Phan Xich Long
Encyclopedia
Vietnamese people
The Vietnamese people are an ethnic group originating from present-day northern Vietnam and southern China. They are the majority ethnic group of Vietnam, comprising 86% of the population as of the 1999 census, and are officially known as Kinh to distinguish them from other ethnic groups in Vietnam...
mystic and geomancer
Geomancy
Geomancy is a method of divination that interprets markings on the ground or the patterns formed by tossed handfuls of soil, rocks, or sand...
who claimed to be the Emperor of Vietnam. He attempted to exploit religion as a cover for his own political ambitions, having started his own ostensibly religious organisation. Claiming to be a descendant of Emperor Ham Nghi
Ham Nghi
Emperor Hàm Nghi ; , was the eighth Emperor of the Vietnamese Nguyễn Dynasty. He reigned for only one year ....
, Long staged a ceremony to crown himself, before trying to seize power in 1913 by launching an armed uprising against the colonial rule of French Indochina
French Indochina
French Indochina was part of the French colonial empire in southeast Asia. A federation of the three Vietnamese regions, Tonkin , Annam , and Cochinchina , as well as Cambodia, was formed in 1887....
. His supporters launched an attack on Saigon
Ho Chi Minh City
Ho Chi Minh City , formerly named Saigon is the largest city in Vietnam...
in March 1913, drinking potion
Potion
A potion is a consumable medicine or poison.In mythology and literature, a potion is usually made by a magician, sorcerer, dragon, fairy or witch and has magical properties. It might be used to heal, bewitch or poison people...
s that purportedly made them invisible and planting bombs at several locations. The insurrection against the French colonial administration failed when none of the bombs detonated and the supposedly invisible supporters were apprehended.
The French authorities imprisoned Long and many of his supporters, who openly admitted their aim of overthrowing French authorities at the trial. During the 1916 Cochinchina uprising
1916 Cochinchina uprising
The 1916 Cochinchina uprising was a series of defiant protests and attempted revolts in February against the French colonisation of southern Vietnam, which had been the colony of Cochinchina since 1867....
s against French rule, many of Long's supporters attempted to break him out of jail. The French easily repelled the attack on the jail, decimating Long's movement. Following the attempted breakout, Long and his key supporters were put to death. Many of the remnants of his support base went on to join what later became the Cao Dai
Cao Dai
Cao Đài is a syncretistic, monotheistic religion, officially established in the city of Tay Ninh, southern Vietnam, in 1926. Đạo Cao Đài is the religion's shortened name, the full name is Đại Đạo Tam Kỳ Phổ Độ...
, a major religious sect in Vietnam.
Early career
Long was born in 1893 in southern Vietnam as Phan Phát Sanh. His place of birth is disputed; the historians R. B. Smith and Hue-Tam Ho Tai say that he was from Cholon, the Chinese business district of Saigon, while Oscar Chapuis records Tan AnTân An
Tân An is the capital city of Long An province in Mekong Delta region of Vietnam. It was upgraded from town level to city on 26 August, 2009. The population of Tan An 165,214 , with an area of 81.79 km²...
as his place of birth. Sanh's father was a police officer. and it has been speculated that the family were of Chinese descent. He started as a servant in a French family, before travelling to the That Son
That Son
Thất Sơn, also known as Bảy Núi or Thiên Cấm Sơn , is a range of small mountains located in the Tri Tôn and Tịnh Biên districts in Vietnam's An Giang province.- Overview :...
(Seven Mountains) region in the far south of Vietnam, a region that was known as a hotbed of mysticism. There Long trained in mysticism. As a youth, Sanh travelled from Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
to Siam, earning his living as a fortune-teller and geomancer.
In mid-1911, Sanh formed a secret society on the unverified pretense that he was a descendant of Ham Nghi
Ham Nghi
Emperor Hàm Nghi ; , was the eighth Emperor of the Vietnamese Nguyễn Dynasty. He reigned for only one year ....
, the boy emperor of the 1880s. Led by Ton That Thuyet
Ton That Thuyet
Tôn Thất Thuyết was the leading mandarin of Emperor Tự Đức of Vietnam's Nguyễn Dynasty. Thuyết later led the Can Vuong movement which aimed to restore Vietnamese independence under Emperor Hàm Nghi. He was born on May 12, 1839 in Huế....
and Phan Dinh Phung
Phan Dinh Phung
Phan Đình Phùng was a Vietnamese revolutionary who led rebel armies against French colonial forces in Vietnam. He was the most prominent of the Confucian court scholars involved in anti-French military campaigns in the 19th century and was cited after his death by 20th-century nationalists as a...
