Buddhist Contribution to Good Governance
and Development in Vietnam*
Ven. Prof. Le Manh That
Vice Rector
Vietnam Buddhist University
Since the introduction of Buddhism into Vietnam, Buddhist teachings are
not only for monks and nuns, but also for the society as a whole
including the majority of men and women of every class of life.
Actually, the first Buddhist work still extant in Vietnam written by Mâu
tử about the year 198 A.D. Under the name Lý họăc luận (Righting the
wrong) states clearly what role Buddhism can play in any society,
especially the society of Vietnam of Mâu Tử’ s time: “The Buddhist way,
when applied to the family is for: serving the parents; when applied to
the nation is for : helping the people; when applied to one’s own life
is for: perfection of oneself”(
道之为物居家可以事亲宰国可以治民独立可以治身
Đạo
chi vi vật, cư gia khả dĩ sự thân, tể quốc khả dĩ trị dân, độc lập khả
dĩ trị thân),
So, from a very early period in Vietnamese history, Buddhism already put
out a theory of good governance and development and showed a strong
interest in the application of that theory. In this paper, we wish to
present three case studies of this application in the history of
Vietnam.
Pháp Thuận’s theory
The first case is the theory of good
state governance and development proposed by Zen Master Pháp Thuận
(915-990). In a poem entitled Quốc tộ ( National destiny
国阼),
in response to the question by Emperor Lê Đại Hành (reigned 980-1005)
about the destiny of the Vietnamese nation, recorded in Thiền uyển
tập anh (Collection of Outstanding Figures in Zen Garden
禪苑集英), pháp Thuận said :
“ Quốc tộ như đằng lạc
國阼如藤络
Nam thiên lý thái bình
南天哩太平
Vô vi cư
điện các
無為居殿閣
Xứ xứ tức đao binh”
處處息刀兵
Nation’ s destiny is just like a bunch
of intertwined rattan
Peace reigns over the southern sky
No-action stays in the palace
War
will be stopped everywhere
In this poem, Pháp Thuận discusses war
and peace and the method for stopping war, enabling peace to be
maintained- forever in Vietnam. These are the words that the Vietnamese
people of Pháp Thuận’s time aspired towards and fervently desired to be
present in their country after the resistance war for national
independence in 939 A.D., and during the war between the warlords from
944 to 968. The key issue here is how to stop war and bring peace to the
people and the Nation’s destiny depends upon the answer to that
question. In Pháp Thuận’s view, for the war to be stopped, the first and
foremost requirement is to have “no-action staying in the palace”. What
does the word no-action in this context mean? In Buhhhist
terminology, the Chinese word no-action无为
is used to translate the Sanskrit
asamkrta which means “the absolute” in Buddhist epistemology and
ontology and has nothing to do with the term no-action in that
poem.
In the Collection of the
sutras on six Pamamitas, there is a
definition of no-action which has some social and ethical
bearing, which reads as follows : “Careful but not haughty is the
character of a learned man, to give away the ideas of dirty love and not
to be contaminated with the dust of six sentiments, not to let those
dirty loves even small as a strand of hair to be camouflaged in our
hearts, then svery thought will become extinct, that is no-action”.
But then, this definition is not fit quite well in the context of the
above poem.
We have to look another place for the
meaning of no-action. In the Chinese literature, this term appears quite
frequently, especially in the works of Lao Tzu (老子)
and Confucius. In the Book of the Way. Lao Tzu is believed to have said:
“ The sages manage affairs with no-action, carry out teaching without
speech… Act by no-action, then, nothing is not in order”
.
But, what the term no-action means, Lao Tzu does not state clearly.
Therefore, it is very difficult to specify the content of that concept,
and there are different explanation of it in the history of Chinese
thought.
On the contrary, in the Book of
Sayings, Confucius is said to have the following statement: “Governance
with no-action, only Emperor Shun did it. How could that be done? It
needs only to be serious about himself and facing southwards”
(子曰無為而治者其舜也歟夫何為哉恭已正南面而已矣
Tử viết : Vô vi nhi trị giả, kỳ Thuấn giả dư Phù hà vị tai? Cung kỷ
chính nam diện nhi dĩ hĩ ). Although the concept of no-action here is
used to define the governance and is said to be the way of the
governance of Emperor Shun, but the content is not clearly specified,
except the property of being serious about himself (恭已).
Such a specification evidently is not sufficient to define the way of
governance of Emperor Shun, Fortunately, there are two other places
where Confucius is reported to describe Emperor Shun’s way of
governance.
