Confucianism and Buddhism in Premodern Vietnam
I find that when it comes to talking about the religions/teachings of Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism in Vietnamese history, many people have a difficult time understanding how they were related.The…
Lý Công Uẩn’s “Superstitious” Beliefs
As I mentioned in the previous post, in English-language scholarship on premodern Vietnamese history, the Lý Dynasty (1009-1225) is usually described as not being Confucian.In fact, many historians writing in…
The Lý Dynasty Wasn’t Confucian. . . Really??!!
In the English-language scholarship on Vietnamese history, the Lý Dynasty (1009-1225), the first major Vietnamese dynasty, is usually presented as not being influenced by Confucian ideas and institutions. Instead, historians…
The Văn Miếu (Temple of Literature) was Built in 1070. . . Really??!!
I do not know how many times I have heard or read that the Văn Miếu (Temple of Literature) in Hanoi was “built” in 1070 AD, but it’s a lot,…
New Article – “Sinology in Vietnam”
An article that I wrote a year or two ago has just been published. It is called “Sinology in Vietnam.”There are people who would label anything that was written in…
A Working Paper on the Chinese Sources on Early Southeast Asia
I’ve recently published a working paper entitled “Revisiting the Chinese Sources on Early Southeast Asia.”I started looking at the Chinese sources for early Southeast Asian history a few years ago,…
Engaging With Vietnam #14
The 14th Engaging With Vietnam Conference will be held in Hue (1-6 August 2023). The overall theme of the conference is “Living with Heritage, (Re)Creating Heritage: Vietnam and the World,”…
Searching for Sujidan
There is a thirteenth-century Chinese text called the Treatise on the Various Barbarian Lands (Zhu fan zhi 諸蕃志) that has information about a place on the island of Java that…