Vietnam Overview

The second largest city in Vietnam, known for its historic sites and various scenic displays, Ha Noi is branded as one of the most fascinating cities in Southeast Asia. For that, it is a popular tourist destination as its interesting and vibrant culture embodying a mix of Chinese and French influences greatly stirs the curiosity and allure of travelers willing to explore the different aspects of Vietnam’s heritage. On one part of this charming city, sits one of the country’s oldest sights and a popular tourist spot in itself, the Văn Miếu – known as the Temple of Literature in English – is an ancient Confucian sanctuary and one of Hanoi’s finest historical and cultural sites.

Located in Văn Miếu Street, 2km west of Hoan Kiem Lake, Văn Miếu was founded in 1070 as a Confucian Temple. Only parts of the complex date back to the earliest period, although the architecture of the complex greatly reflects Ly (1010 – 1225) and Tran (1225 – 1400) dynastic influences. It was in 1076 when Vietnam’s first university, the Quốc Tử Giám (The Imperial Academy) was built within the temple and served to educate the bureaucrats, nobles and members of the royal court. In 1484, Emperor Lê Thánh Tông established a tradition of engraving the names of the few students who had passed the university’s examinations on steles placed above stone tortoise fixtures. In Vietnam’s tradition, the tortoise signifies strength and longevity. At the same time, its back is portrayed as the sky and its belly is the earth. Mounting the stone stele on the tortoise’s back was a great honor for the talented and virtuous ones who made success at the Imperial Academy. The tablets contain inscriptions of names, places of birth and academic achievements of the university’s graduates. The university functioned for more than 700 years (from 1076 to 1779), of which, a total of 116 steles have been carved with statistics of the 2,313 doctors who graduated between 1142 and 1778. Of the 116 stelae, 82 presently stand at Văn Miếu as the others are believed to have been destroyed and lost over the years.

Though other Asian countries like Japan, Korea and China are known to hold similar historic steles, the ones affixed in Vietnam’s Temple of Literature are deemed most unique because of the Confucian values it embodies along with the intricate designs it contain. The scripts’ contents also reveal an insight of the diversified Vietnamese life and society. A closer understanding of why these steles were erected unfolds how this beautiful country gives importance to the cultivation of knowledge and embraces the development of moral perfection. An exam in 1680 recorded in one of the steles says: “Setting up the stele so that goodness can be encouraged and evil is prevented, later generations taught by past experience are beneficial for the country governance…”

History talks of how the royal court wanted to honor the students for their role in developing the prosperity for the nation. An excerpt from the text on the stele for the Canh Dan examination held in the third year of Dai Bao’s reign (1442) reads: “Virtuous and talented men are the essential vitality of a State. If the vitality is strong, the State will be powerful and prosperous but if it is weak, the State will be weak. Therefore, the clear-sighted kings and emperors always regard the training and fostering of the State’s vitality as an urgent task”.

Undoubtedly an extremely valuable vestige for Vietnam, the 82 surviving stone steles are testament to Vietnam’s long history of education and examination. As these stones have existed during the Lê and Mạc Dynasties, periods involving 1484 to 1780, its size and appearances vary. However, each of these tablets was made from the same green stone found in An Thach mountain of Đông Sơn district (Thanh Hóa province). They were submitted to UNESCO (United Nations’ Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) in 2009 as a possible world documentary heritage and just recently, the eighty-two doctor laureate steles has just become Vietnam’s second historical documentary heritage to be listed under UNESCO’s Global Memory of the World Program.

These historical vestiges may be centuries old, but the spirit and value held by every single stele is very much alive and reflected in the present educational development policy: talent and training human resources is also crucial for the development of the state. Art historians consider these stones truly essential documentations of the history of sculpture in Vietnam from 15th to 18th century. And today, the art of carving on stone steles at the Văn Miếu temple continues to be practiced and further enriched.

The image of the stone steles on the back of the stone tortoise has become a beautiful symbol of Vietnam’s fondness for learning scholarly and academic pursuits. An immensely popular tourist site, the Văn Miếu temple stands as a hallmark of Vietnamese education and Confucian belief. Evoking the hearts, minds and spirits of the Vietnamese people by connecting its past and present, and the fascination of many tourists for the beauty and history it holds, the temple remains to be one of the most historic and well preserved monuments in the country.

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