IBefore you read
In a Caodai temple, every service opens with the same prayer. Five incense sticks have just been set in the censer, and the worshippers kneeling before the Divine Eye begin to chant the first line: Đạo gốc bởi lòng thành tín hiệp, the Way is rooted in sincere hearts joined in faith. The prayer is called Niệm Hương. It has only ten lines, but it is chanted four times a day, so for a longtime follower it is often the first prayer learned by heart.
Niệm Hương means remembrance while offering incense. The prayer stands first in the Kinh Cúng Tứ Thời (Prayers for the Four Daily Services) section of the Kinh Thiên Đạo và Thế Đạo (Prayers of the Heavenly Way and the Worldly Way), the prayer book of the Caodai Sacerdotal Council of the Tây Ninh Holy See, and it is chanted first in each of the services held at the hours of Tý, Mẹo, Ngọ and Dậu. Its role is like the opening words of an audience: the worshipper states what he or she takes as the root, what is being offered, whose witness is asked for, and what is hoped for.
Unlike the ancient scriptures that must be translated from Chinese or Sanskrit, Niệm Hương was written directly in Vietnamese, in the song thất lục bát verse form familiar from Vietnamese literature. That is why this page has no transliteration column. The first column is the prayer exactly as the faithful recite it, the second is a plain paraphrase the library wrote for today's readers, and the English column is the library's own translation. Many words in the prayer, such as tín hiệp, lư ngọc, Tiên gia, đảo cáo and bổ báo, are Sino-Vietnamese words or old expressions, so the line by line commentary treats them in detail.
The prayer is short, but it holds a complete way of thinking about worship: sincerity is the root, incense smoke is where the heart leans, and the prayer travels from the human heart along the smoke up to the nine heavens. The library presents it so readers can read and weigh it for themselves. What belongs to the religion's teaching is marked as teaching, and what belongs to the historical record is marked as historical record.
As for the history of the text, Caodai's own documents say that Niệm Hương did not begin in Tây Ninh. According to the study by Huệ Nhẫn on the Nhịp Cầu Giáo Lý site, the prayer was given through spirit writing in the Vietnamese national script in 1925 by the Southern Pole Patriarch (Đức Nam Cực Chưởng Giáo) at Minh Lý Đạo, a spirit writing temple in Sài Gòn belonging to the Minh Sư lineage. It was based on the Phần Hương Chú (Incense Burning Invocation), a text in classical Chinese found in the scriptures of the Minh Sư lineage. In the same year the Khai Kinh (Opening Prayer) was also received there, traditionally attributed to the Patriarch Lü (Đức Lữ Tổ). Caodaism was founded in 1926 and adopted this set of service prayers in its early years.
As for the printed editions, a survey of Caodai scriptures from 1926 to 1936 records the Tứ Thời Nhựt Tụng Kinh in Chinese characters, compiled by the two Cardinals (Đầu Sư) Thượng Trung Nhựt and Ngọc Lịch Nguyệt, and the Kinh Cúng Tứ Thời in the Vietnamese national script, both printed in 1928. In 1936 the Sacerdotal Council of Tây Ninh printed the Kinh Thiên Đạo và Thế Đạo at the Đức Lưu Phương press in Sài Gòn, bringing together the four daily service prayers and the newly received New Prayers (Tân Kinh). The Council's preface records that the New Prayers were given over ten days, from 21 to 31 August 1935. The prayer book that Tây Ninh followers use every day still keeps the framework of that edition, and Niệm Hương still stands first.
These two layers of the story should be read separately. The layer of teaching says the prayer was given by a divine being through spirit writing. The layer of historical record captures the year, the place, the book titles and the printing press. The two layers do not exclude each other, because they answer two different questions.
