Re: [history] Nu+o+'c non, non nu+o+'c ...[2/?]

[hduc@airmoon.epa.nsw.gov.au]

On Thu, 22 May 1997, Aiviet Nguyen wrote:

> Hi Anh Lam,
>   A great work. However, you must not refer Keith Taylor and Tran Quoc 
> Vuong as two independent scholars. KT is influenced very strongly by
> Viet's David Cooperfield.
> 
>   Can you analyze more about the history of Vietnamese Budhism. I think 
> Thie^`n to^ng was Tie^?u thu`+a. But the Budhism in North VN is mainly
> Dda.i Thu+`a ( Ti.nh Ddo^. or Ma^.t to^ng). 
> 
>   How comes?
> 
> Cheers
> Aiviet
> 

Hi anh Lam and anh AiViet,

Ploughing through tons of vnsa mails, i could not disagree with anh AiViet.
Yes, Lam article "nuoc non, non nuoc" is a good one. Keep up the good 
work, Lam !. 

(1) Tran Quoc Vuong, Keith Taylor and O. Walters knew each other and their 
works quite well. I am not sure what anh AiViet means Keith Taylor was 
influenced by 'David Copperfield' style of Tran Quoc Vuong. K. Taylor may 
be younger than T.Q.V but he is not a follower :-).

I think Tran Quoc Vuong line of investigation in history is an 
interesting one, combining many aspects including linguistic, customs, 
geographic interpretation.. to illumiate some part of history that may 
never be discovered by standard methods relying on historical texts. It 
may be controversy but it open a whole new fertile route to a lively 
research areas which sometimes seem in the dead ends and in doing it we 
may have some pointers to something really big.

For example, the discovery of "po khun" of the highlands people as the 
origin of "vua hung" is quite convincing and brillant. O. Walters, the 
venerable old English historian, praised T.Q.Vuong for this work.

But other interpretive reasoning of T.Q.Vuong such as that Chu Van An 
family was of Chinese-origin as it explains his Confucian approach is a bit 
unconvincing.

(2) Thie^`n To^ng is not tie^?u thu+`a, anh AiViet. Thien tong was 
brought to Vietnam from China in the 7th century and it is part of 
Hamayana (dda.i thu+`a). 

Thien Tong is similar to zen buddhism. It is of higher learning 
style than the mass popular colourful Mat Tong school. Our Tru'c La^m Sect 
originated from Yen Tu mountain is a branch of Thien Tong School. One of 
the three founders of Truc Lam ("Tru'c La^m Tam To^?") is the 
philosopher King Tran Nhan Tong. I have high regards for Thien Tong 
rather than Mat Tong.

Cheers,

Hiep Nguyen