The first place is a statement in the
section 31 entitled The Middle（中庸）of
the Book of Rites (禮記):”
Is Emperor Shun a great wise man? Emperor Shun likes to inquire and
discuss in order to speak, hide people’s bad sides and show their
goodness, maintain two extremes, but use the Middle for the good of
people. Is it because of this that he became Emperor Shun?”(子曰舜其大智者於？舜好問而好察以言，隱惡而揚善執其兩端，用其中與民，其斯以為舜乎).
The other place is also in the Book of the Middle: “ Is Emperor Shun a
man of great filial piety? He is morally good to be a saint,
aristocratic to be a Son of the Heaven, wealthy spreading to four seas,
honored in the Place, and having children to continue on. Therefore, if
the virtue is great get the place, will have the enumeration, will enjoy
the fame and will have longevity. So, the Heaven gives birth to all
things and treats them depending upon their case. In consequence, if
they are good, Heaven will strengthen them and if they are not, it will
throw away … That is why man of great virtue will receive the mandate
from Heaven”.(子曰舜其大孝者與德為聖人尊為天子富有四海之內宗廟饗之子孫保之故大德必得其名必得其壽故天之生物必因其材而篤故栽者培之傾者覆之詩曰架楽君子憲憲栽令德宜民宜人受祿於天保佑命之自天申之故大德者必受命)。
Through these two statements by Confucius about Emperor Shun and how he
got the mandate from Heaven to be leader during his lifetime, we know
now that his way of governance by no-action requires that the
leader should have two necessary qualities in carrying out his mission
of leading the people , that is, the wisdom and the virtue. Shun
possesses these two qualities, so he becomes the Emperor of China at his
time. From this, we presently could understand what the term
no-action in the above poem by Pháp Thuận means. It means that if
the Vietnamese of his time have a leader who possesses the wisdom and
virtue, then the country will have a peaceful life.
Therefore thus, as a whole,
Pháp Thuận’s poem clearly states his Buddhist view on good governance
and development in the Vietnam of 10th century. At the
junction of history, when Vietnam is facing an imminent war from the
rising Sung Dynasty of China, the question of the national existence
comes into the forefront. So, the answer to that question is that in
order to keep peace, the Vietnamese should be in a great solidarity,
just like a bunch of intertwined rattan, and in order to
stop the war, they should have a leader who possesses wisdom and virtue.
So, quite early in the history of Buddhism in Vietnam, the Vietnamese
Buddhists, through the case of Zen Master Pháp Thuan, have know how to
exploit the Buddhist theory of good governance and development to apply
to the Vietnamese the political and social reality.
Viên Thông’s theory
Nearly one century after Pháp Thuận
passing away, Zen Master Viên Thông (1080 – 1151) was born and he become
our second case study of Buddhist theory of good governance and
development in Vietnam. He grew up in a peaceful Vietnam in the country
already became a Great Viet (大越). The leadership of the nation started
to show signs of seperating from the people and the mass began to ask
for their rights. In this circumstance, Viên Thông, as a royal adviser,
has proposed a new theory of good governance and development. Again, and
this theory, the question of how to keep peace and stop the war is
dealt with, but there already appears a shifl in the emphasis from war
to peace. In a conversation with Emperor Lý Thần Tông in the year 1130
A.D., which Thiền uyển tập anh recorded, in response to Lý Thần Tông’s
question about the principles of political order and upheaval, of
prosperity and decline in the world, Viên Thông said: “ The people is
like an instrument. Put them in a safe place, they are safe; put them
in a perilous place, they are in peril. It all depends on how the leader
of the people behaves himself. If his benevolence is in harmony with
the hearts and minds of the people, then they will love him as a parent
and look up to him like the sun and the moon. This is putting people in
a safe place.” (
天下猶器也置諸安置諸
危則危願在人主所行何如耳好生之德合於民愛之如父母仰之如日月是置
天下得之安者也 ). Through this answer, a shift clearly appears in the theory of good
governance and development from war to peace. And here, the question of
the behavior of the leader becomes a hot spot which must be analyzed to
find out such a behavior should be composed of. Of course, a good leader
must possess wisdom and virtue, but how these qualities are put into
practice should be inquired. So, Viên Thông went on to say: “ Order
or chaos rests with the officials. If they can win the people over, then
there is political order; if they lose the people’s support, then there
is upheaval. I have observed Emperors and Kings of former time, no one
succeeded without employing true gentlemen, or failed unless he employed
petty men. When we trace how these things come about, it does not happen
overnight, but develops gradually. Just as heaven and earth cannot
abruptly produce cold and hot weather, but must change gradually through
the seasons like spring and autumn, etc., Kings cannot suddenly bring
about prosperity or decline, but rather it is a gradual process
depending on their good or bad activities. The wise Kings of old knew
this principle, so they modeled themselves on Heaven and never ceased to
rely on virtue to cultivate themselves; they molded themselves on Earth
and never ceased to rely on virtue to pacify the people. To cultivate
oneself means to be cautious within, as cautious as if one were walking
on thin ice. To pacify people means to respect those who are below, to
be as respectful as one riding a horse holding worn-out reins. If one
can be like that, one cannot but succeed; if otherwise, one cannot but
fail. The gradual process of prosperity, or decline depends on this.”
