Since the victory made in the year of Rooster (1789), King Quang Trung Nguyen Hue was fully aware of the importance of the diplomatic missions in ending wars, and appointed Ngo Thi Nham – a great scholar in Tay Son Dynasty - to assume those responsibilities. The artful but courageous diplomacy carried out by a true patriot was characterized in his seminal work “Bang giao hảo thoại”
AGU International Journal of Sciences – 2019, Vol (1), 19 – 27 THE DIPLOMATIC ART USED BY NGO THI NHAM IN “BANG GIAO HẢO THOẠI” Luu Dinh Vinh1, Tran Mai Uoc2 Ho Chi Minh City College of Economics Banking University of Ho Chi Minh City Information: Received: 16/11/2018 Accepted: 11/02/2019 Published: 11/2019 Keywords: Ngo Thi Nham thinking, peaceoriented thinking, Vietnamese diplomacy ABSTRACT Since the victory made in the year of Rooster (1789), King Quang Trung Nguyen Hue was fully aware of the importance of the diplomatic missions in ending wars, and appointed Ngo Thi Nham – a great scholar in Tay Son Dynasty - to assume those responsibilities The artful but courageous diplomacy carried out by a true patriot was characterized in his seminal work “Bang giao hảo thoại” (Successful diplomatic negotiations) written during the process in which Vietnam was conducting diplomatic missions with Qing Dynasty Thanks to his art in diplomacy, Ngo Thi Nham terminated the Qing Dynasty’s intention to take revenge, defeated troops from nine provinces at the northern border, and satisfied the country’s requirements then INTRODUCTION the losses and pains of the wars; as a result, they always desire peace, love peace, and hate wars Because of its special geographical features, Vietnam has always been eyed by the Northern forces However, our people and troops have been determined to prevent them from making their savage intention come true Our accomplishments in the nation protection have been gained thanks to our military power, patriotism, solidarity of the whole people against foreign aggression, which have been painstakingly created by Vietnam feudal dynasties and revolutionary leaders Our defense of the entire territories throughout more than a thousand years under the invaders’ domination with a series of invasion wars has voiced up our cultural - human values, indomitable will, and our whole people’s spirit to determine to fight and win for our nation Also from that, Vietnamese people empathize In the wars against the foreign invasions, despite our glorious and victorious accomplishments of kicking all enemies out of our territories, “striking fears into their heart”; causing them to run away in panic, to scramble for going over bridges, and for crossing rivers, to push one another, falling into rivers to death (Ngô Gia Văn phái, 2014, p.412), immediately then, our people and troops, in any periods of wars, always expressed peace-oriented will, accepted concession, paid tributes to the northern invaders in order to preserve our peace and independence, and to have our people spend time taking rest Just ọnce since An Dương Vương time, after the successful anti – Tần war, he sent Lý Ông Trọng - a commander 19 AGU International Journal of Sciences – 2019, Vol (1), 19 – 27 – to the northern region in order to build up the diplomatic relation and get An Dương Vương’s princess to marry Triệu Đà’s son In 905, Khúc Thừa Dụ led our people to gain the victory against Tang dynasty (nhà Đường), and proposed the Emperor of Tang dynasty to appoint him as Jinghai Military Commander (Tĩnh Hải quân) and Vietnamese Jiedushi (Tiết độ sứ) in order to express his obedience to Tang dynasty In the subsequent dynasties of Đại Việt as Đinh, Lê, Lý, Trần, and Later Lê (hậu Lê) dynasty, after every victory, they, as usual, built up friendly relations, for the purpose of protecting the newly established independence The generation of peaceful and friendly relations for the purpose of protecting our independence is the subtle and painstaking mission which has been assigned to outstanding diplomatists Vietnam’s most outstanding diplomatists in the history – with wide knowledge, subtle and sensitive sense to the world situations, eased the northern emperors’ shame due to their defeats, gained their nomination, and got them to create the diplomatic relations with our ‘weak and small” nation Among those outstanding diplomatists, Ngơ Thì Nhậm was the typical one, representing other diplomatists in the process of building up the diplomatic relations with China The victorious accomplishments in the diplomatic field by Ngơ Thì