Scattered about administrative names in Bien Hoa

Naming administrative units is a problem that management institutions have done in the past. The names of administrative units often originate from the names that the resident community uses to refer to a land, area, area, or location.

The name of the new administrative unit also depends on the viewpoint of the competent level.

From the beginning of laying the foundation for management in the new land of the South, the Dong Nai region was considered the “headquarter”, in the situation of “large land, sparse people”, still harbored uncertainties, the name The administrative headquarters used by Lord Nguyen was Tran Bien palace, Phuoc Long district. Tran Bien here means the land to protect and preserve the border, because below there is also Phien Tran which is “phen roo”. During Tay Son’s management, Tran Bien was changed to Bien Tran, which is no exception to the above meaning. The town here is an administrative unit but has a military nature (military management). In the continuing historical process, through the stages, the level of administrative units was raised and newly established from the perspective of management institutions (Nguyen dynasty, French colonial period…).

During the Nguyen Dynasty, the names of administrative units often used beautiful words, implying the goodness that both the government and people had towards the land and community, towards a beautiful future. The unit of total, hamlet, village, commune, hamlet in Bien Hoa, Dong Nai is located with the beautiful letters: An, Binh, Dinh, Vinh, Phuoc, Hoa, Hung, Thanh, Loi, Khanh, Phu, Quoi, Truong, My, Tan…

The fate of different names

Long Thanh was originally one of four cantons (along with Phuoc Chanh, Binh An, Phuoc An) of Phuoc Long district that was upgraded to a district. Although the boundaries have changed up to now, this name is considered the most sustainable existence, throughout the history of Tran Bien’s administrative units up to the present as a general and a district. , district. In June 1871, the Long Thanh Court of Counsel was abolished by the governor of Cochinchina and merged with the neighboring courts of Ba Ria and Bien Hoa. However, later, Long Thanh was re-established and exists until now. Some other names of administrative units at the same time as Long Thanh were almost wiped out, replaced, or merged into new units.

The “fate” of administrative names or place names is influenced by many factors. Along with the types of folk places, the names of administrative units are considered memorial stele of history and culture associated with the resident community. The names are puzzle pieces that reflect the related dimensions and events of the residents and the land, creating uniqueness in the diversity of the nuanced picture.

Long Khanh is the current name of the provincial city (class III urban area) named after the two capitals Long An and Phuoc Khanh from the reign of King Minh Mang. The capital is an administrative unit, with the nature of a garrison of soldiers tasked with guarding a specific area. Since 1837, Long Khanh district was established on the basis of two digraphs, the first letter of Long An capital and the second letter of Phuoc Khanh capital. This is a fairly large area and where many ethnic minorities live. For the revolutionary government, Long Khanh used to be a district, then a province and merged with other provinces to form a large province in directing the battlefield to carry out tasks (Ba Ria – Long Khanh province, Long – Ba – province). Record). Long Khanh in the government before 1975 became a provincial unit (1957-1975).

After 1975, the name Long Khanh was not maintained and the previous boundary was in Xuan Loc district (which was a district of Long Khanh). Since 1991, the name Long Khanh has been used to name the district (1991), Long Khanh town (2004) and then the city (2019).

Chau Thanh is the name of an administrative unit, with the nature of an office center, appearing in many localities in the South during the French colonial period. Since 1867, after occupying the entire Cochinchina, France changed its name many times. When the county was inspected, it was called Chau Thanh. At that time, Bien Hoa province had 5 inspection districts: Bien Hoa, Ba Ria, Thu Dau Mot, Long Thanh, Thu Duc and each district had Chau Thanh. In Bien Hoa, Chau Thanh was used by the Saigon government as a district of the province, existing until 1963 when it was changed to Duc Tu district. For the revolution, Chau Thanh district was used during the resistance war against the French with corresponding organizations in the struggle movement.

Addition and selection from previous names

Ancient Bien Hoa province went through many adjustments in name and administrative boundaries. Some previous general-level units of Bien Hoa, due to factors such as population growth and convenience for management, had additional names in their previous names with words indicating location and direction.

