What Systems Make Up Eastern Philosophy and How Did They Enter Vietnamese Culture?

What is Eastern philosophy and which systems does it include?

Eastern philosophy is a collection of many traditions of thought that formed in ancient India and China, not a single system. In Vietnam, people often lump them together under one name, but in reality each system has its own questions, its own methods and its own history. The main groups can be listed as follows:

• Yin-yang and the five elements: the cosmological foundation, explaining all things through two opposing and complementary forces and five groups of moving qualities.
• I Ching: a system of symbols and a philosophy of change, beginning as divination but later becoming a foundation of thought for many disciplines.
• Confucianism: a system of ethics, politics and education, centred on the human being and society.
• Buddhism: a religion and philosophy of liberation, introduced from India, emphasising suffering, dependent origination and karma.
• Daoism: thought about the Dao, nature and non-action (wu wei), together with a system of deities and folk rituals.

A distinction is needed: yin-yang, the five elements and the I Ching are theoretical foundations, while Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism are organised systems of thought with their own scriptures and history of transmission. They do not exclude one another but often overlap in daily life.

Where did yin-yang and the five elements come from and how do they operate?

Yin-yang is the notion of two opposing sides that exist only by leaning on each other, while the five elements are five groups of qualities (Metal, Wood, Water, Fire, Earth) that generate and overcome one another. Some documents hold that yin-yang doctrine formed as early as the Xia dynasty, based on the appearance of yin and yang lines and the eight trigrams in the I Ching^[1]. This is the traditional explanation, while modern scholarship still debates the exact dating.

As for the mechanism, the same book cites the "Suwen" in the Huangdi Neijing saying that yin is within, yang guards it, and yang is outside and causes yin, then explains that yin and yang rely on each other to exist and act upon each other^[1]. The five elements are not five concrete materials but five modes of movement: Wood generates Fire, Fire generates Earth, Earth generates Metal, Metal generates Water, Water generates Wood; and the reverse is overcoming. The principle "yang dies and yin is born, yang goes forward and yin goes backward" is explained as the ten heavenly stems having their own yin and yang: yang stems move forward through the twelve palaces while yin stems move backward, creating the process from birth and growth to death of each of the five elements within the twelve palaces.

This understanding holds that the auspicious and inauspicious stars and spirits in numerology all arise from the interaction of yin-yang and the five elements, so anyone who wants to read a destiny must first master the laws of generation and overcoming.

What is the I Ching and how does it differ from divination?

The I Ching is a book consisting of the "Jing" part (64 hexagrams with hexagram texts and line texts) and the "Zhuan" part (ten explanatory essays, also called the Ten Wings), formed over many centuries. According to Chu dịch với dự đoán học, the name "Zhou Yi" first appears in the Zuo Zhuan, and the book took shape roughly from the Yin and Shang eras to the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, compiled by many hands rather than a single author^[1].

The important point: the I Ching is not identical with divination, even though its origin includes an element of prediction. The original "Jing" part has only hexagram texts and line texts; the "Zhuan" part is the philosophical work, discussing change and the relation between heaven, earth and human beings^[1]. The character "yi" implies transformation, day and night alternating. Later, many disciplines such as Tử Vi (Vietnamese astrology), feng shui and Bát Tự (BaZi) all took yin-yang, the five elements and the principles of the Changes as their theoretical frame, though the degree of application differs.

The author holds that the I Ching is a book about predicting information, while the Commentaries on the Changes are a philosophical work^[1]. This is the author's own assessment, not a consensus view among philosophers.

How do Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism differ?

These three systems differ in their central question: Confucianism asks how to organise society and cultivate oneself, Buddhism asks how to be liberated from suffering, Daoism asks how to live in accord with nature.

A book on Buddhist philosophy sums up that the whole of Buddhist philosophy "comes down to nothing more than explaining the twelve links of dependent origination and the Four Noble Truths", in which the twelve links explain suffering and its arising, while cessation and the path belong to the theory of liberation^[2]. Nguyễn Hữu Tiến gave a lecture in 1935 comparing Buddhism with Confucianism^[3].

The author describes himself as a Confucian scholar who studies Buddhism, and his presentation shows a tendency toward harmonisation rather than sharp opposition.

How did Eastern philosophy enter Vietnamese culture?

The mechanism by which the three religions blended was formerly called "Tam giáo đồng nguyên" (the three teachings share one origin) according to the Song Confucian view, but the religious aspect of that mechanism is often overlooked^[4]. The author notes that if one considers only the philosophical aspect and ignores the religious aspect, people easily attribute what that mechanism produced to the category of "folk" with a dismissive implication^[4].

Concrete expressions:

• In Mother Goddess worship: according to Ngô Thị Phương Thảo (2025), the Mother Goddess worship of the Three Palaces and Four Palaces among the people of the northern delta developed from the worship of goddesses and is tied to the Holy Mother Liễu Hạnh^[5].
• In family customs: Confucianism left notions of filial piety, ritual and hierarchy; Buddhism left notions of cause and effect and karmic retribution; Daoism left rituals such as cầu an (prayer for peace and safety) and giải hạn (rite to ward off misfortune).
• In everyday language: idioms such as "ở hiền gặp lành" (live virtuously and meet good) from Buddhism coexist with Confucian and Daoist phrasing whose origins speakers do not distinguish.

Why do these systems never conflict in the lives of Vietnamese people?

The mechanism by which the three religions blended was once called "Tam giáo đồng nguyên" according to the Song Confucian view; within it, agricultural rituals, ancestor worship and the worship of natural deities are three important components^[4].

This differs from the "choose one system" model in many other cultures. In Vietnam, practicality governs: whichever system solves an immediate need is used, and the systems are used side by side. This is a feature to keep in mind when studying Vietnamese religion, because looking only through the lens of pure philosophy will miss the religious aspect^[4].

Nhật Nguyệt's suggestion: how should Eastern philosophy be understood correctly?

• Do not lump everything into one block: yin-yang and the five elements, the I Ching, Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism have different histories and goals, and must be distinguished in study.
• Do not equate philosophy with divination: the I Ching has a philosophical part and a predictive part, and the whole should not be equated with fortune-telling.
• Do not take "Tam giáo đồng nguyên" as proof that the systems are the same: it is a mechanism of harmonisation in practice, not a unity of doctrine.
• When looking things up, be clear about which system you are asking about: a question about Confucianism will have a different answer from a question about Buddhism or Daoism.

The observations above are Nhật Nguyệt's understanding based on the cited sources, not verified scientific conclusions.