17
When the Sage Becomes a “God”:  
The Spiritualized Confucian Sect of Minh Đức 
Nho giáo Đại đạo in Southern Vietnam
Tho Ngoc NGUYEN*
Abstract
Southern Vietnam’s tradition has been mainly built on Confucian ideology, although it is 
a transformed one. There have been two types of Confucianism in the region: state-spon-
sored and mass Confucianism. During the period of the late nineteenth and early twen-
tieth centuries, under harsh colonial rule, a number of messianic religious movements 
emerged. The Minh Đức Nho giáo Đại đạo sect (MĐNGĐĐ, founded in 1932 in Trà 
Vinh province) is one such movement. The sect takes Confucian norms and values as 
its basic platform and further acculturates and transforms the philosophical values and 
rituals of Buddhism, Daoism, and Caodaism, as well as popular religions, to consolidate 
its settings.
This article uses fieldwork––survey data and written documents––and applies histor-
ical particularism and acculturation theories, as well as the concepts of “standardiza-
tion” and “de-standardization” by Watson (1985), to generalize the birth and features 
of MĐNGĐĐ in the local context. The study provides a comprehensive means to ac-
cess the history of social thought in pre-modern Vietnam and possible principles of 
Confucian propagation and transformation in the country. The study finds that Confu-
cianism may easily transform into a religious institution if the civilizing missions of 
local elites are missing. 
Keywords: Minh Đức Nho giáo Đại đạo, Southern Vietnam, spiritualize, sage, god
Ko modrec postane »božanstvo«: Poduhovljena konfucijanska sekta Minh 
Đức Nho giáo Đại đạo iz Južnega Vietnama
Izvleček
Tradicija Južnega Vietnama je bila osnovana predvsem na konfucijanski ideologiji, pa 
čeprav v njeni dokaj prirejeni obliki. V regiji sta obstajali dve vrsti konfucijanstva: kon-
fucijanstvo pod pokroviteljstvom države in konfucijanstvo množic. V času med poznim 
* Tho Ngoc NGUYEN, Associate Professor, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam 
National University – Ho Chi Minh City (currently Visiting Research 
Scholar, Department of Anthropology, Boston University, USA).
Email address: ngoctho@hcmussh.edu.vn
DOI: 10.4312/as.2020.8.2.17-50
18 Tho Ngoc NgUYEN: WhEN ThE SagE BEcomES a “god”
devetnajstim in zgodnjim dvajsetim stoletjem so pod jarmom trde kolonialne oblasti 
vzniknila številna mesijanska verska gibanja, med katerimi je bila tudi sekta Minh Đức 
Nho giáo Đại đạo (MĐNGĐĐ, osnovana leta 1932 v provinci Trà Vinh). Osnova sekte 
so konfucijanske norme in vrednote. Da bi utrdila svoj položaj, sekta v svojo osnovo prav 
tako akulturira in preobraža nekatere filozofske vrednote in obrede iz budizma, daoizma, 
caodaizma in popularnih religij.
Članek umešča nastanek in značilnosti MĐNGĐĐ v njen lokalni kontekst, pri čemer 
uporablja terenske raziskave – podatke anketiranja in pisne vire –, teoriji zgodovinskega 
partikularizma in akulturacije ter Watsonova (1985) koncepta »standardizacije« in »de-
standardizacije«. Ta študija tako ponuja sredstvo, s katerim je mogoče izčrpno dostopa-
ti tako do zgodovine družbene misli v predmodernem Vietnamu kakor tudi do možnih 
načel širjenja in preobrazbe konfucijanstva v državi. Študija razkriva, kako se, kadar pri 
lokalni eliti primanjkuje pobude za civiliziranje, lahko konfucijanstvo enostavno preob-
razi v versko ustanovo. 
Ključne besede: Minh Đức Nho giáo Đại đạo, Južni Vietnam, poduhovljenje, modrec, 
božanstvo
Minh Đức Nho giáo Đại đạo–– 
The Elements and Characteristics
In 2015, during field studies in coastal districts of Trà Vinh province, the author 
experienced the pluralism and harmony of the local cultures established by the 
Viet (Vietnamese), Khmer, and Hoa (Chinese) ethnic groups in the region. In 
this remote land, a religious form of Confucianism “penetrated”, “mutated” and 
“fossilized”: the Minh Đức Nho giáo Đại đạo ((明德儒教大道), or MĐNGĐĐ 
in short).
Research on MĐNGĐĐ has been terribly limited. There have been three articles 
in total relating to the sect published so far: Emi Nogami’s (2015) “A Case Study 
of Khổng Tử Thánh Điện (Minh Đức Nho giáo Đại đạo) in Cầu Ngang County, 
Trà Vinh Province, Vietnam”, Trần Hồng Liên and Lâm Thị Thu Hiền’s (2016) 
“Confucian Imprints in Minh Đức Nho giáo đại đạo”, and Nguyen Ngoc Tho’s 
(2017) “The Confucian Transformation in Southern Vietnam: Minh Đức Nho 
giáo đại đạo in Trà Vinh”. All three articles mainly describe the inherent features 
and absorption of Confucianism in MĐNGĐĐ; however, there has not been much 
discussion on the position of this sect in the systematic picture of Vietnamese and 
East Asian Confucianism. The aim of this article is thus to address this gap in the 
literature.
19Asian Studies VIII (XXIV), 2 (2020), pp. 17–50
MĐNGĐĐ is a religious sect that is said to be the “descendant” of the Tiên Thiên 
Đạo (Xiantiandao 先天道)1 and the Ngũ Chi Minh Đạo (Wuzhi Mingdao 五支
明道)2, both of which have close relationships with Caodaism (高台教)3, al-
though it is designated a Confucian Sect. Ignoring the diversity and syncretic 
nature of its origin, as well as its intimate relationships with Buddhism, Daoism, 
Caodaism, and others, MĐNGĐĐ is, above all, an extension and transformation 
of Confucianism, as seen vividly in its name.
MĐNGĐĐ was founded by Mr. Lưu Cường Cáng4 in the coastal area of Ba Động 
village, Trà Vinh province in 1932 with the principle of using the essence of Con-
fucian ideology as norms and values to educate people and restore morality and 
social order (see further Nogami 2015; Trần and Lâm 2016). After becoming “en-
lightened”, Lưu Cường Cáng was honoured as the Lord Thánh Đức Thiên Quân 
(聖德天君), the founder of MĐNGĐĐ. This primary religious establishment in 
Ba Động is called Chí Thiện Đàn (至善壇).
MĐNGĐĐ’s believers show their basic faith in the Jade Emperor of Heaven, called 
“the Supreme God” (Đấng Tối cao). MĐNGĐĐ focused on the Confucian philos-
ophy in the book Daxue (大學, The Great Learning), which considers the principle 
of Three Bonds as the core foundation. The main teachings uphold three Confucian 
values: minh đức, tân dân, and chí thiện. The concept of minh đức (明德) means “to 
illustrate illustrious virtue”, tân dân (親 (新) 民) means “to renovate the people”, 
and chí thiện (至善) means “to rest in the highest excellence”. All three norms 
imply the positive renunciation of bad habits, the promotion of self-realization, 
1 Xiantiandao 先天道 is the syncretic popular religion made from the combination of Confucianism, 
Buddhism, and Daoism by Huang Dehui (黄徳輝) in China at the end of the Ming and the begin-
ning of the Qing dynasties (see Nogami 2015).
2 Wuzhimingdao 五支明道 comprises five denominations established during the Ming dynasty in 
China, namely Mingshi (Ming Sư 明師), Mingtang (Minh Đường 明堂), Mingli (Minh Lý 明理), 
Mingshan (Minh Thiện 明善), and Mingxin (Minh Tân 明新). The deities in Wuzhimingdao 
include the Eternal Mother Goddess (Diêu Trì Kim Mẫu 瑶池金母), Jade Emperor of Heaven 
(Ngọc Hoàng Thượng Đế 玉皇大帝), various Buddhas, and various hermits (Takatsu 2012, 28; 
Nogami 2015).
3 Caodaism, fully called Đại Đạo Nam Kỳ Phổ Độ (Great Way of the Third Period of Salvation), 
is a syncretic religion founded by Ngô Văn Chiêu (1878–1932) in 1926 in Tây Ninh, 100 kilom-
eters northwest from Ho Chi Minh City in Southern Vietnam. Caodaism was constructed on the 
foundation of Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, ancestor worship, Catholicism, and other reli-
gions. There are around five million followers living in the Central and Southern Vietnam (see Ho 
Tai 1983, 77–78, 100; Takatsu 2012; Dutton, Werner and Whitmore 2012, 429–30). MĐNGĐĐ 
classics sometimes mention Caodaism’s Three periods of Salvation (Tam kỳ phổ độ), Goddess 
of Three Palaces (Tam tòa Thánh mẫu), Celestial Coordination Pavilion (Hiệp Thiên Đài), Nine 
Layers Pavilion (Cửu Trùng Đài), etc. (see MĐNGĐĐ 1977; 2002).
4 Also called Lưu Văn Cáng, or Mười Cáng, a local farmer, born in Nha Roi village, Thạnh Trị 
District, Sóc Trăng province.
20 Tho Ngoc NgUYEN: WhEN ThE SagE BEcomES a “god”
self-improvement and mutual assistance of the people in their process of “renova-
tion”.5 MĐNGĐĐ currently possesses three establishments in Trà Vinh with the 
names focusing on the great Confucian virtues: Tân Dân Đàn (新民壇, Human 
Renovation Shrine),6 Chí Thiện Đàn (至善壇, Highest Excellence Shrine), and 
Chí Thiện Minh (至善明, Shining Excellence Shrine). By conveying these basic 
philosophies, MĐNGĐĐ is consistent with the judgment of the author Ngo Duc 
Thinh (1984) that popular belief is an indispensable part of traditional culture, a 
place of production, integration, conservation, and transmission of many cultural 
values. MĐNGĐĐ is a spiritualized form of Confucianism, a religious sect.
