TEMPLE OF LITERATURE

Temple of Literature is the name that clearly shows the two functions of a relic area: the place of worshiping Confucius - the ancestor of Confuciannism and the first National School in the history of the country's election.
The name of the Temple of Literature comes from the year of the Dog, the second Than Vu (1070), during the reign of King Ly Thanh Tong. The King set up Temple of Literature, erected statues of Confucius, Duke of Zhou, Four Sages, painted statues of the Seven Divine Sage, worshiped four seasons, allow the Crown Prince to study there. Therefore, the latter it was called Thai Hoc.
In the first year of Vo Chieu Thang's reign (1076), the Confucius worshiping house was founded, and at the beginning of the Tran dynasty, (1253), it was changed to Quoc Tu institute. King Tran Thai Tong allowed him to be enlarged and accepted the children of ordinary, educated civilians. Le Dynasty (1483), changed to Thai Hoc Duong. In the early nineteenth century, the Nguyen Dynasty established Confucius worshiping house in Hue, so this place was changed to Temple of Literature and has remained its name to this day.
During the life of Tran Minh Tong and Chu Van An, he was appointed the Principal of Temple of Literature, a direct teacher of the princes. In 1370, he passed away and was worshiped by King Tran Nghe Tong next to Confucius in Temple of Literature.
In 1484, King Le Thanh Tong reconstructed a large building at Temple of Literature, expanding the scale of works. In 1511, it was renovated and added two rows of stele houses in the East and the West on both sides of Left - Right, each with a stele; In 1536, Mac Dang Dung renovated the Temple of Literature.
In 1762, Lord Trinh Doanh restored the Temple of Literature on a large scale. The Dai Viet Book of Chronicle, the Lunar Dynasty Calendar and Kham Dinh Viet, the history of the archbishop, said: "Dai Thanh gate has 3 compartments, 2 wings, Dong Vu and Tay Vu, each row has 7 compartments. Canh Phuc Temple has 1 compartment 2 wing, kitchen with 2 compartments, and warehouse with 2 compartments. Thai Hoc gate has 3 compartments with horizontal walls roofing with bronze tiles. The eastern and western stele houses have 12 rooms each. Warehouse for craving boards has 4 compartments. Ngoai Nghi Mon has 1 compartment, surrounded by walls. Hanh Ma gate is outside with 3 compartments. Minh Luan house has 3 compartments 2 wing. The small gate area on the left and right side has 1 compartment Classroom compartments are in the East and West in two row, each of them including 14 compartments. Classrooms of Tam Xa students in the East and the West with 3 rows, each of them including 25 compartments, for 2 people in each compartment”. This is probably the largest expansion in the Temple of Literature.
In 1785, Thai Hoc house was renovated; In 1789, Temple of Literature was damaged in the historic Dong Da battle, then Van Chuong villagers made a petition sent to Quang Trung King to repair it.
In Nguyen Dynasty, Temple of Literature were established in Hue. In 1802, King Gia Long appointed this place as Hanoi Temple of Literature. In 1805, the Northern Governor Nguyen Van Thanh built Khue Van Pavilion next to the Square Well. Thus, at the beginning of the Nguyen Dynasty, Thang Long Temple of Literature was only a Temple of Literature in Bac Thanh town, then changed to Hanoi Temple of Literature. Quoc Tu Giam was changed into the school of Hoai Duc government, after the Nguyen Dynasty built a temple of Khai Thanh here to worship Confucius' parents. In 1946, this area was completely burned, leaving only a tiled path in the middle from Thai Hoc gate leading to the Khai Thanh Palace.
In 1863, Administration Commissioner Le Huu Thanh, Ha Ninh Governor-General Ton That Han and Hanoi Surveillance Commissioner Dang Xa to rebuild the East and West stele houses, each with two rows, 11 compartments to cover 82 stelae from wind and rain erosion.
Later renovations were carried out in 1888 and 1897. After taking over the capital in 1954, Hanoi cultural center repaired the Temple of Literature more and more spaciously. In 1988, Temple of Literature Scientific Activity Center was established with the aim to manage, renovate, embellish and promote the value of the monument. Since then, the Temple of Literature has undergone many renovations in 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994 and 1995 to renovate technical infrastructure, plant trees, rebuild to cover Stelae of Doctors…In particular, on the occasion of the 990th anniversary of Thang Long - Hanoi, the Thai Hoc building was rebuilt, making Temple of Literature a complete complex with a large scale, spaciousness, attracting a large number of visitors at home and abroad, becoming an important tourist destination of the capital and the whole country.