IIThe full text of the ten lines
| Verse | Original Vietnamese text | English | Plain Vietnamese paraphrase |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Đạo gốc bởi lòng thành tín hiệp, | The Way is rooted in sincere hearts joined in faith, | Đạo có gốc từ tấm lòng thành và đức tin hợp lại, |
| 2 | Lòng nương nhang khói tiếp truyền ra. | And the heart leans on the incense smoke to carry it onward. | lòng ấy nương theo làn khói nhang mà truyền đi. |
| 3 | Mùi hương lư ngọc bay xa, | The fragrance from the jade censer drifts far, | Mùi hương từ chiếc lư quý bay đi xa, |
| 4 | Kính thành cầu nguyện Tiên gia chứng lòng. | As in reverence we pray the Immortal Father to witness our hearts. | thành kính cầu nguyện, xin Đấng Cha Lành nơi cõi Tiên chứng cho tấm lòng. |
| 5 | Xin Thần, Thánh ruổi dong cỡi hạc, | May the Deities and Saints ride swiftly on their cranes, | Xin chư Thần, chư Thánh cỡi hạc đi mau, |
| 6 | Xuống phàm trần vội gác xe Tiên. | Come down to this mortal world and halt their heavenly carriages. | xuống cõi trần, tạm dừng cỗ xe cõi Tiên mà ghé lại. |
| 7 | Ngày nay Đệ tử khẩn nguyền, | This day we, Your disciples, earnestly pray | Hôm nay kẻ học trò này thiết tha cầu nguyện, |
| 8 | Chín tầng Trời, Đất thông truyền chứng tri. | That the Nine Heavens and the Earth carry our prayer through and bear witness. | xin chín tầng trời và cõi đất truyền suốt lời nguyện và chứng biết cho. |
| 9 | Lòng sở vọng gắng ghi đảo cáo, | What our hearts long for we hold firm and humbly present, | Những điều lòng hằng mong mỏi, con ghi tạc mà khấn nguyện tâu trình, |
| 10 | Nhờ Ơn Trên bổ báo phước lành. | Trusting the Grace Above to answer with blessings. | trông nhờ Ơn Trên đáp lại bằng phước lành. |
IIILine by line commentary
The commentary below goes through the ten lines in order, in places grouping two consecutive lines that share one idea. The library relies on the two commentaries commonly used within the religion, by Nguyễn Văn Hồng and by Quách Văn Hòa, and notes clearly where the two books or the different readings diverge.
The opening line lays the foundation for the whole prayer: the root of the Way lies not in the offerings, not in the number of incense sticks, but in the human heart. The word thành means sincere, without pretense. The word tín means faith, and in Nguyễn Văn Hồng's commentary this is faith that there is a Supreme Being and that there are divine beings. The word hiệp is the southern Vietnamese pronunciation of hợp, meaning to join together into one.
Where commentators differ is on what is joined with what. The first reading takes the whole phrase to mean sincerity and faith joined together within one person, so the Way has its root only when both qualities are present. The second reading, found in some of the religion's sermons, holds that the sincere faith of the worshipper must join with the grace of the divine beings for the Way to come about, a meeting from both sides. The third reading takes hiệp in a collective sense, the sincere faith of many people joined together to form one religion. The prayer does not settle on any one of these, and all three are heard in sermons.
Placing this line at the head of an incense offering is also a reminder to oneself. The worshipper is about to light incense and offer flowers, wine and tea, and the very first line he or she recites says that all of these are only the branches, not the root.
If the first line says the root is the heart, the second says by what road that heart travels. The word nương means to lean on, to borrow as a support. The human heart cannot be seen, so it leans on something that can be seen, the incense smoke, and follows that smoke to be tiếp truyền, carried onward in succession.
This line closely renders the second line of the Chinese Phần Hương Chú, 心假香傳, read in Sino-Vietnamese as tâm giả hương truyền. The character 假 here is read giả but means to borrow, to rely on, not false. The whole line means the heart borrows the incense to be carried onward. The Vietnamese version chose the word nương, which carries the sense of borrowing as well as a shade of leaning on for support.
The word order of the line is worth noticing. The subject is lòng, the heart, while the incense smoke is only what it leans on. The prayer does not say the incense smoke carries the prayer by itself. It says the human heart uses the incense smoke as its road.
Lư is the incense censer, the vessel on the altar that holds the incense sticks. Ngọc, jade, is an honorific word here, meaning something precious, and does not necessarily mean a censer made of jade stone. The line corresponds to the third line of the Chinese text, hương phần ngọc lư, meaning incense burning in the jade censer.
Nguyễn Văn Hồng adds a figurative layer of meaning: the jade censer is the precious human heart, and the fragrance is the pure thoughts that rise from that heart. On this reading, the third line describes not only a scene on the altar but something happening within the person. Quách Văn Hòa explains the censer literally, as an altar vessel. The two readings do not conflict. One describes the object, the other describes what the object stands for.