Despite the fact that the three shrines have three different names (Tân Dân Đàn, 
Chí Thiện Đàn, and Chí Thiện Minh), they commonly share the same title, 
“Confucius God Temple” (Khổng Tử Thánh Điện 孔子聖殿). This title is ob-
viously unorthodox compared with state-sponsored Confucius temples (Khổng 
Miếu 孔廟, or Văn Miếu 文廟)7 in late feudal Vietnam. When addressing a 
proper shrine, academicians generally take the full name, such as Khổng Tử 
Thánh Điện––Chí Thiện Đàn, Khổng Tử Thánh Điện––Tân Dân Đàn, in order 
to differentiate it from the state-sponsored ones. In this article, we prefer the 
Vietnamese name of Khổng Tử Thánh Điện since it maintains the original im-
plication. While Trần Hồng Liên, a current ethnological writer, calls it a temple 
(廟) (Trần and Lâm 2006), the local people also address it as “miếu Khổng Tử 
(孔子廟, Confucius Temple)”. After the first shrine was built by Mr. Lưu Văn 
Cáng in Ba Động village, in 1961, another shrine, Khổng Tử Thánh Điện-Chí 
Thiện Minh, was built by a wealthy follower, Mr. Lâm Văn Thưởng––a local 
Chinese man––in the town Cầu Ngang of Trà Vinh province8. This shrine allows 
over 100 devotees to gather and perform rituals in each session. According to 
Mr. Chơn Minh Kíu, the 64-year-old priest of the temple in Cầu Ngang, every 
weekend the ritual attracts around 30 to 50 people, since many others are busy in 
farming or doing business out of town (see also Nogami 2015). Mr. Kíu further 
5 See https://ctext.org/liji/da-xue. Wang Yangming once discussed this point, saying: “The theory 
of beginnings and ends is in general right. Even if we read “renovating the people” as “loving the 
people” and say that manifesting the character is the root and loving the people is the branches, it is 
not incorrect. The main thing is that root and branches should not be distinguished as two different 
things” (in Chan 1963, 663).
6 Besides these three temples in Trà Vinh, there is another one built in Đông Hồ Street, Ho Chi Minh 
City.
7 There are dozens of state-sponsored temples that are currently being preserved. In Southern Viet-
nam, one can see such institutions in Đồng Nai (Văn miếu Trấn Biên), Vĩnh Long (Văn miếu Vĩnh 
Long), and Gò Công (Văn miếu Gò Công).
8 The current administrative owner of this establishment is Ms. Lâm Thị Lệ, daughter of Mr. Lâm 
Văn Thưởng.
21Asian Studies VIII (XXIV), 2 (2020), pp. 17–50
claims that his shrine is the most popular among three establishments in Trà 
Vinh province, even though the Liturgical Board is currently directed and oper-
ated by himself alone. In 1966, Mr. Ngô Nghiêm Sanh built one more facility in 
Trà Vinh City: the Khổng Tử Thánh Điện––Chí Thiện Đàn, after successfully 
practicing divination.9
The structure of worship in each Khổng Tử Thánh Điện may have shifted, but 
still expresses a sense of pluralism, in which the key figures are Confucius, 
Amitabha Buddha, the Jade Emperor of Heaven, the Eternal Mother Goddess, 
Laozi, Guandi (Chinese God of War), Avalokiteśvara (Goddess of Mercy), and 
others. In Chí Thiện Đàn (at Ba Động village), the main altar consists of the 
Jade Emperor of Heaven, Amitabha Buddha, Confucius, and Laozi (太上老君). 
In addition, one can see the statue of the Eternal Mother Goddess (Diêu Trì Kim 
Mẫu 瑶池金母), the unnamed tablets of generic “ancestors” as well as early 
village pioneers who made a significant contribution to the founding of the sect 
(Trần and Lâm 2016). In Chí Thiện Minh in the town of Cầu Ngang, the main 
hall is dedicated to three main gods: the Goddess of Mercy (left), Confucius 
(centre), and Guandi (right). The subordinate hall opposite to the main hall 
is used to worship the local “earth gods”, including Nguyễn Kim Chi (called 
Thổ địa Ngũ phương (五方土地爺, the General Landlord)), and Trần Thái Độ 
(Thổ địa Nam phương (南方土地爺, the Lord of the South)) (fieldwork data, 
2016). To a certain extent, MĐNGĐĐ has a point of similarity with Caodaism: 
the worship of the Supreme God and the Jade Emperor of Heaven. Khổng Tử 
Thánh Điện––Chí Thiện Minh in Cầu Ngang is located about 100 meters from a 
vibrant Caodai temple; its faith and religious practices are consequently some-
what influenced by this religion, and some of the followers participate in rituals 
in both the Caodai temple and MĐNGDD shrine (fieldwork data, 2016). In-
formants in Cầu Ngang and Trà Vinh City report that MĐNGĐĐ comprises one 
fundamental philosophical basis of Minh đức––Chí thiện––Tân dân and three 
core component structures of Tam giáo đạo (三教道, Three Teachings Way), 
9 Divination is very popular in MĐNGĐĐ. It is normally practiced by member(s) of the liturgical 
board when they hold festivals or encounter a serious issue that they need to ask Confucius 
and other supernatural powers about for “guidance” and “teaching”. Beside Confucius, other 
supernatural powers include Dīpaṃkara (Nhiên Đăng Cổ Phật 燃燈佛), Amitābha Buddha 
(A-di-đà 阿彌陀佛), Avalokiteśvara (Quan Âm Bồ tát 觀音菩薩), Cundhi bodhisattva (Chuẩn 
Đề Bồ tát 準提菩薩), Three Daoist Celestial Masters (Tam Thanh Thượng Phu 三清尚夫), 
Jade Emporer of Heaven (Ngọc Hoàng Thượng Đế 玉皇大帝), Celestial Communication Lord 
(Thông Thiên giáo chủ 通天教主), Caodaism Masters (Cao Đài Thượng Phu 高台尚夫), Eternal 
Mother Goddess (Diêu Trì Kim Mẫu 瑶池金母), Le Son Mother Goddess (Lê Sơn Thánh Mẫu 
黎山聖母), Monkey King (Tề Thiên Đại Thánh 齊天大聖), Li Jing protector (Lý Tịnh 李静), 
Dongfang Shuo (Đông Phương Sóc 東方朔) (see MĐNGĐĐ 2005).
22 Tho Ngoc NgUYEN: WhEN ThE SagE BEcomES a “god”
Tam giáo tòa (三教座, Three Teachings Seats),10 and Giáo tông Nho giáo (儒
家教宗, Confucian Lords)11 (see also MĐNGĐĐ 2002).
In the institutional structure, the highest unit of MĐNGĐĐ is the liturgical board. 
At the Khổng Tử Thánh Điện in Ba Động the board consists of four men―the 
First Master, Mr. Ngô Minh Bé; the Second, Mr. Ngô Nghiêm Sanh; the Third, 
Mr. Võ Văn Dân; and the Fourth, Mr. Lâm Văn Thưởng––while at the temple 
in Cầu Ngang it consists of only one man, Mr. Chơn Minh Kíu. The texts are all 
recorded from divination, called The Holy Classics (聖教經). Divination in the 
early period was performed in Chinese characters, but it is currently performed in 
the Vietnamese Romanized script––chữ Quốc ngữ.
MĐNGĐĐ advocates polytheism. Its believers trust in karma–samsara trans-
ferability, in the dichotomy of heaven and hell, and in the transferability of the 
good and the bad. According to this faith, the jobs people do and the status they 
have are due to God’s arrangement based on their karma. This feature has made 
MĐNGĐĐ closer to Buddhism and Indian philosophy. Accordingly, people who 
want to get released from the misery of samsara have to comply with the Three 
Bonds and Five Virtues. They are advised to practice vegetarianism regular-
ly or permanently. Believers voluntarily enter the sect, regardless of their age 
and social position. They must partake in an initiation ceremony, in which they 
have to swear their loyalty to the supreme God. After the ceremony, they do 
not have to stay at the temple, even though they have gained full membership. 
Instead, they stay at home and perform rituals at the shrine regularly. Members 
of MĐNGĐĐ call each other “brother” and “sister”, depending on their gen-
der and age. Every day, the liturgical board organizes prayers four times at the 
hours of the Rat (00:00), Rabbit (07:00), Horse (12:00), and Rooster (19:00 pm). 
Liturgical activities are quite simple, and mainly include chanting/reading texts 
and giving offerings (fruits and cakes) to Confucius and other gods. They burn 
incense sticks when they organize the ritual. The number of daily prayers aligns 
MĐNGĐĐ with Caodaism, while the incense-burning attaches it with Mahayana 
Buddhism. On the fifteenth and thirtieth days of every lunar month the liturgical 
masters and believers conduct larger collective rituals, and chant Huỳnh Đình 
sutras to pray for peace and blessings. The main annual festivals of MĐNGĐĐ 
include the Founding Day (the Double-Fifth of the lunar calendar), and Confu-
cius’s Anniversary Day (August 27), while secondary activities are more diverse, 
10 Three Teachings Seats are for Thái Thượng Lão Quân (太上老君, The Grand Supreme Elderly 
Lord), Nguyên Thỉ Thiên Tôn (元始天尊, the Primeval Lord of Heaven) and Thông Thiên giáo 
chủ (通天教主, Celestial Communication Lord).
11 Giáo tông Nho giáo includes Li Jing the protector (Lý Tịnh 李静), Guandi (Quan Thánh Đế Quân 
關聖帝君) and the Middle Celestial Lord (Trung Thiên Thánh giáo 中天聖教).
