some information about the speaker. I guess many people who are listening today they know him
very well. He earned his doctoral degree in East Asian languages and civilizations,
especially Chinese literature from Harvard University in 2005. Then for a long time he worked
at the Harvard Yen Ching Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For a certain time he was also
sharing Chinese studies at the University of Ho Chi Minh City, if I'm not wrong. His
current research focus is on digital humanities and conceptual history of early modern Vietnam
in East Asian context and in connection with the Sinosphere and he has many many publications
which I only would like to cite those one in English because those in Japanese I cannot read.
He has for example pre-modern representative Vietnamese authors through modern East Asian
scholars research at Ho Chi Minh City National University in 2023 forthcoming and many of
arts and grants. Most recently he was a visiting research fellow at the international research
center for Vietnamese studies in 2020 and many others as well and we were very pleased to hear
and he has also been a visiting professor at Hamburg University in 2013. We will never forget
and especially our students liked his teaching very much and today's title of his presentation is
individual self-common kingdom and cultural identity in Buddhist writings from the Li and Chan
dynasties. Thank you very much for coming today and we are very eager to hear the presentation
on Vietnamese Buddhism and statehood by Professor Dr. Nguyen. Thank you very much. Welcome.
Good morning, good afternoon, good evening depending on where you are now physically. First
of all I would like to express my genuine thanks to Professor Thomas Englebach and the Forum of
Vietnamese Culture, University of Hamburg. Of course last but absolutely not least our
wonderful audience you allow me the chance to share my thoughts on Buddhist writings
of the Li and Chan dynasties. The two Li and Chan dynasties share the same religious aspects.
They both witnessed the flourishing of Buddhism and practiced it as the state religion.
Not only was that the kingdom's leadership from the king to most of his Mandarin subjects
were engaged in Buddhism and apply Buddhist teaching in their social political governance
and military defense of the kingdom. In such circumstances one might wonder how king and
subjects would handle worldly affairs when holding fast to the three marks of existence or the three
Dharma seals in Sanskrit also known as Tampung or Tam Phap Anh without any contradictions.
Rereading representative works written based on Buddhist philosophy by King's and Zen master
from the two dynasties in question can help us better understand how the leadership of the time
kept their worldly duties and religious practices in harmony. Moreover, within the limited scope
of this present presentation instead of having an overview of what was composed on this topic
over centuries a close reading of selected works allow us to examine some key issues reflected
in those writings. So in other words I will pick two pieces of writing and I would like to invite
you to read them with me. Of course I will provide you with my reading as well as my
interpretation and then based on what we have we can open up some discussion. We will start
our discussion with a synopsis of religion alluding some key social religious aspects
of the two dynasties. This will be followed by a brief description of Buddhist teaching
with a focus on the three Dharma seals to select pieces of writing from the early late
1980-2009 and Jambanasi will provide us with a close-up on the vast and reliably colorful picture
of the political religious life from a very specific historical period in medieval Vietnam.
In this section we gather observations by modern scholars on the commonalities of the two dynasties
in question. Of course by no means those observations can cover all common aspects
shared by the dynasty and more likely some important features may be overlooked. However
put together they represent the modern reconstruction of the interlinks between
the dynasties. On the other hand they display modern understanding of interpretation of the
reciprocity between political life and religious practices of that long period. Here are some
remarks. According to the Britannica the later Lee 2009-1225 dynasty employed a Chinese style
of administration and cult establishing cult an institution for the training of administrators
and cult. Thus also cult an academy of learning based on the three teachings
meaning Confucianism Buddhism and Taoism. As a centralized government it established
universal military service that kept Chinese and Champa invaders at a distance for centuries.
In terms of state governance the Zhen could be regarded as the continuity and development of its
predecessor. For the most of their rules the Zhen kings pursued the same policies that had made
the country strong under the Lee dynasty.
It is also noteworthy that the filter of the Lee, Lee Kung-wan 974-1028 was originally a monk
educated by Zen master that night 938-1018. The dynasty is considered
cult the handiwork of the Buddhist monks and during the two centuries of its existence its
most conspicuous shocks of legitimacy was its Buddhist piety. This citation is from
the late Professor Nguyen Tiang. This helped to partly explain the flourish of Buddhism
starting from the Lee and continuing to develop through the Zhen dynasty.
