There is a brief record in the main Vietnamese chronicles, the Complete Documents of the Historical Records of Đại Việt (Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư 大越史記全書; hereafter “Complete Documents”), which states that in 1195 “the Three Teachings were tested” (Thi Tam giáo 試三教).

This record has been mentioned many times in writings about Vietnamese history. In particular, people have used this record to argue that the dynasty at that time, the Lý dynasty (1009-1225), was not Confucian, but instead, that there was a syncretic belief system that mixed together the “Three Teachings” of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism that was prevalent at the court.

In fact, there was never an exam in Vietnam that tested anyone on the Three Teachings, and there is no evidence of religious syncretism in Lý dynasty Vietnam. Let’s look at who was tested and what they were tested on.

In addition to the Complete Documents, there is another important text for this period of history, and that is the Outline of Việt History (Việt sử lược 越史略).

The term, “Three Teachings,” appears three times in the Outline of Việt History. It appears first in a record from 1180 where it states that “An edict was issued ordering the Three Teachings to repair stone inscriptions in the Great Interior (Chiếu Tam giáo tu Đại Nội bi văn 詔三教修大內碑文). The “Great Interior” (Đại nội 大內) is a reference to the innermost part of the imperial palace complex.

The important part here, however, is related to grammar. In this sentence, the Three Teachings were ordered to repair stone inscriptions. Bodies of knowledge (“teachings”) cannot repair objects (“stone inscriptions”). Only humans can do that. The reference to the “Three Teachings” here is, therefore, not a reference to the teachings of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism. Instead, it refers to people who followed either Confucianism, Buddhism, or Daoism.

We can see this more clearly in a record from 1179 which says that “sons of the Three Teachings (Tam giáo tử đệ 三教子弟) were tested on various topics such as writing ancient-style poems (cổ thi 古詩), rhapsodies (phú 賦), interpreting the meanings of the Classic of Poetry, and making calculations” (試三教子弟辦寫古詩及賦詩經義運算等科).

The term for “sons” here (tử đệ 子弟), could also be translated as “youngsters.” What we see is that the Three Teachings (as bodies of knowledge) were not tested in this exam. Instead, sons or youngsters of the Three Teachings were tested, and the topics they were tested on were all part of what we can call “Confucian learning.”

In 1196, the sons or youngsters of the Three Teachings were again tested on such topics as writing ancient poems, making calculations, composing rhapsodies, and interpreting the meanings of the Classic of Poetry, and those who passed were granted the grade of “graduate with honors” (cập đệ 及第) or “graduate” (xuất than 出身) and were employed in the government (試三教子弟辦寫古人詩運算賦詩經義等科，賜及第出身有差).

The full passage of the 1195 record in the Complete Documents that I cited at the beginning of this post actually states this as well. It records that “The Three Teachings were tested and granted the grade of graduate” (試三教，賜出身).

Again, what we see here is that bodies of knowledge (the Three Teachings) were not tested and granted the grade of graduate. People were. In that sentence, like in the record that contains an edict ordering the Three Teachings to repair stone inscriptions, the specific reference to people (“sons of”) was left out, but it is clearly referring to people.

Who then were the sons or youngsters of the Three Teachings? There is a record from 1227 in the Complete Documents which says that the sons of the Three Teachings were tested (試三教子). This record then contains an annotation that states “that is, those who follow the hereditary occupation of Confucian, Daoist or Buddhist” (謂儒、道、釋各承其業者).

This annotation was probably added in the fifteenth century when the current version of the Complete Documents was compiled. That the expression “sons of the Three Teachings” had to be explained is a sign that this concept was no longer in use at that time (and I’ll explain in a future post why I think this concept existed in this earlier period).

From examining these records, it should be clear that the Three Teachings exam was not an exam about the Three Teachings of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism. Instead, it was an exam for young men from families that were by profession either Confucian, Buddhist, or Daoist.

Further, regardless of what their background was, these young men were tested in this exam on basic Confucian knowledge, NOT on Buddhist or Daoist knowledge. That is because this was an exam to recruit young men into the government and Confucian knowledge was the foundational knowledge of virtually all governments in premodern East Asia.

Finally, as I have written in previous posts, at the Lý dynasty capital one could find separate Confucian, Buddhist, and Daoist structures, just as one could find those same separate structures in the Song dynasty capital (and in earlier Chinese capitals). The Three Teachings in both of these contexts were separate from each other and were not mixed to form a syncretic belief system.