Cao Quỳnh Cư, Phạm Công Tắc, and Cao Hoài Sang practise table
turning to communicate with spirits.
III. NGÔ VĂN CHIÊU AND THE CAO-PHẠM
GROUP
A year after Ngô Văn
Chiêu’s return to Saigon a group of civil service employees, whose native
province was Tây Ninh, started practising table turning to communicate with
spirits as instructed in French books of Spiritism.[1] A
district chief gave an account of the wide influence of the spiritist movement
in Cochinchina during the years 1924-1925 and the fact was recorded in the
report “Le Caodaϊsme” (dated 01 January 1932) by Lalaurette,
Inspector of political and administrative affairs.[2]
1. The table-turning
group on Arras street
Originally, the
table-turning group on Hàng Dừa (Arras
- Cao Quỳnh Cư
(1888-1929) and his spouse Nguyễn Thị Hiếu (or Hương Hiếu, 1887-1971). A clerk
working for Saigon Railway Office, Cư rented a house at 134 Bourdais street Calmette street
- Cao Hoài Sang
(1901-1971), a clerk for Saigon Customs Office, rented a house on Arras street
- Phạm Công Tắc (1890-1959), a clerk
working for Saigon Customs Office.
A chronological sketch of
the Cao-Phạm group’s table-turning practice:
Friday 24 July 1925: Cao Quỳnh Cư together with Phạm
Công Tắc came over Cao Hoài Sang’s house to practise table turning, but in vain.
Sunday 26 July 1925: They could contact a spirit named
Cao Quỳnh Tuân (1844-1896), who was Cư’s father. The group practised table
turning every night.
Friday 28 August
1925: At Cư’s
house, they contacted God in the name of AĂÂ, the first three letters of the
Vietnamese alphabet.
Derived from Alpha or a (the
first letter of the Greek alphabet), letter A represents the origin of the
universe which is named Thái cực (Taiji 太極), symbolized with [. Thái cực
split into yin and yang. Letters à and  are variants of A, compared to yin and
yang. The sign Ú above Ă resembles the black part
or yin; the sign ^ above A resembles the white part or yang of
the ancient symbol [. In other words, AĂÂ represents Thái cực and yinyang.
Like Thái cực, hence, AĂÂ represents an impersonal God.
Mid-September 1925: The Cao-Phạm group started using a
beaked basket for evocation as handed down by Daoists.
Tuesday
15 December 1925: Cao Quỳnh Cư, Phạm Công Tắc, and Cao Hoài Sang heard
the name Caodai the first time when the spirit AĂÂ commanded them to kneel
outdoors the following night (the first of the eleventh lunar month). Then, as
instructed by the spirit, each man held three incense sticks in his clasped
hands, looked up to the sky, and prayed to Caodai God for granting them divine
blessings to change for the better. They became Caodai disciples on 16 December
1925.
Monday 11 January
1926: Lê Văn
Trung (1876-1934) attended a séance at Cao Quỳnh Cư’s house (134 Bourdais street
Monday 18 January
1926: Obeying
Caodai God’s command, the Cao-Phạm group held a séance at Lê Văn Trung’s house
(at Quai Testard street Châu Văn Liêm street
2. The Cao-Phạm group
joining Ngô Văn Chiêu
Circa the end of January
1926, Caodai God instructed the Cao-Phạm group to join Ngô Văn Chiêu in order
to found Caodaism, and Chiêu was their Eldest Brother.
Chiêu helped the group
with the worshiping ceremony: the holy icon (God’s Eye), altar arrangement,
daily prayers, etc. When holding a séance, Chiêu was the protector, Cư and Tắc
were the pair of mediums, Hương Hiếu was in charge of jotting down the message.
Friday 12 February 1926,
in Saigon , on new lunar year’s eve, Ngô
Văn Chiêu together with his brethren paid a visit to each of their houses. In
turn, they dropped by Võ Văn Sang (Cầu Muối, district 1), Cao Quỳnh Cư, Vương
Quan Kỳ (80 Lagrandière street, today Lý Tự Trọng, district 1), Lê Văn Giảng
(85 Lagrandière street), Nguyễn Trung Hậu (Dakao, district 1), Nguyễn Văn Hoài,
Phạm Công Tắc, Đoàn Văn Bản (42 Général Leman street, today Cao Bá Nhạ street,
district 1), Nguyễn Hữu Đắc (100 Lục Tỉnh street, today Hùng Vương street,
district 6),[4] Lý Trọng Quý. In the end, they
reached Lê Văn Trung’s house in time to celebrate the new lunar year.
Ngô Văn Chiêu and the
pair of mediums (Phạm Công Tắc, Cao Quỳnh Cư) held a séance at each home.
Caodai God bestowed a four-line poem on each house owner, encouraging everyone
to try his best to develop the new faith.
