The adoption and use of gunpowder-actuated weapons by the Vietnamese reflect the patterns of cultural influences that have shaped their civilization as a whole. Study of this subject by modern scholars has been hampered by the relative inaccessibility of source materials, and the loss of many artifacts during the country's turbulent history. What little that remains suggests that the Dai Viet people, like the Japanese, showed considerable talent for adaptation, but little proclivity for innovation in this field.

I. GUNPOWDER IN VIETNAM

Unlike China, where the military use of gunpowder precedes the 11th cent. AD and where the earliest metal-barreled guns are believed to have originated in the mid-13th, Vietnam appears not to have acquired such technologies until the early 15th. The Vietnamese are thought to have ~ their first cannons circa 1414 from Ming forces stationed in Annam (central Vietnam). The Chinese had defeated and deposed Vietnam's Ho Dynasty in 1407, and established a military occupation of the country which lasted until they were expelled by the hero Le Loi in 1427. ... While in the country, the Chinese followed the well-known policy of "divide and conquer", favoring collaborators while cruelly suppressing the opposition. The introduction of gunpowder and artillery occurred under this political climate.

The Vietnamese apparently took readily to the new weaponry during the ensuing centuries. The French explorer J. B. Tavernier noted in the second half of the 17th cent. that the quality of gunpowder produced in Tonkin (northern Vietnam) and also in Thailand was excellent. Though "corned" or granulated gunpowder had been known in Europe and China at an earlier date, Tavernier noted that the Vietnamese and Thai powders were molded into little rods. The purpose of "corning" is to increase the consistency and efficiency of combustion, and thus the power of the explosion. The more uniform the grains, the better. It is interesting to note that the rod-like form is one of the predominant types of granulation used in today's smokeless powders, loaded into a wide variety of ammunition.

II. CANNON (Sung dai bac)

Very few early pieces of artillery have survived in Vietnam. The author, on a recent visit, saw nothing dated prior to the latter 17th cent., and those earliest guns were imports from western Europe. The country's long record of warfare, and the lack of sentimental attachment to such artifacts has probably meant that older cannons were used until they wore out, or were simply melted down and recycled when improved models were made available. The earliest surviving reference to the manufacture of artillery describes a foundry located at the Annamite capital of Hue, circa 1630, run by artisans under the direction of a Portuguese master named Joao da Cruz. However, it is clear that native production was not sufficient to satisfy demand, since other records show considerable purchases of arms and munitions from Holland, Spain, and Portugal throughout the 17th cent.

Further developments occurred with the foundation of the Nguyen Dynasty, Vietnam's last ruling house, in 1802. The first ruler, the Gia Long Emperor (named Nguyen Anh before his enthronement), came to power after defeating the so-called Tay Son revolt in the closing years of the 18th cent. During the long campaign against the Tay Son, Nguyen Anh enlisted the support of an influential Catholic bishop, Pigneau de Behaine (Ba Da Loc). He had hoped to use Bishop de Behaine's good offices to obtain French military backing, in exchange for certain commercial and territorial concessions in southern Vietnam. The Bishop sailed to France on this mission, accompanied by the dauphin Canh, but was not to return until after Nguyen Anh had effectively defeated the Tay Son in 1789.

The French provided a considerable amount of arms and ammunition. More important was a group of French technicians whose work revolutionized Vietnam's heavy armaments industry. The most influential of these master artisans were:

• de Forcant (Le Van Lang)
• Olivier (Ong Tin)
• Vannier (Nguyen Van Thanq)
• Chaigneau (Nguyen Van Chan)

These men brought the latest developments in artillery to the Far East. During the latter 18th cent, French artillery had gained the reputation of being the best in Europe. After the waning of Jesuit influence in China, there was no other instance of sustained production of high-quality, Western-style armaments on the Pacific Rim until the modernization of Japan in the 187Q's Ironically, such acceptance of French material and technical aid allowed France to put a political foot through a door which Vietnam's Confucian ruler preferred to remain closed, a development which was to eventually cost the nation its independence,

In Vietnam, these improved French designs, often embellished with Eastern decorative motifs and inscribed in the Chinese-based writing system in use at the time, completely supplanted the earlier Chinese, Portuguese, and Dutch models Despite losses due to war and plunder, Vietnam's museums are graced with many examples of guns cast during the Gia Long (1802-20) and Minh Mang (1820-40) reigns. They show that the French were superb teachers who had first-rate students. The guns are impeccably made and some of them have an aesthetic quality that surpasses many of their European contemporaries.

A typical example of a field-gun cast during the Gia Long reign, one of about a dozen identical and serially-numbered examples now preserved at the History museum in Saigon, is shown in Fig. 1. Made of bronze, it is designed after French prototypes. The workmanship is first-rate, On the breech, directly behind the touchhole are three characters "(by) command (of) Gia Long". To the right of this is the name of this type of cannon, "Victorious and Majestic General 100 Degrees", followed by the serial number, 53 (see Fig. 2). To the left is an inscription giving the date of manufacture (Fig. 3). For our purposes, it is significant to note that the gun was cast in the 16th year of the Gia Long reign (AD 1818).

The ends of the trunnions display dimensional data and specifications for the ammunition (Figs. 4 and 5). Units of measurement are in the traditional Chinese decimal system; using equivalents which were standard during the Ming Dynasty, the - English equivalents can be calculated as follows:

• Weight: 632 jin = 840.6 lb.
• Length: 3 chi 4 cun 2 fen = 4 ft. 1 in.
• Length of bore: 3 chi = 3 ft. 7 in. (gun is smoothbore)
• Bore diameter: 2 cun 2 fen = 2 41/64 in.(see also Fig. 6)
• Shot diameter: 2 cun 1 fen = 2 17/32 in.
• Projectile wt.: 2 jin 4 liang - 3 lb. 3 1/5 oz.