Kính thành means reverent and sincere, and these two words repeat the idea of sincerity from the first line. Chứng lòng means to witness the heart, that is, to ask the one above to see and accept one's heart.
The hardest word in the line is Tiên gia. Read in the ordinary way, Tiên gia means the house of the Immortals, the realm of the Immortals, that is, the Immortals in general. The two commentaries of the religion read it more narrowly. Quách Văn Hòa explains Tiên gia as the Immortal Elder (Đấng Tiên Ông), that is, the Great Merciful Father (Đức Đại Từ Phụ). Nguyễn Văn Hồng separates the two words, Tiên as Immortal and gia as father, and also understands it as the Supreme Being (Đức Chí Tôn). This reading matches the invocation recited right after the prayer, in which the Supreme Being is addressed as Cao Đài Tiên Ông. The paraphrase column above follows the reading of the two commentaries, while the broader reading, the divine beings of the realm of the Immortals, is still found in many other writings.
These two seven syllable lines invite the divine beings to descend. Ruổi dong means to travel fast without stopping, like a rider urging a horse on. Nguyễn Văn Hồng explains it as going straight on in one stretch so as to arrive quickly. Cỡi hạc, riding a crane, is a familiar image from Taoist literature, where the Immortals travel on the backs of cranes. Xe Tiên is the wondrous carriage of the sacred realm. Gác xe means to set the carriage aside for a while and stop.
The word vội, in haste, makes the verse much warmer. The one inviting does not merely invite the divine beings down but invites them to hurry, as one would call a loved one to come home quickly. The two lines correspond to the two Chinese lines chơn linh hạ giáng, Tiên bội lâm hiên, meaning the true spirits descend and the jade pendants of the Immortals arrive at the veranda. The Vietnamese version replaces the jade pendants with a crane and a carriage, images easier for Vietnamese readers to picture.
On the spelling, the Council's edition reproduced on daotam.info places a comma between Thần, Thánh, while the reprint of the first edition writes Thần Thánh without one. With the comma, it reads as two ranks of divine beings, the Deities and the Saints. Without it, it reads as a single collective noun, the divine beings. The meaning hardly changes.
Đệ tử means disciple. Caodai followers call themselves disciples before the Supreme Being because, according to the teaching, the Supreme Being is the Master who teaches the Way directly through spirit writing and not through a visible founder. The Council's edition capitalizes Đệ tử as a formal way of referring to oneself.
Khẩn nguyền means to pray earnestly. Nguyền here is an old pronunciation of nguyện, to pray, chosen to rhyme with Tiên at the end of the previous line and with truyền in the next line, as the rhyme rules of the song thất lục bát form require.
This line corresponds to the Chinese line kim thần quan cáo, meaning now this subject makes his report. The Chinese text uses the word thần, subject, in the manner of someone presenting a memorial to the heavenly court. The Vietnamese version changes it to đệ tử, disciple, moving from the relation of ruler and subject to the relation of master and disciple.
This eight syllable line is where the prayer rises to its highest point. Thông truyền means to carry through without obstruction. Chứng tri means to witness and know. The corresponding Chinese line is kính đạt cửu thiên, reaching straight to the nine heavens. The Vietnamese version adds the word Đất, Earth, so that the prayer not only rises to heaven but reaches both heaven and earth.
On the nine heavens, Nguyễn Văn Hồng's book lists them according to Caodai teaching from lowest to highest: the Ngạn Uyển Garden, the Garden of Immortal Peaches (Đào Tiên), Thanh Thiên, Huỳnh Thiên, Xích Thiên, Kim Thiên, Hạo Nhiên Thiên, Phi Tưởng Thiên and Tạo Hóa Thiên. Some read the nine heavens in the broad sense of classical literature, meaning all the heavens, not necessarily according to this list.
Where the copies differ: the Council's edition reproduced on daotam.info and recent commentaries write Chín tầng, while the reprint of the first edition writes Chín từng. Từng is an old spelling of tầng, level, in the southern Vietnamese of the early twentieth century, and the meaning is the same.
The last two lines state what the worshipper hopes for. Sở vọng means what one hopes for. Nguyễn Văn Hồng explains it as the important thing one constantly longs for. Gắng ghi means to strive to remember, to engrave in one's heart. Đảo cáo is made up of đảo, to pray, and cáo, to report respectfully. Nguyễn Văn Hồng explains it as making offerings, praying and reporting, while Quách Văn Hòa explains it as making requests of the divine beings.
