| History of the Vietnamese National Flags |
| Pham Van Thanh |
I. THE CONCEPT OF NATIONAL FLAGS
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Prior to the French Revolution in 1789, the form of government of most countries in the world was parliamentary or
monarchical, where the King or Queen and their relatives ruled the country and possessed most of the national properties.
After the revolution, in 1793, the French Parliament selected three colors to symbolize their national flag.
The color blue represents "freedom," the white stands for "equality," and the red is for "fraternity." The connotations
of the three colors of the French national flag are complementary to common popular human goals. Due to this reason
other free and democratic nations, including the United States; have adopted red, white, and blue as the fundamental
colors for their national flags.
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II. THE HISTORY OF VIETNAM'S NATIONAL FLAGS
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Since the monarchial time thousands of years ago, the Vietnamese have utilized flags to symbolize a dynasty. Flags
were also used to represent the rank of a person, such that of a king or a general. For example, the flag of the king
usually had a dragon embroidered in the center. Similarly, the flag of the general usually had one of the colors of
the Five Elements that he was born under, according to his birth hour and date. The colors of the Five Elements are:
white for Metal, blue for Wood, black for Water, red for Fire, and yellow for Earth. Every dynasty also selected a
flag with a distinct shape and colors harmonized according to the Yin-Yang philosophy as a symbol for the great
accomplishments of that dynasty. For instance, the Ly Dynasty chose the Five Element flag with the character Ly at
the center; the Nguyen Dynasty picked the royal yellow for the color of its flag. The flags of kings or the flags
of dynasties, nevertheless, only represented the kings and were raised exclusively at the royal palace or places
where they were visiting. Unlike the French national flag, these flags did not stand for the entire country
consisting of the government, the land, and its people.
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| Please read the rest of the story in THE MEN OF VIETNAM. |
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