Re-periodisation of Village Regulations in Vietnam

Tóm tắt

“Hương ước” (village regulations, also known as village codes or village conventions) are documents which record the regulations of a village. Vietnamese researchers often classify village regulations according to three periods: old (up to 1921), reformed (from 1921 to 1945), and new village regulations (from the early 1990s to the present day). Having studied Sino-Nom documents, the author came across the incompleteness of the above-mentioned method of periodisation, and points out the existence of a period between the old and the reformed village regulations, known as the pilot reformed (PR) village regulations. This lasted from 1905-1906 to before 12 August 1921 and connected the periods either side. The pilot reform rules had their own characteristics and as such they occupy a special place in the history of Vietnamese village regulations. Analysing the results of the study, the author therefore deems that Vietnamese village regulations should, in fact, be classified into four periods: old, pilot reformed (PR), reformed, and new village regulations.