Ơn Trên, the Grace Above, is the way Caodai followers refer collectively to the grace of the Supreme Being and the divine beings. Bổ báo is made up of bổ, to make up for, to add help, and báo, to answer in return. Quách Văn Hòa explains it as answering the request, while Nguyễn Văn Hồng explains it as helping and answering in return.
These two lines correspond to the two Chinese lines sở khải sở nguyện, hàm tứ như ngôn, meaning what is reported and what is prayed for, may all be granted as asked. The difference is worth noticing: the Chinese text asks to be granted exactly what was asked for, while the Vietnamese version asks only for blessings, without listing anything specific. The prayer closes with an act of trust rather than a list.
On the spelling, most sources write gắng ghi, while a few reproduction sites write gắn ghi. The library follows gắng ghi, the form found in both the Council's edition and the reprint of the first edition.
IVNiệm Hương within a service
Niệm Hương does not stand alone. It is the first of a sequence of prayers chanted one after another, and only within that sequence does its full role become clear. According to the instructions in the Kinh Thiên Đạo và Thế Đạo and the book Bước Đầu Học Đạo (First Steps in Learning the Way) by Nguyễn Văn Hồng, a service to the Supreme Being has eight parts in the order below.
| Order | Prayer | Role in the service |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Niệm Hương (Incense Prayer) | Offering incense, presenting one's sincerity, inviting the divine beings to witness |
| 2 | Khai Kinh (Opening Prayer) | Opening the chanting, speaking of the suffering of the world and the road to liberation |
| 3 | Kinh Ngọc Hoàng Thượng Đế (Prayer to the Jade Emperor) | The main prayer of the service, in praise of the Supreme Being |
| 4 | Kinh Phật giáo (Buddhist prayer) | A prayer honoring the Buddha rank within the Three Teachings |
| 5 | Kinh Tiên giáo (Taoist prayer) | A prayer honoring the Immortal rank within the Three Teachings |
| 6 | Kinh Nho giáo (Confucian prayer) | A prayer honoring the Sage rank within the Three Teachings |
| 7 | Dâng Hoa, Dâng Rượu, Dâng Trà (Offering of flowers, wine and tea) | Offering the three treasures: flowers stand for essence (tinh), wine for vital energy (khí), tea for spirit (thần) |
| 8 | Ngũ Nguyện (Five Vows) | Five shared vows that close the service |
Seen as a whole sequence, Niệm Hương does the work of an opening address before the matter itself. The three prayers of Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism standing together in the middle of the service express the Caodai idea of quy nguyên Tam Giáo, the Three Teachings returning to one source, meaning the great religions return to a single root. But before honoring any rank, the worshipper must pass through Niệm Hương, that is, must first make clear that he or she comes with a sincere heart.
When the service is for the Holy Mother (Đức Phật Mẫu) at a Temple of the Holy Mother (Điện Thờ Phật Mẫu), the order is different. According to Bước Đầu Học Đạo, that service also opens with Niệm Hương and Khai Kinh, followed by the Phật Mẫu Chơn Kinh (True Scripture of the Holy Mother) in place of the Prayer to the Jade Emperor, and the four daily services add the Tán Tụng Công Đức, a hymn in praise of the Holy Mother. The Phật Mẫu Chơn Kinh was already included in the Kinh Thiên Đạo và Thế Đạo printed in 1936. So whether the service is for the Supreme Being or for the Holy Mother, the opening prayer is still Niệm Hương.
After Niệm Hương, the worshipper makes three prostrations, each with four bows of the head, and with each bow recites the invocation Nam Mô Cao Đài Tiên Ông Đại Bồ Tát Ma Ha Tát. The Kinh Thiên Đạo và Thế Đạo records this briefly as twelve prostrations. This invocation is the title of the Supreme Being, and it is exactly what explains why the two commentaries read Tiên gia in the fourth line as the Supreme Being.
Five incense sticks and three incense sticks
The prayer speaks of incense smoke, and the number of incense sticks in Caodaism is clearly prescribed. The Introductory Notes (Tiểu Dẫn) of the Kinh Thiên Đạo và Thế Đạo state that when worshipping the Master (Thầy, as Caodai followers call the Supreme Being), one must burn a full five incense sticks, with an inner row of three called Án Tam Tài (the Three Powers) and an outer row of two more called Tượng Ngũ Khí (the Five Energies). For the other divine beings, three sticks are burned. The book Bước Đầu Học Đạo adds that one never burns three sticks when worshipping the Master, and that a bundle of three sticks is used at a Temple of the Holy Mother.
