Phan Boi Chau
Encyclopedia
Phan Bội Châu was a pioneer of Vietnam
ese 20th century nationalism
. In 1903, he formed a revolutionary organization called the “Reformation Society” (Duy Tân hội).
From 1905 to 1908, he lived in Japan where he wrote political tracts calling for the liberation of Vietnam from the French colonial regime. After being forced to leave Japan, he moved to China where he was influenced by Sun Yat-Sen
. He formed a new group called the “Vietnamese Restoration League” (Việt Nam Quang Phục Hội), modeled after Sun Yat-Sen’s republican party. In 1925, French agents seized him in Shanghai
. He was convicted of treason and spent the rest of his life under house arrest in Huế
.
During his career, he used several pen name
s, which included, among others, Sào Nam (巢南), Thị Hán (是漢), Độc Kinh Tử, Việt Điểu, and Hàn Mãn Tử.
ethics and virtues.
At age five, Phan’s father returned home and Phan began to attend his father’s classes, where he studied the Chinese classics
, such as the Three Character Classic
, which took him just three days to memorize. As a result of his ability to learn quickly, his father decided to move him onto further Confucian texts such as the Analects, which he practiced on banana leaves. In his autobiography, Phan admitted that he did not understand the meaning of the text in great detail at the time, but by age six, he was skillful enough to write a variant of the Analects that parodied his classmates. This earned him a caning
from his father.
At the time, the central region of Vietnam where Phan lived was still under the sovereignty of Emperor Tự Đức, but the southern part of the country had gradually been colonised
in the 1860s
and turned into the colony of Cochinchina
. In 1874, an attack on Hanoi
forced Tự Đức to sign a treaty to open up the Red River for French trade. In Nam Đàn District, a Binh Tây (“Pacify the French”) movement sprung among the local scholar-gentry, and Phan responded at the age of seven by playing Binh Tây with his classmates, using “guns” made of bamboo tubes and lychee
bullets. The unrest was enough to prompt the imperial court to bring in troops to quell the opposition to Huế’s deal with the French. Phan's family was not affected by the crackdown, but the movement had a deep impact on him. Later in life, he noted that as a youth, “I was endowed with a fiery spirit. From the days when I was a small child … every time I read the stories of those in the past who were ready to die for the righteous cause, tears would come running from my eyes, soaking the books.”
At the age of thirteen, Phan’s father sent him to another teacher with a better reputation. Since the family lacked the money for Phan to travel far away, he studied with a local cử nhân
graduate who was able to borrow a range of books from wealthier families in the area. In 1883, the French finished the colonization of Vietnam by conquering the northern part of Vietnam, and the country was incorporated into French Indochina
. Phan drafted an appeal for “putting down the French and retrieving the North” (Binh Tây thu Bắc). He posted the anonymous appeal calling for the formation of local resistance units at intervals along the main road, but there were no responses and the proclamations were soon torn down. Phan realized that nobody would listen to a person who did not have the social status ensured by passing mandarin examinations.
In 1884, his mother died and his aging father was growing weaker, forcing Phan to take on more responsibilities to help support the family. In 1885, the Cần Vương
movement began its uprising against French rule, hoping to install the boy Emperor Hàm Nghi
as the ruler of an independent Vietnam
by expelling colonial forces. The imperial entourage fled the palace in Huế and attempted to start the uprising from a military base in Nghệ An. The scholar gentry of the province rose up, and Phan attempted to rally approximately 60 classmates who were prospective examination candidates to join in the uprising. Phan called his new unit the “army of Loyalist Examination Candidates” (Si tu Can Vuong Doi) and convinced an older cử nhân graduate to act as its commander. They had just began to collect money and raw materials to make ad hoc
weapons when a French patrol attacked the village and scattered the students. Phan’s father forced him to seek out the commander to have the membership list destroyed to avoid French retributions.
With his father growing weaker, Phan decided to keep a low profile to avoid trouble with the French colonials so that he could support his family. He did so by teaching and writing, while still continually preparing for examinations. During this time, he quietly acquired books on military strategy by the likes of Sun Tzu
and Đào Duy Từ
, the military strategist of the Nguyễn Lords who stopped the Trịnh Lords with a defensive wall, and Trần Hưng Đạo, the military commander of the Trần Dynasty who repelled Mongol invasions of Vietnam in the 13th century. Phan also cultivated a small number of his students whom he identified as having abundant pro-independence sentiments. He enthusiastically received visits from Cần Vương visitors and passed on their tales to his students, particularly those concerning Phan Đình Phùng
, who led the Cần Vương effort.
Phan failed the regional mandarin exams for a number of years in a row. By the time he was 30, he traveled to Huế to teach, “improve his contacts” and to obtain some special tutoring in preparation for his next exam attempt. In Huế, Phan quickly made friends with likeminded political values and beliefs. One friend, Nguyễn Thượng Hiền
, introduced Phan to the unpublished writings of Nguyễn Lộ Trạch, a Vietnamese reformer. This was Phan’s first encounter with the Self-Strengthening Movement
in China and other major political and military reforms made around the world. After returning to Nghệ An in 1900, Phan passed the regional mandarin exams with the highest possible honors.
When Phan passed the regional examinations in 1900, he was eligible to become a public servant. However, Phan had no intention of pursuing such a career and only wanted the qualification to increase his gravitas
in rallying anti-colonial action. With his father dying in the same year, Phan had no more family obligations and decided to travel abroad to pursue his revolutionary activities. He served divorce papers on his wife so she would avoid retribution from colonial authorities for his activities.
Phan met his wife only once after their nominal divorce: when he was pardoned and released from Hỏa Lò Prison more than two decades later. He was then sent to a loose form of house arrest in Huế
and the train stopped at Vinh
in Nghệ An on the way. His wife said, “I am very happy. From now on, my only wish is that you will hold to your initial aspiration. Do whatever you like, and do not worry about your wife and children.” While Phan was living out his final years, his children and their families came to visit him, but never his wife. When she died, she instructed her children not to tell Phan so as to not distract him.
Phan spent the first five years of the 20th century living in Huế and traveling the country. Phan drew up a three-step plan to get the French out of Vietnam. First, he would need to organize remnants of the Cần Vương
movement and other sympathizers of the cause. Second, he would need to attain support from the Vietnamese imperial family and the bureaucracy, many of whom had already come to grips with French colonial rule. Finally, he would need to obtain foreign aid, from Chinese or Japanese revolutionaries, to finance the revolution. However, it was only later that Phan realized that obtaining independence for Vietnam would be much more difficult than expected. He became familiar with the works of famed European thinkers, such as Voltaire
, Rousseau
and Darwin
. Phan was also heavily influenced by the writings of Chinese Confucianists Liang Qichao
and Kang Youwei
. The European and Chinese works, which had only entered Vietnamese circles a few years later, opened Phan's mind to more expansive thought regarding the struggle for freedom of his people. Liang’s Hsin-min ts’ung-pao (“The Renovation of the People”) had an impact on Phan’s revolutionary ideas and beliefs, as it criticized the Chinese government and proclaimed that the Chinese people’s consciousness needed to be awakened to further the country into the modern era. Kang took the idea of Social Darwinism
and discussed the survival of the fittest
concept as it applied to nations and ethnic groups. He described the dire outcomes that would face China if the country did not embark on a series of reforms, similar to those faced by the Ottoman Empire
and colonial India. He believed that reforms made by Peter the Great and Emperor Meiji
were excellent examples of the political restructuring that needed to take place to save China. From Kang’s work, Phan realized why Emperor Tự Đức’s decision to ignore Nguyễn Trường Tộ
’s proposed modernization reforms had led to the downfall of Vietnam and had allowed for French rule in Vietnam
.
Phan continued to seek support from the scholar-gentry and the bureaucracy serving the French, before shifting his focus to obtaining support from members of the imperial family. Phan had moved to Huế, claiming that he was preparing for the metropolitan imperial examinations, but in actuality, he planned on drumming up support among the various factions of royal family. Phan traveled to Quảng Nam
to meet with Nguyễn Thành
, a contemporary anti-colonial revolutionary activist who was involved in the Cần Vương movement. Thành suggested that a royal associate of his, Ton That Toai, could help lead the revolution. Phan turned down the offer, but took Thành’s advice to seek support from direct descendants of Emperor Gia Long
, the founder of the Nguyễn Dynasty. These direct descendants were still highly respected by wealthy Mekong Delta
landowners, who Phan hoped would raise the bulk of the money needed to finance the revolution. By the spring of 1903, Phan had found a perfect candidate to lead the revolution: Prince Cường Để, a direct descendant of Gia Long’s eldest son, Canh. Cường Để’s descendants had long been dissociated from the emperor and his family since the early 19th century. Cường Để's father was personally sought by Phan Đình Phùng
to take Hàm Nghi's place and lead a popular revolt against the French in the 1880s, but he declined. By 1894, he suggested that his son, then 12 years old, could be the new face of the revolution. However, this plan was never executed as Phung died in January 1896. Nevertheless, Cường Để changed the course of his life and began studying history, economics and geography and thought admiringly of the heroic achievements of Trần Hưng Đạo, Zhuge Liang
, Toyotomi Hideyoshi
, Saigō Takamori
, Cavour, Otto von Bismarck
, George Washington
, and Abraham Lincoln
. After getting Cường Để to support the revolutionary cause, Phan wrote his first significant work, Luu Cau Huyet Le Tan Thu (Letter from the Ryukyus Written in Tears of Blood). He argued that independence in Vietnam could only be achieved "through a transformation and revitalization of national character". The book was moderately successful amongst the Vietnamese populaces and received attention from other nationalists like Phan Chu Trinh
. However, many mandarins were reluctant to publicly support Phan's ideas, and as a result, he came to realize that he couldn't rely on the bureaucratic elite to support his cause.