The inscription also includes admonitions to use good quality powder, and to shoot steel (iron) cannonballs only.

During the Gia Long reign, Vietnamese artisans were capable of casting finely decorated guns of considerable size. The best known examples of these larger-scale guns are the Nine Sacred Cannons, which are the symbolic guardians of the Citadel at Hue. Each of the bronze tubes measures about sixteen feet eight inches and weighs approximately ten tons. Although designed to be fully functional in every respect, they have never been fired. The cast barrel ornamentation and the carving on the carriages are exquisite.

Another example of early l9th cent. Vietnamese artillery is the short howitzer barrel shown in Fig. 7. Preserved at the Imperial Museum at Hue, the bronze barrel sits in a concrete display carriage, which has no resemblance to the original. The inscription on the cascabel (Fig. 8) indicates that the piece was made in the 13th year of the Minh Mang reign (1833). The inscription to the right of the touchhole (Fig. 9) shows that it was made in an Imperial workshop, and the remainder of the inscription at the circumference of the breech gives the name of the gun, "Divine Majesty Foe-Destroying Generalissimo, First Rank" (see also Fig. 10). As with the previous example described above, it is interesting to note that the names of the artillery Pieces still reflect Chinese usage, even though the guns themselves are of purely European design.

III. MATCHLOCK MUSKETS (Sung hoa mai)

Until large-scale importation of flintlock muskets and rifles (sung may da) from France began in the early Nguyen Dynasty, the Vietnamese relied on shoulder-fired weapons similar to those used in neighboring areas. The primitive hand-cannon (sung ma truong) long remained in use, even if only as a signaling device. In Western collections are encountered, on rare occasions, Tonkinese matchlocks with slender, elongated, pistol shaped butts reminiscent of Taiwan aborigine guns, but with mechanisms of Indian or Chinese type. Rather more common, at least in America, are the small bore muskets of the hill tribes, with pistol stocks and primitive flintlock mechanisms which were brought home as souvenirs during the Vietnam conflict.

Private Collection, Vietnam

This article will focus on a curious type of matchlock seen by the author on his recent sojourn, a form which has until now been little known amongst Western collectors (Fig. 11). The barrels, generally octagonal and always smoothbore, vary greatly in length. Calibers range from .40 to about .50 in. They are mounted by means of narrow metal capucines into simple stocks with short, downward-curving butts, fashioned of very dense native hardwood and often provided with ivory or bone butt- and toeplates. From the shape of the butts, they are clearly intended to be rested against the cheek while firing. The locks are of iron, with minimal embellishment, and feature a forward falling serpentine released by a transverse sear and propelled by a single leaf mainspring (Fig. 12). Vietnamese antiquarians and collectors who were queried on their origin insist that they are typical of the Hue area. This might explain their radically different appearance and mechanical design to the rare Tonkin muskets mentioned above. However, the contention by some that they represent borrowed Japanese technology is questionable for several reasons:

1. Japanese Hinawa-ju, though superficially similar, have butts whose toe areas feature a chamfered contour. These Vietnamese guns have flat butts, which puts them in a class with some Malay guns.

2. Japanese barrels are almost always pin-fastened to the stock fore-ends, whereas the Vietnamese ones are attached with bands or capucines (as are Malay, Javanese, Burmese, and Chinese examples). However, it must be noted that the Vietnamese gunstocks do have a longitudinal saw-cut visible along the underside of the fore-end as is the case with Japanese (and Korean) muskets.

3. The mainspring on the Vietnamese lock is single-leaf, whereas Japanese locks have a V-shaped external' or coiled internal spring. Also, all Vietnamese locks seen by the author are of iron, whereas brass was almost universally used in Japan.

4. The shape and mounting of the trigger-guard is akin to Malay, not-Japanese, prototypes.

5. The position of the trigger relative to the serpentine and buttplate is more akin to the proportions found on Malay and Javanese guns (closer to the serpentine than the Japanese).

The snapping matchlock with forward-falling serpentine and transverse sear activated by a conventional trigger was introduced to various Southeast Asian and Far Eastern cultures in the first half of the 16th cent. by the Portuguese. It is in itself a product of the fusion of Indo-Portuguese technologies. It is interesting to note that these Vietnamese guns-retain the single leaf mainspring of the Lusitanian prototypes, whereas the versions produced later by the Chinese' Japanese, and Koreans all utilized V-shaped springs.

This brief introduction is intended to present to Western students of arms and military technology a subject on which comparatively little has been written. It is hoped that it can be suitably expanded as more material comes to light.

c. 1999 Philip Tom

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

Blackmore, Howard, Guns and Rifles of the World, NY: Viking 1965 .

Daehnhardt, Rainer, Espingarda Feiticeira / the Bewitched Gun, Lisboa: Texto Editora 1994

Elgood, Robert, Firearms of the Islamic World, London/NY: I. B. Tauris, 1995

Huard, Pierre & Ourand, Maurice, Connaissance du V]et-Nam, Hanoi: Ecole Francaise d'Extreme-Orient, 1954

Needham, Joseph, Science & Civilization in China, Vol. v, No. 7, Cambridge: University Press 1986.