VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES HO NGOC DANG THE VIEWPOINTS OF GIA LONG AND MINH MANG ON BUILDING, MANAGING THE MANDARINS (18021841) Major: Philosophy Code: 9229001 A SUMMARY OF DOCTORAL DISSERTATION OF PHILOSOPHY Scientific advisors: Assoc Prof Dr Nguyen Tai Dong HA NOI - 2020 The dissertation is completed in: Faculty of Philosophy - Graduate Academy of Social Sciences Scientific advisors: Assoc Prof Dr Nguyen Tai Dong Examiner 1: Examiner 2: Examiner 3: The dissertation will be defended before the Dissertation Committee of Graduate Academy of Social Sciences, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences At ……………, date…….month…… year 2020 The dissertation is available at: - Viet Nam National Library - Library of the Academy of Social Sciences INTRODUCTION The need of the study The practice of thousand – year- history has apparently proved that the buidling and managing the mandarins in the former feudal regimes or the current staff is one of the key requirements which decide the survival of any dynasty or political regime In 1802, Nguyen Anh, after defeating Tay Son in the war for nearly 20 years, took the basic steps to establish Nguyen dynasty and in 1806, he officially chose the name Gia Long for his reign years Since then, Vietnam had united in large territory, which posed a great challenge for Nguyen dynasty about how to build and consolidate the state administrative apparatus from the govermental level to local one; how human resources took charge of operating that apparatus to maintain the domination of dynasties and and how to help people live in peace It was imperative that Gia Long had to fulfill the requirements of building a strong administrative apparatus with talented, virtue and faithful mandarins to join hand with the emperor to take charge of their resposibilities Being a battle-hardened King, in the process of governing the country, Gia Long King demonstrated a considerable acumen while building the administrative apparatus and the mandarins to meet practical requirements Following the success of his father's reign, Minh Mang took power over the country in the context that also set for him the urgent demands to further strengthen the absolutel monarchy These were the reasons leading to administrative reform in the whole country in the year from 1831 to 1832, to streamline the state apparatus and correspondingly, building mandarins to meet the requirements of the administrative institutions and contemporary military To the requirement of social existence, specifically, the political existence of the country under the reign of Gia Long and Minh Mang King (1802-1841), the viewpoints of building and managing the mandarins were formed basing on the realities of the political life of the country This both met the immediate requirements of consolidating the absolute monarchy, building the empire power, defend the territory, took care of people’s lives and looked ahead in the long term when there would be futuristic political and social incidents to maintain the dignity of the dynasty With the aim of "having new understanding while revising what he has learned", we affirm that the study of the viewpoints of buidling and managing the mandarins under Gia Long and Minh Mang’s reigns will give us valuable lessons in personnel work in our country today With the above urgent issues, we decided to choose the topic "The viewpoints of Gia Long and Minh Mang on building and managing the mandarins (1802 - 1841)" for our philosophy thesis title Objectives and duties of the dissertation 2.1 Objectives The thesis contributes to clarifying the viewpoints of Gia Long and Minh Mang on building and managing the mandarins, thereby pointing out the values, limitations and drawing historical lessons in the field of personnel in our country today 2.2 Duties To fullfil the above objectives, the thesis needs to solve the following tasks: Firstly, the dissertation analyzes and clarifies the conditions, objective premises and subjective factors for the formation of viewpoints of Gia Long and Minh Mang on building and managing the mandarins Secondly, analyzing and presenting the basic contents in the viewpoints of Gia Long and Minh Mang on building and managing the mandarins (1802-1841) Third, drawing the meaningful and history lessons from their viewpoints for the field of personnel in our country today Subjects and scope of the thesis 3.1 Subjects The research subject of the thesis is the viewpoints of Gia Long and Minh Mang on building and managing the mandarins in the period of 1802-1841 3.2 Scope of the study The scope of research of the topic is all the conditions, objective premises and subjective factors in the formation of the viewpoints of Gia Long and Minh Mang King on building and managing the mandarins as well as the real methods of implementing these viewpoints in the history of Nguyen Dynasty (1802 - 1841) Basing on that, the thesis initially gives an objective assessment of the meaningful and history lessons of these viewpoints for the current personnel work in our country Theoretical basis and research methods of the thesis 4.1 Theoretical basis The thesis is based on the theoretical basis of Marxist-Leninist philosophy, Ho Chi Minh's thought and the viewpoints of the Communist Party of Vietnam on the field of political