Doctrine beyond Borders: The Sinographic Cosmopolis and Religious Classics in Vietnam from the Tenth to the Fourteenth Centuries

Abstract

Abstract This article studies the transmission of the Three Teachings 三教 (Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism) from China to Vietnam in the tenth to fourteenth centuries. Using the primary sources written in Sinitic, I argue that Vietnam in the pre-national period was a type of multireligious political community, in which sinographs, Literary Sinitic, and the classics of the Three Teachings created a threefold structure in the political culture of Vietnam. Visits to the Chinese imperial court by delegations from the Great Việt were conceived as pilgrimages to the center of civilization and the origin of different schools of thought. The canonical texts brought back to the country were considered to be an endorsement of Vietnam as a “Domain of Manifest Civility” (文獻之邦), a symbol of recognized political power, and a tool to expand education and spread ruling power.