Phan created the Việt Nam Duy Tân Hội (Vietnam Modernization Association) in 1904; Cường Để led the association as its president, while Phan served as general secretary. Despite its growing member base, Duy Tân Hội struggled financially. Phan hoped to obtain financial assistance from China, but the country was forced to abandon its suzerain relationship with Vietnam after the 1884–1885 Sino-French War
. Phan and Cường Để decided to seek aid from Japan, which had recently won a war against Russia
, had successfully imposed reforms
and seemed more inclined to help out revolutionaries in a nearby Asian country. Phan was selected to visit Japan to secure the funds needed to sustain Duy Tân Hội. Phan did not speak Japanese
and did not have any contacts in Japan, so he sought help from Liang Qichao, who was living in the country since being exile
d years earlier. Liang introduced Phan to many prominent politicians, including Ōkuma Shigenobu
, a well-liked statesman
who had previously served as Prime Minister of Japan
for a few months in 1898. Phan asked Shigenobu for financial assistance to fund the activities of Vietnamese revolutionaries. In his letter to Shigenobu, Phan stated that Japan should be obligated to help Vietnam since both countries were of the "same race, same culture, and same continent". Second, Japan could promote its interests in Vietnam and prevent French and Russian expansion into China. However, Phan was unsuccessful in procuring aid from the Japanese. The Japanese government did not want to harm its relationship with the French, while opposition party
members promised financial aid to Vietnamese students wishing to study in Japan, but also advised Phan not to start a revolutionary movement until Japan was more willing to help the cause.
In Guangxi
and Guangdong
, the Vietnamese revolutionaries arranged alliances with the Kuomintang
by marrying Vietnamese women to Chinese officers. Their children were at an advantage since they could speak both languages and they worked as agents for the revolutionaries and spread revolutionary ideologies across borders. This intermarriage between Chinese and Vietnamese was viewed with alarm by the French. Phan Boi Chau's revolutionary network practiced this extensively, in addition Chinese merchants also married Vietnamese women, and provided funds and help.
(History of the Loss of Vietnam), Tan Viet Nam (New Vietnam), Ai Viet Dieu Dien (A Lament for Vietnam and Yunnan), Hai Ngoai Huyet Thu (Letter from Abroad Written in Blood), Viet Nam Quoc Su Khao (An Outline History of Vietnam), and Ai Viet Dieu Dien (A Lament for Vietnam and Yunnan). All were initially written in Chinese
and then translated to Vietnamese
, upon which they were smuggled into Vietnam. These works, most notably Viet Nam Vong Quoc Su, were critical in intensifying the nationalist fervor in the country.
The book is noted for its negative assessment of the response of the Nguyễn Dynasty in the 19th century to the colonial challenges facing Vietnam and the failure to modernize, with the Nguyễn instead turning to ultra-orthodox conservative Confucianism. The book presents strident and emotive memorials to the key figures of the Can Vuong movement of the late 1880s and early 1890s, led by mandarins
such as Tôn Thất Thuyết
and Phan Dinh Phung
, who led guerrillas against the French. The Can Vuong attempted to overthrow the French rule and establish the boy emperor Hàm Nghi
as the ruler of an independent Vietnam. The book also analyzes the French social and economic policies in Vietnam, which it regards as oppression. In the book, Phan argues for the establishment of a nationwide pro-independence front with seven factions or interested groups with a specific motivation to fight the French colonial authorities.
The book is written in a style that differed from the prevailing writing technique and structure of the scholar gentry of the time. The scholar gentry under the Confucian education system fostered by the classical imperial examinations were molded by their study and memorization of classical Chinese poetry and literature. As such, the literary style tended to be poetic, indirect and metaphorical, relying on allusions and imagery to depict an idea. Phan eschewed this traditional style to write in a direct, ordinary prose style, especially in his analytical and argumentative sections. The book precipitated a new style of writing among scholar gentry revolutionaries, who later tended to use a more direct style.
The book created a reaction in China, sparking follow-up essays by Chinese writers who were taken aback by the Phan's description of the life that faced Vietnamese people under French rule. It generated gloomy pieces by Chinese writers who predicted that their nation would suffer a similar fate if they failed to modernize. One such Chinese response later became a teaching text at the Tonkin Free School
in Hanoi
, a school run by Phan's contemporaries to promote the independence movement. However, Phan did not receive much of a reaction in terms of aid towards his independence efforts, since the book made Chinese readers worry about their own future. The book had a much better reception among Vietnamese readers. Phan and his colleague Dang Tu Kinh left Japan for the first time in August 1905, carrying 50 copies of the book that were to distributed throughout Vietnam, of which further copies were made inside the country. Phan's direct writing style, without the use of allegories, upset traditionalists but made the book more accessible to literate people who had not been trained in classical literature.
In 1905, the Vietnam Modernization Association agreed to send Phan Bội Châu to Japan to get Japanese military assistance or weapons.
He soon realised that Japanese military aid would not be possible, and turned his attention to using Japan as a base to train and educate young Vietnamese students, by starting the Dong Du (Visit the East) Society. The number of Vietnamese students sent to Japan for training peaked at 200 in 1908. However, after pressure by the French government, Japan declared Phan to be persona non grata
and expelled him in 1909.
with Cường Để. There, he made plans to raise money and bring to Thailand
the Vietnamese students who had studied in Japan, but had now been dispersed. He had previously had the foresight to establish a base in Thailand.
But instead he received news of an armed uprising in Vietnam, led by Hoang Ha Tam. So he assembled his comrades in Hong Kong, and sent two people to Japan to buy 500 of the Arisaka Type 30 Rifle
s. But after buying the weapons to support the uprising with, they could not afford to hire a ship to smuggle the rifles into Vietnam. So in July, Phan Bội Châu went to Thailand to ask their government to help with the smuggling. The foreign minister refused, since it would be a major diplomatic incident with France if it leaked out. So he had to return to Hong Kong
and wait for the money needed for smuggling.
Money never arrived, and news arrived that his fundraising organiser was dead, and that the uprising was going badly. So Phan Bội Châu donated 480 of the rifles to the forces of Sun Yat-Sen
. He then tried to smuggle the remaining 20 of the rifles via Thailand, disguised as first-class luggage. This attempt failed.
He spent the first half of 1910 begging on the street, selling his books, and spending all his money getting drunk at the pub. This went on until he met a kind old woman named Chau Po-Lin, who took the entire movement into her house. Funds arrived and he planned to move to Thailand.
He arrived in Thailand in November 1910, and all his students and followers who could, took up farming there.
The Wuchang Uprising
occurred in China on 10 October 1911. It quickly spread and declared itself the Republic of China. This greatly inspired Phan Bội Châu, since he had many friends among the Chinese revolutionaries. He thought this new regime would fix all that was wrong with the old China, and would unite with Japan to defeat the Europeans and build a strong Asia.
Leaving the farm in the hands of more than 50 of his comrades, he went to China to visit his friends there.
The old Vietnam Modernization Association had become worthless, with all its members scattered. A new organization needed to be formed, with a new agenda inspired by the Chinese revolution. A large meeting was held in late March 1912. They agreed to form a new group, the Vietnam Restoration League. Cường Để was made president and chairman, Phan Bội Châu was made vice-president.
People voted to campaign for democracy instead of a monarchy, despite strong objections of people from southern Vietnam. The organization's sole purpose was to kick out the Westerners and establish a democratic republic. Unfortunately, they had no funds and had great difficulty getting revolutionary leaflets into Vietnam. Also, the new Chinese government was too busy and would not help the movement with anything other than allowing Vietnamese comrades into its education and training system.
The Vietnam Restoration League came up with a proposed flag design. Previously, Vietnam never had a flag, only banners to represent royalty. Their flag idea had 5 five-pointed stars, arranged in a square with a star in the middle. It symbolized the five regions of Vietnam. The national flag had red stars on a yellow background, and the military flag had a red background with white stars. The yellow represented their race, the red represented fire which represented their location to the south of China (see I Ching
), and the white represented the metal of their weapons.