philosophy (state management, ethics and public culture, etc.) 4.2 Research methods of the thesis The thesis applies the methodology of Marxist-Leninist philosophy, using analytical - synthesizing method, comparing - contrasting, systematizing, generalizing, combining logic with history, etc., at the same time, emphasizing on interdisciplinary approach, mainly social sciences and humanities such as: Politics, History, Law, Sociology, vv New contributions of the thesis Clarifying the viewpoints of Gia Long and Minh Mang on building and managing the mandarins in Nguyen Dynasty (1802 – 1841), thereby pointing out the values, limitations and drawing historical lessons in the field of personnel in our country today Theoretical and practical significance of the thesis 6.1 Theoretical significance By analyzing and clarifying the concept, origin and some basic contents in the viewpoints of Gia Long and Minh Mang on building and managing the mandarins in Nguyen Dynasty (1802 – 1841), the thesis pointed out some theoretical contributions of these viewpoints on the way of governing the country of the two first emperors 6.2 Practical significance The thesis clarifies the role of the viewpoints on building and managing mandarins of Gia Long and Minh Mang, so the research results of the thesis can be used as reference for those interested in doing research on Nguyen Dynasty in general, the issue of Nguyen Dynasty mandarins and personnel work in our country, in particular The structure of the thesis The thesis consists of chapters and 12 caputs Chapter LITERATURE REVIEWS By studying the viewpoints of Gia Long and Minh Mang King (18021841) on building and managing the mandarins, we see the need to focus on referring to published researches on the conditions, objective premises and subjective factors for the formation and implementation of the viewpoints of the first two kings on building and managing mandarins; basic contents and ways to implement these viewpoints in contemporary Vietnamese political and social life; its significance and history lessons in the perspective of Gia Long and Minh Mang on building and managing the mandarins in the field of personnel in our country today 1.1 Research papers on objective conditions and premises and subjective factors for the formation of viewpoints of Gia Long and Minh Mang King (1802-1841) on building and managing the mandarins Tran Trong Kim from 1919 to 1921 released Vietnamese history In this book, the author presents a brief description of Vietnamese feudal dynasties, including the Nguyen Dynasty General History of Vietnam, volume 1, edited by Truong Huu Quynh, mentions the reality of Vietnam in the first half of the nineteenth century including political, economic, social and cultural issues The reality of agricultural land and the life of peasants under the Nguyen dynasty edited by Truong Huu Quynh - Do Bang, the authors including Vu Minh Giang, Vu Van Quan and Nguyen Quang Trung Tien mentioned that the basic issues of economy in Nguyen Dynasty is land owning Historical Issues and Nguyen Dynasty literature, edited by Tran Huu Duy, Nguyen Phong Nam, is a collection of 26 research papers on Nguyen Dynasty with different even contradictory views and interpretations on issues such as: Nguyen Dynasty and Vietnam society in the XIX century by Nguyen Phan Quang; About the "practical" ideology and "dogma" one of Nguyen dynasty by Buu Nam; Minh Mang with his two major political ideas: strengthening the national unity and people stabilization by Nguyen Minh Tuong; Some issues on research methods of Nguyen dynasty by Truong Huu Quynh, etc., are useful reference in the process of implementing our thesis Some issues on mandarins of Nguyen Dynasty by Phan Dai Doan, Nguyen Minh Tuong, Hoang Phuong, Le Thanh Lan, Nguyen Ngoc Quynh, mentioned the issue of officals as one of the most important contents of feudal dynasties in building and strengthening the dynasty, v History of Vietnamese ideology, volume by Le Si Thang initially analyzes the above implications and identifies that the conservative and reactionary ideology of the Nguyen dynasty is, in fact, due to Confucianism appreciation Proceedings of Scientific Conference: Nguyen Lord and Nguyen dynasty in Vietnamese history from the sixteenth century to the nineteenth century, World Publishing House, Hanoi, in 2008 had quite a large capacity discussing many problems about Nguyen Lords and Nguyen dynasty, first because of the demand for scientific, objective nature of history The history of Nguyen dynasty - a new approach has expressed different opinions about the public evaluation of this dynasty objectively, in order to help the researching and teaching of Nguyen dynasty history in a more appropriate way There have been a number of studies of the Nguyen dynasty, especially the administrative apparatus and the mandarins including the works proposed by the editor, Do Bang: "Structure of the Nguyen Dynasty state apparatus (1802-1884)”, Research on economy and organization of Nguyen dynasty state apparatus: current issues Nguyen Minh Tuong wrote Structure of the State monarchy of Vietnam (from 939 to 1884), etc These projects have focused on analyzing the the administrative organization of central and local government, military organization, law enactment and law enforcement, etc Among the works