The traditional Tết
festival ended. On Saturday 20 February 1926 (the ninth of the first lunar
month), they held a midnight séance at Vương Quan Kỳ’s home. Caodai God
bestowed a four-line poem.
Then, Ngô Văn Chiêu
begged the Master for a poem containing the given names of all the disciples
present at the séance. In turn, the Master included His disciples’ names in the
second four-line poem as follows:
Chiêu, Kỳ, Trung, Hoài (line 1);
Bản, Sang, Quý, Giảng (line 2);
Hậu, Đức, Tắc, Cư (line 3).
In fact, the poem
mentioned twelve names, but the name Sang might refer to both Cao Hoài Sang and
Võ Văn Sang. In other words, there were then thirteen Caodaists and Ngô Văn
Chiêu was the Eldest Brother, whose name was mentioned first of all.
Stipulated by Caodai
legislation, the head of the Church in the administrative aspect is giáo
tông (pope), who is explained as the eldest brother. All disciples are
brothers and sisters. Caodai God is the Father or Master.
3. Ngô Văn Chiêu’s
separation from the exoteric group
When the exoteric group
(previoulsy called the Cao-Phạm group) contacted Ngô Văn Chiêu at the end of
January 1926, the latter was practising esotericism under the instruction of
Caodai God. Therefore, he was not involved in the Cao-Phạm group’s exoteric
activities. That was why at a new lunar year’s eve séance (12 February 1926),
Caodai God asked Lê Văn Trung, Vương Quan Kỳ, and Nguyễn Văn Hoài to carry on
missionary work on behalf of their eldest brother Ngô Văn Chiêu.
Every Saturday, Ngô Văn
Chiêu held a vegetarian party at his lodging (110 Bonard boulevard, Saigon ) to treat his brethren who replaced him to
disseminate the new faith. Also, he paid for some brothers’ new áo dài (traditional
costume) to help them have neat appearance in their missionary duty.[5]
About three months after
Chiêu’s union with the exoteric group, there happened important events in
preparation for the Caodai Church
- April 1926:
Caodai God instructed Lê Văn Trung, Cao Quỳnh Cư, and Phạm Công Tắc to inform
Ngô Văn Chiêu about having a papal robe made for him (a white one embroidered
with the eight trigrams). Hương Hiếu made the robe according to the design
drawn by Caodai God. When the robe was finished, the group would hold a séance
and God would instruct where to fix each hexagram on the robe.
- Sunday 18
April 1926: Caodai God instructed Hương Hiếu to make a papal hat
(white, 33.30cm high). The following day, she presented Caodai God the first
replica papal hat made of paper.
- Thursday 22
April 1926: At Cao Quỳnh Cư’s home, when presenting Caodai God the
second replica papal hat, Hương Hiếu was rather in a hurry. God taught her, “Well
done! But what’s the rush? No one wears it!”
Did God prophesy
that Ngô Văn Chiêu would refuse the papacy? Indeed, at that time Chiêu decided
to detach himself from the exoteric group. Pursuing a hermit life for six
years, he devoted himself to meditation to lay a solid foundation of Caodai
esotericism.
Fifty-four years after
that séance, on Thursday 13 March 1980, at Minh Đức meditation house in Vũng
Tàu, Great immortal Ngô Minh Chiêu explained his refusal: “But I was
sorry I had not achieved internal elixir [6] yet; then
I dared not accept the papacy our Merciful Father bestowed on me (…).”
Ngô Văn Chiêu refused the
papacy on Saturday 24 April 1926. He also refunded Hương Hiếu the money she had
spent on the papal robe and hat.
Despite his refusal, Ngô
Văn Chiêu is still respected as the First Caodai Pope.
HUỆ KHẢI
[1] Table turning: also called table
tipping; or la table tournante, la table frappée (in French).
[2] “Une véritable vague de
spiritisme sévissait en 1924-1925 dans toute la Cochinchine.” (Lê Anh
Dũng, Lịch sử đạo Cao Đài thời kỳ tiềm ẩn 1920-1926. Huế: Thuận Hóa pub., 1996, p. 43.)
[3] The foundations of their two
houses might be the present location of Cơ quan Phổ thông Giáo lý (at 171B Cống Quỳnh street
[4] Nguyễn Hữu Đắc was a friend of
the Cao-Phạm group. Later, he became a follower of a faith named Minh Lý (with
headquarters on Cao Thắng
street
[5] Lịch sử quan phủ Ngô Văn
Chiêu. Saigon : 1962, p. 41.
[6] Internal elixir (nội
đơn đại dược 內丹大藥 neidan dayao) is a
Daoist metaphor for the final stage of meditation practice when a successful
practitioner has attained to Dao (đắc đạo 得道 dedao).
