Abstract
In this chapter I consider a religious group that has sought to revitalise the teachings of a Vietnamese sage. The group under examination is known as the School of Teaching Goodness. The chapter first introduces the founder of the School, his students, and their key rituals. Attention is paid to the leader’s experiences of the spiritual world and how the students transformed their individual beliefs into that of a school. It then analyses how the School has successfully challenged local authorities’ attempts to control it. The final part of the chapter investigates the School’s motives for re-creating the past, its associated agenda, and its justifications for the continuing relevance of a sixteenth-century postfeudal mandarin’s moral and religious thoughts.
When the land of Tiên Lãng is split,
and the Hàn river flows again, I shall return.
Khi nào Tiên Lãng xẻ đôi
Sông Hàn nối lại thì tôi lại về
(Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm’s prophetic verses)
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- 1.
‘Goodness’ is my translation of the Vietnamese word ‘thiện,’ a noun which in fact conveys many meanings. ‘Thiện’ could also be translated as ‘benevolence.’ The ‘School of Teaching Goodness’ is my translation of the Vietnamese phrase ‘trường dạy về cái Thiện.’
- 2.
Vĩnh Bảo is a newer district, split off from original Tiên Lãng district.
- 3.
All translations of verses from the School of Teaching Goodness are the author’s.
- 4.
‘Spirit texts’ here refer to written messages that a person claims to have received from ‘spiritual beings’ through dreams, their subconscious, or mediumistic practices. They are similar to texts received through the ‘giáng bút (spirit writing)’ which resulted from Daoist practices found in East and Southeast Asia. In the South of Vietnam, in the first half of the twentieth century, ‘spirit writing’ played an important role in the formation of new religious movements such as Caodaism and Hòa Hảo Buddhism.
- 5.
It is now widely known in Vietnam that in order to communicate effectively with spirits, a human communicator (often a medium) will need to be taught and trained by spirits. It is just like we learn how to use a foreign language from a teacher. Thus, there appears the concept ‘spiritual courses.’
- 6.
According to Feng shui, there are lines of energy running underground. Only a master of Feng shui can analyse where the energy is flowing and how to make use of it and not impede it.
- 7.
Lê Thị Chiêng categorises private home shrines into five types according to the objects being worshipped: (1) to worship Buddha, (2) to worship Mother Goddess, (3) to worship Saint Trần, (4) to worship renowned intellectuals, and (5) to worship the Heavenly Court. Among these, the majority are those to worship Mother Goddess and Saint Trần.
- 8.
This is a modification of the classical Chinese scripts written in the Vietnamese language. It was used by elites in Vietnam from the fifteenth to nineteenth centuries. Later, Quốc ngữ replaced it and became the national written language.
- 9.
The Center was officially founded in Hanoi in 1977, under the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations (VUSTA). Most projects run by the Center relate to communication with the dead with the role of persons who are said to be capable of extrasensory perception.
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Hoang, C.V. (2017). Revitalising the Legacy of a Local Sage: The School of Teaching Goodness. In: New Religions and State's Response to Religious Diversification in Contemporary Vietnam. Boundaries of Religious Freedom: Regulating Religion in Diverse Societies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-58500-0_3
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