They also created a book on military strategy and regulations for their army. They even printed their own currency, which they agreed to honour when, or rather "if", they attained power. If they won they could easily pay people back, and if they lost it wouldn't cost them anything. The "money" was printed in a similar way to the Chinese paper notes.
They also formed an organisation called the "Association for the Revitalization of China". It was dedicated to getting support from China for independence movements in smaller Asian countries, starting with Vietnam of course. Using a medical centre as a front, and a fancy office they managed to create the false impression that they were a huge successful organisation. They got hundreds of people to join, and sold a huge amount of their made-up currency. They changed some of the leadership positions of the "Vietnam Restoration League" to allow the Chinese to take part.
However, they could not get enough money to buy more weapons until they had proved themselves with a military attack of some sort. Everyone said they needed something big and explosive because the people of Vietnam were short on patience. So Phan Bội Châu sent five people with a few grenades to the three regions of Vietnam. The grenades they sent to the North were unfortunately used on a minor target, the governor of Thái Bình province, two officers and a French restaurateur. They were meant to be used at the mandarin examinations when all the officials would be gathered. Those they sent to the centre via Thailand did not make it to Vietnam at the time, and they had to throw their grenades away. Those that they sent to the south were wasted on some Vietnamese traitors.
The attacks in the North enraged the French, and they demanded that Phan Bội Châu be arrested, but the Chinese government refused. But the value of Phan Bội Châu's special currency dropped dramatically after the failure.
They had no money, so they decided to trick a pharmaceutical company in Japan into providing lots of expensive drugs for them on credit. They then closed down their medical centre and didn't pay their debt. But their membership slowly dwindled, and the difficulty of getting into Vietnam increased. And changes in the government of their Chinese province made things difficult. And they had to close their office and send their comrades away.
World War I began shortly thereafter. The country remained an enthusiastic member of the French Empire
, and many Vietnamese fought in World War I (see Vietnamese Expeditionary Force). Some 50,000 Vietnamese troops and 50,000 Vietnamese workers were sent to Europe to fight for France in the war, and thousands lost their lives at Somme and Picardy, near the Belgian
coast and many more in Middle East
. Both Vietnamese victories and losses on World War I battlefields contribute significantly to Vietnam's national identity. At the time it was referred to Vietnam's 'Baptism of Fire'. Over 30,000 Vietnamese died during the conflict and 60,000 were wounded. The Vietnamese also endured additional heavy taxes to help pay for France's war efforts. Numerous anti-colonial revolts occurred in Vietnam during the war, all easily suppressed by the French. In May 1916, the sixteen-year-old king, Duy Tân
, escaped from his palace in order to take part in an uprising of Vietnamese troops organized by Thái Phiên
and Trần Cao Vân
. The French were informed of the plan and the leaders arrested and executed. Duy Tân was deposed and exiled to Réunion Island in the Indian Ocean
. One of the most effective uprisings during this period was in the northern Vietnamese province of Thái Nguyên
. Some 300 Vietnamese soldiers revolted and released 200 political prisoners, whom, in addition to several hundred local people, they armed. The rebels held the town of Thái Nguyên for several days, hoping for help from Chinese nationalists. None arrived, however, and the French retook the town and hunted down most of the rebels.
While he was in prison, he organised some of his comrades to meet with the German government in Thailand. They donated a large amount of money and promised more if a spectacular action could be done in Vietnam against the French. The comrades attempted an action but failed completely, wasting all the money.
After his release, Phan Bội Châu travelled to Beijing and to Japan, and then to various parts of China trying to get back into Vietnam. When he eventually got to the border of Yunnan Province and Vietnam, he discovered that World War I was over and his plans of using it to help defeat the French were hopeless.
He wandered around China for years after this without accomplishing anything significant. He pondered collaborating with the French, who were now ruled by the Socialist Party (France)
, and he wrote a booklet about why collaboration with the French would be good. He later changed his mind and blamed this thinking on Phan Ba Ngoc, who was assassinated by one of Phan Bội Châu's supporters for being a collaborator with the French.
and the Soviet Union in the hope of gaining assistance from the Soviet Union or socialist groups. He translated a book called "An Account of the Russian Revolution
", by Fuse Katsuji into Chinese. He then went to Beijing
to meet with Soviet representatives, G.N. Voitinskii and Mr Lap. Mr Lap said that the Soviet Union would educate, train and pay for, any Vietnamese students Phan Bội Châu wanted to send, provided they would engage in social revolution and teach socialism in Vietnam afterwards. Mr Lap was also keen to hear more about the political situation in Vietnam, since Phan Bội Châu was the first Vietnamese revolutionary to come into contact with them. Lap requested that Phan Bội Châu write a book in English about the situation. Unfortunately, Phan Bội Châu couldn't speak English and so was unable to do so.
Phan Bội Châu wrote of the Russians: "One thing I cannot forget is how dignified, courteous, and sincere the Russians appeared to me. Their language and their expression was at times calm, at times vigorous."
returned from Moscow to Canton
. Hồ Chí Minh and Phan Bội Châu corresponded several times about the program of a new organisation Phan Bội Châu was trying to start up and other such things. Phan Bội Châu had been a friend of Hồ's father and had known Hồ when he was a child. They were interested in meeting each other again, but never got a chance.
on what he thought was a short trip on behalf of his movement. But as soon as he arrived he was arrested by French agents and transported back to Hanoi
. Phan Bội Châu wrote about this event:
When he was transported back to Hanoi, he was held in Hỏa Lò prison. At first, the French authorities did not release his real name, in order to avoid public disturbances. But it quickly leaked out who he was. A criminal trial followed, with all the charges going back to 1913 when he had been sentenced to death in absentia. The charges included incitement to murder and supplying an offensive weapon used to commit murder in two incidents, which had resulted in the death of a Vietnamese governor on April 12, 1913, and two French majors on April 28, 1913.
In the end the court sentenced Phan Bội Châu to penal servitude for life. He was released from prison on December 24, 1925 by Governor General Alexandre Varenne, in response to huge public protests. He was placed under house arrest in a house in Huế where Nguyen Ba Trac lived. Nguyen Ba Trac was a former member of the Ðông-Du movement who had become an active collaborator with the French. Guards kept the house under surveillance, so visits by his admirers were a bit inhibited. More public protests against his house arrest caused the authorities to allow him to move to a house which had been organised by his supporters. It was a thatched house divided into three sections and had a medium-sized garden. Here he was able to meet his supporters, his children and his grandchildren.
In 1926, when Phan Chu Trinh
died, Phan Bội Châu presided over a memorial service for him in Huế.
Phan Bội Châu spent his last fifteen years living a quiet life in Huế. He would often relax by taking boat trips on the Sông Hương
(Perfume River). He died on October 29, 1940, about a month after Japan invaded northern Vietnam.
Most cities in Vietnam, regardless of the political orientation of the government, have named major streets after him.
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
ese 20th century nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
. In 1903, he formed a revolutionary organization called the “Reformation Society” (Duy Tân hội).
From 1905 to 1908, he lived in Japan where he wrote political tracts calling for the liberation of Vietnam from the French colonial regime. After being forced to leave Japan, he moved to China where he was influenced by Sun Yat-Sen
Sun Yat-sen
Sun Yat-sen was a Chinese doctor, revolutionary and political leader. As the foremost pioneer of Nationalist China, Sun is frequently referred to as the "Father of the Nation" , a view agreed upon by both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China...
. He formed a new group called the “Vietnamese Restoration League” (Việt Nam Quang Phục Hội), modeled after Sun Yat-Sen’s republican party. In 1925, French agents seized him in Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
. He was convicted of treason and spent the rest of his life under house arrest in Huế
Hue
Hue is one of the main properties of a color, defined technically , as "the degree to which a stimulus can be describedas similar to or different from stimuli that are described as red, green, blue, and yellow,"...
.
During his career, he used several pen name
Pen name
A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her...
s, which included, among others, Sào Nam (巢南), Thị Hán (是漢), Độc Kinh Tử, Việt Điểu, and Hàn Mãn Tử.
Youth
Phan was born as Phan Văn San (潘文珊) in the village of Sa Nam, in Nam Đàn District of the northern central province of Nghệ An. His father, Phan Văn Phổ, descended from a poor family of scholars, who had always excelled academically. Phan spent his first three years in Sa Nam, the village of his mother, Nguyễn Thị Nhàn, before the family moved to the home village of his father, Dan Nhiem, also in Nam Đàn District. Until Phan was five, his father was typically away from home, teaching in other villages, so his mother raised him and taught him to recite passages from the Classic of Poetry, from which he absorbed ConfucianConfucianism
Confucianism is a Chinese ethical and philosophical system developed from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius . Confucianism originated as an "ethical-sociopolitical teaching" during the Spring and Autumn Period, but later developed metaphysical and cosmological elements in the Han...
ethics and virtues.
