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An introduction to Caodaism I. Origins and early history

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 December 2009

R. B. Smith
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Extract

Few phenomena in the modern history of Asia can have been so completely misunderstood by Westerners as the Vietnamese religious (and political) movement known in European languages as ‘Caodaism’. Based upon a syncretic approach to religion, in which a key role is played by spirit-séances, it has inevitably been regarded by Christian writers with the same suspicion (if not contempt) as occidental ‘spiritualism’; and this initial lack of sympathy is compounded by the fact that the spirits who have revealed themselves at Caodaist séances include such familiar figures as Victor Hugo and Jeanne d'Arc. Then there is the show-piece temple of the Caodaists at Tây-Ninh, which drew forth Mr. Graham Greene's description of ‘Christ and Buddha looking down from the roof of the Cathedral on a Walt Disney fantasia of the East, dragons and snakes in Technicolor’. This superficial notion of the religious element in Caodaism fitted in very well with the cynicism of political observers, notably Bernard Fall, who saw in Caodaism no more than a political movement anxious to preserve its private armies and local power, using its religious ideas merely to dupe a credulous peasantry. In these circumstances, it is perhaps not surprising that the real nature and origins of Caodaism have been lost from view, and even its history has never been adequately summarized in any Western language. The present article will attempt to fill the historical gap, by tracing the history of the religion from 1925 to 1936, and then looking at its origins and antecedents. A subsequent article (to appear in BSOAS, XXXIII, 3, 1970) will analyse the various beliefs which have been incorporated into this essentially syncretic cult.

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Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies , Volume 33 , Issue 2 , June 1970 , pp. 335 - 349
Copyright
Copyright © School of Oriental and African Studies 1970

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References

1 Greene, Graham, The quiet American (Penguin Books, 1962), 81Google Scholar.

2 Fall, B. B., ‘The political-religious sects of Viet-Nam’, Pacific Affairs, xxvni, 3, 1955, 235–53CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 The best-known of these works is Gobron, G., Histoire du Caodaisme, Paris, 1948 (English translation, Sàigòn ?, 1950)Google Scholar; except where otherwise stated, references here will be to the English version, which includes additional material but omits an important chapter. See also Trung Hậu, Nguyễn, Luoc-sử Đao Cao-Đai: A short history of Caodaism (in Vietnamese, French, add English), Tourane, 1956Google Scholar.

4 Đỡng-Tân, Lich-sửCao-Đài, I. Phᾷn Vàigòn, 1967, referred to in subsequent pages as Lich-sὐ Anon., Tiễu-sử Đử Giào-Tòng, Nguyễn Ngọc Tυ'ong, Sàigòn, 1958, referred to. subsequently as NNT.

5 Revue, Caodaïque, IIIe An., décembre 1950; this periodical should be carefully distinguished from Reue Caodaïste, published in the years around 1930. I have not seen any copies of the latter, but it is cited in Gobron, op. cit., and in Contribution, VII (see n. 6 below).

6 Gouvernement-Général de l'lndochine, Contribution à l'histoire des mouvements politiques de l'lndochine française, ril. Le Caodaïsme, Hànội, 1934, referred to subsequently as Contribution, VII.

7 Hickey, G. C., Village in Vietnam, Yale, 1964, 66–73, 290–4Google Scholar.

8 Écho Annamite, 19 November 1926; Gobron, , op. cit., 29Google Scholar.

9 Contribution, VII, 33–4.

10 La Dépêche d'Indochine, 28 and 30 August 1930.

11 Contribution, VII, 64–7.

12 There is a very full account of his life in Đ'ông-Tan, Lich-sử.

13 Lich-sử, 53 ff.

14 ibid., 66 ff.; this episode is also mentioned briefly in Nguyễen Trung Hậu, op. cit., 7–8.

15 Lich-sử, 82–92; Nguyễn Ngoc Tửóng is not mentioned there, but his conversion late in 1925 is indicated by NNT, 13.

16 NNT, 5–6.

17 ibid., 13.

18 Lich-sử, 88 ff.; Gobron, 20–1, refers to this group without mentioning names.

19 The fullest account of Pham Công Tᾆc's early career is in Contribution, vn, 87–90.

20 On Lê Ván Trung, see ibid., 27–32; also Gobron, 26 ff.

21 Lich-sử, 91.

22 Contribution, VII, 29–31, and Gobron, 26–7; both it would seem based, at this point, on material in Revue Caodaïste, no. 3, p. 345.

23 Lich-sử, 91.

24 Contribution, VII, 81.

25 Lich-sử, 108–10, gives the Vietnamese text of this letter and a full list of the actual signatories; there was an additional list of 247 adepts, but I have not seen any record of their names. Cf. Contribution, VII, 32, 81, where it is noted that no formal recognition of Caodaism was given at this time, despite Caodaist claims.

