Coming in along the road to Trung Am village, you first meet a wide stone-paved square with a granite statue 5.7 meters tall in the middle, and only then reach the gate and the temple. The main shrine is not large, its roof is low, a five-bay front hall joined to a two-bay rear sanctuary in the shape of the letter T, its doors facing east. Behind and on both sides are ponds, gardens, a brush tower, a small tiled hermitage and an inn beside the water.
One thing must be said from the start: of all that you have just seen, most was rebuilt in the last few decades. The library says so plainly in the opening paragraph, because treating a new building as an antique would not suit the very man honored here.
IHonoring a great Confucian scholar
The one honored here is Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm, born in 1491 in this very village of Trung Am. He took first place in the examination of 1535 under the Mạc dynasty, served as an official, then resigned and returned home in 1542. Back in the village he founded the Bạch Vân hermitage (am Bạch Vân) as a school, built the Trung Tân inn (quán Trung Tân) by the landing, and wrote. Later generations called him Trạng Trình, joining Trạng from his title of first laureate with Trình from his rank of Duke of Trình (Trình Quốc công).
The four Chinese characters the library places at the top of the page are inferred from that title and mean the shrine of the Duke of Trình. They are not copied from any board or stele in the site.
The library places this site in the Confucianism group, under the same label as the Temple of Literature in Hanoi, the Mao Điền Temple of Literature and the Trấn Biên Temple of Literature, and not in the ancestor veneration group. The reason should be made clear.
In old practice, a person could be honored in several capacities. Honored as a lineage founder, he would be placed in the lineage hall. Honored as a village tutelary god (thành hoàng), he would be placed in the communal house (đình) and tied to one village. Honored as one who served learning, he belongs to the Confucian system, and his worship is not limited to one lineage or one village.
Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm belongs to the third case. He is honored because he was a teacher and a man of letters. The clearest evidence lies elsewhere: his name is on the list of eight figures given associated worship at the Mao Điền Temple of Literature, honored beside the altar of Confucius. When a person already stands within the altar of a temple of literature, his own place of worship belongs to the same line.
What certainly belongs to him, judged by the texts, falls into three bodies. First, his poems in classical Chinese in the Bạch Vân am thi tập (Poems of the Bạch Vân Hermitage). Second, his poems in Nôm script in the Bạch Vân quốc ngữ thi tập (Vernacular Poems of Bạch Vân), one of the important Nôm collections of the 16th century. Third, the text carved on the stele of the Trung Tân inn, where he explained in his own words the name he gave the inn.
That stele text shows how he understood the word trung. Trung here is not the trung of loyalty to the king, but trung in the sense of standing in the middle, leaning to no side, turning the heart toward the highest good. The word tân means a landing. Together, Trung Tân is the landing in the middle, a stopping place for travelers in both the literal and the figurative sense. The sources say the inn was built in 1542, around the time he resigned and returned to the village.
The most common misunderstanding here concerns the prophecies of Trạng Trình (sấm Trạng Trình). Many people come thinking the temple honors a prophet and hoping to ask about what is to come. The library speaks in the voice of the historical record and criticizes no one.
What are called the prophecies of Trạng Trình are not a single text but a collection of many variant versions, mostly handwritten copies that appeared long after his lifetime, with wording that differs from copy to copy. To this day scholars have not identified any original written by him. Attaching later prophetic verses to the name of a famous scholar is a familiar phenomenon in the history of texts.
What is more certain is the standing he had in his lifetime. His students honored him as Tuyết Giang phu tử, the master by the Tuyết River. The later reputation of a prophet grew out of that standing, but the two are not the same thing.
IIFour hundred years and thirty years
The history of this place falls into two very unequal parts. The long part is four centuries, during which the small village temple was built, repaired, and then rebuilt in a major way in 1928. The short part is the last thirty years or so, during which the grounds grew many times over and most of the features you see today came into being.
- 1491Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm is born in Trung AmHe was born in Trung Am village, his father's home village, where his temple was later built. His mother's home was An Tử Hạ village in Tiên Minh district. His father was Nguyễn Văn Định, whose grave now lies within the heritage site.
- 1535First place in the examinationHe passed as doctor of the first rank, first place, that is first laureate (trạng nguyên), under the Mạc dynasty, then entered office. He was later raised to the rank of Duke of Trình, which gave rise to the name Trạng Trình.
- 1542He resigns and founds the Bạch Vân hermitage and the Trung Tân innHe returned to the village, built the Bạch Vân hermitage as a school and the Trung Tân inn by the landing, and wrote the stele text himself explaining the name of the inn.
- 1585His death and the founding of the templeHe died at home on the 28th day of the 11th month of the Ất Dậu year. According to some records, the temple to him was built after his death and completed at the end of 1586. The sources disagree on the year of his death, 1585 or 1586, see the note below. Song Mai Pagoda (Chùa Song Mai) nearby, recorded as built in 1556, later also came within the heritage site.
- 1735Major restoration under the LêThe villagers restored the temple. This is recorded on a stone stele set up in 1736, now one of the earliest dated objects left at the site.
- 1928The main shrine is rebuilt on a T-shaped planThe temple was rebuilt on a T-shaped plan, with a five-bay front hall and a two-bay rear sanctuary, facing east. This is the frame of the main shrine you see today.
