Nguyễn Trường Tộ (chữ Hán: , ; 1830–1871) was a Roman Catholic scholar and reformer during the reign of Tự Đức of the Nguyễn dynasty, the last sovereign Emperor of Vietnam under which the French colonial forces colonized the country. Nguyễn Trường Tộ was best known for his advocacy of his modernisation of Vietnam, criticising the rigid Confucianism of the Huế court.Jacob Ramsay Mandarins and Martyrs: The Church and the Nguyen Dynasty in Early ... 2008 Page 131 "A prominent example of this generation was Nguyễn Trường Tộ. Born into a Catholic family in Nghệ An province in the late 1820s, the son of a scholar, Tộ studied classical Chinese and probably chữ nôm. As a well-born Catholic, he also ..."
Life
Early years Nguyễn Trường Tộ was born into a Roman Catholic family in Nghệ An Province in central Vietnam, approximately in the year 1830 (from 1827 to 1830). His native village of Bùi Chu is part of present-day Hung Trung village in Hưng Nguyên district of Nghe An province. In his youth, Nguyễn Trường Tộ studied with lower-level degree holders and retired officials, earning a reputation in his region as an excellent Confucian scholar. However, he was not permitted to sit for the imperial civil-service examinations from which governmental officials were selected because of his Catholicism, which he never renounced. With the officially sanctioned road to prominence closed to him, Nguyễn Trường Tộ earned his living by teaching Chinese, first at home, and from 1848 onwards at Nhà chung Xã Đoài, a local Roman Catholic seminary.Nghia M. Vo Saigon: A History 2011 Page 65 "... that period, Nguyễn Trường Tộ, a great scholar, was invited to teach at a northern Catholic seminary." There his quick intelligence and classical learning garnered the attention of a French missionary, Bishop Jean-Denis Gauthier (1810–1877) of the Paris-based Société des Missions Etrangères (Foreign Missions Society). Gauthier began teaching him French and Latin as well as the basics of European science.
At this point in his life, larger historical forces intervened. The Franco-Spanish invasion force landed in nearby Đà Nẵng harbour in August 1858 with the purpose of advancing European commercial and religious interests in Indochina. In a largely ineffective attempt to prevent communication between the invaders and the locally resident Catholic missionaries and their Vietnamese disciples, the Huế court of Emperor Tự Đức reinforced its legislation against Catholic proselytism (known in Vietnamese as dụ cấm đạo or "edict interdicting the [Catholic] religion") by imposing stricter penalties and exhorting the imperial officials to be more strident in enforcing them. To escape Huế's anti-Catholic restriction, Gauthier and Nguyễn Trường Tộ fled to Đà Nẵng in 1859, placing themselves under the military protection of the besieged European forces then occupying central coast enclaves in the vicinity. From Đà Nẵng, Gauthier took Nguyễn Trường Tộ to Hong Kong, Penang in Malaysia, and other places in Southeast Asia where the Foreign Missions Society had established seminaries.
During this time, Tộ was further exposed to Western education by reading French language newspapers and books in addition to materials available through Chinese translation. Although many Vietnamese scholars have traditionally believed that Gauthier also took Tộ to France during 1859–60, this view has been challenged. In a 1941 article entitled Nguyễn Trường Tộ học ở đâu? (Where did Nguyen Truong Study?), Dao Duy Anh argued that there was no solid evidence for this belief except for an unofficial and unverifiable demotic script document shown to several researchers in the early 20th century by Tộ's descendants. In more recent times, the historian Truong Ba Can demonstrated that according to the files of the Foreign Missions Society's headquarters in Paris, Gauthier definitely did not venture to France during 1859–60. While these scholars refute the orthodox view that Gauthier took Tộ to France during 1859–60, it remains possible that Gauthier may have taken Tộ to Hong Kong and then sent him to France alone or escorted by another person. With the present primary sources, it was not possible for historians to determine with certainty whether Tộ visited France prior to 1867, when he traveled there as part of an official Vietnamese delegation sent by Tự Đức.
Return to Vietnam
Prior to 1848, Tộ had mastered the classical Vietnamese education through traditional means of study, although he had not earned any civil service degrees. Between 1848 and 1863 (the year in which he submitted his first petitions to Tự Đức advocating policy reform), he had been exposed to a broad range of Western ideas by reading European books in French and in Chinese translation and by studying under and discussing with European missionaries in Vietnam and in the Foreign Missions Society's Asian seminaries. According to Mark McLeod, "no other Vietnamese had so thoroughly combined study of these two traditions at such an early date."
Upon returning to Vietnam in 1861, Tộ briefly served the French colonial forces in southern Vietnam, translating Chinese language documents for the French navy's Admiral Charner in the negotiations that eventually led to the "unequal treaty" signed by France and Vietnam in 1862. This came in the wake of a 1859 invasion by France and Spain of Vietnam. The Europeans had intended to attack Đà Nẵng and Huế in central Vietnam and to force Tự Đức to surrender, so that they could extract territorial and trade concessions. Since the central areas near the imperial fortress were heavily defended, the European forces diverted themselves to the southern region, and in 1862, the Nguyễn court ceded three southern provinces to the French. In addition, the free practice and propagation of Christianity was allowed, in addition to financial compensation.
