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Confucian Terrorism: Phan Bội Châu and the Imagining of Modern Vietnam

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Confucian Terrorism: Phan Bội Châu and the Imagining of Modern Vietnam Confucian Terrorism: Phan Bội Châu and the Imagining of Modern Vietnam By Matthew A Berry A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Wen-hsin Yeh, Chair Professor Peter Zinoman Professor Emeritus Lowell Dittmer Fall 2019 Abstract Confucian Terrorism: Phan Bội Châu and the Imagining of Modern Vietnam by Matthew A Berry Doctor of Philosophy in History University of California, Berkeley Professor Wen-hsin Yeh, Chair This study considers the life and writings of Phan Bội Châu (1867-1940), a prominent Vietnamese revolutionary and nationalist. Most research on Phan Bội Châu is over forty years old and is contaminated by historiographical prejudices of the Vietnam War period. I seek to re- engage Phan Bội Châu’s writings, activities, and connections by closely analyzing and comparing his texts, using statistical and geographical systems techniques (GIS), and reconsidering previous juridical and historiographical judgments. My dissertation explores nationalism, modernity, comparative religion, literature, history, and law through the life and work of a single individual. The theoretical scope of this dissertation is intentionally broad for two reasons. First, to improve upon work already done on Phan Bội Châu it is necessary to draw on a wider array of resources and insights. Second, I hope to challenge Vietnam’s status as a historiographical peculiarity by rendering Phan Bội Châu’s case comparable with other regional and global examples. The dissertation contains five chapters. The first is a critical analysis of Democratic Republic of Vietnam and Western research on Phan Bội Châu. I challenge claims that Phan Bội Châu should be interpreted solely as a ‘transitional figure.’ The second chapter investigates Phan Bội Châu’s near-obsession with martyrdom. In it, I explore how Phan weaves together narrative and symbolic strands from Confucian and Catholic repertoires to justify martyrdom on behalf of the Vietnamese nation. The third and fourth chapters provide a detailed account of the famous trial of Phan Bội Châu by the Criminal Commission of Hanoi in 1925. By evaluating the case against Phan Bội Châu in comparison with the research agendas presented in chapter one, I show that both history and law offer flawed ways of interpreting the legacy of a national hero. The fifth chapter presents Phan Bội Châu’s 760-page commentary to the Book of Changes, a classical Confucian text that Phan Bội Châu re-interprets as a structural framework for understanding time, morality, and the inevitability of revolution. 1 For Donna, Sophia, and Michele With Love i Confucian Terrorism: Phan Bội Châu and the Imagining of Modern Vietnam Table of Contents Introduction iii-viii Chapter One Phan Bội Châu and National Historiography in Vietnam 1-22 Phan Bội Châu’s Martyrs: Vietnamese Revolutionary Chapter Two 23-51 Martyrdom and Nationalist Hagiography Security, Legality, and Secrets: The Capture, Transport, Chapter Three 52-80 and Incarceration of Phan Bội Châu, June-August, 1925 Competing Legitimacies and Courtroom Drama: The Chapter Four Trial of Phan Bội Châu in Hanoi, August-December, 81-144 1925 Time, Morality, and Revolution: Phan Bội Châu and the Chapter Five 145-189 Book of Changes Bibliography 190-199 ii Introduction Kim Liên village lies 15 kilometers due west from the center of Vinh, the capital of Nghệ An province, Vietnam. The central (and really only) attraction of Kim Liên village is a lively mix of rustic, thatched-roof dwellings and imposing red-brick pagodas set apart by several large, square lotus ponds. Hundreds, if not thousands, of Vietnamese arrive daily to pay homage to “Bác Hồ,” for this is the hometown of Nguyễn The Patriot, better known to the occasional international visitor as Hồ Chí Minh. A military jeep, which Uncle Hồ rode back to his village on June 16, 1957, sits in what would otherwise be mistaken for a Buddhist temple. The meticulously arranged traditionalistic decor and relentlessly earnest staff of this nationalist theme park leave little doubt it is a site of significance for Vietnamese visitors. Drive eight kilometers further west to where national route 46 meets the Cả river, and you will find, with a little difficulty, another anachronistic national historical site. Here, overlooking the river some two hundred yards away, stands a statue of a Vietnamese mandarin that bears a striking resemblance to Vladimir Lenin. At his right lies a small, clean museum with a rather bored staff of one. This is the site of the “Phan Bội Châu Memorial House” and where Mr. Phan Văn San, later to become the namesake of the memorial house, lived from the age of two until the age of five (1869-1872). Visitors, Vietnamese or otherwise, are rare. Quite unlike Kim Liên village, this site is not on tour bus routes. Any literate Vietnamese