疫疠流行与政治改革--越南阮朝明命初年庚辰大疫初探

Epidemic and Political Reform:A Preliminary Study on the Gengchen Epidemic of the Nguyen Dynasty of Vietnam

庚辰大疫是越南阮朝明命皇帝即位初年发生的一次全国性的传染病疫情。此次大疫的性质很可能为首次传入越南的真性霍乱疫情,因此造成了极高的感染和死亡率。短短半年间,疫病就夺去了越南大约三分之一在籍丁壮人口的生命,造成了不可估量的损失。面对突如其来的疫情,新君明命展现出了他的政治智慧,在积极救抚百姓、主动担责罪己的同时,亦巧妙利用儒家传统的天人交感、天人感应理论,鼓励甚至授意臣子上疏直言,并借此绕开了原本阻挠改革的武人功臣势力集团,推动了一些在非疫情时期难以迅速实现的改革举措的实施。通过上述措施,明命得到了上至越南儒家士大夫阶层,下至普通百姓的广泛支持,迅速扩大了统治基础和政治势力,从而为日后进行更大规模的政治改革奠定了良好的基础。

The Gengchen epidemic was a nationwide severe infectious disease occurring in the initial year when Emperor Minh Mang ascended the throne in Vietnam.As the cause of the outbreak was likely to be cholera which was first introduced to Vietnam,this epidemic caused extremely high level of infection and mortality in Vietnam.Within only half a year,the disease killed about one-third of the Vietnamese population,resulting in huge losses to the Vietnamese government and people at the time.Facing the sudden epidemic,Emperor Minh Mang showed his extraordinary political wisdom.On one hand,he took various measures to actively rescue his people and initiatively take the responsibilities.On the other hand,he wisely adopted the Confucian theory of heaven-human induction,bypassing the obstruction of the military bloc left by his father and promoting some reform measures which were difficult to be implemented during the non-epidemic period.Through such measures,Emperor Minh Mang gained widespread favour and support from the Confucian-literati class to ordinary people,thereby rapidly expanding his own ruling foundation and political power,and laying the foundation for future large-scale political reform.Since the Gengchen epidemic was a part of the first cholera pandemic across the world from 1817 to 1823,it not only revealed the history of cholera spreading to Southeast Asia and East Asia,but also reflected the extent and level of Vietnam's participation in regional and global communication,as well as trade activities.