Furthermore the development and prevalence of Buddhism throughout the two dynasties
could not be detached from the state resistance against foreign aggressions especially the
Mongoms. As Buddhism increasingly adjusted itself to suit the kingdom's fight for independence
Zen master often engaged in politics for the people's welfare.
Now we're going to talk about the three teachings. The crow of Buddhism under the
Lee and dynasty did not take place in isolation but in connection with Taoism and Confucianism.
Together they configured the three teachings thumbs out that deeply affected social political
life of the dynasty. Among a wide array of concepts in Buddhist teachings we're going to
pick some key ones and we are going to choose to talk about the three dharma seals. The three dharma
seals is chosen to review here because its elements often appear as the main themes in the
two writings to be analyzed later below. The Oxford dictionary of Buddhism identifies
three laksana three dharma seals as quote the three characteristic or marks of own conditioned
phenomena which are anicca or votum suffering luka or ko and non-self or absence of self
anatman or anatta vonga. The Soka Gakkai dictionary of Buddhism elaborates
quote impermanence means that nothing is lasting or fixed all is temporary and changing this is a
very important point then that impermanence is linked to something that we follow non-self
means that all things and phenomena are without self-nature that they have no independent
existence of their own and finally suffering means that all existence is suffering.
Having provided you with some very basic concepts of Buddhism now I'm going to proceed
to the second part and in this part we're going to have two readings. The first reading
is for the poem okay that is often known in Vietnam as Guo Tho or in English we call
the longevity of a dynasty by the Zen master Phap Pho.
Among Vietnamese Zen poetry one of the most cited poems is a catrin by Zen master Phap Pho.
Although composed in the early late dynasty 1980-1009 it is often classified
in the poetry of the late dynasty possibly due to its popularity and impacts.
The poem might be originally written with no title but based on the context finished in Tien Nguyen
outstanding figures of the Vietnamese Zen community it could later be known as the Zen
master responding to the king query on the longevity of the dynasty
that Guo Tho given or more simply Guo Tho the longevity of a dynasty. According to Tien Nguyen
the emperor later hang 941-1005 once asked the Zen master how long
the good fortune of the state would last the master replied with a poem that we hereby read
in an English translation responding to the king's query on national good fortune
the good fortune of the country is like entangling vines in the southern land there is great peace
if the Vovii or Wu Wei spirit resides in the royal palace then everywhere the clash of weapons
will cease so when we read this poem you may easily recognize that in the third line we
intentionally leave the term Vovii and Wu Wei untranslated and we have some reasons
for doing that and then I will explain it later during our reading of interpretation of the poem.
Of course the poem's first keyword worth our attention must be Guo Tho
besides the meaning of the state good fortune of Guo Yin it can also stand for the longevity
or life span of a dynasty or an imperial throne it remains unclear which meaning of the term
will refer in the conversation between the Zen master and the emperor
therefore readers should keep those connotations in mind when reading the cactrine
following this track what the king's query might have been not only about the state good fortune
but also about the longevity of his dynasty or and his kingship so this might be
the picture more complicated but in a very interesting way
the next key term for consideration is Nang La the term Nang often goes with gap
to form a compound now gap Nang this now appears in a title of a collection of Zen Goans
Kon Shimon Katoshu
whose first printed version came out in 1689 in the early years of Japanese Tokugawa
period 1600 1868 Thomas Yuho Gushner the English translator of the collection
exclaimed the implication of the term gap do gap Nang of the titles as follows
quote the first character katsu mean katsu the tough vine infamous among farmers in the American
south for its invasive vigor the second character do means wisteria another tough vine but one known
also for the beauty of its white and lavender flowers together the characters gap Nang
came to indicate complications difficulties or struggles the image comes to my
of vines engineering a person's feet as he makes his way across a field
later in koan number 35 entitled Lanan's being and non-being readers enjoy the chance
to learn from a case involving three buddhist months of the Tang dynasty
the case be schemes with Lanan addressing the assembly saying that being and non-being
are like vines clinging to a tree kushner elaborates the relationship between being
and non-being in association with vines and tree pointing out that when Chang Ching says being
and non-being are like vines clinging to a tree he means that being and non-being are mutually
dependent obviously there must exist two actors the vines being and the tree non-being to form
this independent interdependent relationship factual terms begins with a lie that compares kukto
with its multiple meanings with entangling wise Lanlak identify with vice kukto appears solidly
interwoven complicated and entangling following the being versus non-being model readers should
