Hà Tiên : an overlooked conduit for Chinese cultural transmission into Vietnam, 1700-1870

Abstract

The Guangji fotang in Hà Tiên was the first permanent Buddha Hall (C: fotang V: phật đường) of the Xiantiandao in Vietnam, established in 1863 by Master Zhang Dongchu from China. Hà Tiên’s role as a gateway for the transmission of Xiantiandao is not entirely coincidental. During the eighteenth century, the Chinese creole Mo clan, based in the port city, ruled over the western Mekong Delta and Gulf of Siam littoral. Influenced by the Heart-Mind School prevalent during the late Ming (1368-1644), Mo Jiu (1655-1735) and his son and successor Tianci (1708-1780) espoused economic openness and religious toleration. Although Hà Tiên came under closer supervision from the Nguyễn dynasty (1801-1945) over the nineteenth century, its governance was shared with the Mo clan, Cambodia, and Siam until the French occupation in 1867. Hà Tiên’s position as a diverse, multiethnic frontier and crossroads for Chinese mercantile networks allowed it to rapidly absorb the latest social and religious trends from South China and function as a conduit for their spread. Under the patronage of the Mo, the monk Yellow Dragon (C: Huang Long V: Hoàng Long) established the dominance of the Linji Chan sect of Mahayana Buddhism in the western Mekong Delta in the early eighteenth century. In the 1790s, the first documented activities of Chinese secret societies outside China also occurred in and around Hà Tiên. Like the introduction of the Xiantiandao, these earlier trends reflected syncretism and secularization of social organizations and religious beliefs during the Qing (1644-1911).