From Moral Exemplar To National Hero The

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From Moral Exemplar to National Hero: The

transformations of Trn Hng o and the
emergence of Vietnamese nationalism
LIAM C. KELLEY
Modern Asian Studies / Volume 49 / Issue 06 / November 2015, pp 1963 - 1993
DOI: 10.1017/S0026749X14000183, Published online: 24 March 2015
Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0026749X14000183

How to cite this article:
LIAM C. KELLEY (2015). From Moral Exemplar to National Hero: The
transformations of Trn Hng o and the emergence of Vietnamese nationalism.
Modern Asian Studies, 49, pp 1963-1993 doi:10.1017/S0026749X14000183
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Modern Asian Studies 49, 6 (2015) pp. 19631993.
doi:10.1017/S0026749X14000183 First published online 24 March 2015
From Moral Exemplar to National Hero:

The transformations of Trn Hng a.o and
the emergence of Vietnamese nationalism
LIAM C. KELLEY
Department of History, University of Hawaii at Manoa,
United States of America
Email: liam@hawaii.edu
Abstract
Trn Hng a.o (12281300), the Vietnamese general who led troops to hold off
Mongol invasions in the thirteenth century, is honoured across Vietnam today
as a hero of the nation (anh hng dn tc). This ubiquitous representation has,
however, come about only recently, having been crafted in the twentieth century.
Prior to that time, Trn Hng a.o was honoured in other ways. This article
will examine precisely how it is that Trn Hng a.o was represented and
remembered in various worksfrom official histories to spirit writing texts
between the fifteenth and twentieth centuries. It will trace the transformations
in these representations over time and argue that it was only in the early twentieth
century that Trn Hng a.o began to be represented as a national hero. In its
coverage of the transformations in Trn Hng a.os representation, this article
will demonstrate how modern nationalist ideas emerged in Vietnam in the early
twentieth century.
Introduction
Trn Hng a.o, the general who fought off Mongol invasions in the
thirteenth century, is an extremely famous historical figure in Vietnam
today. Schoolchildren learn of his deeds, and streets are named after
him all across the country. Invariably, he is presented as a national hero
(anh hng dn tc), a heroic general who defended the nation against
foreign aggression. Yet, as ubiquitous as this representation is today,
it is a novel way of characterizing Trn Hng a.o and his life. Over
the course of the more than 700 years since his death in 1300, other
ideas concerning the significance of Trn Hng a.o predominated.
1963
1964
LIAM C. KELLEY
It was only in the twentieth century that his position as hero of the
nation emerged.
To argue that a historical figure was viewed in different ways in
the past and only became a national hero in the twentieth century
should come as no surprise, given all of the scholarship which has
been produced in recent decades on such topics as invented traditions
and the modernity of nationalism.1 The field of Vietnamese history,
however, has been slow to adopt these ideas. While many scholars today
are likely aware that much that has been written about Vietnamese
history is presented through a nationalist prism, little work has been
done to determine exactly how and when that prism was created.2
Examining how Trn Hng a.o has been represented through time,
and how he was first transformed into a national hero in the early
twentieth century, is one way of doing this, and is the focus of this
article. Given the restrictions of space, what this article will not be
able to cover are the changes that Trn Hng a.os representation as
a national hero underwent over the course of the twentieth century.
That is a topic which will have to await further examination, but I will
conclude this article with some thoughts on that matter.
The topic of this article has recently been briefly addressed by
anthropologist Pha.m Qu`ynh Phng in her monograph Hero and Deity,
on the resurgence in interest in the popular religious cult associated
with the spirit of Trn Hng a.o over the past few decades. Pha.m
Qu`ynh Phng argues in this work that Trn Hng a.o has always
been viewed as both a national hero and a deity. In an introductory
chapter on Trn Hng a.os life and his image, for instance, she notes
that His status as the great national hero who defeated the strongest
enemy in Vietnamese history meant that the cult that surrounded him
was, from the outset, that of a national hero.3
At the same time, however, Pha.m Qu`ynh Phng argues that it was
in the colonial era that, for the first time, Vietnamese people came to
1
This body of scholarship is far too vast to cite here, but two essential studies
are: Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of
Nationalism (London: Verso, 1983); and Eric Hobsbawm and Terence Ranger (eds),
The Invention of Tradition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992).
2
Some scholars, however, have sought to deconstruct the idea of the nation in
Vietnam. For a review of some representative works, see Tng V
u, Vietnamese
Political Studies and Debates on Vietnamese Nationalism, Journal of Vietnamese Studies
2.2 (2007), pp. 203211.
3
Pha.m Qu`ynh Phng, Hero and Deity: Trn Hng a.o and the Resurgence of Popular
Religion in Vietnam (Chiang Mai: Mekong Press, 2009), p. 26.
FROM MORAL EXEMPLAR TO NATIONAL HERO
1965
conceptualise themselves as bearers of a distinctive nation, and as a

result, Trn Hng a.o began to appear more as a symbol of patriotism
rather than as a specific personality. She notes further that it was
also during this same period that members of the elite, influenced by
Western ideas of civilization and progress, began to criticize the cult of
Trn Hng a.o as superstitious.4 Pha.m Qu`ynh Phng also argues,
following Shawn McHale, that at the turn of the twentieth century
Confucianism ceased to be a philosophy open only to specialists, and
instead became the basis of a commonly shared idiom for intellectual
life, and as a result of this transformation, Confucian notions of
loyalty, the Four Virtues, and the Three Submissions, which Trn
Hng a.os cult promoted, resonated strongly during this period.5
Then in the post-colonial era, and particularly in the Democratic
Republic of Vietnam, Trn Hng a.o came to occupy the most
honored position in the symbolism of the state.6
Pha.m Qu`ynh Phng clearly sees that, historically, changes took
place in the perception of Trn Hng a.o and his cult. However, she
only discusses these points briefly, as the main focus of her work is on
the contemporary worship of Trn Hng a.os cult. Nonetheless, her
work brings to the fore important questions. If, for instance, it was
only during the colonial era that Vietnamese began to conceptualise
themselves as bearers of a distinctive nation, then how could Trn
Hng a.o have been seen as a national hero before that point?
Further, what did Confucian notions such as the Four Virtues and
Three Submissions have to do with a cult dedicated to a general? And
if these notions resonated strongly during the colonial era, where
exactly did they come from, and how exactly had they changed since
earlier times?
These are some of the issues which this article will address. In
examining how Trn Hng a.o was represented in writings from the
fifteenth to the early twentieth centuries, the article will ultimately
demonstrate that Trn Hng a.o has not always been viewed as a
national hero. Rather, it was only in the early twentieth century that he
4
Ibid, p. 35.
Ibid, pp. 3435. Shawn McHales ideas on the changing position of Confucianism
in Vietnamese society are presented in his Print and Power: Confucianism, Communism,
and Buddhism in the Making of Modern Vietnam (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press,
2004), pp. 6695. The information below on morality books, on the other hand,
strongly suggests that Confucian ideas had long been part of a commonly shared
idiom for intellectual life.
6
Ibid, p. 39.
5
1966
LIAM C. KELLEY
began to be represented in that manner. Prior to that time he had been

written about as a moral exemplar, a local general in a larger world,
a deity with specific powers to cure certain womens illnesses, and a
spirit who encouraged people to follow Confucian values. In tracing
these transformations, it is clear that what Prasenjit Duara termed
the superscription of symbols took place, as new representations
of Trn Hng a.o did not completely replace older ones.7 Instead,
some ideas were kept while new ones were added or emphasized.
Nonetheless, the effort in the early twentieth century to represent
Trn Hng a.o as a national hero was dramatic in the degree to which
it erased what had been emphasized prior to that point, and to which
it reinterpreted the past to suit the present. Further, the continued
dominance of the modern nationalist ideas that began to take form
at that time has prevented scholars in the succeeding century from
seeing clearly how transformative the early twentieth century was.
However, by tracing the changes in Trn Hng a.os representations
over time, and examining how he was refashioned as a national hero
in the early twentieth century, we can gain an understanding of how
and when modern nationalist ideas took hold in Vietnam.
Moral exemplar
Trn Hng a.o first emerges in recorded history for acts for which he is
not usually remembered or honoured todayengaging in premarital
sex and thwarting an arranged marriage. In 1251, the first ruler of the
Trn Dynasty, Trn Thi Tng, wished to marry the eldest princess in
his palace, Princess Thin Thnh, to a certain Prince Trung Thnh.8
Such unions between members of the same extended family were
acceptable, but they had to be arranged by the parents. Trn Hng
a.o, however, intervened out of his own initiative before this marriage
could take place. More specifically, he snuck into Princess Thin
Thnhs chamber under the dark of night and had sexual relations
Prasenjit Duara, Superscribing Symbols: The Myth of Guandi, Chinese God of

