THANG LONG MEDICINE TEMPLE

Thang Long Medicine Temple is located at no. 12, Y Mieu street, Van Mieu ward, Dong Da district, Hanoi city. In 20th Century, the site belonged to Van Mac and Thanh Ngo villages of Huu Nghiem sub-district (which was later changed to Yen Hoa sub-district), Tho Xuong district, Hoai Duc sub-province, Hanoi province.

Thang Long Medicine Temple is the place for worshiping the two famous physicians in the country’s history: Tue Tinh Zen Master and Hai Thuong Lan Ong (meaning the Lazy Old Man on the sea) Le Huu Trac. Besides, this place is also for worshiping herb doctors of the national traditional medicine.

1. Tue Tinh Zen Master: His real name is Nguyen Ba Tinh and religious name is Tue Tinh. He was born in Nghia Phu commune, Van Thai sub-district, Cam Giang district, Thuong Hong sub-province, now Hai Duong province.

Having lost his father since he was 6 year old, he was brought up and afforded for schooling by the monks of Hai Trieu and Giao Thuy pagodas. When he was 22, he gained the degree “Thai Hoc Sinh” (a high feudal scholar degree) under Tran Du Tong Reign; however, he did not work as a court mandarin but became a monk, studied and made up medicines to cure and save the people. At the age of 55 (1385), he was sent as King’s envoy to the Ming Dynasty. In China, he still made up medicines, cured the Ming Queen and was entitled “Great Physician Zen Master” by the Ming King. He died in Jiangnan; the year when he was dead was not recorded.

When he was alive, Tue Tinh built 74 pagodas as the place for curing the people. He grew herbal plants, collected folk remedies and experiences in curing diseases, and trained the clergies of medicine. He summarized traditional medicine and pharmacy and wrote books to propagate medical knowledge.

Especially, in the “Miraculous drugs of the South” book, he collected 580 Vietnamese medicines, 3873 traditional remedies to cure 184 types of diseases in 10 clinical departments. He was a talent famous physician and deserved credits for building the opinion of national medicine which is independent, self-controlling and closely matching with Vietnam’s practical conditions. He always promoted the slogan “Vietnam’s herbal medicine to cure Vietnamese people”. He was entitled by the people in contemporary time as the “Saint of Vietnamese medicine”.

2. The Lazy Old Man on the sea Le Huu Trac:

According to documentations such as: the Family annals, “Hai Duong chorography” and the “Memoirs on travel to the Capital” book, Le Huu Trac lived in Lieu Xa village, Duong Hao district, Hai Duong province (now Hoang Huu Nam commune, Yen My district, Hai Duong province). He was born on 12th November of Giap Thin year, the 5th year of Bao Thai reign (1720) under King Le Du Tong in his mother’s hometown - Bau Thuong area, Vinh Diem commune, Huong Son district, Ha Tinh province (now Son Quang commune, Huong Son district, Ha Tinh province) - in a family with scholar-graduate tradition.

When he was small and followed his father to go to school in Thang Long capital, he was well-known for being smart, good at studying, knowledgeable and good at writing poems. By Ky Mui year (1739) when he was 20, his father died so he had to quit school and go back to his hometown to be in mourning and take care of his mother; he continued to study himself and took the “Three-round” examination (a contest at communal level in former feudal reigns), but he did not continue taking further exams.

Growing in the chaotic context of the country under the Le Dynasty – Trinh Lords period when the people were very miserable and unfortunate, Le Huu Trac determined not to become a mandarin but make full use of his talent to cure diseases and save people as the lofty ideal of his life, because he supposed: “Since I already became a physician, I must make all my efforts and raise a red flag (meaning a good example) in the world of medicine”.

Lan Ong was not bound by the old ideologies and opinions; he always gave prominence to the spirit of “trying the best until the last hope” and never believed in the contemporary “destiny” theory. He always stayed solidary with his colleagues, was modest and had an inquiring mind; he was careful in curing diseases, checked the pulse of the patient thoroughly, made comprehensive diagnosis but was very determined when it was needed and dared to use strong remedies to eliminate the disease root causes. In his 40 years of physician career, he gathered traditional medical achievements combined with many serious scientific researches to build a comprehensive Vietnamese medicine in both theory and treatment methods.