find the order factor or the order actor that pairs up the interdependent relationship
understood as a transitive direct verb which means to entangle the term lack
requires a direct object but it has not been shown or indicated in this line yet
readers must read on to figure out what it is
the second line in the cut train presents the prevalence of peace under southern sky
a parallel semantic structure is employed in the third line bovine away resides in the royal palace
indisputably bovine away in this case is an ambiguous concept
because because it can be interpreted from a wide range of philosophical perspectives
of the three teachings of Taoism Confucianism and Buddhism so I'm gonna have my analysis of the
concept from the three perspectives the first perspective is a Taoist perspective as a Taoist
concept it can be found in Lao Tsing and often translated as non-action non-assertion
non-intervention or effortless action a quick browse over the Tao Tsing yields to several examples
of away in specific context below are two examples that directly link away to political
governance of a dynasty on the screen we have an example the Tao in its regular course does nothing
for the sake of doing it and so there is nothing which does not do if princes and kings
were able to maintain it all things good of themselves be transformed by them
the opening statement is written as an advice requesting the leadership non-interference
in the regular course of life in which myriad things will find their natural harmony
according to the balance of their interest and needs the second citation also from Tao Tsing
can be read as an elaborations of the former here is this second citation
in the kingdom the multiplication of prohibitive enactments increases the poverty of the people
the more implements to add to the profit that the people have the greater disorder is there
in the state and claim the more acts of craft dexterity that man possess the more those strange
contrivances appear the more display there is of legislation the more tips and droppers there are
therefore a sage has said i will do nothing of purpose and the people will be transformed
of themselves i will be fond of keeping still and the people will of themselves become correct
this agreeing with Edward uh cinchland interpretation of away at effortless actions
chris Fraser basis his interpretation of the concept on the Tao Tsing and define it as thought
the absence or of action motivated by the agent's desires will ambition knowledge education
language or socialization this will result in cult activity that conforms to natural
processes thus allowing things to happen by themselves now we move to another perspective
which is confusion as a confusion concept the following off-site statement is the unique
case in the analytics where away is spelled out clearly illustrating the confusion standpoint
in social dynastic governance
the master said may not be instanced as having governed efficiently without exertion away
what did he do he did nothing but gravely and reverently occupy his royal cedar
the phrase can be literally translated as he make himself reverent align himself
in the racially correct way facing south this was on
now we have some examples some other examples to illustrate further what we just read these two
examples are also from the analytics the first one the master said he who exercises government
by means of his virtue may be compared to the north parlour star which keeps its place
and all star turn towards it the second citation the master said how majestic was the manner in
which shun and you held possession of the empire as if it were nothing to them so here we have two
names okay yao and shun or shun and you and yao and shun or shun and you were the legendary
stage kings of ancient china representing the golden age for that computers always done for
together with all the ideal rulers the legendary king represent virtues of leadership that include
ethical suction the ability to influence others by the power of their moral examples so right here
we can say that you know these legendary kings operated or run their kingdom by virtues by
moral examples
now we move to the last perspective which is buddhism that's a buddhist concept
away is the chinese translation of the sanskrit and sanskrita or the unconditioned obviously
this is an example of trans religious translation in which one concept from an indigenous religion
is employed to render another concept from another religion from overseas
back to the time when buddhism was first introduced to china one recognized that it was
a period quote when magic asked and taoist strategems were widely widely popular
and since buddhism was only practiced as sacrificial ceremonies and rituals
it was naturally understood to be a school of magic arts in those contexts
saito a kira also the no snut philosophical and cultural exaggeration was sought especially
in terms of various concepts of laozi and kranzi the taoist several examples come to mind such as
the chinese translation of tao as body awakening uwei for the nature of nirvana extinction
and the key concept of u nothingness from taojia thought for sunya emptiness thus from the beginning
as a translation product the chinese buddhist term uwei already can noted the meanings of the
original taoist concept the buddhist uwei stands for the unconditioned which does not arise through
true dependent origination or causation meaning which neither depends on nor is subject to any