War, Journal of Asian Studies 47.4 (1988), pp. 778795.
8
Phan Thanh Gin et al., Khm i.nh Vit s thong gim cng mu.c [Imperially
commissioned itemized summaries of the comprehensive mirror of Vit history]
(1881), A. 2674, Chnh Bin 6/34a.
1967
with her. Confronted with a fait accompli, Trn Thi Tng approved
a marriage between Princess Thin Thnh and Trn Hng a.o.9
The fifteenth-century historian Ng S Lin had nothing but words
of disdain for this episode. In his Complete Book of the Historical Records
of a.i Vit (a.i Vit s k ton th), he chastised the Trn for not
following the proper rites in carrying out this marriage, and felt that
the joining in matrimony of members of the same family was an act
that was simply unacceptable.10 Later, in the eighteenth century,
historian Ng Th S placed the blame for this act on Trn Hng
a.os youth and imprudence, as well as the improper family customs
of the Trn.11 Indeed, Trn Hng a.os indiscretion followed other
such acts committed by the Trn family which later commentators
likewise criticized. And finally, in the nineteenth century, Emperor
T c stated that Trn Hng a.os martial and civil skills were
exemplary, as were his loyalty and filial piety. Yet because of his
distasteful behaviour (x ha.nh), he could not be considered a perfect
being (ton nhn).12
So, Trn Hng a.o had stained his stature with a moral failure
which the literati prior to the twentieth century never allowed to be
erased. At the same time, however, there were other aspects of Trn
Hng a.os life that these same men found praiseworthy, and none
more so than his loyalty and filial piety. In his entry in the Complete
Book of the Historical Records of a.i Vit marking the death of Trn Hng
a.o in 1300, for instance, Ng S Lin recorded various stories about
conversations that Trn Hng a.o supposedly had during his lifetime
that revealed these traits. One story claims that when Trn Hng
a.os father was on his deathbed he entreated his son to take control
of the kingdom someday, to fulfil his own desire to have done the same.
Trn Hng a.o reportedly felt that this was not the right way to act.
The Complete Book of the Historical Records of a.i Vit records that Trn
Hng a.o subsequently asked two of his servants about this matter.
These two men noted that in taking control of the kingdom he would
Ng S Lin, a.i Vit s k ton th [Complete book of the historical records of a.i
Vit] (1697 edition, orig. comp. 1479), A. 3, Bn K 5/17a17b. Trn Hng a.os
given name was Quc Tun. He was granted the title of the Hng a.o Prince/King
(Hng a.o Vng), and today he is most commonly known as Trn Hng a.o, which
is how I will refer to him in this article.
10
Ibid, Bn K 5/17b18a.
11
Ng Th S, Vit s tiu n [Model cases from Vit history] (eighteenth century),
A. 11, 2/10a.
12
Phan Thanh Gin et al., Khm i.nh Vit s thong gim cng mu.c, Chnh Bin 6/33b.
9
1968
LIAM C. KELLEY
gain sudden riches, but would be reviled through the ages. The two
servants stated further that they would rather die as his servants than
become officials in a new government and thereby sacrifice their filial
piety and loyalty. Similarly, one of Trn Hng a.os sons stated that
it was unacceptable to seize control from another ruling family, let
alone ones own family.13
However, another son, Trn Quc Tng, held a different view. When
Trn Hng a.o brought up the issue of his fathers dying wish, Trn
Quc Tng noted how the founder of the Song Dynasty had been a
mere farmer, but then had taken advantage of the changing times
to take control of the empire, thereby implying that Trn Hng a.o
should do the same. According to the Complete Book of the Historical
Records of a.i Vit, Trn Hng a.o became incensed and stated that
Treacherous officials come from unfilial sons. He then pulled out his
sword to kill his son, but was prevented by the first son from doing
so.14
Trn Hng a.o thus remained loyal to the monarch, and he
encouraged others to do the same. He reportedly wrote documents
for his soldiers, such as a work entitled A Brief Summary of the Mysterious
Tactics of Military Strategists (Binh gia diu l yu lc th) in which
he cited examples of people in the past who had loyally served their
monarch in extreme ways. He noted, for instance, how in the ancient
kingdom of Chu, a kingdom that flourished in the Yangzi valley
through much of the first millennium bce, a man by the name of
You Yu had allowed himself to be speared in the back in order to
protect the monarch, and how in the third century bce, a military
official by the name of Ji Xin had let himself be captured and put to
death by the enemy in order to divert attention so that his commander,
Liu Bang, the subsequent founder of the Han Dynasty, could escape.15
In addition to encouraging his soldiers to serve loyally, Trn Hng
a.o also demonstrated to others his own loyal intent. There is an
entry in the Complete Book of the Historical Records of a.i Vit for the year
1285 that records that when Trn Hng a.o escorted the emperor he
always carried with him a kind of musical instrument used by members
Ng S Lin, a.i Vit s k ton th, Bn K 6/9b10a.
Ibid, Bn K 6/10a.
15
Ibid, Bn K 6/10b and 6/11b. It is not clear if this was a book or a single
document. A single document associated with this title is quoted in the Complete Book
of the Historical Records of a.i Vit (Bn K 6/11b6/14a) and has been translated by
Trng Bu Lm in his Patterns of Vietnamese Response to Foreign Intervention: 18581900
(New Haven: Southeast Asia Studies, Yale University, 1967), pp. 4954.
13
14
1969
of the military. It looked like a wooden staff with a bell at the end.
According to this account, other people in the entourage kept an eye
on him, believing that he might follow his fathers advice and use this
instrument as a weapon against the emperor. Aware of what others
were thinking, Trn Hng a.o threw away the bell and just carried
with him the more harmless wooden staff to demonstrate to everyone
that he had no such intentions.16
While we have no way of verifying whether such events ever actually
occurred, this is the earliest type of representation that we have of
Trn Hng a.o. Through the actions that were recorded about him,
not only did Trn Hng a.o demonstrate his loyalty, but, in the eyes
of subsequent generations of literati, he also revealed the depth of his
filial piety as well, for in their minds there was a direct connection
between these two virtues. Works such as the Classic of Filial Piety
(Hiu kinh/Xiaojing), a common text for children to study, dating from
the first millennium bce, repeatedly emphasized this connection with
statements such as The exemplary man having served his parents
with filial piety, can therefore transfer his loyalty to the monarch.17
Hence, loyalty to the monarch was seen as an outgrowth of filial piety
in the home. If you seek loyal officials, Confucius is reported to have
said, you must proceed to the gates of [the homes of] filial sons.18
This is the same point that Trn Hng a.o made in negative terms
to his scheming son when he said, Treacherous officials come from
unfilial sons.
As such, by demonstrating his complete loyalty to the monarch,
Trn Hng a.o also demonstrated his filial piety. While both of these
virtues were thus interrelated and essential, loyalty to the monarch
was the utmost virtue. Loyalty was the culmination of a process of
moral development that began with the cultivation of filial piety in
the home. Further, loyalty was also the most important quality to
maintain in order to survive and prosper in a pre-modern kingdom
ruled by an absolute monarch. It is not surprising, then, that we find
this virtue emphasized repeatedly and employed to explain various
other human attributes. In the case of Trn Hng a.o, for instance,
Ng S Lin even attributed his success as a general to his loyalty, for as
he wrote in his Complete Book of the Historical Records of a.i Vit, It must
Ng S Lin, a.i Vit s k ton th, Bn K 5/47a.

Xiaojing [Classic of filial piety], Guang yangming 14.
18
Fan Ye, Hou Hanshu [History of the Later Han] (fifth century), Wei Biao zhuan.
16
17
1970
LIAM C. KELLEY
be that the capacity to strategise and to be valiantly martial comes

from always harboring in ones heart a sense of loyal righteousness.
Our kingdoms general

While loyalty was the main concern for the literati who compiled
histories and other texts in pre-twentieth-century Vietnam, they
also clearly acknowledged Trn Hng a.os achievements on the
battlefield. The campaigns that he led against the Mongols were
recorded in detail, and he was recognized as a gifted strategist. That
said, there are two aspects of the praise for Trn Hng a.os martial
skills that deserve note. The first is that his capability as a general
was never viewed in isolation of characteristics that the literati who
wrote about him cherished, such as learning, loyalty, and filial piety.
The second is that his greatness as a general was usually expressed
by either comparing him to, or associating him with, famous generals
from Chinese history. The following assessments by two of the most
famous eighteenth-century literati, Ng Th S and Bi Huy Bch,
respectively, illustrate these two points.
King Hng a.o was loyal, righteous, wise and brave. The Tangs Prince of
Fengyang was second to him. Beyond his writings, his civil and martial skills
set the standard for the myriad polities. And beyond his accomplishments, his
heroism gained fame in the two kingdoms [that is, China and Vietnam].
His power could overturn rivers and mountains, could drive off wind and
thunder and cause fear in the Celestial awes closeness [that is, the Chinese
emperor]. His loyalty pierced the sun and moon, and his integrity moved
ghosts and spirits. In comparison with Prince Fenyang, he was a big step
beyond in terms of maintaining his loyalty and holding firm to righteousness.
The Classic of Changes states that [the exemplary man] comprehends that
which is minute and that which is manifest. He perceives that which is soft and
that which is hard. The myriad people [therefore] look to him.19 Because of
these [qualities], King Hng a.o was able to enjoy auspiciousness throughout
his days and maintain his honor. He therefore can truly serve as a model for
officials throughout the ages.20
19
Yijing [Classic of changes], Xici xia 5.