Temple of Literature is currently located on an area of ​​54,331 m2, located in Van Mieu ward, Dong Da district, Hanoi. This is originally in Minh Giam hamlet, Huu Nghiem ward, Tho Xuong district. In the French period, it was addressed at Thinh Hao village, Yen Ha ward, Hoan Long district, Ha Dong province. Temple of Literature currently has four sides adjacent to the streets: The main gate is on Quoc Tu Giam street (south), the north is on Nguyen Thai Hoc street, the west is on Ton Duc Thang street, the east is on Van Mieu street. The architectural works of the Temple of Literature are harmoniously arranged in the campus surrounded by paved brick walls. Experiencing many remodeling, the current vestiges of Temple of Literature include architectural works: Van Lake, Nghi Gate, Van Mieu Gate, Dai Trung Gate, Khue Van Pavilion, Thien Quang Well, Two rows of Stelae of Doctors. Dai Thanh Gate, Bai Duong house, Dai Thanh Palace and Thai Hoc house.
1. Van Lake: In front of the Temple of Literature, there is a large lake called Van Lake, with large mound at the center named Kim Chau mound. Once upon a time, on the hilltop, a Phuong Dinh house was used as the place for the scholar's poetry reviews. Now Phuong Dinh house no longer exists, but there is still a stele on the mound, which built in 1865 recording the repair of the Temple of Literature.
2. Nghi Mon Gate: Built in the form of four pillars, located right next to Quoc Tu Giam Street, the two sides of Nghi Mon have 2 "Ha Ma" stelae (dismounted) built in 1771 to remind the successors, doctors or people who go through this area all have to dismount their horses to pay homage to the God, Confucianism god and the talented education center of the Country. Previously, Nghi Mon gate reflected on the blue Van Lake, now separated by Quoc Tu Giam street. Nghi Mon gate is made of bricks, the two upper pillars are taller, the top has two statues of adoration flanking, the two outside pillars are lower. The body of the pillars covering the Han Chinese distiches, including:
Đông, Tây, Nam, Bắc do tư đạo
Công, khanh, phu sĩ xuất thử đồ
It says: From the 4 directions of East, West, South, North, talents converge here
(also from here talent spreading out in four directions).
3. Van Mieu Gate: Built in the style of Tam Quan gate stacked with two floors of 8 roofs, the middle gate is taller and bigger than the two side gates, the upper floor has three words (Van Mieu Gate). Visually are 3 separate architectures; the main door is built with 2 floors, square ground, large lower floors, and small upper floors. Previously there is a stone stele on the Van Mieu gate, it was engraved with two great poems written by Khai Dinh King stating that the Northern Prefect had visited Temple of Literature. That stele is no longer available now, instead, a large bell is hung. There are stone dragons dating from the Le Trung Hung era on the front and back of the Temple of Literature. The two sides show a small gate of Left - Right to travel daily. During the feudal period, the main gate was opened only when the King, the royal family and other officials visited the Temple of Literature and worshipped Confucius. About the students, people, they come with two small gates on both sides.
4. Dai Trung Gate: From the main gate of Van Mieu Gate, in a straight line to the second gate, Dai Trung Gate consists of 3 compartments, built on a high brick foundation, a roof of shoe-tip titles, a gourd-covered vase and two carp flanking in. There are two rows of front and back porch columns below. The row of roof pillars are in the middle. The front and back show empty. In the middle of the gate, there is a small sign with 3 words painted "Dai Trung Gate". The two sides have two small gates, Thanh Duc gate on the right, Dat Tai gate on the left. The names of these two portals represent the training educational view which is virtuous and talented.
5. Khue Van Pavilion: is the 3rd class gate leading inside. Khue Van Pavilion (meaning: The beauty of Constellation) was built in 1805 under the reign of King Gia Long of the Nguyen Dynasty. This project was built by the Governor-General of Northern town Nguyen Van Thanh with the architecture of 2 floors of 8 roofs, the lower floor is 4 brick pillars and four blank surfaces. The upper floor is a two-storey wooden architecture with thatched roofs, surrounded by wooden railing. The four sides of the entresol include 4 circular windows with small bars, which represent the rays of the shining Constellation. Above, there is a gold plate with 3 Chinese characters: "Khue Van Pavilion". There are opposite Chinese distiches praising and promoting literature. The two sides Khue Van Pavilion has two small gates, "Bi Van Gate" and "Suc Van Gate", which implies that the literature is polished, bright and concise.
Khue Van entresol used to gather interesting essays from scholars who had passed the Hoi examination. Small entresol with simple but elegant architecture, especially, it was built between the lush old trees, near Thien Quang Well. Although this construction dates back to the late Nguyen Dynasty, it is still a very beautiful and unique architectural unit, which is why Khue Van Pavilion was chosen as the symbol of Thang Long - Hanoi today.