Nhậm were compiled in the seminal work of “Bang giao hảo thoại” (Successful diplomatic negotiations), expressing the brilliant insight and strategies in the relation between political struggles and diplomatic ones of our nation in the 18th century “Bang giao hảo thoại” was compiled from a lot of petitions, statements, and letters written by Ngơ Thì Nhậm for the purpose of accounting Emperor Qianlong (Càn Long) for the losses of the “heavenly dynasty’s troops as well as Tây Sơn’s petitions in the relation with China “Bang giao hảo thoại” consists of two volumes Volume includes 64 written reports made from 1789 to 1799 Volume includes 17 petitions written from 1789 to 1799 It was created from his manuscripts, and document drafts as he was given the diplomatic mission with the Qing dynasty (nhà Thanh) – China Today, we inherit these documents because he was interested in the storage and always reminded the successors that “my literary works inscribed on the wooden surface have to be respected and stored” (Ngơ Thì Nhậm, 2011, p.48) From then, after the subsequent generations have been studying our nation’s diplomatic activities, they have confirmed that his works have been the most beautiful piece of art in Vietnam’s ancient diplomacy” (Ngơ Thì Nhậm, 2001, p.330) THE ART OF SPOTTING CHANCES, TAKING INITIATIVES IN DIPLOMATIC ACTIVITIES According to the Vietnamese dictionary, chances are defined as ‘favorable situations coming into existence for a short time as the facilitation for conducting a thing effectively’ (National center of Social sciences & humanity (2005), p.1549) Chances determine the success or failure of every individual, nation, sociopolitical organization with different scopes Chances are of objectivity, often come unexpectedly and exist for a short particular time However, they are not the thing unpredictable They exist as if they would not exist Therefore, only a few talented people are capable of predicting, tracking, spotting chances and eventually taking advantages of chances in order to realize their intents The 18th century is characterized in terms of the Qing dynasty’s military mighty, and its ambition of expansion Under the leadership by Emperor Qianlong, the tribes in the north, the west and the south were colonized and then formed China as now In mid-1788, because of the reign protection from the mighty of Tây Sơn’s righteous troops, 20 AGU International Journal of Sciences – 2019, Vol (1), 19 – 27 Lê Chiêu Thống fled and sought helps from the Qing dynasty Emperor Qianlong assumed that it was an opportunity for him to invade our nation Indeed, he had ever had that savage intention before Even he had planned to cooperate with “Tiêm La” and to restore the reign of Zhancheng (Chiêm Thành), setting up the tripodal battle in order to put An Nam under control (Hồ Bạch Thảo (translation and annotation), 2010, p.96) Upon Lê Chiêu Thống’s request for help, the Qing dynasty officially abundantly sent its army forces into Vietnam under the namely purpose of “supporting Lê dynasty and defeating Nguyễn dynasty (Tây Sơn)” with the stratagem of ‘blooming the doomed, reviving the exterminated” (hưng diệt kế tuyệt) – i.e making the defeated dynasty become prosperous, supporting the dethroned generations to be crowned Nevertheless, that intention was immediately interrupted by Emperor Quang Trung’s victory of Đống Đa – Ngọc Hồi which struck terror in the heart of that ‘heavenly dynasty’ As usual, Emperor Qianlong would “order the governor-generals (Tổng đốc) and Provincial governors (Tuần phủ) along the border to timely conduct the army manoeuvres, ensuring to have enough food and good troops who would be ready for directions, for the purpose of the preparation for the attack and guilt investigation, notifying everyone of that intention” (Hồ Bạch Thảo, 2010, p.96) To defend our nation; to facilitate our people to study and business; and to build the strong army against the Qing dynasty and get back our territories invaded by China from the end of Later Lê Dynasty” (Đào Duy Anh, 2002, p.427), Emperor Quang Trung initiated the peace-making and taken diplomatic measures to convince Emperor Qianlong The victory by Emperor Quang Trung and our people in the anti-Qing war is an objective factor, creating an opportunity to protect the nation’s peace Taking advantage of the opportunity in which the Qing dynasty was so astonished by the defeat is served for defending our nation If late for actions so that the Qing dynasty would send its army for revenge, it would