At age five, Phan’s father returned home and Phan began to attend his father’s classes, where he studied the Chinese classics
Chinese classic texts
Chinese classic texts, or Chinese canonical texts, today often refer to the pre-Qin Chinese texts, especially the Neo-Confucian titles of Four Books and Five Classics , a selection of short books and chapters from the voluminous collection called the Thirteen Classics. All of these pre-Qin texts...
, such as the Three Character Classic
Three Character Classic
The Three Character Classic, Trimetric Classic or San Zi Jing is one of the Chinese classic texts. It was probably written in the 13th century and attributed to Wang Yinglin during the Song Dynasty...
, which took him just three days to memorize. As a result of his ability to learn quickly, his father decided to move him onto further Confucian texts such as the Analects, which he practiced on banana leaves. In his autobiography, Phan admitted that he did not understand the meaning of the text in great detail at the time, but by age six, he was skillful enough to write a variant of the Analects that parodied his classmates. This earned him a caning
Caning
Caning is a form of corporal punishment consisting of a number of hits with a single cane usually made of rattan, generally applied to the offender's bare or clothed buttocks or hand . Application of a cane to the knuckles or the shoulders has been much less common...
from his father.
At the time, the central region of Vietnam where Phan lived was still under the sovereignty of Emperor Tự Đức, but the southern part of the country had gradually been colonised
Colonization of Cochinchina
The French conquest of Cochinchina – which was the European name for the southern part of Vietnam – occurred in two phases between 1858 and 1867.-Historical background:...
in the 1860s
1860s
The 1860s were an extremely turbulent decade with numerous cultural, social, and political upheavals in Europe and America. Revolutions were prevalent in Germany and the Ottoman Empire...
and turned into the colony of Cochinchina
Cochinchina
Cochinchina is a region encompassing the southern third of Vietnam whose principal city is Saigon. It was a French colony from 1862 to 1954. The later state of South Vietnam was created in 1954 by combining Cochinchina with southern Annam. In Vietnamese, the region is called Nam Bộ...
. In 1874, an attack on Hanoi
Hanoi
Hanoi , is the capital of Vietnam and the country's second largest city. Its population in 2009 was estimated at 2.6 million for urban districts, 6.5 million for the metropolitan jurisdiction. From 1010 until 1802, it was the most important political centre of Vietnam...
forced Tự Đức to sign a treaty to open up the Red River for French trade. In Nam Đàn District, a Binh Tây (“Pacify the French”) movement sprung among the local scholar-gentry, and Phan responded at the age of seven by playing Binh Tây with his classmates, using “guns” made of bamboo tubes and lychee
Lychee
The lychee is the sole member of the genus Litchi in the soapberry family, Sapindaceae. It is a tropical and subtropical fruit tree native to Southern China and Southeast Asia, and now cultivated in many parts of the world...
bullets. The unrest was enough to prompt the imperial court to bring in troops to quell the opposition to Huế’s deal with the French. Phan's family was not affected by the crackdown, but the movement had a deep impact on him. Later in life, he noted that as a youth, “I was endowed with a fiery spirit. From the days when I was a small child … every time I read the stories of those in the past who were ready to die for the righteous cause, tears would come running from my eyes, soaking the books.”
At the age of thirteen, Phan’s father sent him to another teacher with a better reputation. Since the family lacked the money for Phan to travel far away, he studied with a local cử nhân
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
graduate who was able to borrow a range of books from wealthier families in the area. In 1883, the French finished the colonization of Vietnam by conquering the northern part of Vietnam, and the country was incorporated into French Indochina
French Indochina
French Indochina was part of the French colonial empire in southeast Asia. A federation of the three Vietnamese regions, Tonkin , Annam , and Cochinchina , as well as Cambodia, was formed in 1887....
. Phan drafted an appeal for “putting down the French and retrieving the North” (Binh Tây thu Bắc). He posted the anonymous appeal calling for the formation of local resistance units at intervals along the main road, but there were no responses and the proclamations were soon torn down. Phan realized that nobody would listen to a person who did not have the social status ensured by passing mandarin examinations.
In 1884, his mother died and his aging father was growing weaker, forcing Phan to take on more responsibilities to help support the family. In 1885, the Cần Vương
Can Vuong
The Cần Vương movement was a large-scale Vietnamese insurgency between 1885 and 1889 against French colonial rule. Its objective was to expel the French and install the boy emperor Hàm Nghi as the leader of an independent Vietnam...
movement began its uprising against French rule, hoping to install the boy Emperor Hàm Nghi
Ham Nghi
Emperor Hàm Nghi ; , was the eighth Emperor of the Vietnamese Nguyễn Dynasty. He reigned for only one year ....
as the ruler of an independent Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
by expelling colonial forces. The imperial entourage fled the palace in Huế and attempted to start the uprising from a military base in Nghệ An. The scholar gentry of the province rose up, and Phan attempted to rally approximately 60 classmates who were prospective examination candidates to join in the uprising. Phan called his new unit the “army of Loyalist Examination Candidates” (Si tu Can Vuong Doi) and convinced an older cử nhân graduate to act as its commander. They had just began to collect money and raw materials to make ad hoc
Ad hoc
Ad hoc is a Latin phrase meaning "for this". It generally signifies a solution designed for a specific problem or task, non-generalizable, and not intended to be able to be adapted to other purposes. Compare A priori....
weapons when a French patrol attacked the village and scattered the students. Phan’s father forced him to seek out the commander to have the membership list destroyed to avoid French retributions.
With his father growing weaker, Phan decided to keep a low profile to avoid trouble with the French colonials so that he could support his family. He did so by teaching and writing, while still continually preparing for examinations. During this time, he quietly acquired books on military strategy by the likes of Sun Tzu
Sun Tzu
Sun Wu , style name Changqing , better known as Sun Tzu or Sunzi , was an ancient Chinese military general, strategist and philosopher who is traditionally believed, and who is most likely, to have authored The Art of War, an influential ancient Chinese book on military strategy...
and Đào Duy Từ
Đào Duy Từ
Đào Duy Từ was a Vietnamese scholar, military adviser, and mandarin who served under the reign of Nguyễn Lord Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên.-Early life:...
, the military strategist of the Nguyễn Lords who stopped the Trịnh Lords with a defensive wall, and Trần Hưng Đạo, the military commander of the Trần Dynasty who repelled Mongol invasions of Vietnam in the 13th century. Phan also cultivated a small number of his students whom he identified as having abundant pro-independence sentiments. He enthusiastically received visits from Cần Vương visitors and passed on their tales to his students, particularly those concerning Phan Đình Phùng
Phan Dinh Phung
Phan Đình Phùng was a Vietnamese revolutionary who led rebel armies against French colonial forces in Vietnam. He was the most prominent of the Confucian court scholars involved in anti-French military campaigns in the 19th century and was cited after his death by 20th-century nationalists as a...
, who led the Cần Vương effort.
Phan failed the regional mandarin exams for a number of years in a row. By the time he was 30, he traveled to Huế to teach, “improve his contacts” and to obtain some special tutoring in preparation for his next exam attempt. In Huế, Phan quickly made friends with likeminded political values and beliefs. One friend, Nguyễn Thượng Hiền
Nguyen Thuong Hien
Nguyễn Thượng Hiền was a Vietnamese scholar-gentry anti-colonial revolutionary activist who advocated independence from French colonial rule...
, introduced Phan to the unpublished writings of Nguyễn Lộ Trạch, a Vietnamese reformer. This was Phan’s first encounter with the Self-Strengthening Movement
Self-Strengthening Movement
The Self-Strengthening Movement , c 1861–1895, was a period of institutional reforms initiated during the late Qing Dynasty following a series of military defeats and concessions to foreign powers....
in China and other major political and military reforms made around the world. After returning to Nghệ An in 1900, Phan passed the regional mandarin exams with the highest possible honors.
Marriage and family
At the age of 22, Phan married Thái Thị Huyên, who was from the same village. The union had long been arranged by their parents, who were acquaintances. Phan was the only son in the family, and his wife initially did not bear him any children, so she arranged for him to be married to a second wife so that the family line could be continued. This practice was not uncommon in Confucian families of the time. His second wife bore him a son and daughter, and his first wife later bore him another son. The two women were reported to be on good terms.When Phan passed the regional examinations in 1900, he was eligible to become a public servant. However, Phan had no intention of pursuing such a career and only wanted the qualification to increase his gravitas
Gravitas
Gravitas was one of the Roman virtues, along with pietas, dignitas and virtus. It may be translated variously as weight, seriousness, dignity, or importance, and connotes a certain substance or depth of personality.-See also:*Auctoritas...
in rallying anti-colonial action. With his father dying in the same year, Phan had no more family obligations and decided to travel abroad to pursue his revolutionary activities. He served divorce papers on his wife so she would avoid retribution from colonial authorities for his activities.
