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

The Three-Teaching Founders on the front cover of a Caodai booklet printed in 1926. 

CONCLUSION

Throughout nineteen pre-Caodai centuries, the Three Teachings introduced into Vietnam from India and China were indigenized and became the Three Teachings of Vietnam. This little S-shaped country on the eastern coast of the Indochinese peninsula is like a habitat entirely appropriate for the growth of the Three-Teaching tree with three equally luxuriant branches.

To some extent, the Three Teachings took turns to play the leading role in the imperial court as an ideology elevated to the national cult. However, in daily social life as well as in affectional and spiritual activities of the Vietnamese, the Three Teachings are one unity affecting the Vietnamese’s lifestyle and thinking way. They harmonize with Vietnam’s customs and cultural identity. Thus, from the inner and individual life to social one, from youth to old age, each Vietnamese while adapting himself to circumstances might behave like a follower of Confucianism, Daoism, or Buddhism.

Buddhism maintains detachment, form-substance unity, and deliverance. Daoism emphasizes non-action, non-conflict, and absolute happiness owing to transcending the world. Confucianism advocates the doctrine of the mean for freedom from worldly bondage. This spiritual tripod is a stable foundation for a man’s mind, supporting him and leading his life in harmony with all relationships between an individual and his family, the society, and the nation.

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The history of Vietnamese thoughts and culture comprises two distinctive stages:

- From the beginning of the Common Era to the 19th century: Vietnam was a member of the region of East Asian and Southeast Asian thoughts and cultures.

- Since the 20th century: Vietnam has contacted and associated with Western trends of thoughts and cultures. Vietnam not only is a member of the region but also becomes an actual part of the cosmopolitan society.

With these two historical stages, it is possible to say that all secular theories and religious doctrines of the West and the East from the past to the present day have appreared in this small land. Generations and generations of Vietnamese have approached, experienced and experimented all of them, even with the loss of their lives.

In the present historical situation, Vietnam’s traditional Three Teachings have had to change since the 20th century. What value will the Three-Teaching tradition gain in the Vietnamese people’s new era? Will the Three Teachings decline and become obsolete? Or will they revive in a new institution with a new vital force? If they come to life again, what is the causing factor? For Caodaists, the answer seems to be implied in the following teaching by His Holiness Lý Thái Bạch, the Spiritual Pope of Caodaism:

Embracing, profound and comprehensive,

Caodaism is well-founded

with its new thoughts on ancient teachings.[1]

The relationship between “new thoughts” and “ancient teachings” is easier to comprehend when lighted up by Caodai Supreme God’s teaching:

It’s Me [God] who come to Vietnam,

On this soil,

To sow the seed of Caodaism,

Water and fertilize

the existing Three-Teaching tree,

And better its foliage,

To help Man harmonize with the Dao.[2]

The above holy teaching in verse proves that Vietnamese soil with the nineteen-century-old Three-Teaching tree is an ideological precondition for the advent of a new religion named Đại Đạo Tam Kỳ Phổ Độ or Caodaism at the beginning of the 20th century.

HUỆ KHẢI

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[1] Cơ Quan Phổ Thông Giáo Lý Đại Đạo (The Organ for Universalizing Caodai Teaching), 15-10 Bính Dần (16 November 1986).

[2] Thánh Giáo Sưu Tập 1966-1967. Sài Gòn: Cơ Quan Phổ Thông Giáo Lý Cao Đài Giáo Việt Nam pub., 1968, p. 34.