6. Thien Quang Well: It means the well illuminates the sky, also known as Van pond (i.e Van pond), a square well with brick railings built around it. According to the concept of the ancients, the square well represents the land, the Khue Van round door symbolizes the sky, implying that this is the most elite concentration of the solemn educational culture of the imperial capital. .
7. Two rows of Houses of Doctor Stelea:
This is a place to store 82 stelae of 82 examinations, from Nham Tuat examination of the third year of Dai Bao (1442) to examination in 1779. Two new rows of stelae were reconstructed in 1994, including 8 stelae covers, four rows each side and 10 stelae each row. The stele covers were built according to the style of the house with a blade-shaped roof, a harmonious shoe-tip-tiled with a "gong" rack and a Ba t Trang brick floor. Van Mieu stelae were erected in 3 main phases: the reign of Hong Duc 15 (1484) erected 10 stelae, the reign of Thinh Duc 1 (1653) erected 25 stelae, the reign of Vinh Thinh 13 (1717) erected 21 stelae. The rest of the stelae were made in the same year as the exam or one year after the exam.
The idea of ​​making a doctor stelea started with Le Thanh Tong King, an erudite king paid much attention to the prosperity of the country and national culture. Recognizing the need to praise talents to encourage learning among the people, especially the generations of students who play an important role in the country's development. In 1484, Le Thanh Tong King came down to show the stelae of those who passed Doctoral examination from examination in 1442 onwards (the policy was set in 1442 but not yet implemented), and the stele started to build from here.
The stele is engraved with stone quarried in An Hoach Mountain, Dong Son District, Thanh Hoa Province. Content on the stele includes name, hometown, and examination of 1306 university graduates.
- The first ones called First Doctor were mentioned by Doctor, including 3 names of Trang Nguyen, Bang Nhan, Tham Hoa.
- Those who passes the second rank were called the Second Doctor or also known as Hoang Giap.
- Those who passes the third rank were called the Third Doctor.
The person who passed the first of three exams: Huong examination, Hoi examination and Dinh examination were called Tam Nguyen (for example, the scholar Le Quy Don had ever passed Tam Nguyen, the examinations in 1752).
However, not all exams have taken all the Trang Nguyen, Bang Nhan, Tham Hoa, some years only took the Bang Nhan, Tham Hoa or Hoang Giap, and there was a year that holding only a a Doctor certificate .
82 doctor stelas are massive "historical stones", with rich content, showing the educational viewpoint, the policy of using talented people in the "rule of the country" under the monarchy. The whole scene reflects the scale of education, the atmosphere of exams…. Despite of difference in style of sculpture and decorative art of each stele, it has created a stele garden filled with humanity and art. This is shown in all three stelae: the top of the stele, the edges of the stele, and the tortoise lifting the stele.
In addition to the main decorative theme of "two dragons adorns the moon", there are a number of other special and diverse topics, such as phoenix, dragon horse – the animals used in spiritual life used to decorate the stelae. The edges of the stelae are the same as a living world with lots of flowers, birds, even the image of farmers, officials ... expressed by the artists. The image of the tortoise lifting the stele is also diverse and plentiful: In the stelae in early dating, the tortoise was sculpted flat, smooth from the perpendicular blocks, some of them were carved like an short neck, with a flat head or flat face, small round eyes; In the later stelae, the tortoises are in a hexagonal shape on the back, a curved shell and a small ridge running along the spine, the turtle's shoulders are almost square, the legs are more sketchy than in previous periods.
Each stele contains unique cultural and artistic values, unique sculptures. They are important historical documents that truly reflects the feudal education of the country under feudalism. With these values, in 2010 - 82 doctor stelae in Temple of Literature were reviewed and recorded in the Asia-Pacific World Memory List. In 2011, the doctor stelae at the Temple of Literature was officially listed on UNESCO's World Memory list.
8. Dai Thanh Gate: Go through all the doctor stelae to Dai Thanh gate, including 3 compartments. The horizontal lacquered board with 3 words "Dai Thanh Gate" (i.e the gate of great success) is hanging in the middle compartment. The right side shows a row of small letters entitled Ly Thanh Tong Than Vu, the second year of the year of the Dog, gather the eight moons" (in the autumn of August, the second year of the Dog Than Vu, built by Ly Thanh Tong - in 1070), the left side shows line inscription: "Dong Khanh three years of the Year of the Rat, made a big restoration" (i.e revised in November, the year of Dong Khanh 3 -1888). On the two sides of Dai Thanh gate there are two small gates, Kim Thanh and Ngoc Chan, which implies the echo of gold - pearl.
