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Referring to a statement at the end of Vô Ngôn Thông's biography that "[having lasted] up to now, the twentyfourth year, dinh* suu*, of the Khai Huu* era (1337), the Zen tradition in our country started withhim,"27 Trân Van* Giáp suggests that the year 1337 can be as the exact date of the composition of the Thiên Uyên.

Where he planted his monk's staff, monks, nuns, laymen, and
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laywomen gathered like the dew. His supernatural powers were unfathomable, his miraculous activities impossible to measure. If he himself had not arrived at the locus of Buddha's enlightenment, how could he have carried out such excellent achievements? He is truly the precious moon on the Buddhist firmament, the garden of Dharma in the spiritual village. . . . "
Viên Thông (1080–1151)
Eighteenth Generation:
Two Persons, Only One Biography Recorded
[68b5] National Preceptor Viên Thông of Quoc * Ân Temple, Co* Hien* Village, Nam Dinh*,622 hailed from Cô Hiên. His family name was Nguyen*, his personal name was Nguyên Ú'c. He moved to Thái Bach* Quarter in the capital Thang* Long and made his home there. His family had held the office of Monk Official for generations. His father Ðú'c served during the reign of Lý Nhân Tông (1072–1127) and held office as high as Secretary for the Academy of Monks on the Left and Right, and had the sobriquet Zen Master Bao* Giác. Viên Thông was unusually brilliant by nature, and his knowledge was refined and subtle. As a young man he already harbored the aspiration to leave this mundane world. He met Viên Hoc* of An Quôc Temple and so meshed with the purport of Buddhism.
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In the sixth year of the Hoi* Phong era (1079), he passed the examination on the Three Teachings623 with highest honors and was appointed to the office of Dai* Van*. In the eighth year of the Long Phù Nguyên Hóa era (1108), there was an examination to select great talents from among the people to fill the vacant rank of Leading Monk (Tang* Dao*). Viên Thông again passed with highest honors. Emperor Lý Nhân Tông was even more [69a] amazed by him and wished to give him political power. But Viên Thông persistently declined it and would not take up any position. Lý Nhân Tông then raised him to the rank of Inner Palace Retainer and Dharma Master. After that Viên Thông expounded the doctrine according to circumstances, enlightening people by guiding them to the meaning [of Buddhism]. He dispelled their delusion and reproached their ignorance until there was none left at all. Those who studied with him and understood his teaching all became famous in their generation.
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In the third year of the Dai * Khánh era (1112),624 after he had repaired the Diên Tho* Temple, Lý Nhân Tông asked him to compose the inscription on the stele. Lý Nhân Tông esteemed his talent and raised him to the rank of Secretary of the Monk Academy on the Left.
In the third year of the Ðai Thuan* era (1130), Emperor Lý Than* Tông summoned him to Sùng Khai Palace to enquire about the principles of political order and upheaval, of prosperity and decline in the world. Viên Thông said: "The world is like an instrument. Put it in a safe place, it is safe; put it in a perilous place, it is in peril. It all depends on how the leader of the people behaves himself. If his benevolence is in harmony with the hearts and minds of the people, then they will love him as a parent and look up to him like the sun and the moon. This is putting people in a safe place. "
He also said: "Order or chaos depends on [the behavior of the] officials. If they can win the people over, then there is political order; if they lose the people's support, then there is upheaval. I have observed [the activities of] emperors of previous generations. No one succeeded without employing true gentlemen, or failed unless he
employed petty men. 625 [69b] When we trace how these things come about, it does not happen overnight, but develops gradually. 626 Just as heaven and earth cannot abruptly produce cold and hot weather, but must change gradually through the seasons like spring and autumn, etc. , kings cannot suddenly627 bring about prosperity
or decline, but rather it is a gradual process depending on their good or bad activities. The sage kings of old knew this principle, and so they modeled themselves on Heaven and never ceased to rely on virtue to cultivate themselves; they molded themselves on Earth and never ceased to rely on virtue to pacify the people. To
cultivate oneself means to be cautious within, as cautious as if one were walking on thin ice. 628 To pacify people means to respect those who are below, to be as respectful as one riding a horse holding wornout reins. If one can be like that, one cannot but succeed; if otherwise, one cannot but fail. The gradual process of prosperity or decline depends on this. "
Lý Thân Tông was pleased and appointed him Superintendent of the Monk Academy on the Right and Magistrate in charge of Religion. Sometimes Viên Thông had calmly approached Lý Thân Tông and submitted an admonition, and Lý Thân Tông never neglected his advice. Viên Thông then complied with royal order and went to the Tây Du'o'ng Shrine to pray for the protection of the expected royal child. 629 Since his prayers succeeded, Lý Thân Tông respected and rewarded him even more and conferred upon him the title Court Guest, which ranked the same as Crown Prince.
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In the fifth year of the Thiên Chu'o'ng Bao * Tu'* era (1137),630 the royal carriage came [to take Viên Thông to the royal palace] to participate in carrying out the emperor's final command and [70a] composing the royal will. Lý Than* Tông entrusted everything to him.
In the first year of the Thieu* Minh era (1138), Lý Anh Tông assumed the throne and the empress dowager assumed power. 631 In consideration of his previous accomplishments, she rewarded Viên Thông generously.
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Finally Viên Thông returned to his native district, built a temple, and settled down there in his old age. The revenue from three villages was provided [for him] by the
national treasury. Lý Thân Tông also granted him the imperial insignia632 to honor him.
In the fourth year of the Dai* Dinh* era (1143), Viên Thông was promoted to the rank of Superintendent of the Monk Academy on the Left and Right, Inner Palace Superintendent, Inner Servitor Magistrate in charge of Religion, National Preceptor and Protector of the Realm, and Expounder of the Canon. Lý Thân Tông also bestowed on him the title "Purple Robed Great Monk. " His position was lofty and he was greatly admired both among the court officials and throughout the countryside.
On the twentyfirst day of the fourth month of the leap year, tân mùi, of the Ðai Ðinh era (1151), Viên Thông assembled his disciples to bid them farewell and passed away without any illness at the age of seventytwo.
