Buddhism in Vietnam: The Southern records of the transmission of the lamp

Budden Gyoshi

The history of Buddhism in Vietnam became known to the Western world after the discovery in 1927 of a manuscript called Dai-Nam thien uyen truyen dang tap luc the Southern Records of the Transmission of the Lamp. This is the oldest record in existence describing the biographies of the three genealogical lines of Buddhist transmission in Vietnam from the sixth to thirteenth centuries A.D. These three lines in chronological order were: 1. The Vinitaruci line, founded in 580 A.D. by Vinitaruci, who was believed to be a pupil of Seng-ts'an, the Third Patriarch. 2. The Vo Ngon-Thong line, founded by Vo Ngon-Thong in 820 A.D. He was identified as Pu-yii-t'ung, a pupil of Po-chang Huai-hai. 3. The Thao-Dudng line, founded by Thao-Duong^ ^ in 1069 A.D. He was thought to be a pupil of Hsueh-tou Ch'ung-hsien. Through the content of the Dai-Nam thien uyen truyen dang tap luc (the TEXT), it has become widely believed that Buddhism in Vietnam consisted only of the Ch’an school, and that these three Buddhist lines were all Ch'an sects. My research on Buddhism in Vietnam, using the TEXT as primary r source, leads to these conclusions: 1. On the Vinitaruci line: My research shows that Vinitaruci was not a pupil of Seng-ts'an. The so-called Vinitaruci line tended towards a popularised Buddhism which emphasized prophecy and occult sciences, contrary to ch'an essence. 2. On the Vo Ngo^ n-ThoAng line: VoK Ng^o n-ThoAng can be accepted as having close connection with traditional ch'an teaching. 3. On the Thao-Duong line: Thao-Duong was definitely not a The so-called Thao-Diiong line was. either a form of Hinayana Buddhism, or a mixture of this and ’A Of all these three lines, only the pupil of Hsueh-tcu Ch'ung-hsien. Brahmanism. The scope of my work includes my translation of the essential parts of the TEXT, with annotations and commentaries. Due to this, the content of my research consists of two parts: Part I: Comments on the TEXT, including: - the Vinitaruci line - the ’Vo Ngon-Thong line - the Thao-Duong line Part II: Translation of (parts of) the TEXT As this thesis is based solely on the TEXT, its title therefore is: Buddhism in Vietnam: the Southern Records of the Transmission of the Lamp.

Buddhism in Vietnam: The Southern records of the transmission of the lamp

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