Documents related to southwest of Viet Nam at the social sciences library and their values for studying the region history today

Social Sciences Information Review, Vol.12, No.4, December, 201846
Documents Related to Southwest of Vietnam at 
the Social Sciences Library and their Values 
for Studying the Region History Today
Le Thi Lan
Assoc. Prof., PhD., Institute of Philosophy, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences 
Email: lanphilosophy@gmail.com
Received 11 June 2018; published 25 November 2018
Abstract: The paper introduces a document collection on the Southwest region of Vietnam 
which is currently being stored at the Social Sciences Library of the Vietnam Academy of Social 
Sciences and managed by the Institute of Social Sciences Information. Out of tens of thousands 
of documents at the École Française d’Extrême-Orient (EFEO, French School of Asian 
Studies) which were handed over to Vietnam in 1957, several hundreds of documents covering 
various fi elds such as history, archaeology, culture, anthropology, religion and geography... 
related to the Southwest region have been surveyed, selected and classifi ed. This is the most 
original, plentiful, reliable and invaluable source of documents for in-depth examination and 
research on the historical issues of this region. It also has a great signifi cance contributing 
to set up a scientifi c basis for the development strategy of the Southwest in regard to the 
economic, cultural and social issues and the protection of national security and sovereignty. 
Keywords: Southwest Region, Document Collection, Funan, Chenla, Nguyen dynasty 
1. Introduction 
The Southwest and the South of Vietnam, 
in general, has a great economic, political, 
national security signifi cance in the history 
and development strategy of the nation. 
Studies about this region is a prolonged 
large topic in social science research to 
examine and discover advantages and 
disadvantages of the region to provide 
a scientifi c basis for making the most 
eff ective development strategies for the 
Southwest of Vietnam. In the discipline of 
historical research alone, hundreds of big 
and small studies have been published both 
in and out of Vietnam since the colonial 
period and continue to be released in the 
future. They have proven the signifi cance 
of this research topic in the foundation and 
enhancement of social awareness about 
the history of the region; moreover, the 
outcomes of such studies have contributed 
to the management, construction and 
Documents Related to Southwest 47
development of the Southwest so far as 
well as in the future.
Upon reviewing and selecting the most 
relevant information from all invaluable 
collections inherited from the EFEO 
(École Française d’Extrême-Orient - 
French School of the Asian Studies) in 
1957, being stored and managed in the 
Social Sciences Library, the Institute of 
Social Sciences Information have made a 
specialized collection about the Southwest 
- the Document Collection of the Southwest 
(hereafter referred as the Collection). Its 
purpose is to create such a database to assist 
quick and relevant document searching 
and retrieval about the Southwest for the 
prolonged studies of this region.
The paper introduces the Collection and 
discusses some of its notable values for 
historical research in the Southwest.
2. Introduction of the Document 
Collection of the Southwest in the Social 
Sciences Library
The western researchers of EFEO 
had contributed greatly in collecting, 
keeping notes, processing and preserving 
systematically and carefully the 
information sources about the South and 
Southwest in the Bibliotheque de l’École 
Française d’Extrême-Orient (BEFEO 
- Library of EFEO). Most of such 
information resources are managed by 
the Social Sciences Library; lots of them 
possess valuable information about the 
Southwest in the form of maps, national 
gazettes, journals, books, Stories of 
Village Gods and Deities, etc.
- Maps: 
Approximately 100 maps and atlases 
in the Map Collection mention about 
French Indochina and Cochinchina and 
are related to the Southwest in geography, 
administration, economy, communication 
and ethnology. Among the 12 atlases on 
geography - administration of Indochina 
and Cochinchina, 8 atlases were published 
in 1871 for 8 Southern provinces, namely: 
Ben Tre, Go Cong, My Tho, Sa Dec, Sai 
Gon, Cho Lon, Ba Ria, Bien Hoa. They are 
valuable atlases showing administrative 
management status and other aspects of 
the Southwest in the late 19th and early 20th 
centuries. Some of the maps can be listed 
as follows: Map of French Indochina 
which was made in the period of 1899-
1907; Map of French Cochinchina 1872-
1873; administrative and topographical 
maps of Southwestern provinces and 
districts like Soc Trang, Tay Ninh, Ha Tien; 
and some maps related to the borderland 
between Vietnam and Cambodia such as 
Atlas de l’Indochine (Atlas of Indochina) 
by Service Géographique de l’Indochine, 
1920; Cochinchine administrat ... rench. 
