The Road to Confucianism as a State Ideology in Vietnam

유교가 베트남에서 국가이념으로 성립되는 과정

This paper traces the process how Confucianism was established as a state ideology in Vietnam. Confucianism is said to have first been introduced into Vietnam around the early 3rd century. However, it had been outshone by Buddhism until the 1389s when Ho Quy Ly rose to power and emphasized pre-Qin Confucianism. In 1428, Lê Loi founded a new dynasty and changed the state ideology from Buddhism to Confucianism. Despite this radical shift, however, Confucianism was not firmly established at the beginning of the Lê Dynasty. It was Lê Thanh Tong (1460-1497) who fully established neo-Confucianism as the state ideology. The reason was that he devoted himself to the study of Confucian texts from a young age and sought to strengthen his own royal authority by emphasizing the neo-Confucian concept of loyalty and filial piety.