have been the big guilt for our nation and people The diplomatic roles at that time are very significant, becoming another battle – a non-weapon diplomatic battle which plays an important role in the nation defense from the second Qing dynasty’s invasion war The fact of taking an advantage of the opportunity to protect our nation’s peace is not random and this opportunity doesn’t come as usual All come because of the long-term preparations Indeed, when knowing that the Qing dynasty’s troops were about to cross the border, Ngô Văn Sở - on behalf of Nguyễn Huệ - sent a letter, explaining the reasons why the army manoeuvres were conducted in the country and proposing Tôn Sĩ Nghị “to stop armed attack, to keep the approaching forces staying on the side of the border” (Ngơ Thì Nhậm, 2001, p.305), i.e., stopping the attack under King Lê’s request If they were still stubborn to invade our country, our troops and people would be ready and prepare for every method to cope with the troops from the ‘heavenly dynasty’, although the resistance as Ngô văn Sở’s remark was conducted by “the domestic threatened people” (Ngơ Thì Nhậm, 2001, p.305) Meanwhile, the letter also reminded Tôn Sĩ Nghị that sending the army to attack Annam was not Emperor Qianlong’s intention, though it was just titled Nguyễn Huệ’s diplomatic strategies at that time also considered that the Qing dynasty would defeat and we had to save their face, not making them feel so insulted and ashamed that they could continue to wage wars When the Qing dynasty’s army was completely defeated, Ngơ Thì Nhậm, with the good preparation, in order to seize the opportunity to preserve the nation’s peace, on behalf of 21 AGU International Journal of Sciences – 2019, Vol (1), 19 – 27 Emperor Quang Trung – Nguyễn Huệ, repeatedly sent explanation and correspondence to Guangxi Ta Jiang Armament Chief – Thang Hùng Nghiệp (Quảng Tây Tả Giang Binh Bị Đạo Thang Hùng Nghiệp) to justify the fight against the ‘heavenly dynasty’s army’ and said that everything happening was caused by Tôn Sĩ Nghị’s ambition to create the great success winner, Ngơ Thì Nhậm clearly and specifically listed the failure of the Qing dynasty - in particular and of China - in general in the explanation letters as they have invaded our nation from long ago up to now, so that the predecessors’ examples can be followed in order to avoid mistakes when they want to invade little Annam The winner’s pride and the national pride was expressed when Ngô Thì Nhậm asigned two Di officers (the Di : người Di) – Nguyễn Hữu Điều and Vũ Huy Phúc to deliver the petions” (Hồ Bạch Thảo, 2010, p.106) to Thang Hùng Nghiệp and to Phúc An Khang (Fuk’anggan) – the Governor of Mesopotamia (Tổng đốc Lưỡng Quảng) without delivering them by himself They read the petitions in bitter and anger, but didn’t dare to resist the superior status of Tây Sơn’s army, nor did they follow the failure of Tôn Sĩ Nghị to lose their own future career Ngơ Thì Nhậm affirmed if the Qing’s dynasty’s troops invaded Vietnam again, they would have failure because “as for the army, it was important for its solidarity, not for the huge number; it was also an honor for its elitism, not for the big quantity The clever winners achieved success with their flexibility, not on the basis of mighty – against – weakness and huge number – against – small number If the previous situations were not settled, the ‘heavenly dynasty’ didn’t tolerate them at all, and intentionally waged wars, then our little nation wouldn’t respect the powerful nation much, and I had to obey the heaven’s destiny” (Ngơ Thì Nhậm, 2001, p.312) For sure, Thang Hùng Nghiệp and Phúc An Khang wouldn’t dare to present those petitions to the emperor of the Qing dynasty, and would have to use other words to persuade Emperor Qianlong not to send its army to the South for revenge Finally, Emperor Qianlong “determined to initiate peace” (Ngô Gia Văn Phái 2014, p.421), “decided to not to fight anymore, therefore, there was no need of occupation troops All of 3,000 Guangdong The cleverness of Ngơ Thì Nhậm was excuse finding and he based on that to save Emperor Qianlong’s face and eased him However, actually, Emperor Qianlong was the one “behind the curtain faraway” to control this invasion The work of “Thanh thực lục” by translator Hồ Bạch Thảo, shows us that Emperor Qianlong tracked every advancing step of the Qing dynasty’s great army, and every time they occupied Annam’s bastion, Emperor Qianlong gave generous rewards to Tơn Sĩ Nghị Ngơ Thì Nhậm fully