Temple of Literature

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T e m p l e o f L i t e r a t u r e

Brief information about Hanoi

- The long history of Hanoi:- When was it turned into the capital? Why? The legend of Ascending Dragon?

- What happened in 1831 – when the capital was moved to Hue?- What’s the meaning of “Hanoi”

Temple of Literature

- When was this temple built? By whom and dedicated to whom?- Who’s Confucius? What’s Confucianism? Why Confucianism was important in the

feudalism and Confucius was worshiped?- Why the king named it temple of LITERATURE (not math or philosophy?)- What was the school built? By whom and for whom?- Why there’re too many Chinese characters in this temple? Is this language is similar to

Vietnamese one? How the Latin system was introduced into Vietnam language?From the Entrance gate

- Panoramic diagram of the temple: how many sections, why there’re more than onesection? Why there’re 5 sections (or the meaning of No.5 in the oriental culture andConfucianism?

- How was it run in the ancient time?.

The Middle gate

- The meaning of symbol Two carps with one jar?- Names of the two smaller gates? Their meaning?

The Khue Van Cac pavilion

- When was it built? And Why? What happened to this temple when the capital moved toHue.

- The name’s meaning? How it represents for the Yin - Yang concept?- The relationship between this pavilion and the two small gates at the previous section?

Examination in the past

- Why the exam was important to all students in the old days?- How was the exam held?o 1st step, 2nd step, 3rd step: where to hold? Name? How often? How were the

questions? The given title to successful candidates? What would they do next?o The award for top-rank candidates?

The Stelae garden

- When the 1st stele did was built? By whom and why did he built it?- The general content of stele?- Why sometimes you see some destroyed characters on these stelea?

- How many stelae totally? How many of them left? Why are they different from eachother?- Why are they placed on the backs of tortoises?- Why the tortoises’ head are so smooth?

Prepared by Thao u - HAT




The Main house:

- Its purpose?- Whose statues are placed on these houses? And why?- Further information about Confucius – his brief biography?

- The influence of Confucianism in Vietnam and its decline?

Quoc Tu Giam: The School for the Son of Nation

- Who built the school? Who was the first student?- How did it become popular for all talented (male) students?- How did they move from there hometown to this school?- How did they live and study in the ancient time? And how long did they stay here?- Its damage during the war time and the restoration project (who sponsors? How long

did it take?)-

Inside

- Chu Van An: Who is he? Why he was famous? Why was he worshiped in the temple?- The old model:

o How big it was in the ancient time?o How did student have money for their living here?o How did the temple have money for their worshiping?

- The new model:- Why we now call this temple one kind of culture centre?

- Festivities on the Lunar New Year festival?

1. General information:

* Brief introduction about Hanoi – the capital of one thousand year history- Before the year 1010:, the capital was Hoa Lu (100 km South of Hanoi). That time, wegot our independence after 1000 years under the Chinese domination -> it was amilitary capital - surrounded by the Limestone Mountains.- The country was getting richer and more powerful -> needed a bigger capital -> In

1010 king Ly Thai To decided to moved the capital to other place – more centrallocation and convenient for farming and trading- The legend of Ascending dragon: while the king was sailing along the Red river, hesaw a golden dragon ascending from the riverside - a good omen for the country ->decided to choose this dragon’s land as the capital city, and named it as AscendingDragon city.- Since then, there were a lot of palaces; pagodas and temple were built inside thecapital citadel. Due to the war time and historical changes, there are not many of themleft nowadays.- The name Hanoi appeared in 1831 when the capital moved to Hue by the Nguyen

Dynasty (the last dynasty) Ha means River and Noi means the Inside, so Hanoi meansthe city embraced by the Red river.- When the French took over Vietnam (by the end of the 19th century), they destroyedmany ancient architectures and replaced with the modern architecture. This temple was





luckily reserved as memorial feudalism in Vietnamese.- In 1945: Hanoi was again chosen to be capital by Ho Chi Minh’s government after defeating the French army.