—two high-ranking mandarins
Mandarin (bureaucrat)
A mandarin was a bureaucrat in imperial China, and also in the monarchist days of Vietnam where the system of Imperial examinations and scholar-bureaucrats was adopted under Chinese influence.-History and use of the term:...
—Ham Nghi
Ham Nghi
Emperor Hàm Nghi ; , was the eighth Emperor of the Vietnamese Nguyễn Dynasty. He reigned for only one year ....
's Can Vuong
Can Vuong
The Cần Vương movement was a large-scale Vietnamese insurgency between 1885 and 1889 against French colonial rule. Its objective was to expel the French and install the boy emperor Hàm Nghi as the leader of an independent Vietnam...
movement battled against French colonisation in the decade leading up to 1895. Their objective was to expel the French authorities and establish Ham Nghi as the emperor of an independent Vietnam. This failed, and the French exiled the boy emperor to Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
, replacing him with his brother Dong Khanh
Dong Khanh
Emperor Đồng Khánh was the ninth Emperor of the Nguyễn Dynasty of Vietnam. He reigned three years between 1885 and 1889, and was considered one of the most despised emperors of his era.Đồng Khánh's birthname was Nguyễn Cảnh Tông...
. From then on, the French retained the monarchy of the Nguyen Dynasty, exiling any emperors who rose against colonial rule and replacing them with more cooperative relatives. Sanh also claimed descent from the Le Dynasty
Lê Dynasty
The Later Lê Dynasty , sometimes referred to as the Lê Dynasty was the longest-ruling dynasty of Vietnam, ruling the country from 1428 to 1788, with a brief interruption....
, which ruled Vietnam in the 15th and 16th centuries. He was a strong warrior, further presenting himself as the founder of China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
's Ming Dynasty
Ming Dynasty
The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...
.
At the time of Sanh's activities in the 1910s, there were two members of the Nguyen Dynasty who commanded respect among Vietnamese monarchists. The first was the boy emperor Duy Tan
Duy Tan
Emperor Duy Tân , was a boy emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty and reigned in 9 years between 1907 and 1916. His name was Prince Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh San and was son of the Thành Thái emperor...
, who was himself deported in 1916 after staging an uprising. Duy Tan's grandfather, Emperor Duc Duc
Duc Duc
Emperor Dục Đức was the fifth emperor of the Vietnamese Nguyễn Dynasty and reigned for the duration of three days -References:...
, was the adopted son of the childless Emperor Tu Duc, the last independent emperor of Vietnam. The second figure who was seen by Vietnamese as a possible leader of an independent monarchy was Prince Cuong De. Cuong De was a direct descendant of Emperor Gia Long
Gia Long
Emperor Gia Long , born Nguyễn Phúc Ánh , was an emperor of Vietnam...
, who had established the Nguyen Dynasty and unified Vietnam in its modern state. Cuong De was a prominent anti-colonial activist who lived in exile in Japan.
Sanh's two main assistants were Nguyen Huu Tri and Nguyen Van Hiep, whom he met at Tan Chau
Tan Chau, An Giang
Tân Châu is a rural district of An Giang province in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam. As of 2003 the district had a population of 159,719. The district covers an area of 159 km²...
in Chau Doc Province (now in An Giang Province). The trio agreed to plot an uprising against the French under the cover of a religious sect. The genesis of their cooperation is unclear, but it may have started before mid-1911. Tri and Hiep were said to have been in awe when Sanh produced a golden plaque that read "heir to the throne". The men agreed that the geographical foci of their movement would be in Cholon and Tan An in Vietnam and Kampot in Cambodia. The trio decided to model their actions on an uprising that had occurred in Kampot in 1909. On that occasion, a group of Cambodians of Chinese descent had marched into the town wearing white robes, claiming to be followers of a Battambang
Battambang
Battambang is the capital city of Battambang province in northwestern Cambodia.Battambang is the second-largest city in Cambodia with a population of over 250,000. Founded in the 11th century by the Khmer Empire, Battambang is well known for being the leading rice-producing province of the country...
-based Cambodian prince who would overthrow French rule and lead them to independence. After the formation of the sect, Sanh temporarily moved abroad, spending time in Siam and Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
. During this time, he learned sorcery and magic, supplementing his mystical training with a military education. He learned pyrotechnics for the purpose of making fireworks and bombs.
