Abstract

The Encouragement to Soldiers is the work attached with name of a world-reputable supreme commander – Tran Quoc Tuan, Great King of Hung Dao who contributed a big share of maKing East Asia Magnanimity during Tran Dynasty of Vietnam. Aiming to encouraging solider spirit, gathering national united power for the sake of the struggle against the second Mongol Invasion, Encouragement to Soldiers came to being and rose the fire of patriotism inside each Vietnamese from that made the great victory of Vietnam over the Mongolia Empire, the most powerful Kingdom of the world at that time. Moreover, the work presents a statement that patriotism is the most respectable one among human virtuous way. Patriotism in Encouragement to Soldiers bears elements of humanity attaching with and mixing into family love and happiness desire of each person on the ground of unification between individual interest and collective and national interest. Studying Tran Quoc Tuan’s perception of human virtuous way in the Encouragement to Soldiers will help us understand further the East Asia Magnanimity and contribute to develop precious properties and durable values of Vietnam’ culture, at the same time form a foundation to build a traditional Vietnamese culture within such a situation like today.

1. Introduction

Great King of Hung Dao, Tran Quoc Tuan, (1228-1300) is a Vietnamese national hero, a cultural celebrity, and a military genius during the world history. He played a key role in the victory of Vietnamese People, during Tran Dynasty, in the struggle against Mongol invasion, the most powerful empire at that time, writing the golden pages in the historical book of Vietnam. Across three times of defeating Mongolia, he held under order of the King the right of Supreme Commander and get great wins which proved his contributions, as well as that of Tran dynasty, for the history of the country. Our country’ victory, under his leader, over Mongolia of Kublai Khan has been one of the most striKing ones of the military history of Vietnam and of the world.

The Encouragement to Soldiers was written before the resistance against the second Mongol Invasion, the most fierce and difficult one among three war resistances. The second Mongol invasion took purposes: revenging for the previous defeat; occupying Vietnam (Dai Viet at that time) to make the bridge toward other southern countries of China. The reasonless and cruelty of the enemy made soldiers and people of Tran Dynasty anger and determine to fight against the invaded with all potential strength. However, standing before hurricane-like power of the enemy, there occurred a fear and hesitation in the generals who had have surrender idea. To provoke the spirit of fighting and winning, to unify the people before the invasion, the Encouragement to Soldiers has come into being.

The Encouragement of Soldiers is a famous work, attracting the attention of many researchers. However, there has been not a study directly focusing on Tran Quoc Tuan’s perception of human virtuous way in this work. Following list some works on human virtuous way, Tran Quoc Tuan and his Encouragement of Soldiers:

Firstly, some studies on human virtuous such as: the article Human virtuous way in Vietnamese tradition ¹ by Nguyen The Kiet and Pham Ba Luong; the work Human virtuous way in Vietnam Culture ² of Philosophy Department, Teaching University of Hanoi; the article Confucianism on Human virtuous way ³ and Human virtuous way in Buddhism Concept of Human Life and its meaning for current Vietnam Society ⁴ by Nguyen Thi Tho. Such works claim that human virtuous way is morality standards and norms for the people to follow in their life. Among such virtues, patriotism is the top one under Vietnam concept of human behavioral way.

Secondly, some studies on Tran Quoc Tuan and his the Encouragement of Soldiers such as: the article Tran Quoc Tuan – a great national hero, a renowned politician, and a talented military leader ⁵ by Pham Truong Sinh; the article National Salvation Spirit and the strategy “release people power” of Tran Quoc Tuan, a significant highlight ⁷ by Tran Huy Lieu; the work Tran Quoc Tuan’s concept of the great unification ⁸ by Bui Thi Dung; the work Some major battles in Vietnamese History ⁹ by Phan Huy Le, Bui Dang Dung, Phan Dai Doan; the article Tran Quoc Tuan and his role in the struggle against Mongol Invasion ¹⁰ by Hoang Hung; the article the Development of Vietnam’s concept of Patriotism through three works “Nam Quoc Son Ha” (Territory of the Vietnam Country) “Hich tuong si” (Encouragement to Soldiers) and “Binh Ngo dai cao” (Great proclamation upon the pacification of the Wu) ¹¹ by Tam Vu; the work Human virtuous way from Ly Thuong Kiet to Ho Chi Minh ¹² by Tran Van Giau. The works above have generally appraised high achievements of Tran Quoc Tuan for the country. While such works have partly presented issues concerning to human virtuous way in the Encouragement to Soldiers, a clearly clarification of Tran Quoc Tuan’s concept on Human virtuous way through the Encouragement to Soldiers has not been available. So, such a study is in necessity to present a further understanding of Vietnamese people’s human life philosophy early XIII century, of East Asia Magnanimity, at the same time realizing precious Vietnamese tradition.