discussing the subjective capacity of Gia Long and Minh Menh, it is essential to mention Foreign Affairs between Vietnam and Western countries under Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1858) by Tran Nam Tien Administrative and military institutions in Nguyen dynasty (1802-1885) edited by Huynh Cong Ba, Viet Nam brief history by Tran Trong Kim, etc These works mentioned the subjective capacity of the two first Nguyen Kings, gave fairly accurate remarks about their achievements as well as their limitations in governing the country 1.2 The works relate to the study of the basic contents of the viewpoints of Gia Long and Minh Mang on buidling and managing the mandarins in the period of 1802-1841 and the implementation of these viewpoints at that time One of the fairly complete research works on the administrative apparatus of Vietnamese monarches is the Doctoral Dissertation thesis of Nguyen Si Hai (1962, Saigon), with the title Central government organization in the early period of Nguyen dynasty: 1802-1847 This is a fairly elaborate research work and many contributions to the study of the administrative apparatus of Nguyen dynasty in general, in the period of 1802-1841, in particular In 1996, Nguyen Minh Tuong published the book "Administrative reform under Minh Mang Dynasty " In this work, the author studied the institutions of mandarins from governmental to local level of Minh Mang Research on economy and organization of Nguyen dynasty state apparatus: current issues by Do Bang also studied the system of officials in Nguyen Dynasty; procedures of recruiting, honoring and organizing doctoral examinations to select talents to help the country Huynh Cong Ba in Administration and Military Institution in Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1885) analyzed the problems related to the operating mechanism of the administrative apparatus and the mandarins of Nguyen dynasty Some issues related to mandarins in Nguyen dynasty, compiled by Phan Dai Doan, Nguyen Minh Tuong and other authors, studied the institutions of Nguyen Dynasty for officials Bui Huy Khien in the article Selection, inspection and supervision of the mandarins of Minh Mang Dynasty, in the State and Law magazine, gave an overview of the selection process, using mandarins and organization and operation of the inspection and supervision apparatus The Proceedings of the Conference of 700 years of Thuan Hoa - Phu Xuan - Thua Thien Hue also raised many methodological issues of the Nguyen Dynasty In 2012, on the Anti-Corruption Newsletter No 49 & 50, Tran Hong Nhung wrote the article "Some solution to corruption prevention in Nguyen Dynasty"; The article "Inspection, supervision and examination of feudalism mandarins in our country" by Thai Hoang and Bui Quy Lo, published in the Journal of Historical Research, No (283) in 1995 generalized the system of inspection and supervision of Vietnamese monarchs The book named “Training and using the mandarins of Nguyen dynasty” by Le Thi Thanh Hoa fully mentioned how to train and recruit mandarins under Gia Long and Minh Mang’s reigns In the article "Remuneration of Vietnamese feudal state for the students of Imperial Academy from the 11th century to the first half of the nineteenth century" by Trinh Thi Ha, published in the Journal of Vietnam social science, No 02 (75) in 2014 In 2012, in the proceedings of Scientific Conference of the 100-year Dong Kinh, the current teaching and education reform of Vietnam, Vu Van Quan with the article "A Brief overview of the education and examnination system in Vietnam during Nguyen Dynasty", evaluated the achievements made by Nguyen dynasty – considered the staff with Confucian knowledge as a core resource for mandarins of state apparatus 1.3 The studies mention the value, limitations and historical lessons from the viewpoints of Gia Long and Minh Mang on building and managing the mandarins (1802-1841) in the field of personnel in our country nowsaday In association with this topic, there have been some good works such as the organization of state apparatus in Nguyen Dynasty in the period of 1802-1884, edited by Do Bang, or Administrative and Military Institutions under the Nguyen Dynasty (1802-1885) by Huynh Cong Ba On the websites of the Communist Party of Vietnam, it is possible to find the Party's Documents on: the current personnel work in our country, the prevention and corruption fighting, the tasks and rights of inspection and supervision agencies of the Party, etc In addition, there are electronic newspapers of other political and legal scientific agencies, in which many authors also focus on issues of current staff affairs such as: "Preventing and fighting corruption in the past and present"by Pham Thi Hue; Bui Huy Khien wrote Experience of anti-corruption of Vietnamese feudal dynasties through the study of "rule of avoidance " law on www.tapchicongsan.org.vn, Tran Anh Tuan in the article "About policy of finding, remunerating and rewarding talented people", Party Construction Magazine No 8/2011, and a number of other articles have been used as referenced in the thesis In short, research on organizational structure, method of building and managing mandarins under the monarchy of Vietnam, in general and Nguyen dynasty, in particular is a topic that has been interested in research The research