Part Four: Buddhism under the Nguyen Dynasty (19th Century)
CHAPTER XIII
BUDDHISM IN THE PERIOD OF DOMINANT
CONFUCIANISM UNDER THE NGUYEN DYNASTY
Having wandered for a long time
to avoid being killed and to reorganize his force, Nguyen Anh, backed
by a western capitalist expansionist force, at last managed to overthrow
the Tay Son dynasty, then ruled by Nguyen Quang Toan. Nguyen Anh,
ascended the throne and founded the Nguyen dynasty in 1802. The first
year of this dynasty was also the second year of the 19th century, a century full of historic convulsions.
Though as a dynasty, the Nguyen was not as
advantageous as the preceding dynasties, whose advent to power was
either the result (the Le) or the demand (the Ly, the Tran) of the
national liberation wars against foreign invasion. The complete victory
over foreign invaders made it possible for the former dynasties to win
the national confidence and support, thus creating a relative stability
in their early years. In contrast, the Nguyen dynasty, seeking help from
an outside expansionist force to win power, had become unrelated to and
isolated from the people right at birth. The Nguyen dynasty practiced
its rule over a larger territory with a greater population from the
North to the South than any previous dynasty. Nevertheless, subsequent
trouble arose out of the underdevelopment of a commodity economy,
traffic inconvenience, the local tendency to separate from the central
government, and the different-mindedness among various factions,—all of
which could possibly lead to hostility.
Incapable of gaining a steadfast unity and for fear
of the worst, the Nguyen had practiced an unprecedented arbitrariness in
order to preserve its rule. In the socio-political field, the Nguyen
dynasty established many policies characterized by a harsh despotism.
The Nguyen Kings held the legislative, judiciary, executive and
supervisory power. Nguyen Gia Long even made it a rule to practice "four
no’s" (no prime minister, no conferring the title of First doctor in
metropolitan examination, no Queen, no outside-of-Royalty princes). Minh
Mang abrogated such great administrative zones as Bac Thanh and Gia
Dinh Thanh, and the governorship there, and divided the country into 29
provinces under the Court’s direct rule. The Nguyen Kings massacred
without mercy the hostile elements either evident or suspected, even
courtiers with eminent records of service in the foundation of the
Nguyen dynasty, etc.
In the field of culture,
ideology and religion, the Nguyen dynasty sought for a doctrine, a
religion favorable for its centralized arbitrariness. Confucianism with
its theory of "Tam Cuong"1 and "Ngu Thuong"2
considering the king as the son of Heaven who symbolized power and
reason, satisfied the Nguyen’s demand. The Nguyen dynasty sought to make
Confucianism the ‘monolatry’ of the nation on the one hand, and lashed
out at Buddhism, Taoism and Catholicism on the other. Under the Nguyen,
Catholicism was at times prohibited. Churches were demolished and the
Catholic population imprisoned. Buddhism, as a traditional religion with
no relation to foreign invaders and no idea to vie for social
domination, was not covered by the Court’s penal law. Nonetheless,
because of its popularity which could make the population deflect from
the Court’s principles, it presented a persistent awkward problem with
which the Nguyen had to busy itself.