2. Content

Human virtuous way are life philosophy which orienting human beings to good deeds. Each era adapts a unique concept of human virtuous way which different from each other, but all keep the people to righteousness.

According to Vietnamese Dictionary by Hoang Phe, a Way is: “a direction and principle that human beings should follow and protect in society” [ ¹⁵, 463]. So, we can understand human virtuous way is the way and principle that we should follows to be a real human being. Such way and principle are different from each era. In our traditional concept, human virtuous way has usually gone with morality. Thus, we can say that Human virtuous way is a basic moral standard and an essential element that the society, in its historical period, must have for the people to follow.

Human virtuous way bears a diversified content with various approaches. For an approach of position, on role of human beings in the feudal society according to Confucianism, human virtuous way is divided into: King virtuous way, Servant virtuous way, Fatherhood virtuous way, filial virtuous way, wifehood virtuous way and husbandhood virtuous way etc. For an approach of Confucianism moral standard, human virtuous way consists of: Loyalty way, Respect way, Humanity way and Righteousness way etc. Thus, each person depending on his position and situation must follow a proper system of moral standards. For example, a servant must conduct loyalty for his King, a son or daughter must conduct filial piety for his or her parents, so we call servant virtuous way the Loyalty way, and Filial virtuous way the Respect way.

Vietnamese feudality under Tran Dynasty was subjected directly to concept system of Buddhism and Confucianism. While the Buddhism concept adopted a spirit of helping people, rescuing people from hard situations of life, warfare and slave destiny, the Confucianism required the people to conduct a principle life according to their social position with the rule of obeying and protecting interest of the King. Thus, human virtuous way in the Encouragement to Soldiers was also controlled by feudal moral standards in the orientation of Buddhism and Confucianism, and the influence of historical situation also, that was the Mongol invasion possibility. Such situation has regulated basic moral standards for the people. To fulfil human virtues (loyalty, respect, humanity and righteousness etc.), and to protect the family and relations, the people has had no choice but conducting a patriotic spirit, unification and firm determination of defeating the invaded to protect the territory of the mother country.

Firstly, patriotism is the top standard of human virtuous way

In the Encouragement to Soldiers, Tran Quoc Tuan has presented clearly his concept of being a human, in which patriotism took the highest rank.

Patriotism is a natural sentiment of all races over the world, not of Vietnam only. However, strong level of such sentiment, together with its content, appearance, expression and growing direction depend on the historical situation of each country. Whatever the circumstances, the origin of patriotism is still love for the simple things in our life, is the childhood of each person. As Ylia Erenbua once wrote: The initial patriotism is the love of the most trivial: love the tree in front of the house, love the little street by the river, love the aroma of pear autumn, etc, that love of home, of village, of countryside madethe love of country. The same is true for Vietnamese, patriotism originates from love of family, relatives, village, field homeland. Although patriotism is not available when you were born, it is formed naturally through the process of human life in relation to nature, family and society. And that love is built up over time, as the movement of history, and is the fruit of historical development. As for Vietnamese, patriotism is not only a natural sentiment, but a product coming from the historical course of building and protecting the country: “That anti-invasion, protection of independence and freedom is the first condition for the nation to exist and develop. Patriotism thus became a spiritual affection and a vital condition for survival” [ ¹⁷, 20]. Located in a very important geographical location, being a link between mainland and ocean, island, a traffic node between the South and North, East and West, existing abundant natural resources, Vietnam has early became an attractive target for the invaded. They have wanted to seize our country not only for our natural resources and wealth, but also for the purpose of using our country as a link to get into the mainland and get out to the ocean. Just with a simply calculation, during the history, our people has conduct 15 wars to protect the country, more than 100 uprisings and fights to release the country out of foreign occupation, total time of fighting against the invaded has reached over 12 centuries. Vietnam has defeated the invaded coming from three, of five, continents of the world. Due to the requirement of history that the love of the nation of Vietnam is gradually developed and becomes a patriotic consciousness, a sense of protection of family life, peace of village, a sense of the national community and the citizen's responsibility for the country, etc. So we can see that patriotism, especially in the hard time of the country, has been a must-have virtue of Vietnam people and become a traditional beauty of our homeland. Patriotism has mixed into the sentiment, blood and soul of every Vietnamese from generation to generation, forming a miracle power to get over any difficult situation, help us fight with a unyielding spirit in protecting righteousness against the enemies regardless their strength.