Their content is very diversifi ed with 
comparatively detailed activities of deity 
worship in the village communal house/
shrine, showing that the belief of village 
deity worship (which was established and 
developed in the 15th century in the Red 
River Delta) has become very popular in 
the Southwest. However, the origins of 
the Southwestern deities stated in the lists 
are very dim, even without information. 
It is a fact that during this period of time, 
not so many people in Southwestern 
villages knew Chinese and Chinese was 
no longer prevalent in comparison with 
modern Vietnamese. The merits of the 
village deities in land reclamation, bridge 
construction, dyke consolidation, teaching 
inhabitants to cultivate, etc. which were 
stated in the declaration refl ected one 
part in the history of land reclamation 
in the South during the reign of Nguyen 
Lords. In this process, the inhabitants 
of Southwestern Vietnam brought their 
belief of deity worship to the new land. 
It is noteworthy that about 10 villages, 
mainly in Tri Ton district, Chau Doc 
province (An Giang province nowadays) 
have no worship hall with the same 
following statement: “(The inhabitants 
of) my village are mostly Cambodian, not 
Vietnamese; thus, there is no communal 
house to worship deities”. This shows the 
interlaced but diff erent geo-cultural space 
between the Vietnamese and the Khmer, 
but the Vietnamese have occupied for 
a long time and are the majority in the 
Southwest. Almost all ordinations were 
granted in the Nguyen dynasty, mainly 
in the reigns of Minh Mang, Thieu Tri, 
Khai Dinh and Tu Duc, showing that 
from the beginning of the 19th century, the 
Southwest was under the absolute offi cial 
control in both kingship and lordship of 
the Nguyen. The deity ordinations are the 
assertion of supreme authority in all areas 
of territorial management, population 
and spiritual belief of the Nguyen in the 
Southwest. The stories of gods and deities 
of villages in the Southwest are a valuable 
source of information for research 
on cultural, historical, geographical, 
linguistic, scriptory aspects of the region.
3. Values of the Collection in the historical 
studies of the Southwest
The Document Collection on the 
Southwest has been admitted the 
original, valuable and reliable source of 
information for historical research on the 
Southwest prior to 1957. Studies on the 
history of the Southwest from written 
documents in the country and abroad, 
archaeological and fi eld trip documents, 
etc. began in the last decades of the 19th 
century, pioneered by western researchers 
from France and Spain. Their research 
outcomes were published before 1957 and 
have been still kept in the Social Sciences 
Library, becoming the secondary source 
of information for further and more in-
depth studies related to the history of the 
Southwest. Recent publications in the 
history of the region have used documents 
inherited from EFEO to identify new 
research topics and to prove the new 
historical viewpoints about the region. 
For instance, The history of the formation 
Documents Related to Southwest 51
and development of the South from the 
establishment to 1945 edited by Tran Đuc 
Cuong, being published in 2014 can be 
listed as one among the monographs on 
the history of the South and the Southwest 
in particular. This can be regarded as one 
of the most valuable historical books 
up to now with its comparatively full 
and thorough study on the Southwest. 
Among 341 referred documents including 
French, English, Russian, Chinese and 
Vietnamese ones, more than half of them 
were collected and published by EFEO 
researchers which have been listed in the 
Collection.
Current research issues related to the 
Southwest are diversifi ed, including 
the history of the land, the religions, 
culture, ethnology, languages, economy, 
geography, border, territory and sustainable 
development of the region. Among them, 
issues related to sovereignty and territorial 
borderlines, culture and sustainable 
development are of many concerns.
The issue of the fi rst owners of the region (in 
the former Funan Kingdom) is important 
in proving the offi cial management and 
possession of the region in the history 
(See Tran Duc Cuong ed., 2014: 77-
92; Ha Van Thuy, 2017; Vu Duc Liem, 
2017c), demonstrating the diff erences 
in races, cultures and languages of 
consecutive generations of owners in the 
region. Recent publications have shown 
that researchers have studied in-depth the 
written and archaeological documents in 
the Collection, including old domestic and 
foreign documents such as Chinese, Indian, 
Vietnamese historical books, etc. in order 
to provide convincing viewpoints on the 
formation and development of the region 
as well as identify its real owners. The 
successiveness in mastering, managing 
and developing the Southwest of historical 
entities from Funan to Chenla and Việt 
Nam is indispensable by ups and downs 
as well as objective historical changes. 
However, the diff erences in races, cultures, 
languages, religions, political institutions 
among entities mastering the Southwest 
in diff erent periods of time as well as the 
lack in intermediary historical proofs on 
the collapse of Funan, the establishment 
and execution of Vietnamese sovereignty 
in the Southwest, etc. need to be further 
studied by researchers.
