Luận án: Sự hình thành và phát triển của giáo dục Phật giáo tại Việt Nam

BEGINNING AND DEVELOPMENT OF BUDDHIST EDUCATION IN VIETNAM BY TAN NGOC HO UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST APRIL 2009 2020 CONTENTS Abstract 11 Acknowledgement 15 Chapter One INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale for Study 19 1. The Basic Hypothesis 20 1. Methodology of Research 21 1.

Plan of Research 22 1. Presentation of results 26 Chapter Two CONTEXTUAL BACKGROUND A. Geography and Early Migrations 27 2. Early Historical Dynasties 31 2.

ntertwined History of Vietnam and China at the Beginning of Vietnamese Cultural Development 33 B. Sources of Information 35 2. ntroduction of Buddhism to Vietnam by Asoka from India: Conflicting Theories and Tentative Conclusion 38 2. The Role of Buddhism in the Liberation of Vietnam 44 2.

Buddhism and Its Two Golden Ages 49 2. Buddhism Spreads to the South 52 2. Assimilation and differentiation 55 BEGINNING AND DEVELOPMENT OF BUDDHIST EDUCATION IN VIETNAM 2. Historic Autonomy of the Pagoda 58 2.

Verification of Contextual Background 60 2.12 Conclusions on Contextual Background 69 Chapter Three BEGINNING OF BUDDHIST EDUCATION IN VIETNAM 3. Lack of Information 73 3. Impact of Chinese Tradition on Vietnamese Buddhism 73 3. Vietnam as Melting Pot of Indian and Chinese Cultures 75 Chapter Four DEVELOPMENT OF BUDDHIST EDUCATION IN VIETNAM 4.

Buddhism: Origin and Teachings 79 4. Early Trends in Vietnamese Education 91 4. Buddhist Education during the 1920’s to the 1950s 94 4. Developments in Buddhist Education – Introduction of Theravada Tradition 96 4.

Buddhist Education during 1954 to 1975 98 4. Case Study on the Buddhist Education of a typical cohort of Buddhist Monks in the 20th century 100 4. Validation of Data and Conclusions 119 Chapter Five BUDDHIST EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS OF VIETNAM 5. Absence of Specific Records in India, China and Elsewhere 127 5.

Principal Educational Institutions with Reliable information 134 6 CONTENTS 5. Monastery or Pagoda as the Main Institutional Base of Buddhist Education 140 5. Institutional Facilities at the Disposal of my Cohorts 151 Chapter Six CONTENT OF BUDDHIST EDUCATION AND LEARNING MATERIALS 6. The Buddha as an Educator 155 6.

The Buddha’s Teachings constituting the Contents of Buddhist Education 165 6. Educational Content of the Monastic Education of my Cohorts and Me 192 6. Result of Field Research and Conclusion 205 Chapter Seven APPROACHES AND METHODS OF BUDDHIST EDUCATION 7. The Buddha’s Stress on Approaches to Instruction 209 A.

Twelve Practical Methods in Buddhist Education 214 A. Narrative Explicative Method 216 D. Active Mindfulness Method 217 7 BEGINNING AND DEVELOPMENT OF BUDDHIST EDUCATION IN VIETNAM E. Indirect or Subtle Method: 217 F.

Meiotic or Question Method: 218 G. Inductive and Deductive Methods: 219 I. Advance Progressively Method: 220 J. Prevention or Prohibition Method: 221 L.Concept and Explanation of Expedient or Skillful Methods (Upayakausalya) 223 7.

The Methods in Buddhist Education of my Cohorts and Me 229 7. Conclusion 234 Chapter Eight FAMOUS TEACHERS IN THE HISTORY OF VIETNAMESE BUDDHIST EDUCATION 8. Founders of Lineages and Early Teachers 236 8. Vạn Hạnh and other Buddhist teachers of Golden Age in Vietnam 250 8.