23Asian Studies VIII (XXIV), 2 (2020), pp. 17–50
including the Day of Thiên Tôn Di Lặc (the first day of Lunar New Year), Day 
of Trung Thiên Thánh Giáo (January 9), Day of Guandi (January 13), Day of the 
Goddess of  Mercy (February 19), Day of Shakyamuni Buddha (April 8), Day of 
Laozi (July 1), and so on. Throughout the seventh lunar month, members come 
to the shrine every day to read the prayers for dead spirits. These activities bring 
MĐNGĐĐ closer to popular religions which actively practice Universal Salva-
tion Rites12 for lonely ghosts in the seventh full moon of the lunar year. The es-
tablishments in Cầu Ngang town and Trà Vinh city organize annual almsgiving to 
the poor (mainly rice), and sometimes hold charity trips to other places. In terms 
of costumes, members have to wear white long dresses with black fringes when 
performing the ritual. Men wear a black hat while women wear a white sharp 
cowl down to their back. The most prestigious members of the community wear 
yellow belts while the general members use green ones.13 When practicing the 
ritual, all have to bow to four times to Confucius and other gods.14
Being a religious sect associated with the masses (mainly peasants), MĐNGĐĐ, 
like Zhengyi (正義) Daoist tradition, advocates for the association of its religious 
activities with local customs and the daily practices of local farmers. Important 
rites of passage, such as maturity, weddings, funerals, and sacrifice, are of par-
ticular concern for believers and their relatives. Perhaps the most noticeable are 
funerals. When a member of a family is about to die, all liturgical members come 
to attend the ceremony, aiming to guide “the soul” of the dying to return to “the 
Holy Land”. During the funeral, the priests are in charge of praying for the dead, 
while the others comply with his guidance and leadership. MĐNGĐĐ followers 
strictly organize nine ritual performances after the death (performed once every 
nine days), which they call Tuần Cửu rituals (循九). Members participate in the 
funeral rituals with sincerity, considering it good karma to accumulate their vir-
tues. While this activity has somewhat faded nowadays due to the impact of mod-
ernization, the priests and most loyal members are always willing to partake in 
the voluntary chanting ceremonies for the deceased. MĐNGĐĐ does not clearly 
define the incarnation of gods or the self-transcendence and rebirth of the priests 
and believers; therefore, MĐNGĐĐ can be considered somewhere between the 
worldly institutional Confucianism and a transcendental religion.
MĐNGĐĐ is registered with the local authorities as a religious sect. Although 
MĐNGĐĐ has its own texts and canon, the mode of propagation of religious 
12 In Vietnamese language: lễ cúng cô hồn or Trung nguyên phổ độ. In Chinese language: 中元普渡 
(zhongyuan pudu). 
13 A similar description is found in Trần and Lâm 2016.
14 In many parts of East Asia, such as China and Vietnam, people bow three times if they worship 
ancestors, four times if they worship a god or Buddha (see further Weller 1987).
24 Tho Ngoc NgUYEN: WhEN ThE SagE BEcomES a “god”
education is mainly oral, through folk poetry. During the fieldwork surveys at 
Cầu Ngang in 2016, interesting teachings came to light which help show the es-
sential nature of the Sect:
Living and acting simply and normally, you do not pursue and have a 
luxurious life,
You who understand my Way know that it is not necessarily widespread,
Living and acting simply and normally, you cultivate yourself effectively
Laymen do not wear robes, do not shave your hair and do not leave your 
home,
You ought to take care of your parents and fulfil the virtue of filial piety,
Husband and wife ought to preserve their faithful heart, and be as pure as 
the lotus rising up from a muddy pond
You ought to feign ignorance, do not let others know that you are 
laymen …15
The Generic Source of MĐNGĐĐ:  
The Classical Vietnamese Confucianism
Culture is an ongoing tradition. It is not something given but something to be 
gradually discovered and preserved by members of society. People always try 
to live together even though the world is very diverse, and culture is diverse if 
one focuses on components of the whole society, while unified if one observes 
society as a whole. Culture is born in a specific context; therefore, when the con-
text changes, there may be some parts of the culture that transform. According 
to Robert Weller (1987, 5, 172), people create and deploy culture as part of daily 
life within a system of social relations. Therefore, the analysis and generalization 
of MĐNGĐĐ’s features greatly depend on its temporary settings. MĐNGĐĐ 
was born as a special form of religious movement in the early twentieth century 
in Vietnam, so it conveys the historic imprints of the local society in its doctrine 
and liturgical practice. Being an extended region of Vietnam reclaimed in the last 
three centuries, Southern Vietnam has witnessed the fading out of orthodox Con-
fucianism and state-sponsored traditions. Instead, ground-level dynamics have 
15 Orally told by Mr. Lê Văn Kíu, the liturgical priest at Khổng Tử Thánh Điện – Chí Thiện Đàn (Cầu 
Ngang town).
25Asian Studies VIII (XXIV), 2 (2020), pp. 17–50
been popularized due to various transcultural encounters and multi-cultural ac-
culturation in the region.
Classical orthodox Confucianism in Vietnam has been reluctantly acknowl-
edged by many Western writers. It is far more tenuous to claim that Vietnam 
truly belongs to Confucian civilization.16 Stephen O’Harrow explained that 
even though traditional Vietnam shared the same source of social ideology and 
political institution, its fate has been different to that of China (O’Harrow 1979, 
170), for the Vietnamese were “always disregarding the totality of the norms 
of civilized conduct in China, chose to take into account specific instances of 
such experience” (Wolters 1988, 6). Instead, the Vietnamese localized the Con-
fucianist system by fragmenting it and cutting passages, removing their original 
contextual meaning, and amending some of the content to serve their domestic 
political and social activities. The indigenous tradition of Southeast Asia in 
Vietnam has limited the actions of the state and people with regard to adopting 
and adapting to the whole package of Confucian orthodoxy from China. In the 
case of MĐNGĐĐ, the founders and followers adopted only the basic concepts 
of Minh đức, Chí thiên and Tân dân in the Daxue, without accepting the inter-
pretative contexts in which the discursive implications of these concepts are 
generated. Instead, MĐNGĐĐ puts Minh đức, Chí thiên and Tân dân as well as 
other Confucian virtues such as loyalty, filial piety, respect, righteousness, and 
so on in the mystical explanatory paradigm close to Buddhist and Daoist phi-
losophies. MĐNGĐĐ followers understand that they can attain Minh đức, Chí 
thiên and Tân dân by continuously cultivating their heart-mind (good deeds, 
good karma), so that “gods” like Confucius, the Jade Emperor of Heaven, Lao-
zi and Buddhas will “save” them from suffering (samsara). There is almost no 
logical explanation or interpretation within the classical Confucian framework. 
For example, in The Confucian Classics 1932–2005 (2005), MĐNGĐĐ alleges:
Praying to the Antarctic Lord to promulgate students’ merits of Minh 
đức, Tân dân (…),
The golden bell’s ringing sounds, like compassions, are pushing the Con-
fucian students,
All insist on practice so they later can be able to return to the Penglai 
Wonderlands for the sake of saving all beings. (MĐNGĐĐ 2005, 30)17
16 This idea has early been confirmed by many writers, such as Rozman 2014, 6–7; FitzGerald 1972, 
22; Woodside 2002, 116–17; and Duong 2004, 289–318.
17 Original text: “Đầu vọng bái Tiên Ông Nam Cực; giúp các trò Minh đức, Tân dân…. Tiếng chuông 
vàng càng kêu vang dội; lòng từ bi hối thúc quần Nhu. Chúng con quyết chí lo tu; trở về Bồng Đảo 
mở tù chúng sanh.” (MĐNGĐĐ 2005, 30)
26 Tho Ngoc NgUYEN: WhEN ThE SagE BEcomES a “god”
Students obtaining Tân dân, Minh đức virtues will be secure since they 
are protected by the masters, lords, goddesses, and saints. (MĐNGĐĐ 
2005, 37)18
In MĐNGĐĐ, “heart-mind” stands at the core position; however, it has been 
explained in terms of Buddhist cause-effect transferability. In a part of The Con-
fucian Classics 1932–2005, it says: “Leaving the Confucian shrine after a prayer 
session, you need to consistently self-cultivate your heart-mind; such good deeds 
will set you free from plagues, suffering and always keep you in a peaceful, no-
ble-minded status.”19 (MĐNGĐĐ 1977, 2–3)
The concept of loyalty shares a similar feature. The Confucian Classics 1932–
2005 continues: “Confucian students firmly persevere, keeping in mind the virtue 
of loyalty, patience, unity, and scholarly spirit; they silently look for good com-
panions and stay in harmony under the Buddhas’ and celestial gods’ sanctity.” 
(MĐNGĐĐ 1977, 40)20
In terms of ethnicity, the indigenous Vietnamese are mainly descendants of both 
Mon-Khmer and Thai speakers, called the Lạc Việt (Luo-Yue 駱越). The early 
Vietnamese tattooed their bodies and practiced chewing betel nuts, which they 
long shared with all Southeast Asian peoples. Confucianism was brought into 
Vietnam in the early days of the Chinese occupation in the second century BC; 
however, it did not motivate social transformation until the era of Tang rule (the 
seventh century). Jennifer Holmgren stated that the first six centuries of Chinese 
rule in Northern Vietnam “saw more ‘Vietnamization’ of local Chinese than Sin-
icization of the indigenous Viets”. Many Chinese clans who were “Vietnamized 
Chinese groups” settled into, helped modify, and were finally absorbed into the 
social, economic and political environment in Northern Vietnam (see Holmgren 
1980, 61, 115–30).21 C. P. FitzGerald concluded similarly after showing various 
evidence that the Chinese troops and migrants became absorbed into and assim-
ilated with the native people in Vietnam (FitzGerald 1972, 214). The strength of 
localization in ancient Vietnam has thus been widely noted.
18 Original text: “Tân Dân Minh Đức Quy về; Có Thầy có Mẹ dựa kề trường Tiên.” (MĐNGĐĐ 
2005, 37)
19 Original text: “Giã từ Chí Thiện Nho đàn; trau dồi tâm tốt phụ hoàng mến thương. Lướt qua những 
cảnh tai ương; siêu siêu minh yểu an bường thanh cao.” (MĐNGĐĐ 1977, 2–3)
20 Original text: “Đạo Nho sĩ tử quyết lòng trung; Đại nhẫn đại hòa thêm sĩ hùng; Ẩn nhẫn canh thân 
tìm bạn lữ; Thỉnh Tiên rước Phật để chung cùng.” (MĐNGĐĐ 1977, 40)
21 See also Wang 1958, 35, 37, 41, 48, 70, 120; Miyakawa 1960, 27–29; Buttinger 1972, 36; Taylor 
1983, 130; Zhang 1995, 40–43,127–50; and Sun 2010, 47.
