Vietnamese Folk Literature Reflecting the Viets’ Synthetic Belief (1)

The Vietnamese Three Teachings started their long history from the first and second centuries onwards. Thus, the Three Teachings could not only deeply impact intelligentsia who mastered Chinese characters but also implant moral thoughts in the minds of illiterate common people. With such genres as legends, folk songs, folk poems, proverbs, etc., Vietnamese folk literature (or literature handed down orally) gives obvious proofs of the Three Teachings’ impressions on Vietnamese culture and ethics. Buddhas and immortals always appear in legends to teach people to cultivate their virtues by doing good deeds and avoiding wrongdoings.

1. THE IMPRESSION OF CONFUCIANISM

Such moral categories of Confucianism as Tam Cương (the Three Bonds, namely the state and citizens, parents and children, husband and wife) and Ngũ Thường (the Five Constant Virtues, namely benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and sincerity) were Vietnamized in form of simple and sincere ballads in rural areas:

As a man who follows the sages’ teachings,

You should follows the Three Bonds and

the Five Constant Virtues.

Or:

As a man who observes the Three Bonds,

You should be filial to your parents,

loyal to your country, and faithful to your wife.

 Ngũ Luân (the Five Cardinal Relationships, namely the ethical relationships between the state and citizens, parents and children, husband and wife, siblings, and friends) and Ngũ Thường (the Five Constant Virtues) are also called luân thường for short. In those five relationships, an individual must be filial to his parents and yielding to his elder siblings. Such filial piety and yieldingness are explained as follows:

With all your heart, honour your parents,

That is your filial piety,

one of the moral principles.

Yieldingness is also your good manners.

Yield to your elder siblings and seniors.

Never fail to bear in mind,

You, a child or a junior,

should comply with such principles.

Zeng Cen said, “Of all virtues so sublime is filial piety.” ^([1]) His saying has been Vietnamized in the following ballad:

Of all constant virtues from ancient times,

Filial piety is the first one of any child.

Or:

The sublime of all virtues is filial piety.

A river has its source, a tree its roots,

And a man must pay homage to their ancestors.

The Chinese words “Visiting parents at dawn and at dusk”^[2] from Confucian books has been Vietnamized in a ballad as follows:

In a thatched hut lives my old mother.

At dawn and dusk, I always visit her.

It seems to be mistaken if saying that the Vietnamese have a strong sense of filial piety as a result of Confucian learning. With their brilliant moral tradition, the Vietnamese revere filial piety naturally. However, when Confucianism was introduced into the country, its moral principles suitable for the Vietnamese mentality had an approriate environment for development.

Vietnamese ballads emphasize filial piety. For instance:

- Father’s merit is as great as mount Thái,

Mother’s love is as immense

as overflowing water from the source.

Devotedly serving parents is the filial piety

of all children.

- Father’s merit is like a skyhigh mountain,

Mother’s heart is as immense as the East ocean.

The parents’ love for their children is

as great as high mountains and immense seas.

Always keep that in mind, oh my child!

- To lead a religious life,

nowhere is better than home,

Devotion to your parents is the true way

of practising the Dao.

Thus, performance of filial piety also means self-cultivation. The Great Learning, a Confucian book, says that if a person has cultivated himself, his family is regulated.^[3] This saying is paraphrased by the Vietnamese as follows:

Cultivate yourself before regulating your family,

Not caring whoever has distorted

your true heartedness.

2. THE IMPRESSION OF BUDDHISM

Buddhism has a strong impact on the daily life of the Vietnamese, especially the beliefs in karma, reincarnation, and cause-effect relation. The theory of karma is expressed as follows:

Drifting through the Thần Phù estuary,

Only he who well cultivates virtues can live.

Situated in Yên Mô district, Ninh Bình province, Thần Phù was the estuary of Chính Đại river, which flew into the Gulf of Tonkin. At the end of the Lê dynasty, the estuary was filled by sand and became land. The place name disappeared but the folk ballad on it is still extant.

Buddhist humanism also permeates through the feelings and morals of the Vietnamese. Śūramgama Sūtra says that to serve sentient beings devotedly in the secular world means to requite Buddha’s favours.^[4]

Similarly, a Vietnamese ballad says that to save a person is better than to build a stupa for worshipping Buddha:

Building a nine-story stupa is not so good

as saving a person.

3. THE IMPRESSION OF DAOISM

According to the cosmoslogy by Laozi and Zhuangzi, the Way (Đạo, Dao) 道 is the primordial principle or the Absolute whereas the Power (Đức, De) 德 is the manifestation of the Way in human beings. For the common people, this phylosophical concept may be too abstract to understand. However, since the unknown time, the terms đạo and đức have been popularly used with a strong ethical connotation in the Vietnamese people’s everyday language. Accordingly, Đạo (the Way) simply refers to the moral standard or principle in human behavior. Thus, the Vietnamese often advise one another to live in harmony with the Way or Principle, say to behave morally, which later result in such expressions as đạo làm người (the principle of humanity), đạo vợ chồng (the principle of married couples), đạo thầy trò (the principle of teachers and students), đạo làm con (the principle of children), etc.

Don’t neglect the principle of children.

Be respectful to honour your parents.

For the Vietnamese, biết đạo (knowing the Dao) means knowing how to behave properly towards the family, clan, neighbors, society, and nation. A single peasant who wants to select his life-partner also highly values this moral standard, so he sings as follows:

This piece of crystal which shines

has been saved for a long time

to make a wedding ring of thine.

Even though one insists to buy,

I won’t give it until the day

I find a girl who knows the Way.

Immoral persons can be scolded as vô đạo, thất đức, which literally means “losing the Way or virtue”. Contrarily, a moral person is praised as ăn ở có đức, which literally means “leading a virtuous life”. In Vietnamese, the term đức is also used as an honorific (equivalent to His / Her Holiness) before the names of deities, national heroes, and reverend figures, for example, Đức Chí Tôn (the Supreme Being), Đức Mẹ (Holy Mother), Đức Chúa (the Lord), Đức Thánh Trần (Saint Trần Hưng Đạo), Đức Bồ Tát (Bodhisattva), etc.

Đức (virtue) becomes a spiritual value with supernatural power which can support human life. A family of morality does not regard worldly wealth as perpetual property handed down to many gernerations of offspring. On the contrary, only đức or âm đức (quiet virtue) is an invisible property which is worth being handed down forever. Thus:

- The foliage of an evergreen tree is

also evergreen.

Virtuous parents leave their children quiet virtues.

- While others plant apricots as a hobby,

I plant a tree of virtue for my posterity.

When comparing virtue to evergreen trees and leaves, the Vietnamese obviously regard virtue as something concrete which can be planted and cultivated so that it can be luxuriant, fruitful, and blossoming. Thus, virtue becomes thicker and thicker and perpetually durable. Understanding and using this term so vividly and creatively is a distinctive culture trait of the Vietnamese people.

The impressions of the Three Teachings on the Vietnamese people are very abundant. The examples mentioned above are merely preliminary typical illustrations. However, it should be noted that the Three Teachings also blended with the Vietnamese people’s indigenous beliefs.

HUỆ KHẢI