* When was this temple built? By whom and dedicated to whom?- This temple was built in 1070 by King Ly Thanh Tong to worship Confucius and alsoto be a quiet place for the crown prince’s studying.

* Who’s Confucius? What’s Confucianism? Why Confucianism was important in thefeudalism?- Confucius is a Chinese man who founded Confucianism.- Confucianism is not a religions but a way of thought based on a temporal world. TheGreat Confucian virtue is how to behave as a good human being: to follow the rules of

life and act correctly by their social status and the only way to have a higher class is bystudying and successful in the royal exam.- According to the Confucius’s theory, man is more appreciated than woman, and themost important man in one country is the king. The king is considered to be theHeaven’s son so all people have to respect him and follow his orders without anydiscussion. This rule made Confucianism became the foundation of feudalism of everyAsian countries and Confucius were worshipped by every kings

* Why the king named it temple of LITERATURE (not math or philosophy?)- Because in the ancient time, when people followed the Confucian educational systemand Literature was everything they have to study on. The natural sciences such asmathematic, chemical, physics… were not mentioned, the schools program onlyincluded the Confucian classics, philosophy, literature, history, and students must learnhow to compose poems, royal essays.

* What was the school built? By whom and for whom?- In 1076 when the crown prince became a king. He ordered to build the Quoc Tu Giamor The school for the nation’s sons at the rear of this temple.- It became the 1st university of the whole country, which was firstly only for membersof the royal family and sons of the mandarin and then later, opened to all talentedstudents.

* Why there’re too many Chinese characters in this temple? Is this language is similar to Vietnamese one? How the Latin system was introduced into Vietnam language?- Because in the ancient time, we only had our own oral language and didn’t have the

written language. In the time of feudalism, we had to use Chinese characters for our writing system. So in all ancient architecture, we used Chinese characters as kind of decoration.- The present written language was invented in 16th century, when there were a couple





of Catholic missionaries came to Vietnam, and they had to think of a easy way totransform the Catholic theory and introduced it to Vietnam. Under the Frenchdomination, this writing system were developed and promoted through the wholecountry.

2. From the Entrance Gate:

* Panoramic diagram of the temple: How many sections, why there is more than one section?The meaning of No.5 in the oriental culture and Confucianism?- The temple’s architecture is divided in to five courtyards, it helps you separate yourself andcool down your soul while walking deep inside the temple.- On the other hand, in Confucianism, the number five is a sacred number:

• There’re five basic elements created the world: metal, wood, water, fire, earth.• There’re 5 virtues a gentleman must have: humanity (nhân), righteousness (lễ), civility

(nghĩa), knowledge (trí) and loyalty (tín).• There’re 5 basic relationships of society: king and subjects, father and son, husband and

wife, brothers, friends.

*How was it run in the ancient time?- Originally, in the ancient time, this temple was the most sacred one in Hanoi and wasopened just twice per year, in the spring and the autumn festival. Only the king and hisfollowers could walk into the temple and they make some ceremonies dedicated toConfucius. The King would take the entrance path while all mandarins and soldiers wouldtake the smaller ones on the left and the right side.- By the end of 17th century, the capital was moved to Hue by Nguyen dynasty – the lastdynasty of Vietnamese feudalism. The Nguyen king also removed a lot of royal palaces in

Hanoi and transferred to Hue. Finally, they decided to destroyed the imperial wall citadeland used these bricks to built a wall surrounded this temple, turned it into the last reminder of former royal families in Hanoi.

3. The Middle Gate:

* The meaning of symbol Two carps with one jar?- It symbolize for the hard way of students who want to be mandarin of the country. Accordingto an old story, when carps want to change themselves to dragons, they have to pass an arch-shaped rock waterfall during the violent tide.- It’s also similar to students who succeeded in passing through the examinations while thislittle jar stands for the holy knowledge.

* Names of the two smaller gates? Their meaning?

- The two side gates’ names are Virtue (Thành Đức) and Talent (Đạt Tài). Since the ancienttime, they’ve been considered to be most important qualities of a successful student in our education system.