Thái Tông of the Trần dynasty, theprecedent of a king becoming a monk 265 8. The Trinity of Trúc Lâm Patriarchs of Golden Age 272 8. Thiền Uyển Tập Anh 282 8. The Buddhist teachers in the period of decline 286 8.

Recent Vietnamese Buddhist teachers 290 8. Conclusion 310 8 CONTENTS Chapter Nine CONCLUSIONS A. Specificity of Vietnamese Buddhism 315 9. History of Vietnamese Buddhism: Indian-Buddhist Links 317 9.

Influence of Chinese Buddhism 319 9. Consolidation of Thiền (Zen) and Pure Land Buddhism in Vietnam 321 B. What an Examination of the Vietnamese Buddhist Education Reveals 323 9. Beginnings of Vietnamese Buddhist Education 325 9.

Pagoda as the Center of Vietnamese Buddhist Education 326 9. Content of Vietnamese Buddhist Education 328 9. Learning Materials of Vietnamese Buddhist Education 332 9. Approaches and Methods of Vietnamese Buddhist Education 334 9.

Educators and Teachers in Vietnamese Buddhist Education 335 C. Need for Systematic Study 342 9. Future of Vietnamese Buddhist Education 344 Bibliography A. Electronic Texts 359 Index 371 9 ABSTRACT No systematic examination of how Buddhist education began and developed in Vietnam has been hitherto attempted, to the best of my knowledge.

The importance of tracing the history of Buddhism in general and Buddhist education in particular is enhanced by the fact that Vietnam is geographically the meeting point of the eastern expansion of Indian culture and the southern expansion of Chinese culture. These two significant cultures met and flourished in Vietnam. Its study is an extremely urgent academic task because the few currently available sources could disappear due to the prevailing political and cultural developments, on the one hand, and the dispersal of scholars due to the Vietnamese Diaspora, on the other. In the ensuing chapters, the history of Buddhism and Buddhist education in Vietnam is reconstructed to the extent possible under the present conditions.

Some of the conclusions are, therefore, tentative. The basic hypothesis on which the research has been established: BEGINNING AND DEVELOPMENT OF BUDDHIST EDUCATION IN VIETNAM (1) Adequate data are gleanable from available resources, textual and oral, to reconstruct this history; (2) Such data and the recording of the experience of educated monastics could serve to understand the main features and challenges of Vietnamese Buddhist education; and (3) A history of Buddhist education thus reconstructed could be the basis for further examination of issues on which disagreements exist among scholars. The research adopted a combination of four approaches: (a) A desk research on primary sources in Chinese and Vietnamese; (b) A critical examination of secondary sources in Chinese, Vietnamese, English and French; (c) A phenomenological analysis of my personal experience as a Buddhist and student of Buddhism and the experiences of my immediate colleagues, friends and teachers; and (d) Validation of data through a field survey conducted with a questionnaire. The result of this research is presented in eight substantive chapters.

Following the opening Chapter outlining the methodology and the plan of the study, Chapter Two on the contextual background to Buddhist education examines (A) the culture and education of Vietnam before the advent of Buddhism, and (B) how Buddhism came to be introduced to Vietnam. An investigation into the earliest form of Buddhist education in Vietnam is taken up in Chapter Three and continued into Chapter Four with a detailed 12 BY TAN NGOC HO • UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST • APRIL 2009 analysis of the development of Buddhist education up to 1975. Chapter Five surveys the information available on educational institutions and records the contribution made by pagodas in various parts of the country. Special attention is given in Chapter Six to the content of Buddhist education, which is presented historically under the three domains of educational objectives, namely cognitive, affective and skill-based.

This analysis brings out most eloquently the richness of the substantive content which Vietnamese Buddhist education has inherited from its primary sources of inspiration and further developed through its own ingenuity. An equally significant observation results from Chapter Seven in which traditional methods of instruction are examined with reference to the experience of Vietnamese educators. Chapter Eight takes note of the large number of nationally famous educators and teachers, of both Thiền (Zen) and Pure Land traditions, whose literary and instructional contributions could be outlined. In doing so, special notice has been taken of the role which poetry played as a vehicle of spiritual and philosophical communication among them.

