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Cheng Sijia, Epidemic and Political Reform: A Preliminary Study on the Gengchen Epidemic of the Nguyen Dynasty of Vietnam
2020-12-03
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.