THE CHANGE IN THE NUMBER OF <i>xã</i> VILLAGES IN MEDIEVAL VIETNAM

Abstract

Out of the many words meaning a village throughout medieval Vietnam, the use of xa draws the author's attention. While comparing hitherto unused Vietnamese manuscripts with other basic source materials, he makes the following points.First, he believes that the term xa came into use prior to the fifteenth century after the villages termed hu'o'ng dong and trai had gone through the process of rearrangement. Second, he points out that where as the villages termed dong sach were furnished with greater autonomy, those termed xa fell under the direct rule by the Later Le dynasty founded in 1418. Third, the decrease in number of xa villages corresponded with the appearance of the laws and ordinances for the purpose of controlling the constituent members of these villages in the hands of the central government. Fourth, in parallel with the decline of power toward the middle of the dynasty the number of xa villages either recovered or even surpassed its initial standard. Fifth and last, he asserts that during the later stage of the dynasty the newly established villages tended to be termed thon and phu'ong instead of other names.Although the author still thinks it premature to draw a simple conclusion from the above, he suggests that xa should not be regarded merely as a geographical term, but as one with an historical connotation, and that the governmental control over xa villages was not only reflected in its nature as the administrative villages, but also in their structure and the process of their formation. Provided that these statements prove reasonable, the author argues, the village community began achieving ever greater autonomy since the latter phase of the dynasty only through resisting the control on the part of the authorities. This process, he states, may serve as a key to the understanding of the cohesiveness and the solidarity peculiar to the Vietnamese village community. His task at hand, therefore, is to demonstrate these hypotheses by analyzing the change of other systems of village administration, especially that of the system of Cong dien. Upon closing his remarks, he makes his acknowledgement with thanks to l'Ecole Erancais d'Extreme Orient for authorizing him to use its invaluable manuscripts in the form of microfilms which have been sent to and are now preserved in the Toyo Bunko.