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Viên Thông had obeyed a royal decree and composed the works Tuyen* Chu' Phat* Tích Duyên Su'* [Selected Stories of Buddha's Past Lives]633 of more than thirty fascicles, Hong* Chung Van* Bi Kí [Great Bell Inscriptions], Tang* Già Tap* Luc* [Miscellaneous Records of the Sangha] of more than fifty fascicles,634 and more than a thousand poems and rhymed prose pieces that are still in circulation. 635
Y So'n (? –1213)
Nineteenth Generation:
Two Persons, Only One Biography Recorded
[70b1] Zen Master Y So'n of Ðai Tù' Temple, Ðai Thông Tru'ò'ng, Long Phúc,636 was a native of Cam* Village, Nghe* An. 637 His family name was Nguyen*. His appearance was elegant and his speech was eloquent. As a young boy he was well versed in the Books of Documents and History. He
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only formed friendships that would be mutually beneficial in widening both friends' skills. He also paid special attention to Buddhist literature. At the age of thirty, he was ordained a monk by an Elder in the district. They went together to the capital to study with National Preceptor Viên Thông. Under the guidance of Viên Thông he reached accord with the message of Buddhism.
Afterward, he traveled everywhere to convert people, concentrating on altruistic activities. He always used all the money donated to him in Buddhist activities. He once wrote an exhortation that said:
Fishing for fame and desiring profit—
these are like bubbles floating in the water,
Planting merit and sowing [good] conditions— these are truly precious jewels in our hearts.
Y So'n also spoke a verse:
When the Tathagata attains perfect enlightenment, He attains the body which is equal to all [conditioned
and nonconditioned phenomena].
It intersects with them without intersecting,639 The living spirit—the pupil of the eyes.
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Late in his life he moved to Nam Mô Temple, An Lãng Village, to become its abbot. He often instructed his disciples: "You should know that when the Tathagata * attained perfect enlightenment (samyaksambodhi), there was nothing left for him to contemplate; he had no doubts with regard to universal equality; he was without duality, formless, neither moving nor abiding, immeasurable, without limit, free from the two extremes [of eternalism and annihilationism]. He dwelt in the Middle Way (madhyamapratipad*) and transcended all words and speech. [71a] He could manifest bodies as numerous as sentient beings; he attained the body that is equal to all realms; he attained the bodies as numerous as the three realms; he attained the body that is equal to all Buddhas' bodies; he attained the body that is equal to all words and speech; he attained the body that is equal to Thusness (Tathata*); he attained the body that is equal to the Realm of Ultimate Reality (Dharmadhatu*); he attained the body that is equal to space; he attained the body that is equal to the unbounded realm; he attained the body that is equal to all vows (pranidhana*); he attained the body that is equal to all practices; he attained the body that is equal to all forms of peace. "638
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And:
The true body (dharmakaya *) becomes myriad forms, The myriad forms are the true body.
The lunar palace gives luster to the red cinnamon tree, The red cinnamon tree is in its single orb.
When he was about to pass away, Y So'n told his students: "I will not return to this world. " At that time blossoms on the tree in front of the [Dharma] Hall suddenly fell, and swallows and sparrows cried sadly without a stop for three weeks. Y So'n passed away on the eighteenth day of the third month of the third year, bính tí, of the Kien* Gia era (1213). 640
The Thao* Ðu'ò'ng School641
[71b2] Zen Master Thao Ðu'ò'ng642 of Khai Quoc* Temple in the capital Thang* Long transmitted the lineage of the Xuedou Mingjue643 school.
The successors of Zen Master Thao Ðu'ò'ng: First generation: three persons
Emperor Lý Thánh Tông644
Zen Master Bát Nhã (Prajna*)645 of Tù' Quang Phúc Thánh Temple,646 Dich* Vu'o'ng Village, Tru'ò'ng Canh647
Layman Ngo* Xá648 of Bao* Tài Village, Long Chu'o'ng
(The above three persons all succeeded Thao Du'ò'ng. ) Second generation: four persons
State Councillor Ngô Ích succeeded Emperor Lý Thánh Tông
Zen Master Hoang* Minh of An Lãng Village, Vinh* Hu'ng, succeeded Bát Nhã Zen Master Không Lo* of Nghiêm Quang Temple, Hai* Thanh
[72a] Zen Master Dinh* Giác (the same as Giác Hai)649
(The above two persons both succeeded Ngô Xá. Their main biographies are based on the Diagram of the Southern School, in the section on the Ðinh So'650 lineage. )
Third generation: four persons
Grand Tutor Do* [Anh] Vu*651 (succeeded State Councillor Vân, who succeeded Ðính Giác. )
Zen Master Pham* Âm of Thanh Uy Village, An La (succeeded Thieu* Minh. )652
Emperor Lý Anh Tông
Zen Master Ðô Ðô
(The above two persons both succeeded Không Lô. Another source says they succeeded Ðinh Giác. )
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Fourth generation: four persons
Zen Master Tru'o'ng Tam Tang (succeeded Pham * Âm. Another source says he succeeded Không Lo*. Still other sources say he succeeded Dinh* Giàc. ) Zen Master Chân Huyen*
Grand Tutor Do* Thu'ò'ng653
(The above three persons all succeeded Zen Master Ðô Ðô. Another source says Grand Tutor Ðô Thu'ò'ng succeeded Zen Master Tông Tinh* of Kien* So'. )654 Fifth generation: five persons
[72b] Zen Master Hai* Tinh655
Emperor Lý Cao Tông
Nguyen* Thú'c of Xu'ó'ng Nhi, Quang* Giáp
(The above three persons all succeeded Tru'o'ng Tam Tang*. )
Pham* Phung* Ngu'* and the others succeeded Chân Huyen*. (Another source says they succeeded Grand Tutor Ðô. )
PART III— APPENDIXES
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Appendix I—
Additional Supporting Data for Chapter One
History of the Transmission of the Thien * Uyen* Tap* Anh
The text that is the topic of our study here has generally been referred to in Vietnamese literature by two names: Thiên Uyên Tâp Anh [A Collection of Outstanding Figures of the Zen Community] and Dai* Nam Thiên Uyên Truyen* Dang* Tâp Luc* [A Record of Transmission of the Lamp in the Zen Community of Dai* Nam], after the 1715 edition under the [Later] Lê (1533–1788) and the 1858 edition under the Nguyen* (1802–1945). 1 Actually this text has been referred to by still other names,2 yet Thiên Uyên seems to be the original title of the text in its first complete, edited version.