By and large, the Nguyen tried
to limit Buddhist growth by further managing Buddhist monks and nuns,
forcing them to join social work, restricting Buddhist influence on the
population, minimizing the pagoda-building, statue-coloring,
bell-casting of the Buddhist population. Gia Long "ordered courtiers to
examine all the district pagodas and to register names of the Bonze
Superiors down to servants for submission, then gave district clerks an
instruction that clergies aged 50 and over were exempted from heavy
manual work but no exemption was applied to those aged below 50. Any
shirker should be punished."3
Gia Long even banned the building of new pagodas, statue-coloring,
bell-casting and ceremony organizing... "Recently some devotees to
Buddhism have built terribly splendid many-storied pagodas, cast bells
and colored sophisticated statues, organized ceremonies, held expensive
festivals to worship the Buddha and to support bonzes to such an extent
that they themselves have become emaciated in order to pray for
fantastic blessings. Consequently, from now on only ruined pagodas can
be repaired; as to the building of new pagodas, statue-coloring, and
Buddhist festivals, all these are banned. Village headmen are supposed
to inform the county official of names and addresses of true bonzes in
order to know their number".4
What Gia Long had done was
repeated by Tu Duc who ordered that "pagodas to worship the Buddha be
repaired only in case of being ruined; new building, bell-casting,
statue-coloring, ceremonies, and preaching, all these are banned. The
village headman is supposed to make a report to his superior of the list
of true bonzes among all the bonzes living in pagodas, in order to
record their numbers."5 Tu
Duc even went further by separating Buddhist activities from the Court’s
activities. This was proved by the following story: "There had been no
rain in Binh Dinh. The King’s representative of the province, Vuong Huu
Quang, invited a monk to pray for rain in the provincial building. The
rain having poured down, he told the story to the King. The latter said:
"Prayer reciting should not be set as models for mandarins and
population. I decide to fine you three months’ salary and from now on
any prayer reciting or ceremony-organizing must be done at pagodas, not
in the public building."6
Together with the promulgation
of policies to control Buddhism, the Nguyen dynasty involved all the
Court officials and many Confucian scholars in criticizing Buddhism with
a view to toppling this religion in terms of religious doctrine. They
attacked the Buddhist doctrine of predestined affinity and retribution,
claiming it to be useless and unrealisable. Gia Long’s proclamation on
the building of village regulations to the Northern population pointed
out that "he who worships the Buddha only prays for blessings. The
Buddhist book reads, ‘It is predestined whom Buddha saves’. It is said
(in books), ‘It is of no use to practice abstinence and to pray to
Buddha without reverent care of one’s parents. It doesn’t matter to be
absolutely loyal to the king if you fail to worship Buddha’.
Consequently, the auspicious need no Buddhist salvation whereas the
inauspicious can by no means be saved by Buddha. Take some examples. Muc
Lien, who had attained full prajna and became Buddha, failed to
save his mother; one so devoted to Buddhism as Tieu Dien could not save
himself, let alone the disloyal, the undutiful who don’t know the king
in the presence of the Buddha,..these latter desert their parents to
pray to the invisible!7
[Buddhists say] ‘Human life is predestined’. Thus misfortune cannot be
relieved, nor can blessings be prayed for. Worshipping and praying all
get nowhere..."8
In addition, Buddhism was
considered as an evil damaging feudal ritualism and the practice of
Confucian dogmas. Ngo Tong Chu, a high-ranking mandarin under the Gia
Long reign, told the Crown prince Canh: "That the king opposes Buddhism
is a wise measure; why are his representatives not wordier about this
[grave matter]? ... I myself don’t hate Buddhist monks, yet the danger
of Buddhism, Taoism is far greater than Yang Zhou and Mozi, and I can’t
help talking about it."9
There was nothing new in the
Nguyen rulers’ theory, yet mouthed by the power-holders and supplemented
by the policies to control Buddhism, it resulted in an occasional
decline of Buddhism and a lack of due veneration for monks and nuns.
That explained the remark that since the Nguyen dynasty, Vietnamese
Buddhism had entered its decadent period. "Since the changes in the
country’s destiny, Buddhism had embarked upon its stagnancy, and then
decadence."10 "From then onwards there had been no historical literature to prove a splendid period of Buddhist history."11
Objectively speaking, Buddhism
at the time remained in a steady position. The above-mentioned policies
and critical words somehow lowered its charisma, yet failed to stop
Buddhism’s growing. Why did Buddhists neither petition the king to
reconsider the royal unfair proclamations and ordinances, nor respond to
the criticism against them? Could they not reason appropriately? Were
they sure of themselves? Both are perhaps true. In fact, Buddhist
doctrine kept influencing silently the spiritual life of many people
from all walks of life. Buddhism managed to infiltrate into the places
where Confucianism could not or even into the Royal palace where
Confucius’ and Mencius’ doctrines represented the most important outlook
on life. Queen mothers, Queens, princesses, and royal concubines in the
palace were the greatest devotees to Buddhism. They worshipped Buddha
for further blessings, for Buddhist salvation of their souls after their
death. They themselves urged their husbands to build altars in their
houses. The then famous Bonze superior Phuc Dien wrote: "Princes built
small pagodas in their homes."12
They wanted to be close to Buddha, to recite their prayers regularly.