cause or condition as a result uwei could also indicate nirvana and later would be used for an
unattached or unrestricted state of life or more broadly the life of a buddhist
now we're gonna go back to the poem
read in the context of the poem by zen master term statesman
fact one the term will be uwei in the third line should not be interpreted exclusively from any
specific perspective of taoism on confusionism or buddhism due to its philosophical ambiguity
moreover because of multiple layers of philosophically overlap
uncontradictory but complementary connotations of the concept it would provide readers with nuances
of interpretation depending on the cultural and religious background therefore
it should be left untranslated and explained what it may mean from a synthesized perspective
of the three teachings taoism, confusionism and buddhism hence if the spirit of vovi or uwei
resides in the royal palace as a solid pillar for vice symbolizing the good fortune of the state
the longevity of the dynasty or of the kingship to entangle then in such conditions
everywhere the clash of weapons will cease so this is my reading of the poem and
i think that the key philosophical term in this this poem is
undoubtedly uwei and it should be paired together with the term buktou or the
lifespan or the long lasting of the dynasty or the the throne or a kingship okay so now as we have done
with the first poem i would like to show you some pictures here we have a calligraphy by
a young vietnamese by the name of jen tae chung by showing you this poem i would like to
share with you how popular okay the poem has been enjoyed okay in vietnamese society and
young people also love it and here we have a map and on this map we see the
songdae nasty okay the territory of songdae nasty and the territory of nai viet
and then we having seen that then i would like to move to the next reading okay the next reading
will be related to the jen dynasty
for the second reading i would like to start with the founder of the dynasty jen tae tung
jen tae tung birth name jen gang 12 18 12 77 is the first king of the gem dynasty
and the author of a series of buddhist works among them only this value loop are in
the instructions of emptiness here after instructions for short survive
according to kung dit muin the king was taught the first buddhist thinker in vietnamese buddhist
history who modeled his buddhism after the teachings of huinang 638 7 13 the sixth patriarch
of the southern chan of chinese buddhism and the syncretic character of the post-thang and
song chinese buddhism in a more comprehensive manner than any of his predecessors or
contemporaries so having said that we should recognize the very unique position occupied
by king jen tae tung jen tae tung in the history of san buddhist literature in vietnam
although jen tae tung kim tung jin nam or a guide to chan buddhism is lost it prefers luckily
can be found in the instructions allowing us a review of the king's self-presentation
in connection with buddhism
prior to a close reading of the preface an inquiry into the king's biography recorded
in the dai vietsu gi dang tung a comprehensive history of lai viet here after comprehensive
history can shed some light on his narrative in the preface according to the comprehensive
history the king was born the name jen gang in 1218 during the last year of the lead amnesty
his uncle jen tung dong must buy the gang's marriage to the last queen of the lai lai jiu
wan also known as jiu wan lei he would later abdicate the throne to gangs and establish him
the founder of the new dynasty in 1226
since the royal couple did not give birth to any son to ensure the continuity of the dynasty
jen tung dong and his wife originally the empress of king liyue tung and mother of lii jiu wan
lent another evil plot to take away princess puttian who was in her treatment male
pregnancy with jen liu jen gang's elder brother and marry her to gang
this is a citation from the dai vietsu gi dang tung at that time princess puttian
jen liu's wife has been pregnant with guo ken for three months jen tung dong and his wife princess
tian kuk advised the emperor to allocate the pregnancy to himself to maintain the continuity
of the dynasty unable to do anything else but following the advice the king appointed
princess puttian the empress status and now create jiu wan to princess position
this demonic incident took place in 1237 and according to the comprehensive history
it made the king jen tai tung feel embarrassed knowing but the ban
and consequently he secretly escaped from the palace at night for male info
the king's preface to the guide is a recall of his breakout for religious salvation
if readers of the preface expect to locate any details of the incident they will be
lamentably disappointed because not a single word referring to it can be found here
upon the king's arrival on the mountain being greeted and questioned about the purpose of his
visit by the state preceptor of bamboo crops guxu juklam tears suddenly tore down from his
eye and he revealed that i'm still young but have already married my parents
all alone i stand above the literati and the commoners without anyone to rely on
i also recall the impermanent rise and fall of the work of the previous kings
does i enter this mountain only with the wish to become a buddha and do not ask for anything else
obviously in the above-cited paragraph the king tried to describe himself
as a lonely pitiful and filial son who had to take the rulership over the whole kingdom
a weighty responsibility seemingly going against his wishes moreover at the beginning of the