This comment is quoted in Kip Bc Va.n Linh t in tch [Documentary traces of
Va.n Linh shrine in Kip Bc] (1863), in S Van Ho Thng Tin Tnh Hi Dng,
Di sn Hn Nm Cn Sn - Kip Bc - Phng Sn [The heritage in Classical Chinese
and Nm from Cn Sn - Kip Bc - Phng Sn] (Hanoi: Nh Xut Bn Chnh Tri.
Quc Gia, 2006), p. 360.
20
1971
When people of previous generations praised good generals, they would

certainly speak of King Trn Hng a.o, and when they praised pure scholars,
they would certainly speak of Master Chu Van Trinh [the famous fourteenthcentury scholar, Chu Van An]. There has never been anyone to match them.
King Hng a.os talent, virtue, merit and accomplishments have stood out
through the ages. Perhaps only the Tang magistrate can compare. Although
historical works are not very thorough, nonetheless his accomplishments can
still be verified. King Hng a.o was from a privileged family, and Master
Van Trinh was a recluse. They did not follow the path of the civil service
examinations. However, those in later generations who were employed [by
the government], could all take these two as models.21
In both of these passages, Trn Hng a.o is compared to the same

person. The Tangs Prince of Fengyang and the Tang magistrate are
both references to Guo Ziyi, a Tang Dynasty general who put down the
An Lushan Rebellion and who was later regarded as one of the greatest
generals in Chinese history. I place Chinese in scare quotes here as
Ng Th S and Bi Huy Bch did not make such a distinction. To them
Guo Ziyi was simply a great general who served a great dynasty, and
who set a standard for other generals to aspire to. Further, in their
minds, Trn Hng a.o had exceeded that standard, and they felt that
this was due to the strength of such characteristics as his loyalty and
moral virtue. In the eighteenth century, the literati who would have
read these comments, like their counterparts throughout East Asia,
believed strongly in the importance of moral virtue and loyalty. They
believed that these characteristics were essential in order to succeed at
any endeavour, and particularly at the endeavours that they engaged
instudying for the civil service examinations and serving in the
government. Trn Hng a.o had followed a different path, but his
success likewise came from the strength of such characteristics as
moral virtue and loyalty, and he could therefore still serve as a model
for the literati.
While Ng Th S and Bi Huy Bch compared Trn Hng a.o to the
recognized standard of Guo Ziyi in order to demonstrate the degree of
his greatness, the L and Nguyn Dynasties created an institutional
setting in which these men likewise coexisted. In 1740, in an effort to
increase the L Dynastys power and prestige, an order was issued to
revive certain ancient rituals. One institution which was dealt with as a
result of this was the Martial Temple (V Miu). It is unclear when the
first martial temple was constructed. By the time this order was issued
21
Ibid, p. 361. Chu Van Trinh is more commonly known by the name Chu Van An.
1972
LIAM C. KELLEY
in 1740 it appears that there were multiple martial temples, as this

order says nothing about constructing such temples, but specifies that
each martial temple was to be supported by its surrounding district,
indicating that the temples already existed but had perhaps not been
maintained and were not all following the same rituals. This order
sought to standardize the ritual regimes in the martial temples in the
kingdom, and it did so by stipulating who was to be honoured in the
temples. It stated that the main figure honoured in the temple should
be Taigong, the general who had helped the Zhou Dynasty come to
power in antiquity. Both sides of the temple were then to be lined
with 18 other figures, all of whom we would today label as Chinese
generals. The order then specifically stated that Trn Hng a.o was
to be honoured following these figures.22
It is likely that these temples may again have fallen into disrepair or
been abandoned during the tumult of the Ty Sn Rebellion, for the
martial temple was not re-established under the subsequent Nguyn
Dynasty until 1835, during the reign of Emperor Minh Ma.ng. In that
year an official from the Board of Rites memorialized the throne to
request the establishment of a martial temple. This official noted that
in establishing a kingdom, both the literati and the military needed
to be attended to. To date, this official argued, literati matters had
received strong attention, but not military ones. It was thus important
to promote martial teachings to provide a model for members of the
military to emulate.23
This statement was not entirely true. After the Nguyn Dynasty was
established in 1802, a shrine to Guan Yu (also known as Guan Gong,
Guandi, and Guansheng Dijun) was set up next to Thin Mu. Pagoda
in Hue.24 Guan Yu was a general who lived during the final years of the
Han Dynasty and into the Three Kingdoms period. By the nineteenth
century, Guan Yu had served as the main figure of martial worship
in China for centuries, having surpassed Taigong in importance. His
presence was not unknown in Vietnam, for in the same year that
the L Dynasty ordered martial temples standardized (1740), it also
22
Phan Thanh Gin et al., Khm i.nh Vit s thong gim cng mu.c, Chnh Bin
38/34a.
23
Quc S Qun Triu Nguyn, Minh Mnh chnh yu [Essential administration of
the Minh Ma.ng reign], Tp 3 (Saigon: B Gio Du.c V Thanh Nin, 1974), 8/13b14a.
24
Ni Cc Triu Nguyn, Khm i.nh a.i Nam hi in s l [Imperially commissioned
collected statues and precedents of a.i Nam] (1851), A. 54, 92/4a.
1973
ordered shrines to Guan Yu be constructed next to martial temples.25

That said, the shrine to Guan Yu appended to a Buddhist pagoda in
1802 could clearly not compare with the order that Gia Long, the first
Nguyn emperor, issued in 1804 to support and regulate rituals at
multiple Temples of Literature (Van Miu) across the kingdom.26 It
was likely this imbalance that the official from the Board of Rites was
speaking of in 1835.
To support his argument, this official noted that during the Kaiyuan
era (731741 ce) of Tang Xuanzongs reign, the Tang Dynasty had
established a temple dedicated to Taigong. This event, this official
argued, constituted a precedent which the Nguyn Dynasty could
follow. He thereupon requested that a martial temple be erected, and
that famous generals from antiquity and meritorious officials from the
kingdom be selected to serve as models for later generations.
Emperor Minh Ma.ng agreed to this proposal, and ordered that a
temple dedicated to Taigong be erected to the west of the capital.
This temple was also to honour such famous personages from the
Northern Court (Bc Triu) as Guan Zhong, Zhang Liang, Han Xin,
Zhuge Liang, Li Jing, Guo Ziyi, and Yue Fei, followed by figures from
what Minh Ma.ng simply labelled Our Kingdom (Ng Quc), namely
Trn Hng a.o, L Khi, and several individuals from the current
dynasty. Finally, officials were to make offerings there twice a year,
which was the practice during the Tang Dynasty as well.27
Thus, in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Trn Hng
a.os position as an exemplary general garnered for him entre into
the martial temples of the L and Nguyn Dynasties. However, he
was simply one among many individuals who were honoured in these
temples. He may have been chronologically the first Vietnamese
general in these temples, but in the larger scheme of temples that
honoured Chinese figures before Vietnamese, his position was far
from central. This was even more the case in another Nguyn Dynasty
temple in which he was honoured, the Temple of Sovereigns from
Successive Generations (Li.ch a.i Vng Miu). This temple was
established by Emperor Minh Ma.ng in 1823, following a Ming Dynasty
precedent. The main figures honoured in this temple were Chinese
rulers from antiquity, such as Fu Xi and Shen Nong. They were
25
Phan Thanh Gin et al., Khm i.nh Vit s thong gim cng mu.c, Chnh Bin
38/34a.
26
Ni Cc Triu Nguyn, Khm i.nh a.i Nam hi in s l, 90/14a.
27
Quc S Qun Triu Nguyn, Minh Mnh chnh yu, 8/14a.
1974
LIAM C. KELLEY
followed by Vietnamese rulers, from Kinh Dng Vng and La.c