Phan met his wife only once after their nominal divorce: when he was pardoned and released from Hỏa Lò Prison more than two decades later. He was then sent to a loose form of house arrest in Huế
Hue
Hue is one of the main properties of a color, defined technically , as "the degree to which a stimulus can be describedas similar to or different from stimuli that are described as red, green, blue, and yellow,"...
and the train stopped at Vinh
Vinh
Vinh is a city in Vietnam. It is located in the northern half of the country, and is the capital of Nghệ An Province. Politically, Vinh is a municipality within Nghệ An Province. On September 5th, 2008, it was upgraded from Grade-II city to Grade-I city, the fourth Grade-I city of Vietnam after...
in Nghệ An on the way. His wife said, “I am very happy. From now on, my only wish is that you will hold to your initial aspiration. Do whatever you like, and do not worry about your wife and children.” While Phan was living out his final years, his children and their families came to visit him, but never his wife. When she died, she instructed her children not to tell Phan so as to not distract him.
Activism in Vietnam
Can Vuong
The Cần Vương movement was a large-scale Vietnamese insurgency between 1885 and 1889 against French colonial rule. Its objective was to expel the French and install the boy emperor Hàm Nghi as the leader of an independent Vietnam...
movement and other sympathizers of the cause. Second, he would need to attain support from the Vietnamese imperial family and the bureaucracy, many of whom had already come to grips with French colonial rule. Finally, he would need to obtain foreign aid, from Chinese or Japanese revolutionaries, to finance the revolution. However, it was only later that Phan realized that obtaining independence for Vietnam would be much more difficult than expected. He became familiar with the works of famed European thinkers, such as Voltaire
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state...
, Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer of 18th-century Romanticism. His political philosophy influenced the French Revolution as well as the overall development of modern political, sociological and educational thought.His novel Émile: or, On Education is a treatise...
and Darwin
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin FRS was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.He published his theory...
. Phan was also heavily influenced by the writings of Chinese Confucianists Liang Qichao
Liang Qichao
Liang Qichao |Styled]] Zhuoru, ; Pseudonym: Rengong) was a Chinese scholar, journalist, philosopher and reformist during the Qing Dynasty , who inspired Chinese scholars with his writings and reform movements...
and Kang Youwei
Kang Youwei
Kang Youwei , was a Chinese scholar, noted calligrapher and prominent political thinker and reformer of the late Qing Dynasty. He led movements to establish a constitutional monarchy and was an ardent Chinese nationalist. His ideas inspired a reformation movement that was supported by the Guangxu...
. The European and Chinese works, which had only entered Vietnamese circles a few years later, opened Phan's mind to more expansive thought regarding the struggle for freedom of his people. Liang’s Hsin-min ts’ung-pao (“The Renovation of the People”) had an impact on Phan’s revolutionary ideas and beliefs, as it criticized the Chinese government and proclaimed that the Chinese people’s consciousness needed to be awakened to further the country into the modern era. Kang took the idea of Social Darwinism
Social Darwinism
Social Darwinism is a term commonly used for theories of society that emerged in England and the United States in the 1870s, seeking to apply the principles of Darwinian evolution to sociology and politics...
and discussed the survival of the fittest
Survival of the fittest
"Survival of the fittest" is a phrase originating in evolutionary theory, as an alternative description of Natural selection. The phrase is today commonly used in contexts that are incompatible with the original meaning as intended by its first two proponents: British polymath philosopher Herbert...
concept as it applied to nations and ethnic groups. He described the dire outcomes that would face China if the country did not embark on a series of reforms, similar to those faced by the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
and colonial India. He believed that reforms made by Peter the Great and Emperor Meiji
Emperor Meiji
The or was the 122nd emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession, reigning from 3 February 1867 until his death...
were excellent examples of the political restructuring that needed to take place to save China. From Kang’s work, Phan realized why Emperor Tự Đức’s decision to ignore Nguyễn Trường Tộ
Nguyễn Trường Tô
Nguyễn Trường Tô is a Vietnamese politician. He is currently the party chief, Chairman of the People’s Committee of northern Ha Giang province, full member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam...
’s proposed modernization reforms had led to the downfall of Vietnam and had allowed for French rule in Vietnam
French Indochina
French Indochina was part of the French colonial empire in southeast Asia. A federation of the three Vietnamese regions, Tonkin , Annam , and Cochinchina , as well as Cambodia, was formed in 1887....
.
Phan continued to seek support from the scholar-gentry and the bureaucracy serving the French, before shifting his focus to obtaining support from members of the imperial family. Phan had moved to Huế, claiming that he was preparing for the metropolitan imperial examinations, but in actuality, he planned on drumming up support among the various factions of royal family. Phan traveled to Quảng Nam
Quang Nam Province
Quảng Nam is a province on the South Central Coast of Vietnam. It is bordered by Thua Thien-Huế province to the north, the nation of Laos to the west, Kon Tum Province to the southwest, Quảng Ngãi Province to the southeast, the South China Sea to the east, and the city of Da Nang to the...
to meet with Nguyễn Thành
Nguyen Thanh
Nguyen Thanh was a Vietnamese scholar-gentry anti-colonial revolutionary activist who advocated independence from French colonial rule. He was a contemporary of Phan Boi Chau and Phan Chu Trinh...
, a contemporary anti-colonial revolutionary activist who was involved in the Cần Vương movement. Thành suggested that a royal associate of his, Ton That Toai, could help lead the revolution. Phan turned down the offer, but took Thành’s advice to seek support from direct descendants of Emperor Gia Long
Gia Long
Emperor Gia Long , born Nguyễn Phúc Ánh , was an emperor of Vietnam...
, the founder of the Nguyễn Dynasty. These direct descendants were still highly respected by wealthy Mekong Delta
Mekong Delta
The Mekong Delta is the region in southwestern Vietnam where the Mekong River approaches and empties into the sea through a network of distributaries. The Mekong delta region encompasses a large portion of southwestern Vietnam of . The size of the area covered by water depends on the season.The...
landowners, who Phan hoped would raise the bulk of the money needed to finance the revolution. By the spring of 1903, Phan had found a perfect candidate to lead the revolution: Prince Cường Để, a direct descendant of Gia Long’s eldest son, Canh. Cường Để’s descendants had long been dissociated from the emperor and his family since the early 19th century. Cường Để's father was personally sought by Phan Đình Phùng
Phan Dinh Phung
Phan Đình Phùng was a Vietnamese revolutionary who led rebel armies against French colonial forces in Vietnam. He was the most prominent of the Confucian court scholars involved in anti-French military campaigns in the 19th century and was cited after his death by 20th-century nationalists as a...
to take Hàm Nghi's place and lead a popular revolt against the French in the 1880s, but he declined. By 1894, he suggested that his son, then 12 years old, could be the new face of the revolution. However, this plan was never executed as Phung died in January 1896. Nevertheless, Cường Để changed the course of his life and began studying history, economics and geography and thought admiringly of the heroic achievements of Trần Hưng Đạo, Zhuge Liang
Zhuge Liang
Zhuge Liang was a chancellor of the state of Shu Han during the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history. He is often recognised as the greatest and most accomplished strategist of his era....
, Toyotomi Hideyoshi
Toyotomi Hideyoshi
was a daimyo warrior, general and politician of the Sengoku period. He unified the political factions of Japan. He succeeded his former liege lord, Oda Nobunaga, and brought an end to the Sengoku period. The period of his rule is often called the Momoyama period, named after Hideyoshi's castle...
, Saigō Takamori
Saigo Takamori
was one of the most influential samurai in Japanese history, living during the late Edo Period and early Meiji Era. He has been dubbed the last true samurai.-Early life:...
, Cavour, Otto von Bismarck
Otto von Bismarck
Otto Eduard Leopold, Prince of Bismarck, Duke of Lauenburg , simply known as Otto von Bismarck, was a Prussian-German statesman whose actions unified Germany, made it a major player in world affairs, and created a balance of power that kept Europe at peace after 1871.As Minister President of...
, George Washington
George Washington
George Washington was the dominant military and political leader of the new United States of America from 1775 to 1799. He led the American victory over Great Britain in the American Revolutionary War as commander-in-chief of the Continental Army from 1775 to 1783, and presided over the writing of...
, and Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
. After getting Cường Để to support the revolutionary cause, Phan wrote his first significant work, Luu Cau Huyet Le Tan Thu (Letter from the Ryukyus Written in Tears of Blood). He argued that independence in Vietnam could only be achieved "through a transformation and revitalization of national character". The book was moderately successful amongst the Vietnamese populaces and received attention from other nationalists like Phan Chu Trinh
Phan Chu Trinh
Phan Chu Trinh also known as Phan Châu Trinh was a famous early 20th century Vietnamese nationalist. He also used the alias Tây Hồ. He sought to end France's brutal occupation of Vietnam...
