Studying the “Feudality\ féodalité” relationship in Vietnam in the Middle Age by reviewing the issue of the “feudal State” of China

DOI: 10.18173/2354-1067.2020-0037

Abstract

Whether or not the hierarchy of the state of Vietnam, from the 10th - 19th centuries was feudalism was a question that was under discussion and controversy of the academic forums nearly a century ago. In general, while learning about the characteristic of feudal state, the researchers explained by three models: “fief - state establishment”, “conferment - land distribution”, and feudal model translated from the Western term “féodalité”. Between “Western féodalité” and “Chinese feudalism”, there are some differences in expression, time of occurrence and ending, especially in production relations and productions forces... However, three political institutions shared the same "denominator" as land grant (or separate domains). Through a number of typical cases, we found that in Vietnam, the conferment took place very popularly during the Middle Ages but not with the "separate domains". The rewarded lands for each individual were actually just awards. On the basis of comparisons, we believe that the Vietnamese state organization in the Middle Ages was not similar to the contents of all three mentioned models