Although some information has been provided by the studies of Tran* Van* Giáp and Émile Gaspardone,3 we still do not know much about the situation of the text before and after the edition of 1715. Among extant literary documents, the earliest mention of the Thiên Uyên is found in Lê Quí Ðôn's Nghe* Van* Chí [Description
of Arts and Literature],4 in which he remarked that the Thiên Uyên was a onefascicle work composed by an author who lived during the Trân dynasty (1225–1400), recording information about Zen sects and biographies of eminent monks of Vietnam from the time of the Tang (618–907) and Song (960–1279) dynasties up to the period including the Trân through the Ðinh (968–980), [Former] Lê (980–1009), and Lý (1010–1225) dynasties. Phan Huy Chú's Van Tich* Chí [Descriptive Bibliography]5 was content merely to repeat Lê Quí Ðôn's comment, adding that the Thiên Uyên consists of six fascicles. The two editions that are currently available
to us, however, consist respectively of two fascicles and one fascicle. 6
Phan Huy Chú's remark seems to indicate the existence of an edition earlier than the Lê edition. First, let us consider the question of the actual existence of this edition, which we will tentatively refer to as the Trân edition, taking into consideration the date of the composition of the text.
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The Tran * Edition
Although neither of the two extant editions of the Thien* Uyen* gives us the exact date of its composition, there are plausible reasons for us to believe that the Thiên Uyên is a work composed during the Tran* dynasty. Nowadays, though, the earliest edition of the text that we have at our disposal is the Lê edition of 1715. Thus, whatever information we now have about the text derives from this 1715 edition and Lê Quí Ðôns's remarks in his Nghe* Van* Chí.
A section on ''Immortals and Buddhist Monks" in the An Nam Chí Nguyên [Source Book on An Nam], an early fifteenthcentury work, records sketchy biographies of twenty Zen Masters. Thirteen of these are mentioned in the Thiên Uyên. 7 Except for Thao* Ðu'ò'ng, whose biography is not recorded in the Thiên Uyên, the An
Nam Chí Nguyên's records of the other Zen Masters are almost identical to certain passages in their biographies in the Thiên Uyên. In light of this fact, Lê Manh* Thát has suggested that the An Nam Chí Nguyên must have derived its information directly from the Thiên Uyên, or at least from a source that quoted the Thiên
Uyên. 8 However, it seems that the author of the An Nam Chí Nguyên did not know of the existence of the Thiên Uyên since he claimed to have gathered the information about those Buddhist monks from either oral sources or other old records. 9 Since the An Nam Chí Nguyên is believed to have been composed around 1419, Lê Manh Thát concludes that the "old records" its author refers to must have quoted from the most ancient edition of the Thiên Uyên, or the Trân edition.
In conclusion, we have reasonable evidence to believe that there existed a Trân edition of the Thiên Uyên. Nguyen* Van* Chat*10—an author living in the fifteenth century—who composed an appendix to Lý Te* Xuyên's Viet* Dien*,11 did mention the Thiên Uyên in this work. 12 This is clear evidence that there existed an
edition of the Thiên Uyên (probably the Trân edition) prior to the Lê edition of 1715. However, the Thiên Uyên does not seem to have been in wide circulation, since it was not known to some authors of the Trân dynasty. For example, Lê Trac*, in the section on Buddhist monks in his An Nam Chí Lu'o'c* [Brief Records of An Nam], does not appear to have had the Thiên Uyên at his disposal for reference.
The Lê Edition
This was published in 1715 and is the oldest edition that we have nowadays. The text consists of two fascicles, respectively called Thiên Uyên Tap* Anh Ngu'* Luc* [Recorded Sayings of Outstanding Figures of the Zen Community], upper fascicle and Thiên Uyên Tâp Anh, lower fascicle. The upper fascicle records the Vô Ngôn Thông lineage and the lower
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fascicle gives the Vinitaruci * lineage with a list of names of the monks belonging to the Thao* Ðu'ò'ng school.
We have almost no information about the editor of this edition. From the preface written in the fourth month of the Vinh* Thinh* era of the Lê dynasty (1715), we
know only that he was a learned Confucian who admired Buddhism and edited the text at the request of his friend, a Zen Buddhist monk. 13 The Nguyen* Edition
This was published by Phúc Dien*14 as Dai* Nam Thien* Uyen* Truyen* Dang* Tap* Luc*, upper fascicle. Phúc Ðiên did not write a preface or record the date of publication of the text. He only gave a short note stating that the edition he used was the old woodblock kept at Tiêu So'n Temple, of which the name of the compiler was lost. Phúc Ðiên neglected to explain why he renamed the text Ðai Nam Thiên Uyên Truyên Ðang Tâp Luc, upper fascicle. Fortunately, we find the answer in a preface written by Phúc Ðiên entitled "Truyen* Dang* Ngu'* Quyen* Tân Tu'*" ["New Preface to the Transmission of the Lamp in Five Fascicles"] found at the beginning of Nhu' So'n's Thiên Dien* Thong* Yeu* Ke* Ðang Luc [Continuation of the Record of the Transmission of the Lamp] (Kê Ðang Luc). 15 This preface states that the Ðai Nam was published in 1858 [i. e. , the twelfth year of the Tu' Ðú'c era of the Nguyen* dynasty] as the "upper fascicle" of a larger project
intended as a complete history of the Zen transmission in Vietnam. Phúc Ðiên wrote:16
In the old days in our country there was the Thiên Uyên Tâp Anh giving brief records of the virtuous, eminent monks of the three dynasties (of Ðinh, [Former] Lê, and Lý). In general, the records are vague and incoherent. Therefore, I have edited and recopied it in order to preserve the ancient text, and have made it a separate upper fascicle. Up through the Tran* dynasty there was the Thánh Ðang Ngu' Luc [Recorded Sayings of Transmission of the Sacred Lamp] in one fascicle, which recorded only [biographies of] the three patriarchs of the Trân. There were stories but no portraits.
During the Later Lê, the Patriarch Nhu' So'n, basing himself on the Wudeng huiyuan [the Chinese Zen collection, The Five Lamps Meeting at the Source] composed a threefascicle Ke* Ðang Luc, which included both stories and portraits. Nhu' So'n's work began with Bhismagarjitasvarar* Buddha, then related the stories of the Seven Ancient Buddhas, and finally recorded the biographies of fortyseven Indian patriarchs, and twentythree Chinese patriarchs, together with the Linji School of our country descended from the three patriarchs Chuyet* Công, Minh Lu'o'ng, and Chân Nguyên. As for the true school of Caodong, there
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were the Venerable Thuy * Nguyet* and Tông Dien*. As for the Linji School, [Nhu' So'n] did not record the transmission [of the generations] after Chân Nguyên's transmission to the Eminent Cú'u Sinh. Therefore, I follow the order of [Nhu' So'n's] Ke* Dang* Luc*, supplemented with the [biographies of] the five patriarchs. . . .