. However, many mandarins were reluctant to publicly support Phan's ideas, and as a result, he came to realize that he couldn't rely on the bureaucratic elite to support his cause.
Phan created the Việt Nam Duy Tân Hội (Vietnam Modernization Association) in 1904; Cường Để led the association as its president, while Phan served as general secretary. Despite its growing member base, Duy Tân Hội struggled financially. Phan hoped to obtain financial assistance from China, but the country was forced to abandon its suzerain relationship with Vietnam after the 1884–1885 Sino-French War
Sino-French War
The Sino–French War was a limited conflict fought between August 1884 and April 1885 to decide whether France should replace China in control of Tonkin . As the French achieved their war aims, they are usually considered to have won the war...
. Phan and Cường Để decided to seek aid from Japan, which had recently won a war against Russia
Russo-Japanese War
The Russo-Japanese War was "the first great war of the 20th century." It grew out of rival imperial ambitions of the Russian Empire and Japanese Empire over Manchuria and Korea...
, had successfully imposed reforms
Meiji Restoration
The , also known as the Meiji Ishin, Revolution, Reform or Renewal, was a chain of events that restored imperial rule to Japan in 1868...
and seemed more inclined to help out revolutionaries in a nearby Asian country. Phan was selected to visit Japan to secure the funds needed to sustain Duy Tân Hội. Phan did not speak Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
and did not have any contacts in Japan, so he sought help from Liang Qichao, who was living in the country since being exile
Exile
Exile means to be away from one's home , while either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being threatened with imprisonment or death upon return...
d years earlier. Liang introduced Phan to many prominent politicians, including Ōkuma Shigenobu
Okuma Shigenobu
Marquis ; was a statesman in the Empire of Japan and the 8th and 17th Prime Minister of Japan...
, a well-liked statesman
Statesman
A statesman is usually a politician or other notable public figure who has had a long and respected career in politics or government at the national and international level. As a term of respect, it is usually left to supporters or commentators to use the term...
who had previously served as Prime Minister of Japan
Prime Minister of Japan
The is the head of government of Japan. He is appointed by the Emperor of Japan after being designated by the Diet from among its members, and must enjoy the confidence of the House of Representatives to remain in office...
for a few months in 1898. Phan asked Shigenobu for financial assistance to fund the activities of Vietnamese revolutionaries. In his letter to Shigenobu, Phan stated that Japan should be obligated to help Vietnam since both countries were of the "same race, same culture, and same continent". Second, Japan could promote its interests in Vietnam and prevent French and Russian expansion into China. However, Phan was unsuccessful in procuring aid from the Japanese. The Japanese government did not want to harm its relationship with the French, while opposition party
Opposition (parliamentary)
Parliamentary opposition is a form of political opposition to a designated government, particularly in a Westminster-based parliamentary system. Note that this article uses the term government as it is used in Parliamentary systems, i.e. meaning the administration or the cabinet rather than the state...
members promised financial aid to Vietnamese students wishing to study in Japan, but also advised Phan not to start a revolutionary movement until Japan was more willing to help the cause.
In Guangxi
Guangxi
Guangxi, formerly romanized Kwangsi, is a province of southern China along its border with Vietnam. In 1958, it became the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China, a region with special privileges created specifically for the Zhuang people.Guangxi's location, in...
and Guangdong
Guangdong
Guangdong is a province on the South China Sea coast of the People's Republic of China. The province was previously often written with the alternative English name Kwangtung Province...
, the Vietnamese revolutionaries arranged alliances with the Kuomintang
Kuomintang
The Kuomintang of China , sometimes romanized as Guomindang via the Pinyin transcription system or GMD for short, and translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party is a founding and ruling political party of the Republic of China . Its guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, espoused...
by marrying Vietnamese women to Chinese officers. Their children were at an advantage since they could speak both languages and they worked as agents for the revolutionaries and spread revolutionary ideologies across borders. This intermarriage between Chinese and Vietnamese was viewed with alarm by the French. Phan Boi Chau's revolutionary network practiced this extensively, in addition Chinese merchants also married Vietnamese women, and provided funds and help.
Early writings
Frustrated by the Japanese response, Phan again turned to Liang. The Confucianist scholar explained to Phan that it was naïve to expect financial assistance from the Japanese. The Vietnamese people would have to look only within Vietnam for support and financial backing. Liang told Phan that he could best serve the cause by writing and distributing pamphlets advocating for the revolution to rally support from the Vietnamese and others abroad. Phan took Liang's advice very seriously and immediately began to publish materials to obtain support for the revolutionary cause. These writings, perhaps the most widely recognized of Phan's works, include: Viet Nam Vong Quoc SuViet Nam Vong Quoc Su
Việt Nam vong quốc sử was a book written by Phan Boi Chau, the leading Vietnamese anti-colonial revolutionary of the early 20th century, in 1905 while he was in Japan...
(History of the Loss of Vietnam), Tan Viet Nam (New Vietnam), Ai Viet Dieu Dien (A Lament for Vietnam and Yunnan), Hai Ngoai Huyet Thu (Letter from Abroad Written in Blood), Viet Nam Quoc Su Khao (An Outline History of Vietnam), and Ai Viet Dieu Dien (A Lament for Vietnam and Yunnan). All were initially written in Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
and then translated to Vietnamese
Vietnamese language
Vietnamese is the national and official language of Vietnam. It is the mother tongue of 86% of Vietnam's population, and of about three million overseas Vietnamese. It is also spoken as a second language by many ethnic minorities of Vietnam...
, upon which they were smuggled into Vietnam. These works, most notably Viet Nam Vong Quoc Su, were critical in intensifying the nationalist fervor in the country.
Viet Nam Vong Quoc Su
Liang published Phan's 1905 work Viet Nam Vong Quoc Su (History of the Loss of Vietnam) and intended to distribute it in China and abroad, but also to smuggle it into Vietnam. Phan wanted to rally people to support the cause for Vietnamese independence; the work is regarded as one of the most important books in the history of Vietnam's anticolonialism movement.The book is noted for its negative assessment of the response of the Nguyễn Dynasty in the 19th century to the colonial challenges facing Vietnam and the failure to modernize, with the Nguyễn instead turning to ultra-orthodox conservative Confucianism. The book presents strident and emotive memorials to the key figures of the Can Vuong movement of the late 1880s and early 1890s, led by mandarins
Mandarin (bureaucrat)
A mandarin was a bureaucrat in imperial China, and also in the monarchist days of Vietnam where the system of Imperial examinations and scholar-bureaucrats was adopted under Chinese influence.-History and use of the term:...
such as Tôn Thất Thuyết
Ton That Thuyet
Tôn Thất Thuyết was the leading mandarin of Emperor Tự Đức of Vietnam's Nguyễn Dynasty. Thuyết later led the Can Vuong movement which aimed to restore Vietnamese independence under Emperor Hàm Nghi. He was born on May 12, 1839 in Huế....
and Phan Dinh Phung
Phan Dinh Phung
Phan Đình Phùng was a Vietnamese revolutionary who led rebel armies against French colonial forces in Vietnam. He was the most prominent of the Confucian court scholars involved in anti-French military campaigns in the 19th century and was cited after his death by 20th-century nationalists as a...
, who led guerrillas against the French. The Can Vuong attempted to overthrow the French rule and establish the boy emperor Hàm Nghi
Ham Nghi
Emperor Hàm Nghi ; , was the eighth Emperor of the Vietnamese Nguyễn Dynasty. He reigned for only one year ....
as the ruler of an independent Vietnam. The book also analyzes the French social and economic policies in Vietnam, which it regards as oppression. In the book, Phan argues for the establishment of a nationwide pro-independence front with seven factions or interested groups with a specific motivation to fight the French colonial authorities.
The book is written in a style that differed from the prevailing writing technique and structure of the scholar gentry of the time. The scholar gentry under the Confucian education system fostered by the classical imperial examinations were molded by their study and memorization of classical Chinese poetry and literature. As such, the literary style tended to be poetic, indirect and metaphorical, relying on allusions and imagery to depict an idea. Phan eschewed this traditional style to write in a direct, ordinary prose style, especially in his analytical and argumentative sections. The book precipitated a new style of writing among scholar gentry revolutionaries, who later tended to use a more direct style.
The book created a reaction in China, sparking follow-up essays by Chinese writers who were taken aback by the Phan's description of the life that faced Vietnamese people under French rule. It generated gloomy pieces by Chinese writers who predicted that their nation would suffer a similar fate if they failed to modernize. One such Chinese response later became a teaching text at the Tonkin Free School
Tonkin Free School
The Tonkin Free School was a short-lived but historically-significant educational institution in Hanoi that aimed to reform Vietnamese society under French colonialism during the beginning of the 20th century....
in Hanoi
Hanoi
Hanoi , is the capital of Vietnam and the country's second largest city. Its population in 2009 was estimated at 2.6 million for urban districts, 6.5 million for the metropolitan jurisdiction. From 1010 until 1802, it was the most important political centre of Vietnam...