results of previous scholars are valuable resources and experience to help us implement this thesis main contents of the thesis which will be analyzed and presented more clearly in the following chapters of the thesis 2.2 Conditions and objective premises for the formation of viewpoints of Gia Long and Minh Mang on building and managing mandarins 2.2.1 Historical, economic context, political-social and cultural situation under Gia Long and Minh Mang’s reigns (1802-1841) After winning and possessing authority from Tay Son brothers (1802), Nguyen Anh founded Nguyen Dynasty and came to crown, chose Gia Long as name of reign’s year in 1806 The establishment and maintenance of the “power decentralization” for nearly three decades under Gia Long and early Minh Mang’s reign helped these two kings meet the objective requirements of history and desire to have time to reconcile other urgent problems In the next period (1820-1841), Minh Mang brought about a major reform to consolidate the whole administrative apparatus from the govermental to local level in order to unify and centralize power 2.2.2 Political-social and cultural situation Firstly, in terms of economic field, the war lasted from the sixteenth century to the end of the eighteenth century, leaving both North Viet Nam and South Viet Nam with heavy consequences, especially in terms of economy Secondly, in the field of politics and society, in early 1804 our country changed its name into Vietnam By Minh Mang’s reign, in 1838, our country rechanged its name to Dai Nam In terms of the government organization, after becoming the king, Gia Long "examined the system of old administrative units, appointed mandarins in charge" In 1831-1832, Minh Mang conducted "the local administrative reform, eliminating the prefectures, changing the towns into provinces At that time, the whole country had 30 provinces and one Thua Thien Palace " Third, in the aspect of culture, in the early nineteenth century in Vietnam there were the presence of three major religions in the world and 11 other religions Due to previous income constraint, Gia Long King didn’t give too cold shoulder to the priests and Christian organizations However, by Minh Mang's time, the relationship with the West, in general and Christianity, in particular, had changed In the aspect of education, both Gia Long and Minh Mang emphasized and maintained the regime of learning and examining basing on the Confucian spirit to train and select talents In summary, for nearly four decades under the reign of the two first Nguyen kings (Gia Long and Minh Mang), the context of the world and the country fluctuate a lot which was not only beneficial to build an empire, powerful country but also had potential threats to the safety of dynasties and the country 2.2.3 The basic premise for the formation of viewpoints of Gia Long and Minh Mang on building and managing mandarins Studying the viewpointss of Gia Long and Minh Mang on building and managing mandarins, we find it necessary to clarify the objective premises and the following subjective factors: First, it is the experience of building and managing mandarins in Vietnamese feudal regime before Nguyen Dynasty Second, the ideological premises from Eastern political and social theories in history Third, the premise originates from the needs of the country in terms of domestic and foreign affairs In the aspect of domestic: building, strengthening royal regimes, ensuring social order and economic management; in the aspect of foreign affairs: state relations and protection of territorial integrity 2.3 Subjective factors in the formation of viewpoints of Gia Long and Minh Mang on building and managing mandarins 2.3.1 Gia Long's role in the establishment of the bureaucracy of mandarins in Nguyen dynasty Regarding the role of Gia Long in establishing Nguyen dynasty, besides the problems of inheriting the viewpoint, the method of organizing 12 the state apparatus according to the Chinese model and previous dynasties of our country, it was Minh Mang, the successor to Gia Long who completed the feudal state apparatus 2.3.2 The role of Minh Mang in inheritance and development of viewpoints on building and managing mandarins of Gia Long Being a king who deeply understood the theory of politic Confucian society, Minh Mang focused on two basic ideological contents of consolidating the national unity and people stabilization Thanks to expoiting policy in the northern coastal area by Nguyen Cong Tru (17781858) and the court, Nguyen dynasty was able to kill two birds with one stone: the policy of stabilizing and educating people Conclusion chapter Studying the foundations of Gia Long and Minh Mang's viewpoints on building and managing mandarins, some following remarks could be drawn out: Firstly, the viewpoints of the two Kings were built on the basis of the reality of the country, from the experiences of the previous monarchy of Vietnam Basically, it was the viewpoints and structure of Le Thanh Tong King in the early Le So Dynasty and the state, law model of Qing Dynasty Second, the viewpoints of Gia Long and Minh Mang were formed on the basis of taking Confucianism as an orthodox ideology in combination with traditional values of the nation Third, the viewpoint of building and managing the mandarins reflects the subjective competence of the two