Coronation
Sanh returned to southern Vietnam, and began dressing as a Buddhist monkBhikkhu
A Bhikkhu or Bhikṣu is an ordained male Buddhist monastic. A female monastic is called a Bhikkhuni Nepali: ). The life of Bhikkhus and Bhikkhunis is governed by a set of rules called the patimokkha within the vinaya's framework of monastic discipline...
. He travelled through the six provinces of the Mekong River Delta region. His associates Hiep and Tri found an elderly man from Cholon in Saigon, and presented the senior citizen to the populace as a "living Buddha". After some local elders objected to their activities, they moved to the centre of Cholon. The old man took up residence with Sanh, and peasants and tradespeople soon began flocking to their makeshift temple, located in a house in Cholon's Thuan Kieu Street. As their temple was located in a prominent commercial area, the group began to collect more funds. The donors made offerings of gold and silver, with some individual donations being worth as much as 1,500 piastres
French Indochinese piastre
The piastre de commerce was the currency of French Indochina between 1885 and 1952. It was subdivided into 100 cent, each of 5 sapeque.-History:...
. When the "living Buddha" unexpectedly died in February 1912, he was interred in the family shrine of a notable follower. Sanh's strategists declared that before the old man had died, he named Sanh as the rightful Emperor of Vietnam. In the meantime, the old man's remains became the object of veneration, providing further cover for political plotting and fundraising when visitors came to pay their respects. After the completion of the funeral rites, Sanh and his followers staged an impromptu coronation ceremony at Battambang in October 1912. Sanh took on the name Phan Xích Long and was also known as Hồng Long, both of which mean "red dragon".
Vast crowds of locals began flocking to pay homage to Long, vowing to contribute labour and finance in an effort to expel the French from Vietnam and install Long as the independent monarch. By this time, Long was claiming to have received a letter from Cuong De, which supposedly confirmed his royal descent. Long's followers spared no expense in decorating Long with royal accoutrements. They made a medallion inscribed "Phan Xích Long Hòang Đế" (Emperor Phan Xich Long) and a royal seal with a dragon's head with the words "Đại Minh Quốc, Phan Xích Long Hòang Đế, Thiên tử" (Greater Ming State, Emperor Phan Xich Long, Son of Heaven). The words "Đại Minh" were interpreted as either having arbitrarily been copied from local Chinese Vietnamese secret society slogans, or as a strategic ploy to invoke the names of the Ming Dynasty
Ming Dynasty
The Ming Dynasty, also Empire of the Great Ming, was the ruling dynasty of China from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty. The Ming, "one of the greatest eras of orderly government and social stability in human history", was the last dynasty in China ruled by ethnic...
to appeal to the Chinese who had emigrated to Vietnam after the fall of the Ming. Long's supporters produced a sword with the inscription "Tiên đả hôn quân, hậu đả loạn thần" (First strike the debauched king, next the traitorous officials) and a ring inscribed "Dân Công" (Popular Tribute). From then on, Long presented himself as the emperor and signed documents under the royal title.
Long's strategy of proclaiming himself as a royal descendent or claiming to have supernatural powers in order to rally support for political ends was not new; it has been repeatedly used throughout Vietnamese history. In 1516, a man calling himself Tran Cao rebelled
Tran Cao rebellion
The Trần Cao rebellion in 1516 is the best documented rebellion in Vietnam in the 16th century against the Lê Dynasty led by Trần Cảo and is regarded as the most important...
against the Le Dynasty
Lê Dynasty
The Later Lê Dynasty , sometimes referred to as the Lê Dynasty was the longest-ruling dynasty of Vietnam, ruling the country from 1428 to 1788, with a brief interruption....
, claiming to be a descendant of the deposed Tran Dynasty and a reincarnation
Reincarnation
Reincarnation best describes the concept where the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant...
of Indra
Indra
' or is the King of the demi-gods or Devas and Lord of Heaven or Svargaloka in Hindu mythology. He is also the God of War, Storms, and Rainfall.Indra is one of the chief deities in the Rigveda...
. During the 19th century, there was a Buddhist revival and many people masqueraded as monks claiming to have supernatural powers. These false monks were frequently able to start new religious movements and secret societies based on millenarianism
Millenarianism
Millenarianism is the belief by a religious, social, or political group or movement in a coming major transformation of society, after which all things will be changed, based on a one-thousand-year cycle. The term is more generically used to refer to any belief centered around 1000 year intervals...