4. The Khue Van Cac (Pavillion of Constellation of Literature):

* When and why was it built?

- This pavilion didn’t belong to the temple original architecture. It just was built by the end of 18th century, when the Nguyen king carried out the last restoration in this temple beforemoving the capital to Hue.





- There’s also a temple of literature in Hue. It’s much smaller than this one but the architectureand purpose are exactly the same.

- Now we use this pavilion as the symbol of Hanoi. You can see it on every street signs.

* The name's meaning? How does it represent for the Yin - Yang concept?- Khue Van Cac means Constellation of literature pavilion. The pavilion is rich in thecomplementary symbolism of yin- yang. They are high and low, square and circle....

* The relationship between this pavilion and the two small gates at the previous section?- In order for the student to pass through the gate to the next level of knowledge, the virtueand talent of the first stage must be joined to excellence in literary expression.

5. Examination in the past:

* Why the exam was important to all students in the old days?

- The first, the second, the third courtyard are also refer to three different examinations thatstudents had to take to become a scholar mandarin.- That was the only way for people who wanted to have higher class in society. The 3 - stageexamination process could take several years.

* How was the exam held?- The first step was the Regional examination which held every 3 years in several main townsand the successful candidates will receive the title bachelor’s degree.- The second step: those who passed the 1st step then came to Hanoi to sit for the second examcalled National exam which happened in the next 3-4 years. It was four parts examination. A

candidate had to pass each part in sequence in order to qualify to sit for the following part.They have to show their profound knowledge of Confucian books, to write a royal essay, tocompose poem in Chinese character and to comment on how to solve problem facing thecountry. Those who complete all four were conferred the title of doctor and invited to theRoyal palace for the Palace examination.- The third step: called Palace examination, all new doctors had to answer questions that weregiven directly from the king. The king then ranked the doctors in three groups and the top threesuccessful candidates of the highest-ranking group.- The new mandarin then were given a banquet at the palace, award new clothes and a lot of money and sent home to their village in triumphal procession. Later on, they would came back

the capital and worked for the royal course as a mandarin.6. The Stelea Garden

* When did the 1st stele was built? By whom and why did he built it?- These stelae had been built since the 15th century.- That time, we had a very outstanding king and under his leading the Vietnamese royal systemrich its peak of development (king Le Thanh Tong).- He king paid a lot of attention to promote the country’s education. And according to hisopinions, it took so much time and energy for studying and for those who succeeded in both 3exams money and higher social position may not enough. He agreed that “talent is the lifesource of a nation, the powerful life source strengthens a country, and a declining life source

weakens it”.- The king’s idea was to built stelae on which curved the name of all successful students so thattheir name would last forever in the country’s history. It’s the biggest pride for all of them and





their family, and then when their offspring visit this temple, whenever they see their ancestralnames, they would be encouraged on studying.

* The general content of stele?- Each stele represents a single examination year.

- General speaking, their contents are:

• 1st part contains some nice words toward the king and his royal court that held thisexam.

• 2nd part tell you about this exam: when and where it happened, how difficult it was, thename of all examiners and of this stele composer.

• 3rd part records the name and native villages of those awarded doctor degree that year following the ranking position.

* Why sometimes you see some destroyed characters on these stelea?

- Originally, they are some nice words praising of the king who held this exam.- In the 19th century, when the Nguyen dynasty raised up and took power over the country, the1st king of this dynasty wanted to erase the former dynasty’s influences. So he ordered hissoldiers to rub these nice words out, to bring every local people’s thoughts on the former kingaway.

* How many stelae totally? How many of them left? Why are they different from each other?- According to the history books, there were about 150 stelae in this temple but during the war time, lot of them was destroyed, so today, there’re only 82 steles left.- The content is the same but their size and decoration style are quite different. The reason is

they were carved in different period:

• Group 1: the earliest steles – dating to the 15th century: smaller stele with very simpledecoration.

• Group 2: the 16th century steles are a little bit bigger and were carved a little bit moredelicately.