26 Gobron, 151; cf. infra, p. 349.

27 Gobron, 27.

28 Lich-sử, 129 ff.

29 Écho Annamite, 13 Jun o 1927; La Presse Indochinoise, 9 Jun e 1928 (comment b y th e editor Monribot on an article in L'Opinion).

30 Contribution, VII, 80–1. Tay-Ninh controlled 105 th'nh-thät in 1931, an d 128 in 1932, bu t it is not clear whether ‘dissident’ oratories at that time are excluded from these totals.

31 Gobron, 28.

32 Contribution, VII, 81.

33 Gobron (French edition), 98 ff.: a whole section of this edition, relating to schisms within the movement during the period 1928–31, was omitted in th e English version, for reasons which can only be guessed. Cf. also NNT, 20.

34 La Presse Indochinoise, 9 June 1928, citing a recent article in L'Opinion. The Frenchmen referred to were Captain de Larclauze and Lieut. Lesage, who were killed in an attack on Tay-Ninh by 2,000 Cambodians in June 1866; Schreiner, A., Abrégé de l'histoire d'Annam, Sàigòn, 1906, 277Google Scholar.

35 Contribution, VII, 35–7.

36 e.g. by Vanlande, R., L'Indochine sous la menace communiste, Paris, 1930, 118–19Google Scholar. For an account of the disturbances in Cochinchina, between May 1930 and March 1931, see l'lndochine, Gouvernement-Général de, Contribution 7agrave; l'histoire des mouvements politiques de I'lndochine française, iv, Hànôi, 1934Google Scholar.

37 Écho Annamite, 23 May 1930.

38 Gobron (French ed.), 98 ff. There is a slightly different account in Hickey, op. cit., 292–3, which says that Ca left Tây-Ninh in 1931 after receiving a spirit-message instructing him to do so, and that he went first to Rạch-Gia before settling at Mỳ-Tho in 1932. Hickey's information presumably came from Caodaists he interviewed at Khánh-Hậu (Tân-An province), where the Mỳ-Tho sect had some members in 1958.

39 NNT, 21–4; the letter written by Turong to inform th e Governor of Coehinchina of th e change of direction is there reproduced, dated 1 September 1931.

40 Contribution, VII, 90.

41 ibid., 86–7, 90–1.

42 Gobron (French ed.), 101 ff.; cf. Revue Caodaïque, IIIe An., décembre 1950, 93–107.

43 Contribution, VII, 86–90.

44 ibid., 92; Revue Caodaïque, IIIe An., décembre 1950, 67–92.

45 Contribution, VII, 93; NNT, 31.

46 Contribution, VII, 94, 100.

47 NNT, 32–4.

48 ibid., 34, 37.

49 ibid., 41–5.

50 ibid., 48.

51 Gobron, 71–2.

52 ibid., 74.

53 The only account of the Tiên-Thiên sect which does more than merely note its existence is the biographical notice on Nguy1EC5;n Bử Tài contained in a recent monograph of the former Bën-Tre province: Huỳnh-Minh, Dịa-linh nhan-kiật: Kiẽn-Hòi xuea và nay, Gia-Dinh, 1965, 196–9.

54 Nguyễn Trung Hễu, op. cit., 20.

55 Hickey, op. cit., 293–4. The Tiên-Thiên sect appears to have co-operated closely with the Communists since 1960: one of its leading members, Nguyễn Văn Ngôi, sat on the Central Committee of the National Front for the Liberation of South Vệt-Nam from 1961 till at least 1964; Douglas Pike, Viet Cong, Cambridge, Mass., 1966, 429Google Scholar.

56 Nguyễn Trung Hậu, op. cit., 20; Revue Caodaîque, IIIe An., décembre 1950, 67–92.

57 According to some sources (e.g. Coulet, 122 ff., cf. infra), this is Dạo-Lānh, which would mean ‘Religion of the Good’; but according to others (e.g. a report by the Administrates of Sóc-Trăng in 1883) it should be Dạo-Lānh, which might mean ‘Way of the Leader’.

58 A. Schreiner, op. cit., 315; Coulet, G., Les sociétés secrètes en terre d'Annam, Sàigòn, 1926, 122 ffGoogle Scholar.

59 Trửng Mạnh, Phan, La voie du saint caodaïque, Sàigòn, 1950, 48–9Google Scholar.

60 ibid., 48.

61 Lich-sᷞ; 57; cf. supra, p. 339.

62 Gobron, 151.

63 supra, p. 340, n. 25.

64 Gobron, 108 ff.

65 Virong Hông Sén, , ‘La Pagode de l'Empereur de Jade à Dakao’, Notes et Documents (Bull, de VAssociation Viet-Nam France), Janvier 1965, 26Google Scholar.