Grand ladies demanded that kings organize ceremonies and pagoda
festivals.
It was recorded that under the
Gia Long reign "a great ceremony was organized in Thien Mu pagoda.
Princess Ngoc Tu insisted on organizing a ceremony to offer for the
deceased Monarch."13 While
she was dying, she beseeched Ming Mang to "fulfill my unsatisfied desire
of cutting my hair and entering Buddhist nunhood to worship Buddha."14
It was not that all Nguyen Kings opposed Buddha.
Among them some like Gia Long, Tu Duc shunned and suspected Buddha but
some believed in Buddha. Why? It was due to the circumstances. In the
reign of Gia Long, the Buddhist opinion of royalty generated hostile
elements whereas Tu Duc had to return to Buddhist orthodoxy to save the
dynasty from retrogradation. Between the two-mentioned reigns, under the
reigns of Minh Mang and Thieu Tri, the kings benefiting by the social
stability were somehow able to pay attention to the spiritual with a
view to showing their belief in generosity (and involving religion in
consolidating their reigns).
Yet, the first obstacle facing
Minh Mang and Thieu Tri was the long-established royal bias against
Buddhism as "superstition" and "unaccepted rites," and the assessment of
pagoda-building as "wastage of popular blood and effort". Next,
Buddhist doctrine did not deal with "loyalty" and respect for the
emperor’s power. It took time to overcome these obstacles. The words of
the Monarchy gradually changed. First they allowed the repairing of
pagodas, and the organizing of offering-ceremonies in pagodas in order
to "follow the predecessors," to "have full blessing," and to "pray for
long-life blessing"; then they assumed that Confucianism and Buddhism
"both teach people to do good," that "it is unfair to consider Buddhism
superstitious."15 Minh Mang
sometimes had to explain his deeds in favor of Buddhism, which is
illustrated by his words on the decision to organize a ceremony at Phat
Tich (Sai Son) pagoda: "It is not to flatter Buddha," he said;16
or on his visit to Thanh Duyen Pagoda he inscribed his poem, "My
impartial attitude towards Buddhism is expressed in this poem."17
Thieu Tri considered all Buddhist activities inevitable. Thieu Tri even
composed poems to admire the pagoda scenery. It was recorded that "In
the third year of Thieu Tri reign, a booklet of poems was published as a
tribute to twenty wonders. The poem entitled "Giac hoang phan ngu" was
engraved in a stele that erected on the ‘east of the pagoda."18
In the reigns of Minh Mang and Thieu Tri many pagodas were built, big
sums spent repairing old pagodas, many bonzes were provided "gioi dao"
and "do diep", many ceremonies which lasted several days were held.19
Besides the king, to different degrees mandarins and
scholars showed their belief in Buddhism. Some who were high-ranking
mandarins claimed themselves to be Bodhisattvas attending upon
pagoda-building, stele-carving and scriptures-engraving. Some often
visited the pagoda scenery to live with nature and to show their
sympathy for Buddhism and for the clergy. Some were sympathetic towards
some of Buddhism’s theories on human plight and on the way to release
from it. Those who were sympathetic towards Buddhism were demonstrating a
common opinion of the times, representing the majority of the
population and leaving in words a deep impression of their outlook on
life.