The way to set them is described precisely: the three sticks of the inner row stand level with one another, one in the middle, one on the right and one on the left, and the two sticks of the outer row are placed in the gaps between them, so that a person standing before the altar sees all five sticks, with none hiding another.
The tradition itself explains the meaning of the five incense sticks on two levels, and the religion's books do not choose one level and discard the other.
The first level is cosmic, following the very names given in the Introductory Notes. The three sticks of the inner row are the Tam Tài, the Three Powers, that is, Thiên, Địa, Nhơn: heaven, earth and humanity. Bước Đầu Học Đạo records the middle stick as Heaven, the right stick as Earth and the left stick as Humanity. The two sticks of the outer row are added to make five, called Ngũ Khí, the five energies of Metal, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth that make up all things. The overall idea is that the worshipper offers to the Supreme Being heaven, earth and humanity together with the five energies that form the universe.
The second level concerns the cultivation of the heart and is found in Quách Văn Hòa's Chú Giải Kinh Cúng Tứ Thời. The five incense sticks are the ngũ hương, the five incenses of a practitioner's heart: the incense of moral discipline, of concentration, of wisdom, of liberation, and of the knowledge and vision of liberation. This concept already exists in Buddhism, and the book says that Caodaism uses these five kinds of incense, in the form of five incense sticks, as an offering to the Supreme Being.
Followers may hear both explanations in different sermons. The first level speaks of the order of heaven and earth, the second of the qualities of the one making the offering. Set beside the line Lòng nương nhang khói tiếp truyền ra, the heart leans on the incense smoke to carry it onward, the second level shows that the incense is not only an offering but also an image of the human heart itself.
The point to remember, in one sentence: Niệm Hương is the first prayer of every one of the four daily services, five incense sticks made up of the Án Tam Tài and the Tượng Ngũ Khí are burned for the Supreme Being and three for the other divine beings, and the prayer is followed by three prostrations, each with four bows reciting the title Cao Đài Tiên Ông.
VWhere the words come from
People reading Niệm Hương for the first time often ask who wrote it. The question has two answers, one according to the religion's teaching and one according to what researchers within the religion have been able to establish. The library presents both, then sets out the Chinese text that researchers regard as the source, so readers can compare for themselves.
The tradition itself holds that the Caodai service prayers were not composed by people but given by divine beings through spirit writing. Spirit writing, or the séance (đàn cơ), is the way the religion believes the sacred realm teaches humanity. Caodaism sees itself as the age in which the Supreme Being teaches the Way directly through spirit writing, so scriptures that come into being this way are regarded as holy words, not human literature.
In the case of Niệm Hương, the religion's documents record that it was given through spirit writing by the Southern Pole Patriarch (Đức Nam Cực Chưởng Giáo), while the Khai Kinh that follows it was given by the Patriarch Lü (Đức Lữ Tổ). For followers, the fact that the prayer had a Chinese predecessor does not lessen its sacredness. In the understanding common within the religion, the divine beings reused prayers already familiar to people of old and rendered them into Vietnamese so that people of the new age could read them, in keeping with the religion's spirit of universal salvation, bringing the Way close to everyone.
On the historical record, researchers within the religion have traced Niệm Hương to a Chinese text of ten lines, four characters each, called the Phần Hương Chú, the invocation recited when burning incense. The article by Lê Anh Minh on the Đạo Uyển site states that the invocation appears in the Wanfa Guizong 萬法歸宗 (Vạn Pháp Quy Tông), a Taoist compendium of ritual techniques traditionally attributed to Li Chunfeng of the Tang dynasty, with many later woodblock editions, including one from 1892. The study by Huệ Nhẫn on the Nhịp Cầu Giáo Lý site records that this invocation appears in the Chinese scriptures of the Minh Sư lineage, and that the Southern Pole Patriarch drew on it when giving the prayer in the Vietnamese national script in 1925 at Minh Lý Đạo.