During the Minh Mang period, Chanh My district of Phuoc Chanh district was divided into three units with additional names of positioning to distinguish: Chanh My Thuong, Chanh My Trung and Chanh My Ha; Thanh Tuy district of Long Thanh district is divided into 2, including Thanh Tuy Thuong, Thanh Tuy Ha… Some villages, communes, wards and hamlets, when divided, add direction words: Tan Vinh Dong, Tan Vinh Tay (Phuoc Vinh Trung district). ) when divided into two; Tan Quan Chanh, Tan Quan Dong, Tan Quan Tay (Phuoc Vinh Ha total) were divided into three.

Song Pho Square

Merging administrative units at each stage is not simple. The merger also encountered some cases of disagreement from the community, but based on the number of nails, cultivated area, budget as well as human resources, it ultimately had to be implemented for management. That was the case in 1909, Binh Quoi village merged into Phuoc An village, Long Dien village merged into Phuoc Thien village, Khanh Lam village divided into three and merged into other villages (Tap Phuoc, Tam Thien, Phuoc Thai). In these merger cases, the old village name is not reused.

Besides, in some merger cases, the naming method is not the same, depending on each locality and current management institution. When some units merge, the new name is selected from the previous name. In 1899, the two villages Tan An and Tan Hoa of Chanh My Thuong canton joined Hoa An city (the current name of Hoa An ward). In 1927, in Thanh Tuy Thuong (Long Thanh) village, Tam Thien village merged with Phuoc Thai village to become Thai Thien village, Phuoc Kien village merged with My Khoan village to become Phuoc My village. In Tuy Ha Citadel, Long Hieu village merged with Tan Tuong to become Long Tan village, Phu My village merged with My Hoi to become Phu Hoi village… There are many cases of new names from selected names of villages being imported. During the Republic of Vietnam, on March 21, 1959, the two communes Tan Binh and Long Binh were merged into Long Binh Tan commune. This is a rather special new name structure consisting of 3 words but full of the existing names of the two communes (duplicate letters).

Using a new name carries the meaning of integration

In many cases, when merging, the old name no longer exists and is replaced by a completely new name. The history of the name of the administrative unit of Hiep Hoa ward (Bien Hoa city) is quite interesting. In 1879, 12 villages of Pho island (Phuoc Vinh Thuong total) were merged into 3 new villages. Accordingly, the villages of Hung Phu, Tan Giam, Binh Tu, Binh Xuong became Nhut Hoa village; The villages of Thanh Duc, Tan Hung, Tan My, and Binh Kinh became Nhi Hoa village; The villages of Long Quoi, Hoa Quoi, Binh Quan, Binh Ha became Tam Hoa village. Thus, the names of the 3 new villages do not use or combine the words of the previous village names but represent the number of villages and especially the word Hoa carries the meaning that perhaps residents of the previous 12 villages all saw their village names in their names. that’s the new name. By 1927, all three villages of Nhut Hoa, Nhi Hoa and Tam Hoa became Hiep Hoa village. This name later became a commune and ward level unit. In addition to this case, in Bien Hoa there was also a name change that the contemporary regime used quite well, that is the case of the villages of Vinh An, Tan Mai, Vinh Cuu into Tam Hiep village. The name of the new village uses the word HIEP of the three previous villages, not using a single word of the existing name even though they are all beautiful characters.

In 1976, Bien Hoa changed its name to the ward-level administrative unit. Communes with previous designations were divided and merged into new units. The five zones (I, II, III, IV and V) of Binh Truoc commune are divided into wards: Hoa Binh, Thanh Binh, Quyet Thang, Trung Dung, Quang Vinh, Tan Tien, Thong Nhat. Eight hamlets of Tam Hiep commune established Tam Hiep, Tam Hoa and An Binh wards and Tan Mai ward on the basis of the previous Bui Tieng commune.

Phan Dinh Dung