Besides compiling books, Lan Ong opened medical school to propaganda medical knowledges. In 1781, under the 42th year of Canh Hung reign, Lord Trinh Sam summoned him to Thang Long capital to cure his son Trinh Can. In this travel, he wrote the “Memoirs on travel to the Capital”. This was the only works with narrative genre in first person in ancient literature about real characters and real stories which described all about the life of Lord Trinh and living activities of the high ranking mandarins and Confucian scholar classes, as well as about the features of Thang Long citadel in 18th Century. He bequeathed many valuable works to the next generations, such as: “Hải Thượng Lãn Ông Y Tâm Tông Tĩnh” (meaning the dedicated comprehensions of The Lazy Old Man on the sea about medicine) with 28 volumes in 66 books about various medical issues, diseases, curing methods and 150 frequently-used remedies. His medical works were highly evaluated by physicians and scholars. Hai Thuong Lan Ong died on 15th January of lunar calendar, in the 4th year of Quang Trung reign (1791) at the age of 71.

Thang Long Medicine Temple started to be built in Canh Ngo year (1750) by Xuyen Hau and Ngoan Quan Cong, but it was initially quite simple. In the 34th year of Canh Hung reign (1773), Lord Trinh ordered the Chief of Royal Physician Institute Trinh Dinh Ngoan to manage the construction and expansion of the Medicine Temple, which was completed in Giap Ngo year (1774) with spacious scale: “The Temple is graceful, with luxurious palaces and walls, long houses arranged in longitudinal and traverse directions, grandiose pillars and beams; and now there already is the place for people to contemplate and show their respectfulness”.

In Giap Ngo year (1834), the Temple was restored and expanded in scale. It was written in the Thăng Long cổ tích khảo (study on Thang Long vestige): “The Temple was restored in Giap Ngo year (1834) after being deteriorated after a long time. The herb doctor in the north of the Citadel Van Hoa Tu collected efforts and money to repair and enlarge it; the left – right sides are for worshiping ancient sages of various reigns; in front of the temple door there is a house for providing aids, in front of which is a stone-pillar entrance gate.”

In the period of French domination, the Temple was in ruins; the stele recording the history of the vestige was moved to Pho Giac pagoda for preserving. In 1953, the Vietnam Medicine and Pharmacy Association, which was assigned to manage the Temple, restored the vestige and built boundary walls, and the vestige became the head office of the Vietnam Medicine and Pharmacy Association. In 2001, management board of the vestige performed restoration and embellishment again. The current work items of the Temple are in layout of the “Nhị” (二) character, with 3-compartment Front Hall and 3-compartment Back Palace.

The Front Hall is in form of two storeys, two roofs with one overlaying the other and covered with traditional tiles. At the middle of the roof top centerline, there are a pair of embarked dragons flanking to the sun; there are also two consoles in form of lions playing with pearl ball; the 4 roof corners are embarked with “kìm” (dragon-like creature) head; the roof is made of concrete in arch form, covered with tiles on the outside. In the middle compartment, there hanged a board with big characters saying “Đức bị nhân hoàn” (meaning Morality big enough to cover the people and the universe), below are two ornamental ancient scrolled paper book saying “Đức nhược sơn” (meaning Morality is like mountain) on the right hand side and “Tâm như thủy” (meaning Heart is like water), and then comes parallel sentences.

The Back Palace consists of 3 compartments in the same form as the Front Hall. There are 3 large-sized wooden altars. The middle one has two bronze statues of Tue Tinh and the Lazy Old Man on the sea – Le Huu Trac sitting in the thrones, the worshiping throne and the ancestral tablet.

The vestige still preserves many valuable relics such as: stone stele, door paintings in fresco, horizontal lacquered boards, ornamental ancient scrolled paper books, parallel sentences, altar, worshipping throne-tablet, Saint statues, etc. Notable is the stele built in the 35th year of Canh Hung reign (1774) of the Royal Physician Institute which recorded the process of building the Temple. This is a very scarce and precious historical material which helps us know the scale, process of building, restoration, embellishment as well as the people classes who made contribution to building the Temple of the Ancestor of the nation’s medical branch. The stele was selected by the Vietnam Committee of Social Sciences to introduce in the “Collection of Stele inscriptions in Hanoi” book which was published in 1978.

On 15th January of lunar calendar every year, people who work in oriental medicine all over the country gather here to burn incenses to commemorate the ancestral famous physicians of the nation. This is the tradition of “drinking water, remember its source” of the Vietnamese people, showing the gratefulness and respectfulness to those who laid the foundation to the traditional medicine of the country.

Thang Long Medicine Temple was classified as National vestige in 1980.