Here, Viên Thông expounds a new theory
of good governance and development by emphasizing upon what we with our
modern science of business management call the question of personnel,
the question of employing appropriate works. The leader is now not
reserved only for the king or the Emperor, or the head of a state but
also for the officials in the governing bureaucracy of a country. In
other words, if the working of a state machinery runs smoothly with good
officicals, then, the country will be in great peace. Otherwise, it will
fall into a chaotic state. Thus, there is an expansion of the notion of
leadership from one man to a group of people who are responsible for the
working of a state machinery. This is a new contribution of Viên Thông’s
theory of good governance and development.
Trần Thái Tông’s theory
Hundred years after Viên Thông’s death,
Vietnam underwent many changes. Even with his advice, the leadership of
the Lý dynasty could not reverse the course of history and the country
fell into a chaotic state. Warring factions fought each other and
finally appeared a new dynasty whose leader was a new young man under
the name Trần Cảnh (1218-1278), later on, widely known under the title
Trần Thái Tông. In the year 1236 A.D., due to the coercion by Trần Thủ
Độ the imperial head of government, to accept his brother’s wife, Trần
Cảnh fled to Yên Tử mountain from the capital Thăng Long. There, he met
Zen master Phù Vân and of course, Trần Thủ Độ got after him, asking him
to be back to the capital. After many requests and not receiving the
acquiescence from Trần Cảnh, Trần Thủ Độ decided to make to mountain
into a new capital. Phù Vân intervened, saying to Trần Cảnh: “ To be the
leader of the people, one should take the wish of the people to be his
wish, the heart of the people to be his heart, now, that the people wish
to welcome Your Majesty back to the capital, then how can your
Majesty not come back?”
(
凡為人君者以天下欲為欲以天下之心為心。今天下欲迎陸下之歸則階下安得不歸哉
).
With this statement, Phù Vân again
gives us a new look on the theory of good governance and development in
Vietnam of 13th Century when the Vietnamese began to deal
with the rising power of the Mongolian empire in the North under the
leadership of Genghis Khan (1162-1227). Actually, this new theory for
the first time discusses about the desire and the will of people in
relation to the governance and development of the state in its clearest
term and content. The governance and development of a state totally
depends upon the desire and the will of people and reflects reflects
this desire and will. Thus, a new and most important element is
introduced into the theory of state governance and development, which
Pháp Thuận’s and Viên Thông’s theories do not explicitly state or
marginally deal with, that is, the desire and the will of people. The
leader of the nation will act according to that desire and
will.
We can say this is a new
contribution of the Vietnamese Buddhist theory of state governance and
development of the 13th century which still has a great
bearing upon our time. This is because this theory emphasizes the role
of the people in the running of a country and demands that any state
policy should reflect faithfully their desire and will. This explains
why the Vietnamese of the 13th century successfully their
country against three military invasions of Genghis Khan’s successor,
Kublai Khan (1215-1294) in the years 1258, 1285 and 1287.
Some Observations
We hope, in the discussion of the three case studies of
Buddhists contribution to the theory of state governance and development
in Vietnam, we will realize how from a general Buddhist theory, three
Vietnamese Buddhists exploit and develop into new theories of state
governance and developments still applicable to Vietnam, with many
concepts still open for discussion. These Buddhists were all active
political-leaders and personally took part in the political activities
of their times. They were not only theoreticians but, at the same time,
also political advisers and leaders of the country. Therefore, what they
were discussing was the policy they were trying to apply, so that the
people’s welfare could benefit from their realizations. The people here
are all those whom the modern science of human resource management would
call: “stakeholders” with a small difference in that these stakeholders
are not limited to the members of a corporation, but belonging to the
whole society and their welfare should be taken care of, or managed, by
good leadership.
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