expoited the crime by Tôn Sĩ Nghị and explained that Tôn Sĩ Nghị was a civil mandarin and wanted to create the great success, so he “didn’t clearly consider the distant situation, made excuses for leaving our country, then for entering our country, ….got my petition torn and thrown away, committed murders, satisfied brutal greed” (Ngơ Thì Nhậm, 2001, p.308) Ngơ Thì Nhậm said that Tôn Sĩ Nghị was ignorant, “not considering the rationale, causing armed aggression, making people miserable, concealing all from the senior, dominating the subordinates like that” (Ngơ Thì Nhậm, 2001, p.309) Ngơ Thì Nhậm even attributed Tơn Sĩ Nghị with the offense of lese-majesty because he dared to deceive the emperor of the Qing dynasty, obscured his wisdom, let things decline like that” (Ngơ Thì Nhậm, 2001, p.309) It can be seen that all the explanation letters showed that our yielding and his victory were intended, in words, for the Qing dynasty However, along with the employment of the incisive language by the 22 AGU International Journal of Sciences – 2019, Vol (1), 19 – 27 troops which were assigned the task were immediately recalled (Hồ bạch Thảo, 2010, p.120) The bilateral relation was built, and the recognition of the reign of Tây Sơn as well as Emperor Quang Trung as the King of Vietnam was made (Quách Tấn – Quách Giao, 2016, p.199) Even, to show the sincerity with Nguyễn Huệ in not invading our nation again, Emperor Qianlong invited Annam’s envoy delegation to Guilin (Quế Lâm) – China to consider Lê Duy Kỳ’s life According to “Thanh thực lục” by Hồ Bạch Thảo translator, on the fifth of May, in the 54th year of Emperor Qianlong (29/05/1789), Emperor Qianlong passed the royal decree that was: hard or as softly as needed, Ngơ Thì Nhậm protected our border, defeated the troops from provinces who were going to enter Vietnam Through this, the later generations also understand that words in “Bang giao hảo thoại” are humble but in the proactive and unyielding status towards the Qing dynasty and satisfy every objective of the diplomatic activities at that time THE ART OF NEGOTIATION Diplomatic activities are scientific and artistic ones aimed at protecting the nation’s interests, benefits and authority through negotiations and other peace measures Beside the scientific features, diplomatic activities are also artistic and they are expresses in individuals and diplomats’ negotiation competency In 18th century, after the great victory against the Qing dynasty, the reign of Tây Sơn conducted the diplomatic missions through negotiation and Ngơ Thì Nhậm was assigned to take this responsibility The art of negotiation was skillfully employed by Ngơ Thì Nhậm in order to reject the Qing dynasty’s irrational petitions as well as to meet our nation’s requirements in this historical period Lê Duy Kỳ, who - due to his incompetence lost his country, threw the royal seal, and fled away, was temporarily forgiven for losing China’s oversea territories and was arranged to settle in Guilin (Quế Lâm), was reluctantly given a grant as a civilian If he was heard to have long hair as before, to get attired as his nation’s costumes and different from the ones in domestic territories, then it was not appropriate for the Chinese law Therefore, call in the governor-generals (Tổng đốc) and Provincial governors (Tuần phủ) to order Lê Duy Kỳ and his subordinates to have their hair shaved, their clothes changed into the heavenly dynasty’s costumes In the future, when Nguyễn Quang Hiển (Nguyễn Huệ’s grandson – author) went to Guilin (Quế Lâm), met Lê Duy Kỳ, and noticed that his hair had been shaved, his clothes had been changed, it would be impossible for him to come back to his nation Meanwhile, Nguyễn Quang Hiển could be directed to come back to his nation and report it to Nguyễn Huệ so that Nguyễn Huệ could ease his suspicion and fear (Hồ Bạch Thảo, 2010, p.133.) There were four important missions in which Ngơ Thì Nhậm had to negotiate with the Qing dynasty, and all of them were successful with the will of Vietnam They included negotiations for ending wars, abandonment of casting golden human-like statues as royal tributes, negotiations of recognizing the reign of Tây Sơn and locating the crowning ceremony, and negotiations of trade In particular, Ngơ Thì Nhậm conducted negotiations via correspondence exchanges with Guangxi Ta Jiang Armament Chief – Thang Hùng Nghiệp (Quảng Tây Tả Giang Binh Bị Đạo Thang Hùng Nghiệp) and the Governor of Mesopotamia (Tổng đốc Lưỡng Quảng) Phúc An Khang (Fuk’anggan) – those