"Gian đạo sĩ" and the trend of "Orthodoxization" of endogenous religions in Southern Vietnam

Abstract

Southern Vietnam became the "good land" of Chinese immigrant groups since the late 17th century after the Ming Dynasty was overthrown by the Manchu Qing army. A part of those political refugees were members of South China folk religious sects, who used religion and religious movements as a means to gather a large number of insurgents to “fight against Qing and restore Ming” in order to realize their political intentions. This spirit of “restoring the old dynasty” influenced patriotic scholars with feudal ideology in Vietnam, who were in a similar situation when confronting the invading French colonialists, thereby transforming into the awareness of “fighting against the French and restoring the Vietnamese emperor". They were deeply influenced by the Confucian spirit of "patriotism and respect for the monarch" and were determined to embrace the religious flag with the nuances of Confucianism - Buddhism - Taoism and local traditions to gather insurgents, who fought against invaders and restored the kingship of the natives. It is the ambiguous transformation process between Confucian scholars and Taoist priests. Especially, in the context of strict surveillance and brutal repression by contemporary authorities, they were considered "gian đạo sĩ" fiercely resisting authorities. Since then, the trend of "Orthodoxization" has appeared to shape them into monks who do not care about politics, or at least submit to serve the government. Using research methods (tactics) of analyzing written documents, field surveys, ethnographic fieldwork, and logical analysis, the article analyzes the phenomenon of "gian đạo sĩ" in Southern Vietnam’s endogenous religions and also clarifies the "Orthodoxization" trend of the popular belief of Ngũ Công Vương Phật from the late 19th to early 20th century, thereby introducing an interesting cultural phenomenon in contemporary Southern Vietnam’s social life.