Encyclopedia of Buddhism

Land Buddhism; Southeast Asia, Buddhist Art in;
Vietnamese, Buddhist Influences on Literature in

Bibliography

Lê Manh Thát. Lich Su,Phât Giáo Viêt Nam(History of Viet-
namese Buddhism), 3 vols. Hue, Vietnam: Thuân Hóa Pub-
lishing House, 1999–2000.

Mât Thê. Viêt Nam Phât Giáo Su,Lu,o,c(A Brief History of Viet-
namese Buddhism). Reprint, Saigon, Vietnam: Minh Ðú,c,
1960.

Nguyen Cuong Tu. Zen in Medieval Vietnam: A Study and
Translation of the Thiê`n Uyên Tâp Anh.Honolulu: Univer-
sity of Hawaii Press, 1997.

Nguyê ̃n Lang. Viêt Nam Phât Giáo Su,Luân(Essays on History
of Vietnamese Buddhism). Hanoi, Vietnam: Literature Pub-
lishing House, 2000.

Nguyê ̃n Tài Thu,. Lich Su,Phât Giáo Viêt Nam(History of Viet-
namese Buddhism). Hanoi, Vietnam: Social Science Pub-
lishing House, 1988.

Thanh Tù,Thích et al., eds. Thiên Hoc Ðò,i Trân(Zen in the
Tran Dynasty). Saigon, Vietnam: Saigon Institute of Viet-
namese Buddhist Studies, 1992.

Thien-An Thich. Buddhism and Zen in Vietnam.Rutland, VT,
and Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle, 1975.

Trân Hông Liên. Ðao Phât trong Công Ðô`ng Ngu,ò,i Viêt o,Nam
Bô– Viêt Nam: Tù,Thê ́ KyXVII ê ́n 1975(Buddhism in the
Vietnamese Communities in South Vietnam: From 17th
Century to 1975). Hanoi, Vietnam: Social Science Publish-
ing House, 2000.

CUONGTUNGUYEN

VIETNAM, BUDDHIST ART IN. SeeSoutheast
Asia, Buddhist Art in

VIETNAMESE, BUDDHIST INFLUENCES
ON LITERATURE IN

Vietnam was ruled by the Chinese from 111 B.C.E.to
the tenth century C.E. As a result, classical Chinese was
the official language of Vietnam until around the mid-
dle of the nineteenth century. During the Traˆ`n dynasty
(1225–1400) in medieval Vietnam there were sporadic
efforts to create a system of demotic script (Nôm) to
be used for transcribing vernacular Vietnamese. How-
ever, this script was based on Chinese radicals and pho-
netics and required fluency in classical Chinese, so it
was never able to replace classical Chinese.

Vietnam came into contact with European coun-

tries, particularly France, in the seventeenth century.

Within three centuries, and after various modifica-

tions, Vietnamese was written exclusively in the Ro-

man alphabet, partly as a result of the work of Catholic

missionaries. This romanized Vietnamese was referred

to as quô ́c ngu ̃,(national language) and it became the

official language of the country in the middle of the

nineteenth century.

From the thirteenth century C.E., when the first

Buddhist writings were composed, to the early twen-

tieth century, most Buddhist literature in Vietnam was

in classical Chinese, although a number of texts con-

tain chapters, glosses, or afterwords in Nôm. There

were also some writings entirely in Nôm, but these

works did not gain as wide a circulation as those writ-

ten in Chinese.

Magazines and newspapers in quô ́c ngu ̃,were first

published in Vietnam as early as 1865, but most of

these early quô ́c ngu ̃,periodicals were published by the

government and advanced particular political and pro-

pagandistic agendas. Buddhist literature in quô ́c ngu ̃,

did not appear until the 1920s; it was inspired by mo-

tivations to modernize Buddhism and to make it more

appealing to the general populace. It was a time when

classical Chinese studies was on the wane and educated

Vietnamese Buddhists, both clerical and lay, believed

that the use of quô ́c ngu ̃,would help people through

the transitional period.

Magazines and periodicals

The Pháp Âm (Sounds of Dharma) and Phât Hóa

Thanh Niên(Buddhist Teachings for the Youth) were

the first two Buddhist magazines published in quô ́c

ngu ̃,in the 1920s. In the 1930s, three more magazines,

the Tù,Bi Âm(Sounds of Compassion), the Viên Âm

(Sounds of Perfection), and the Ðuô ́c Tuê(Torch of Wis-

dom), were launched by the three associations of BUD-

DHIST STUDIESin Saigon, Hue, and Hanoi, the major

cities in the three parts of Vietnam. The articles in these

magazines covered topics beyond the boundary of

Buddhist doctrines and practices to address issues such

as Buddhism and society, Buddhism and science, and

Buddhism and modernization. This pattern continued

in subsequent decades and reached a high point

between 1954 and 1975. For example, Tu,Tu,o,ng

(Thought), a journal published by Van Hanh Buddhist

University in Saigon in the late 1960s, was a pioneer-

ing effort in the comparative studies of Buddhism and

continental philosophy.

VIETNAMESE, BUDDHISTINFLUENCES ONLITERATURE IN