, a school run by Phan's contemporaries to promote the independence movement. However, Phan did not receive much of a reaction in terms of aid towards his independence efforts, since the book made Chinese readers worry about their own future. The book had a much better reception among Vietnamese readers. Phan and his colleague Dang Tu Kinh left Japan for the first time in August 1905, carrying 50 copies of the book that were to distributed throughout Vietnam, of which further copies were made inside the country. Phan's direct writing style, without the use of allegories, upset traditionalists but made the book more accessible to literate people who had not been trained in classical literature.
Ðông-Du Movement
He soon realised that Japanese military aid would not be possible, and turned his attention to using Japan as a base to train and educate young Vietnamese students, by starting the Dong Du (Visit the East) Society. The number of Vietnamese students sent to Japan for training peaked at 200 in 1908. However, after pressure by the French government, Japan declared Phan to be persona non grata
Persona non grata
Persona non grata , literally meaning "an unwelcome person", is a legal term used in diplomacy that indicates a proscription against a person entering the country...
and expelled him in 1909.
After Ðông-Du
In 1909, after being deported from Japan, Phan Bội Châu went to Hong KongHong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
with Cường Để. There, he made plans to raise money and bring to Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
the Vietnamese students who had studied in Japan, but had now been dispersed. He had previously had the foresight to establish a base in Thailand.
But instead he received news of an armed uprising in Vietnam, led by Hoang Ha Tam. So he assembled his comrades in Hong Kong, and sent two people to Japan to buy 500 of the Arisaka Type 30 Rifle
Type 30 Rifle
The Type 30 Rifle Arisaka was a bolt-action rifle that was the standard infantry rifle of the Japanese infantry from 1897 to 1905. It was the first rifle in the Arisaka family as well as the first to chamber the 6.5x50mm Arisaka round...
s. But after buying the weapons to support the uprising with, they could not afford to hire a ship to smuggle the rifles into Vietnam. So in July, Phan Bội Châu went to Thailand to ask their government to help with the smuggling. The foreign minister refused, since it would be a major diplomatic incident with France if it leaked out. So he had to return to Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...
and wait for the money needed for smuggling.
Money never arrived, and news arrived that his fundraising organiser was dead, and that the uprising was going badly. So Phan Bội Châu donated 480 of the rifles to the forces of Sun Yat-Sen
Sun Yat-sen
Sun Yat-sen was a Chinese doctor, revolutionary and political leader. As the foremost pioneer of Nationalist China, Sun is frequently referred to as the "Father of the Nation" , a view agreed upon by both the People's Republic of China and the Republic of China...
. He then tried to smuggle the remaining 20 of the rifles via Thailand, disguised as first-class luggage. This attempt failed.
He spent the first half of 1910 begging on the street, selling his books, and spending all his money getting drunk at the pub. This went on until he met a kind old woman named Chau Po-Lin, who took the entire movement into her house. Funds arrived and he planned to move to Thailand.
He arrived in Thailand in November 1910, and all his students and followers who could, took up farming there.
Vietnam Restoration League
The Wuchang Uprising
Wuchang Uprising
The Wuchang Uprising began with the dissatisfaction of the handling of a railway crisis. The crisis then escalated to an uprising where the revolutionaries went up against Qing government officials. The uprising was then assisted by the New Army in a coup against their own authorities in the city...
occurred in China on 10 October 1911. It quickly spread and declared itself the Republic of China. This greatly inspired Phan Bội Châu, since he had many friends among the Chinese revolutionaries. He thought this new regime would fix all that was wrong with the old China, and would unite with Japan to defeat the Europeans and build a strong Asia.
Leaving the farm in the hands of more than 50 of his comrades, he went to China to visit his friends there.
The old Vietnam Modernization Association had become worthless, with all its members scattered. A new organization needed to be formed, with a new agenda inspired by the Chinese revolution. A large meeting was held in late March 1912. They agreed to form a new group, the Vietnam Restoration League. Cường Để was made president and chairman, Phan Bội Châu was made vice-president.
People voted to campaign for democracy instead of a monarchy, despite strong objections of people from southern Vietnam. The organization's sole purpose was to kick out the Westerners and establish a democratic republic. Unfortunately, they had no funds and had great difficulty getting revolutionary leaflets into Vietnam. Also, the new Chinese government was too busy and would not help the movement with anything other than allowing Vietnamese comrades into its education and training system.
The Vietnam Restoration League came up with a proposed flag design. Previously, Vietnam never had a flag, only banners to represent royalty. Their flag idea had 5 five-pointed stars, arranged in a square with a star in the middle. It symbolized the five regions of Vietnam. The national flag had red stars on a yellow background, and the military flag had a red background with white stars. The yellow represented their race, the red represented fire which represented their location to the south of China (see I Ching
I Ching
The I Ching or "Yì Jīng" , also known as the Classic of Changes, Book of Changes and Zhouyi, is one of the oldest of the Chinese classic texts...
), and the white represented the metal of their weapons.
They also created a book on military strategy and regulations for their army. They even printed their own currency, which they agreed to honour when, or rather "if", they attained power. If they won they could easily pay people back, and if they lost it wouldn't cost them anything. The "money" was printed in a similar way to the Chinese paper notes.
They also formed an organisation called the "Association for the Revitalization of China". It was dedicated to getting support from China for independence movements in smaller Asian countries, starting with Vietnam of course. Using a medical centre as a front, and a fancy office they managed to create the false impression that they were a huge successful organisation. They got hundreds of people to join, and sold a huge amount of their made-up currency. They changed some of the leadership positions of the "Vietnam Restoration League" to allow the Chinese to take part.
However, they could not get enough money to buy more weapons until they had proved themselves with a military attack of some sort. Everyone said they needed something big and explosive because the people of Vietnam were short on patience. So Phan Bội Châu sent five people with a few grenades to the three regions of Vietnam. The grenades they sent to the North were unfortunately used on a minor target, the governor of Thái Bình province, two officers and a French restaurateur. They were meant to be used at the mandarin examinations when all the officials would be gathered. Those they sent to the centre via Thailand did not make it to Vietnam at the time, and they had to throw their grenades away. Those that they sent to the south were wasted on some Vietnamese traitors.
The attacks in the North enraged the French, and they demanded that Phan Bội Châu be arrested, but the Chinese government refused. But the value of Phan Bội Châu's special currency dropped dramatically after the failure.
They had no money, so they decided to trick a pharmaceutical company in Japan into providing lots of expensive drugs for them on credit. They then closed down their medical centre and didn't pay their debt. But their membership slowly dwindled, and the difficulty of getting into Vietnam increased. And changes in the government of their Chinese province made things difficult. And they had to close their office and send their comrades away.
Vietnam during World War I
By 1914, Phan Bội Châu was arrested by the Chinese authorities and thrown in jail on suspicion of helping rival Chinese authorities. Fortunately the intervention of the Chinese minister for the army, stopped them from killing him or handing him over to the French. But he was kept in prison for almost four years until 1917. In prison he wrote many biographies, including his own, and other books.World War I began shortly thereafter. The country remained an enthusiastic member of the French Empire
French colonial empire
The French colonial empire was the set of territories outside Europe that were under French rule primarily from the 17th century to the late 1960s. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the colonial empire of France was the second-largest in the world behind the British Empire. The French colonial empire...
, and many Vietnamese fought in World War I (see Vietnamese Expeditionary Force). Some 50,000 Vietnamese troops and 50,000 Vietnamese workers were sent to Europe to fight for France in the war, and thousands lost their lives at Somme and Picardy, near the Belgian
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
coast and many more in Middle East
Middle Eastern theatre of World War I
The Middle Eastern theatre of World War I was the scene of action between 29 October 1914, and 30 October 1918. The combatants were the Ottoman Empire, with some assistance from the other Central Powers, and primarily the British and the Russians among the Allies of World War I...
. Both Vietnamese victories and losses on World War I battlefields contribute significantly to Vietnam's national identity. At the time it was referred to Vietnam's 'Baptism of Fire'. Over 30,000 Vietnamese died during the conflict and 60,000 were wounded. The Vietnamese also endured additional heavy taxes to help pay for France's war efforts. Numerous anti-colonial revolts occurred in Vietnam during the war, all easily suppressed by the French. In May 1916, the sixteen-year-old king, Duy Tân
Duy Tan
Emperor Duy Tân , was a boy emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty and reigned in 9 years between 1907 and 1916. His name was Prince Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh San and was son of the Thành Thái emperor...