The process of attaining legal rights in 
direct management of the Southwestern 
land and inhabitants of Nguyễn Lords 
through diplomatic and political activities; 
the process of borderline identifi cation 
and protection of Vietnamese territorial 
sovereignty are important issues in 
historical research of the region. Such 
processes were clearly and frankly written 
in history books of the Nguyen dynasty; 
clearly and scientifi cally stated in the 
natural, administrative and economic 
maps conducted by the French protectorate 
and the State of Vietnam listed in research 
publications (See Jan M. Pluvier, 1995: 
8, 9, 12, 13, 32-35, 41-42, 44-45, 47, 
49; Tran Duc Cuong ed., 2014: 125-139, 
161-171, 176-223, 276-306, 606-653; Vu 
Minh Giang, 2010; Vu Duc Liem, 2017a; 
Nguyen Van Huy, 2014).
It is noteworthy that studies on the 
sovereign history of Vietnam in the 
Southwest have contributed to the 
development of not only the historical 
Social Sciences Information Review, Vol.12, No.4, December, 201852
discipline but also other social science 
and humanity ones; moreover, to the 
establishment of new disciplines such as 
political geography, historical geography 
of Vietnam as an inter-disciplinary 
science combining both geography 
and history. The development of such 
disciplines has formed a new historical 
conceiving in distinguishing diff erent 
historical events, cultural and civilized 
modalities in diff erent geographical 
spaces. From the in-depth geographical 
and historical knowledge gradually 
gained from the source of information 
about the Southwest and inter-disciplinary 
methodology, the historical geography 
discipline has “helped to reconstruct 
the natural geographical conditions, 
regional and territorial borderlines; to re-
establish geographical-cultural regions 
and ethnological territories. It allows 
current states and nationalities to identify 
themselves in spaces and timescales to 
affi rm their current legitimate existence” 
(cited from Tran Trong Duong, 2017). 
Various inter-disciplinary studies about 
Vietnamese sovereignty in the Southwest 
have been published, resulted from 
in-depth studies based on historical 
archives kept in France, including many 
in the Collection. They have mentioned 
scientifi cally and systematically about the 
land and marine borderlines of Vietnam (Le 
Trung Dung, 2015; Alain Forest, 1989). 
The original important documents with 
international legitimacy being recognized 
from various sides in the Collection are 
invaluable scientifi c proofs to assert the 
national sovereignty of Vietnam towards 
the Southwest.
The diversifi ed and unifi ed Vietnamese 
culture has been integrated with values of 
other former and existing cultures to form 
a distinguishing cultural identity of the 
Southwest. It is also a concerned research 
topic to study history in combination with 
culture and religion. 
Recent domestic and foreign publications 
have brought more new historically 
meaningful and objective knowledge 
about the cultural - religious life in 
the Southwest prior to the Liberation 
Day. The history covering 300 years of 
national enlargement is the history of 
spreading, interfering, accepting and 
enriching Vietnamese and other available 
cultures in the Southwest. The fl exible 
thinkings of Nguyen Lords in the national 
enlargement created opportunities for 
Vietnamese culture to peacefully conquer 
the spiritual life of inhabitants in areas far 
away from Vietnamese cultural centre. 
The integration of native deities into the 
deities worshipped in the Vietnamese 
temples, the learning from cultural - 
religious values of native inhabitants 
based on Confucianist foundation which 
were altered to meet the need of a new 
land conquering created a Southwestern 
typical culture - religion, both liberal 
and polite, with the co-existence of 
long-standing and new cultures (See Li 
Tana, 2001: 185-199; Tran Duc Cuong 
ed., 2014: 261-276; Alexander Barton 
Woodside, 2001: 212-215, 226-227, 243; 
Ta Chi Dai Truong, 2006: 218-223; Hue 
Khai, 2012: 37-45; Stories of Gods and 
Deities of villages in the Southwest, 
documents stored in the Social Sciences 
Library, etc.).
Documents Related to Southwest 53
Clearly, an established unifi cation in the 
management of the Southwestern cultural - 
religious life by cultural - religious methods 
combining fl exible, dynamic political 
minds with requiring the administrative 
system not to interfere into activities of 
the village and communal level brought 
optimal results in the supreme execution of 
the power of the Nguyen dynasty over the 
new land. Social eff ects from the fl exible 
methods of the Nguyen in managing the 
cultural, spiritual life of inhabitants not 
only created the highest authority for 
the court but also the communal bond of 
Southwestern inhabitants in which their 
spirit and religions are closely connected 
to the national sentiment. It is the basis 
for the formation of new religions that 
make the religious life in the region 
more diversifi ed in such conditions as the 
Nguyen dynasty lost its sovereignty to the 
French during the 1860s and the defeat of 
Southwesterners in their struggle for their 
land and nation.