first kings of Nguyen Dynasty in grasping the reality of contemporary country That view includes some basic contents and is implemented in the operation of administrative and military apparatus from governmental to local levels 13 Chapter MAJOR CONTENTS IN THE VIEWPOINTS OF GIA LONG AND MINH MANG ON BUILDING AND MANAGING THE MANDARINS (1802- 1841) AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THESE VIEWPOINTS CONTEMPORARILY 3.1 The main contents in the viewpoint of Gia Long King on building and managing the mandarins In the process of building a way to rule the country, organize the administrative apparatus and institutionalize responsibilities and rights as well as the method of governing, Gia Long King inherited the experience of previous Vietnamese monarchs along with personal competence; his viewpoints on buiding and managing mandarins in the period 1802-1819 contained some following main contents: Firstly, his view on talent, in fact, Gia Long King was interested in building mandarin from the years when he didn’t become a king According to him, "The most important task when governing the country is to find talents to satisfy the desire of everyone" After becoming a king, he "paid great attention to talents, considered fostering them as urgent tasks Anyone who had an application form to study would be exempted from military duty, being encouraged to study hard for the examination” Secondly, the viewpoint of recommending talented people, recommending talent people for mandarins is an important thing, couldn’t be careless but to rely on moral and talent criteria Thirdly, the viewpoints on considering education and examination as the basis for building the mandarins, Gia Long said: "The alma mater is related to the sage, the state mandarin mostly graduates from there I follow my ancestral emperor, ask people to built place to study, recruit more learners, support them a little money, build a good teaching programs to make sure that all learners are excellent and can be useful in the future ” 14 Fourthly, the viewpoint on managing the mandarins, management of mandarins, according to Gia Long, the coordination from other ministries, namely the Ministry of Ministry of Justice Therefore, it was not a coincidence that of the Six Ministries, ministry of mandarins was ranked first regarding the court needed Rites and the among names 3.2 The main contents in the viewpoint of Minh Mang on building and managing the mandarins Minh Mang's point of view on building and managing the mandarins contains both bold and basic ideas of administrative reform to build the system of power centralization absolute monarchy more and more powerful As a result, a series of measures for recruiting and using talents, especially the management of mandarins became more and more strict Specifically: Firstly, the concept of talent Minh Mang thought that cultural knowledge and artistic talent though small, could also help the country, and considered "the knowlegable and good learner with wide underdstanding of classic reference" as the the thoroughly knowledgeable ones in “Tu Thu” of Confucianism Secondly, in terms of recommending talented people, during his reign, Minh Mang emphasized: "The talented men are the mainstays of the nation" Moral and talent is two qualities of mandarins, in some cases, directly replacing the king as a "parents of the people” Thirdly, considering education and examination as the basis for building mandarins Following the ancestral emperor’s viewpoint on education and examination, during his reign, Minh Mang built a disciplined regime with variety of levels to select good enough talents to help the king Fourthly, in terms of managing the mandarins, all the evidence in the documents of Minh Mang's viewpoints on the use of people showed that he advocated administrative reform, from the state structure apparatus to the mandarins, managing them by using law, and just punishment or rewarding according to their work efficiency 15 3.3 The implementation of the viewpoints of Gia Long and Minh Mang King on building and managing the mandarins (1802-1841) 3.3.1 Identifying the main methods in building mandarins For Gia Long King, in the early years of being a king, due to objective factors, the contemporary mandarins were mainly selected from those who had great contribution in the war against Tay Son The reality required to have a trained and knowledgeable team of mandarins to help the king manage administrative, economy and social affairs better and better for the purpose of building a system of power centralization absolute monarchy That was education, examinations, recommendation and election, hereditary Firstly, in the aspect of education – examination, under the monarchy of Vietnam, in general and Gia Long, in particular, education - examination was still the most important and popular method in recruiting mandarins No sooner had Mang taken power in first year of his succession, he declared that: "the most valuable thing that a good king should is fostering talents our country is politically and culturally knowlegeable, the Confucianist movement thrives " Thanks to that, Minh Mang recruited those who have real talence to meet the requirements of strengthening the tyrannical monarchy Secondly, the method of recommendation and election Recommendation was one of the most