Among the broad masses of the people, a dynastic
change by no means resulted in a change of belief. The regulations
against Buddhism defined by the Nguyen dynasty worked only temporarily
and in a limited space. The practice of "King’s law is inferior to
village customs," the decentralized authority, and the backwardness of
traditional society made the ordinances of the royal court rather
ineffective and not well-known to the population. As under the preceding
dynasties, the common people turned their thoughts toward Gautama
Buddha and carried out their customary pilgrimages and worship. They put
their faith in Buddha, who really became an idol in their mind and to
whom they pledged eternal respect and veneration.
Every year, on the occasion of the first and
fifteenth day of the lunar month, regardless whether in the South or in
the North of Vietnam, in the lowland or in the highland, belonging to
Lin Ji or Cao Dong sect, people went in great numbers to pagodas for
worshipping. When there, they would pay their homage to Buddhas, present
their sorrows and griefs, and pray to Buddhas for favors. When
returning home, they would feel released from their worries and fully
satisfied as if their wishes had been fulfilled. They were content with
making such visits to pagodas all their lives. It seemed that such
things could inspire people with renewed enthusiasm, more hope and
confidence in life so as to have enough strength to tide them over
difficulties and trials.
Completely devoted to the cult
of Buddhas and placing all their faith in them, the people would
consider the making of contributions to pagodas’ funds as an obligation
which they fulfilled voluntarily and joyfully. The bonzes residing at
pagodas would be held responsible for recording the names of donors on
the bells, inscribing them on the stele or writing them in the
genealogies, to say nothing of doing religious services for the donors
when the donors happened to die. For these reasons, donations given by
the inhabitants to pagodas kept increasing with time. With the good
heart of the people, many pagodas and temples were built anew, and the
damaged ones quickly restored. All these made Pham Quy Thich, a
Confucian scholar living in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth
century, to become jealous and testy. He wrote a literary composition
and had it engraved on the surface of a new cast pagoda bell as follows:
"You don’t know what the villagers do! They accumulate money to enrich
themselves. They do that not for the interest of anybody else: when they
are requested to donate property and money to pagodas, they do it of
their own free will. They fear to be outranked [in this] by others. Even
the poor people, who can hardly make both ends meet, are quite happy to
give some coins, some bowls of rice without hesitation!"20
Under the Nguyen dynasty pagodas and temples mushroomed and developed
into a whole system comprising all types and dimensions and ranging from
home and village to countrywide pagodas and temples. Particularly in
Hue imperial city, the Thap pagoda was repaired and enlarged and became
an architectural beauty in the city. The Thien Mu pagoda underwent many
repairs and meliorations and was the place of frequent religious
services and ceremonies attended even by the king and many high
dignitaries of the Court. Other pagodas such as Giac Hoang, Dieu De,
Thanh Duyen, were the objects of deep care from the king who usually
came for the purpose of visit and worship. South Vietnam was then famous
for its population’s faith in Buddha. There was the saying: "People in
Gia Dinh area are greatly devoted to the cult of Buddha" Pagodas and
stupas had been built everywhere. The emigrants who came in big numbers
from other localities in the country to South Vietnam for the purpose of
changing wasteland into cultivated areas, undertook to build their own
pagodas in order to pray to Buddha for blessings, for bringing them
comfort and happiness and for helping them to make a good living there.
The Buddhist clergy was particularly numerous in the reigns of the
Nguyen Kings. Big pagodas had each as many as thirty persons. Small
pagodas were staffed at least by some five to seven persons. Every day,
the bonzes said prayers three or four times, in the morning, afternoon,
evening and at night. The prayer books they often used in religion
services were Chu Kinh Nhat Tung Vo Luong Tho, Quan Vo Luong Tho, A-Di-Da, Dieu Phap Lien Hoa,
etc. Among the Buddhist clergy, there were a number of persons who
"shirked state duties" or escaped the military and other services
imposed on them by the court but in general they were devoted to the
cult of Buddha and played the role of intermediary between the common
people and Buddhas. They enjoyed much confidence and respect from
Buddhist believers.
