Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Confucius teaches Five Constant Virtues (Ngũ thường) which, starting from the most important to the less, are Humanity, Respect, Loyalty, Wisdom and Trust – Nhân, Lễ, Nghĩa, Trí, Tín. These are the fundamental virtues to live by, to keep both the individual and the society strong and healthy.

The problem now is that I realize these Five Constant Virtues and anything related to Confucius are rarely mentioned in Viet Nam, probably due to the political problem of the East Sea. People tend to be anti-China and anti-anything-Chinese. A friend of mine, graduated from College of Literature in Saigon (also my school in the old days, Đại Học Văn Khoa) told me recently: “In our young age, everyone, including me, thought of Confucius as The Great Master. But now I think he is very average.”

On the Internet and other public media, I have the feeling no one wants to say anything nice about China, including Chinese food which has always been admired by the Vietnamese, lest you be stoned.

The young generation of today probably knows zero about Confucius. “What? Who is that man?” That is too bad for our intellectual development. You don’t know a great Master, you lose a great piece of deep knowledge.

Folks, we need to keep things in perspective. The problem with China in the East Sea doesn’t change the fact that Confucius is one of the few Masters of the world in the art of living. You can’t discount Jesus just because you have some problem with Israel.

A great teacher is a great teacher. New political problems arising in the environment don’t change that fact.

Back to the main subject. “Humanity, Respect, Loyalty, Wisdom and Trust” is my translation, using the closest and simplest English terms. Other people have other translations, which I think make things very difficult to understand.

1. Humanity is Nhân (Người) – the quality of being a good human. It includes all other good virtues for human. However, the number-one focus is on loving people, kindness, benevolence. We have the term like lòng nhân (loving others, loving heart), nhân đạo (way of human, merciful)

2. Respect is Lễ. (Other people translate it as propriety – proper behavior). Be respectful. Treat others with respect. The Vietnamese term Lễ độ also means respectful.

3. Loyalty is Nghĩa. In Vietnamese we have many nghĩa (nghĩa vợ chồng – spousal loyalty, nghĩa thầy trò – student master loyalty, nghĩa bạn bè (friendship loyalty). The word “bond”, as spousal bond, is probably is more exact for nghĩa. But “bond” is too general, and in a bond, loyalty is always the first and most important element.

4. Wisdom is Trí. Here we talk about the wisdom of living, not the knowledge of things like mathematics. Being wise – understanding – in treating others.

5. Trust is Tín. Be trustworthy, so that people trust you.

These Five Constant Virtues goes down in strength, from number one, Humanity, gradually down to number five, Trust.

First, you rely on Humanity to live. If you lose Humanity, then rely on Respect to live. If you lose Respect, then rely on Loyalty. If you lose Loyalty rely on Wisdom, If you lose Wisdom, rely on Trust. If you lose Trust, you have dropped below the human standard of living.

These virtues are easy to understand and easy to practice.

Practice them, and you can quickly see your improvement in the art of living and in dealing with other people.

Wish you all observe Five Constant Virtues.

With compassion,

Hoành

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Trần Đình Hoành
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