common ways that Vietnamese monarches applied to recruit talents This was an immediate solution to help the imperial court not to miss any talents, create favourable conditions for talents to contribute their talents and virtue "to king, to help the country" Along with the recommendation, Gia Long King also applied the methods of appoint descendants of people with merit, and election Thirdly, the method of " hereditary", is a method that the court let merit mandarins’ children, grandchildren, great - grandchildren be added to apprenticeship or to study at Quoc Tu Giam for entrance exams or recruiting exams 16 3.3.2 Implementing key methods in managing mandarins Recruiting or building the state apparatus with well qualified, virtue mandarins was always an important issue for the authorities After being a king, one of the difficulties posed to Minh Mang King was that his mandarin team had almost never had any training or examinations In such situation, Minh Mang issued institutions on building and managing mandarins Specifically: Firstly, building and completing the institutions to manage mandarins; Secondly, developing mechanism to manage and supervise mandarins; Along with the legal system, Minh Mang King also developed mechanisms to manage and supervise mandarins in the country In 1832, Emperor Minh Mang established the Institute of Đô Sát, in which there were Six Faculties and Supervisors faculty In 1832, Minh Mang king established Tam Phap ty - the supreme court of Nguyen dynasty Duing its existence, Tam Phap ty and Dang Van drum helped the imperial court to vindicate many cases, gave justice and fairness to the people Minh Mang also established an inspection mechanism, applied rule of avoidance like in Le dynasty Rule of avoidance means avoiding to prevent their gang up from committing corruption money from the court and harassing the people Thirdly, taking virtue and punishment as a means of managing mandarins For 20 years of reign, anyone, whether a mandarin with great merit or a royal people, if they committed corruption, pursed their self-interest of the state or harassed the people, they would be punished properly by Minh Mang It can be seen that these measures were applied as follows: First, ensuring fairness without any compliance; or bias Secondly, severely punishing those who "hold the balance" Thirdly, severely punishing those who take advantage of their rights to gain benefit and not "serve the people"; Fourthly, heavy fines for deterrence and leniency for "progressive" Lastly, applying appropriate salary and remuneration regimes 17 Conclusion chapter Due to objective requirements and the subjective desire, in nearly four decades of reign, the two first kings of Nguyen Dynasty built a system of viewpoints in managing and building mandarin in accordance with the reality of the country at that time In the process of building a team of mandarins, the court always paid attention to all plans to seek talents for the country, considering it a prerequisite for the state apparatus to operate effectively, to make the country peaceful and stable In managing mandarins, Gia Long and Minh Mang king did not bias anyone, even though they were from a royal family Although their way of governing the country was based on the political - Confucian ethics, the law still was a balance of justice to help the court have strict and fair punishment or rewarding Chapter VALUE AND LIMITATIONS IN THE VIEWPOINTS OF GIA LONG AND MINH MANG ON BUIDING AND MANAGING THE MANDARINS (1802-1841) AND ITS MEANINGFUL LESSON 4.1 Some values and limitations in the viewpoints of Gia Long and Minh Mang on building and managing the mandarins (1802 - 1841) 4.1.1 Some basic values Viewpoints and methods of building and managing the mandarins are not all the elements that constitute the way of governing the country, but, it can be said, the mandarins, the object of social relations arising in the process of management activities, were subject to administrative law, an imperative method, expressed in the relationship between "commander" and "submissive" By analyzing, presenting the main contents in viewpoints and method of building and managing the mandarins of Nguyen Dynasty under King Gia Long and Minh Mang’s reign, some historical significance for contemporary Vietnamese feudal society can be drawn out as follows: 18 First, set up a model of power centralization absolute monarchy Second, the viewpoint on recruiting and appointing mandarins Third, the viewpoint on the use and management of mandarins Fourthly, rewarding and punishing mandarins must be based on the law In short, some basic values in the viewpoints of Gia Long and Minh Mang on building and managing the mandarins presented above can be briefly summarized as follows: Firstly, at the beginning of establishing the dynasty, Gia Long decided to choose a model of power centralization absolute monarchy Therefore, in addition to inheriting the experience of ruling the country from previous feudal dynasties, Nguyen Anh demonstrated his personal ability to "add" and "subtract" the elements constituting Hoang Viet’s rules as a country ruling tool Secondly, in parallel with the policy of centralizing power, Gia Long always paid attention to the issue of sovereignty of national integrity and the way of ruling the country, not allowing foreign