The above-mentioned facts showed that Buddhism under
the Nguyen dynasty constituted a particular stage with many traits
different from those in the previous times. The difference affected many
aspects, ranging from the system of pagodas and the way of organizing
the Buddhist clergy to the forms of rituals, the relationship between
the Court and the Buddhist clergy, the religious mentality, etc. That
difference originated from the interaction between the policy of the
Nguyen court and Buddhism at that time. On the one hand, the court
attempted to bring Buddhism into the sphere of its ideological
conception. On the other, endowed with a world outlook of its own and
rather strong traditional belief, Buddhism strove its best to break from
the court’s bonds and sought for itself an independent way of
development, and furthermore regulated the conception and attitude of
the court. This is a stage which cannot be ignored.
In the course of its development, Buddhism under the
Nguyen dynasty could do a lot of work, get much credit and play an
important role in its long course of development. That role found
expression in the following aspects:
Buddhism continued to be a thousand-year-old creed
and thereby maintained a cultural tradition bearing the Buddhist
character of the nation: pagodas and temples remained, as always, the
very places where festivities and games, customs and practices in rural
areas, were held and displayed. In those places, people would see not a
few degenerate customs and practices but they would also remark not a
few talents and skills among the participants. It could be said that
numerous artists became mature as a result of their participation in
festivities and games. It should be noted that the five commandments of
Buddhism (against murder, theft, lust, lying and drunkenness) were
advice and at the same time a moral teaching: if these five commandments
of Buddhism are observed, then man’s spiritual behavior and the
relation between man and man becomes much finer. Notions of Buddhism
such as "good finds good", "retribution", "good is repaid for good, evil
for evil," though having a ‘mystical’ character, constitute nonetheless
a good faith and a firm foundation for people to do good acts and avoid
bad acts. And that should help create equilibrium in the relations
between man and man in a society of agricultural inhabitants. By having a
good faith in Buddhism, the inhabitants under the Nguyen dynasty could
maintain and develop to a certain degree the fine traditions of the
past, and moreover they could have confidence in themselves to overcome
difficulties and sufferings caused by the harsh rule of the Court and by
natural calamities.
Under the Nguyen, a network of pagodas and stupas was
put ‘under restoration’. In North Vietnam, the pagodas named Dau, But
Thap, Phat Tich, Vinh Nghiem, Keo, Sai Son, Tay Phuong, etc., were
either brought back to their original form or put ‘under repair’: if
this were not the case, they would have been destroyed or ruined by the
tropical climate and humidity. In central Vietnam, especially in the
capital of the Nguyen feudal dynasty, a series of pagodas and stupas
were built which bore both the colors of the ancient Viet culture, thus
creating a rather new architectural style. In South Vietnam, the Thap
pagoda put under reconstruction in this period received many particular
traits of the Southeast Asian culture. The pagodas and temples left over
by the Nguyen dynasty contribute an invaluable asset for our country.
The people of today may see through them and know more about the talents
and skills as well as the righteousness, the way of thinking,
psychology and the general intellectual character of the past
generations of the Vietnamese people.
A series of holy scriptures was
then collected and printed. A number of persons were especially
appointed to do this work and a number of pagodas were specializing in
engraving and printing these books and in storing wooden printing plates
(the Bo Da, Tu Quang, Lien Tong… pagodas in North Vietnam, and other
pagodas in Hue imperial city). Buddhist prayers, commandments,
genealogies and communications, stories... were published in rather big
numbers, surpassing by far the number in the preceding dynasties. Such
sutras as Hoa Nghiem, Phap Hoa, Duoc Su, Dia Tang, Tam Thien, Phat Danh, Dai Du Da... and such "records" as Thien Uyen Tap Anh Ngu Luc, Ke Dang Luc, Tam To Thap Luc21
were printed in this period. With these publications, Buddhist
believers had the conditions to gain an insight into the origin of the
appearance of Buddhism as well as other Buddhist, teachings and
principles and to get rid of wrong thinking about this religion.