. Quickly gathering large numbers of disciples, they staged rebellions against Vietnamese imperial and French colonial armies alike. However, these uprisings were typically incoherent and caused minimal disruption to the ruling authorities. On the other hand, the French were often troubled by resistance movements in southern Vietnam that were led by more conventionally motivated nationalist militants, such as the guerrilla outfits of Truong Dinh
Truong Dinh
Trương Định , sometimes known as Trương Công Định, was a mandarin in the Nguyễn Dynasty of Vietnam under Emperor Tự Đức. He is best known for leading a guerrilla army in southern Vietnam against the French invasion in defiance of the emperor...
and Nguyen Trung Truc
Nguyen Trung Truc
Nguyễn Trung Trực was a Vietnamese fisherman who organized and led village militia forces which fought against French colonial forces in the Mekong Delta in southern Vietnam in the 1860s...
.
Military buildup
During the time he spent in BattambangBattambang
Battambang is the capital city of Battambang province in northwestern Cambodia.Battambang is the second-largest city in Cambodia with a population of over 250,000. Founded in the 11th century by the Khmer Empire, Battambang is well known for being the leading rice-producing province of the country...
for the coronation, Long organised the construction of a pagoda in the town, and in December, he unsuccessfully applied for a land concession. After the coronation, Long was taken to the That Son region in Chau Doc
Chau Doc
Châu Đốc is a district and town in An Giang Province, bordering Cambodia, in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam. As of 2003 the district had a population of 112,155. The district covers an area of 100 km²....
, in the far south of the Mekong Delta. There the peasants built a temple for him. They used a small restaurant in a nearby village as a reception centre for the temple, as the temple was increasingly used as a military base, where fighters, weaponry and munitions were being assembled for an uprising. In the village of Tan Thanh, a local leader recruited his peasants for Long's revolt. The village chieftain predicted that a new Vietnamese monarch would descend from the sky at Cholon in March 1913, and that only the royalists would survive this miracle.
Such proclamations were repeated across southern Vietnam and in Cambodia, and notices were posted in Saigon, Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh is the capital and largest city of Cambodia. Located on the banks of the Mekong River, Phnom Penh has been the national capital since the French colonized Cambodia, and has grown to become the nation's center of economic and industrial activities, as well as the center of security,...
, the road between the cities, and in many community venues in rural communities. Long's supporters presented them in the form of a royal edict on wooden blocks, declaring their intention to attack French military installations. They called on the people to rise up and topple French rule and said that supernatural forces would aid the independence fighters, saying that an unnamed monk would arrive from the mountains to lead them. At the time, southern Vietnam was beset by heavy corvee
Corvée
Corvée is unfree labour, often unpaid, that is required of people of lower social standing and imposed on them by the state or a superior . The corvée was the earliest and most widespread form of taxation, which can be traced back to the beginning of civilization...
labour demands, especially with large-scale roadworks in progress. This meant that the peasants had less time to tend to their farmland, and revolts and strikes had been common. The simmering discontent is seen as a reason for Long's ability to gather such levels of support in a short time. Long's supporters called on merchants to flee and convert their colonial bank notes into solid copper cash. Word of the planned revolt spread quickly, leading to a substantial depreciation in the currency.
Long took the lead in preparing the explosives, telling his followers that his experience as a fortuneteller, mystic and natural healer made him an expert. The bombs were made from cannon shot, carbon
Carbon
Carbon is the chemical element with symbol C and atomic number 6. As a member of group 14 on the periodic table, it is nonmetallic and tetravalent—making four electrons available to form covalent chemical bonds...
, sulphur and saltpeter
Potassium nitrate
Potassium nitrate is a chemical compound with the formula KNO3. It is an ionic salt of potassium ions K+ and nitrate ions NO3−.It occurs as a mineral niter and is a natural solid source of nitrogen. Its common names include saltpetre , from medieval Latin sal petræ: "stone salt" or possibly "Salt...
, which were then wrapped together.
Failed uprising
On March 22, the French arrested Long in the coastal town of Phan ThietPhan Thiết
Phan Thiết town is the capital of Binh Thuan province, in southeastern Vietnam. Phan Thiet is a municipality in central, south central sector, however, the development plan to 2025, it would be municipality Southeast Vietnam. The population of Phan Thiết city in 2005 is roughly 350,000 and is...