Ho Chi Minh, a talented leader of Vietnam said that: “Our people adopted a deep patriotism. It is a precious tradition of our country. From the ancient up to now, such spirit has always occurred to be risen before any foreign invasion and unified the people into a powerful and massive wave which took the country over all difficulties and drown all the invaded together with their allies” [ ¹⁸, 171]. Prof. Tran Van Giau also said: “Patriotic sentiment is the most significant sentiment of our country, of Vietnam people” and “Patriotism is the linKing thread going across the whole of Vietnam history from the ancientness until present. In such sentiment, Vietnamese natural is most expressed in its completion and concentration, more than anything. Patriotism has become a social and human life philosophy of Vietnamese people” [ ¹⁷; 100-101].

Through the Encouragement article, Tran Quoc Tuan found a common divisor, common voice, and common interest for everyone forming a basis to build a national unification for fighting against the invasion of the powerful enemy. So what the divisor was? It was human virtuous way (including King way, mandarin way, general way, people way, fatherhood way etc.). And again, what the common divisor of such ways was? In the Encouragement to Soldiers, the divisor was patriotism. Just with patriotism to protect the country that the people can fulfil their King way, mandarin way, general way and people way; just rising to fight against the invaded and keep the peace for the country that the people can fulfil their fatherhood way, filial way, wifehood way and husbandhood way etc. Thus, patriotism became the top virtue of Human way in Encouragement to Soldiers as well as in Vietnamese culture.

First of all, patriotism is the expression of pride, ethnic self-respect, and fearless spirit when facing to invading enemies. Tran Quoc Tuan has disclosed the greedy nature and great evils of the invaded. They invaded our country, collected our wealth, shamed our course and disdained our ancestor: “We have seen the enemy ambassadors haughtily traveling over our roads and wagging their owlish tongues to insult the Court. Despicable as dogs and goats, they boldly humiliate our high officials. Supported by the Mongol Khan, they incessantly demand the payment of pearls, silks, gold and silver. Our wealth is limited but their cupidity is infinite” ¹³.

Tran Quoc Tuan has expressed a sense of independence and sovereignty, which is the sacred right that no one has the right to infringe. Thus, when witnessing the scene of the country being invaded and humiliated, the people being oppressed, Tran Quoc Tuan showed great resentment, he regarded the invaders are only cad, which do not understand the moral, the delimitation set forth - that our country has its own sovereignty, own territory, our country is built by the heart effort of our forefathers over generations.

Being a man with deep patriotism, in watching evils of the invaded conducted right on his homeland, Tran Quoc Tuan could not stand to restrain his miserableness and anger. He expressed his deep resentment and the determination of defeating the enemy: “I fail to eat during the day and to sleep at night. Tears roll down my cheeks and my heart bleeds as if it were being cut to shreds. I tremble with anger because I cannot eat our enemy's flesh, lie down in his skin, chew up his liver, and drink his blood. I would gladly surrender my life a thousand times on the field of battle if I could do these things” ¹³. We can say that patriotism and resentment over the enemy of Tran Quoc Tuan has reached the climax forming a unchangeable power. He would rather sacrifice his life than to bear the shame of slave and of a man without country.

On basic of describe his patriotism, he provoked patriotism, waken the frightened hearts and fired the anger flame of the people who had been in an ignorance of country destiny, unified them to be ready fighting the invaded. He recalled many virtuous samples, servants sacrificing life for their King such as: Ky Tin who had taken the death to rescue King Cao De; Do Vu who had used his back as a shield to protect King Chieu Vuong; Du Nhuong who had swallowed charcoal to express determination of revenging for his master… from that Tran Quoc Tuan discussed the country affairs: “And now, you remain calm when your emperor is humiliated; you remain indifferent when your country is threatened! You, officers, are forced to serve the barbarians and you feel no shame! You hear the music with the enemy ambassadors and you do not leap up in anger” ¹³. He criticized those who had conducted a selfish lifestyle without concern on country situation. Thereby, he expresses the notion of responsibility for each person in relation to himself and to the nation, which is that each person has the responsibility to keep his self-respect, honor and then defending their national honor, which does not let any outside hostile forces violate.

