Vụ Bản District

Vụ Bản ṵʔ˨˩:ɓa̰ːn˧˩˧is a former rural district of Nam Định province in the Red River Delta region of Vietnam.

History

Middle Ages

Before the land where is now the North Vietnam gained autonomy (''ki-mi'' in ancient Annamese language), the entire area surrounding the Đáy River was called as ''Hiển Khánh Rural District''. It means "the great joy".

About the Lý–Trần dynasties, Hiển Khánh was broken down into many new districts, including ''Thiên Bản Rural District''. It means "the root of heavenly religion". Particularly, the commune where was used to be the center of Hiển Khánh Rural District was allowed to keep the old name.

In the 5th year of Vĩnh Lạc, the Ming Dynasty changed its name to ''Yên Bản Rural District'', which means "the root of the tranquility".

About the years of Hồng Đức, name ''Thiên Bản'' was restored. It existed until 1861, when Emperor Tự Đức proceeded to repair Thiên Bản into Vụ Bản, Thiên Thư into Vũ Thư, Thiên Thụy into Thái Thụy, Thiên Quan into Nho Quan and Thiên Nguyên into Thủy Nguyên.

According to the historical process from the 18th century to the present, the boundary of Vụ Bản Rural District has almost unchanged in general.

20th century

Some Vụ Bản areas adjacent to Nam Định City have been cut to Mỹ Lộc Rural District to build national highways and railways.

21st century

To meet the criteria of the plan for arrangement and merger of administrative units, according to the Decision of the Nam Định Provincial People's Committee,Chủ tịch Quốc hội Trần Thanh Mẫn : Đoàn kết, nỗ lực, bảo đảm tiến độ sắp xếp đơn vị hành chính
(''in Vietnamese'') which was issued in February 2025, from 00:00 on September 1 of the same year, Vụ Bản Rural District was officially dissolved.

Geography

As of 2003 the district had a population of 130,672. The district covers an area of 148 km². The district capital lies at Gôi (from ''Côi Sơn'', means "the one hill").

From 2024, Vụ Bản District has divided as :
*1 municipality : Gôi capital-township.
*13 communes : Cộng Hòa, Đại An, Đại Thắng, Hiển Khánh, Hợp Hưng, Kim Thái, Liên Minh, Minh Tân, Quang Trung, Tam Thanh, Thành Lợi, Trung Thành, Vĩnh Hào.

Culture

During the 1920s the area was administered by the Vụ Bản district mandarin.

The district includes the Vân Cát temple.

This is also the place of growth of many celebrities in many fields : Official Lương Thế Vinh, teacher Phạm Văn Nghị, writer Nguyễn Năng Tĩnh, politician Trần Tiến Đình, official Nguyễn Đức Thuận, poet Nguyễn Bính, scholar Trần Huy Liệu, composer Văn Cao, musician Văn Ký, vocalist Kim Tước, author Vũ Tú Nam. Besides, ministers Nguyễn Cơ Thạch, Song Hào, Phạm Bình Minh, Bùi Văn Nam.

The most famous specialty from Vụ Bản District is Siuchau candy (kẹo Sìu-châu), in there, ''Siu-chau'' means Seochew. This dish consists of white rice wrapped in malt, peanuts, sesame, banana oil and lots of sugar, so it is also known as "sausage sugar" (kẹo dồi) or "spun sugar" (kẹo kéo). In addition, there are buffalo meat pho (phở trâu) and honey jackfruit (mít mật). The jackfruit when ripe will be dark yellow as royal jelly and sweet will be like honey, even its scent can be detected from one kilometer.

In the years of crop failure, Vụ Bản residents have processed small lizard meat, a very popular animal in family gardens. Only their back and abdomen are used. The meat is deeply stuffed into the banana trunk. That banana body is then burned black, so the meat will absorb banana oil to become fragrant and flexible. In there, fire is made of straw or bamboo leaf. This specialty (thăn-lằn om chuối) now always appears in large restaurants with not pleasant prices. But in hot months the consumption of lizards often is surprisingly high.

Economy

Vụ Bản Rural District has since been praised by historians as a rare and beautiful terrain in the Red River Delta from the far past. Because there is no high mountain and not divided by many rivers, Vụ Bản has the most rich wet rice industry in the North Vietnam.

However, everything has changed permanently since the early 20th century when the French began to pilot local industrial clusters. Smoke and wastewater mixed with concentratedchemicals not only pollute the air but also destroy the soil structure. From Vietnam's leading rich agricultural region, Vụ Bản's agricultural output could not even satisfy local food security.

Besides traditional wooden furniture manufacturing villages, Vụ Bản also has a very exciting waste treatment and recycling industry since the late 1980s. But in the roadmap from 2018 to 2038, the People's Committee of Nam Định Province co-operated with Japanese experts to prepare for the transition to the green industry to save the environment.

See also

*Nam Định (city)
* Nghĩa Hưng
*Ý Yên

Notes and references

Notes

References

Further reading

Bibliography

* Khiếu Năng Tĩnh,
Tân biên Nam Định tỉnh địa dư chí lược
', 1880.
*Nguyễn On Ngọc,
Nam Định tỉnh địa dư chí
', 1893.
*George Coedes. ''The Making of South East Asia'', 2nd ed. University of California Press, 1983.
* Trần Ngọc Thêm. ''Cơ sở văn hóa Việt Nam'' (The Foundation of Vietnamese Culture), 504 pages. Publishing by Nhà xuất bản Đại học Tổng hợp TPHCM. Saigon, Vietnam, 1995.
* Trần Quốc Vượng, Tô Ngọc Thanh, Nguyễn Chí Bền, Lâm Mỹ Dung, Trần Thúy Anh.
Cơ sở văn hóa Việt Nam
' (The Basis of Vietnamese Culture), 292 pages. Re-publishing by Nhà xuất bản Giáo Dục Việt Nam & Quảng Nam Printing Co-Ltd. Hanoi, Vietnam, 2006.
* Li Tana (2011). ''Jiaozhi (Giao Chỉ) in the Han period Tongking Gulf''. In Cooke, Nola ; Li Tana ; Anderson, James A. (eds.). The Tongking Gulf Through History. University of Pennsylvania Press. pp. 39–44. ISBN 9780812205022.
*''Tập bản đồ hành chính Việt Nam'' (Vietnamese Administrative Maps), Nhà xuất bản Tài nguyên – Môi trường và Bản đồ Việt Nam, Hà Nội, 2013.
* Li Tana,
Towards an environmental history of the Eastern Red River Delta, Vietnam, c.900–1400
', Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 2014.
* Samuel Baron, Christoforo Borri, Olga Dror, Keith W. Taylor (2018). ''Views of Seventeenth-Century Vietnam : Christoforo Borri on Cochinchina and Samuel Baron on Tonkin''. Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-1-501-72090-1.
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External links

Vụ Bản rural district – Journey of the 40 years of renovation
(vi)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vu Ban District
Districts of Nam Định province