27Asian Studies VIII (XXIV), 2 (2020), pp. 17–50
Northern Vietnam adopted Confucian norms and values from the Chinese 
Tang dynasty, due to the tight control of the Tang rulers. In particular, ortho-
dox Confucian institutions were set up at the provincial level, which motivat-
ed Confucian education among the Vietnamese villagers (see further Taylor 
1983, 174).
In 938, Ngô Quyền declared Vietnamese independence after defeating the South-
ern Han troops in the Red River Delta. After the short-term dynasties of Đinh and 
Tiền Lê, Vietnam entered a long era of Buddhist-driven social evolution under 
the Lý (1009–1225) and Trần (1225–1400) dynasties, even though Confucian 
ideology was still adopted and promoted by the royal families and bureaucratic 
elites (see Wolters 1988). As shown by many writers, the Lý and Trần rulers 
pursued forms of legitimation other than Confucianism (see Taylor, 1987). John 
Whitmore clarified that while it was correct to confirm Chinese influence in Vi-
etnam, one had to re-examine the extent of its penetration. He asserted that while 
dealing with Confucianism the Vietnamese did not hide their non-Confucian na-
ture (Whitmore 1976, 200). 
Confucian dominance was at its peak during the fifteenth century, under the Lê 
dynasty (1428–1527).22 However, Confucian classical learning was often mixed 
with Daoism and Buddhism. Before the Lê dynasty, Hồ Quý Ly’s (1336–1407) 
reforms were said to bring Vietnam closer to the Chinese Confucian trajectory 
(Whitmore 1985) even though there was a “big gulf” between Vietnamese and 
Chinese Confucianism (Nguyen 2016). To a certain extent, these reforms would 
become threatened under the Chinese Ming Emperors,23 which finally led to the 
Ming invasion and rule of Vietnam during the period 1407–1428. During this 
short period, the Ming rulers promoted exporting Chinese ideology and technol-
ogy to Vietnam (de Bary 1988; Whitmore 2010, 107). Moreover, the practice 
of book-burning by the Ming troops in Vietnam did significant damage to lo-
cal non-Confucian texts, thus affecting the indigenous culture (Alexander 2010, 
162). This policy strengthened the nationalist sentiments of the local Vietnamese 
and thus sharpened the sense of independence at any cost (Buttinger 1972, 45). 
After defeating the Ming rulers, Vietnam’s Lê kings decided to use orthodox 
Confucianism to rebuild and revitalize the state, making the fifteenth century 
the first peak of Vietnamese Confucianism. However, Vietnamese Confucian-
ism declined in the mid-sixteenth century because the territory was split into two 
components (Tonking and Cochinchina) which lasted until the late eighteenth 
22 See McHale 2002, 398; 2004, 70; and Whitmore 2010.
23 The author owes gratitude to Kathlene Baldanza for this idea (see Baldanza 2013, 60).
28 Tho Ngoc NgUYEN: WhEN ThE SagE BEcomES a “god”
century. The rise of Nôm script24 literature during the seventeenth century fur-
ther promoted “de-emphasizing Confucian orthodoxy and official views in favor 
of more ‘popular’ themes” (Ostrowski 2010, 21). The Nguyen dynasty (1802–
1945) tried to recover orthodox Confucianism; however, Western intervention in 
Vietnamese politics prevented the movement. After 1858, French colonialism in 
Vietnam nearly put an end to the long-standing orthopraxy of Confucianism in 
the country, even though they were said to be supportive of the slight revitaliza-
tion of Vietnamese Confucianism in the 1920–1930 period.
Regardless of the ups and downs of the history of Vietnamese Confucianism, it 
remained the intellectual and ideological backbone of Vietnam for almost the 
last ten centuries (see Nguyễn 1974, 17). However, state Confucianism has been 
weak in Vietnam (as compared with East Asian states such as China or Korea), 
because the Vietnamese adopted shallow versions of Confucianism rather than 
internalizing it (McHale 2002, 409–10). Instead of adopting and developing the 
Confucian ideology further, the Vietnamese have been “loyal” to the pre-imperial 
(Zhou dynasty) Confucianism25 even though they also adopted post-Zhou im-
perial innovations (such as Neo-Confucianism in the Song dynasty). Such pri-
mary norms are vividly found in MĐNGĐĐ in Trà Vinh. Under their specific 
circumstances, the feudal elites of Vietnam did not have a strong demand for any 
metaphysical counterattraction to Buddhism, as was present among the Chinese 
upper class (Woodside 2002, 117); instead, they tended to enforce the de-civiliz-
ing mission to draw a clear line between Vietnam and China (see Baldanza 2013, 
56). A similar feature can be found in Vietnamese literature in the same period 
(Richey 2013, 64–65). Phan Ngọc (1998) concluded that Vietnamese elites effec-
tively utilized four remarkable prisms (motherland (祖國論), identity (身份論), 
village-based cultural tradition (村莊文化傳統), and Southeast Asian paddy-rice 
agriculture (東南亞稻作文化)) to deal with Chinese Confucianism, thus creating 
changes in local Confucian evolution. In the first half of the twentieth century, 
Ho Chi Minh changed the five cardinal Confucian virtues into humanness, right-
eousness, knowledge, bravery, and honesty to be well-adapted to the Vietnamese 
tradition.26 Therefore, to a certain extent, the Vietnamese are of two varieties, one 
24 The Nôm script, or chữ Nôm (字喃): the Vietnamese pre-modern script system originated from 
Han scripture but transformed to signify the local vocabulary. Chữ Nôm appeared early; however, 
it was used popularly in parallel with Han script from the fifteenth century until the early twentieth 
century.
25 The author agrees with Alexander Woodside that feudal Vietnam focused more on primordial 
texts, which limited the development of Neo-Confucianism and Confucian universality as they 
were in China, Korea, and Japan (Woodside 2002, 140).
26 More descriptive discussion can be found in Duong 2004, 295.
29Asian Studies VIII (XXIV), 2 (2020), pp. 17–50
similar to other Southeast Asian communities and the other Chinese or Korean 
(see further Reid 1988, 199). 
Even though Vietnamese state Confucianism was much-localized, the reform 
made by Lê Thánh Tông (1442–1497) consolidated the state’s centralized pow-
er, causing the Vietnamese conquest over the Kingdom of Champa (present-day 
Central Vietnam) and the mass migration to Southern Vietnam during the six-
teenth to nineteenth centuries.27
Westerners introduced the Romanized writing system and Western ideology. Chữ 
Quốc Ngữ spread quickly in the late nineteenth century, far beyond expectations. 
Quốc Ngữ texts and Western education signified an alarming threat to the Confu-
cian-educated officials and landowning class (FitzGerald 1972, 32–3), thus seri-
ously damaging orthodox Confucianism. MĐNGĐĐ quickly transformed its div-
ination texts from Chinese characters into Chữ Quốc Ngữ to fulfill the pragmatic 
demands of the rural population. The confrontation between state Confucianism 
and Western ideology as well as the practical encounters between the Vietnamese 
migrants, the indigenous Khmer, and the Chinese from overseas in the South gave 
way to the rise of Mahayana Buddhism, even though Confucianism and Daoism 
were still universally practiced.28 This is also one of the prerequisites for the birth 
of MĐNGĐĐ. 
As a matter of fact, during the middle and late feudal dynasties, Vietnamese kings 
and elites learned to organize commoners through harmonizing Confucianism, 
Buddhism, and Daoism––each inclusively intertwined with the others (see Ho 
Tai 1983, 20). As analysed by Rodney Taylor (1990, 2), Confucianism has a 
“single thread” that runs throughout the tradition: its religious nature. This prima-
ry attribute has laid the basic foundation for the conflation of the Three Teach-
ings. Indeed, the Three Teachings formed a syncretic belief system that integrates 
Buddhist, Confucian, and Taoist tenets that could be found at all levels of Viet-
namese society.29 Typical of the total absence of religious dogmatism among the 
Vietnamese is Caodaism and Hoahaoism. Caodaism “consists of a mixture of 
Confucian, Christian, Buddhist, and Taoist creeds combined with odd practices 
of spiritualism”, while Hoahaoism “has modified Buddhism for the poor peasants 
by eliminating anything costly from the religious ritual” (Buttinger 1972, 15).30 
As shown in MĐNGĐĐ texts, almost all sages, Buddhas, supreme gods, celestial 
27 See Li 1998; Cao 1996; Sun 2010, 65–66; and Nguyen 2014.
28 See also Giran 1904, 200; Buttinger 1972, 15; and Woodside 2002, 140.
29 See Dutton, Werner and Whitmore 2012, 114; and Duong 2004, 289–318.
30 More details can be found in Buttinger 1972, 15; Ho Tai 1983; and Dutton, Werner and Whitmore 
2012, 429.
30 Tho Ngoc NgUYEN: WhEN ThE SagE BEcomES a “god”
lords, and various hermits31 are mentioned as supernatural powers who are always 
ready to “save” those who cultivate the core merits of Minh đức, Chí thiện and 
Tân dân.
MĐNGĐĐ was born in such a broad background; hence it deploys no more 
than an ordinary Vietnamese Confucian institution. As a non-elite religious sect, 
MĐNGĐĐ absorbs no more than a “shallow” and “broken” theoretical frame-
work of Confucianism (presented mainly by the three essential values, Minh đức, 
Chí thiện and Tân dân) and deploys its main functions in the personal and family 
domains (self-realization, self-cultivation, and filial piety education). Community 
services, such as assisting others to “realize” and transform, funeral praying and 
chanting, etc., are not excluded in the working sphere of the virtue of filial piety.
MĐNGĐĐ: A “Reflective Mirror” of Local Background in 
Southern Vietnam
MĐNGĐĐ was born in a special context. Departing from the Vietnamese clas-
sical Confucian platform, MĐNGĐĐ embodies the historic multi-ethnicity and 
cultural pluralism of Southern Vietnam.