I am concerned that the lamp of the patriarchs is about to be extinguished, so I muster all my energy to record briefly [biographies of] the three patriarchs of the Tran* along with those of [the patriarchs of] the two schools of Linji and Caodong. I combine these into a single collection, together with the miscellaneous records from outside sources, and make this into a separate lower fascicle. [I do this] so that the Dharma will continue to be transmitted and the lamp will be perpetuated. 16
According to this, Phúc Dien* had at his disposal the Thien* Uyen*, the onefascicle Thánh Ðang Luc, which records the biographies of the the three patriarchs (of the Trúc Lâm Zen school) of the Trân dynasty, and Nhu' So'n's Kê Ðang Luc. Phúc Ðiên considered this last work to be more complete and coherent than the previous two texts, because it records the transmission of the lamp from the time of Bhismagarjitasvara* Buddha and the seven Ancient Buddhas, through all the generations of patriarchs in India and China, up to the founders of the Linji and Caodong schools in Vietnam. 17
What appears to be somewhat unclear is the title of the "Preface. " We are not certain what Phúc Ðiên meant by "the Transmission of the Lamp in Five Fascicles. " Nguyen* Lang gives the interpretation that Phúc Dien's* project was to use the Thiên Uyên as the upper fascicle, Nhu' So'n's Kê Ðang Luc (in three fascicles) as the middle fascicle, and the Thánh Ðang Luc (in one fascicle) and further biographies (from outside sources) of eminent Vietnamese Linji and Caodong monks as the lower fascicle. Thus, the Nguyên edition of the Thiên Uyên was to become the Dai* Nam upper fascicle of this complete fivefascicle project. The projected work was named "Transmisson of the Lamp in Five Fascicles," obviously because Nhu' So'n's Kê Ðang Luc itself consists of three fascicles. Lê Manh* Thát gives almost the same explanation, except for the fact that he seems to ignore the Thánh Ðang Luc and remarks that the last fascicle of the ''Five Fascicle" project was Phúc Ðiên's own work on the three patriarchs of the Trân, the Linji and Caodong schools, and other miscellaneous notes.
Neither of these explanations seems to be completely satisfactory. Phúc Ðiên himself did compose a text that was explicitly purported to be the continuation (i. e. , the lower fascicle) to the Ðai Nam as the upper fascicle. In fact, he named his work Thiên Uyên Truyen* Ðang Luc, Quyen* Ha* [The Transmission of the Lamp in the Zen Community, Lower Fas
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cicle], or Dai * Nam Thien* Uyen* Ke* Dang* Lu'o'c* Luc* Tu'* Tran* Chu' To* Lâm Te* Tào Dong* Quyen* Ha* [A Brief Record of the Transmission of the Lamp from the Patriarchs of the Linji and Caodong Schools of the Tran* Dynasty, Lower Fascicle] (Kê Ðang Lu'o'c Luc). 18 Furthermore, Phúc Dien* did not
state in the preface that he would use the Thánh Ðang Luc and Nhu' So'n's Kê Ðang Luc as the middle or lower fascicle. He seems to have mentioned them only as sources or models for his own work. Thus, "the Transmission of the Lamp in Five Fascicles" would mean the Thiên Uyên (one fascicle), the Thánh Ðang Luc (one fascicle), and Nhu' So'n's Kê Ðang Luc (three fascicles). Phúc Dien's* original intention was probably to edit these three works as a fivefascicle complete history of the Zen transmission in Vietnam. He might have been dissatisfied with Nhu' So'n's Kê Ðang Luc, since this work, relying heavily on the Chinese Wudeng huiyuan, records only sketchy biographies of Indian and Chinese patriarchs and nothing on Vietnamese monks. That is why Phúc Ðiên wrote a new preface stating his aspiration to compose a lower fascicle (i. e. , continuation) to the Thiên Uyên by combining the Thánh Ðang Luc with biographies and short sayings and teachings of the Vietnamese patriarchs of the Linji and Caodong schools which he (and obviously his disciples) had diligently collected from written historical records and other documents found in various temples.
Phúc Ðiên did not give the date of the composition of the Kê Ðang Lu'o'c Luc. It could have been started in 1858, the year he wrote the "Preface. " From the contents of this book, one gets the impression that Phúc Ðiên started the work, but that it was finished by some of his disciples. This is because his name was mentioned several
times, particularly in the later part of the book, and there is a section devoted to his own biography. 19
The Lê and the Nguyen* editions are almost identical except for some minor different readings. The main discrepancy is that in the Nguyên edition the content of the biography of Không Lo* is totally different from that in the Lê edition. In the Nguyên edition, Không Lo's* biography is inadvertently combined with the biography of Nguyên Minh Không. 2 0 Thus the biography of Nguyên Minh Không, who belonged to the thirteenth generation of the Vinitaruci* lineage, is completely missing from this edition. Another minor variation is that the section on Viên Chieu's* biography in the Phúc Ðiên edition is missing a page compared to the Lê edition. 2 1 Finally, the text edited by Phúc Ðiên, the Ðai Nam, does not include the preface written by the editor of the 1715 edition. This is more evidence that the old text kept at Tiêu So'n Temple was not identical with the Lê edition. 22
On the Date and Author of the Thien * Uyen* Tap* Anh Date
The issue of the Thiên Uyêns exact date of composition and author remains unsolved. On the basis of the information provided by Lê Quí Ðôn, along with some other historical and internal evidence found in the text, there is a consensus among scholars who have studied the text that it is a work of the Tran* dynasty.