• Group 3: the 17th-18th century – the biggest steles, more beautiful designed

* Why are they placed on the backs of tortoises?- In our spiritual life, tortoise is one of four sacred animals (dragon, phoenix, unicorn and

tortoise).- It symbolizes the universe, with the tortoise shell representing the sky and its belly, the earth.Tortoise is also stand for the longevity. The king put steles on the tortoises’ back and wishesthe national passion for learning and talent can last forever.

* Why the tortoises’ head are so smooth?- The steles always represent for successful students. So before every important exam, a lot of Vietnamese students come here and touch the tortoises’ heads and believing that this actioncan bring them good luck for the coming exam.- The peak season is June – before the University Entrance Exam. It’s the most difficult and

important Exam in Vietnam. After finishing the high school, we have to take this exam to go touniversity and colleague. Vietnamese people always pay their respect to education and even asimple farmer family also have a dream of their children would have chance to upgrade





themselves by receiving a better education.- Consequently, the vacuums in universities are always lower than demand. On average,there’s only around 15% of candidates pass this exam. Even nowadays, we open more andmore private universities but they’re quite expensive for most of countryside-families. So westill have to fight for higher education.7. The Main House:* Its purpose?- This is the Great House of Ceremonies: in the old days, the king and his fellow would makehis offering to Confucius.- It is also the place where the new doctors kneel and bow to pay their respects.- In earlier century, no one but the caretaker and the king was allowed to enter the Sanctuary.

* Whose statue is placed on this house?- The Sanctuary, with statue of Confucius and his four best students: Nhan tử, Trang tử, Tử Tưvà Mạnh Tử. After Confucius’s death, these students made a great contribution to develop his

theory and to spread it over Asian countries.

* Further information about Confucius – his brief biography?- Even Confucius is regarded as the founder of feudalism system. In this temple, he isworshipped as a great teacher who donated his life for promoting education. When he was 54,he and his disciples started to travel from one state to another to learn and teach rites, and to

persuade emperors to implement his politics of Governing by ethics. He was considered to be ateacher of ten thousand students throughout the East Asia.- After his death at age 73, his doctrine was spread out by many of his students.

* The influence of Confucianism in Vietnam and its decline?- Confucianism was introduced into Vietnam quite early, together with the Chinese dominationwhich lasted for 1000 year before 938.- Since we had our own independence, although we tried our best to keep our authentic cultureand lifestyle, the Vietnamese kings did accept a lot of progressive theory from China; they

practiced Confucianism to establish the new and young royal course in Vietnam.- Confucianism reached it peak at the 15th century, under the Le dynasty. Education was

promoted much more than ever and there were also bigger gaps between people of social positions, and between man and woman in the society as well.- Since 19th century, Confucianism lost its influence in Vietnamese culture and became badly

behind Western schools, particularly in technology and the natural sciences. So, at the beginning of the 20th century, Vietnam stopped all Confucian examination but the traditionalrespect for learning remained. And today we worship Confucius not as the founder of Confucianism but as the great teacher of generations and appreciate his non-stop learning andteaching.8. Quoc Tu Giam: The school for the son of Nation

* who built the school? Who was the first student? How did it become popular for all talented(male) students?- This school was built in 1076.

- It was firstly opened for crown prince then sons of the mandarin chosen by the king.Sometimes later the school was opened for good male students of the country who had bachelor's degree from one of the provincial school.- Those who succeeded in the 1st step - Regional exam will carefully prepare for the National





exam and Palace exam. Normally, they came to the capital to stay and study with the beter teacher to prepare for these examinations.- Most of them joined in this school and spent 2-3 years preparing for the exams. Some of them learnt with other famous teachers around the capital and went to this school to attendsome public lectures which held twice per month.

* How did they move from there hometown to this school?- After successful in the Regional exam, students would move to the capital. But the roadcondition that time was definitely not easy. They had to walk most of the time, carried withthem food enough for long journey, a tent, a bamboo bed and writing materials. Along theway, the students had to face the risk of robbery, tiger attacks, snake bite and many other risks.