In the South, the so-called “Confucianism” is not the actual state Confucianism 
(Cao 1996, 147).32 Most of the people primarily observe Buddhism, instead. They 
may practice Confucian norms and rules daily but many don’t care (or don’t need 
to know) who Confucius is. In the region, the classics and ideological canons are 
used in an adaptable way. It is in the Mekong River Delta where Mahayana Bud-
dhism reunites with its Buddhist counterpart, Theravada Buddhism, through the 
ethnic Khmers, making Buddhism the core philosophy for almost all reconstruc-
tive processes that shape new religious movements in late nineteenth and early 
twentieth centuries. MĐNGĐĐ has no specific denomination but has embodied 
Buddhist values in its doctrine. MĐNGĐĐ texts are full of Buddhist concepts 
and terms such as hội Long Hoa (Longhua final meeting, 龍華會), cứu khổ (sal-
vation), cát hung (good or bad samsara), tránh nạn (avoiding suffering), and so 
on. (MĐNGĐĐ 1977; 2005). Vietnamese Buddhism, by comparison to state-gov-
erned Confucianism, is found in each family’s tradition. In the particular situation 
of Southern Vietnam, the family functions as the fundamental core of social and 
cultural activities (see Brocheux 1995, 209).
31 See part “Minh Đức Nho giáo Đại đạo––The Elements and Characteristics” of this article.
32 The Vietnamese translation is “Nho mà không Nho, không Nho mà Nho” (Chinese translation: 
儒而不儒，不儒而儒).
31Asian Studies VIII (XXIV), 2 (2020), pp. 17–50
Since the fifteenth century, Vietnamized Confucianism propagated its norms and 
values throughout the state, but Southern Vietnam still retained Southeast Asian 
cultural patterns until the seventeenth century.33 Confucian ethics were penetrating 
to the village level no earlier than the mid-seventeenth century (see also Takatsu 
2012). Cochinchina’s (Central and South Vietnam’s) Confucianism was spread 
during the period of the Nguyen Lords (the mid-sixteenth–eighteenth centuries) 
and was revivified in the early period of the Nguyễn dynasty (1802–1945). Along 
with the process of “whole-packaged” emigration34 from Northern Vietnam to 
the northern part of the Central Region, classical Confucian institutions followed 
in their entirety despite being affected by the new environments. However, in 
the later period the Vietnamese migrated to the South in an individualistic way. 
Confucianism became partially “broken”, since various families from different 
backgrounds gathered together to build villages in the South. Confucianism had 
to be absorbed into Mahayana Buddhism and transform for survival. Cao Tự 
Thanh called it “the unlikely Confucianism” (Cao 1996), while FitzGerald (1972) 
and Brocheux (1995) affirmed that the historic multi-ethnicity in the South drove 
the transformation of almost all aspects of life, including ideology, norms and 
the value system, communal and family life, rites of passage, rituals, and so on. 
The Vietnamese writer Trần Văn Giàu (1982) asserted that a village in the South 
was not similar to those in the North. It was “entrenched behind (its inhabitants’) 
bamboo hedges”, and “its peasants were far less prone to bow to feudal authority 
or be bound by Confucian ethics”. Instead, Buddhism, which incorporates Dao-
ism and local traditions, has been a much stronger influence. Such a trend is viv-
idly shown in local religious movements such as Caodaism, Ngũ chi Minh đạo, 
MĐNGĐĐ, and others. At a certain level, Northern Vietnam remained more rig-
idly committed to Confucian social hierarchies, while the downfall of Confucian 
orthodoxy in the South enabled the development of a newfound social mobility 
there, and northern Confucian scholars considered Southern Confucianism to be 
not truly Vietnamese, even though the core values embraced in the North actually 
were Chinese in origin (see Richey 2013, 68–9).
Basic Confucian values continued running as an undercurrent to family and social 
practices. The Vietnamese successfully expanded to the South (from Northern Vi-
etnam), thanks to both the farming migration and the power of “a Confucian state” 
(Evans and Rowley 1990, 6). Nguyễn Văn Trung emphasized the idea that South-
ern Vietnam got modernized through the process of Westernization; however, this 
modernization process did not limit or break up the local tradition, which was 
33 This point has also been discussed in Yu 1978, 92–96; and cited in Reid 1988, 146.
34 The emigration of villages was as a whole, including ideology, communal and family traditions, 
social structures, and practices.
32 Tho Ngoc NgUYEN: WhEN ThE SagE BEcomES a “god”
significantly based on Confucian values (Nguyễn 2014, 551–58). Southern elites 
and commoners actively adopted and acculturated Western values to reshape their 
worldview and ideology since the late nineteenth century. In addition, Southern 
Vietnamese Confucianism during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was rad-
ically refreshed by the Yangming School brought by the Chinese from overseas, 
and developed by a group of Vietnamese and Sino-Vietnamese Confucians such as 
Võ Trường Toản (武長纘) (?–1792) and his students in the late eighteenth century 
(Ngô Nhơn Tịnh 吳仁靜 (1761–1813), Trịnh Hoài Đức 鄭懷德 (1765–1825)). 
Consequently, Southern Vietnamese Confucianism, by comparison to its Northern 
counterpart, is vividly practical and closely associated with the breath of life.
The emigrant Vietnamese community quickly became the majority group in the 
South thanks to their capacity of connecting multi-ethnic traditions and rebuild-
ing a commonly shared environment. Nguyễn Công Bình (1998) stressed that the 
Vietnamese had to learn to integrate all sources of traditions to become stable 
and progressive, and this community proved to be able to subjugate and con-
trol all communities in these new lands by using Confucianism and Buddhism 
or something made by the combination of both. In the context of a Vietnamese 
community where orthodox Confucianism partially declined, the Government 
of Cochinchina (1558–1778) built Trấn Biên Confucius Temple in Dong Nai in 
171535 to affirm the role of this ideology in the new lands and educate an intellec-
tual force to cultivate state Confucianism in the region. Mạc Thiên Tứ 莫天賜, 
a Governor-General of Hà Tiên (河仙) in the early eighteenth century, built a 
Confucius Temple and established the Confucian Academy of Chiêu Anh Các to 
cultivate and develop Confucianism in the region. Unluckily, the temple and the 
academy were then destroyed due to warfare and the decline of Hà Tiên polity. 
Later, the Nguyễn dynasty (1802–1945) ordered local authorities to build Cao 
Lãnh Confucius Temple in 185736 and Vĩnh Long Confucius Temple in the pe-
riod 1864–1866.37 In 1972, the Saigonese Government sponsored local elites in 
Gò Công to build a Confucius Temple in the town.38 Moreover, the ethnic Hoa 
community in Châu Đốc city (An Giang province) also set up a hall dedicated to 
Confucius in a Guandi (關帝) temple in the mid-nineteenth century. While South-
ern scholars were not many in number, many of them became well-known for 
their intellectual dedication, such as Võ Trường Toản (?–1792), Lê Quang Định 
(1759–?), Trịnh Hoài Đức (1765–1825), Ngô Nhơn Tịnh (1761–1813), Nguyễn 
Đình Chiểu (1822–1888), Nguyễn Thông (1827–1884), and so on. 
35 French colonialists largely destroyed it in 1861, later being rebuilt in the period 1998–2002.
36 This temple was first built in present-day Ward 3, and moved to Ward 1 in 1978.
37 This temple is located in present-day Ward 4, Vĩnh Long city.
38 This temple is located in present-day Ward 1, Gò Công town, Tiền Giang province.
33Asian Studies VIII (XXIV), 2 (2020), pp. 17–50
One may ask why MĐNGĐĐ was formed in Trà Vinh and not another place in 
Southern Vietnam? It is in Trà Vinh, Sóc Trăng and An Giang provinces where 
multi-ethnicity and cultural diversity are found, as is typical in the whole Mekong 
River Delta. Sóc Trăng has been shown to be of overwhelming Chaozhou Chi-
nese influence, while An Giang (next to Cambodia) was already home to many 
other locally-born religions since the late nineteenth century, such as Bửu Sơn Kỳ 
Hương, Tứ Ân Hiếu Nghĩa, and Hoahaoism. It is the coastal dunes of Trà Vinh 
province where the acculturation of traditions among the Viet, Hoa (Chinese) and 
Khmer has taken place strongly. The remoteness of Trà Vinh province in general, 
and Ba Động village in particular, created relative safety for MĐNGĐĐ from be-
ing interfered with by the French colonialists or other forces. On the other hand, 
the proximity of Trà Vinh province to Vĩnh Long city, where the state-sponsored 
Confucius Temple was built in 1864 by the orthodox scholars and state elites,39 
allowed for the transmission of Confucian values among the local communities 
while the agrarian nature of MĐNGĐĐ helped retain its separation from being in-
corporated into orthodox Confucianism. Besides the universal and local religions 
stated above, popular religions are, of course, closely associated with the birth of 
MĐNGĐĐ. For instance, according to Takatsu (2012, 41), at the beginning peri-
od, a group of MĐNGĐĐ laypersons came together at Guandi Temple (關帝廟) 
in Thủ Dầu Một City (Bình Dương province) to preach, deliver herbs and trans-
late Chinese texts for a while. This historical fact showed that MĐNGĐĐ bore a 
close relationship with Chinese secret societies40 in its early years.
In general, the populace of Southern Vietnam was less heavily affected and 
controlled by the educated-Confucian elites than those in the North. This fact 
is vividly demonstrated by the point that MĐNGĐĐ was shaped and operated 
by non-elite members. Despite many revival efforts, Southern Confucianism has 
changed compared to the Northern tradition, and it was this transformation that 
underlay the formation of MĐNGĐĐ. Cultural change is objective, and national 
culture is an on-going tradition. Trần Quốc Vượng, the late cultural expert of 
Vietnam, emphasized the cultural acculturation which he dubbed “the specific 
feature of Vietnamese culture” (Trần 2008, 48). Therefore, adaptation and change 
are two successive and parallel processes of the Vietnamese people, who have 
a strong sense of “tolerance”. J. Feray (cited by Trần 2008, 48) once described 
Vietnamese culture as never rejecting the opportunity to absorb exogenous fac-
tors. To a certain extent, it is also an expression of flexibility in the Vietnamese 
39 Such as Phan Thanh Giản (1796–1867), and Nguyễn Thông (1827–1884).
40 Chinese secret societies were relatively popular in Southern Vietnam at the junction of the nine-
teenth and twentieth centuries. Guandi Temple in Thủ Dầu Một city was one of the most popular 
“headquarters” of these societies.
