Government of the Nguyễn dynasty

Establishment under Gia Long After ascending to the throne the Gia Long Emperor adopted the organisational structure of the Revival Lê dynasty's government. From 1802 until 1906 the ministries of the imperial government of the Nguyễn dynasty consisted of the Ministry of Personnel (吏部, Lại Bộ), Ministry of Revenue (戶部, Hộ Bộ), Ministry of Rites (禮部, Lễ Bộ), Ministry of War (兵部, Binh Bộ), Ministry of Justice (刑部, Hình Bộ), and the Ministry of Public Works (工部, Công Bộ), these were known together as the Lục Bộ (六部). Minh Mạng's reforms to the Southern Court would remain largely unchanged until the Bảo Đại Emperor's reforms in 1933. During the first 15 years of his rule, the Minh Mạng Emperor restructured the entire administration of the dynasty both at the central and local levels, basically codifying the political structures that the Nguyễn dynasty would use until its downfall in 1945. All constituent countries of French Indochina had their own legal systems. In Annam and Tonkin the laws of the Nguyễn dynasty, such as Sắc (敕, "Imperial Order"), Chí (誌, "Ordinance"), and Dụ (諭, "Decree"), remained in effect but were subordinate to the laws of the French administration. In 1894, the court of the Thành Thái Emperor assigned Resident-Superior Léon Jules Pol Boulloche to take care of the management of the state's revenues, expenditures, taxes, etc. This meeting was also recorded in the work Hoàng Việt Giáp Tý niên biểu written by Nguyễn Bá Trác. Everything else is up to the French protectorate government. : Năm cụ khi không rớt cái ình, : Đất bằng sấm dậy giữa thần kinh. : Bài không đeo nữa xin dâng lại, : Đàn chẳng ai nghe khéo dở hình. : Liệu thế không xong binh chẳng được, : Liêm đành chịu đói lễ đừng rinh. : Công danh như thế là hưu hỉ, : Đại sự xin nhường lớp hậu sinh. The old seven ministries were replaced with only five ministries, namely the Ministry of Personnel (Bộ Lại) headed by Ngô Đình Diệm, the Ministry of Ceremonies and Fine Arts (Bộ Lễ nghi - Mỹ thuật) headed by Thái Văn Toản, Ministry of National Education (Bộ Quốc gia Giáo dục) headed by Phạm Quỳnh, Ministry of Justice (Bộ Tư pháp) headed by Bùi Bằng Đoàn, and the Ministry of Public Works (Bộ Công chính) headed by Hồ Đắc Khải. On 24 October 1933 the Bảo Đại Emperor signed an imperial decree stating that the Consultative Assembly of Tonkin now represents the government of the Southern dynasty in the French protectorate of Tonkin. Trần Trọng Kim cabinet Following the Japanese coup d'état in French Indochina, the Bảo Đại Emperor issued an imperial edict revoking the protectorate treaty of 1884 restoring Vietnamese independence from France, but in reality the Empire of Vietnam was a Japanese puppet state. Trần Trọng Kim, a renowned historian and scholar, was chosen to lead the government as its prime minister. == Government agencies ==

