1. THE THREE TEACHINGS OF VIETNAM AS AN IDEOLOGICAL PRECONDITION FOR THE FOUNDATION OF CAODAISM

By HUỆ KHẢI (Dũ Lan LÊ ANH DŨNG)

English version by LÊ ANH MINH

English Revision by MINH TIẾN

RELIGION Publishing House (Hanoi 2013)

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

Why is Vietnam the chosen land for the cradle of Caodaism? In order to answer this question, my two following books were published in 2008:

Cochinchina as a Cultural Precondition for the Foundation of Caodaism, and

Cochinchina as a Legal Precondition for the Foundation of Caodaism.

In turn, they both deal with the issue from geo-cultural and historical aspects.

Now, The Three Teachings of Vietnam as an Ideological Precondition for the Foundation of Caodaism is my third book in the same series.

Finished in September 1981, the manuscript in Vietnamese was presented several times at Cơ Quan Phổ Thông Giáo Lý Cao Đài Giáo Việt Nam (The Vietnam’s Organ for Universalizing Caodai Teaching). In 1994, it was published with the title Con Đường Tam Giáo Việt Nam Từ Khởi Nguyên Đến Thế Kỷ 19 − The Way of Vietnam’s Three Teachings from the Beginnings to the 19th century (124 pages, 13x19cm). The Vietnamese text of this bilingual book is my 1994 edition, which is revised and re-entitled.

Before being issued through the Programme of Joining Hands for Free Caodai Publications, the Vietnamese text was successively published in six monthly issues of Công Giáo Và Dân Tộc (Catholicism and Nation), from No. 174 (June 2009) to Nos. 179-180 (November and December 2009).

I owe a debt of gratitude to all authors and translators whose works are quoted in this monograph.

I deeply appreciate Mr Lê Anh Minh, my beloved brother, for his skilful English translation; and I am especially thankful to Mr Minh Tiến, my highly respectable coreligionist, for his expert revision to the English version.

Last but not least, I am sincerely grateful to the following Caodai Chiếu Minh adepts (Long Vân seance, Mỹ Tho city, Tiền Giang province)

Brother TRẦN VĂN ƯA (deceased)

Brother THANH PHƯỚC

and Sister NGUYỄN THỊ LOAN

for their noble donation so that five thousand copies the present bilingual book can be offered to my honoured readers.

Bà Chiểu, January 2013

HUỆ KHẢI

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CONTENTS

Introduction

I. An Outline of Vietnamese Confucianism

II. An Outline of Vietnamese Daoism

III. An Outline of Vietnamese Buddhism

IV. The Vietnamese Religious Toleration towards the Three Teachings throughout the History of Vietnam

V. Vietnamese Folk Literature Reflecting the Viets’ Synthetic Belief

VI. The Vietnamese People’s Thought of the Three Teachings’ Common Origin through Ages

Conclusion

Bibliography