34 Tho Ngoc NgUYEN: WhEN ThE SagE BEcomES a “god”
cultural character. A couplet placed on the front of Thới Sơn Communal House 
in Tịnh Biên district, An Giang province, states: “The king and his people all 
join the common excitement; father and his son in harmonization can share com-
mon happiness”41 (fieldwork note, 2016). The Southern Vietnamese villagers are 
mainly taught to comply with Three Bonds and Five Virtues (male) or Three 
Compliances and Four Virtues (female), but barely know exactly who Confucius 
and Mencius are or where these norms come from. These doctrines are accepted 
and applied in flexible ways, many of which, like MĐNGĐĐ, are embedded in 
religious colours. In a discussion of Confucian patriarchy in marriage, Yu Insun 
discovered that as late as the seventeenth century the Southern Vietnamese still 
preserved an older Southeast Asian pattern––they practiced the giving of bride-
wealth at marriage, and in many cases the grooms came to live with the families 
of their brides (Yu 1978, 92–6). This de-centralizing Confucian feature greatly 
sharpened the simplicity and religiosity of MĐNGĐĐ.
Confucius as Both a “Sage” and a “God”
MĐNGĐĐ is a result of many cultural processes, in which the first step must be 
the transformations––the de-orthopraxy and the spiritualization of classical Viet-
namese Confucianism. The case of MĐNGĐĐ as a circumstance of Confucian 
transformation in Southeast Asia is not new, since the locally born Chinese in 
Java in (Indonesia) established “Confucian churches” on the island to compete 
with Christian churches and Islamic mosques as well as to promote Chinese-style 
education among the young Chinese residents.42 However, MĐNGĐĐ manifests 
some specific features developed by non-elite laypersons.
MĐNGĐĐ largely ignores the standardized forms and narratives of the earlier 
dynasties, as well as the orthopractic movements by local Confucian scholars. 
After such a deconstruction process, the local commoners and rural elites in the 
South only preserve the primordial norms and core values, such as pre-imperi-
al concepts of minh đức, tân dân, and chí thiện, etc. MĐNGĐĐ focuses more 
on family life and personal self-cultivation than social interaction.43 Regarding 
the “connection” between Confucius and Mr. Lưu Cường Cáng (the founder of 
MĐNGĐĐ), The Confucian Classics of MĐNGĐĐ writes: “The Sage Confucius 
41 It is written in Chinese script: 君非君臣非臣君臣皆共樂，父不父子不子父子是同歡.
42 This statement can be found in Coppel 1981, 186, 195; Chambert-Loir 2015, 67–107; and 
McKeown 2017, 324.
43 This motto is actually derived from the concept “self-cultivation as the root” in The Great Learning 
(chapter 1).
35Asian Studies VIII (XXIV), 2 (2020), pp. 17–50
handed the Confucian Way to our Master; (so that people of later generations 
could) implement his wish of Great Harmony”44 (MĐNGĐĐ 2005, 19).
MĐNGĐĐ followers are strongly motivated with regard to self-realization and 
self-cultivation as the good deeds that will help them avoid bad samsara and as 
fundamental conditions to get saved by Confucius and other supernatural powers. 
In Ba Động Temple, visitors can easily find the Confucian Seven commandments 
on the wall of the main hall, including 
Mind is not good, feng shui is useless; Parental disrespect leads to use-
less ancestor-worship; Brotherhood is not respected, friendship is use-
less; Reading is useless to those who commit unrighteous work; The 
smartest person has no real virtues if he makes others disappointed; One 
fails to preserve his pneuma can’t find any sustenance useful; Inappropri-
ate fortune doesn’t bring success. 
Neo- and New Confucianism both strongly appreciate the “self-realization” 
(and after that, the “self-cultivation”) of the superior man, MĐNGĐĐ puts both 
“self-realization” and “interactive realization” in their spectacular interpretation 
of the core virtues written in the Daxue (the Great Learning). “Tân dân” (to ren-
ovate the people) has been emphasized with two significant missions for lay-
people: “self-realization” and “self-cultivation”, and assisting others in realiza-
tion and transformation under the supernatural powers’ sanctity, even though the 
doctrine doesn’t assert the goal of being a “superior man”. As Tu Weiming once 
stated, “self-realization” is “not a lonely quest for one’s inner spirituality but a 
communicative act empowering one to become a responsible householder” (Tu 
1994, 182). MĐNGĐĐ looks to person-to-person interaction and transformation 
with a religious approach.
As a virtue-based religious sect, MĐNGĐĐ only adopts a halfway practice of 
classical Confucianism. MĐNGĐĐ’s founders and supporters did not get in 
touch with the original version of the Daxue or other texts of Four Books and 
Five Classics. Instead, they extracted and composed their philosophical founda-
tion from secondary texts such as Tứ thư thể chú (四書體注, Ontological Notes 
of Four Books), Tứ Thư địa toàn tiết yếu (四書大全節要, The Brief Interpretation 
of Encyclopaedia of the Four Books), Minh tâm bửu giám (明心寶鑑, Precious 
Mirror of the Clear Heart) which were relatively popular in Southern Vietnam 
during the late nineteenth to early twentieth centuries. Texts on family life and 
family education mainly include Nhị thập tứ hiếu (二十四孝, Twenty-four Stories 
44 Original text: “Giữa trường Tiên ân ần nhắc nhở, phụ cùng con rạng rỡ yên lòng; Thầy giao mối 
đạo Nho tông, để Ngài gìn giữ Đại đồng tròn xong.”
36 Tho Ngoc NgUYEN: WhEN ThE SagE BEcomES a “god”
about Filial Piety), Trị gia cách ngôn khuyến hiếu ca (治家格言勸孝歌, Fam-
ily Instructions and A Song to Persuade People to be Filial), and Gia huấn ca 
(家訓歌, The Family Training Ode).45 Like orthodox state-sponsored Confucian 
elites, MĐNGĐĐ elites and laypersons did not read Chinese orthodox classics di-
rectly. Secondly, in the primary poetic verse transmitted orally, laypersons insist 
that “You ought to feign ignorance, do not let others know that you are laymen” 
(see above), showing that the ultimate goal of MĐNGĐĐ is not to revivify the 
state but to transform (renovate) oneself and others around one by cultivating 
good deeds. As a matter of fact, MĐHGĐĐ focuses on the first two goals of 
a classical Confucian student (“practicing self-cultivation” (修身, tu thân), and 
“regulating the family” (齊家, tề gia)) yet puts them in a Buddhist paradigm 
of cause-effect transferability and a Taoist cornerstone of celestial support. The 
deeply-rooted concepts of “Hell” and “Salvation” have differentiated MĐNGĐĐ 
from state-sponsored Confucian institutions. MĐNGĐĐ founders and laypersons 
realize that an ordinary person, due to his lack of wisdom and all means of schol-
arly life, needs external support from the unseen forces to “save” and “transcend” 
himself. MĐNGĐĐ, unlike Neo-Confucianism, encourages self-realization and 
self-cultivation but does not generate the native relationship between self-culti-
vation and wisdom. Instead, the sect stresses that self-realization and self-culti-
vation enable a person to realize the frontiers of good and bad karma, to realize 
and fulfil his ordinary duties in life and to meet the requirements of posthuman 
salvation. Accordingly, a successful MĐNGĐĐ layperson bears both self-cul-
tivation and transcendent salvation from supernatural powers. He puts “virtue” 
and “hell” in sharp opposition. In a divination session dedicated to Confucius, a 
spirit-medium incanted:
Today’s disciples pray for the sage Confucius to descend to earth and 
instruct the spirit-medium,
How sacred you are and how miraculous the Confucian teachings are,
We wish you take the benevolence chariot rapidly to descend to save 
sentient beings
Yan, Zeng, Si, Meng, Zhu, Cheng all sincere masters and holy sages 
please land on this profane world,
Having you by our side, we are enabled to overcome mountains of 
hardship,
45 This is a 976-line Vietnamese verse text written by the Confucian scholar Nguyễn Trãi (阮廌, 
1380–1442) in Chinese.
37Asian Studies VIII (XXIV), 2 (2020), pp. 17–50
By honest heart-mind, we pray for Confucius and the heroic spirits!46 
(MĐNGĐ 2005, 26)
Furthermore, unlike state-sponsored Confucianism, MĐNGĐĐ does not aim to 
attain the further virtues of “governing the state” (治國, trị quốc), and “making 
the whole world peaceful and happy” (平天下, bình thiên hạ) or to show signs 
of upward mobility in the socio-political life of the laypersons. At a certain lev-
el, especially under a non-religious viewpoint, MĐNGĐĐ stays in line with the 
Neo-Confucian concept of human cultivation of the heart-mind even though their 
goal and approach may be different. By embedding basic social norms and vir-
tues, MĐNGĐĐ remains partially as a socio-cultural institution in a loosely-de-
fined terms. Thus, Confucius is still a “sage” in a broader sense.
MĐNGĐĐ was founded on a religious platform; therefore, its essential notation 
and rituals are in line with other popular religions in the region. The Southern 
Vietnamese started constructing new religions in the late nineteenth and ear-
ly twentieth centuries by absorbing the attractive qualities of all religions and 
philosophies together and rebuilding them under a new ideological framework. 