Trân Van* Giáp, who discovered the Thiên Uyên and was also the first to study it,23 summed up these facts and suggested an exact date for its composition. Giáp presents two reasons for believing that the Thiên Uyên was composed in the Trân dynasty:
1. The date of the deaths of the latest monks whose biographies were recorded: Y So'n, the last master of the Vinitaruci* school, died in 1213; Hien* Quang, the last master of the Vô Ngôn Thông school, died in 1221; Thông Thien*, although one generation earlier than Hiên Quang, did not die until 1228; the account of the Thao* Ðu'ò'ng school ends with Lý Cao Tông, who died in 1205. 24
2. Khuông Viet's* biography contains the following record of the Chinese envoy Li Jue's mission to Vietnam, which turns out to be a crucial element for determining the date of the Thiên Uyên:
In the seventh year [of the Tianfu era (987)] the Song envoy Ruan Jue (Nguyen* Giác in Vietnamese pronunciation) came to [Vietnam] on a peace mission. At this time the Dharma Master [Do* Thuan*] was also well known. Emperor Lê Dai* Hành ordered Khuông Viet* to put aside his monk's garb and to act as a court minister. 25
The same event was also recorded in the Cu'o'ng Muc* [Outline of History]:
In the second year, bính tuat*, of the Tianfu era (962) [sic] the Song court sent Li Ruoshuo and Li Jue on a diplomatic mission bringing along the decree investing the
King of Annam as the Prefect of Giao Chi*. 26
The two texts apparently refer to the same historical event, with the only difference that in the Thiên Uyên the surname of the Chinese envoy Li Jue (Lý Giác in Vietnamese pronunciation) has been changed to Nguyên (Ruan in Chinese). The Toàn Thu' also informs us that in the sixth month of the first year of the Thiên Ú'ng Chính Bình era (1232) of the Trân dynasty, the court issued an order to have those with the family name Lý change it to Nguyên. There were two reasons for this. First, since the
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Tran * had overthrown the Lý by force, this decree was intended to uproot any loyalty for the Lý remaining in the people's hearts. Second, this decree reflects the taboo on using the name of the sovereign, since the personal name of the father of Trân Thái Tông, the founder of the Trân dynasty, was Lý.
Giáp argues that the author of the Thien* Uyen* must have followed this order and substituted Nguyen* Giác (Ruan Jue) for Lý Giác (Li Jue). From this he concludes that the Thiên Uyên must have been composed during the Trân dynasty, sometime after 1232 when the prohibition was issued.
Referring to a statement at the end of Vô Ngôn Thông's biography that "[having lasted] up to now, the twentyfourth year, dinh* suu*, of the Khai Huu* era (1337), the Zen tradition in our country started withhim,"27 Trân Van* Giáp suggests that the year 1337 can be considered as the exact date of the composition of the Thiên Uyên.
Émile Gaspardone has pointed out that Trân Van Giáp's solution is not completely satisfactory, since Giáp seems to have ignored some difficulties in the passage on
which he bases his conclusions. For instance, the Khai Hu'u era (1329–1341) under Trân Minh Tông lasted only twelve years28 and not twentyfour years. Besides, the year dinh su'u was the ninth year of the Khai Hu'u era and not the twentyfourth. Gaspardone also points out some inconsistencies in Giáp's interpretation of the same passage in his essay. 29 Gaspardone concludes that we cannot establish the exact date for the Thiên Uyên based on such an obscure passage. We cannot resolve the inconsistency of the passage, and in any case we cannot conclude that the year dinh su'u of the Khai Hu'u era (1337) was the year the Thiên Uyên was composed. I am inclined, however, to take the date 1337 (dinh su'u, Khai Hu'u ninth year) seriously, at least as the earliest plausible date for the Thiên Uyên. That the text gives "twentyfourth" instead of "ninth" could very well have been due to a scribal error. In any case, the author did give us a clue, and taken together with other evidence, it appears to be a significant one.
In sum, we can say only that the Thiên Uyên is a work composed during the Trân dynasty, probably sometime after 1232 and before the end of the fifteenth century. Three facts lead to this conclusion: (1) The decree to change the Lý family name to Nguyên was issued in 1232. (2) Nguyên Van Chat*, who lived in the fifteenth century, drew on the Thiên Uyên to compose the legend of Sóc Thiên Vu'o'ng in his appendix to the Viet* Dien*. (3) Although the Thiên Uyên claims to record life stories of eminent monks of the Ðinh, [Former] Lê, Lý, and Trân dynasties, none of the monks whose biographies were recorded lived beyond the middle of the thirteenth century. This shows that the author did not live beyond the Trân dynasty.
Authorship
At present we know virtually nothing about the author's identity. Lê Quí Ðôn and Phan Huy Chú give us nothing. Both Tran * Van* Giáp and Émile Gaspardone are almost silent on this issue. We can conjecture that the author of the Thien* Uyen* might have been a monk belonging to the Vô Ngôn Thông school, because the biographies of the monks of this school are put before those of the Vinitaruci* school, and the author remarks at the end of Thông's biography that the Zen tradition in Vietnam began with him. This is somewhat odd, since we know that according to tradition, Vinitaruci arrived in Vietnam and established a Zen lineage almost three centuries before Vô Ngôn Thông.
Lê Manh* Thát, the only modern scholar who attempts to solve the problem of the authorship of the Thiên Uyên, has suggested that a monk named Kim So'n was the author of the Thiên Uyên. 3 0 Thát makes the following argument.
During the fourteenth century, the only Zen tradition that remained in Vietnam was the Trúc Lâm (Bamboo Grove) school, of which Emperor Trân Nhân Tông (r. 1279–1293) was the first patriarch. 31 We learn from the [Hue* Trung] Thu'o'ng* Si* Ngu'* Luc* [Recorded Sayings of the Eminent Hue* Trung]32 that this school originated with Thông Thien*,3 3 a Zen master of the Vô Ngôn Thông lineage. Trân Minh Tông (r. 1314–1329), Trân Nhân Tông's grandson, reputed to be a literary man, was very interested in history. During his reign he was known for requesting eminent monks to compose books on topics related to Buddhism. 34 There are records still extant about the relationship between Minh Tông and Kim So'n. 35 Lê Manh Thát therefore suggests that Kim So'n must have composed the Thiên Uyên at the request of Trân Minh Tông. Since there are no historical records directly (or indirectly) referring to Kim So'n as the author of the Thiên Uyên, I mention Lê Manh Thát's suggestion merely as a hypothesis, pending the discovery of more materials concerning this issue.
Source Materials for the Composition of the Thiên Uyên Tap* Anh
The Thiên Uyên, as evidenced by the title and contents of the text, was consciously intended as a work in the Zen tradition. This is reflected clearly in his copious
borrowing from the model Zen biographical collection, the Jingde chuandeng lu [Transmission of the Lamp Composed during the Jingde Era] (Chuandeng lu). 36 It is the author's manifest intent that gives the Thiên Uyên its unique historical and cultural value.
Let us examine the sources that the author of the Thiên Uyên used and his method of drawing on them. Inspired by Chinese Zen literature, the
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author of the Thien * Uyen* was moved to produce a systematic history of Zen Buddhism in Vietnam. With some oral transmissions and previous compilations as his source materials, and the Chuandeng lu as a model, the author composed a work that became the first comprehensive historical treatment of the Buddhist tradition in Vietnam.