Long Qun to monarchs from the inh, L, Trn, and L Dynasties.
The final individuals honoured in this temple were officials who had
served monarchs well and benefited the people. While the records
do not use these terms, here again Chinese preceded Vietnamese,
with Trn Hng a.o placed chronologically sixth in a group of 15
Vietnamese officials and generals.28
Potent deity
Although the literati praised Trn Hng a.os loyalty and filial piety
and the L and Nguyn Dynasties honoured him by placing him in
their martial temples, there were other people who viewed Trn Hng
a.o in still other terms, namely as a potent deity. These beliefs appear
to have emerged around the area where Trn Hng a.o passed away
in Hi Dng Province. A shrine was erected there in his honour at
a place called Va.n Kip, which was later renamed Kip Ba.c. As time
passed, certain stories and legends emerged about Trn Hng a.o in
this area. This information was eventually recorded in the second half
of the eighteenth century in a text called the Supplementary Compilation
of Notes Made at Leisure (Cng d tip k tu.c bin), a work which was
assembled by a man named Trn Qu Nha, and in a history compiled
by Ng Th S entitled Model Cases from Vit History (Vit s tiu n).
According to Ng Th S, at some point prior to Trn Hng a.os
birth, a woman in Hi Dng Province, who was the wife of a merchant
from Fujian Province in China, dreamt that she had relations with a
dragon sprite and that her son would create troubles for the Southern
Kingdom. The Thearch () heard of this and ordered a green
immortal boy to descend to earth to control him. The future mother
of Trn Hng a.o then dreamed one night of a boy wearing a green
robe who threw himself into her embrace. She woke up after this and
subsequently found that she was pregnant.29 As for the woman who
was married to the Fujianese merchant, she also became pregnant and
gave birth to a son who did indeed eventually cause trouble for the
kingdom. According to Ng Th S, his name was Nguyn B Linh and
he served as a general for the invading Yuan army. However, he was
Ibid, 11/23b24a; Ni Cc Triu Nguyn, Khm i.nh a.i Nam hi in s l,
90/1a3a.
29
Ng Th S, Vit s tiu n, 2/42a.
28
1975
captured and killed by Trn Hng a.o. After Nguyn B Linh died, he
transformed into a demon (tuy.). If women came into contact with this
demon they would become ill. This was referred to as Pha.m Nhan,
and the only cure for this illness was to obtain and lie on a mat from
the shrine to Trn Hng a.os spirit. Once a woman had done so, the
demon that was ailing her would depart.30
Trn Qu Nhas account, meanwhile, states that Nguyn B Linhs
father was from Guangdong Province. It relates further that Nguyn
B Linh passed the exam to become a presented scholar (tin s) under
the Yuan Dynasty. Adept at using talismans, Nguyn B Linh entered
the Yuan royal palace to cure illnesses. While there he would engage
in intercourse with the palace women. He was caught and was set
to be executed for this, but was pardoned on the condition that he
help guide the Yuan in their attack on the South. He was captured,
and when Trn Hng a.o was about to give him his punishment,
Nguyn B Linh taunted Trn Hng a.o by asking what he would give
him to eat. Trn Hng a.o angrily responded that Nguyn B Linh
could eat the blood of pregnant women. Then, apparently, after he
died his spirit travelled around the land and would step on pregnant
women, making them incurably ill. Eventually, however, a cure for
this illness was discovered. It required that someone visit Trn Hng
a.os shrine, exchange a new mat for an old mat at the shrine, and
then lie on the old mat. If a woman did this, she would be cured of this
ailment.31
Even though Pha.m Nhan was a demon, there was seemingly a shrine
dedicated to him. Trn Qu Nha lamented that this licentious shrine
(dm t) had been in existence for 500 years and that no one had
destroyed it.32 However, he did not say anything critical about Trn
Hng a.os spirit. Neither did literati who recorded information about
this cult in the nineteenth century.33 One nineteenth-century writer
even commented positively on Trn Hng a.os power as a spirit
by noting that while various members of the Trn royal family had
become spirits after death, Trn Hng a.os spirit was the most
30
Ibid, 2/42ab.
Trn Qu Nha, Cng d tip k tu.c bin [Supplementary compilation of notes made
at leisure] (eighteenth century), A. 44, 37a36b.
32
Ibid, 36a36b.
33
See, for example, Nguyn Ph Chnh, Vit d phong vt tng ca ch gii ton tp
[Complete collection of the anthology of songs about the local customs and products
in the Vit territory, annotated and explained] (1811), A. 1041.
31
1976
LIAM C. KELLEY
potent. This literati attributed such potency to the fact that Trn
Hng a.o had been so loyal and filial when he was alive.34
Indeed, not only did literati not condemn Trn Hng a.os cult,
there is evidence that they participated in it as well. In his Random
Writings amidst the Rains (Vu trung ty bt), the famous early nineteenthcentury scholar-official Pha.m nh H offered an example of this in
an account about an official by the name of Hong Bnh Chnh, a
man who passed the exam to become a presented scholar in 1775
and eventually served as a scholar in the Hn Lm Academy, an office
that provided literary services to the court. Hong Bnh Chnh was
thus highly educated and a member of the elite. He also saw people
in his dreams. In particular, for a period of time Hong Bnh Chnh
often dreamed of a beautiful woman dressed like an imperial maiden
who would regularly come, and they would enjoy themselves together
just like a husband and wife. At first he suspected that this was a
demon, but as time passed and he remained healthy and there were
no problems in his daily life, he no longer found it strange.
Not long after this, however, Hong Bnh Chnhs wife became
ill. Her illness worsened and abated at random as if something was
possessing her. Hong Bnh Chnh sent someone to Va.n Kip to make
entreaties at the shrine to Trn Hng a.o and to obtain a mat from
inside the shrine to place on the wifes bed. Her illness then slightly
dissipated. But a short while later it went back to the way it had been
before. Hong Bnh Chnh then dreamt at night that the beautiful
woman said, I am not demonic (tuy.) to people, so what can King Hng
a.o do to me?35 The story then goes on to cover issues unrelated
to Trn Hng a.os spirit. What is significant, however, is that it
indicates that even high-ranking government officials were aware of,
and believed in the effectiveness of, his cult.
We can gain an even stronger sense of this in the postscript to a text
which was compiled in 1851. Called the Documentary Traces of Va.n Linh
Shrine in Kip Bc (Kip Bc Va.n Linh t in tch), this text gathered
Vit in u linh tp lu.c ton bin [Complete compilation of the collected records
of the departed spirits of the Vit realm] (nineteenth century), in Chen Qinghao
(ed.), Yuenan Hanwen xiaoshuo congkan [Compilation of Vietnamese literary accounts
written in Chinese], Series II (Paris and Taibei: cole Franaise dExtrme-Orient
and Student Book Co., 1992), p. 220. This is a nineteenth-century version of a text that
was originally compiled in the fourteenth century. Trn Hng a.o was not discussed
in the original text.
35
Pha.m nh H, Vu trung ty bt [Random writings amidst the rains], (early
nineteenth century), A. 145, 50a.
34
1977
together information about Trn Hng a.os life and military exploits.
It contains a postscript which was written by a certain Pha.m Vo.ng, who
at the time was assistant prefect under the provincial administration
commission of Nam i.nh Province. Pha.m Vo.ng records that in the
years immediately prior to writing his postscript he was nearing 50
and still did not have a son. This was cause for worry. As it happened,
a group of doctors visited him and told him that they worshipped the
venerable spirit (tn thn), meaning the spirit of Trn Hng a.o, and
that they wished to build a new shrine, but were not sure how to do
so. While the text does not make this point explicit, perhaps these
were doctors whom Pha.m Vo.ng had previously visited in regard to
the fertility problems that he and his wife were facing. In any case,
Pha.m Vo.ng reported the doctors wish to one of his superiors, the
governor general of Nam i.nh and Hng Yn provinces, ng Van
Ho. Governor General Ho responded positively that Great King
Tran is an orthodox spirit of the Southern Kingdom. From the past to
the present he has truly served as a model for the people and officials.
He also stated that it had long been his wish, too, to construct such
a shrine, and now he suggested that they find an appropriate site on
high and dry ground to do so.36
The shrine was built in ng Mc Commune, My Lc District, Nam
i.nh Province. After it was completed Pha.m Vo.ng and some of the
shrines other devotees went to the main shrine dedicated to Trn
Hng a.o in Va.n Kip in 1849 to bring back a name tablet to venerate.
During this trip, Pha.m Vo.ng secretly made an entreaty to the spirit
of Trn Hng a.o that his wife become pregnant. After reciting this
entreaty, Pha.m Vo.ng saw an immediate response in the smoke from
the incense there in the temple. A month later, Pha.m Vo.ngs wife did
indeed become pregnant. The following year Vo.ng took up a post in a
different location. On the occasion of the anniversary of the death of
Trn Hng a.o, he visited the new shrine. Heavy rains forced him to
spend the night there, during which time he had a vision in his dream
in which Trn Hng a.o handed him a piece of yellow paper with the
characters trn and khanh written on it. The following month Pha.m
Vo.ngs wife gave birth to a son, and they named him Trn Khanh.37
Pha.m Vo.ng then noted in his concluding remarks in his postscript
that he was over 50 and now had a son to whom he could entrust
36
37
Kip Bc Va.n Linh t in tch, p. 370.

Ibid, pp. 370371.
1978
LIAM C. KELLEY
the familys poetry and writings, and who could take responsibility for
maintaining the worship of the familys ancestors. All of this, Pha.m
Vo.ng felt, had been bestowed upon him by the spirit of Trn Hng
a.o. This was a gift which Pha.m Vo.ng knew he could never repay.
Nonetheless he recorded this information in an attempt to at least
repay a tiny fraction of what he had gained by spreading news of the
spirit of Trn Hng a.os great deeds.38
Confucian moralizer
While some literati therefore participated in and recorded information
about Trn Hng a.os cult in the eighteenth and nineteenth
centuries, in the 1890s Trn Hng a.o began to express himself
directly. He did this through spirit writing (ging bt). Spirit writing
is a phenomenon where a spirit possesses a person who then writes
out a message from the spirit in a bed or tray of sand by holding a
special writing implement and letting the spirit indicate what to write.
Someone standing by the tray of sand then reads out the characters as
they are written, and a third person records the message on paper. This
is a practice that literati traditionally looked down upon, as such direct
contact with spirits was considered a form of heterodoxy. However,
in the late nineteenth century in Vietnam, parts of China, and in
Japanese-controlled Taiwan, this practice enjoyed an intense period
of activity.39 While this outburst of spirit writing may have occurred as
a kind of reaction to the troubles of the times, and particularly to the
onset of colonial rule, as a genre of writing it was intimately related
to a kind of text known as morality books (thin th).
Morality books were texts which had been revealed in China by
spirits such as Wenchang Dijun and Guangsheng Dijun. Such texts
first appeared during the period of Song Dynasty (9601279) and, like
Neo Confucianism, can in some ways be seen as a Confucian response
to Buddhist ideas. They encouraged people to live in accordance
with Confucian moral standards, but they used the logic of karmic
retribution to encourage people to do so, arguing that if you did good
things, good things would happen to you, and if you did bad things, bad
38
Ibid, p. 371.
Spirit writing in Taiwan has received the most scholarly attention. See David K.
Jordan and Daniel L. Overmyer, The Flying Phoenix: Aspects of Chinese Sectarianism in
Taiwan (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1986).
39
1979
things would happen to you. This karmic logic, however, was justified
through reference to passages in the Confucian classics, such as a
line in the Classic of Documents (Shangshu) which states that, On those
who do good are sent down a hundred blessings, and on those who do
evil are sent down a hundred calamities.40 That said, as texts that
were said to have originally been revealed, they were also considered
somewhat heterodox by the elite. Nonetheless, they were tolerated as
effective tools for encouraging common people to follow Confucian
mores. At the same time, some members of the elite would also chant
these texts on a daily basis in an effort to create merit for themselves,
so that their wives could produce sons, or so that their sons could pass
the civil service examination.41 What literati were not supposed to
do, however, was to contact the spirits directly themselves, but this
is precisely what started to happened at the end of the nineteenth
century in Vietnam.
At some point in the late nineteenth century, Vietnamese went
from reading these texts to creating their own, and Trn Hng a.o
was directly responsible for the production of what was perhaps the
first such text in Vietnam, one which appears to have been created
at some point in the 1890s.42 This text, revealed in classical Chinese,
was called the Orthodox Scripture of the Great King Who Manifests the Divine
(Hin Thnh a.i Vng chnh kinh), and will hereafter be referred to
as the Orthodox Scripture. Trn Hng a.o revealed some prefatory
remarks to this text in which he stated that as he looked down on
the world from above, he started to worry about the condition of his
disciples ( t). He found that they acted with sincerity, but their
hearts were not introspective, so when they sought a response [from
the spirits], that response did not last. Trn Hng a.o then took pity
on his disciples and commissioned his deputy, Pha.m Ng
u Lo, to take
a spirit carriage to visit H La.c Shrine [in Kip Ba.c.], descend into
40
Shangshu [Classic of documents], Yixun.