He also pointed out dangerous sequences of the ignorance during the hard time of the country: “If you refuse to fight the Mongols in order to wash away the national shame, if you do not train your soldiers to drive out these barbarians, it would be to surrender to them.” If such a thing could happen without any resistance, the people would be ashamed before the heaven and earth. Thus, to fulfil human virtuous way, all people must realize the shame of losing country and of slave situation and unify to throw the invaded out of the country. The encouragement was an insistent call for the soldiers and the people, firing the flame of anger so much that there was no place under the heaven for a co-existence with the enemy.

Secondly, the idea basic of human virtuous way

The idea basis of human virtuous way in the Encouragement to soldiers is the Ethics idea of Confucianism and Buddhism.

Under the feudal regime, since influenced by Confucian ideology, loyalty to Kings became the supreme moral standard recognized and honored by society. The will of human was directed to action of self-improvement– management their household – governing the country– settling the world by Confucianism, seeing them as the reason for human life. The human model of Confucianism is a person starting out in life, a person fulfilling duties and responsibilities to others – a “loyal person”, a “person of benevolence and righteousness” and a person sacrificing his life for huge righteousness, of which King and mandarin one takes the lead. Thus, in preamble of the work, Tran Quoc Tuan raised the idea basic of human virtue through a number of typical examples of spirituality with being loyal and ready to sacrifice their life for the king such as “Ky Tin who replaced the Emperor Cao to save him from death, Do Vu who took a blow in his back to spare King Chieu, Du Nhuong who swallowed burning charcoal to avenge his leader, Than Khoai who cut off an arm to save his country, young Kinh Duc who rescued the Emperor Thai Tong besieged by Thai Sung, etc.” ¹³. These examples have the effect of awakening, encouraging the officers to execute their duties and responsibilities before the endangered country. Loyalty with the King in the work is not ambiguous, in general but attached to the patriotic spirit (Loyal to the King and patriotic) and ready to sacrifice their lives for country.

The main idea of Buddhism is to save suffering, free human from ocean of misery by the way of cultivation. However, due to the influences of both Confucianism and Buddhism as mentioned above, the spirit of suffering in Buddhism has come true, with practical action of starting out into life. The Encouragement to soldiers is the call to human beings to stand up to liberate themselves, their families and their country from the misery of slavery. The Buddha taught: Man himself is a lamp for himself, please light the torch to go. In the Encouragement to soldiers, Tran Quoc Tuan consistently showed this spirit of Buddhism. Therefore, the Encouragement to soldiers has the effect of awakening the responsibility sense of each person about his own destiny and his own country.

In order to gather the determination, the strength of great national unity, in this work, Tran Quoc Tuan profoundly expressed the idea of “taking people as roots”, saving the country is very saving the people and relying on the people to save the country. The idea of “taking people as roots” was carried out throughout the whole life. Until he died, he still advised King Tran Anh Tong about the reign scheme. This is to know that “worrying for the people makes deeply rooted reign, which is the best policy to save country”. In the Encouragement to soldiers, he said: “You have served in the army under my orders for a long time. When you needed clothing, I clothed you; when you lacked rice, I fed you; when your rank was too low, I promoted you; when your pay was insufficient, I increased it. If you had to travel by water, I supplied you with vessels; if you had to travel by land, I supplied you with horses. In time of war, we shared the same dangers; at the banquet table our laughter resounded in unison”. In addition, the Encouragement to soldiers affirmed the great role of the people, affirming the need of gathering the strength of the whole country in the resistance war against the enemy and saving the country. The idea of “taking people as roots” was later unraveled by Nguyen Trai and Ho Chi Minh. Nguyen Trai, through the practice of 10 years under the Le Loi for the anti- Minh invader resistance war, affirmed: “Boating is the people; flipping the boat is also the people”, “After flipping the boat, the people were known as the country”. In the Ho Chi Minh era, the idea of “taking people as roots” became a guideline in the Party and government actions.