With a view to getting a contingent of bonzes and
nuns well trained in doctrinal know-how and in virtue and faith, the
Court of Nguyen kings had many a time organized training courses for
bonzes and nuns and exerted repeated control over the latter’s virtue
and generosity, to say nothing of many campaigns of granting honorary
titles and diplomas to the Buddhist clergy and organizing oath- taking
ceremonies for the latter. That way of doing thing by the Nguyen kings
aimed first and foremost to reduce the number of bonzes and nuns in
permanent service at pagodas and eliminate those who entered into the
religion for the sole purpose of evading military service or hard work
imposed on them by the authorities, and of leading activities in
opposition to the royal court. But apparently, they said that these
measures were taken for the purpose of reorganizing the Buddhist
religion and bringing it into line with the policy of the court. The
examinations conducted for the selection of good bonzes and nuns, the
conferment upon them of honorary titles and diplomas as well as their
nominations to leading posts brought the pagodas to a rather good level
of organization and made them fully meet the required standards. Bonzes
and nuns were more qualified in doing religious services and other
rituals. That was a situation different from under the Le-Trinh dynasty
in the North or from that under the Nguyen and the Tay Son dynasties in
the South of Vietnam.
Apart from that, Buddhism under the Nguyen dynasty
still produced a deep effect on poetry and songs and on writers and
poets who concerned themselves with the country’s situation and human
livelihood, and helped the latter to have a particular outlook and a
special attitude toward the society and human life. The works written by
them not only positively contributed to Vietnam’s literary history but
also added new pages to the history of Vietnam’s Buddhism when
interpreting Buddhist doctrine or taking Buddhism as an ideological
basis for their poems and songs.
NOTES
—————-
1. The three mainstays of social order (King and subject, father and son, husband and wife).
2. The five basic virtues (benevolence, righteousness, civility, knowledge, loyalty).
3. Dai Nam Thuc Luc Chinh Bien (DNTCB, a record of political convulsions of the Viet country), Vol.2, History Publisher, Hanoi, 1963, p. 289.
4. Op. cit., Vol. III, p. 167).
5. Op. cit., Vol. XXVIII, Social Sciences Publishing House, 1973, p. 136.
6. Op. cit., Vol. XXVII, p. 376.
7. Op. cit., Vol. IV, History Publisher, Hanoi 1963, p. 166.
8. Op. cit., Vol., IV, p. 167.
9. Op. cit., Vol., II, p. 289.
10. A summary of Vietnamese Buddhist History by Superior monk Thich Mat The was reprinted by Minh Duc, Publisher-Saigon 1960, pp. 215-216.
11. Ibid.
12. Thien Uyem Ke Dang Luoc Luc (A book of
continuous stories about veteran bonzes) by Bonze Superior Phuc Dien,
Library of the Han-Nom institute. VH. Vol. 9. p. 45.
13. DNTLCB, Vol. V, p.112; .
14. DNTLCB.Vol. VI., p. 234
15. DNTLCB, Vol. XVII., p. 54.
16. DNTLCB, Vol. XXII., P.154.
17. Op. cit., p. 156.
18. Dai Nam Nhat Thong Chi (The reunification of the Viet country), Vol. I, Social Sciences Publisher, Hanoi, 1969, p. 71.
19. Dai Nam Thuc Luc Chinh Bien, Vol. V, XVII, XXVI.
20. Pham Qui Thich, Pham Lap Trai Thi Van Lap (Collection of poetry and literature of Pham Lap Trai). (Book in Chinese characters).
21. See bonze Phuc Dien, Thien Uyen Ke Dang Luoc Luc (Text in Chinese characters and engraved in wooden planks), Library of the Han-Nom Institute. VH. Vol. 9. pp. 41-44.