A closely similar form of the invocation also appears in the morning and evening liturgy of the Quanzhen school in China, under the name Zhuxiang Zhou 祝香咒 (Chúc Hương Chú, Incense Offering Invocation). That version has only eight lines and opens with 道由心學，心假香傳, read in Sino-Vietnamese as Đạo do tâm học, tâm giả hương truyền, meaning the Way is learned through the heart, and the heart borrows the incense to be carried onward. The version in the Wanfa Guizong that Niệm Hương follows opens with Đạo do tâm hiệp, the Way is joined through the heart. Only one character differs, learned or joined, yet the direction of the opening line changes entirely, and the first line of Niệm Hương, Đạo gốc bởi lòng thành tín hiệp, follows the word joined.
The table below sets the ten Chinese lines beside the ten Vietnamese lines. The two texts match line for line, with the same ten lines and the same order of ideas, differing only in that the Vietnamese version expands each four character line into a verse line of six, seven or eight syllables.
| Phần Hương Chú, Sino-Vietnamese reading | Meaning of the Chinese line | Corresponding line in Niệm Hương |
|---|---|---|
| 道由心合, Đạo do tâm hiệp | The Way is joined through the heart | Đạo gốc bởi lòng thành tín hiệp |
| 心假香傳, Tâm giả hương truyền | The heart borrows the incense to be carried onward | Lòng nương nhang khói tiếp truyền ra |
| 香焚玉爐, Hương phần ngọc lư | Incense burns in the jade censer | Mùi hương lư ngọc bay xa |
| 心注仙願, Tâm chú Tiên nguyện | The heart pours itself into a prayer offered to the Immortals | Kính thành cầu nguyện Tiên gia chứng lòng |
| 真靈下降, Chơn linh hạ giáng | The true spirits descend | Xin Thần, Thánh ruổi dong cỡi hạc |
| 仙珮臨軒, Tiên bội lâm hiên | The jade pendants of the Immortals arrive at the veranda | Xuống phàm trần vội gác xe Tiên |
| 今臣關告, Kim thần quan cáo | Now this subject makes his report | Ngày nay Đệ tử khẩn nguyền |
| 逕達九天, Kính đạt Cửu Thiên | Reaching straight to the nine heavens | Chín tầng Trời, Đất thông truyền chứng tri |
| 所啟所願, Sở khải sở nguyện | What is reported, what is prayed for | Lòng sở vọng gắng ghi đảo cáo |
| 咸賜如言, Hàm tứ như ngôn | May all be granted as asked | Nhờ Ơn Trên bổ báo phước lành |
The verse form and the open ending
The Vietnamese text is in the song thất lục bát form, the familiar Vietnamese verse form of the Chinh Phụ Ngâm (Lament of the Soldier's Wife) and the Cung Oán Ngâm Khúc (Complaint of a Palace Maiden). A stanza has two lines of seven syllables, one line of six and one line of eight. Niệm Hương has two complete stanzas of this kind, from line one to line eight, followed by two seven syllable lines at the end with no six and eight pair after them. The whole prayer comes to seventy words.
The rhyme is held tightly according to the rules of the form. The last word of the first seven syllable line rhymes with the fifth word of the next line, as hiệp with tiếp, hạc with gác, cáo with báo. The last word of the second seven syllable line rhymes with the last word of the six syllable line, as ra with xa, Tiên with nguyền. The last word of the six syllable line rhymes with the sixth word of the eight syllable line, as xa with gia, nguyền with truyền. This tight rhyme makes the prayer easy to memorize and easy to chant together in one rhythm.
The prayer ending on a pair of seven syllable lines, without closing on a six and eight pair, may be because the Vietnamese version keeps exactly the ten lines of the Chinese text. The books the library consulted do not discuss this point. In chanting, the last line is followed at once by the prostrations and the invocation, so listeners do not sense that anything is missing.
Where the copies differ
The library compared four sources: the Council's edition reproduced on daotam.info, the reprint of the first 1936 edition in Nguyễn Văn Hồng's Giải Nghĩa Kinh Thiên Đạo và Thế Đạo, Quách Văn Hòa's Chú Giải Kinh Cúng Tứ Thời, and the site toathanhtayninh.wordpress.com. The wording of the prayer is the same in all four. The differences all concern spelling and punctuation:
- Chín tầng Trời in the Council's edition and most sources, Chín từng Trời in the version following the first edition. Từng is an old spelling of tầng.