The above analyses are very the basic idea of patriotism - the top standard of human virtuous way

Thirdly, reality basis for human virtuous way

The essential content of human virtuous way in Encouragement to soldiers is the patriotism and deep vindictiveness upon the enemy, the determination, and unification in destroying the invaded. Encouragement to soldiers not only expresses patriotism of Tran Quoc Tuan but also exhorts patriotism of each Vietnamese people. Patriotism in the work comes from love for parents, for wife and children, for ancestors etc. And such loves are not invisible, not general but concrete and attaching with interest of real life based on the unification between individual and national interest.

According to the general, pleasure, selfishness is common to everybody, but in the dangerous time of the country, the interest of nation, of the people must be treated as the first priority. Because if the country and the people lack of fighting spirit and power before the incident invasion of Mongolia, all inheritance and wealth of the country will fall into the hand of the invaded. All individual pleasure and interest will be destroy under the heel of the enemy: “Will your cocks spurs be able to pierce his armor? Will the ruses you use in your games of chance be of use in repulsing him? Will the love of your wives and children be of any use in the Army? Your money would neither suffice to buy the enemy's death, your alcohol to besot him, nor your music to deafen him” ¹³. At that time, both King and people fall into slave life with all miserableness! For that reason, he called the soldiers to practice battle skills, all the people must contribute power to fight against the enemy, and destiny of the country must be set the first place: “I say you the truth that putting fire under the firewood can burn at any time, so you need to be careful. It is necessary to train soldiers for practice bowing, which makes everyone as good as Bong Mong, Hau Nghe, who can defeat Hot Tat Liet, and win Van Nam Vuong in Cao Nhai” ¹³.

So what is the basis for human virtuous way, patriotism, and unification in fighting against the enemy? According to him, it is the unification between concept and interest of social classes, between King way, mandarin way, military leader way, people way, fatherhood way and filial way etc. to form a single patriotic way. In Encouragement to Soldiers exists two persons “I” and “all of you”, such statement expresses a general relationship between feudal social classes. “I” represents to ruling class and “and of you” the ruled and soldiers. According to that, all discussions occur to be expressed into a parallel clause of “I” and “all of you” surrounding the issue of duty and interest. We can say that Tran Quoc Tuan added a real color to Confucianism theory. While Confucianism mentioned only duty without interest, Tran Quoc Tuan combined both of them, maKing duty more real and concrete. At the same time, Tran Quoc Tuan also added the humanistic character to Buddhism. The idea of freeing people from the suffering of Buddhism has been extended and brought into the real life by Tran Quoc Tuan. In particular, each person is aware of the country at risk, so determined to stand up to liberate themselves as well as the liberation of the whole nation; and freeing the nation from the slavery of slavery is also liberating themselves. Tran Quoc Tuan has expressed the close relationship between the individual and society, between the interests of each person and the interests of everyone in society in the moment the country “hanging by a single hair".

He has presented a scenario of losing country as a result of concentration on individual pleasure and ignorance of country situation, lacking of realizing the combination between interest of each individual and of the country and the separation of individual interest from that of the country. According to him, if failing to defeat the enemy, we’ll lose everything: “What grief! And not only would I lose my fief, but your property too would fall into enemy hands. It would not be my family alone that would be driven out, but your wives and children would also be reduced to slavery. It would not be only the graves of my ancestors that would be trampled under the invader's heel, but those of your ancestors would also be violated. I would be humiliated in this life and in a hundred others to come, and my name would be ignominiously tarnished. Your family's honor would also be sullied forever with the shame of your defeat. Tell me: Could you then indulge yourselves in pleasures?” ¹³.

He also pointed out damages for each individual if the country was seized that all people must come to understanding the real situation, those were: losing benefits, losing wife and children, tomb of ancestor would be excavated, bearing the shame etc. For such reasons, each person realized that sacrificing for the country also for themselves, for their family and relations, the situation of the country was also that of themselves, thus training battle skills must be carried out so that all would be skilled as talented figures such as Hau Nghe, Bang Mong and could take the head of Kublai Khan, slaughter Van Nam Vuong in Cao Nhai: “Not only will I have accomplished my aspirations in this life, but your fame too will endure for a hundred centuries to come. Not only will my name be immortalized, but yours too will find a place in our nation's history. At that moment, would you not be perfectly happy even if you did not expect to be?” ¹³.