Hue-Tam Ho Tai (1983) stood on the perspective of political history to call this 
“the millenarian movement”. Several millenarian sects were founded during this 
period, among which include Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương,47 Tứ Ân Hiếu Nghĩa,48 and 
Hoahaoism49 in An Giang province, Caodaism in Tây Ninh, and other popular 
46 Original text: “Kim đồ đệ bái kỳ Khổng Thánh, giáng đàn tiền xuất tánh cơ đồng;
Anh linh hiển hiện bành thông, huyền vi yếu lý Nho tông chỉ truyền
Nguyện Từ Bi xa Tiên cấp giá, giáng phàm trần giáo hóa chúng sanh;
Nhan, Tăng, Tư, Mạnh, Châu, Trình, chí thành chí thánh chí linh độ trần
Kỉnh như tại thánh như tại, cảm ư tư mạc nại trùng san;
Vọng kỳ Khổng thánh giáng cơ, anh linh hiển hích chơn tiên lai đàn.”
(Chinese transcription: 今徒弟拜祈孔聖, 降壇前出性乩童, 
英靈顯現彭通, 玄微要理儒宗指傳, 
願慈悲車仙急駕, 降凡塵教化眾生, 
顏、曾、思、孟、朱、程, 至誠至聖至靈渡塵
憼如在聖如在, 感於思膜奈重山
望祈孔聖降乩, 英靈顯赫真仙來壇.)
47 Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương is a syncretic religion founded by Đoàn Minh Huyên (1807–1856) in 1849 in 
Châu Đốc, An Giang province. Currently, there are around 15,000 followers in the Mekong River 
Delta (see more Ho Tai 1983, 20–27).
48 Tứ Ân Hiếu Nghĩa is a syncretic religion under a branch of Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương that combines 
Mahayana Buddhism, Linji zong 臨濟宗, Tiantai zong 天台宗, Confucianism, Daoism, ancestor 
worship, and patriotism. It was founded by Ngô Lợi (1831–1890) in Óc Eo village, Tịnh Biên Dis-
trict, An Giang province. There are around 80,000 followers living in Southern Vietnam nowadays 
(see more Ho Tai 1983, 3, 12, 66, 146, 177).
49 Also called Hoahao Buddhism, Hoahaoism was founded in 1939 by Huỳnh Phú Sổ (1919–1947) 
in Hòa Hảo village, Tân Châu district, An Giang province. Hoahaoism continued Bửu Sơn Kỳ 
38 Tho Ngoc NgUYEN: WhEN ThE SagE BEcomES a “god”
religious movements. Research by Truong Van Chung in 2016 shows that more 
new religions, such as Yiguandao (一貫道, Nhất Quán đạo),50 Jehovah’s Wit-
nesses,51 Minh Sư,52 and Hà Mòn,53 have been disseminated or founded recently 
in Vietnam (Truong 2016, 450–595). In his analysis, Truong Van Chung stated 
that new religions are built and operated by the shift from belief to brainstorming, 
capacity for self-experience, secularism (changeability and adaptation), pragma-
tism (reality-based practices) and religious benefit-based nature (ibid., 674–77). 
Many millenarian leaders, as well as newly-emerging sect organizers, have taken 
advantage of an obvious feature of the Vietnamese personality to form their re-
ligious foundation––religious harmonization and tolerance. Such a feature was 
first shaped by the former state leaders and elites and sharpened under the con-
tinuous challenges due to state-building and external confrontation. Spirit pos-
session and divination have long been proven to be the actual needs of people in 
different cultures.54 Sacredness does not need to exist in reality, because “people 
ascribe sanctity to a place, then define and characterize it following their culture, 
experience, and purpose” (Jackson and Henrie 1983, 94–107; Phạm 2009, 43). 
Like devotees of other religions and their gods, MĐNGĐĐ laypersons worship 
Confucius because he provides “efficacy”. In their eyes, Confucius is a “god”.
However, unlike those religious movements, MĐNGĐĐ was formed by a process 
of multicultural integration based on Confucian ethics; therefore it is a unilinear 
acculturation process rather than general acculturation (see Berry 2003, 22). Dur-
ing the formation process, MĐNGĐĐ absorbed Buddhist and Daoist philosophies 
(cause-effect transferability, the wuwei concept, etc.), and got partially affected by 
Caodaism’s cosmological structure and liturgical activities; however, its Confucian 
core values remain vividly presented, making MĐNGĐĐ a special spiritualized 
form of Confucianism at the village level. Research by Huỳnh Ngọc Thu (2017) 
shows that Caodaism, an indigenous religion which was founded in the same period 
Hương’s philosophy; however, it adjusted the structure. Hoahaoism took Mahayana Buddhist phi-
losophy as the foundation and added ancestor worship (see Ho Tai 1983, 17–19, 26–37, 125, 170; 
also Trần 2001, 472–75). 
50 Yiguandao is a Chinese syncretic religion that was transmitted to Vietnam by Chinese from 
overseas during the 1980s (Truong 2016, 451).
51 The Jehovah’s Witnesses are a Western religion that was transmitted to Vietnam in 1935 by a 
French priest, Frank Rice, from Australia (Truong 2016, 525).
52 Minh Sư, one branch of Ngũ chi Minh đạo that originated in China, was disseminated to Vietnam 
in the middle of the 19th century, and officially acknowledged by Vietnamese Government in 2007 
(Truong 2016, 564).
53 Hà Mòn is an expanded and localized religion of Catholicism in Kon Tum (Central Highlands) that 
was founded at the end of the twentieth century.
54 See Lewis 1971; Kendall 1985; Brown 1991; Sharp 1993; Turner 2006; and Phạm 2009.
39Asian Studies VIII (XXIV), 2 (2020), pp. 17–50
and from the same social background as MĐNGĐĐ, was mainly formed on the 
equally integral acculturation of Daoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Christianity 
and local popular religions, thus its main god has no proper name, it is simply the 
Supreme God (Đấng Chí tôn). MĐNGĐĐ is said to have a close relationship with 
Caodaism; it focuses mainly on Confucian ethics. Therefore, Confucius has been 
the main god. MĐNGĐĐ’s core values––good virtue, goodness/perfection, and 
new people––are not the integral concepts of multiculturalism, they are Confucian 
virtues. A similar situation can be found among different popular religions or Dao-
ism in Southern Vietnam, such as La Hán Đàn (羅漢壇) in Sóc Trăng and Thiên 
Hòa Temple (天和寺) in Cần Thơ (a Daoist sect which absorbs Buddhist influenc-
es), Tam Vị Temple (三位廟) in Cái Nước district, Cà Mau province and Thiên Ý 
Đàn (天懿壇) in District 6, Ho Chi Minh City (traditional gods/hero-worship which 
absorbs Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism), and so on (fieldwork data 2015; 
2016). Being instituted as a virtue-based system, MĐNGĐĐ ritualizes its liturgical 
practices and stays in line with other religions; consequently, it lies somewhere 
between orthodox Confucianism and popular religions.
Many writers have noted and appreciated the role of local elites in building and 
transforming local culture. According to Gramsci (1971), culture is not something 
that “persists through time, handed down from one generation to another”. It is also 
partly made by intellectuals who have transformed the “incoherent and fragmentary 
feelings” of others into “a coherent and reasoned account of the world” (Grams-
ci in Crehan 2002, 129–30). Michel Foucault (1980) also valued the intellectual 
knowledge which crucially produces and maintains both state power and popular 
discourse (see Pham 2009, 176). Arthur Wolf emphasized that there was a big dif-
ference between the religion of the elite and that of the peasantry (Wolf 1974, 9), 
and therefore the latter are less active in building and controlling the local agenda of 
development. However, this is not correct in the case of MĐNGĐĐ: local farmers 
and popular laypersons were able to establish their way of life without too much 
contact with the administrators (either earlier colonists or and today’s authorities) 
and elite communities. This is in closer agreement with the Japanese researcher, 
Masao Tominaga, who defined MĐNGĐĐ a “grass-roots” Confucianism sect at 
the village level (Tominaga 2009; see further Nogami 2015); however, the current 
study shows that it is merely a religiously transformed Confucianism.
Culture, especially in the local traditions, is always the product of long-standing 
struggles of different classes in their local context. Culture has been “continu-
ally imagined, invented, contested, and transformed” both by the state and the 
agency of individuals (Foster 1991, 252). Among the various social classes, the 
elites tended to develop more ideologized and rationalized religious interpretations 
(Weller 1987, 10, 53), while the commoners largely depended on their local elites’ 
40 Tho Ngoc NgUYEN: WhEN ThE SagE BEcomES a “god”
agenda. However, under special circumstances, the local commoners did and still 
do have enough capacity to create and operate their traditions. In the case of the 
Vietnamese, Hue-Tam Ho Tai pointed out that Confucian values were largely ap-
plied in governmental operations by the scholar-officials, while Buddhism and 
Daoism had more effects in the daily life of the Vietnamese commoners (Ho 1983, 
20). The local farmers in Trà Vinh in the early twentieth century, being signifi-
cantly affected by the harsh colonial rule of the French, actively rebuilt state-spon-
sored Confucianism into MĐNGĐĐ in a simplified and spiritualized way. Having 
adopted the idea that the French took advantage of Confucian hierarchy to ensure 
their control over the Vietnamese (Elman et al. 2002, 8), Mr. Lưu Cường Cáng 
and his fellows did not violate the colonial principles when promoting Confucian 
virtues in family-based education and personal self-cultivation under a rather mys-
tical approach. As Keith Taylor emphasized, in general Vietnamese Confucianism 
does not exemplify a social role or a national identity, but rather produces “a sense 
of self that entertains the anxiety of occupying a heterogeneous space of fragments 
and encounters and of living” (Taylor 2002, 369), they know when and how to 
break the rules and pursued “an experience of self”, as well as knowing when and 
how to transform and re-invent new sources of culture.
After a long period of establishment and evolution, MĐNGĐĐ has become dif-
ferent from orthodox Confucianism in a number of specific ways, such as:
Table 1: Comparing specific features between orthodox Vietnamese Confucianism and 
MĐNGĐĐ.
Item Orthodox Confucianism in 
Vietnam
Minh Đức Nho giáo Đại đạo
Temple Temple of Literature (文廟/文聖
廟), Confucius Temple (孔廟)
Confucius Temple (孔子聖殿)
Concept of 
Three Bonds
Loyalty (忠), filial piety (孝), and 
righteousness (義)
Mainly filial piety (孝); 
righteousness (義) is subordinate.