appointed by Emperor Qianlong to carry out the diplomatic Therefore, with the art of seizing the opportunity and employing clever words, as 23 AGU International Journal of Sciences – 2019, Vol (1), 19 – 27 missions with the reign of Tây Sơn In our opinion, the artistic features in diplomatic are characterized through the following methods for the purpose of changing the counterparts’ views and forcing them to implement our requirements than 20 times considered our nation as ‘a colonized territory’ and ‘admired the Chinese civilization’, making Emperor Qianlong and the Qing dynasty’s mandarins and troops feel interested and therefore satisfied Tây Sơn reign’s petitions However, in the first articles of “Bang giao hảo thoại”, with the historical setting of newly-established victory against the Qing dynasty’s invasion, Ngơ Thì Nhậm times reminded the Qing dynasty of disastrous defeat by the heavenly dynasty’s army when they invaded Vietnam, employing determining and unyielding words uttered by a person with a senior status in order to teach the subordinates The repetition of the fundamental issues in diplomacy is the art employed cleverly in order to achieve the user’s objectives; however, as the coins have two sides, it is also easy for that repetition to stimulate the counterpart and fail in all negotiation objectives First, it was the capacity of understanding the enemy’s psychology, i.e understanding our practical situations, fully exploiting advantages to win the war Ngơ Thì Nhậm usually continuously repeated the important aspects, and emphasized the negative ones in the diplomatic correspondence The first issue repeated the most in “Bang giao hảo thoại” after the great victory against the Qing dynasty was the initiation of peace in order to avoid armed fights for our people, as well as spare time for restoring our forces By making excuses of helping Emperor Qianlong not to lose his face upon his defeat, Ngơ Thì Nhậm repeated 18 times in petitions including “Letter of explanation” (Biểu trần tình), “ Letter from Emperor Quang Trung to Thang Hùng Nghiệp - Guangxi Ta Jiang Armament Chief specializing in managing border affairs, to rationalize the destiny made from waging wars” and “Letter from Emperor Quang Trung to Governor-general - Phúc An Khang” sent to Thang Hùng Nghiệp and Phúc An Khang, with the intention of making impression that Tôn Sĩ Nghị was the cause of the defeat of 20,000 Qing dynasty’s troops on the way to Thăng Long Citadel and in there The second issue was the need of discussion and confirmation with Emperor Qianlong that Annam was still a small nation and just in a name - always yielded to China On behalf of Emperor Quang Trung, with the linguistic tactics, Ngơ Thì Nhậm repeatedly addressed our nation as ‘a small oversea territory’, addressed himself as ‘lucky earthy guy’ when communicating with the Qing dynasty Especially, throughout the work of “Bang giao hảo thoại”, Ngơ Thì Nhậm more Second, it is the flexibility in protecting our views and satisfying the enemy’s petitions It can be seen that the diplomatic relations between Vietnam and China under the reign of Tây Sơn were based on the correspondence exchange between Ngơ Thì Nhậm and the Qing dynasty’s mandarins Therefore, Ngơ Thì Nhậm’s writing skills in “Bang giao hảo thoại” have to be flexibly expressed to convey all of his knowledge and determination towards our nation’s independence The correspondence sent to the Qing dynasty to request for realizing Tây Sơn reign’s petitions shows his historical insight, and his flexible citation of classic reference to force the counterpart to satisfy every requirement by the reign of Tây Sơn at that time After Ngọc Hồi – Đống Đa victory, Ngơ Thì Nhậm wrote the letter of explanation (biểu trần tình) to the Qing dynasty, to praise Emperor Qianlong on ‘his heavenly destiny as an emperor of all nations…, China converted all into the same culture…Annam had been immerged in that culture for a long time”, 24 AGU International Journal of Sciences – 2019, Vol (1), 19 – 27 “everyone was the civilian of the dynasty” and Annam’s army described as “the huge quantity of civilians, armed and unarmed troops that couldn’t cope with a small part of million parts of the Chinese dynasty” (Ngơ Thì Nhậm, 2001, pp.307 – 308), and then immediately, Ngơ Thì Nhậm proved the Chinese mandarins and troops that “I didn’t blame the insult of ‘throwing the mouse away and in return getting back villagers to follow me” (citation of classic reference of “Throwing a mouse