- Xin Thần, Thánh with a comma in the Council's edition, Xin Thần Thánh without a comma in the version following the first edition.
- Tiên gia with a lowercase gia in the Council's edition, Tiên Gia capitalized in the version following the first edition.
- Đệ tử capitalized in the Council's edition, đệ tử in lowercase in the version following the first edition.
- gắng ghi in the Council's edition and the version following the first edition, gắn ghi on a few reproduction sites.
- The Council's edition uses hyphens in the old spelling, as in cầu-nguyện, ruổi-dong, phàm-trần. This page drops the hyphens in line with present day spelling.
The library follows the Council's edition at every point above. Among the sources consulted, the library found no document recording any other Caodai denomination using a version of Niệm Hương that differs in meaning. If readers hear a word at a temple that differs from this page, it is most likely one of the spelling differences listed above.
VIWhen and how the faithful recite it
Niệm Hương is chanted four times a day, because it opens each of the four daily services (cúng tứ thời). According to Bước Đầu Học Đạo, the four services fall at the four moments of the day when yin and yang turn: the hour of Tý at midnight, when yin is at its peak and yang begins to arise, the hour of Mẹo at six in the morning, when yin and yang are in balance, the hour of Ngọ at noon, when yang is at its peak and yin begins to arise, and the hour of Dậu at six in the evening, when yin and yang are again in balance. The book notes that worshippers should keep to the hour, allowing only about fifteen minutes either way, so as to be in harmony with the service at the Holy See.
Followers from the surrounding area come to worship together. The service has ceremonial music and a chanting choir (đồng nhi). Bước Đầu Học Đạo records that a service at a temple (thánh thất) lasts about thirty minutes. Niệm Hương is the first prayer raised after the incense and lamps have been offered.
The service also opens with Niệm Hương and Khai Kinh, followed by the Phật Mẫu Chơn Kinh. The incense offered is a bundle of three sticks. Bước Đầu Học Đạo records that all who attend wear white áo dài, without their robes of rank, because all are children of the Holy Mother, without distinction of rank or title.
Followers who live far from a temple worship before the altar of the Divine Eye at home, reciting all eight parts as in a temple but without music. Bước Đầu Học Đạo records that a service at home lasts about twenty minutes. Those too busy to keep all four services usually keep two.
The Introductory Notes of the Kinh Thiên Đạo và Thế Đạo describe it: the left hand forms the Tý seal (ấn Tý), pressing the tip of the thumb against the base of the ring finger, then closes into a fist, the right hand wraps over it from outside, and the right thumb is slipped between the thumb and index finger of the left hand. Holding the hands this way, the worshipper raises them to the forehead, bows deeply three times, then kneels and raises the hands to the forehead again as before.
The Kinh Thiên Đạo và Thế Đạo notes right under the title of the prayer that it is chanted in the Nam Ai mode, a slow and low melodic mode of the ceremonial music of southern Vietnam. The ten lines are sung in that mode, not read like prose.
Having chanted the line Nhờ Ơn Trên bổ báo phước lành, trusting the Grace Above to answer with blessings, the worshipper makes three prostrations, each with four bows, and with each bow recites Nam Mô Cao Đài Tiên Ông Đại Bồ Tát Ma Ha Tát, before moving on to the Khai Kinh.
As for the different branches, Niệm Hương had its origin at Minh Lý Đạo before entering the prayer book of the Tây Ninh Holy See, and the documents the library consulted all speak of it as the incense prayer of Caodaism in general. Differences between places, if any, lie in the accompanying rites, such as the arrangement of the altar, the number of prayers chanted afterward and the music, rather than in the words of the prayer. The description on this page follows the rites of the Tây Ninh Holy See.
The library records these things as an observer, so readers can understand what they see when they step into a Caodai temple. How a service should properly be conducted is a matter for each Caodai denomination, and anyone wishing to know the details should ask at the temple they visit.
VIICommon misunderstandings
Because the prayer is short and chanted so often, many people know it by ear but seldom stop at each word. The five points below are places where it is easy to misread, set down so readers can check them against the words of the prayer.
The first line of the prayer says the opposite. The Way is rooted in sincere hearts joined in faith, and the incense smoke is only what the heart leans on, as the second line says, Lòng nương nhang khói, the heart leans on the incense smoke. In that line the subject is the heart, and the incense smoke is only the road. Both commentaries of the religion stress this point.