The following texts are directly referred to throughout the Thiên Uyên as its main source materials:
1. The Chieu* Doi* Luc* [Collated Biographies] of Thông Bien* and Biên Tài.
2. The Nam Tông Tu'* Pháp Do* [Diagram of the Succession of the Dharma of the Southern School] by Thu'ò'ng Chieu* 3. The Liet* To* Yeu* Ngu'* [Essential Sayings of the Patriarchs] of Hue* Nhat*
(These texts are discussed in detail in Appendix II. ) As secondary sources, Thiên Uyên drew on:
1. The Su'* Ký [Record of History]
2. The Quoc* Su' [National History]37
The Quôc Su' is mentioned three times. According to Lê Manh* Thát, the Quôc Su' is probably the Dai* Viet* Su' Ký [A Recorded History of Dai* Viet*] composed by Lê Van* Hu'u. This history was a result of the revision of a work by Tran* Chu Pho* by Lê Van Hu'u by royal decree under Trân Thái Tông (r. 1225–
1258); it was finished in 1272. 38
The second historical source cited in the Thiên Uyên is the Su' Ký [Recorded History]. It is mentioned only once, in the biography of Khánh Hy*, where it reads: "According to the Su' Ký, he passed away in the third year of the Thiên Chu'o'ng Bao* Tu'* era. "39 Hoàng Xuân Hãn suggests that the note was added by the editor of the 1715 edition, and thus identifies the Su' Ký with Ngô Sy* Liên's Ðai Viêt Su' Ký Toàn Thu' [A Complete History of Ðai Viêt]. Lê Manh Thát disagrees: his
opinion is that the Su' Ký cited here is the Su' Ký composed by Do* Thien*, a work quoted four times in the Viêt Dien*. 40 We know that the Viêt Ðiên was composed by Lý Te* Xuyên in 1329, so Ðô Thien's* Su' Ký must have preceded it.
Analyzing the source materials for the Thiên Uyên provides us with a basis for evaluating the methodology and content of the text. Given the explicit content and the implicit intention of the Thiên Uyên, I find it hard to agree with Lê Manh Thát's remark that the author of the book "wished to achieve a method of writing history in an objective and scientific way. "41
Rather, in compiling the text, the author of the Thiên Uyên had a more complicated intention and objective, one that has exercised a significant and lasting influence on the Vietnamese Buddhist tradition: to provide a legitimating framework for Vietnamese Buddhism as an independent tradition with a definite, deeprooted history of its own.
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Appendix II—
Additional Supporting Data for Chapter Two
"Transmission of the Lamp" Texts in Vietnam before the Thien * Uyen* Tap* Anh
From the records in the Thiên Uyên we learn of a few texts of the "transmission of the lamp" genre that existed in Vietnam prior to the compilation of the Thiên Uyên. This indicates that the efforts to establish Vietnamese Buddhism as a legitimate continuity of Chinese Zen had been going on even prior to the time of the Thiên Uyên. It is interesting to note that prior to the period from 1272 to 1400, which E. S. Ungar has characterized as the period of political/historical maturity in Vietnamese intellectual history,1 the Chuandeng lu had provided the Vietnamese Buddhist elite with a conceptual model for an awareness of the transmission of Buddhism as an independent history.
The compiler of the Thiên Uyên relied considerably on earlier texts to compile his book. These were the Chieu* Doi* Luc* [Collated Biographies], Hue* Nhat* Liet* To* Yeu* Ngu'* [Essential Sayings of the Patriarchs Composed by Hue* Nhat*], Nam Tông Tu'* Pháp Do* [Diagram of the Succession of the Dharma of the Southern School], and Lu'o'c* Dan* Thiên Phái Ðô [Summarized Diagram of the Zen Schools]. Unfortunately, none of these works is extant, except for a short
preface to the Lu'o'c Dân Thiên Phái Ðô. 2 Some scanty information about them can be gleaned from the records in the Thiên Uyên and from other descriptive bibliographical notes.
Chieu* Doi* Luc* or Chiêu Ðôi Ban*
This text was composed by Thông Bien* (died 1134) and later revised by Biên Tài. 3 We read in the biography of Than* Nghi (died 1216)4 that when he asked Thu'ò'ng Chieu* (died 1203) for instruction on the successive generations of Zen transmission in Vietnam, Thu'ò'ng Chiêu showed him Thông Biên's* Chiêu Ðôi Ban*. This tells us that by this time the idea of Zen transmission and lineage had been in circulation for some time
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among the Vietnamese Buddhist elite. In Bien * Tài's biography it is said that he obeyed a royal order to revise the Chieu* Doi* Luc*. We do not know whether the original text was entitled Chiêu Ðôi Ban* and Biên Tài's revised version was called Chiêu Ðôi Luc, or there was a single text referred to by both names. In any case, both texts are lost so we do not have much information about their contents. They might have been the first works of the "transmission of the lamp" genre in Vietnam, and as such, the first texts to establish the Zen lineages in Vietnam.
Nam Tông Tu* Pháp Do*
This was composed by Thu'ò'ng Chieu* (died 1203). 5 This work is mentioned five times in the Thien* Uyen*, in the biographies of Thu'ò'ng Chiêu, Than* Nghi, Ma
Ha, and Dinh* Hue*, and in the list of the Thao* Ðu'ò'ng lineage. 6 We learn that the Nam Tông Tu'* Pháp Do*, despite its title, is more than just a diagram of the lineages, for it also contains biographies: The Thiên Uyên itself states that the "main biographies" (benzhuan) of Không Lo* and Giác Hai* can be found in the Nam Tông Tu' Pháp Ðô. 7
Thu'ò'ng Chiêu uses the expression "Nam Tông" [Southern School]. The Vinitaruci* school is traditionally referred to as "the Southern school. " We know that the Nam Tông Tu' Pháp Ðô records biographies of both the Vinitaruci and the Vô Ngôn Thông schools. By "Nam Tông," Thu'ò'ng Chiêu probably means the Southern school of Chinese Zen, the school that considered Huineng the Sixth Patriarch of Zen in China. Thu'ò'ng Chiêu thus seems to agree with Thông Biên in approving of both Zen schools in Vietnam as legitimate offshoots of the Southern school of Chinese Zen. The compiler of the Thiên Uyên, on the other hand, does not seem to agree with him.
To sum up, Thu'ò'ng Chiêu appears to have studied Thông Biên's works very carefully and considered them authoritative. He even defended Thông Biên for not
recording the two lineages of Nguyen* Dai* Diên and Nguyên Bát Nhã. 8 Thu'ò'ng Chiêu, therefore, might have used the Chiêu Ðoi Luc as a model he followed in composing his own Nam Tông Tu' Pháp Ðô. These two works proved to be the main sources for the author of the Thiên Uyên in compiling biographies of Vietnamese "Zen masters" from the sixth to the end of twelfth century.
