The main method used throughout the thesis is the interdisciplinary method. The thesis topic refers to the subject of Confucian literature in the history of literature, belonging to an era of extremely strong synthesis thinking. As we have defined Confucian literature, it is a type of literature influenced by Confucianism created by Confucian authors or people influenced by Confucianism, therefore the subject of the thesis is literature in relation to Confucianism, and more broadly, the relationship with the Three Teachings. Therefore, the thesis is forced to apply knowledge and research methods related to philosophy (Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism), history combined with the major of literature. Interdisciplinary research is interdisciplinary research, a combination of subjects and fields of study together. But interdisciplinary is not a simple plus sign of scientific fields, but the synthesis of approaches and research methods of specialized fields into a new scientific field. Interdisciplinary is using complex thinking to consider such a composite object, returning to the previous synthetic thinking but at a higher level.
In addition, we use the method of studying typology and typological structure, studying the structure of Confucian literary typology, determining the position of elements in the system, studying the movement and development patterns of elements. We also use the case study method, selecting three cases that are representative of each period to generalize systemic issues. The systemic method is used throughout the thesis to explore the internal relationships of a whole of phenomena and elements to find their structural unity.
On each issue, we combine methods and approaches:
+ Hermeneutics: when studying the aesthetic characteristics of works or an author from aesthetic categories, the relationships between aesthetic subjects and objects.
+ Poetics: When wanting to "study the evolution of methods and means of capturing the world with images, their social-aesthetic functions, and study the fate of artistic discoveries" [60, pp. 36-37].
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+ Cultural approach: When wanting to understand the elements of a text through restoring the cultural life of a certain era, use it to decode literary issues, especially concepts of literature and literary creation.
In addition, we apply common operations such as: analysis, comparison, contrast, statistics, classification, modeling, text survey...
5. Scientific and practical significance of the thesis
- Outline the process of canonizing Confucian literature in Vietnam, and at the same time, it is also possible to see the process of Vietnamese literature in a seamless and systematic way from the perspective of the influence of Confucianism on literature.
- Reflecting on the authors and especially their works from the perspective of the canonization of Confucian literature.
- Trace the movement of each literary element through three authors in the process of canonization of Confucian literature.
The thesis is the first research work on the canonization process of Confucian literature in Vietnam through three authors Tran Nhan Tong, Nguyen Trai and Le Thanh Tong. The research results of the thesis can be used to compile textbooks on Vietnamese literature from the 10th to 19th centuries, and can also become a reference and teaching monograph for students and graduate students of the Literature major.
6. Topic structure
In addition to the introduction, conclusion, references, the thesis consists of 3 chapters:
Chapter 1: The initial stage of Confucian literature - the case of Tran Nhan Tong Chapter 2: The formative stage of Confucian literature - the case of Nguyen Trai Chapter 3: The canonical stage of Confucian literature - the case of Le Thanh Tong
CHAPTER 1: THE EARLY PHASE OF CONFUCIAN LITERATURE – THE CASE OF TRAN NHAN TONG
Tran Nhan Tong (1258-1308) was not a Confucian scholar, but he still represented the first stage of Confucian literature in Vietnam, a beginning from within Buddhist literature. Of course, Vietnamese written literature, born in the 10th century under the influence of Chinese literature, 3 had already integrated elements of the Three Teachings. Monks, while practicing, strictly followed the tenets and rules,
but from childhood, studying Confucianism, practicing writing according to the spirit and techniques of Confucianism, it is very difficult to separate a "Buddhist literary stream" 4 in Vietnam. This beginning may have sprouted from the first authors of Vietnamese literature, or of Zen literature - if we consider that there is a Zen literature in Vietnam - such as Do Phap Thuan, Ngo Chan Luu, to Tran Thai Tong, Tran Thanh Tong, Tue Trung..., but it only became truly clear from Tran Nhan Tong and Huyen Quang. The path from Tran Nhan Tong through Nguyen Trai to Le Thanh Tong is the path of canonization of
Confucian literature, from Zen to Confucianism. In this chapter, we will describe that beginning through the case of Tran Nhan Tong.
