Thung-Chi) Histoire et description de la Basse Cochinchine, trans. Aubaret, G. (Paris: Imprimerie impériale, 1863), p. 9Google Scholar.

¹⁶⁹ TB, p. 154. DNLT, p. 109 has an almost identical sentence in its entry on the military officer charged with setting it up, Nguyen Huu Dat's son, Huu Chinh.

¹⁷⁰ Alternatively, as no administration existed before 1698, they realized there was no census mechanism to justify the figure, making it highly conjectural.at best. PB, pp. 140-41 gives rounded 1796 figures totalling over 18,000, and p. 182 specific figures totalling 19,470, or nearly 12 per cent of Quang Nam taxpayers, given there as 165,069.

¹⁷¹ PB, p. 196.

¹⁷² PB, pp. 196-98.

¹⁷³ Crawfurd, John, Journal of an Embassy to the Courts of Siam and Cochin China (Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1987), p. 213Google Scholar. Finlayson, George, The Mission to Siam and Hue, 1821-1822 (Singapore: Oxford University Press, 1988), p. 302Google Scholar.

¹⁷⁴ Taylor, “Regional conflicts”, p. 10.

¹⁷⁵ TB, p. 81 says it was only received because of the kin links between the families.

¹⁷⁶ The best account is Cadière, “Mur de Dong Hoi”: 166-214 which draws on all published and some unpublished Vietnamese sources. Also see TB, pp. 84-108 and TT, IV, pp. 272-91. Each side claimed the other started the conflict.

¹⁷⁷ All of modern Ha Tinh province and part of southern Nghe An.

¹⁷⁸ TB, p. 107. TT does not give this exchange.

¹⁷⁹ TT, IV, pp. 325-26. TB does not mention the proclamation, upon which this response is predicated.

¹⁸⁰ In the last months of the Chinh Tri period (1573) Trinh Tung dethroned Le Anh Tong before having him killed afterwards, and in the 20th year of Hoang Dinh (1619) he had Le Kinh Tong killed. TB, p. 118, note 1 mistakes the Chinh Tri allusion as referring to Kiem's supposed murder of Nguyen Kim's older son, Uong, who died before the reign period began in 1558.

¹⁸¹ TB, p. 118.

¹⁸² Roux, J-B, “Les Premiers missionaires franços à la cour de Hien-Vuong. Le petit prince Chrétien de Dinh-Cat”, BAVH II, 4 (1915): 410Google Scholar. The prince was a son of Hiep.

¹⁸³ TB, p. 128.

¹⁸⁴ TB, pp. 171, 173, 186.

¹⁸⁵ Li, Nguyen Cochinchina, ch. 2.

¹⁸⁶ TB, p. 147.

¹⁸⁷ PB, p. 281. Minh Vuong's letter had used the novel term, “Outer Ocean Viet State”, to describe the country, possibly a ploy to make it seem more separate to Chinese eyes.

¹⁸⁸ TB, p. 170.

¹⁸⁹ Li, Nguyen Cochinchina, ch. 2.

¹⁹⁰ DNLT, p. 96.

¹⁹¹ TB, p. 120 gives dat khach and DNLT, p. 106 gives dat la. Both mean a foreign land.

¹⁹² In contrast to the 1672 officer who asserted the Nguyen loyalist stance: his “proper and worthy words” gained him 20 ounces of gold from prince Hiep. TB, p. 118.

¹⁹³ Yang, PrincipautÉ des Nguyên, pp. 21-24, 32; and Cadière, “Le changement de costume”: 417-24.

¹⁹⁴ Khoi, Le Thanh, Histoire du Vietnam des origines à 1858 (Paris: Sudestasie, 1981), p. 263Google Scholar.

¹⁹⁵ See TB, pp. 205-206, for a problematic Vietnamese translation.

¹⁹⁶ This should be Hien Tong (Chua Hien).

¹⁹⁷ TB records no revolt there so this may refer to the Cham rebellion of 1692-93, just north of Dong Pho (Bien Hoa).

¹⁹⁸ Dai Nam Thuc Luc, Tien Bien (Tokyo: Keio Institute of Linguistic Studies, 1961), Vol. 10, pp. 136–37Google Scholar.

¹⁹⁹ The I Ching or Book of Changes, the Richard Wilhelm Translation rendered into English by Baynes, Cary F. (London and Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1983), p. 3Google Scholar.

²⁰⁰ Ibid., p. 9.

²⁰¹ TB, p. 225. In 1756 Vo-Vuong nearly wrote to China using the style An Nam Quoc Vuong, the title Beijing had given the Le. While his intervention cost the civil official involved his position, Vo-Vuong took his advice, if rather ironically, and wrote as a modest tran thu. This incident raises the possibility that the well-known Nguyen use of Le reign titles for internal documents may have originally represented a local compromise, as in the above case, designed to avoid scandalizing the growing number of lettered officials by not trespassing on the right of a ritually enthroned emperor (hoang de) to establish calendars and mark the passage of time. For the same reason neither Trinh nor Nguyen vuong carried out the great sacrifice to heaven and earth (nam giao) which was the prerogative alone of the imperial Son of Heaven.

²⁰² TB, p. 206.

²⁰³ Koffler, “Description historique”, p. 567 n 1. He also reported Vo-Vuong's chief wives had gold dragons embroidered on their clothes, another imperial symbol. RI 16 (1911): 273Google Scholar.

²⁰⁴ For the northern usage, see PB, p. 347.

²⁰⁵ TB, pp. 228-29.