, escaped from his palace in order to take part in an uprising of Vietnamese troops organized by Thái Phiên
Thai Phien
Thái Phiên , was a Vietnamese scholar and revolutionary from Quang Nam Province, also known by the alias Nam Xương. He was an associate of Phan Bội Châu, and was involved in both the Vietnam Restoration League and the Dong Du movement...
and Trần Cao Vân
Tran Cao Van
Trần Cao Vân was a mandarin of the Nguyễn Dynasty who was best known for his activities in attempting to expel the French colonial powers in Vietnam. He orchestrated an attempt to expel the French and install Emperor Duy Tân as the boy ruler of an independent Vietnam, but the uprising failed...
. The French were informed of the plan and the leaders arrested and executed. Duy Tân was deposed and exiled to Réunion Island in the Indian Ocean
Indian Ocean
The Indian Ocean is the third largest of the world's oceanic divisions, covering approximately 20% of the water on the Earth's surface. It is bounded on the north by the Indian Subcontinent and Arabian Peninsula ; on the west by eastern Africa; on the east by Indochina, the Sunda Islands, and...
. One of the most effective uprisings during this period was in the northern Vietnamese province of Thái Nguyên
Thai Nguyen
Thái Nguyên is a city and municipality in Vietnam. It is the capital and located in center of Thai Nguyen province, in northeastern Vietnam. This is the largest city and often considered as center of Northern midlands and mountain areas...
. Some 300 Vietnamese soldiers revolted and released 200 political prisoners, whom, in addition to several hundred local people, they armed. The rebels held the town of Thái Nguyên for several days, hoping for help from Chinese nationalists. None arrived, however, and the French retook the town and hunted down most of the rebels.
While he was in prison, he organised some of his comrades to meet with the German government in Thailand. They donated a large amount of money and promised more if a spectacular action could be done in Vietnam against the French. The comrades attempted an action but failed completely, wasting all the money.
After his release, Phan Bội Châu travelled to Beijing and to Japan, and then to various parts of China trying to get back into Vietnam. When he eventually got to the border of Yunnan Province and Vietnam, he discovered that World War I was over and his plans of using it to help defeat the French were hopeless.
He wandered around China for years after this without accomplishing anything significant. He pondered collaborating with the French, who were now ruled by the Socialist Party (France)
Socialist Party (France)
The Socialist Party is a social-democratic political party in France and the largest party of the French centre-left. It is one of the two major contemporary political parties in France, along with the center-right Union for a Popular Movement...
, and he wrote a booklet about why collaboration with the French would be good. He later changed his mind and blamed this thinking on Phan Ba Ngoc, who was assassinated by one of Phan Bội Châu's supporters for being a collaborator with the French.
Relations with the Socialists
At the start of 1921, Phan Bội Châu studied SocialismSocialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
and the Soviet Union in the hope of gaining assistance from the Soviet Union or socialist groups. He translated a book called "An Account of the Russian Revolution
Russian Revolution of 1917
The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917, which destroyed the Tsarist autocracy and led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The Tsar was deposed and replaced by a provisional government in the first revolution of February 1917...
", by Fuse Katsuji into Chinese. He then went to Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
to meet with Soviet representatives, G.N. Voitinskii and Mr Lap. Mr Lap said that the Soviet Union would educate, train and pay for, any Vietnamese students Phan Bội Châu wanted to send, provided they would engage in social revolution and teach socialism in Vietnam afterwards. Mr Lap was also keen to hear more about the political situation in Vietnam, since Phan Bội Châu was the first Vietnamese revolutionary to come into contact with them. Lap requested that Phan Bội Châu write a book in English about the situation. Unfortunately, Phan Bội Châu couldn't speak English and so was unable to do so.
Phan Bội Châu wrote of the Russians: "One thing I cannot forget is how dignified, courteous, and sincere the Russians appeared to me. Their language and their expression was at times calm, at times vigorous."
Correspondence with Hồ Chí Minh
On December 11 (or November 11?), 1924, Hồ Chí MinhHo Chi Minh
Hồ Chí Minh , born Nguyễn Sinh Cung and also known as Nguyễn Ái Quốc, was a Vietnamese Marxist-Leninist revolutionary leader who was prime minister and president of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam...
returned from Moscow to Canton
Guangzhou
Guangzhou , known historically as Canton or Kwangchow, is the capital and largest city of the Guangdong province in the People's Republic of China. Located in southern China on the Pearl River, about north-northwest of Hong Kong, Guangzhou is a key national transportation hub and trading port...
. Hồ Chí Minh and Phan Bội Châu corresponded several times about the program of a new organisation Phan Bội Châu was trying to start up and other such things. Phan Bội Châu had been a friend of Hồ's father and had known Hồ when he was a child. They were interested in meeting each other again, but never got a chance.
Final capture
In 1925, Phan Bội Châu arrived in ShanghaiShanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
on what he thought was a short trip on behalf of his movement. But as soon as he arrived he was arrested by French agents and transported back to Hanoi
Hanoi
Hanoi , is the capital of Vietnam and the country's second largest city. Its population in 2009 was estimated at 2.6 million for urban districts, 6.5 million for the metropolitan jurisdiction. From 1010 until 1802, it was the most important political centre of Vietnam...
. Phan Bội Châu wrote about this event:
- "I did not realize that every minute of my activities was being reported to the French by Nguyen Thuong HienNguyen Thuong HienNguyễn Thượng Hiền was a Vietnamese scholar-gentry anti-colonial revolutionary activist who advocated independence from French colonial rule...
, a man who lived with me and was supported by me. When this Nguyen Thuong Huyen first arrived in Hangchow, he was with Tran Duc Quy; I was quite dubious about him. But later I heard that he was a great-nephew of Main Son (Nguyen Thung Hien), well versed in literary Chinese, the holder of a cử nhân (舉人) degree and familiar with French and quốc ngữVietnamese alphabetThe Vietnamese alphabet, called Chữ Quốc Ngữ , usually shortened to Quốc Ngữ , is the modern writing system for the Vietnamese language...
. Owing to his capabilities, I kept him on as my secretary without suspecting that he was an informer for the French.
- "At 12 noon on the eleventh day of the Fifth Month, my train from Hangchow arrived at the North Station Shanghai. In order to go quickly to the bank to send the money, I left my luggage at the depository and carried only a small bag with me. As soon as I came out of the train station, I saw a rather luxurious automobile and four Westerners standing by it. I did not realize that they were French, because in Shanghai there was a great mixture of Westerners and there were swarms of foreign visitors. It was quite common for cars to be used to pick up hotel guests. Little did I know that this car was there to kidnap someone! When I had gone a few steps from the station, one of the Westerners came up to me and said in Mandarin: 'This car is very nice; please get in.' I politely refused, saying 'I do not need a car.' Suddenly, one of the Westerners behind the car with a great heave pushed me inside it, the engine accelerated and we were off like a shot. In no time we had already entered the French Concession. The car drew up to the waterfront, where a French warship was docked. I now became a prisoner on this warship."
When he was transported back to Hanoi, he was held in Hỏa Lò prison. At first, the French authorities did not release his real name, in order to avoid public disturbances. But it quickly leaked out who he was. A criminal trial followed, with all the charges going back to 1913 when he had been sentenced to death in absentia. The charges included incitement to murder and supplying an offensive weapon used to commit murder in two incidents, which had resulted in the death of a Vietnamese governor on April 12, 1913, and two French majors on April 28, 1913.
In the end the court sentenced Phan Bội Châu to penal servitude for life. He was released from prison on December 24, 1925 by Governor General Alexandre Varenne, in response to huge public protests. He was placed under house arrest in a house in Huế where Nguyen Ba Trac lived. Nguyen Ba Trac was a former member of the Ðông-Du movement who had become an active collaborator with the French. Guards kept the house under surveillance, so visits by his admirers were a bit inhibited. More public protests against his house arrest caused the authorities to allow him to move to a house which had been organised by his supporters. It was a thatched house divided into three sections and had a medium-sized garden. Here he was able to meet his supporters, his children and his grandchildren.
In 1926, when Phan Chu Trinh
Phan Chu Trinh
Phan Chu Trinh also known as Phan Châu Trinh was a famous early 20th century Vietnamese nationalist. He also used the alias Tây Hồ. He sought to end France's brutal occupation of Vietnam...
died, Phan Bội Châu presided over a memorial service for him in Huế.
Phan Bội Châu spent his last fifteen years living a quiet life in Huế. He would often relax by taking boat trips on the Sông Hương
Perfume River
The Perfume River is a river that crosses the city of Huế, in the central Vietnamese province of Thừa Thiên Huế.-Etymology:In the autumn, flowers from orchards upriver from Huế fall into the water, giving the river a perfume-like aroma....
(Perfume River). He died on October 29, 1940, about a month after Japan invaded northern Vietnam.
Most cities in Vietnam, regardless of the political orientation of the government, have named major streets after him.