away”, i.e the intention of throwing a thing may turn out to throw other things) On January 5th of the lunar calendar this year, we approached Lê Thành, causing a pile of Qing dynasty’s dead troops full of the fields, covering up the river” (Ngơ Thì Nhậm, 2001, p.309) In the letter sent to the Governorgeneral Phúc An Khang, Ngơ Thì Nhậm wrote: “You – a great man – are very talented in the civil and army issues with long-term glorious fame, with the past victory against Kim Xuyên bandit and Taiwan, creating overpowering majesty in the inner land and abroad, and became a really reliable subordinate, and a right-hand man of the great emperor, as well as knew how to spread the supremacy and righteousness, making remote people feel secure” (Ngơ Thì Nhậm, 2001, p.314) Immediately Phúc An Khang sent a letter to Emperor Qianlong, saying that “I went to Quý District – Guangxi (Quảng Tây), got the seal of Governor-general, then on the way secretly observed Annam’s situations, and considered them as followed : Lê Duy Kỳ threw the royal seal and fled away He was just an ignorant man without deserve of getting mercy The domestic people didn’t respect and love him at all Nguyễn Huệ wanted to appeal to the domestic people to look up to the heavenly dynasty’s authority as usual Thus, the fact that he was worried and afraid wasn’t untrue” (Hồ Bạch Thảo, 2010, p.116) In a word, for a short time, the purpose of preventing the second invasion of the Qing dynasty was successfully fulfilled The flexibility in the diplomatic relations with the Qing dynasty was the most clearly featured in the petition requesting to abandon the custom of casting golden human-like statues as royal tributes to the Northern dynasties conducted by the Southern dynasties According to the Chinese historical records, “the custom of casting golden human-like statues as royal tributes” given to China started in the Yuan dynasty (nhà Nguyên) when it tried to victimize the king of Trần dynasty after defeats in the invasion of the Great Việt (Đại Việt) In addition, because the king of Trần dynasty was then seeking an approach to preserve peace and avoid armed war for our people “The custom of casting golden human-like statues as royal tributes to the northern dynasties” hadn’t been recorded in the Vietnamese historical documents at that time Later, in the work of “Bang giao hảo thoại” by Ngô Gia văn phái, some clues about this custom were revealed According to Nguyễn Thanh Tùng (2012), Ngơ Thì Nhậm in “Bang giao hảo thoại” rejected this tribute submission by Trần dynasty (to serve the purpose of affirming the nation spirit, and of doing the diplomatic tasks at that time: opposition to Phúc An Khang’s request for casting golden human-like statues as royal tributes) Obviously, there was no absolute, unconditional and implicit obedience for irrational and supercilious petitions made by the ‘heavenly dynasty’ as the Chinese or western historians or researchers affirmed.” (Nguyễn Thanh Tùng, 2012, pp.146-181) However, in the translation of “Ngơ Thì Nhậm – Full volume” (Ngơ Thì Nhậm tồn tập) (Volume 3, Lâm Giang, Nguyễn Công Việt (chief editor, 20004), Publishing house of Social sciences, Hà Nội) and ‘Works by Ngơ Thì Nhậm’ (Ngơ Thì Nhậm tác phẩm) (Volume 1, Mai Quốc Liên (chief editor, 2001), Publishing house of 25 AGU International Journal of Sciences – 2019, Vol (1), 19 – 27 Literature – Center for National Culture Studies, HCMC), Ngơ Thì Nhậm, on one side, admitted the existence of the custom of casting golden human-like statues as royal tributes to the northern dynasties conducted by Trần and Lê dynasties, and affirmed that “right amid Lê dynasty’s time, this custom were abandoned.” (Ngơ Thì Nhậm, 2001, p.348) On the other hand, he pointed out that “this custom hadn’t been ever conducted from the ancient time, namely “Đường Ngu, Three Dynsaties” (Đường Ngu, Tam đại) to the time of Hán, Tang (Đường), Song (Tống) dynasties” (Ngơ Thì Nhậm, 2001, p.349) and also showed that “two dynasties as Yuan dynasty (nhà Nguyên) and Ming dynasty (nhà Minh) behaving unlike earlier generations were not worth setting examples for others to follow” (Ngơ Thì Nhậm, 2001, p.349) Thus, “it would be the great favor that you – the great man – would follow the god destiny to exempt our nation from this custom” (Ngơ Thì Nhậm, 2001, p.349) From what Ngơ Thì Nhậm wrote, “Emperor Qianlong seemed to despite this custom conducted by the earlier dynasties” (Nguyễn Thanh Tùng, 2012, pp.146181) From then, the Vietnamese people and feudal dynasties