Long before Western feminist theories introduced formal concepts of gender equality, feudal Vietnamese women were already negotiating their autonomy and agency in a rigid society where power was predominantly centered around men.
A critical turning point happened in 1483 when the Hồng Đức code was established, which legally recognized women as individuals with specific civil rights almost as equal as men, drawing the legal baseline and acting as a statutory shield for women against total patriarchal control in the Feudal era.
Still, the imperial laws alone could not rewrite societal norms, so to thrive and survive, Vietnamese women had to artfully juggle the legal codes with the resisting Confucian beliefs at the time.
The Hồng Đức Code
The Hồng Đức code, also known as Lê Code, was the only feudal code in Vietnam of the Confucian era that recognized a women’s legal role in society and offered a progressive protection for their civil rights.
Declared and promulgated in 1483 as “Quốc Triều Hình Luật” (The Hồng Đức code) under the Emperor Lê Thánh Tông, the code was merely a cultural synthesis of the law rather than an intentional feminist revolutionary act. The Lê Dynasty wanted to build a centralized Neo-Confucian governance which slightly conflicted with the indigenous Vietnamese traditions in terms of gender roles.
Rural Vietnamese traditions historically honored women’s significant socio-economic stance due to their major contributions to agriculture and the market, while the Confucian standards for a woman’s role were based on her absolute submission to the male figures throughout her life (her father, husband, then son).
The cultural clashes prevented the court from imposing strict Chinese-style patrilineality and forced them to accommodate certain customs in order to maintain social harmony according to the Confucian beliefs. As a result, these legal provisions were listed:
1. Property Ownership
The code recognizes three types of properties within a marriage between a man and a woman. The properties and assets of the husband, the properties and assets of the wife, and the joint marital properties. In the occurrence of a husband’s death and the couple has no children, the wife is entitled to own half of her husband’s private properties in addition to her own. This allowed women to retain ownership of their personal properties across marriage, divorce or widowhood.
2. Ancestral Worship Inheritance (Hương Hỏa)
The code enables the eldest daughter of a family with no male heirs to carry on the duty of performing ancestral rituals. As a result, she will inherit up to 1/20 of her family’s fortunes and estates for the funding. Traditionally, only the male figures in the family can inherit the right to continue the ancestral lineage, but the Hồng Đức code honors a woman’s legal stance and responsibility to her family line.
3. Marital Rights
The right of a woman to leave her husband in terms of abandonment and neglection is recognized and statutorized. In a society where marriage was governed by patriarchal order, the legal recognition of a woman’s autonomy to exit a marriage was a critical turning point. When compared to the Ming code of the time, where a man’s right to terminate a marriage was typically prioritized and valued over a woman’s, this provision stands out.
In the times of feudalism, the Hồng Đức code offered a few provisions that were notably more progressive for women compared to other East Asian codes, it balances the Chinese legal influences with indigenous customs, making it a prominent historical legal framework in Vietnam.
The Imperial Law In The Face Of Social Convention
Statutory protection holds less of a power when it comes to societal constructs. Rural traditions were only a minority in a large Feudalistic society of Vietnam. According to a research by professor Trần Tuyết Nhung, Vietnamese society at the time still operates under a strict patrilineal succession, thus the practicality of set laws were limited when faced with patriarchal barriers.
There are several collective conceptions when it comes to a woman’s role in the Feudal society shaped by Confucian beliefs.
The first is the patrilineal practice that is entrenched in the village clans. Extended families often resisted giving lands and properties to the daughters out of fear their assets would be transferred to an outside clan upon marriage.
Likewise, childless women and widowed wives could be pressured by their male relatives to yield their statutory shares, as the patriarchal structure systematically undervalued a woman’s capabilities without a male figure presence in her life. Therefore while the imperial court legally acknowledges the financial independence of a woman, village society finds it hard to accept the concept.
The fear of “spiritual death” similarly drove village societies towards resisting ancestral worship inheritance by a woman. For context, the post-mortem belief system evaluates the way the living provides physical nourishment for the deceased, while the ancestors provide health, protection and prosperity in return for their living descendants. If a person died without recognition from their descendants of the same clan, they would become a wandering soul where their spirit would become eternally bound by suffering and neglect.
The Confucian belief only values the continuation of ancestral worship and accepts offerings directly from patrilineal kinship, thus only worship from male figures are valued. The imperial law allowing the eldest daughter to inherit the duty of ancestral worship posed fears within clans that had long believed in this set of traditions, making them feel like they are putting their spirits at risk in a woman’s hand.
Apart from the Confucian beliefs, Vietnamese traditions often follow the principle of “Phép vua thua lệ làng”, meaning that village customs can overpower an emperor’s rule. This principle being embedded in the way of life for Vietnamese societies makes it harder for people to accept conformity with statutory laws that oppose their beliefs.
The dynamic relationship between unwritten social norms and legal codes forms the complexity of enforcing contemporary measures in a rigid Feudal era, challenging a woman’s ability to navigate her social and financial independence in daily life.
Lập Bia Hậu (Succession Stelae) - The Art Of Female Strategy
Lập Bia Hậu, or Succession Stelae, in this context refers to the act of placing an endowment in return for social benefits. Women would contribute money and land to village communities which guarantees the safeguard of their own interests in return. In a rigid society dominated by patriarchal values, this was how Vietnamese women artfully leverage legal loopholes and traditional customs to navigate their autonomy.
The strategy operates through women transferring their private cash and valued goods directly into village temples, communal houses or shrines. In exchange for her donation, the village council would formally entitle her to post-mortem worship (Hậu), life care in old age, and elevated social recognition.
By transferring their wealth into a communal institution, Vietnamese women were able to protect their assets from familial pressures and secure their spiritual legacy without relying on a male figure. This underscores how Vietnamese women quietly established their independence and autonomy while preserving social harmony.
Although the Hồng Đức code established lawful rights for women, the Lê Dynasty still structured their monarchical order around a deeply embedded Confucian ideology. Ultimately, this hindered female autonomy from flourishing through numerous societal constraints imposed upon women at the time.
Only until the early 20th century when the Feudal system began to dilute that debates around women’s roles and rights started gaining momentum. Amplified by press conferences and social movements, Vietnam’s debates around the concept of female liberation began to shift towards contemporary frameworks we know today as feminism.