9. Bai Duong: Step through Dai Thanh gate to a large yard titled with Bat Trang brick, two rows of Huu Vu and Ta Vu, each row of 7 compartments built on high ground, around bundles of brick seams. In the front side is the spacious, large and profound Bai Duong building that stretches across the width of the yard connecting with the gables of Right - Left, forming an ancient U-shaped architecture. Bai Duong building consists of 9 compartments with 40 supporting pillars, roofed roof tile with architectural style in the late Later Le and early Nguyen periods. On the top, there are two dragons flanking the moon, below are the wooden reliefs of the Le dynasty carved in the shape of a cloud dragon with beautiful marks. Once upon a time in Bai Duong building, twice a year in the spring and autumn, the king and his ministers came here to sacrifice Confucius and the gods, fairies and Confucian. A very nice altar made of gold-painted lacquered wood, with a horizontal lacquered board "Vạn thế sư biểu" (meaning The typical teacher of eternity). This horizontal lacquered board was made during the remodeling of the Temple of Literature in 1888. In addition, there were also the horizontal lacquered board, the distiches of repetitive Confucianism, praising the work of Confucius such as: Đạo quán cổ kim (Confucius is leading from ancient times up to now), Đức tham thiên địa (Kindness spreads over the world), Cổ kim nhật nguyệt (timeless light)….
10. Dai Thanh Palace: Located in parallel side with Dai Bai building, including 9 compartments, with 3-sided wall, 5 middle compartments have closed table door, 4 gable compartments use fixed parallel door. The middle compartment places the statue of Confucius facing of the south: Thánh nhân Nam diện nhi trị (that is, the gods seeing to the south to rule the world). The altar with the throne above with the throne and tablets of Confucius is located above, the two sides shows the Four Sages: Yan Hui, Zeng Shen, Zisi and Mencius.
The two gables of Dai Thanh palace placed the ancestral tablet of Thap Triet (from the ten best students of Confucius: Yan Hui, Man Ton, Ran Geng, Ran Yong, Te Du, Duanmu Ci, Ran Qiu, Zhong You, Yan Yan, Bu Shang).
The two rows of Ta - Huu Vu used to be the place to worship That Thap Nhi Hien, 72 good students of Confucius, but this work was destroyed in 1946, the current architecture was rebuilt in 1954, now it is used to work and serve tourists.
11. Thai Hoc building: Built on the foundation of the old Quoc Tu Giam school, located behind Dai Thanh palace, this entire area is spread over an area of ​​1530m2, structured in the form of the word "Cong", including Front Hall, Hallway, Back Hall, Ta Vu, Huu Vu, Bell house, and Drum house. Thai Hoc building was rebuilt in 1999, adapting the traditional architectural style of curved roof (tau dao la mai), this is a project to celebrate the 990th anniversary of Thang Long - Hanoi. The Front Hall consists of 9 compartments. Two gables is built with Bat Trang bricks. At present, the Front Hall is a place to hold commendation and rewarding ceremony for excellent students, excellent teachers, scientific conferences, important ceremonies of Hanoi and the State such as: commending the excellent University Valedictorians in the city, the ceremony for Professor, Associate Professor and many other important ceremonies...
The Back Hall at the back also consists of 9 compartments with the style of overlapping two-storey roof. Connecting the Front Hall and the Back Hall is Hallway in the middle. The first floor is a place to honor Chu Van An, a famous professor of Quoc Tu Giam and a place to display the documents about Thang Long Temple of Literature and a Vietnamese Confucian education, giving an overview of the history of formation and development of Temple of Literature; The second floor is the place to worship famous people who have contributed to the construction of the Temple of Literature and contributed to the cause of Confucian education of the country. These are the kings Ly Thanh Tong, Ly Nhan Tong and Le Thanh Tong.
After more than 700 years of existence with the changes of history, Temple of Literature has always affirmed its inherent true value, becoming a symbol for the tradition of studiousness, the tradition of respectful religion and dominate the talents of the nation. Not only that, this is also the most typical architectural and artistic work of Confucianism in our country. The generations of Vietnamese people in the past and present honor the Temple of Literature, the first university of the country. On May 10, 2012, the Prime Minister signed Decision No. 548/QD-TTg recognizing Temple of Literature as a special National monument.
Temple of Literature is truly an invaluable cultural heritage of Hanoi capital and the whole country throughout the history of the nation, is an attractive tourist attraction for domestic and international tourists, It is an important place for the senior leaders of the Party, countries, and the heads of countries to visit in Hanoi.