, some 160 kilometres to the east of Saigon. His activities and proclamations had attracted the attention of French colonial officials, and just days before, the Resident
Resident (title)
A Resident, or in full Resident Minister, is a government official required to take up permanent residence in another country. A representative of his government, he officially has diplomatic functions which are often seen as a form of indirect rule....
of Kampot visited the Battambang temple and spotted the collection of white robes, which were similarly styled to the uniforms worn during the 1909 uprising. However, Long's disciples were unaware that he had been arrested and continued with their plot. After nightfall on March 23, the bombs were taken into Saigon and placed at strategic points, with proclamation notices being erected in close proximity. None of the bombs successfully detonated. One source says that the bombs failed because the French authorities had defused all of them after uncovering the conspiracy.
On March 28, the second phase of the operation started when several hundred rebels marched into Saigon dressed all in white, armed with only sticks and spears. Before the march, they had ingested potions that purportedly made them invisible. However, the French military were able to capture more than 80 of the supposedly invisible rebels during demonstrations against French rule. The police raided the homes of several people who were known to be involved with Long's plot, resulting in more arrests. They captured most of Long's main supporters, rendering the organisation impotent. However, Tri managed to escape.
Trial and imprisonment
Those involved were taken before a tribunal in November 1913, where the leaders freely stated their intentions of overthrowing the French colonial regime. Of the 111 people arrested, the tribunal convicted 104, of whom 63 received prison sentences. During the trial, some community leaders wrote to the Governor-General of Indochina, blaming French oppression of the populace through corvee labour and the confiscation of land, for the discontent that led to the uprising. The prosecutor also criticised the way in which colonial authorities operated.Ernest Outrey, the French Governor of Cochinchina
Cochinchina
Cochinchina is a region encompassing the southern third of Vietnam whose principal city is Saigon. It was a French colony from 1862 to 1954. The later state of South Vietnam was created in 1954 by combining Cochinchina with southern Annam. In Vietnamese, the region is called Nam Bộ...
, the southern region of Vietnam, was known for his support of colonial enterprise and rigid rule of the colony. He was unmoved by claims that the uprising had been fuelled by a sense of injustice. He said
The governor went on to excoriate the French press for their criticism of colonial policy, claiming that they boosted the morale of anti-colonial activists. The prosecutor thought that because Long's movement was affiliated with the Viet Nam Quang Phuc Hoi
Viet Nam Quang Phuc Hoi
The Việt Nam Quang Phục Hội, sometimes known simply as Quang Phuc Hoi was a nationalist republican militant revolutionary organization of Vietnam that was active in the 1910s, under the leadership of Phan Boi Chau and Prince Cường Để...
(VNQPH), an exiled monarchist organisation led by the leading anti-colonial activist Phan Boi Chau
Phan Boi Chau
Phan Bội Châu was a pioneer of Vietnamese 20th century nationalism. In 1903, he formed a revolutionary organization called the “Reformation Society” ....
, and Cuong De. The suspicion was based on the fact that the VNQPH had printed their own currency and circulated them into Vietnam at the same time that Long's monetary policy had led to a depreciation. Cuong De had also secretly re-entered southern Vietnam and had been travelling through the countryside when Long's uprising was launched in March. The prosecutor claimed that activists from northern and central Vietnam, the main source of the VNQPH's followers, were behind the plot. The defendants denied this, asserting that most of the participants were "illiterate peasants", while the VNQPH were dominated by members of the scholar-gentry.
The French intended to deport Long to French Guiana
French Guiana
French Guiana is an overseas region of France, consisting of a single overseas department located on the northern Atlantic coast of South America. It has borders with two nations, Brazil to the east and south, and Suriname to the west...
, but the outbreak of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
in 1914 interrupted their plans. As a result, Long remained in Saigon Central Prison, serving his life sentence with hard labour. The French were unaware that Long was still in contact with his supporters.
Attempted jailbreak and execution
Over time, resentment against French rule rose again, due to World War I. The colonial authorities had forced each village to send a quota of men to serve on the Western FrontWestern Front (World War I)
Following the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the German Army opened the Western Front by first invading Luxembourg and Belgium, then gaining military control of important industrial regions in France. The tide of the advance was dramatically turned with the Battle of the Marne...
. In Vietnam, rumours circulated, claiming that France was close to defeat. Believing that the colonial hold had been weakened by the strain of war in Europe, Vietnamese nationalists were buoyed. In February 1916, uprisings broke out in southern Vietnam
1916 Cochinchina uprising
The 1916 Cochinchina uprising was a series of defiant protests and attempted revolts in February against the French colonisation of southern Vietnam, which had been the colony of Cochinchina since 1867....
