Moralizing Monstrosities: Việt Sử tiêu án 越史標案 and Eighteenth-century Tonkinese historiography

Abstract

In this essay, I perform a close reading of Ngô Thì Sĩ’s 吳時仕 (1726-1780) commentary on the “Annals of the Hồng Bàng Lineage” (Hồng Bàng thị kỷ 鴻厖氏紀) as found in Việt sử tiêu án 越史標案 [Salient Comments on Việt History]. I argue that Ngô Thì Sĩ’s commentary reveals a historiographical mindset which presupposed the historicity of certain non-human entities while rejecting various details in the historical record regarding these entities and their role in Việt antiquity. Thus, Ngô Thì Sĩ’s historiography in Việt sử tiêu án represented an eclectic variety of approaches which improved on existing modes of historical inquiry prevalent in eighteenth-century Tonkin without radically altering their underlying methodology. This allows us to contextualize Việt sử tiêu án alongside other eighteenth-century critiques of Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư 大越史記全書 and its primary compiler, Ngô Sĩ Liên 吳士連 (fl. fifteenth century).