countries to interfere in their internal affairs Thirdly, the reign of Minh Mang was a period of consolidating and improving the state organizational structure on the foundation established by Gia Long Minh Mang’s viewpoint on building and managing team of mandarins paralleled with great challenges in the process of implementing administrative reforms 4.1.2 Some major limitations King Gia Long established the royal court and was completed by Minh Mang king However, at the beginning of the nineteenth century the world witnessed a lot of changes and fluctuation, so besides the above values, the inadequacy in terms of building and managing mandarins was inevitable : Firstly, in order to protect and strengthen the absolute monarchy and interests of the Royal Family, Gia Long and Minh Mang King still applied the traditional heredity and election to those who had merit with the court and descendants of royal family as well 19 Secondly, high appreciation of Confucian ideology for the purpose of absolute power centralization of the Emperor significantly limited the active and creative role of the mandarins Thirdly, the fact that Nguyen Dynasty allowed a mandarin at the same time to take over many different positions would inevitably lead to a situation of "both as football player and as refere", limiting the independence and effectiveness in the operation of justice office Fourthly, the Nguyen Dynasty gave prominence to education – examination according to Confucian ideology and "closed" ideology of the East, so unostentatiously it "refused" Western civilization and technical science 4.2 The history lesson from the viewpoints of Gia Long and Minh Mang on building and managing the mandarin team (1802-1841) for the field of personnel in our country today 4.2.1 Thoroughly grasp the guidelines of the Party and the State on personnel work Besides the Documents of the National Congresses of the Party, recently, in Resolution No 26-NQ / TW on May 19, 2018, the Seventh Conference of the Party Central Committee (XII) on building the staff at all levels, especially at strategic level with well –qualified and prestigious staff, stated the Party's viewpoint: "Officials are key factors that decide the success or failure of the revolution; Personnel work is a "key" part of Party building and political system Building the staff and particularly, strategic officers is the most important task of the Party and must be carried out regularly, cautiously, scientifically, closely and effectively Investment in the buidling of staff is an investment for long-term sustainable development” From the above point of view, the Party pointed out the regulations, principles and ways of implementing personel work such as the responsibility of setting the example of leading officials at all levels and authorities of inspection and supervision agencies etc 20 4.2.2 Giving prominence to the use of "talents" and staff planning Deeply penetrating the Party's viewpoint on of personnel work specifically, the concept of talent with standards of professional and ethical competence, considering the standard as the key and between virtue and talent, considering virtue as root, we can affirm one thing: among the criteria to select talents for staff planning, moral quality is in the first place 4.2.3 Renovating the recruitment of civil servants and appointing managers Firstly, making public, transparent and strengthening supervision of recruitment and appointment Secondly, applying the method of recruitment exam taken from practical knowledge Thirdly, applying the method of examination for recruiting leaders and managers Fourthly, there should be a commitment to outcome made by the staff who is recruited or appointed to be leaders and managers 4.2.4 Periodically supervising and evaluating the capacity and quality of our country's staff Evaluating the capacity and quality of officials with the aim of encouraging those who work well, alert or dismiss those who not fulfill their tasks is a necessary task The vote of confidence is also one of the forms of periodic assessment 4.2.5 Refering to the policy of "rule of avoidance" in staff rotation Resolution No 26-NQ / TW dated on May 19, 2018, the seventh Conference of the Party Central Committee (XII) that we cited above mentions the staff rotation as followings: "The policy of rotation together with appointing a number of leaders who are not local people achieved initial results" Thus, although the document does not use the same term, the nature of the policy mentioned above is coinciding with the policy "rule of avoidance" in history that Nguyen Dynasty was very interested 21 4.2.6 Using the law as a "measure" of managing civil servants In Regulation No 01-Qdi / TW dated 10/5/2018 on the responsibilities and rights of the inspection committee in prevention and anti-corruption work, in Article 2: Implementation principle states that: "Party members in any positions having signs of corruption must be investigated for clarification and stricly handled according to the Party's regulations and the laws of the State, without any "forbidden zone" From the experience of Nguyen Dynasty, especially under Minh Mang, it is shown that law is a decisive factor in governing the country and managing construction, it is even more important for managing the mandarins 4.2.7 Regime reform