For the origins of morality books, see Cynthia Brokaw, The Ledgers of Merit and
Demerit: Social Change and Moral Order in Late Imperial China (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1991).
42
The same transformation from reading morality books to creating new texts
through spirit writing occurred at the same time in Taiwan. See Philip Clart, The
Ritual Context of Morality Books: A Case-Study of a Taiwanese Spirit-Writing Cult
(PhD thesis, University of British Columbia, 1986).
41
1980
LIAM C. KELLEY
the brush, and transmit the Orthodox Scripture.43 The actual text of the
Orthodox Scripture is then recorded as follows:
People live between Heaven and earth and must engage in the enterprise of
the sages. What is this enterprise? It is nothing more than loyalty and filial
piety. Loyalty and filial piety are essential for the five relationships. Neither
can be lacking. You must consider how you can be filial as sons, how you can
be loyal as officials, how you can be harmonious as brothers, how you can be
respectful as wives, and how you can be trustworthy as friends. Above, one
respects the Heavenly spirits and serves ones ancestors. Below, one holds in
measure the dark souls and engages in hidden virtue. In conducting oneself
such, will one not fully carry out the Way? Otherwise one will fall prey to
the laws of the King of Hell, and upon ones death, receive the censure of
Heaven. One will be eternally divorced from the proper human Way [nhn
a.o]. To not follow the proper human Way, how sad that is!
Those of you who are my disciples, make haste and return to carrying out
good deeds. In order to eradicate the various forms of evil, first uphold the
five relationships, then carry out hidden virtue. Absolutely abstain from
wine, licentiousness, wealth and arrogance. Completely reject arrogance,
parsimoniousness and graft. Carry out my benevolence and justness. Do not
assist others in their idle talk. Maintain my loyalty and filial piety. Do not
get involved in base complaints. Organise ones home with pure simplicity.
Grant ones descendents trust and tolerance. Scholars, farmers, workers
and merchants should follow their allotted occupations. They should not
degenerate into opulence, but always return to what is generous and moral.
[In so doing] the spirits will naturally respect the king of the underworld;
disasters will depart and good fortune will arrive. There will be no need
to make blasphemous entreaties of my spirit, for auspiciousness will collect
and blessings arrive en masse. Is that not joyful? You must strive to carry
this out. If you violate my teachings, then you must not chant my scripture.
Respectfully [presented].44
In this scripture we see Trn Hng a.o as literati saw him, and
promoting the ideas that they valued. In particular, his claim that the
enterprise of the sages (thnh nghip) is nothing more than loyalty and
filial piety makes him the perfect spokesperson for this enterprise as
those are the two values which literati associated with him. At the same
time, Trn Hng a.o brings in many more values that were part of the
Confucian repertoire at both the elite and popular levels. Filial piety,
43
This scripture is contained in Trn gia in tch thng bin [Complete compilation
of the documentary traces of the Trn family] (1899), A. 324, 25a. Pha.m Ng
u Lo
was a general who served under Trn Hng a.o in some of the battles against the
Mongols in the thirteenth century and who was married to Trn Hng a.os adopted
daughter.
44
Ibid, 25b26a.
1981
loyalty, respect, harmony, and trust are all values which were discussed
in elite texts but likely known by common people as well. Hidden
virtue (m cht), meanwhile, was a concept that the morality book
tradition was based on, and which the elite encouraged commoners to
follow. The idea of hidden virtue was that those who carry out virtuous
acts with no calculation of the positive consequences of such acts will
definitely reap a positive response. For many men at the time there
was no more positive response that one could reap than having a son,
and this was one blessing which the Orthodox Scripture could help obtain.
The Orthodox Scripture is included in a larger text entitled the Complete
Compilation of the Documentary Traces of the Trn Family. This compilation
also contains testimonials of men who succeeded in obtaining sons
after seeking Trn Hng a.os aid. These stories follow a similar
pattern in that the men were married to women who did not bear
sons. The men then travelled to Trn Hng a.os shrine where they
petitioned him for help, and where they obtained a copy of his Orthodox
Scripture. Then, after a long periodin some cases yearsof regularly
reciting the scripture, their wives finally gave birth to sons.45
These ideas that we find in the Orthodox Scripture were very common
throughout the late imperial period in East Asia. In the first dozen
years of the twentieth century, Trn Hng a.o revealed many more
messages along these lines. He was by no means the only spirit to reveal
messages at that time, but he gradually became the most important
Southern spirit, and in many ways served as a deputy in the South for
the Northern spirits who had originally created morality books in the
North, such as Wenchang Dijun and Guansheng Dijun. Hence, Trn
Hng a.os role in revealing messages through spirit writing to some
extent mirrored his position in institutions like the Martial Temple,
where he was an important Southern representative of a world which
was centred in the North. Trn Hng a.os spirit made this point
explicit when, in 1900, it explained that in the past, after a kingdom
had first emerged in the region, its social mores were depraved and
its customs decrepit. I greatly lamented this fact. Ah, but with the
training of King S/Shi and the transformative teachings of Wengong,
the Southern Kingdom ceased to be confined in the south.
King S/Shi was S Nhip/Shi Xie, a Chinese administrator who
served in the region in the third century ce, and whom centuries
later Vietnamese literati honoured as the figure who had introduced
45
See, for example, ibid, 119a120b.
1982
LIAM C. KELLEY
writing and Confucian teachings to their land. Wengong, meanwhile,

was the Song Dynasty philosopher Zhu Xi. What Trn Hng a.o
expressed here was an idea which was common among literati prior
to the twentieth century, that their land had only taken its mature
form with the spread of elite cultural practices from the North. As a
potent deity who revealed moral messages through writing, Trn Hng
a.os spirit contributed further to this process in the early twentieth
century. However, just as this was happening, the Southern Kingdom
began to transform in dramatic ways, such that soon this world which
Trn Hng a.os spirit was endeavouring to support would come to
an end.
National hero
Right as Trn Hng a.os spirit was revealing moral messages in
the early twentieth century, the first generation of scholars to be
influenced by Western ideas began to transform Trn Hng a.o into a
national hero. What these reformers became aware of is that the worldview that was exemplified by such politically charged structures as the
Temple of Sovereigns from Successive Generations and the Martial
Temple, was very different from the world-view of the Westerners who
were extending their dominance over the region. Westerners saw the
world as divided between nations, each of which had its own history
and culture. As reformist intellectuals came to realize this, they sought
to change the way in which people in their land thought. In doing this,
they created a shared discourse which is easily recognizable in their
writings and which through their use of neologisms is very distinct from
earlier writings. In particular, these reformist intellectuals started to
make use of such new terms as nation (quc gia), fatherland (t
quc), and compatriots (ng bo), words that had been coined by
Japanese reformers in the second half of the nineteenth century to
translate Western terms that did not exist in Japanese (or Chinese or
Vietnamese) at that time.46
46
For an example of the use of these terms in a work produced by a Vietnamese

reformer, see Hong a.o Thnh (comp.), Vit s tn c ton bin [Complete
compilation of a new summary of Vit history] (1906), A. 1507, 1a1b. For a
detailed discussion about the creation of neologisms in Japan in the nineteenth
century that were then adopted into Chinese, see Lydia He Liu, Translingual Practice:
Literature, National Culture, and Translated Modernity: China, 19001937 (Stanford:
Stanford University Press, 1995). The same terms that Liu discusses in this work
1983
First, reformers contrasted the way in which people in Western