Vietnam under the Nguyễn (1802–1945) was an absolute monarchy. The Huế government was centrally administered by several advisory imperial agencies in a Sino–Vietnamese pattern. The Emperor was the head of state, also the head of the government, and the royal members stayed after. Under the emperor were layers of secretariats with officials (mandarins), organised with different functions, acted like a semi-parliamentary system. • Viện cơ mật - (Privy Council) handled the state's internal affairs and also served as an interlocutor between the emperor and other royal agencies. It comprised four highest-ranking senior officials. • Nội các - (Grand Secretariat/Cabinet) originally called Phòng Văn Thư. The Nội các has four senior officials and 28 (later 34) clerks thuộc viên that read, copy and record information, overall the Nội các processed documents and memorials from provinces and present them to the Emperor. The Nội các itself has four subordinate offices: • Thượng Bưu Sở - (Imperial seal office) created copies of all imperial edicts, proclamations, decrees. • Ty Luân Sở - (Imperial legislation office) recorded daily lectures and diaries of royal princes and copied judicial documents. • Bí Thư Sở - (Imperial books office) recorded and preserved imperial poetry, books, maps, and documents relating to foreign relations. • Bản Chương Sở - (Imperial record office) received memorials and documents, analyzed and processed them before storing them in the court's archive. • Viện Hàn Lâm - (Literature Secretariat) with functions similar to Chinese Hanlin Academy. • Quốc Tử Giám - Imperial Academy. • Phủ nội vụ - Imperial Household Department. Ministries The Lục Bộ (Council of Six Ministries) was a collective term for six royal agencies that held ministerial and judicial functions, administering the kingdom. Each ministry had a thượng thư (president), two tham tri (vice-president), two thị lang (minor-president). Under all above positions, the ministry divided itself into several thanh lại ty (panels), which their staffs were lang trung (directors), viên ngoại lang (vice-directors) and chủ sự (secretaries). All members of the whole six ministries always totally numbered 100 people. • Bộ Lại - Ministry of Administration, supervised the specific appointments, transfers, promotions, and dismissals of individual civil officials in the bureaucracy. • Bộ Lễ - Ministry of Rites, provided classical texts, helped the system to recruit officials through education and examinations, court rituals, festivals, and also was responsible for diplomatic relations with China and other states. • Bộ Hộ - Ministry of Finance, had obligations to asset and collect taxes; print and spend money; watch the economy, particularly agriculture; adjust currency, salaries, price; and preserve imperial treasuries. • Bộ Hình - Ministry of Justice, worked along with Đại lý tự (Grand Tribunal) and Viện đô sát (Censorate). It supervised the judicial system. At the end of each year, it reported to the emperor the numbers of inmates in jails and the numbers of unsolved cases on a list called hình danh sách. • Bộ Công - Ministry of Public Works, managed workers and artisans to construct the imperial palaces, roads, bridges, buildings, and ships. • Bộ Binh - Ministry of War, controlled the military bureaucracy, proposed the promotions, demotions, and assignments of officers, managed deployments of the army, and records military activities. Censorate The Viện đô sát (Censorate) was an important organ that observed the government and then reported to the Emperor. The Viện đô sát's senior officials were called Tả đô ngự sử (Censor-in-chief of the Left) and hữu đô ngự sử (Censor-in-chief of the Right). The Vietnamese censorate comprised six lục khoa ("office of scrutiny"), each headed by an Cấp sự trung (senior supervising secretary) official. • Lại khoa, watching the Ministry of administration and the Viện Hàn Lâm. • Hộ khoa, watching the Ministry of finance, the Phủ nội vụ, tào chính (transport administration). • Lễ khoa, watching the Ministry of rites, Thái thường tự (Court of Imperial Sacrifices), Quang lộc tự (Court of Imperial Entertainments), and the Quốc Tử Giám. • Binh khoa, watching the Ministry of military, Thái bộc tự (Court of the Imperial Stud) and Vũ khố (Armory arsenal). • Hình khoa, watching the Ministry of justice and the Đại lý tự (Court of Judicial Review). • Công khoa, watching the Ministry of public works. == Bureau rank ==

The bureaucrat army of the royal court, local governments, and the military were divided into specific orders: == Politics ==

Along with the bureaucracy, nineteenth-century Vietnamese court politics also were dominated by several prominent figures. During Gia Long's reign, they were Nguyễn Văn Thành (1758–1817)-the Viceroy of Tonkin from 1802 to 06, Lê Văn Duyệt (1763–1832)-the Viceroy of Saigon from 1812 to 32, (1764–1825)-the minister of the Ministry of Rites, two Minh Hương Chinese Trịnh Hoài Đức (1765–1825) and Lê Quang Định (1759–1813) who held the minister position of the Ministry of Military, all formerly fought with Gia Long against the Taysons. During Thieu Tri and early Tu Duc' years (1840s–1860s), several regents arose in the court politics, such as Trương Đăng Quế (1793–1865), Lâm Duy Hiệp (1803–1863), and Nguyễn Tri Phương (1800–1873). For example, Trương Đăng Quế, originally was the minister of the Ministry of Military, earned the position of regent and Văn Minh đại học sĩ (second-highest rank in the Confucian hierarchy) in 1841 at the time when emperor Thieu Tri ascending the throne and became more powerful. He attained more power after had successfully installed conservative emperor Tu Duc to the crown in 1847, obtained the title đại học sĩ (highest rank in the Confucian hierarchy), quận công (highest noble title of all Vietnam), virtually became the dictator of Vietnam during the early years of Tu Duc. == The Gia Long Code ==