Liet* To* Yeu* Ngu*
This text was composed by Hue* Nhat*. This work is mentioned twice in the Thiên Uyên, in the biographies of Tinh* Không (1091–1170) and Nguyên Hoc* (? – 1181), without giving any information about its author. 9 Since the Liet* To* Yeu* Ngu'* is no longer extant, and no other source in
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Vietnamese literature besides the Thien * Uyen* refers to it, we know absolutely nothing about its author, Hue* Nhat*. 10
From the way the Thiên Uyên refers to these works, it seems that the Chieu* Doi* Luc* and Nam Tông Tu'* Pháp Do* provided the compiler of Thiên Uyên with
biographical notes on eminent monks, and that he had to resort to the Liet* To* Yeu* Ngu'* for encounter dialogues and instructional verses.
The biographies of Tinh* Không and Nguyen* Hoc* are two explicit examples. 1 1 Even the compiler of the Thiên Uyên calls our attention to the fact that encounter dialogues and instructional verses in these two biographies are identical with those in the biographies of the two Chinese Zen masters Jiashan and Huisu as recorded in the Chuandeng lu. 12 Let us look at a few examples:
1. In Tinh Không's biography, one of his encounter dialogues with another monk reads as follows:
One day, when Tinh Không had gone up to the teaching hall, a monk with a staff came and asked, "What is the Truth Body (Dharmakaya*)? " Tinh Không said, "The Truth Body is originally without form. " The monk continued, "What is the Dharmaeye? " Tinh Không said, "The Dharmaeye is originally without obstruction. '' He again said, "There is no Dharma in front of the eye. There is only consciousness in front of the eye. The Dharma is not within range of ear and eye. " The monk laughed loudly. Tinh Không said, "What are you laughing about? " The monk said, "You're the type who have left the world to become a monk but have not grasped the message [of Zen]. You should go study with Master Dao* Hue*. " Tinh Không said, "Can I still go see this master? " The monk said, "Above there's not a single roof tile, below there's not enough ground to stick an awl into. " Tinh Không then changed his clothes and headed for Mount Tiên Du. 13
Compare this with the encounter dialogue between Jiashan and Daowu in the biography of Jiashan in the Chuandeng lu:
One day Zen Master Jiashan Shanhui was coming up to the teaching hall when Daowu came with his staff. A monk asked, "What is the Truth Body? " Jiashan said, "The Truth Body is without form. " The monk continued, "What is the Dharmaeye? " Jiashan said, "The Dharmaeye is stainless. " He again said, "There is no Dharma in front of the eye. The Dharma is not within range of ear and eye. " Daowu laughed. Jiashan became confused and asked him, "What are you laughing about? " Daowu said, "Venerable sir, you're the type who left the world to become a monk yet haven't met a teacher. You should go to Zhezhong, Huating Village to study with the Venerable Chuanzi. " Jiashan
said, "Can I still go see him? " Daowu said, "With that teacher, above there's not a single roof tile to cover his head, below there's not enough ground for him to stick an awl into. " 14
2. It is recorded in Nguyen* Hoc's* biography that when he was about to pass away he spoke two verses instructing his students. One of them reads as follows:
The Dharma has no image or form,
It is right before your eyes, not far away. You have to turn back and find it in yourself, Do not seek it from others.
Even if you find it from them,
It wouldn't be the true Dharma.
But suppose you find the true Dharma, What kind of a thing is it? 15
This is almost identical with a verse spoken by Huisi recorded in the Chuandeng lu:
The Dharma is essentially not far away,
The ocean of the True Nature is not immense. Try to find it within yourself,
Do not seek it from others.
Even if you find it from them,
It wouldn't be the true Dharma. 16
The second verse by Nguyên Hoc* is also identical to another verse spoken by Huisi. The author of the Thien* Uyen* also informs us that the encounter dialogues and instructional verses in the above two biographies were taken from the Liet* To* Yeu* Ngu'*. This seems to show that the Liêt Tô Yêu Ngu' was an earlier Vietnamese "transmission of the lamp" text that drew heavily on the Chuandeng lu. (Note that cases of interpolation of dialogues and verses borrowed from the Chuandeng lu are not restricted to the biographies of Tinh* Không and Nguyên Hoc. )
Lu'o'c* Dan* Thien* Phái Do*
This work was composed by an unknown author of the Tran* dynasty: As its title suggests, this is a brief, annotated diagram of the origin and development of the Trúc
Lâm [Bamboo Grove] Zen school, the only genuine Vietnamese Zen school with a Vietnamese founder and a lineage of successors.
The Lu'o'c* Dan* Thien* Phái Do* is too brief and does not appear to have been an independent work; it is not mentioned by the compiler of the Thiên Uyên either. However, it is relevant in this connection, since it was an attempt to trace the transmission of Zen in Vietnam and thus
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falls within the "transmission of the lamp" genre, and it is the only extant document of its kind. This "annotated diagram" is included in the preface to the [Hue * Trung] Thu'o'ng* Si* Ngu'* Luc* [Recorded Sayings of the Eminent Hue* Trung], a Tran* dynasty Zen teacher. 17 We have evidence to believe that the Lu'o'c* Dan*
Thien* Phái Do* was written circa 1310–1313. 18 The main purpose of the Lu'o'c Dân Thiên Phái Dô as reflected in its preface was to set forth the genealogy of the Trúc Lâm school within the broader context of the Zen tradition:
After our Great Sage Sakyamuni* Buddha transmitted the treasure of the eye of the true Dharma, which is the wondrous mind of Nirvana, to the Venerable Mahakasyapa*, it was transmited for twentyeight generations until it reached the Great Master Bodhidharma. He came to China and transmitted [the true Dharma] to the Great Master Shenguang. 19 From Shenguang the transmission continued for six generations until it reached the Great Master Shenhui. It was at that time that the true Dharma came to our country.
It is not known who was the first one to receive it [in our country]. The records begin with Zen Master Chanyue (Thien* Nguyet*) who transmitted [the true Dharma] to Lý Thái Tông, then to the Elder Dinh* Hu'o'ng, then to the Great Master Viên Chieu*, then to Zen Master Dao* Hue*—from one generation to the next, sometimes their names were known sometimes unknown. It is difficult to trace the lineage.