- If they survived the trip, most candidates chose to stay for some years to study at this National University.

* How did they live and study in the ancient time? And how long did they stay here?- Students lived and studied in this school for couple of years before the final exams.- Everyday they were waken up early in the morning by a bell and they’ll spend the whole dayfor studying Confucian classics, philosophy, literature, history and politics. They learnt byheart as well as Vietnamese and Chinese history. They also studied how to compose poetry and

prepare documents such as royal edicts, speeches, mandarin’s reports, analyses, and essays.- They might have a small pocket-money from the royal course.

* Its damage during the war time and the restoration project (who sponsors? How long did ittake?)- During the war time, the school was destroyed totally.- In the year 1996, Vietnamese government had a big project to rebuild this area. It was rebuilt

by all ancient techniques of many craftsmen. Actually the craftsmen could not restore theUniversity to its original design because the area was heavily damaged at the beginning of the19th century, and the original architectural drawings had disappeared. They just tried their bestto build in an architectural style what fits with the Temple of Literature. This project finishedin the year 2000.

9. Inside the main house

* Chu Van An: Who is he? Why was he famous? Why was he worshiped in the temple?- He lived in the 13th century and became the most famous Confucian teacher in our history.- After earning a doctoral title, he refuse to become a mandarin but setting up his ownschool at his native village and attracted many students. Hearing his talent, the king invitedhim back to the capital and appointed him vice director of the National University.- He was not happy in the capital because of its corruption. He persuaded the king to

behead 7 corrupt mandarins but the king didn’t agree, so he quickly submitted hisresignation and retired.- He back to his native school and again became a famous teachers, a lot of his discipleslater worked in the royal court and had the top position.

- When he died, the king sent mandarins to attend the funeral and granted him a high royaltitle and had him honored as a sage in the Temple of Literature thanks to his talent andmorality.





* The old model:- The model tells you a panoramic view of these temple and school at its peak of development.- They were not very decorative but large, peaceful and sacred. The temple was still openedtwice per year in special occasions and students had to take the side doors.

- At the height of its development, the University had become a large institution,comprising 300 classrooms, a large lecture room, and a printing house. It also included adorm quarter for students from provinces, a lake and several hectares of farmland in thefront. The temple management assigned a nearby village to farm the land to raise moneyfor rituals.- In 1996, when they restore this area, they found a lot of vestige related to the daily life of students when they stay and study here.

* The new model? Why do we now call this temple one kind of culture centre?- The Temple and the School area are turned into a cultural centre of Hanoi. As a symbol of

Vietnamese education, there is a lot of graduating party held in this area as a special honour for students.- There’s also a lot of festivities happened here especially during the Lunar New Year festival: the bonsai market, exchanging Chinese characters and other traditional games likethe cock fighting, or human chess (the Chinese chess but they replace the chess piece by

boys and girls), which is very colorful and attractive.

Note: "Dismounted stelae" (bia Hạ Mã). Normally, the King and mandarins sat inside palanquins or on the back of horses, but when they reached these stelaes, both of them hadto dismounted and walked on their foots to enter the temple, no exceptions, even the King.This action was set up to show respects to literature, and how important literature took partin residents' lifestyle at that time.

“Crane standing on the back of tortoise”: there’re two common explanations:- It came from the local farmers’ memory. In the ancient time, when we didn’t have anydyke system, so every year the Red River Delta had to suffer from a flooded season. Wheneverything was covered by water, the crane had to fly constantly without any stop andgetting exhausted. Fortunately, they saw the back of tortoise floating on the water and canstep on it for a short break. It might be common scenery of the wet rice cultivated farmersand they reflected this image in the religious architecture.- According to Chinese legends, the crane signifies ever green, the tortoise representslongevity. On the one hand, crane – flying stands for vertical whist tortoise stands for horizontal, so a crane standing on a tortoise’s back reflected the space.This image symbolizes for friendship 'cuz the tortoise saved the crane's life


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Temple of Literature