As a talented military educated scholar, Whether Tran Quoc Tuan has acquired ideas of Han Fei Zi (about 280-223 BC) - an excellent representative of the French school on the basis of asserting human nature as mercenary. In his best-known work, Han Fei Zi has built the doctrine of French school. From the point of view of Han Fei Zi, people do everything as personal interests, always pursuit benefits for their own interests. Humans are always selfish, mercenary, like to be rewarded but fear of punishment, etc, that is natural: “love the benefits and find it, hate the harm and avoid it, that is human feelings” [ ²⁰, 124]. According to him, people always keen on the benefits, where the benefits are then people are. He gave evidence: “Vuong Luong love horse, Cau Tien - King of Vietnam love Vuong Luong just want to fight and ride the horse. The doctor sucks in the wound patient, which is not because of the mercy of the humiliation, but because of the benefits. Others, as the carpenter finishes the coffin, they expect people to die early. The expectation that they die early is not to hate people, but for the benefits form his dead” [ ²⁰, 150-151]. Thus, Han Fei Zi took the merciless nature of man as the basis for developing his strategy. If they want to be supported by the people and soldiers, they have to pay attention to their interests. He explained: “It’s no soldiers and people who can not risk death, but those who are above can not give them death. The mouth says the reward but not giving, say punishment but not executing, which is not as sure so people do not risk death” [ ²⁰, 28]. That means that when the interests of the people are not guaranteed, they will not be ready to act. Therefore, “the meritorious and guilty people need to be clearly distinguished, people are determined to risk sacrifice for the common work. Death and life are different, but people will do it” [ ²⁰, 28]. They see death as important as the life just for the sake of it. With the proper rewards and punishments, the benefits of the “lethal dose” are guaranteed so they are ready to sacrifice themselves into any danger. The point of view of the South Korea is too extreme extremism, because human beings can not sacrifice their lives for meaningless things, having the incentives of dying, but not of living, which affirms the inherent nature of human mercenaries.

In Encouragement to Soldiers, perhaps, Tran Quoc Tuan has harnessed the ideas of Han Fei Zi, but in the selective way, which negates the negative element and add more the humanistic spirit of reality. Tran Quoc Tuan also uses the benefit to create psychological leverage to encourage people to be determined to fight the enemy, but it is the legitimate benefit, the right benefit to live free life, attaching the small benefit of each person to the great benefit of the whole country. He mentioned the most important things in life of a person to make a psychological lever and motivation for them to fight against the enemy, protect the country as well as their family and happiness, and maintain the peace in their mind and spirit. When they realized the connection between their interests with that of the country, they would voluntarily sacrifice and fight for the country. And here patriotism became a natural sentiment, an inside motivation, and a necessary demand of each person. It can be said that Encouragement to Soldiers is the crystallization and development of the ideas of Confucianism, Buddhism and France school in a smooth way with a progressive human spirit, and full of reality.

3. Conclusion

Encouragement to Soldiers bears very important meanings for the contemporary period and the present. It has taken the patriotism inside each individual, collected power of national unification in fighting against the invaded and getting over all difficult situations. Human virtuous way in Tran Quoc Tuan’s Encouragement to Soldiers is really the patriotism way. It is patriotism help the people keep happiness of life. In other word, human virtuous way brings happiness for those who follow it and their family, celebrating their ancestors by the most righteous way. We can say that patriotism and human virtuous of Tran Quoc Tuan bear a humanity spirit, appearing not as a formula and vague, and orienting people to right acts in each moment of history to make individual happiness be collective happiness and mixed into that.

To celebrate service of Tran Quoc Tuan for the country, after his death, King Tran Nhan Tong posthumously honored him as: Thai Su Thuong Phu, Thuong Quoc Cong, Hung Dao Dai Vuong Tran Quoc Tuan (Supreme Grand Preceptor, National Great Duke, Great King of Hung Dao, Tran Quoc Tuan). His life is a great sample of loyalty and service, always setting interest of the country first of all. In mind of Vietnamese people, he is a holy man, an eternal sacred spirit for Vietnam. The people has nominated him as “Duc Thanh Tran” (Saint Tran), “Duc Thanh Cha” (Holy Father) because of his kind heart and massive intelligence. He is far but near, great by simple. To commemorate him and nominate his achievements for the country, at the same to educate our people on a sample of patriotism, Vietnamese has established many temples to worship “Saint Tran” over the country.

References