Dai Viet Administrative System

Timeline

1. 1009–1225Thang Long · VietnamAfter founding the Ly dynasty, Ly Thai To established central institutions such as the Secretariat and Privy Council, divided the realm into circuits, prefectures, and counties, promulgated a penal code, and implemented the civil examinations, laying the administrative and legal foundations of Dai Viet's independent dynasties.
2. 1226–1270Dai Viet (Thang Long) · VietnamUnder Tran Thai Tong and Tran Thanh Tong, the Three Departments and Six Ministries and local military commands were reorganized, strengthening communal self-governance and the corvée levy system, providing the administrative and military mobilization capacity to resist the Mongol invasions of 1258 and 1285.
3. 1270–1400Thang Long · VietnamThe Tran dynasty revised the National Penal Code, regulating land tax, corvée, and judicial procedures; the civil examinations gradually became institutionalized, and the Confucian scholar-official class entered the central and local bureaucracies, strengthening the tradition of civilian governance.
4. 1428–1800Dai Viet · VietnamLe Thanh Tong promulgated the Hong Duc Code, perfecting household registration, land, and bureaucratic evaluation systems; the Dai Viet administrative system continued within the Confucian examination framework into the early modern period, until the major reforms of the Gia Long era of the Nguyen dynasty.