Social Responsibility in Vietnamese Confucianism in the 15th - 18th Centuries – Focusing on Nguyen Trai, Nguyen Binh Khiem and Ngo Thi Nham’s Thoughts -

As a socio-political theory, Confucianism paid much attention to social responsibility. In Vietnamese feudal era, Confucian scholars took the initiative in shouldering individual responsibility towards the society. True Confucian scholars always connected their ideals of life with the destiny of the country and dynasties. The paper explores the social responsibility contained in Vietnamese Confucianism in the 15th~18th centuries through the research on the thoughts of three typical scholars namely Nguyen Trai, Nguyen Binh Khiem and Ngo Thi Nham. In all aspects of the issue, the study focuses on the social responsibility appeared in the relationship between the rulers and the civilians. It clarifies the characteristics of the combination of Confucian thoughts and social-political reality of Vietnamese medieval history, and the theoretical contributions of those thinkers to the research on social responsibility nowadays.