Buddhism under the Dinh Tiên Lê Ly Tran dynasties

Once independence was regained, Buddhism began to find a favorable response in the person of King Đinh Tiên Hoàng. He appointed Ngô Chấn Lưu, a disciple of the monk Văn Phong from the Khai Quốc pagoda (Hanoi), as Tăng Thống (Supreme Head of the Buddhist clergy). He awarded him the title of Khuông Việt Đại Sư (Grand Master, supporter of the Việt country) for his participation in state affairs as an advisor. Coming from the school of the Chinese monk Vô Ngôn Không, Ngô Chấn Lưu was renowned for his deep knowledge of the Dhyana (or Thiền) doctrine. Then the Buddhist momentum continued to strengthen with the great King Lê Đại Hành (or Lê Hoàn). During an expedition to Champa in 985, he succeeded in bringing back to his country an Indian monk (Thiên Trúc) who was staying at the Đồng Dương monastery.

It was under the reign of this king that the monks played an important role in Vietnamese political life because they were the sole holders of knowledge. This was the case of the monk Ngô Chấn Lưu, entrusted by King Lê Đại Hành to receive a Chinese diplomatic delegation from the Song dynasty (Tống triều) led by ambassador Li Jiao (or Lý Giác). Upon returning to China, Li Jiao was accompanied by a piece of lyrical song (or từ in Vietnamese) written by the monk Khuông Việt himself (or Ngô Chấn Lưu). Besides the official documents, this piece, titled in Vietnamese Ngọc Lang Quy (or Vương Lang Quy), thus became the first Vietnamese literary work still considered today as a precious and important document not only in Sino-Vietnamese relations but also in Vietnamese literature. We also do not forget the impromptu verbal exchange in sentences by the poet monk Đỗ Thuận, disguised as a sampan rower with Li Jiao.

Seeing two wild geese playing on the crest of the waves, Li Jiao began to sing:

Ngỗng ngỗng hai con ngỗng
Ngữa mặt nhìn trời xa

Wild geese, see these two wild geese!
They raise their heads and turn toward the horizon!

The monk Lạc Thuận did not hesitate to complete the quatrain with the same rhymes while continuing to row:

Nước biếc phô lông trắng
Chèo hồng sóng xanh khua

Their white feathers spread over the bluish waters
Their pink feet, like oars, cut through the blue waves.

The parallelism of ideas and terms and especially the speed of the monk Lạc Thuận’s improvisation impressed the Chinese ambassador with admiration. The latter did not hesitate to address compliments to King Lê Đại Hành by comparing him to his own king in a poem. According to what was reported in Thiền Uyển Tập Anh (Florilegium of the Thiền Garden), before his passing, Khuông Việt wrote a poem entitled « The Wood and the Fire » (Cây và Lửa) intended to teach dhyana to his eminent disciple, the Zen master Đa Bảo:

Trong cây sẵn có lửa
Có lửa lửa lại sinh
Nếu bảo ấy không lửa
Cọ xát làm sao phát sinh?

The wood contains fire in essence
And this fire sometimes is reborn
Why say it does not reside there,
If the fire bursts forth when one drills the wood.

He used this kê (a kind of Buddhist stanza) to imply that the wood represents the person and the fire, the nature of the Buddha (Phật tính) that the person always has in their heart. He thus addressed the problem of life and death by reminding his disciple not to worry about it due to the constant change of nature and leaving him to find his path to awakening through the improvement of his individual efforts. Vietnamese Buddhism found its golden age under the Lý (1009-1225) and Trần (1226-1400) dynasties.

According to researcher Nguyễn Thế Anh, Vietnam was essentially a Buddhist country under these two dynasties, as was the Theravāda kingdom of Ayutthaya. But there is still a visible difference in that this Siamese kingdom continued to read Buddhist texts in Sanskrit and Pali and to consider salvation as the result of efforts made by the individual themselves to attain Buddhahood. As for Vietnamese Buddhism, it accepts borrowing not only Classical Chinese to read these Buddhist texts but also the collective path to salvation.

Before becoming the founder of the Lý dynasty, Lý Công Uẩn (974-1028) began his youth in the Cổ Pháp pagoda where his adoptive father, the monk Khánh Vân, introduced him at the age of 7 to a famous monk, Vạn Hạnh of the Vinitaruci school, who would later become his eminent advisor in domestic politics and diplomacy. Before his death, he left us a kê entitled Thi Đệ Tử (Advice to Disciples):

Thân như bóng chóp có rồi không
Cối xanh tươi thu não nùng
Mặc cuộc thịnh suy đừng sợ hãi
Kià kià ngọn cỏ gió sương đông.

