Collection of Holy Messages of Caodaism. Volume 1, Foreword, Messages 1–5 / Translation from Vietnamese, Іtroductory Article, and Commentaries by V. Musiichuk

 Caodaism (Đạo Cao Đài) is a unique religious teaching that emerged in Vietnam at the beginning of the 20th century. It organically combines the concepts of the three main Eastern religions prevalent in Vietnam: Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. At the same time, Caodaism borrows and adapts elements of various Western religious, esoteric, and philosophical traditions: Catholicism, spiritualism, eclecticism, universalism, etc. Caodaism followers believe that God transmits His revelations to mediums during spiritual séances, appearing in various forms: saints of the Buddhist and Taoist pantheons, spirits of famous personalities from Vietnam, China, and even Europe. All these revelations are carefully recorded and published. The earliest and most important book of revelations for Caodaists is the Collection of Holy Messages (Thánh Ngôn Hiệp Tuyển) in two volumes, which records the revelations from spiritual séances conducted by the chair Caodai clergy from 1925 to 1935. The revelations cover various topics – from the fundamental doctrines of the religion, explanations of important spiritual concepts, and guidelines for daily life, to the order of rituals, appointment of spiritual leaders, and descriptions of their attire. This publication presents, for the first time, a Ukrainian translation of the initial five messages from the first volume of the Collection of Holy Messages, along with the foreword to the collection. The translation was made from the Vietnamese language based on the first edition of 1928. The foreword describes the prerequisites for the emergence of Caodai religion and the reasons for compiling this collection. The messages are arranged in chronological order of the spiritual séances, with the first five records dated from December 1925 to February 1926. It is noted that the revelations were transmitted through the Jade Emperor as an embodiment of God (except for the fourth, where nothing is specified). The introductory article provides an overview of the history of the publication, re-publications, and translations of the Collection of the Holy Messages. The linguistic characteristics of the text in the collection are also examined. The comments explain terms and provide notes on the translation.