countries educated their populace with the way in which people were
educated in their own land. In particular, they noted that Western
nationsnation (quc gia) being a new concept at this time for
Vietnamese, although the term that was used to express it had long
existedtaught students about their own nation, whereas students
in what they termed our nation or our kingdom, studied the
Northern Kingdom or China. This marked a major intellectual
transformation. For instance, what had long simply been history now
became Chinese history. The National History Textbook for Reformed
Elementary Studies, a textbook created by reformers in the early
twentieth century, makes these points clear in its introduction, where
it states that,
Studies in the Occident [Thi Ty] place first importance on national history.
All of the male and female students in each school are first taught their own
nations history . . . Studies in our nation just stick stubbornly to the rotten
and base Chinese [Chi N] writings. As for this nations [writings], they know
nothing, as if they were in a fog.47
Second, reformist intellectuals placed the blame for this lack of

concern for the nation on the fact that education in the past had
focused on preparing students to take the civil service exam. For
instance, a text published by the ng Kinh Ngha Thu.c, a reformist
school in Hanoi which ran from 19071908, stated that the students
who studied for the civil service exam buried their heads in Northern
histories, and the famous people and great events of our fatherland
were indifferently put to the side.48 Or, as scholar-official Hong Cao
Khi stated in 1914 in his Summary of Vit History, because students
had studied Northern histories to prepare for the exams, none of the
educated people in the kingdom knew about the race [chng tc] of our
land.49
entered into the Vietnamese world as well; however, that process has yet to be clearly
documented.
47
Ci lng mng ho.c quc s gio khoa th [National history textbook for reformed
elementary studies] (early twentieth century), R. 1946, nguyn t 1a and 1b. Chi
N is the Vietnamese pronunciation for a term, Shina, which the Japanese began to
use in the second half of the nineteenth century to refer to China. It had derogatory
connotations.
48
Nam quc giai s [The Southern Kingdoms great matters] (early twentieth
century), A. 3207, t 1b.
49
Hong Cao Khi, Vit s yu [Summary of Vit history] (1914), R. 173, t 4a4b.
Race was, of course, a new concept at the time in East Asia.
1984
LIAM C. KELLEY
Third, reformist intellectuals then provided specific examples of

the effect of this focus on studying for the exams. They did this
by contrasting the knowledge that people had of Chinese historical
individuals with the lack of knowledge that people had of Vietnamese
historical figures. As the above text, published by the ng Kinh Ngha
Thu.c, stated, If you ask someone about Han Gao[zu] or Zhuge [Liang],
even a three-foot tall youngster can respond with ease. However,
If you ask about the achievements of L [Thi] T or Trn [Hng
a.o], teachers and scholars can search but still not find sufficient
information.50 Hong Cao Khi similarly lamented that people in the
past who studied for the exams knew about Han [Gao]zu and Tang
[Taizong], but did not know that inh Tin Hong and L Thi T
had served as sovereigns. They knew about Kongming [Zhuge Liang]
and Di Renjie, but did not know that T Hin Thnh and Trn [Hng
a.o] had served as officials.51
This unfortunate state of affairs, reformers argued, needed to
change. Getting people to learn the history of their nation was the
key way to do this. They therefore produced textbooks on the history
of the nation with the declared aim of imprinting the word nation in
peoples brains so that they would realize that they were citizens of a
nation and thereby identify with the nation. As one such text stated in
1906, When people reach the age of seven and enter primary schools,
they should be made to learn the nations literature, and to intone the
nations history. The same should be true for women, for this is how
we can get the word, nation, imprinted in each persons brain.52
The ideas that Vietnamese reformers were promoting were very
similar to those of Westernizing Chinese intellectuals like Liang
Qichao, and of the Japanese reformers from whom he learned. Further,
from memoirs and historical accounts it is clear that intellectuals
at this time read some of the New Writings (Tn Th), which
were written at the turn of the twentieth century by Chinese
reformers.53 However, it is relatively rare that specific texts are
50
Nam quc giai s, t 1b.

Hong Cao Khi, Vit s yu, t 4b5a.
52
Hong a.o Thnh (comp.), Vit s tn c ton bin, A. 1507, 1a. For another
example of this use of the expression imprint the word nation in peoples brains,
see Ng Gip Du, Trung ho.c Vit s tot yu [Summary of Vit history for middle
school] (1911), A. 770, 2b.
53
See, for instance, Vnh Snh and Nicholas Wickenden (trans.), Overturned Chariot:
The Autobiography of Phan-Bi-Chu (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1999),
p. 58.
51
1985
mentioned. Nonetheless, from the similarities between the writings

of Chinese intellectuals like Liang Qichao and reformist Vietnamese
intellectuals, such as the authors of the texts cited above, we can see
that the ideas of Chinese reformers were either adopted in Vietnam,
or that the historical trajectories of these two societies were so similar
that intellectuals in the two places responded to the changing times
in very similar ways. Given, however, that we can often find similar
ideas expressed by Chinese intellectuals earlier than their Vietnamese
counterparts, it would appear that there was a flow of information from
north to south during this period.
For instance, in 1902, a few years before Vietnamese reformers
called for a national history in the texts above, Liang Qichao had
argued in an essay entitled New Historiography that China likewise
did not have a national history. He noted that although Chinese
had recorded historical information for centuries, this information
had focused on imperial courts, rather than on the nation, and
that, therefore, Chinese did not think in nationalist terms. However,
without a history of the nation, he argued, there would be no way for
the people of the nation to unite.54 Liang Qichao therefore wanted
historians to write a new type of history, which would take the nation
as its main focus so that China could unite and be strong.
However, as Xiaobing Tang has pointed out, when Liang Qichao
provided examples of the form in which a new history could be
written, he did so by narrating heroic biographies, thereby creating
an ambiguity as to the importance of the individual hero versus
society.55 At the time, discussion of heroes was widespread among
Chinese intellectuals as there was a worry among Chinese reformers
at the turn of the twentieth century that China was passive and
did not have dynamic heroes like Western countries did.56 Many
biographies of influential Westerners were produced which discussed
their vitality and achievements. In 1902, for instance, Liang Qichao
wrote biographies of Louis Kossuth (18021894), Giuseppe Mazzini
(18051872), Giuseppe Garibaldi (18071882), Count Camillo di
Cavour (18101861), and Madame Roland (17541793).57 He wrote
about such people as positive examples for Chinese to follow, but he
54
Lin Yi (ed.), Liang Qichao shixue luanzhu sanzhong [Three discussions of
historiography by Liang Qichao] (Hong Kong: Joint Publishing Co., 1980).
55
Xiaobing Tang, Global Space and the Nationalist Discourse of Modernity: The Historical
Thinking of Liang Qichao (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996), p. 81.
56
Joan Judge, Print and Politics: Shibao and the Culture of Reform in Late Qing China
(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1996), pp. 9495.
57
Tang, Global Space, pp. 82114.
1986
LIAM C. KELLEY
was ambiguous about their ultimate role. For instance, on the question
of whether heroes create the age or the age creates heroes, Liang
argued in an 1899 work that the two phenomena were interconnected
and played off each other.58
The ambiguities that are present in the writings of intellectuals
like Liang Qichao are a reflection of the difficulties he faced
in creating a new form of history (a national history) with new
protagonists (national heroes) for a new audience (a national
citizenry). Vietnamese reformers faced the same difficulties, and we
can see this in their attempts to refashion Trn Hng a.o from a loyal
and filial general into a hero (anh hng). To do this, reformers had to
first introduce this idea of a hero and convince readers that such people
had existed in the past. As they did this, they mixed together old and
new ideas. We can see this in two texts published by the ng Kinh
Ngha Thu.c. One, entitled Biographies of the Southern Kingdoms Great
People (Nam Quc v nhn truyn), states in its preface in very traditional
terms that, When the potent and exquisite kh [Chinese, qi] of the
mountains and rivers gathers for long, it eventually leaks forth, and
thereupon magnificent and special people emerge. Then, reflecting
some of the ideas that had been circulating in Chinese reformist
writings, it states that in the past such heroes and worthies have
emerged and made the age.59 Meanwhile, another text published by
the ng Kinh Ngha Thu.c, The Southern Kingdoms Great Matters (Nam
quc giai s), notes in its preface that the neglect of national history had
led heroes to become buried. Nonetheless, using three neologisms, it
argues that for centuries there had been great people in the land who
had taken self-determination (t ch) as their creed (ch ngha), and
patriotism (i quc) as their spirit.60
Patriotism and self-determination were concepts that applied to the
new age of nations which Vietnamese reformers wanted their land
to enter. Loyalty and filial piety belonged to the age they wished to
leave. As such, neither of these virtues was mentioned in the short
biography of Trn Hng a.o which appeared in the Biographies of the
Southern Kingdoms Great People. Instead, the text simply states that he
was stately in appearance and surpassed others in intelligence, and
that he read widely and was well versed in both civil and military
58
Zhang Pinxing (ed.), Liang Qichao chuanji [Complete collection of Liang Qichaos
works], Vol. 1 (Beijing: Beijing chubanshe, 1999), pp. 340341.
59
Nam Quc v nhn truyn [Biographies of great people of the Southern Kingdom]
(early twentieth century), A. 3207, t 1a and 1b.
60
Nam quc giai s, t 1a and 1b.
1987
affairs. It then says that when the Yuan came to raid, Emperor Trn
Thnh Tng stated to Trn Hng a.o at some point during the Thiu
Bo era (12791285 ce), With the bandits strength like this, I can
surrender. Trn Hng a.o then replied, First cut off my head, and
then surrender. The emperor thereupon put Trn Hng a.o in charge
of the army and he defeated the Yuan at Va.n Kip. Then, in the
second year of the Trng Hng era (1286 ce) the Yuan again came
to invade, and the emperor summoned Trn Hng a.o to ask about
strategy. This time Trn Hng a.o said, This year the bandits are
not a worry.61
Information about conversations between Trn Hng a.o and
Emperor Trn Thnh Tng does exist in the Complete Book of the
Historical Records of a.i Vit; however, prior to the twentieth century
literati had not cited this information in praising Trn Hng a.o.
This was a new development. It was also a selective reading of the
sources. First, the conversation that this text states occurred during
the Thiu Bo era is actually undated. It appears in the Complete Book
of the Historical Records of a.i Vit in an entry for the year 1300. That
was the year Trn Hng a.o passed away, and after reporting his
death, the text provides various pieces of information about his life,
including this undated exchange with Trn Thnh Tng.
Earlier in the text, however, there is a detailed record of a
conversation between these two men. In particular, in 1286 Trn
Thnh Tng asked Trn Hng a.o what he thought of the enemys
strength. At that time, Trn Hng a.o responded that,
Our kingdom has been at peace for a long time. The people do not know
about military matters. Previously when the Yuan came and raided, there
were those who surrendered or fled. By relying on the potent awe of the
imperial ancestors, Your Highnesss divine [perspicacity] and martial [awe]
wiped clean the dust of the nomadic barbarians. If they come again, our troops
are trained at fighting, while their army fears a distant campaign. They are
also dejected by the defeats of Heng and Guan. They do not have the heart
to fight. As I see it, they are sure to be defeated.62
Far more complex than the undated first cut off my head statement,
in this conversation Trn Hng a.o predicted success based in part
on the lack of morale among the enemy troops, and noted that his own
kingdoms people were apt to surrender and flee. These were ideas
61
Nam Quc v nhn truyn, 6b7a.