4. Conclusion
These above-mentioned historical 
research outcomes are highly valuable in 
policy consultancy and making of socio-
cultural and security management and 
development strategies in the Southwest 
nowadays. However, many historical 
issues remain to be studied in-depth to 
provide more convincing evidences via 
scientifi c and legal foundations such as 
the longstanding and most direct origin 
of Funan people, the collapse of Funan 
Kingdom, historical borders and maps of 
the Southwest, methods of administrative 
and religious management of the Nguyen 
dynasty in the Southwest, the handover and 
thorough management of the Southwest 
from the Nguyen dynasty to the French 
and to the Vietnamese Nation (Tran Tuan 
Phong, Nguyen Lan Huong eds., 2018). 
They require continuous information 
searching, acquisition and more thorough 
research on Collection.
It can be said that the referred values 
for current historical studies in issues 
of land, people, culture, religions of the 
Southwest of the Collection are truly 
high and longlasting. Moreover, this is 
the diversifi ed and non-fi nite source of 
information for other research aspects such 
as economics, environment, humanistic 
geography, communication, etc. of the 
Southwest for its scientifi cally valuable 
information accumulated from diff erent 
research generations. This is also the 
valuable knowledge in need of continuous 
searching and disseminating to further 
study modern issues as well as to enhance 
social awareness about the protection and 
sustainable development of the beautiful 
and potential Southwest 
References
1. Alain Forest (1989), Les frontières du 
Vietnam: Histoire des frontières de la 
Péninsule Indochinoise, Collection 
Recherches Asiatiques, L’Harmattan, 
Paris. 
2. Alexander Barton Woodside (2001), 
“The Central Administration of 
the Nguyen and the Ching. Power 
Structures and Conversational 
Process”, In Vietnamese Historical 
Issues, Then and Now Monthly 
Review, Youth Publishing House, 
Hanoi.
Social Sciences Information Review, Vol.12, No.4, December, 201854
3. Tran Duc Cuong ed. (2014), The history 
of the formation and development 
of the South from the origin to 1945, 
Social Science Publishing House, 
Hanoi.
4. Le Trung Dung (2015), Process of 
land borderline formation of Vietnam - 
Cambodia, Social Science Publishing 
House, Hanoi.
5. Tran Trong Duong (2017), Historical 
geography in Vietnam: the review 
in 100 years, 
khoa-hoc-cong-nghe/Dia-ly-hoc-lich-
su-Viet-Nam-Tram-nam-mot-thoang-
nhin-11058.
6. Vu Minh Giang (2010), The 
Sovereignty of Vietnam in the 
Southwest, 
edu.vn/ch-quyn-lanh-th-ca-vit-nam-
tren-vung-t-nam-b/
7. Li Tana (2001), “The South in the 
17th and 18th centuries. Another model 
of Vietnam”, In: Historical Issues 
of Vietnam, Then and Now Monthly 
Review, Youth Publishing House, 
Hanoi.
8. Vu Duc Liem (2017a), Ha Tien and 
the Formation of the Modern State 
of Vietnam, 
khoa-hoc-cong-nghe/Ha-Tien-va-
su-hinh-thanh-nuoc-Viet-Nam-hien-
dai-10940.
9. Vu Duc Liem (2017b), The Formation 
of Cambodian Borderlines in Nguyen 
dynasty, 
org/2017/09/16/su-hinh-thanh-duong-
bien-gioi-viet-nam-campuchia-thoi-
nguyen/
10. Vu Duc Liem (2017c), Funan: the 
Legend and Historical Issues, http://
nghiencuuquocte.org/2017/11/03/phu-
nam-huyen-thoai-va-nhung-van-de-
lich-su/
11. Tran Tuan Phong, Nguyen Lan 
Huong (eds., 2018), Southwestern 
Religions: Somes Theoretical and 
Empirical Issues Information and 
Communication Publishing House, 
Hanoi.
12. Ha Van Thuy (2017), Another 
Interpretation about the Funan 
Kingdom, 
2017/11/07/mot-cach-ly-giai-khac-ve-
vuong-quoc-phu-nam/
13. Ta Chi Dai Truong (2006), “The 
Institutationalization of the Deities 
Worship in the Nguyen dynasty”, 
In: Vietnamese Deities and People, 
Culture Information Publishing 
House, Hanoi.
14. Stories of Gods and Deities of villages 
in the Southwest, documents stored in 
the Social Sciences Library, Institute 
of Social Sciences Information.