Concept of 
Five Virtues
Benevolence, righteousness, 
propriety, wisdom and sincerity 
Mainly benevolence and 
righteousness.
Institutional 
essence
Social-ideological institution Spiritual-religious institution
Classes Intellectuals, elites, and rural 
Confucians
Farmers and a few rural elites
Attribute Sociality, worldliness Somewhere between sociality and 
spirituality, between worldliness 
and transcendence
41Asian Studies VIII (XXIV), 2 (2020), pp. 17–50
While Orthodox Confucianism looks for social engagement and educational im-
provement, MĐNGĐĐ tends to combine both the salvation of mystical “divines” 
(spiritualized Confucius, Buddha, celestial lords, etc.) and moral self-cultivation. 
The tendency to “sanctify” philosophical theories to form a part of the local tra-
dition is not unique in the case of MĐNGĐĐ. Trần Văn Giàu (1993), in his dis-
cussion of the formation of Caodaism in the early twentieth century, once stressed 
that the commoners intentionally look at liberation in the next life, and easily step 
onto the religious pathway. Truthfully, under the harsh policies of the French 
colonists, the Vietnamese peasants and part of the patriotic elites in the late nine-
teenth and early twentieth centuries had to choose this mysterious way to deal 
with the socio-political pressures as well as to solve problems within themselves. 
In comparison with East Asian communities, the traditional Vietnamese empha-
size “righteousness” (義), which is composed of the merits of righteousness, pat-
riotism, loyalty and filial piety (see Nguyen 2016, 645–71). They clarified the 
concept of righteousness into two categories, great righteousness (大義) and reg-
ular righteousness. Great righteousness undoubtedly means patriotism (愛國). 
Similarly, the concept of filial piety has also been divided into two sub-concepts, 
great filial piety (大孝) and regular filial piety (小孝). Great filial piety is a 
metaphor for patriotism while regular filial piety is understood as the regular 
respect and care of the younger generation towards their parents. Similarly, the 
ultimate loyalty in Vietnam is that to the country and people, yet not to the king. 
Therefore, the Vietnamese have developed the concept of righteousness into a 
figurative category, covering a wide range of meaning, including patriotism, loy-
alty, filial piety and righteousness itself. Being a part of this tradition, MĐNGĐĐ 
emphasizes this modification. In a part explaining the concept of great right-
eousness (patriotism), the classics Thánh giáo (Teachings of the Sage) cited the 
patriotic story of Two Trưng Kings55 and highlighted the following: “Heaven’s 
gate is wide open to the heroes and heroines, feminine power is as great as a good 
man’s; National history always shines the merits of Two Trưng Kings, so today 
we follow to cultivate and complete ourselves”56 (MĐNGĐĐ 1977, 23). Similar 
ideas can be also found in other religious movements in South Vietnam at the 
same time, such as Tứ Ân Hiếu Nghĩa, Bửu Sơn Kỳ Hương, and Ông Đạo Trần.57 
55 Two female heroines, Trưng Trắc and Trưng Nhị, played key roles in the great revolt against the 
Chinese Han’s invasion and rule in the Red River Delta Region (present-day North Vietnam) 
during the period of 39 AD–43 AD.
56 Original text: “Môn Thiên mở rộng rước anh tài, nữ liệt anh thư mựa chớ sai; Xán lạn Nhị Trưng 
còn sử tạc, hôm nay Chí Thiện để thi tài.”
57 Also called Ông Nhà Lớn Sect, a separation of Tứ Ân Hiếu Nghĩa in Long Sơn island, Bà Rịa–
Vũng Tàu province, founded in the early twentieth century.
42 Tho Ngoc NgUYEN: WhEN ThE SagE BEcomES a “god”
Noticeably, the above-mentioned merits of MĐNGĐĐ are usually associated 
with the efficacy of relating to supernatural powers. For instance, The Confucian 
Classics 1932–2005 says:
Confucian students firmly preserve in mind the virtues of loyalty, pa-
tience, unity, and scholarly spirit; they silently look for good companions 
and stay in harmony under the Buddhas’ and Celestial lords’ sanctity.58 
(MĐNGĐĐ 2005, 40)
For indigenous religions in Southern Vietnam, the faith strongly reflects the prac-
tical economic, cultural, and social life of residents; therefore, once the socio-eco-
nomic background has changed (especially after the 1986 Reform policy), the 
inherent social cohesion of MĐNGĐĐ also changes. MĐNGĐĐ is the enlight-
ened pathway of the spontaneous folk community. It lacks a scientific organiz-
ing structure and a concrete mechanism to evolve. There are signs of a gradual 
decline in MĐNGĐĐ, especially in its radial attraction and social impact. The 
administrative means of local authorities may produce some sort of challenge; 
however, the most serious challenge is the institutional structure of MĐNGĐĐ 
itself. Rob Weller once concluded that “religious unity or diversity depends in 
large part on how much intellectuals (who develop the ideologies), their back-
ers, and their institutions succeed in influencing the conceptual system of other 
groups in the society” (Weller 1987, 170–71). James Watson (1985) claimed that 
the state created a system of symbols and overall value systems, and the intellec-
tual and local elites, in turn, conveyed those values to the grassroots level through 
the process of cultural standardization. Similar conclusions can be found in the 
works of Donald S. Sutton (2007), Michael Szonyi (2007), Paul Katz (2007), Guo 
Qitao (2003), and others. Elites are generally willing to cooperate with the state 
(both to show loyalty and to achieve the goal of cultural unification of the state).
The state in Vietnam in the early twentieth century was controlled by French 
colonialists; therefore, Vietnamese elites did not support their civilizing mission 
in local areas. Instead, many of them decided to live quietly, while others joined 
the Liberation Front of Việt Minh. MĐNGĐĐ currently lacks the intellectual 
leadership often provided by professional elites (or priests), and the inherent re-
lationship between faith and liturgical practices is getting weaker. It seems that 
the birth and operation of MĐNGĐĐ convey a contemporary value system. They 
reflect the actual consciousness and practices of some of the local farmers in 
Southern Vietnam under colonial control. The farmers concealed their patriotism 
58 Original text: “Đạo Nho sĩ tử quyết lòng trung, đại nhẫn đại hòa thêm sĩ hùng; Ẩn nhẫn canh thân 
tìm bạn lữ, Thỉnh Tiên rước Phật để chung cùng.”
43Asian Studies VIII (XXIV), 2 (2020), pp. 17–50
and progressive aspirations in Confucian ethics; however, the absence of elite 
participation limits MĐNGĐĐ from building a strong institutionalized establish-
ment. Instead, they built their own “cultural nexus of power”.59 
If Confucian core values (minh đức, tân dân, and chí thiện) can be grouped as 
“the notation” of MĐNGĐĐ, and regular liturgical practices and other forms of 
ceremony are defined as “ritual”, then, in applying Seligman and Weller’s (2012) 
point of view, the founders and local devotees of MĐNGĐĐ in Trà Vinh have 
directly created and promoted a common “shared experience”. As Mary E. Tuck-
er said, “the rituals reflect the patterned structures of the natural world and bind 
humans to one another, to the ancestral world, and to the cosmos at large” (Tucker 
2004, 25). In the notational domain of MĐNGĐĐ, Confucius is a “sage”; howev-
er, in religious faith and liturgical aspects, he is a “god”. By having the notion, the 
ritual, and shared experience installed, MĐNGĐĐ has brought people together, at 
least within their religious space.
Conclusion
As Jeffrey L. Richey once remarked, Vietnamese Confucianism is a native ex-
pression of Vietnamese values rather than an ongoing flow of East Asian tradition 
(see Richey 2013, 60). Confucianism has transformed so greatly (in both content 
and form) that O.W. Wolters suggested one should “think twice” before using the 
term “Confucianism” in Vietnamese cultural history (Wolters 1976, 203–26). It 
is not Confucianism as a whole package of Chinese imperial ideology that has 
been applied in Vietnam; instead, the Vietnamese actively adopted the norms 
and values needed to localize and develop further to serve their own national and 
family interests. No one has given a particular name to this synthetic “Confucian 
tradition” of Vietnam so far, except the generic term “Vietnamese Confucian-
ism”; however, appropriate regard and consideration are reasonably emphasized. 
MĐNGĐĐ is a part of this pattern, and if it needs a proper interpretive name, can 
be dubbed “the village-based spiritualized Confucianism Sect”.
Along with the colonial socio-historical processes in Southern Vietnam during 
the first half of the twentieth century, Confucianism––the orthodox socio-ideo-
logical system in feudal Vietnam––has, in turn, experienced de-standardization 
and de-orthopraxy, leaving behind the pre-imperial Confucian norms and val-
ues among the commoners. Local farmers in remote areas in Trà Vinh actively 
transformed Confucian ethics into a form of religious sect by adding mystical 
59 The concept was suggested by Prasenjit Duara 2010.
44 Tho Ngoc NgUYEN: WhEN ThE SagE BEcomES a “god”
metaphysics and liturgical practices into the broken and simplified Confucian 
philosophical structure to generalize faith and trust. This denomination is a 
concrete representation of the new religious movements that arose throughout 
Southern Vietnam during the period of the late nineteenth to early twentieth cen-
turies, vividly reflecting the spontaneous reaction, flexibility, and multicultural 
integration of the residents and their traditions. The formation and maintenance 
of this sect through historical periods shows the diversity of the cultural needs, 
cultural psychology, and lifestyle on the part of Vietnamese commoners, espe-
cially during the time of colonial rule. The nature of MĐNGĐĐ represents a core 
principle that, even without the orientation and leadership of state agents (the 
bureaucracy and the elites), the peasants in Southern Vietnam were able to create 
their worldview and way of life which maintain a certain level of difference from 
the orthodox tradition. Confucianism, with its ontological spirituality (“imma-
nent transcendence”, “heavenly virtue”, and “anthropocosmic vision”),60 always 
provides a way for all classes as long as they learn the values of Confucian norms 
and practices. Without the state’s engagement and intellectual leadership, the 
non-elite community easily transforms and applies Confucian ethics in a spirit-
ualized way.
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