Vietnam and China Text

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In Beyond the Bronze Pillars Liam Kelly makes use of a large collection of tributary envoys’ poetry to rethink the Vietnamese national identity. Kelly proposes that the Vietnamese culture has drawn extensively from a Chinese influence throughout their history, challenging the narrative put forth by modern day nationalists of a society that has retained its unique indigenous attitudes throughout its history. In his introduction and much of his first chapter Kelly introduces the idea and basic chronology in which the poetry he draws from takes place in. This chronology is a useful tool to put at the beginning so that the reader can draw a clear pattern in their mind of Chinese influence from start to finish.

In the first chapter Kelly lays out the idea of Ma Yuan’s bronze pillars being an important concept in the history or mythology of Vietnam. The pillars establish, at least for Kelly, a distinction between the territories of China and Vietnam, but they also provide for a constant reminder of Chinese presence within Vietnam through its history. Even after the supposed pillars have fallen they remain a cultural reference showing their importance and thus the Chinese importance within the Vietnamese mind. After this initial usage of the Bronze Pillars in his analysis of the relations between Vietnam and China the pillars become somewhat of a symbol and less a point of actual research, discussion, and discovery. Kelly instead chooses to focus on the more literary side of the relations between Vietnam and China, especially through his main case work of the envoy poets. After moving on somewhat from the Bronze Pillars, Kelly continues his chapter by detailing the historical confrontations with China and the literature that it brought with it. This literature as Kelly points out is primarily nationalist rhetoric with such speeches concerning the “pacification of the Wu”. However, Kelly is also quick to point out that many loyalist writings persist throughout this period and all the way into the time of French occupation. Kelly concludes this first chapter by including some information on the envoys, their language, and their background. While I feel that this particular information is indispensable it also works to weaken Kelly’s cause, as it separates the envoys from the general population. Thus, with this level of separation the subjects Kelly uses become vulnerable to questions of representation. Is it possible that these educated elites could represent an entire population of people who live in a cultural world encompassed by the village? Whether Kelly thinks so or not is debatable, the main point that he makes is that these literati are distinctly linked to the Chinese, and he continues this linkage throughout the work. With the doubt of representation or even possibly the need for such a representation of the population comes the issue of who constituted the “nation” of Vietnam at this time. If we are to follow Kelly’s argument further it becomes apparent that the government and the elites that operated within it constitute most of his idea of a nation at this time.

Kelly continues throughout Beyond the Bronze Pillars to establish further ties and the necessity for those ties between China and Vietnam. The sturdier points that Kelly makes detail how the various dynasties throughout the dynastic age sought legitimacy from the Chinese government by sending their envoys. A particularly emphasized case by Kelly in this regard is the Tay Son government’s quest for Chinese recognition. Kelly spends most of a chapter detailing the importance of the envoys receiving Chinese approval for a stable government back in China. Not only does this show that the Chinese still had considerable sway over the government of Vietnam at the time, but it also shows the cultural importance of China to the Vietnamese as it shows China’s unique importance in a filial relationship with Vietnam. Vietnam always sought to retain a solid relationship with China and very little information is given on Vietnam’s relationship and approval seeking of neighboring territories such as Thailand or Korea. Kelly even dedicates a part of a chapter to the idea that the Korean and Vietnamese envoys interacted in China during the tributary visits, and that these envoys got along very well as they were part of a similar cultural world. This represents two things for the Chinese position within Vietnam. First, it establishes that a cultural world based on the Chinese culture and society existed throughout a large portion of Asia of which Vietnam was most certainly a part of. Secondly, it shows despite the presence of similar cultures in other territories Vietnam still sought the approval of China first, showing that the Chinese aside from being a large economic and military power, had an important place in culture and government.

Throughout the work, Kelly provides a convincing argument that the Chinese played an important role in the formation and continuation of Vietnamese culture. He provides clear evidence of a link between the two groups, especially in regard to the elites of the two societies, and he pays special attention to setting up the filial relationship that existed between Vietnam and China during this time. The major draw back to Kelly’s work is that it is very open to the question of representation. The envoys led a distinctly different lifestyle from that of the average Vietnamese individual, as these envoys were often the most highly educated of the elites. If you move beyond the notion that a nation is comprised by the peasantry and the sum of all the individuals within the territory that is in many ways a modern idea of a nation, it is quite reasonable to follow all of Kelly’s arguments to the end that China indeed was a key player in the Vietnamese identity. However, even if you choose to use a definition of a nation that includes all people in your thoughts on the Vietnamese identity it is still important to take Kelly’s arguments into consideration on the narrative of Vietnamese history and identity. Combining the narrative provided by Kelly with that of the nationalist rhetoric that has been so preserved throughout Vietnamese history allows for a more clear understanding of the true events within Vietnamese history that has led to the formation of such an identity, an identity that is in many ways a hybrid of both Chinese and unique indigenous struggles.

Do you need another opinion?

Pelley, Patricia. "Review of Beyond the Bronze Pillars." The American Historical Review 3(2006):

Pelley, a Texas Tech professor of history, is fairly well known among the discussions of Vietnamese history and cultural identity. She has published two books on the nationalist identity of Vietnam. In her review of Kelly’s work she takes a distinctly different approach from Kelly. Immediately she points out the possible pitfalls among Kelly’s statements and examples, and even goes so far as to say the book is problematic. While she never overtly points out the key issue in Kelly’s logic it is clear she is nagging at the issue of representation that Kelly’s source so often lack. Pelley points out many of the lulls that occur in the work where Kelly dwells overly on issues that are not necessary to an understanding of Sino-Vietnamese relations or to the identity of Vietnam. However, with all of this in mind Pelley still condones and encourages Kelly’s work as innovative and deserving of being widely read because of this new and interesting position that he has taken.