Ng S Lin, a.i Vit s k ton th, Bn K 5/51ab. Li Heng and Li Guan were
two Yuan officers who were killed in the first invasion.
62
1988
LIAM C. KELLEY
which clearly were not appropriate for a national hero to express.

It is understandable, then, why the information in the Biographies of
the Southern Kingdoms Great People took the form it did. At the same
time, however, the same dilemma which Liang Qichao struggled with
appeared here, too. Trn Hng a.o was a national hero, but where
was the nation?
The National History Textbook for Reformed Elementary Studies (Ci lng
mng ho.c quc s gio khoa th), a text which was published in the early
twentieth century for the purpose of creating a national history, found
a way to address this dilemma. Employing several neologisms, this
work notes that the kingdom used to be an absolute monarchy (qun ch
chuyn ch) and that the peoples rights (dn quyn) were restricted. As
a result, they could not participate in making decisions about matters
concerning the kingdom or the army. However, during the period of
the Trn Dynasty the feel of a sovereign-citizen republic (qun dn cng
ha) existed. When the Yuan attacked, the emperor called together
elders from the people and consulted them about strategy; it was
because of this that the people became determined to put up a strong
resistance. The author then goes on to say that it is foolish to attribute
the victory over the Mongols 50,000 troops to the achievements of
someone like Trn Hng a.o, because he relied on the aspirations of
the people.63
The mention here of consulting with elders refers to an episode
recorded in the Complete Book of the Historical Records of a.i Vit for
the year 1284. Aware that the Mongols were coming to attack, the
emperor emeritus summoned elders from around the realm, dined
them, and asked them about strategy. They all reportedly responded
in unison, Fight!64 Ng S Lin made the following comments about
this event:
A raid by the Northern Barbarians is a great hardship for the kingdom. If
the two emperors meet to plan, and the officials hold discussions, how can
they not come up with a strategy for defense? What need is there to dine
elders and ask them about strategy? It was probably that [Trn] Thnh Tng
wanted to examine the sincerity of the lower peoples (ha. dn) support and to
get them to feel moved and riled up upon hearing the official pronouncement.
The import of the ancients taking care of the elderly and seeking [their]
words is present here.65
63
Ci lng mng ho.c quc s gio khoa th, 26b27a.

Ng S Lin, a.i Vit s k ton th, Bn K 5/44a.
65
Ibid, 44a44b.
64
1989
Ng S Lin clearly did not think much of this episode. Nonetheless,

he found justification for it in the ancient ritual text the Record of
Rites (Liji), where a certain ritual is mentioned which is called either
taking care of the elderly and seeking [their] words (yanglao qiyan) or
simply the taking care of the elderly ritual (yanglao li).66 This was a
ritual in which the king would throw a feast for elders. The words that
were sought do not appear to have been words of advice, but merely of
approval. For a scholar-official like Ng S Lin, this was appropriate as
he likely saw no need for a monarch to seek advice from anyone other
than his officials. To justify this episode during the Trn period, he
therefore explained it as an instance in which the ruler simply sought
pro forma words of approval rather than actual advice, as was the case
with this ancient ritual.
While Ng S Lin therefore looked to antiquity to dismiss the
importance of this historical event, the author of the National History
Textbook for Reformed Elementary Studies reinterpreted it in order to give
people in the present hope for the future. If the land had once been
a sovereign-citizen republic, then succeeding in the modern world
by becoming a republic in the future was not inconceivable, and
Trn Hng a.o was enlisted to promote this and related causes. In
1914, for instance, L Van Phc, Phan K Bnh, and Pha.m Van Thu.
produced a historical novel about Trn Hng a.o with such purposes
in mind. Their introduction contains the same lament that you find
repeated in the writings of reformers in the early twentieth century,
namely that although Vietnam had a long history, because of the
educational system, people only knew about Chinese history. People
thus did not know who the heroes (anh hng) who fought against China
(Tu) were, or who had performed meritorious service for the citizens
(quc dn). It was now necessary, these authors argued, to forge a
national soul (quc hn). To do this one needed to create a mechanism
(my mc) that would develop the peoples intellects and imprint the
word nation in their brains. This mechanism could take various
forms. Creating national histories was one; another was to create
stories for common people to listen to or to watch as plays. It was
66
For the reference to taking care of the elderly and seeking [their] words, see
Liji [Record of rites], Wenwang shizi. For the taking care of the elderly ritual, see the
Wangzhi chapter.
1990
LIAM C. KELLEY
this second form that these three authors sought to create with this
publication.67
This idea of a national soul was adapted from German and French
Romantic nationalist ideas and was part of the new nationalist
discourse in East Asia at the turn of the twentieth century.68 L Van
Phc, Phan K Bnh, and Pha.m Van Thu. saw a national soul for
Vietnam in Trn Hng a.o and his relationship with the people.
Echoing the argument of the National History Textbook for Reformed
Elementary Studies, they stated that while Trn Hng a.o was a hero,
his accomplishments were made possible only because he was one with
the people. Just as a fish needs water, so did Trn Hng a.o need the
peoples support in order to succeed in defeating the Mongols. L Van
Phc, Phan K Bnh, and Pha.m Van Thu. then developed this argument
further by stating that during the period of the Trn Dynasty, people
followed Buddhism and were thus more altruistic, daring, and patient.
They were willing to sacrifice themselves to save the world (x thn
c th). Further, the monarch and his officials interacted as equals,
and much authority was given to local officials. This all made the soul
of the nation strong. Unfortunately, the authors argued, histories did
not talk about these issues and this soul. Therefore, later generations
of citizens only knew about Tran Hung Dao through his role in fighting
ghosts and other superstitious practices.69
Hero and deity
The early twentieth century was thus a seminal moment in the creation
of Trn Hng a.o as a national hero, for it was at that time that the
concepts of both the nation and its heroes were first conceived. Trn
Hng a.o was imagined in new ways to fit these new concepts. In the
process, values which had previously been associated with him were
downplayed or even discarded. His loyalty to the monarch and his filial
piety, for instance, were no longer of prime importance. It was also
necessary to take him out of the world-view that saw the South as a
lesser component in a larger world, and to place him at the forefront
of an individual nation. There was thus no longer a need to liken him
L Van Phc, Phan K Bnh, and Pha.m Van Thu., Hng a.o vng [The Hng
a.o king] (H Ni: ng Kinh n Qun, 2nd edition, 1935; 1st edition, 1914), pp.
iiiiv.
68
Lung-Kee Sun, The Chinese National Character: From Nationhood to Individuality
(Armonk: M. E. Sharpe, 2002), pp. 5155.
69
Ibid, ivv.
67
1991
to Guo Ziyi or to envision him as furthering the efforts of Northern