Although this collaboration with the invading Europeans was widely criticized by Tộ's Confucian contemporaries, many of whom forwarded petitions to Tự Đức Emperor lobbying for a death sentence for treason, most modern Vietnamese scholars (communist and non-communist alike) are in agreement that his actions were driven by a sincere, if misguided, patriotism. According to these scholars, To's collaboration with the French was based on the assumption that a temporary peace was necessary for Vietnam to buy time to undertake nation building through Westernization, after which a renewed battle against European imperialism and political domination could be successfully fought. This assessment of To's motivations is in line with the fact that while still working as a translator for the French, he informed Vietnamese negotiator Phan Thanh Gian of the French admirals' intention of using the pretender Le Duy Phung of the deposed Lê dynasty to harass Nguyên imperial troops in Tonkin, and warned Vietnamese court officials that the three westernmost provinces of southern Vietnam (An Giang, Vinh Long, and Ha Tien) were to be the next targets of French imperial aggression.
He died in Xã Đoài 22 November 1871.
Advocacy Contemporary Vietnamese historians' evaluations of To's nationalist motivations are buttressed by the record of his petitions to Tự Đức for reform, which were intended to allow Vietnam to profit from a period of peace by strengthening itself through Westernizing reforms, after which she could reassert herself and "take back in the West what was lost in the East". Between 1863 and his death in 1871, Tộ sent the Nguyễn court more than fifteen major petitions, the most important of which were as follows: Giáo môn luận (On Religious Sects), March 1863, which defended the role of Catholicism in Vietnam during the conquest and advocated freedom of worship; Thiên hạ đại thế luận (On the World Situation), March–April 1863, argued that Vietnam had no viable alternative to peace with France in the short term; Ngôi vua là qúy, chức quan là bóng (Precious is the Throne, Respected is the Official), May 1866, which proposed political and bureaucratic reforms; Kế họach gây nên nhân tài (A Plan for Creating Men of Talent), September 1866, urged Western studies for training a new Vietnamese bureaucratic elite; Tệ cấp bát điều (Eight Urgent Matters), November 1867, lobbied for reform in eight areas, including education, fiscal policy and defense.Erica J. Peters Appetites and Aspirations in Vietnam: Food and Drink in the Long ... 2011 "In the 1860s, a Catholic notable named Nguyễn Trường Tộ returned from travels to Hong Kong, Canton, Italy, and France with statecentered suggestions to improve agriculture and protect the population against famine and starvation. Both Trứ ..."Nola Cooke, Tana Li, James Anderson The Tongking Gulf Through History 2011 – Page 152: "As early as the late 1830s, the high provincial official Nguyễn Công Trứ had warned that failed Chinese trading junks were turning to piracy, but three decades later, according to Catholic scholar Nguyễn Trường Tộ, it was almost impossible ..."
Petitions The petitions from Tộ were well received by Tự Đức, who invited him to court on several occasions. Tự Đức was sufficiently confident of To's good intentions that he called on him for state service, notably in January 1867. Tộ, Gauthier, and a number of Nguyên officials were sent to France to procure modern machinery and textbooks and to hire French experts to travel to Vietnam as instructors. Tự Đức planned to open a school for studying Western technology, which would have represented a victory for the reforms that Tộ had advocated. However, the project never materialised due to rising tensions between the two countries. In June 1867 while Tộ's delegation was still in Europe, French forces seized the three Western provinces of southern Vietnam, causing a recurrent escalation in anti-French and anti-Catholic agitation among the Vietnamese elite. As a result, the Huế court ordered the delegation to cap its purchases and return to Vietnam as early as possible. With the mission aborted, Tộ returned to Vietnam, arriving in the spring of 1868 with some of the machinery and textbooks. But the products were placed in storage and the school was never opened. After his return to Vietnam, Tộ was well treated by the Huế court but was not assigned further work. He spent his last years in his native province of Nghe An, predominantly working on the construction and repair of Catholic religious edifices in cooperation with Gauthier. Tộ continued to send Tự Đức proposals containing his plans for reform and advice on diplomatic strategy until his death on November 22, 1871. Only one of these had any notable impact in Huế, however. In Spring 1871, learning of France's defeat by Prussia in the Franco-Prussian War, Tộ urged the Tự Đức to launch a counteroffensive against French positions in the colony of Cochinchina, hoping that the politicians in Paris would be distracted with battles in Europe. Tộ personally volunteered to lead Vietnamese troops, and although he was briefly called to Huế to discuss the European political situation with the emperor, Tự Đức stuck to his status quo policy of biding time and refused to order any attack.
Rejection