weren’t afraid of casting golden human-like statues as royal tributes to China In practice, the golden humanlike statues often have value that is not as much as other royal tributes, but they show Vietnamese leaders’ yielding attitude and obedience although that obedience is “fake” for the Chinese feudal dynasties In brief, with his writing style and profound historical insight via the correspondence exchanges, Ngơ Thì Nhậm abandoned the custom of royal tributes which despited our national prestige from earlier time The researcher – Cao Xn Huy (1977) considered Ngơ Thì Nhậm as “a person who experienced life”, “mastered in ancient works”, and “had talent in literature skills” (Collection of literature works by Ngô Thì Nhậm, Volume 1, 1978, p.31), highlighting the art of skillful linguistics employment by Ngơ Thì Nhậm in the defense of our border and our newlyestablished national independence CONCLUSION The studies of “Bang giao hảo thoại” have made positive contributions to characterize the talented diplomatic art employed by our ancestors for generations It is the art of behavior by a nation with a humble number of area and population towards a nation with a huge number of area and population In particular, the opportunity seizing and negotiation art play a core role to win the victory The flexibility of Ngơ Thì Nhậm’s negotiation art does not separate with the nation’s uprightness, unyieldingness and spirit of national pride in Vietnam’s diplomatic activities in the 18th century, as well as in earlier and later historical periods Ngơ Thì Nhậm, with his role and status, has become a preeminent diplomat, an example for diplomats in later generations to follow in the process of setting up diplomatic relations with the major nation in the North The diplomatic art is different from time to time, expressed in different ways, but what Ngơ Thì Nhậm left the subsequent generations via his manuscripts, unsent written letters, or ones which needed to be edited in terms of syntax before being sent was “really precious diplomatic documents in our nation’s literature” (Collection of literature works by Ngơ Thì Nhậm, Volume 1, 1978, p.31) In addition, it has made contributions to help the subsequent generations to have a clear description of our nation’s diplomatic battle in the 18th century It is a battle in which Vietnamese people’s intelligence and stature is the origin of the current young generation’s spirit of national pride REFERENCES Đào Duy Anh (2002) Vietnamese history From the origin to the 19th century Hà Nội 26 AGU International Journal of Sciences – 2019, Vol (1), 19 – 27 Publishing Culture house of Information and casting golden human-like statues as royal tributes”: From the official historical records to folk legends Magazine of Research and Development Volume 8-9, pp.146 – 181 Trần Ngọc Ánh (2009) Tây Sơn reign’s diplomacy – Special thinking and historic lessons, Magazine of Science and Technology, Đà nẵng University, Volume (30), pp.97 – 103 Quách Tấn – Quách Giao (2016) The reign of Tây Sơn HCMC Publishing house of Youth Ngơ Thì Nhậm (2001) Works Hà Nội Publishing house of Literature Collection of literature works by Ngơ Thì Nhậm, Volume 1, (1978) Hà Nội Publishing house of Social sciences Ngô Gia văn phái.(2014) Records of the unification of the imperial Lê (Hồng Lê thống chí) Hà Nội Publishing house of Literature National Center of Social sciences and Humanity (2005) Vietnamese dictionary HCMC Publishing house of Sài Gòn Culture Hồ Bạch Thảo (translation and annotation) (2010) Thanh Thực Lục – ‘Qing dynasty – Tây Sơn reign’ relation at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century Hà Nội Publishing house of Hà Nội Lưu Đình Vinh (2008) Ngơ Thì Nhậm’s patriotic thinking at the reign of Tây Sơn, Master thesis of Philosophy, HCMC National University – HCMC University of Social sciences and Humanity Nguyễn Thanh Tùng (2012) “The custom of 27 ... emphasized the negative ones in the diplomatic correspondence The first issue repeated the most in “Bang giao hảo thoại” after the great victory against the Qing dynasty was the initiation of peace in. .. building up the diplomatic relations with China The victorious accomplishments in the diplomatic field by Ngơ Thì Nhậm were compiled in the seminal work of “Bang giao hảo thoại” (Successful diplomatic. .. of “Bang giao hảo thoại”, with the historical setting of newly-established victory against the Qing dynasty’s invasion, Ngơ Thì Nhậm times reminded the Qing dynasty of disastrous defeat by the