Man’s life is a flash, born and soon gone
Green in spring, the tree sheds its leaves in autumn
Why fear greatness and decline?
Blooming and fading are but dewdrops clinging to a blade of grass

Other monks were as famous as Vạn Hạnh under the Lý dynasty. This is the case of the monk Không Lô (1016-1094) who resided at Hà Trạch pagoda. He was also known for his participation in state affairs as the Master of the Kingdom (Quốc Sư) under the reign of King Lý Nhân Tôn. He is still credited today with the invention of Vietnamese casting. He belonged to both the Vô Ngôn Thông and Thảo Đường schools. Under the Lý dynasty, the preeminence of Buddhism undeniably favored the construction of a large number of pagodas, the most famous of which was the One Pillar Pagoda (Chùa Một Cột). This pagoda was restored several times during its existence. According to researcher Hà Văn Tấn, few pagodas retain their architectural and sculptural style dating from the Lý and Trần dynasties. This same observation was noted by King Lê Thánh Tôn. It was later inscribed on the back of the stele of Chùa Đọi pagoda during his visit: Minh khấu hung tàn, tự dĩ canh (The pagoda was in this bad state because of the cruelty of the Ming soldiers).

Unlike the kings of the Lý dynasty, the kings of the Trần dynasty attempted to unify all religious and local beliefs into a single dominant religion under the aegis of their own religious school, Trúc Lâm (Bamboo Forest). This school was more politically engaged than the dhyana school in China.

According to King Trần Nhân Tôn, founder of the Trúc Lâm school, Buddhism was meant to serve social life as much as religious life (đời và đạo). It is through him that Trúc Lâm Buddhism shows its path and its quintessence in its doctrine. Being a king, he knew how to channel popular fervor and bravely resist two Mongol invasions with his people. Being a father, he knew how to rigorously educate his children, especially his son Trần Thuyên, the future King Trần Anh Tôn. A few years later (1298), he retired to a monastery in Yên Tử to found the Trúc Lâm sect with two other monks. Despite his commitment to serving the nation and social life, Trúc Lâm dhyana Buddhism encountered serious problems as a state religion. The king’s authority could be undermined by the inherent shortcomings of Buddhism: compassion, generosity, amnesty, forgiveness, largesse granted to Buddhist foundations, etc. A Buddhist king could not assert the interests of the state against the precepts of Buddhism because he might fail in his duty by granting grace to his enemy. This was the case of King Lý Thánh Tôn, whom historian Lê Văn Hưu did not hesitate to openly criticize in his work Đại Việt Sử Ký (Historical Records of Great Việt) for the forgiveness granted to the rebel enemy Nùng Trí Cao. For this historian, political order was no longer in force.

Sometimes the largesse granted by the state to pagodas in the form of financial subsidies and land donations made these institutions wealthier than the state itself. Under the Lý dynasty, murders were punished in the same way as ordinary crimes. This did not allow for distinguishing the severity of the punishment but rather caused latent laxity and contempt for the judicial system, as the defendant forgot to weigh the acts they had committed. By claiming to be governed by a higher power, the monks placed themselves only under the authority of their superiors and conformed solely to the laws established by the Buddhist clergy (or vinaya). They were beyond the reach of imperial laws. For this reason, Confucian scholars began to express their concerns about the relaxation of the political and judicial system and the development of chronic rural unrest caused by peasants (such as Nguyễn Bố, Phạm Sư Ôn) and by the Cham offensive led by Chế Bồng Nga during the reign of King Trần Dự Tôn (1342-1369). The court mandarin Trương Hán Siêu, under the reigns of Trần Anh Tôn and Trần Minh Tôn, denounced the growing influence of Buddhist institutions over the rural population. One of the brilliant students of the scholar Chu Văn An, the Confucianist Lê Quát did not spare words in openly denouncing the Buddhist beliefs of all social classes.

The return to Confucian order proved necessary with Hồ Qúi Ly, the usurper of the Trần. He attempted to purify Buddhist doctrine in the year 1396 and implemented stricter control over the structure of Buddhism by appointing laypeople within the Buddhist hierarchy. Monks under the age of fifty were forced to return to civilian life.

The occupation of Vietnam by the Ming (1407-1428) favored the strengthening of Confucianism and bureaucracy as desired by their assimilation policy. Institutional Buddhism lost the protection of the court and its political influence under the Lê. The code of the latter undoubtedly reflected Confucian rigor in punishments to restore not only morality but also imperial authority.

Vietnamese Buddhism continued to decline under the Nguyễn when they aligned with the Qing to adopt a Chinese bureaucratic model at the beginning of the 19th century. Despite this, Buddhism remains a popular religion because, beyond its precepts (generosity, affability, compassion, meditation, etc.), it easily adapts to local customs, traditions, and beliefs.

It is this tolerance that, over the centuries, has made this religion an appealing philosophy that is easily accessible to all Vietnamese.

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