The Karma of Hate: Imagining Social Karma in Tales of Marvels and the Uncanny in 15th-17th century Vietnam

This presentation argues that Vietnamese tales composed in Literay Sinitic can shed light on the imagination of social karma in premodern Vietnam. First, I show how the hagiography of the magic-working monk, Từ Đạo Hạnh, synthesizes two karmic strands, his own life and that of Emperor Lý Thần Tông. The second story, focused on the vengeful rebirth of Lady Đào, illustrates how a past life karmic grievance can sometimes explain inexplicable hatred between people. I call this narrative process, "retrospective projection," the imputing of past-life events as causes for present social calamity or interpersonal conflicts. In short, read closely, heretofore unstudied Vietnamese tales composed in Literay Sinitic can shed light on how, in premodern Vietnamese religious culture, karma was not just individual, but also, social, a kind of moral metaphysics which was used to imagine enduring love, miraculous re-births, and also, sometimes, inexplicable hate.