and remuneration policies to motivate civil servants The fourth breakthrough mentioned in the Resolution stated that: "Reforming salary and housing policies to motivate officials to strive, throw themselves wholeheartedly into work; have a policy mechanism to create fair and wholesome competition and attract and appreciate talents” This is also a matter of great concern for Gia Long and Minh Mang, and they also have rather appropriate point of view Conclusion chapter Although there are still certain historical limitations, the two kings' lesson of building and managing the mandarins provides us with valuable experiences and valuable lessons in current personnel work As the current situation of the personel work in our country still has many issues related to the reference of experience of training, recruiting people with enough talents and qualities such as: especially " faithfulness to the King ", "Patriotism" and "serving people" to build true civil servants - "servant of the people ", patriotism and loyalty to the Party are necessary 22 CONCLUSIONS Through studying the viewpoints of Gia Long and Minh Mang on building and managing the mandarinss, the author draw the following conclusions: Firstly, the basis for forming the viewoints of Gia Long and Minh Mang on building and managing the mandarins, in the first place, is the components of social existence including economic, political - social and cultural conditions of the country in the early nineteenth century that are decisive for that view In addition to the above conditions and objective premises, we must also mention subjective factors, namely the mental power and willpower of the two kings of Nguyen Dynasty during the process of establishing and building the dynasty Secondly, Gia Long and Minh Mang's viewpoint on building and managing the mandarins are shown primarily in the appreciation of talents, calling for talents throughout the country to participate in the management work in the whole country, especially emphasizing the method of recommendation and election, and then focusing on the field of educating and training mandarins Thirdly, according to the viewpoint af Gia Long and Minh Mang, the use of mandarins must first be based on the law, in which reward and punishment should be justified and fair and aimed at deterring; then there should be the announcement of institutions of responsibility and rights of mandarins, bonuses and fines in public administrations and the military Fourthly, although the viewpoint of the two kings in Nguyen Dynasty were formed due to the need to rule the country, basing on Confucian ideology whose foundations are virtues together with law, drawing from the experience of governing the country of previous feudal dynasties, however, in the process of building and managing mandarins, Gia Long and Minh Mang still could not avoid certain limitations Fifthly, the values and limitations in the viewpoint of building and managing the mandarins during Gia Long and Minh Mang’s reign have 23 become important historical lessons for the training and using civil servants in our country nowaday From the selection of the topic and the research results in the thesis, the author would like to affirm that the views of Gia Long and Minh Mang on building and managing the mandarins as well as the implementation of the views during their reigns, they built a strong feudal state in comparison to some other countries in the region Today, due to the reality of moral and lifestyle degradation of a part of staff, party members, the Party and the State have expressed a very clear view on personnel work, from building the officials to control and monitor power to have official team who are worthy of the era and meet the development needs In my opinion, in the process of implementing that view, there should be reference to useful experiences of Gia Long and Minh Mang on building and managing mandarins 24 LIST OF PUBLISHED WORKS RELATED TO THE DISSERTATION Ho Ngoc Dang (2017), Minh Mang King and recruiting mandarins, Journal of Ho Chi Minh City Social Science, Southern Institute of Social Sciences, ISSN 1859 – 0136, No 2(222) 2017, page, 56-64 Ho Ngoc Dang (2017), Minh Mang King punished “bribe and corruption mandarins”, Journal of Philosophy, Institute of Philosophy, ISSN 08667632, No (316) 2017, page 80-86 Ho Ngoc Dang (2018), Minh Mang’s viewpoints and method of recruitment of mandarins, Journal of human resource development, People's Committee of Ho Chi Minh City, ISSN 1859 – 2732, No (58) 2018, page 51-54 Ho Ngoc Dang (2019), Minh Mang and Gia Long’s method of managing the mandarins, Journal of Social Sciences Human Resources, Institute of Social Sciences, , ISSN 0866 – 756X, No 02(69) 2019, page 47-56 ... VIEWPOINTS OF GIA LONG AND MINH MANG KING ON BUILDING AND MANAGING THE MANDARINS 2.1 Definition of mandarins and mandarins in Nguyen Dynasty under Gia Long and Minh Mang’s reigns (1802 – 1841) 2.1.1... viewpoints of Gia Long and Minh Mang on building and managing mandarins 2.2.1 Historical, economic context, political-social and cultural situation under Gia Long and Minh Mang’s reigns (1802- 1841) After... VIEWPOINTS OF GIA LONG AND MINH MANG ON BUIDING AND MANAGING THE MANDARINS (1802- 1841) AND ITS MEANINGFUL LESSON 4.1 Some values and limitations in the viewpoints of Gia Long and Minh Mang on