Taoism in Vietnam ( vi, Đạo giáo Việt Nam) is believed to have been introduced into
the country during the
first Chinese domination of Vietnam
The First Era of Northern Domination refers to the period of Vietnamese history during which present-day northern Vietnam was under the rule of the Han dynasty and the Xin dynasty. It is considered the first of four periods of Vietnam under Chine ...
.
Under
Lý dynasty Emperor
Lý Nhân Tông (1072-1127), the examination for the recruitment of officials consisted of essays on the "three doctrines - Tam Giáo/三教” (
Confucianism
Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, a way of governing, or a ...
,
Buddhism
Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religions, Indian religion or Indian philosophy#Buddhist philosophy, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha. ...
, and
Taoism
Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmony with the '' Ta ...
).
Taoism in its pure form is rarely practiced in Vietnam, but elements of it have been absorbed into the
Vietnamese folk religion
Vietnamese folk religion ( vi, tín ngưỡng dân gian Việt Nam, sometimes just called , Chữ Hán: ) is the ethnic religion of the Vietnamese people. About 86% of the population in Vietnam are associated with this religion.
Vietnamese f ...
and fragments of it are still practiced in areas with small Chinese communities.
One of these small communities is Khanh Van Nam Vien Pagoda which is a temple owned by
Cantonese
Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding ar ...
Quanzhen
The Quanzhen School (全真: ''Quánzhēn''), also known as Completion of Authenticity, Complete Reality, and Complete Perfection is currently one of the two dominant denominations of Taoism in mainland China. It originated in Northern China in ...
Taoists in Saigon. Fujianese Taoists also inhabit smaller rural villages in the west such as
Châu Đốc
Châu Đốc is a city in An Giang Province, bordering Cambodia, in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam. As of 2013, the city had a population of 157,298, and cover an area of .
The city is located by the Hậu River (a branch of the Mekong Rive ...
where the local spirit medium rituals belong to the
Lu Shan Sect. Other than these small Chinese communities, most other descendants of the Taoist religion in Vietnam are not as organized as they would be in places with larger Chinese communities therefore have been turned into nothing more than shamans also known as thầy pháp. Thầy pháp are said to specialize in different types of sorcery. Depending on who and what regions of Vietnam, the shaman may be more Taoist based or may also have Cambodian, Thai, or Vietnamese folk magic influences especially near the borders of the Mekong Delta where it is close to Cambodia. However, a handful of Vietnamese have traveled on pilgrimages to Taoist monasteries in China and have been bringing it back to Vietnam. These monasteries mainly being the
QuanZhen
The Quanzhen School (全真: ''Quánzhēn''), also known as Completion of Authenticity, Complete Reality, and Complete Perfection is currently one of the two dominant denominations of Taoism in mainland China. It originated in Northern China in ...
and
Zheng Yi sects are different then the folk Taoist traditions in Vietnam.
Taoism has also influenced the
Caodaist and
Dao Mau
Dao, Dão or DAO may refer to:
* Tao (Chinese: "The Way" 道), a philosophical concept
* Dao (Chinese sword) (刀), a type of Chinese sword
* Dao (Naga sword), a weapon and a tool of Naga people
People and language
* Yao people, a minority ethnic ...
religions in Vietnam.
According to Professor
Liam Kelley during the Tang dynasty native spirits were subsumed into Daoism and the Daoist view of these spirits completely replaced the original native tales. Buddhism and Daoist replaced native narratives surrounding Mount Yên Tử (安子山).
See also
*
Chinese ancestral worship
Chinese ancestor veneration, also called Chinese ancestor worship, is an aspect of the Chinese traditional religion which revolves around the ritual celebration of the deified ancestors and tutelary deities of people with the same surname or ...
*
Chinese folk religion in Southeast Asia
*
Chinese ritual mastery traditions
Chinese ritual mastery traditions, also referred to as ritual teachings (, sometimes rendered as "Faism"),Yu-chi Tsao, 2012. or Folk Taoism (), or also Red Taoism (mostly in east China and Taiwan), constitute a large group of Chinese orders of r ...
*
Quán Thánh Temple
*
Religion in Vietnam
The majority of Vietnamese do not follow any organized religion, instead participating in one or more practices of folk religions, such as venerating ancestors, or praying to deities, especially during Tết and other festivals. Folk religi ...
*
Temple of the Jade Mountain
*
Thành hoàng
*
Three teachings
In Chinese philosophy, the ''three teachings'' (; vi, tam giáo, Chữ Hán: 三教) are Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism, considered as a harmonious aggregate. Literary references to the "three teachings" by prominent Chinese scholars date ba ...
References
* Tu Anh T. Vu.
Worshiping the Mother Goddess: The Dao Mau Movement in Northern Vietnam'. In: ''Explorations in Southeast Asian Studies'', vol. 6, no. 1, Spring 2006.
External link
{{Vietnam-stub