COMPLETION REPORT"News from Tonkin"
The Dutch Report of Northern Vietnamese Politics to Japan in The Seventeenth Century
Dr. Hoang Anh Tuan （+2）
Associate Professor
College of Social Sciences and Humanities
Vietnam National University of Hanoi
Under the sponsorship of the Sumitomo Foundation, from 1 April 2014 to 30 September 2015, I carriedout the research project “News from Tonkin: The Dutch Report of Northern Vietnamese Politics toJapan in the Seventeenth Century”. During the past eighteen months, the following major works havebeen carried out:
1. Archival research and data analysis for research constituted the most important part of the research
project since I depended heavily on the newly-extracted data from the seventeenth-century texts. So far,around two thousand pages of the Dutch East India Company records (of both Nagasaki and Tonkinfactories) have been checked for relevant information;
2. Fieldworks were carried out in August 2014 and again in April 2015 in search of supplementary
information for the textual data. We have re-surveyed the ancient town of Pho Hien (Hung Yen
province) where a number of seventeenth-century relics still remain (Hien Pagoda, Foreigners’
cemetery) and several pieces of Japanese Hizen ceramics were recently discovered in an archaeologicalexcavation;
3. A seminar was held at History Department in July 2015 in order to report on the research project.
On the basis of the abovementioned three major activities, we have gained the following major scientificachievement (as aimed at in the Research Proposal):
1). A vivid picture of the seventeenth century socio-political history as depicted and perceived by theDutch. During the course of 64 years trading in Vietnam, the Dutch recorded the everyday politics ofthe northern Vietnamese kingdom of Tonkin in their “dagh-registers” (daily records) and transferredthese documents either to Batavia or Hirado/Nagasaki at the end of every trading season. A large partof this information never existed in the Vietnamese chronicles. For example, Nagasakij daghregister1642 described vividly the Trinh Lord’s plan to pacify the Nguyen “rebels” in southern kingdom ofCochinchina. In order to support his grand strategy, the Trinh ruler demanded the Dutch to send
warships, soldiers, weapons to Tonkin in the following summer. He also ordered the Dutch factors inNagasaki to get some Japanese swords and Japanese wooden handle for spear… to be shipped to Tonkin
in the next shipment. Understandably, this information would enrich the Dutch Oranda fusetsu gaki
(Dutch world report) to Edo that year since the Japanese Shogun was, without doubt, concerned withthe political development in the regional countries. Such information on Tonkin could be seen in theDutch Nagasaki records almost every year.
2). An extra overview of the seventeenth-century Vietnamese political history, with focus on thediplomatic front aimed by the northern Vietnamese rulers (the Trinh Lords) towards a possible politicalrecognition (and even a military support) from the Japanese Shogunate in the former half of the 1600s.
As shown in the Dutch records, there were sporadic attempts by the Trinh rulers towards Edo, either bydirect diplomatic letters or through the Dutch connection. The Trinh rulers, however, did not attain theirgoal, as expected, owing to their half-hearted attitude in this diplomatic relationship.
3). A re-depiction of early modern Vietnamese – Japanese relationship, with a periodization of thecommercial relation between the two countries from the late sixteenth to early eighteenth centuries.
Through the Dutch (and the Chinese, to a lesser extent) active intermediation, trade between the twocountries thrived throughout the most part of the seventeenth century, which helped connect Tonkin
and Japan even after Edo had promulgated the Closed-Door policy in the mid- 1630s.
4). An additional account of the political impact on the socio-economic transformation in Vietnam
during the early modern time. It is rather clear from the documents that the Japanese Shogunate did notfavor the northern Vietnamese rulers in the civil war between Tonkin and Cochinchina. Edo, however,
did not hinder the Dutch trade between Japan and Tonkin. This contributed to the existence of thetrading connection between North Vietnam and Japan in the most part of the seventeenth century.
Publication of the Results of Research Project:Verbal Presentation (Date, Venue, Name of Conference, Title of Presentation, Presenter, etc.)
Data from my research project is utilized in the following presentation:
1. Hoang Anh Tuan, “Climating an Empire: Natural Disasters and Socio-economic Vicissitudes in Early
Modern Tonkin”, paper presented at the International Conference War, Environment and Urban
Transformation: A Comparative Approach (USSH, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, 29-30
September 2015) [in English]
Thesis (Name of Journal and its Date, Title and Author of Thesis, etc.)
Data from my research project is utilized in the following theses:
1. Hoang Anh Tuan, “Vietnamese – Japanese Diplomatic and Commercial Relations in the SeventeenthCentury”, in: History, Culture and Cultural Diplomacy: Revitalizing Vietnam – Japan Relations inthe New Regional and International Context (Hanoi: Vietnam National University Press, 2014, pp.
21-50) [in English]
2. Hoang Anh Tuan, “Góc nhìn khu vực về quan hệ Việt Nam – Nhật Bản thế kỷ XVII” [Seventeenth-CenturyVietnamese – Japanese Relationship in the Regional Perspective], Journal of Sciences, VNU-Hanoi,
Vol.30/issue 3, 2014, pp. 1-13 [in Vietnamese, with English summary]Book (Publisher and Date of the Book, Title and Author of the Book, etc.)
Data from my research project is utilized in the following monograph:
1. Hoang Anh Tuan, The Dutch East India Company in Tonkin, 1637-1700 (Hanoi Publishing House, 2015, c.
800 pages, forthcoming) [book in Vietnamese, with English summary article]
Note: the major part of data which I extracted from the Dutch archives (Nagasaki and Tonkin records) within
this research project was included in Appendix 7 “Documents and Chronic Events of the Dutch-Vietnamese
Relationship” [c.300 pages]. This book is under printing, expected by Winter 2015.