ABSTRACT
Confucianism came to Vietnam with the Han army in the second century B.C.E., and its existence was inseparable from the force of occupation from the north. Following Dong Zhongshu’s political philosophy, and especially legalism, Han administrators applied Confucian morals primarily as a means of governing Vietnam. They prescribed the model of a Confucian state to the Viet and forced them to obey. This meant that the arts of administration, control, and education were molded by Confucian morals. Confucian rites (li) as well as rules were de facto the law. The education promulgated by the first Han governors duplicated the contents of the Confucian classics, combined with an interpretation by Dong Zhongshu and the rigor of Han Feizi. Also, the introduction of the Chinese language to the Viet was simply an aspect of governance, not part of a program of civilization. In brief, Confucianism and the Chinese language were instruments for ruling and subjugating non-Han peoples.