1.1. Zen from Hue Nang to Tran Nhan Tong
The core of Buddhism is the issue of liberation and enlightenment. Buddha believes that human life is immersed in suffering, and those sufferings are forever entangled in the cycle of reincarnation. Its root is seen as ignorance. So, the problem of Buddha is to find a way to lift the dark curtain of ignorance, perceive the original face, and thereby escape the cycle of reincarnation. But how to attain enlightenment and where Nirvana is, there are many different concepts. From there, Buddhism is divided into different sects. Zen is a major branch of Buddhism transmitted by Buddha himself to his disciple Kasyapa. When it was transmitted to China, due to the interaction and influence of indigenous thoughts, Chinese Zen created its own unique features. Primitive Buddhism in India was established
3 Tran Dinh Huou said: "That literature was first unified with Chinese literature, then separated and developed independently, stopping at the Tang-Song form, not continuing the path of development like in China." [49, p. 502]
4 Tran Dinh Huou more than once questioned the existence of a Buddhist literature or a period of Zen literature in Vietnam: “Is there or is there not a period of Zen literature?” [49, p. 521]
Zen had once directed enlightenment by identifying itself with the external metaphysical Buddha nature, but in China, through the thinking of the Chinese people, Zen returned to everyday life. The acceptance of Buddhism gradually formed a tripod of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, complementing each other. At this time, it was no longer primitive Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism, but Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism that had gone through the processes of development, acceptance, and absorption of each other's spirit. The law of movement and development of society had eliminated countless ideologies among the Hundred Schools of Thought, on the contrary, it had allowed a few Confucianism and Taoism to have a mechanism for continuous self-renewal by absorbing other ideologies. The fusion of Confucianism, Taoism, and Dharma in the Warring States period, and then the fusion of Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism in the later periods, created the main appearance of the Chinese cultural tradition in particular and the East Asian countries in general.
According to the remaining documents, Zen was introduced to China by Bodhidharma around the time of Emperor Wu of Liang (reigned 502-549). But it seems that what Bodhidharma brought to China was only a seed, and it was not until Hui Neng (637-713), the Sixth Patriarch of Southern Zen, that Zen truly completed the process of Sinicization. It can be said that the important turning point of Zen was the separation of Southern and Northern Buddhism.
Bodhi tree without tree
The bright mirror is also not a stand. Originally there is nothing. Where is there any dust in the world?
(The Bodhi tree is not a tree, The bright mirror is not a stand. From the beginning until now, there is nothing.
Where is the real place for the mortal to cling to?
It was through this verse that Hongren quietly passed on the robe and the mind seal to Hui Neng and advised him to go south. This story may be a myth, but its spirit reflects quite accurately the nature of the sectarian split. Hui Neng's verse expressed almost the quintessence of the Zen spirit. First of all, it expressed the idea of Emptiness, a seed
the essence of Zen philosophy, as well as the view of non-abiding in the orientation of practice. The first two sentences talk about human powerlessness before the absolute truth, the last two sentences say that people cannot practice to attain that absolute truth. “Not being able to practice does not mean not practicing, but means seeing not practicing as practicing” [68, p.449]. It is contrary to the Shenxiu verse that wants to say that there is the existence of an absolute truth, and to attain that truth, one can use cultivation. Before coming to Buddhism, Shenxiu was a Confucianist. It was that starting point that later made Shenxiu completely different from his illiterate fellow disciple, Hui Neng. Knowledge is both a strength but also a constraint on Shenxiu on the highway to immediately grasp the key points of Zen. Shenxiu believed in gradual enlightenment, which means enlightenment in sequence, requiring time and practice, and qualitative transformation can only be achieved after quantitative accumulation, while Hui Neng advocated sudden enlightenment, which means immediate enlightenment (transformation), not in sequence. The greatest characteristic of Southern Zen is sudden enlightenment. According to Hui Neng, Zen is "seeing one's nature", which means seeing Buddha nature, or in terms of wisdom, Prajna. He believed that Buddha nature is inherently present in every human being, but because of delusion, we let it sink into darkness, so enlightenment is needed for us to realize that Nature. That Nature is the ability to penetrate the inherent truth. It is unique, pure, and equal in all people. Seeing one's nature means seeing immediately, capturing the entire essence in one view, a transcendent reality, surpassing all dualistic interpretations in all forms. Accordingly, enlightenment is found from within the emotional and sentimental nature of real people, not sought from the outside. And therefore, in terms of practice, the understanding of the truth through contemplation is not only expected from sitting in meditation but it is practiced in all daily tasks, "chopping wood and carrying water is also a wonderful way". Hui Neng opened the path towards the nature to attain enlightenment, towards secular life to seek enlightenment and brought the opportunity of enlightenment to everyone. Hui Neng both emphasized and deepened the essence of Zen and brought it into real life.