Emperor Gia Long ( 1802–19) published his legal code Hoàng Việt luật lệ, also known as the Gia Long Code in 1812, comprised 398 articles and was the last legal code of the Vietnamese monarchy. It is based on much of the Chinese legal code and reduced women's legal status in society. The Code was translated to French in 1865. == Administrative divisions ==

in the provincial administration of the Nguyễn dynasty. Under Gia Long During the reign of Gia Long, the empire was divided into twenty-three quasi-militant protectorates trấn and four military departments doanh. Each protectorate, besides having their own separated regional governments, were under patrol of one greater, powerful unit called Overlord of Citadel, or the Viceroy. For examples, the northern protectorates had Bắc thành Tổng trấn (Viceroy of Northern Protectorates) in Hanoi, and southern protectorates had Gia Định thành Tổng trấn (Viceroy of Gia Định Protectorates) resides in Saigon. Two famously viceroys during Gia Long's reign were Nguyễn Văn Thành (Hanoi) and Lê Văn Duyệt (Saigon). By 1802, these were: • 16 protectorates under joint-governance from the Viceroys. • Sơn Nam Thượng (Hanoi) • Sơn Nam Hạ (Nam Định) • Sơn Tây • Kinh Bắc (Bắc Ninh) • Hải Dương • Tuyên Quang • Hưng Hoá • Cao Bằng • Lạng Sơn • Thái Nguyên • Quảng Yên • Gia Định or Phiên An • Biên Hoà • Vĩnh Thanh (later became Vĩnh Long and An Giang • Định Tường (Bến Tre) • Hà Tiên • 7 Central protectorates • Thanh Hoá • Nghệ An • Quảng Nghĩa (Quảng Ngãi) • Bình Định • Phú Yên • Bình Hoà (Khánh Hoà) • Bình Thuận • 4 departments surrounding Huế, directly ruled by Gia Long. • Quảng Đức • Quảng Bình • Quảng Trị • Quảng Nam Minh Mạng and later In 1831, Minh Mạng reorganised his empire by converting all these protectorates into 31 provinces (tỉnh). Each province had a series of smaller jurisdictions: the prefecture (phủ), the subprefecture (châu, in areas whereas having a significant population of ethnic minorities). Under prefecture and subprefecture, there was the district (huyện), the canton (tổng). Under district and canton, the bundle of hamlets around one common religious temple or social factor point, the village làng or the commune (xã) was the lowest administrative unit, which one respected person nominally took care of village administrative, which called lý trưởng. Two nearby provinces were combined into a pair. Every pair had a governor-general (Tổng đốc) and a governor (Tuần phủ). Frequently, there were twelve governor-generals and eleven governors, although, in some periods, the emperor would appoint a "commissioner in charge of patrolled borderlands" (kinh lược sứ) that supervising entire northern of the southern part of the empire. In 1803, Vietnam had 57 prefectures, 41 subprefectures, 201 districts, 4,136 cantons and 16,452 villages, and then by 1840s it had been increased to 72 prefectures, 39 subprefectures and 283 districts, which an average 30,000 people per district. Cambodia had been absorbed into the Vietnamese administrative system, bore the name Tây Thành Province from 1834 to 1845. With areas having minority groups like Tày, Nùng, Mèo (Hmong people), Mường, Mang and Jarai, the Huế court imposed the co-existing tributary and quasi-bureaucratic governance system, while allowing these people to have their own local rulers and autonomy. In 1832, there were: • Three regions and 31 provinces (encompassed modern-day Vietnam): • Bắc Kỳ (Tonkin) • Hanoi • Lạng Sơn • Cao Bằng • Bắc Ninh • Thái Nguyên • Nam Định • Hưng Yên • Sơn Tây • Hưng Hoá • Tuyên Quang • Hải Dương • Quảng Yên • Ninh Bình • Trung Kỳ (Annam) • Thanh Hoá • Nghệ An • Hà Tĩnh • Quảng Bình • Quảng Trị • Thừa Thiên • Quảng Nam • Quảng Ngãi • Bình Định • Phú Yên • Khánh Hoà • Bình Thuận • Nam Kỳ (Cochinchina) • Biên Hoà • Gia Định • Vĩnh Long • Định Tường • An Giang • Hà Tiên • Client/dependent territories: • Luang Phrabang • Vientine • Cambodia • Jarai chiefdoms • Chief cities: • Huế, capital city, population (1880): 30,000 • Hanoi, major city, population (1880): 120,000 • Saigon, major city, population (1880): 100,000 == Military bureaucracy ==