[The Zen tradition in our country] can be divided into three lineages:
1. Our lineage has already been set forth in the diagram, so it is not necessary to recount it again.
2. Zen Master Vu'o'ng Chí Nhàn transmitted it to Venerable Nhiem* Tang*. Nhiêm Tang transmitted it to Layman Nhiêm Tú. This lineage is now lost, and its transmission is not known.
3. Venerable Nhat* Thien* received [the true Dharma] from a certain [unknown] teacher. He transmitted it to Prince Chân Ðao. At the present time, this lineage is also fading. Also, there was Layman Tianfeng (Thiên Phong) who came from Zhangquan and was a contemporary of Yingshun (Ú'ng Thuan*). Tianfeng claimed he belonged to the Linji school. He transmitted [the true Dharma] to National Preceptor Dadeng (Dai* Dang*) and Venerable Nansi (Nan Tu').
Dadeng transmitted it to our Emperor [Trân] Thánh Tông, to National Preceptor Lieu* Minh, to Huyen* Sách and others. Huyên Sách transmitted it to Pha* Trac* and others. Now this lineage is also deteriorating and is not in a very glorious state. Alas! The flourishing and decline of the Zen School is beyond words.
Now I am briefly enumerating the lineages of the Zen School [in our country] to leave [an account] to posterity, so that the generations of scholars to come will know that Zen has a source that can be traced. This is not just my own fabrication.
In this text, the author describes the origin and the situation of Buddhism in Vietnam during his time as follows:
1. The "True Dharma" (Buddhism) first came to Vietnam at the time of Shenhui (684–758). However, the author of the Lu'o'c * Dan* Thien* Phái Do* was quick to note that it was not known "who was the first to receive [the Dharma] in our country," and that the record only starts with Chanyue (Thien* Nguyet*),20 who transmitted the Dharma to Lý Thái Tông (r. 1029–1054), then to Dinh* Hu'o'ng (? –1051), to Viên Chieu* (999–1090), to Dao* Hue* (? –1073), and others. 21
2. By the early fourteenth century when the Lu'o'c Dân Thiên Phái Ðô was written, there were four Zen lineages in Vietnam: The first lineage started with Thông Thiên (? –1228),22 who transmitted the Dharma to Tú'c Lu*, to Ú'ng Thuan*, to Xiaoyao (Tiêu Diêu), and to Huizhong (Huê Trung). Huê Trung then transmitted the Dharma to Trúc Lâm, i. e. , Emperor Tran* Nhân Tông (r. 1279–1293), who founded the Trúc Lâm Zen sect. The second lineage was transmitted by Zen Master Vu'o'ng Chí Nhàn; the third by Zen Master Nhat* Thien*; and the fourth by Layman Tianfeng, a contemporary of Ú'ng Thuân, who claimed to belong to the Linji school. According to the author of the Lu'o'c Dân Thiên Phái Ðô, these three lineages were already fading at his time and not much was known about them.
As we review this account of Buddhist history, a few things deserve consideration.
First, the author of the Lu'o'c Dân Thiên Phái Ðô remarks that "the True Dharma" (zhengfa) came to Vietnam at the time of Shenhui. " Whether by "True Dharma" he meant either Zen Buddhism or simply Buddhism, this statement does not seem to be correct, since we have archeological and historical evidence of the presence of Buddhism in Vietnam prior to the time of Shenhui and very little evidence of the introduction of Zen to Vietnam at the time of Shenhui. 2 3 Still, the connection the author makes between Shenhui and the origin of Zen Buddhism in Vietnam might be more than a chance conjecture: There might have been Chinese monks of Shenhui's lineage who came to Vietnam to spread Zen Buddhism and whose Vietnamese disciples strove to establish some sort of a Zen school in Vietnam.
Second, note that the Lu'o'c Dân Thiên Phái Ðô was probably written less than thirty years before the Thiên Uyen*, yet the author of the Lu'o'c Dân Thiên Phái
Ðô seems to know nothing of either Vinitaruci* or Vô Ngôn Thông. In fact, he did not know of any teachers before Thiên Lão. 24 Some modern scholars like Lê Manh* Thát have argued that this is because these authors did not have access to the materials used by the author of Thiên Uyên. But then again, the author of the Thiên Uyên did not seem to know of some of the "lineages" mentioned by the author of
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the Lu'o'c * Dan* Thien* Phái Do*, for instance. This suggests that there were various alternative versions of the history and contemporary situation of Buddhism in Vietnam current at that time.
While the Lu'o'c Dân Thiên Phái Ðô might tell us something about the genealogy of the Trúc Lâm school, its author seems surprisingly nebulous about the transmission of Zen Buddhism in Vietnam in general. Nevertheless, the author of the Lu'o'c Dân Thiên Phái Ðô seems to have recorded only what he actually knew, unlike other authors who tried to portray an unbroken line of succession connecting Vietnamese Zen to the Southern School of Chinese Zen (an aspiration that lasts even to the present time). In fact, although the Lu'o'c Dân Thiên Phái Ðô is not extremely informative about the transmission of Zen in Vietnam, it does give us a realistic impression of the historical situation. During the period of more than ten centuries before its author's time, there were records of émigré foreign monks of Cham, Indian, and Chinese provenance coming to Vietnam to teach Buddhism. Among them, there must have been some Chinese Zen masters who transmitted their teachings to Vietnamese disciples. Some of these Vietnamese Zen adepts in turn might have made efforts to establish Vietnamese lineages. But there is no documentary record to indicate whether these "lineages" were consistent and lasting enough to become legitimate "sects" or "schools. "
By the middle of the eleventh century, under the Lý dynasty, efforts were underway to construct a "history" of the transmission of Vietnamese Buddhism. The Vietnamese Buddhist elite in the Lý dynasty capital must have come under the spell of Zen literature, which enjoyed high prestige among cultured circles in China at the time, and been familiar with the "transmission of the lamp" genre, and especially the Chuandeng lu. Although we know that Buddhism came to Vietnam before the Zen school arose in China (and before the formation of the concept of "schools" in the Zen sense), for the Lý dynasty Buddhist elite, it was natural to portray Vietnamese Buddhist history as part of the history of the transmission of Zen, which was the form of Buddhism both intellectually paramount and socially most prestigious in their cultural horizon. Since the Chinese Buddhist intellectuals composed "lamp history" texts to rewrite the history of Buddhism according to the Zen school, the Vietnamese Buddhist leaders likewise composed ''lamp history" texts to assert Vietnamese Buddhism as the legitimate outgrowth of Chinese Zen.
Unfortunately, except for the Thiên Uyen*, none of the other Vietnamese "lamp history" texts is extant except in fragments or in brief references in other literary works.

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