preface the king cited the sixth patriarch quenin but rephrased his wish and as a result
changed their meaning significantly
now we have in front of us um two citations one from the platform sutra of the sixth patriarch
which is on your left hand side and the preface to a guide to chan buddhism
by king on your right hand side and let's read okay the citation from the platform sutra
first here we will be listening to the sixth patriarch he is describing okay the situation
in which he inheriting the teaching from uh the previous patriarchs this teaching was
tended down to me from previous patriarchs pay attention to the term okay uh previous
patriarchs and if you look at the chinese you can see that it's represented by the two chinese
characters written as xian sheng of dintang right so dintang is translated as previous patriarchs
this teaching was tended now to me from previous patriarchs and not from huenan's own wisdom this
is not something he's just you know created or invented those who wish to hear the teaching
of the past patriarchs should first purify their own mind and clear that their absolute works
then they are no different from the past sages okay so um the past sages okay is written in chinese
as xian tai sheng zhen bien dang tang yan right and because you are learning from the patriarch
and also you are also practiced okay zen buddhism uh you can purify your mind and therefore
your mind and that of the patriarch will be identical because the both represent the so
called mudan nature so with that in mind we're going to move to what we have in the
the preface uh to a guide to chan buddhism
this is the translation what former confusion sages treasure was to create
moral norms for future generations to follow therefore the sick patriarchs said
great sages are no different from great chan master thus we know our buddha's teaching
also makes use of former sages to transmit them so you can see how significant okay
meanings have been changed because right here we see some kind of you know misreading or miswriting
the first one in the citation from the guide to a chan buddhism you should be able to find
the character nai okay bien nai tang yan and the term the character is you know written in red
and nai here mean three mean big okay and this is a kind of homonyms right the same
cell right you pronounce nai and that cell is very similar to the nai okay uh in the platform
sutra which is also in red and the nai in the platform sutra is actually standing for
generation okay so two nai but one is for generation and the other one is for great
or you know big okay or huge so this is a kind of confusion a kind of text of corruption okay
and because you know the vietnamese okay texts are using okay these term and the king is trying
to read okay bien tang as confusion stages here bien tang are no longer previous patriarchs
but becoming former confusion stages okay
and this is very significant okay
then we can see that you know that is a switch from purely buddhist perspective to a a new
perspective in which we have the co-existence and the interaction between buddhism and
confusionism and actually the two are complementary to each other and when we see it we can
immediately think of the term the poem right in which the concept of uwe can be read not only
from one specific perspective but it should be interpreted in from a a very
general perspective or a kind of a sort of synthesis of the three teachings okay so
let's move to the next one
um then after learning the purpose of the king the uh the monk right the monk uh talk to the king
okay fascinating undoubtedly is the state preceptor of bamboo scrolls respond to the king request
he said that in the mountains there is no buddha but buddha is in the heart
if the heart is stealing of thought meaning okay no thought at all okay and understanding
the nature of mere react things that is buddha indeed now if your highness awakens to the true
heart or mind you will become buddha with now having to look elsewhere
not only uh this statement if we read uh quick on then we see another okay uh statement made
by the preceptor meeting farewell to the king the uh the monk also said that
being at the head of a nation one must identify oneself with the will of the people
and their harsh now the people want you to return to the palace how can you go against this
nevertheless i hope you should
uh you should never i'm sorry here uh uh you know a mistake i hope you should never neglect
the study of the sutra uh something we missing here is very very important okay my apology so
in this case we see the absolute truth okay which is you know how to recognize uh the nature of
things and see the buddha nature are from inside then we have the advice of the uh the monk okay
and the monk is you know advising the king to go back to the court taking the responsibility
of the emperor for the kingdom and in that case the king will be playing okay or will be working
with another kind of mind or heart and that is the the heart of the people then if we think of
the so-called the absolute truth in uh buddhism then we on the other hand we can have the uh
the concept of no self right because in buddhism people believe that you know that that there is
no okay nothing called you know uh the self in the common uh sense we often talk uh buddhism
promoting the concept of non-self uh and it can be interpreted as a kind of interpersonal
okay interpersonal self why it is interpersonal self because it is interconnected okay or interrelated