, with rebels demanding the restoration of an independent monarchy. One of their many objectives was to secure Long's release by breaking down Saigon prison, and this was the most noted incident during the tumult.
Attacks on prisons were not uncommon in French Indochina, as rebels often viewed the prisoners as a source of reinforcements. Georges Coulet, regarded as French Indochina's leading scholar on anti-French religious movements, said that "The attack on Saigon Central Prison was not simply an attempt to release the pseudo-Emperor, Phan Xich Long, but was intended to deliver all prisoners".
Before daybreak on February 15, 1916, between 100 and 300 Vietnamese wearing white headbands, white trousers and black tops, armed with sticks, farm implements and knives, sailed along the Arroyo Chinoise waterway and disembarked near the centre of Saigon. They had pretended to be working the transport industry, delivering fruit, vegetables and building materials. The plan was that this advance party would give signals to a larger party of rebels, who were waiting on the outskirts of Saigon with the majority of the weapons, to move into the city for the main part of the uprising.
The advance party then attempted to proceed to the Central Prison to forcibly release Long, shouting "Let's free big Brother [Long]". Long had provided his followers with a detailed strategy from his prison cell, and the attack was led by a Cholon gang leader named Nguyen Van Truoc (also known as Tu Mat) with Tri's assistance. Truoc was the leader of a powerful underworld gang that was linked to the Heaven and Earth Society.
The French had anticipated the trouble, and police, whose presence had been increased along the waterways, arrived quickly, dispersing Long's followers with ease. Although some of the disciples reached the prison, none managed to breach its defenses. Ten of Long's men were killed, whereas only one sentry perished. The French arrested 65 rebels on the spot, including Tri. Of these, 38 were sentenced to death. Long was sentenced to death for his participation in the uprising, and he was executed on February 22, 1916. The French Governor-General of Indochina wrote to the French Minister of Colonies, describing the incident as "a serious attempt to put in execution a vast plot that has been prepared carefully and for a long time by a secret society which grouped together with professional bandits all the enemies of our domination". The colonial authorities commissioned the publication of poems, which praised French rule and warned the populace against insurrections.
Similar events occurred across southern Vietnam, and in one case in Ben Tre, another self-proclaimed mystic launched an uprising that was similar to Long's 1913 effort. In all, riots or uprisings broke out in 13 of the 20 provinces of Cochinchina. The French declared a state of emergency and continued their crackdown against Long's followers and other rebels, making a further 1,660 arrests, which resulted in 261 incarcerations.
Aftermath and legacy
The damage inflicted on Long's organisation led many of his followers to disperse and join a group that has now developed into the Cao DaiCao Dai
Cao Đài is a syncretistic, monotheistic religion, officially established in the city of Tay Ninh, southern Vietnam, in 1926. Đạo Cao Đài is the religion's shortened name, the full name is Đại Đạo Tam Kỳ Phổ Độ...
politico-religious sect based in Tay Ninh
Tay Ninh
Tây Ninh is a town in southwestern Vietnam. It is the capital of Tay Ninh province, which encompasses the town and much of the surrounding farmland....
. Nevertheless, Long's uprising was significant because of its abnormal roots. It was the first uprising led by a self-styled religious leader whose support base came about due to man-made discontent. Prior to Long, peasant uprisings with religious themes had always been preceded by floods, outbreaks of disease, famine, crop failure or other natural phenomena, as sections of the rural populace attributed such disasters to the wrath of the heavens and sought help from leaders who purported to have supernatural powers.
Long's demise did not end the sequence of self-proclaimed mystics who raised armies and engaged in politics. During the interwar period
Interwar period
Interwar period can refer to any period between two wars. The Interbellum is understood to be the period between the end of the Great War or First World War and the beginning of the Second World War in Europe....
, a sorcerer named Chem Keo claimed to be Long's reincarnation. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Huynh Phu So claimed to be a living Buddha and quickly gathered more than a million supporters. He raised a large peasant army and battled both the French and the communist Vietminh independence movement, before being killed by the latter. In another case in 1939, a Taoist
Taoism
Taoism refers to a philosophical or religious tradition in which the basic concept is to establish harmony with the Tao , which is the mechanism of everything that exists...
attempted to demonstrate that he was immune to French bullets. Furthermore, in the years immediately after World War II, the Cao Dai's numbers swelled to 1.5 million.