living in or near a major city in 1925 would have been shocked to learn how little attention is now paid to the great patriot Phan Bội Châu. For a brief but momentous period in French Indochina, Phan Bội Châu's name was on the lips of anyone able to read a newspaper. If the reader was French, that name would likely have been uttered with no small degree of trepidation, if not anger, for Phan Bội Châu was known to be a most dangerous terrorist. However, if the reader was Vietnamese, the name Phan Bội Châu conveyed a different meaning entirely: this was the Vietnamese revolutionary who stood up to the colonial administration and won. As a symbol of dignified resistance, Phan Bội Châu had brought Vietnamese students, scholars, and secretaries into the streets for the first time, thus forcing the French governor general to grant clemency for the old patriot in the wake of a guilty verdict handed down by the Criminal Commission of 1925. A close contemporary of Sun Yatsen and Mahatma Gandhi, Phan Bội Châu had earned his reputation as Vietnam's foremost nationalist revolutionary by escaping French Indochina disguised as a Chinese merchant in 1905. Setting up shop in Japan with the help of the famous Chinese journalist Liang Qichao, Phan Bội Châu quickly became a major nuisance for the French colonial administration by sending thousands of printed pamphlets back to Indochina encouraging young men to come join him abroad. By 1908, over two hundred, including the cadet-branch royal Prince Cường Để, had done so in what later become known as the Đông Du (Eastern Travel) movement. Thousands of other Vietnamese took part in clandestine organizations, such as the Duy Tân hội (Modernization Association), which provided financial and logistical support for those heading abroad. Money and youth left Indochina, while Phan Bội Châu's pamphlets flooded in, contributing to growing domestic activism in Hanoi, Saigon, and the protectorate of Annam. While many degree-holding members of the Modernization Association encouraged a revitalization of Vietnamese education, other members who had fought against the French protectorate forces during the Cần Vương (Save the King) period (1885-1895) took a more aggressive stance. A series of tax protests throughout Annam and parts of Tonkin in 1908 encouraged members of the “militant-action group” such as Nguyễn Thành, Đặng Thái Thân, iii and Đội Quyên to link up with the guerilla leader Để Thám in preparation for attacks on French military targets. When plotters very nearly succeeded in poisoning French troops stationed at the citadel of Hanoi in June 1908, colonial security forces were obliged to respond with extreme prejudice. The 1908 Criminal Commission of Tonkin sentenced thirteen of the Hanoi plotters to death, in whose possession Phan Bội Châu's pamphlets had been found. Moreover, certain pamphlets, such as Việt Nam vong quốc sử (History of the Loss of Vietnam) and Hải ngoại huyết thư (A Letter from Overseas Written in Blood), took particular issue with the French taxation policies now targeted by angry protesters as far south as Bình Định province. Recognizing a colony-wide conspiracy at work, the security officers of the Bureau of Political Affairs identified Phan Bội Châu as public enemy number one, and took steps to dismantle the Modernization Association and arrest its membership. French security services did not distinguish between the “militant-action” and “peaceful action” wings of the Modernization Association. For that matter, neither did their collaborators, the mandarins who still administered the provinces and districts of Annam and Tonkin on behalf of the Nguyễn court in Huế. Degree-holders primarily interested in educational and political reform, such as Phan Châu Trinh, Lương Văn Cần, and Trần Quý Cáp faced arrest, imprisonment, and even execution. Dynastic tribunals in Hà Tĩnh and Vinh sentenced Phan Bội Châu to death in absentia. Meanwhile, diplomatic overtures to the Japanese government, brought an end to the Đông Du movement and to Phan Bội Châu's residency. Many of the Cochinchinese students, whose parents had bankrolled the movement, were forced to testify upon their return. In disarray, the Vietnamese revolutionary movement shifted decisively toward militancy. While much of the older Cần Vương generation inside Indochina had been destroyed, a small cohort of militant northern students who remained close to Phan Bội Châu moved their operations to Hong Kong, Canton, and Siam. Many in this northern cohort, including Hoàng Trọng Mậu, Phan Bá Ngọc and the brothers Trần Hữu Lực and Trần Hữu Công, hailed from the the same hardscrabble Nghệ Tĩnh region as Phan Bội Châu. Others, such as Đặng Tử Mẫn, Đặng Đoàn Bằng, and Nguyễn Hải Thân, hailed from the provinces surrounding Hanoi in Tonkin. Now being pursued by French intelligence services across East Asia, these young men learned the arts of subterfuge, bomb-making, and assassination, especially for application to real or suspected informers.
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