two orders self you know by itself has no core okay it has no uh essential uh nature therefore
we don't have the true self but we have the inter-relational self but on the other hand
we in buddhism we also talk about uh conventional self uh which is the
and right here i have a citation from uh an article called three ways of denying
the self and in this citation we read buddhist philosophers have tried to work out the
implications of the buddhist teaching of non-self anatta i characters i characterize
the teaching of non-self in the palli discourses noting that although the buddhist denied
the existence of a metaphysical self he did not completely deny the everyday self
but presuppose the i as a continuously identical moral agent why we we need a
conventional self or the everyday self because when i talk to you i often come you know i often
use the pronoun right i and when i say i then i'm presenting you or representing you know a
concept of a self and that is the conventional self we in our daily life need a self to perform
different kind of functions different kind of problems we have you know in our social life
and that is necessary okay so that is why we have the conventional self and having said that
going back to the case of certain taitung we can see that he can on the one hand continue
practice buddhism to recognize the absolute truth okay and attain nirvana but on the other hand
he had to perform the wrong the duties of an emperor okay in his kingdom and he is responsible
for his people for his kingdom for his sovereignty therefore in that position the king
was using the conventional self and with that conventional self he leading the fight the
resistance against mongolian invasion defending the freedom and the independence of the
nation so by the way in the instructions to emptiness there is a very interesting
paragraph in which king jen taitung put the three teachings together and here is the citation
the confusion classics teach us to practice humanity and spread virtue the Taoist scriptures
teach us to love living beings and respect life not to take life is the spatial teaching
of Buddhism you people should follow this teaching carefully and not to violate it so
here you can see that you know king jen taitung put the three teachings together and emphasize
the features of each of them so for confusion classics he pointed out that you know
humanity or zhen or yen is the core value okay in in confusionism for Taoism okay this is a kind
of you know a concept of the equality of life which can be you know expressed in transit
uh David Blunt okay or uh in Buddhism he he specified only okay in Buddhism okay
Buddhist teaching uh one people not to take life and this is this very special aspect of Buddhism
and he said that you meaning all of us should carefully okay uh follow it okay and not to
violate it so if you read this one and you may wonder which this is mine how can the emperor
uh king jen taitung
left the
resistance against the Mongolian invaders because you know that was a fight okay and
that would be you know uh people died for the countries uh as well as you know uh people
sacrifice uh their life uh for the independence so however if we have the concept of conventional
self and the conventional self is playing the the set of duties okay of the leadership
of the nation then we're switching back to confusion perspective and with confusion
perspective we have mentions mentions said that you know killing
can be committed okay but by doing so people do not violate okay the concept option mentions
allows fortress causes for war in the past and his his time the first one is revolution led by
a virtuous leader to overthrow a tyrannical ruler so this is a kind of you know joke
second a military expedition by a feudal state on behalf of the virtuous imperial court to
overthrow a tyrannical ruler of another feudal state a military expedition by virtuous ruler
of one independent state against the tyrannical ruler of another independent state on humanitarian
ground and finally a war of self-defense against an actual wrongful aggression and if we read
to the four uh points then we can see that this point squarely okay nicely applied to
our situation of the okay in the 14th uh in in the 14th century in which uh the nation
um thought you know picking arms to fight against uh mongolian invaders and
could do it because he is he was not doing it you know from the perspective of a Buddhist
uh patriarch but doing it as a king practicing confusion ethics and moral criteria and that is
how the chan the li and chan dynasty okay are employing the three teachings not separately
but together and depending on different kind of social political situations they
flexibly okay and wisely apply the teachings making it you know moral standard for their
activities for their actions to for the well-being okay are of the of the nation and of the kingdom
so having said that i would like to end the uh the talk here and uh i would like to open up
um the crown for discussion uh thank you very much
thank you very much for your interesting presentations which we'll dig very deeply
into the doctrines of confusionism mahayana buddhism daoism has shown to us how much these
three doctrines are connected and have been applied together in traditional vietnam
misthinking for instance in terms of moral standards for the ruler it was a very elucidating
presentation due i don't know due to our side it was the speaker sides that were here and where
there then and when sound problems and the picture uh stood still i guess this due to weak internet