It can be said that Hui Neng was the important turning point of Zen, from “Buddhism in China” to what could be called “Chinese Buddhism”. Only then did Zen truly complete the process of Sinicization and leave its mark.
into Chinese history. Zen is Buddhism through the Chinese people's synthesis of the Three Teachings thinking in a practical and worldly direction, which makes the Zen philosophy of liberation a viable religious experience with a strong ability to actualize and enter the world. Zen does not need doctrinal theories or religious rituals, nor does it resort to abstract language, and even sitting in meditation in the traditional sense is no longer necessary. Zen only points out the path, and each individual must find the means and ways to complete that path.
For Zen, liberation is not to go to another world, but to live in this mundane world in a peaceful and free manner. For Zen, there is no Nirvana outside this mundane world, a place where when people reach it, they leave behind all worries and anxieties, all the constraints of the law of reincarnation, a place where time does not exist but only eternal spring. Nirvana is not far away but is in this very world, or in other words, in the heart of every person. When one has abandoned delusion, one is liberated from reincarnation even though one is still in reincarnation, and reaches Nirvana even though one is still in this world. The path of enlightenment of Zen is to go from delusion to enlightenment, that is, from the mundane to the holy. But after reaching the holy, the life of the holy is no different from the life of an ordinary person: “Binh thuong tam thi dao” (The ordinary mind is the way) [68, p. 462]. Therefore, the mind of a saint is also the ordinary mind, thus it is from saint to ordinary. The path of a saint is from ordinary to saint, then from saint back to ordinary.
Buddhism entered Vietnam around the first centuries AD by both routes from India by sea and from the North. But the most enduring in Vietnam is Zen, which originated from Southern Zen from China. The shift in belief from considering Nirvana as a realm with a certain space-time location, and belonging to the future, an “eternal future” but hopeless, to considering Nirvana as a psychological-spiritual state, attainable in real life and right in this earthly world, was a huge boost that made Zen a worldly doctrine. It is also compatible with the Vietnamese mentality – not interested in and not suitable for those who
The preaching is too metaphysical, not "pragmatic and realistic" 5 . In the 10th century, when Vietnam gained autonomy, Buddhism made positive contributions to the nation's founding. Zen masters were the intellectuals, the first elite of the independent Dai (Co) Viet nation. They were the first military advisors, the first diplomats, and also the first poets of the country. In 971, King Dinh Tien Hoang made a series of moves to define the class for monks and bestow the title of Supreme Patriarch on Zen master Ngo Chan Luu, with the title Khuong Viet Dai Su, thus "officially accepting Buddhism as the spiritual guiding principle for government affairs" [70, p. 185]. Meanwhile, Le Dai Hanh sent Ngo Chan Luu and Do Phap Thuan to welcome the Song Dynasty envoys... During the Ly Dynasty, monks gradually withdrew from politics, but the influence of Buddhism became much deeper. The Ly kings were more culturally advanced, and accepted Buddhism in a more spiritual and intellectual sense than the previous dynasties. In general, Zen in the Ly dynasty was worldly, but the worldly nature of Zen in the Ly dynasty was still more of a theoretical tendency than a practical one, and its transcendence still dominated. The pervasiveness of Buddhism in the social life of Dai Viet in the early period of autonomy stemmed from the popularity of Buddhism in Giao Chau land in the 10th century, from the compatibility of Buddhism with the historical and social conditions of Dai Viet in its early days, because a country that had just experienced a chaotic war, and whose political-state model was still very primitive, only needed an ideology that was strong enough to reassure the people and gather forces. The efforts to combine theocracy and royalty in the Ly-Tran dynasties belonged to the strategy to strengthen the monarchy. On the other hand, the choice of Buddhism also stemmed from the need to try to establish a social institution, a state model that was both similar and different from the North. The “Northern” factor naturally emerged from the need to mature enough to stand next to that powerful neighboring country - the threshold of civilization that the Vietnamese people were exposed to at that time, a process that had been going on for thousands of years since the time of Northern domination and
continued in later Vietnamese history 6. The "different from the North" factor started