Chapter Nine summarizes the substantial findings of the research and ends with a brief note on the present and future of Buddhist education in Vietnam. 13 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT This dissertation has been a long time in the writing. During these years a number of people have provided practical and moral support. First I would like to thank my teachers and advisors at the Department of Religious Studies, University of the West for their sustaining guidance and enthusiasm, as well as their willingness to encourage and support my explorations in the interdisciplinary field of Religious Studies and inspire me to follow my own decision in the pursuit of Buddhist Studies.

Here, I would like to express my respectful gratitude to a Great Scholar and dedicated teacher, Dr. Guruge, Chair of the Doctoral Committee, who played a large part in the development of my thinking about Buddhism and its educational role in Vietnam and whose insights and direction assisted me in negotiating new theoretical terrains. I am sure that I could never express the depth of my appreciation. I would also like to express my heartfelt thanks to the Most Venerable Dr.

Thích Ân Huệ (Laude T. Ware) who BEGINNING AND DEVELOPMENT OF BUDDHIST EDUCATION IN VIETNAM spend valuable time with me and guided me to which this dissertation takes form. But it is my misfortune that he did not live long enough to see it through. So, I respectfully dedicate this dissertation to him as a tribute to his memory.

I also would like to thank Dr. Darui Long, my committee chair member and advisor, for helping me at the most difficult times. I am indebted to him and the Doctoral Committee for their intellectual guidance I had from their scholarship and their analytical contribution is manifest all the way through the whole dissertation. While collecting and using the sources for my dissertation, I benefited directly and indirectly from many research works and I am indebted to the authors.

In writing my dissertation, it is simply fair to point out at this outset that I owe a great deal to a great many scholars, even to those whose opinions I strongly agree and disagree with and severely criticize. My heartfelt thanks go to my community of dharma friends who provided critical feedback and to those who spent their time providing crucial information on the surveys I sent out. Their support and encouragement kept me going through difficult times. And finally, to my beloved Great Master Thích Kế Châu, who has provided and taught me all the valuable knowledge and skills which I possess now to further develop my thinking in Buddhism and in life.

May the merit and virtue accrued from this work, 16 BY TAN NGOC HO • UNIVERSITY OF THE WEST • APRIL 2009 repay the four great kindnesses above, relieve the suffering of those on the three paths below, help aim towards world peace and freedom of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam from Communist oppression and contribute towards religious freedom and human rights. Tan Ngoc Ho 17 Chapter One INTRODUCTION 1. Rationale for Study No systematic examination of how Buddhist education began and developed in Vietnam has been hitherto attempted, to the best of my knowledge. The primary reason is the paucity of information resulting from the destruction of early literary sources during times of internal upheavals including the recent Vietnam wars and their aftermath.

The importance of tracing the history of Buddhism in general and Buddhist education in particular is enhanced by the fact that Vietnam is geographically the meeting point of the eastern expansion of Indian culture and the southern expansion of Chinese culture. Its location therefore is aptly called Indo-China. These two significant cultures met and flourished in Vietnam, which has a history as long as China’s, dating as far back as the 11th century BCE. It is the most ancient civilization in Southeast Asia and its history could reveal the impact of the interaction of the two most important cultural trends of Asia, namely Indian and Chinese.

With 50 million Buddhists in an overall population of 83 million people, the Buddhist culture of Vietnam has many specific characteristics, BEGINNING AND DEVELOPMENT OF BUDDHIST EDUCATION IN VIETNAM which shed new light on the manner in which Buddhism transformed itself as a result of Indian and Chinese influences. The reconstruction of its history is an extremely urgent academic task in view of the fact that the few currently available sources could disappear due to the prevailing political and cultural developments, on the one hand, and the dispersal of scholars due to the Vietnamese Diaspora, on the other.