Naming the 3 Kys
From: Philip Taylor
Date: Tue, May 29, 2012 at 4:32 AM
To: vsg@u.washington.edu
Hi List,
I was asked a question by students that stumped me. How did the French come up with the names for the three kys: Tonkin, Annam and Cochinchine?
Was the term Dong Kinh used for the northern part of Viet Nam / Dai Viet / Dai Nam under the Nguyen? Did colonial Tonkin correspond to a pre-existing division? Why was Annam chosen as the name for the central protectorate, when potentially it also could have been called Cochinchine? And the southern ky could have been called any number of things. Cochinchine is not exactly obvious.
My research has not gone beyond Chris Goscha's excellent Vietnam or Indochina? Contesting Concepts of Space in Vietnamese Nationalism 1887-1954, (NIAS 1995), but I cannot find all the answers I'm looking for there. He suggests (p 14) that the central pays was called Annam because of the court's location in Hue.
Any ideas?
Philip
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Dr Philip Taylor
Department of Anthropology
College of Asia and the Pacific
Australian National University
Canberra, ACT, 0200
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From: Tai, Hue-Tam
Date: Tue, May 29, 2012 at 5:00 AM
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Dear Philip
When Westerners first came to Vietnam, the northern region had its capital in Thang Long (modern Hanoi)' but it was also known as Dong Do or Dong Kinh (Eastern capital) to distinguish it from Tay Do (Western capital) first established by Ho Qui Ly. This was the origin of Tongking(Tonkin). by 1600' Dai Nam was divided into Dang Ngoai (Outer Region) under the Trinh lords who governed in the name ofthe Le emperors from Thang Long and Dang Trong, which encompassed the rest of today's Central Vietnam, governed by the Nguyen lord from Phu Xuan (near today's Hue--by the way, Hue is a contraction of Hoa in Thuan Hoa, which refers to the civilizing by Vietnamese of a region that had been part of Champa until it was ceded through the marriage of Princess tran Huyen Tran to a Cham king in 1306. There is a heavily Muslim district in Kansu province named Shun hua, which carries the same connotation of having been brought into civilization) This area was known as Cochinchina by Westerners. in the late 17th century and early 18th centuries, thanks partly to the influx of Chinese immigrants, the Nguyen lords extended their reach into the Mekong Delta. This area was called Lower Cochinchina (Basse Cochinchine) in French texts, to distinguish it from Cochinchina, i.e. Dang Trong, i.e, central Vietnam.
With French conquest, Lower Cochinchina became French Cochinchina or Cochinchina tout court; the central part of the country was called Annam, a throwback to the periof of Tang rule.
In Chinese documents, Vietnam continued to be called An Nan, despite the fact that Vietnamese had gained their independence in the 10th century. Annam under the French could refer either to Central Vietnam or to all of Vietnam ( this name was prohibited under French rule).
Hope this helps, however confusing it may be to your students,
Hue Tam Ho Tai
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From: Nu-Anh Tran
Date: Fri, Jun 1, 2012 at 2:27 PM
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Dear Philip,
Perhaps this is a little earlier than you are interested in, but I believe the fullest explanation of the (precolonial) terms Cochinchina and Tonkin can be found in the introduction to Views of Seventeenth Century Vietnam,edited by Olga Dror and Keith Taylor. There are also passing references to various names used by the Nguyen dynasty in Woodside's Vietnam and the Chinese Model and Choi's Southern Vietnam Under the Reign of Minh Mang.
Cheers,
Nu-Anh Tran
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From: Rob Hurle
Date: Sat, Jun 2, 2012 at 12:07 AM
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Dear Philip and others,
The Portuguese were probably the first Europeans to have much
regular contact with Vietnam in the 16th Century, preceding Alexandre
de Rhodes and other French missionaries and were instrumental in the
development of qu?c ng?. There is an account of the Portuguese names
used for the territory that we now call "Vietnam" in Roland Jacques,
"Portuguese Pioneers of Vietnamese Linguistics prior to 1650", Orchid
Press Bangkok, 2002. His claim is that the Portuguese texts refer to
"Cochim-China", deriving from the Malay name "Kochi" referring to
"Giao Chi", the whole country that we now call Vietnam. Also,
according to Jacques, "An Nam" was the Chinese name for the whole of
the "pacified south" in dealings between China and what is now Vietnam
and was considered (by the Vietnamese) as demeaning. During the 17th
Century the Portuguese came to call the southern half, ruled by the
Nguy?n, the "Kingdom of Cochinchin" and the northern part, ruled by
the Tr?nh family, "Tunquim" or "Tunkim", derived from the
Sino-Vietnamese "Ðông Kinh". Jacques also has an interesting take on
the origins of Ðàng Trong (Ðu?ng Trong - the inside road) and Ðàng
Ngoài (Ðu?ng Ngoài - the outside road). According to the Portuguese
Jesuit linguist Gaspar do Amaral, in his report of 1632, these names
originated from the Lê's re-taking of Thang Long from the M?c usurpers
using bases in Thanh Hóa and Ngh? An. From that point of view the
rebellious north was "outside" but the legitimate south was "inside".
Rob Hurle
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Rob Hurle
ANU, College of Asia and the Pacific
School of Culture, History and Language
Histories of Asia and the Pacific