In the first century AD there were a couple of Han Dynasty officials who reportedly tried to change certain cultural practices of some people in the area of what is today Vietnam.

One of these men was named Xi Guang (Tích Quang), and the other, Ren Yan (Nhâm Diên). Xi Guang governed over the Red River delta region, or what was referred to at the time as Jiaozhi, and Ren Yan governed over an area in what is now central Vietnam, but which was then known as Jiuzhen.

There is very little information about what these two men supposedly did. Most of the information comes from a passage in the History of the Later Han, an official dynastic history. That passage has been translated or cited by various historians who write in English.

The first to do so may have been Jennifer Holmgren in her 1980 Chinese Colonisation of Northern Vietnam. In that book, Holmgren translates the passage from the History of the Later Han as follows:

“[Xi Guang and Ren Yan] taught the people agriculture, introduced hats and sandals, schools, and correct betrothal and marriage procedures; they instructed the people in feelings of respect and morality.”

A few years later, Keith Taylor summarized this same passage in his The Birth of Vietnam. Although the original passage refers to the work of both Xi Guang and Ren Yan, Taylor cites it in reference to Xi Guang, and states that he “is reported to have opened schools, enforced Chinese-style marriage rites, prescribed the wearing of hats and sandals, and ‘instructed the people in justice and ritual.’”

Finally, recently Ben Kiernan has repeated these points again by citing Homgren’s book. To quote, Kiernan states that, “[Xi Guang] and Ren Yan not only ‘taught the people agriculture’ but also ‘introduced hats and sandals’. . .”

In reading these works, I struggled to understand why Han Dynasty administrators would introduce or prescribe “hats and sandals” at the same time that they “taught the people agriculture.” Were farmers supposed to walk around in rice fields wearing sandals and hats? Wouldn’t mud stick to the sandals? And were Han Dynasty hats designed to block the sun?

In consulting the passage in the History of the Later Han, I realized that these historians misunderstood what was written there.

One of the key techniques for deciphering texts in classical Chinese is to look for patterns. This passage, for instance, has a clear pattern to it. It mentions an action, and then it mentions the condition that resulted from that action.

These two administrators “established marriage rituals” [action] and then people “began to understand about marriage” [result]. (初設媒娉，始知姻娶)

The two administrators “established schools” [action], and people “were guided by ritual propriety” [result]. (建立學校，導之禮義)

Following this pattern, “hats and sandals” are mentioned as the “result” of the action of teaching people to cultivate. (教其耕稼，制為冠履) How can that make sense?

It makes sense because while this passage contains two characters that literally mean “hats and shoes” (冠履), those two characters have another meaning, a figurative meaning, which we can translate as something like “propriety,” or in this case, “hierarchical propriety” or “the proper hierarchy.”

A hat goes on the head, and shoes go on the feet. A hat’s proper place is above, and a shoe’s proper place is below. The two characters combined together therefore refer to a concept of a proper hierarhical order.

As such, this text indicates that the two Han Dynasty administrators “taught people how to cultivate” [action], thereby “ordering them in the proper hierarchy” [result]. (教其耕稼，制為冠履)

Ok, but what does that mean?

As I understand this text, this is what we can think of as an early theory of societal evolution. In another passage in this text, it is mentioned that in the area where Ren Yan governed, the people lived by hunting and did not know how to cultivate with an ox-drawn plow (九真俗以射獵為業，不知牛耕).

Hunting and gathering societies are more or less egalitarian. Agricultural societies are hierarchical.

What this passage indicates is that to the Han Dynasty educated elite (such as the men who compiled this text), an agricultural lifestyle was superior to that of hunters. What made it superior was that it was hierarchical, as that hierarchy created an order to society.

Xi Guang and Ren Yan reportedly attempted to bring such hierarchical order to some of the people in the area of what is now Vietnam in the first century AD. For that, they were praised in the History of the Later Han.

南蠻西南夷列傳:

光武中興，錫光為交阯，任延守九真，於是教其耕稼，制為冠履，初設媒娉，始知姻娶，建立學校，導之禮義。