5 Please see Tran Dinh Huou, The problem of finding national cultural characteristics [52, pp. 182-193].
6 In “The birth of Vietnam”, Keith Taylor described the birth of Dai Viet as a long-term process of adapting to neighboring power China in two directions: trying to maintain national identity and trying to accept Chinese cultural values, which can be imagined as a tug of war between the two cultural regions of Southeast Asia and East Asia: “The birth of Vietnam described in this book is the birth of a new consciousness in the East Asian cultural world but originating from outside that world. Considered in the context of East Asia
The origin of the need to be different in order to be able to stand alone properly next to them. Of course, Buddhism in one aspect still originated from the North, but the social model of taking Buddhism as the state religion was clearly “different from the North” at that time. And it was not by chance that the Ly and Tran kings successively tried to establish their own Zen sects, from Thao Duong to Truc Lam. We believe that this was a way to concretize the intention of combining royal power and divine power in an emperor who was also the religious leader. Right from this beginning, Buddhism in Dai Viet could not be separated from politics, from the issue of nationhood.
Tran Nhan Tong was an emperor born in the most difficult and glorious days in the history of Vietnam. He was one of the most important people who contributed to that glory. The first lines in the section on Emperor Nhan Tong in Dai Viet Su Ky recorded : “His real name was Kham, the eldest son of Thanh Tong, his mother was Nguyen Thanh Thien Cam, the empress dowager, born in the year of Mau Ngo, the 8th year of Nguyen Phong, the 11th month, the 11th day, endowed with the sagely spirit, pure morality, a golden complexion, perfect physique, and bright spirit. Both palaces thought it was strange, and called him Kim Tien Dong Tu. On his left shoulder was a black mole, so he could take on great responsibilities, reigned for 14 years, abdicated for 5 years, became a monk for 8 years, lived to be 51 years old, passed away at Ngoa Van hermitage on Yen Tu mountain, and was buried in Duc Lang. The benevolent and gentle king, who united the people, and whose restoration work was brilliant in the past, was truly a virtuous king of the Tran Dynasty. However, putting his mind on Buddhist scriptures, although said to be for liberation, is not the way of the saintly man” [74, p. 185]. It can be said that the above brief biography has shown us the temperament of an emperor from the moment of birth of Tran Nhan Tong. He was either truly born with the innate appearance and talent of an emperor, or historians added a bit of brilliance to a legend that was already a legend in itself. Although historians themselves are hesitant about Tran Nhan Tong’s putting his mind on Buddhism, that still cannot obscure their utmost respect for him. Although on the one hand he was a great Zen master who founded the Truc Lam Zen sect,
In general, it is a sense of the border, but for the Vietnamese it is simply an accident. They have to learn to express their non-Chinese identity through the cultural heritage of the Chinese. Although coerced by Chinese power for a long period of history, the preservation of Vietnamese identity is as important as the cultural form of expression of this identity” [206, p. xxi].