The number of sticks is prescribed and has a meaning. The Kinh Thiên Đạo và Thế Đạo records that five sticks are burned for the Supreme Being, the inner row of three being the Án Tam Tài and the outer row of two the Tượng Ngũ Khí, while three sticks are burned for the other divine beings. One commentary adds that the five sticks are the five kinds of incense of a practitioner's heart.
Anyone reading the Chinese Phần Hương Chú, the source of Niệm Hương, can easily stumble on the word giả. Giả here means to borrow, to rely on, not false. The whole line means the heart borrows the incense to be carried onward, and the Vietnamese version rendered that idea faithfully with the word nương, to lean on.
The prayer asks the divine beings to witness the heart and asks the Grace Above to answer with blessings, without listing anything specific. Compared with the original Chinese text, which asks to be granted exactly what was reported, the Vietnamese version is even more restrained. It is the opening of a service that presents one's sincerity, not a petition.
According to the teaching, it was given through spirit writing by the Southern Pole Patriarch. According to the religion's historical record, it was received at Minh Lý Đạo in 1925 and based on the Chinese Phần Hương Chú of the Minh Sư lineage, its ten Vietnamese lines matching the ten Chinese lines exactly. These two layers of the story answer two different questions and do not exclude each other.
?Quick Questions
What is the Kinh Niệm Hương
It is the prayer that opens each of the four daily services of Caodaism, standing first in the Kinh Cúng Tứ Thời section of the Kinh Thiên Đạo và Thế Đạo, the prayer book of the Caodai Sacerdotal Council of the Tây Ninh Holy See. It consists of ten lines of song thất lục bát verse, seventy words, saying that sincerity is the root of the Way and that the sincere heart is carried onward along the incense smoke, then inviting the divine beings to witness and asking the Grace Above to grant blessings.
What is the full text of the Kinh Niệm Hương
According to the Kinh Thiên Đạo và Thế Đạo: Đạo gốc bởi lòng thành tín hiệp, Lòng nương nhang khói tiếp truyền ra. Mùi hương lư ngọc bay xa, Kính thành cầu nguyện Tiên gia chứng lòng. Xin Thần, Thánh ruổi dong cỡi hạc, Xuống phàm trần vội gác xe Tiên. Ngày nay Đệ tử khẩn nguyền, Chín tầng Trời, Đất thông truyền chứng tri. Lòng sở vọng gắng ghi đảo cáo, Nhờ Ơn Trên bổ báo phước lành. After chanting it, the worshipper makes three prostrations, each with four bows, reciting Nam Mô Cao Đài Tiên Ông Đại Bồ Tát Ma Ha Tát.
Who gave the Niệm Hương prayer
According to the teaching, it was given through spirit writing by the Southern Pole Patriarch (Đức Nam Cực Chưởng Giáo). According to the study by Huệ Nhẫn on Nhịp Cầu Giáo Lý, it was received in the Vietnamese national script in 1925 at Minh Lý Đạo in Sài Gòn, based on the Chinese Phần Hương Chú of the Minh Sư lineage. It appears in the Kinh Cúng Tứ Thời printed in 1928 and in the Kinh Thiên Đạo và Thế Đạo of the Tây Ninh Sacerdotal Council printed in 1936.
Why are five incense sticks burned for the Supreme Being
The Kinh Thiên Đạo và Thế Đạo records that when worshipping the Master a full five incense sticks must be burned, an inner row of three called Án Tam Tài, that is, heaven, earth and humanity, and an outer row of two called Tượng Ngũ Khí, that is, the five energies of Metal, Wood, Water, Fire and Earth. For the other divine beings, three sticks are burned. Quách Văn Hòa's Chú Giải Kinh Cúng Tứ Thời adds that the five sticks are the five incenses: moral discipline, concentration, wisdom, liberation, and the knowledge and vision of liberation.
Who is Tiên gia in the Kinh Niệm Hương
Read in the ordinary way, Tiên gia means the realm of the Immortals, the Immortals in general. The two commentaries commonly used in Caodaism, by Nguyễn Văn Hồng and by Quách Văn Hòa, both understand Tiên gia as the Supreme Being, the Immortal Elder, the Great Merciful Father. This reading matches the invocation recited right after the prayer, in which the Supreme Being is addressed as Cao Đài Tiên Ông.