Born in the village of Hòa Hảo, near Châu Đốc, Southern Vietnam, French Indochina, in 1920, Sổ was the son of a moderately wealthy peasant.

[1] While in an agitated state, Sổ appeared to have suddenly been cured of his illnesses[2] and started to propound his religious teachings, which were based on Buddhism, on that spot.

He won over followers by offering free consultations and performing purported miracle cures with simple herbs and acupuncture, and preaching at street corners and canal intersections.

[1]In early 1940, after a few weeks in retreat to compose and put on paper oracles, prayers and teachings, Sổ launched a major campaign through the Mekong Delta.

His reputation grew immensely after a series of his predictions came true: the outbreak of World War II, the fall of France to Nazi Germany, and the Japanese invasion of French Indochina.

As his movement became politicised, it began to attract aspiring politicians, with the likes of Huynh Cong Bo, a prominent landowner, and its future military commanders, Trần Văn Soái and Lâm Thành Nguyên.

[3] Fearing anti-French demonstrations and revolts would occur as a result of Sổ's following, Vichy French governor Jean Decoux decided to act.

The French restrictions and coercions strengthened his nationalist appeal, and Bạc Liêu soon became a place of Hòa Hảo pilgrimage, although it was far from the movement's strongholds.

[5] In 1945, as the Japanese were defeated and Vietnam fell into a power vacuum, Sổ ordered the creation of armed units for campaigns against the local administration, landowners and French colonial forces.

On 9 September 1945, a confrontation arose when a band of 15,000 Hòa Hảo, armed with hand-to-hand weapons, attacked the Việt Minh garrison at Cần Thơ.

[7] Following his death, the Hòa Hảo's political and military power diminished as the various commanders began infighting without a centralised leadership structure and without a leader; it became basically a network of war lords, the most famous being Trần Văn Soái, named a "one-star general" by the French (a rank which does not exist in the French Army, so Văn Soái added a second one on his képi), and Ba Cụt.