deities to spread Confucian values. His role now was to serve as the
hero of the nation.
That said, it still took a long time for Trn Hng Do to fully become
the hero of the nation that he is widely recognized as today. It is beyond
the scope of this article to examine the transformations in Trn Hng
Dos status as a hero that took place in the twentieth century, but
clearly such changes did take place, and it evidently took a long time
for his image as a hero of the nation to become fully established.
During the height of the colonial period in the 1920s and 1930s, it
would appear that Trn Hng a.o was only discussed to a limited
degree. For instance, he was part of a history contest which the Saigon
newspaper Morning Bell (Thn chung) held in 1929 to determine who the
greatest person in Vietnamese history was, but he was presented as one
among numerous alternatives for that title.70 During the 1940s, with
the promotion of Vietnamese nationalism by the Vichy government in
an effort to counter Japanese pan-Asian, there was likely an increase
in the mention of his name, particularly given that Governor General
Jean Decoux visited his temple in Kip Ba.c.71 Although the reformers
in the early twentieth century had been the first people in Vietnam
to start thinking of heroes, in 1943 Hoa Bng criticized them for only
talking about Charlemagne and Alexander the Great.72 He contrasted
their supposed lack of discussion of Vietnamese heroes to his own time,
but in reality such statements probably indicate that the creation and
promotion of heroes had stalled in the intervening years, and were only
then being discussed more freely. Finally, when Trn Tro.ng Kim ruled
over an independent Vietnamese nation in the spring and summer of
1945, he had Paul Bert Street in Hue renamed Trn Hng Da.o Street,
a sign that Trn Hng a.o was finally taking a place of prominence.73
However, the division of Vietnam in the 1950s undoubtedly led to
different interpretations of Trn Hng Dos heroic role. Benot de
Trglod has written a wonderful volume on the use of heroes by the
Communists in the North, but there is much more that can be said
Quc thi quc s ca Thn chung: 6 Trn Hng a.o [Morning Bells history
competition: 6 Trn Hng a.o], Thn chung [Morning Bell] 143 (19 July 1929), p. 1.
71
Eric T. Jennings, Vichy in the Tropics: Ptains National Revolution in Madagascar,
Guadeloupe, and Indochina, 19401944 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2001),
pp. 153154.
72
Hoa Bng, Quc s ngy nay [National history nowadays], Tri tn [Learning
Anew] 97 (27 May 1943), p. 2.
73
Vu Ngu Chieu, The Other Side of the 1945 Vietnamese Revolution: The Empire
of Viet-Nam (MarchAugust 1945), Journal of Asian Studies 45.2 (1986), p. 309.
70
1992
LIAM C. KELLEY
about the specific topic of Trn Hng a.o as a hero, and how he
was represented in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.74 An article
published in 1956 in the North with the awkward title of Oppose
the worship of individuals, but it is necessary to recognise the role of
individuals in history, for instance, was written shortly after Nikita
Khrushchev had denounced Stalins cult of personality, and its author
engaged in a complex line of argumentation to defend the reverence of
Trn Hng a.o as a national hero in light of Krushchevs statements.75
Intellectuals in the South, meanwhile, did not have to respond to the
same ideological changes as their counterparts in the North. How they
represented Trn Hng a.o and what role he played in the South are
issues that deserve attention.
Another topic that deserves attention is when and how the term
hero of the nation (anh hng dn tc) came to be used. The term for
nation (dn tc) which is used today in an expression like hero of
the nation is not the same as the term which was used at the turn
of the twentieth century (quc gia). Dn tc has connotations of both
political nation-state as well as ethnic nationality, whereas quc gia has
the political sense but less of the connotation of a nationality. How
these terms were used over the course of the twentieth century and
how ideas about Trn Hng a.o changed with the changing usage of
these terms are topics which remain unexamined.
Also, while Pha.m Qu`ynh Phng has done a wonderful job of
examining the recent resurgence of interest in Trn Hng Dos cult,
his status as a potent deity was discussed by intellectuals during the
twentieth century, and these views also deserve further attention.
In 1942, for instance, an intellectual by the name of Nguyn Duy
Tinh visited Trn Hng Dos shrine in Kip Ba.c and was shocked
to find throngs of people there engaging in superstitious practices
and thinking nothing of Trn Hng Dos status as a hero.76 One
wonders how Trn Hng a.os continued status as a deity was treated
throughout the twentieth century and ultimately silenced for several
decades until the 1990s.
74
Benot de Trglod, Hros et Rvolution au Vit Nam [Heroes and revolution in
Vietnam] (Paris: LHarmatttan, 2001).
75
Minh Tranh, Chng sng bi c nhn, nhng cn nhn r vai tr c nhn trong
li.ch s [Oppose the worship of individuals, but it is necessary to recognize the role
of individuals in history], Van s i.a [Literature, History, Geography] 18 (1956),
pp. 113.
76
Nguyn Duy Tinh, n Kip Ba.c [The Kip Ba.c temple], Tri tn 79 (7 January
1943), pp. 1820.
1993
Finally, today Trn Hng a.o has a prominent position in the Cult
of the Mothers (a.o Mu), a cult dedicated to certain female deities.
This cult has been written about extensively by Ng c Thi.nh, and
a study of its main deity has recently been published by Olga Dror.77
Neither of these scholars, however, have documented Trn Hng a.os
association with this cult prior to the twentieth century, nor have either
of them consulted spirit writing texts produced in the early twentieth
century. At that time, these female deities also revealed messages
through spirit writing, but their texts did not mention Trn Hng a.o,
and in the texts that he revealed through spirit writing, Trn Hng
a.o did not mention the Cult of the Mothers.78 The fact that these
deities were both revealing messages at that time, however, suggests
that it may have been through the spirit writing phenomenon in the
early twentieth century that someone brought these deities together.
Nonetheless, this is a topic that requires further research.
So, while today Trn Hng a.o is a hero and a deity, his history is
much more complex. In examining what literati thought and wrote
about him in the past, and in tracing how those ideas where abandoned
when reformist intellectuals in the early twentieth century sought to
create national heroes, we can gain a sense of how modern nationalist
ideas emerged in Vietnam. While those ideas were undoubtedly
contested and modified over the course of the twentieth century, the
direction that this nationalist discourse would take was set in the
early years of the twentieth century. Those were seminal years in the
transformation of the Vietnamese world-view, and this study of Trn
Hng a.os passage through that period hopefully makes that point
clear.
Ng c Thi.nh, The Mother Goddess Religion: Its History, Pantheon, and

Practices, in Karen Fjelstad and Nguyen Thi Hien (eds), Possessed by the Spirits:
Mediumship in Contemporary Vietnamese Communities (Ithaca: Cornell Southeast Asia
Program, 2006), pp. 1930; Olga Dror, Cult, Culture, and Authority: Princess Liu Ha.nh
in Vietnamese History (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2007).
78
For examples of spirit writing texts produced by the deities in the Cult of the
Mothers, see Minh thin quc m chn kinh [True scripture in the kingdoms sounds for
illuminating goodness] (1900) Paris SA. PD. 2343; Tang qung minh thin quc m chn
kinh [Expanded true scripture in the kingdoms sounds for illuminating goodness]
(1904), AB. 143; La.c thin quc m chn kinh [True scripture in the sounds of the
kingdom for taking joy in goodness] (1905), R. 1787; Tam vi. Thnh Mu cnh th chn
kinh [True scripture of the three Holy Mothers warning to the world] (1906), A.
2585; and Tra.ch thin chn kinh [True scripture for choosing goodness] (1909), AB.
529.
77

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From Moral Exemplar to National Hero:

FROM MORAL EXEMPLAR TO NATIONAL HERO

conceptualise themselves as bearers of a distinctive nation, and as a

began to be represented in that manner. Prior to that time he had been

Prasenjit Duara, Superscribing Symbols: The Myth of Guandi, Chinese God of

FROM MORAL EXEMPLAR TO NATIONAL HERO

FROM MORAL EXEMPLAR TO NATIONAL HERO

Ng S Lin, a.i Vit s k ton th, Bn K 5/47a.

be that the capacity to strategise and to be valiantly martial comes

Our kingdoms general

Yijing [Classic of changes], Xici xia 5.

FROM MORAL EXEMPLAR TO NATIONAL HERO

When people of previous generations praised good generals, they would

In both of these passages, Trn Hng a.o is compared to the same

in 1740 it appears that there were multiple martial temples, as this

FROM MORAL EXEMPLAR TO NATIONAL HERO

ordered shrines to Guan Yu be constructed next to martial temples.25

followed by Vietnamese rulers, from Kinh Dng Vng and La.c

FROM MORAL EXEMPLAR TO NATIONAL HERO

FROM MORAL EXEMPLAR TO NATIONAL HERO

Kip Bc Va.n Linh t in tch, p. 370.

FROM MORAL EXEMPLAR TO NATIONAL HERO

Shangshu [Classic of documents], Yixun.

FROM MORAL EXEMPLAR TO NATIONAL HERO

See, for example, ibid, 119a120b.

writing and Confucian teachings to their land. Wengong, meanwhile,

For an example of the use of these terms in a work produced by a Vietnamese

FROM MORAL EXEMPLAR TO NATIONAL HERO

First, reformers contrasted the way in which people in Western

Second, reformist intellectuals placed the blame for this lack of

Third, reformist intellectuals then provided specific examples of

Nam quc giai s, t 1b.

FROM MORAL EXEMPLAR TO NATIONAL HERO

mentioned. Nonetheless, from the similarities between the writings

FROM MORAL EXEMPLAR TO NATIONAL HERO

Nam Quc v nhn truyn, 6b7a.

which clearly were not appropriate for a national hero to express.

Ci lng mng ho.c quc s gio khoa th, 26b27a.

FROM MORAL EXEMPLAR TO NATIONAL HERO

Ng S Lin clearly did not think much of this episode. Nonetheless,

FROM MORAL EXEMPLAR TO NATIONAL HERO

to Guo Ziyi or to envision him as furthering the efforts of Northern

FROM MORAL EXEMPLAR TO NATIONAL HERO

Ng c Thi.nh, The Mother Goddess Religion: Its History, Pantheon, and

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