Throughout the history, Vietnamese people were also affected by other beliefs from different

religions. The most notable one is “three teachings from one source”, including confusionism,
taoism, and buddhism.
Confusionism has a set of values, most of which were spreaded in Vietnam in the feudalistic
period. It helps to shape 4 basic principles of Vietnamese traditional values, which are family
value, reputation, fondess of learning, and concept of respect. In addition, the ways in which
Confucianism has affected Vietnamese family structure can be revealed through the role of
Vietnamese women. A good woman has to follow three basic tenets: she must obey her father
when she is daughter; she must obey her husband when she gets married; she must obey her
son when her husband dies. Besides, the family life was influenced by its ideas of the virtues of
male domination. The last of the Confucian values is respect for ritual--the proper way of doing
things in the deepest sense. It is thought that rituals are signs for goodness, respect, or
harmony. There are all kinds of rituals governing all aspects of life, the great moments of life:
Birth, capping (which is a coming of age ceremony for boys), marriage, death; as well as big
occasion such as Tet holiday.
Taoism is a philosophy and religion that focuses on the harmony between human and human,
between human and nature. According to this value, Vietnamese people believe that it is
always better to avoid conflicts in any relationship. Therefore, people tend to use indirect
communication style to save each other’s face, or even if they are angry, they tend to tolerate
because they are taught the provert “one thing you endure, nine things you will receive”.
Moreover, this philosophy also makes Vietnamese people respect nature because most of them
are farmers. They think that if their crops are not good, it must be because some God of nature
is not satisfied. So, there are some rituals to maintain the harmony between human and nature.
Buddhism blends with indigenous culture and tolerance with other religions. Vietnamese
people take the values of Buddhism, Tu Bi – which means tolerance and benevolence, and Tu
An – which means be grace with parents, teachers, nation, and other human beings. Besides,
Buddhism mentions the causes and effects of rules, karma. In other words, our destinies are
decided by what we did in our previous life and what we do in this life will affect our next life.
Because of that, Vietnamese people belive that if they accumulte righteousness, they will have
a better life. So, they often do good deeds such as giving money to the poor.