- 1991 to 2004Major expansion and embellishmentIn 1991 the temple was ranked as a national historical and cultural heritage site, and in the same year the site was restored and enlarged for the five hundredth anniversary of his birth. Then the square with the granite statue 5.7 meters tall was completed in 2000, the Trung Tân inn was rebuilt, and the Bạch Vân hermitage was reconstructed in 2004. This is the period that changed the look of the site the most.
- 2015Special national heritage siteThe Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm Temple was ranked as a special national heritage site by Decision No. 2367 signed on 23 December 2015, in the same round as Trần Thương Temple.
On three points the sources disagree, and the library records all three rather than choosing at random.
The year of death. Most documents say he died in 1585, some others say 1586. The difference lies in converting the calendar: he died late in the 11th lunar month, and that day, converted to the solar calendar, already falls in the first days of the following year. The commemoration held in early 2016 was described as the four hundred and thirtieth anniversary of his death, that is, counted from 1586.
The area of the site. The Department of Cultural Heritage gives 91,500.7 square meters, more than nine hectares, while some local documents give 12.43 hectares. The difference usually comes from protection zones being drawn in different ways.
The year the Trung Tân inn was rebuilt. Some documents say 2000, others 2001. Both agree that it is a reconstruction and not the original inn he built in 1542.
IIIWhat is original and what is rebuilt
The site today has many features spread over wide grounds, with ponds, gardens and a square. A first-time visitor easily sees the whole place as one old ensemble. In fact these features belong to layers of date far apart, and the table below is the simplest way to tell them apart.
| Feature | Date of the present structure | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Main shrine | 1928 | Rebuilt on a T-shaped plan, a five-bay front hall joined to a two-bay rear sanctuary, facing east. This is the oldest frame still standing on the site. |
| Stele recording the restoration | 1736 | Records the restoration of the temple in 1735. An early dated object, from the 18th century layer. |
| Objects in the temple | 17th to early 20th century | Statues, horizontal boards and parallel sentences and ritual objects, from many separate donations. |
| Shrine to his father and mother | begun in 2010 | A separate shrine for his parents, linked to the grave of his father, Nguyễn Văn Định. |
| Trung Tân inn | rebuilt in 2000 or 2001 | The original inn he built himself in 1542 no longer exists. The present building is a reconstruction. |
| Bạch Vân hermitage | reconstructed in 2004 | The original hermitage was the school he founded in 1542. The present hermitage was rebuilt on the old site. |
| Kình Thiên brush tower | rebuilt in the Nguyễn period, two storeys with eight roof slopes | The tower carries the meaning of a brush holding up the sky, and tradition says his students built it. The original tower fell into ruin and was rebuilt in the Nguyễn period, so the present structure is not the original tower. |
| Square, monument and exhibition house | 2000 and 2013 | A granite statue 5.7 meters tall stands in the middle of the stone-paved square, completed in 2000. The exhibition house on his life and works was expanded and rearranged in 2013. |
Saying this is not meant to belittle the new parts. Rebuilding is normal and necessary, especially for a site where time and weather have taken almost all of the timber buildings. What matters is saying correctly what dates from when, so that readers do not think they are standing before a four-hundred-year-old hermitage when it is only a little over twenty years old.
From the point of view of architecture, the thing most worth seeing on the site is still the main shrine. The T-shaped plan is a very compact form of the places of worship of northern Vietnam: a crosswise wing as the front hall for those performing the rite, and a lengthwise wing set back as the rear sanctuary for the altar. That compactness suits the man honored here, who left official life for a thatched hermitage and made teaching the main work of his life.
IVThe lie of the land and the facing
This section is the library's own reading through the eyes of traditional feng shui, not something recorded on the steles or in the heritage file. For this place one more thing must be said: most of the present landscape was created by the embellishment of the 2000s, so in reading the lie of the land one must separate clearly the old lie of the village land from the new layout placed on it later.
The old part first. Trung Am village lies in the Vĩnh Bảo area, the last strip of the delta before the sea, beside the river his poems call the Tuyết Giang. This is pure plain, flat land without mountains, so the art of reading land must leave aside the reading of mountains and turn entirely to reading water. In front of the temple there is a lake, the Tuyết Giang flows to the north behind the dike, there is a landing, and there are waterways in and out, and precisely because there was a landing there came to be an inn for those crossing by ferry. The Trung Tân inn arose from that lie of the land, not from a private whim.
As for the facing, the main shrine faces east. In the traditional view, the east belongs to the Wood element and corresponds to spring, to sprouting and to morning. Temples in northern Vietnam usually favor a southern facing, so a temple facing east is a deliberate choice. For a place honoring a teacher, facing the rising sun is a fitting direction: learning takes the word khai, opening, as its root, and khai means to open up.
As for axis and symmetry, this is where the Confucian spirit shows most clearly. As at the temples of literature, the site is laid out along a straight line from outside inward, the two sides facing each other, with no place left askew. Confucianism takes the word chính, uprightness, as its root, and what is upright must be straight. Reading the plan of a Confucian place of worship is reading a lesson on order, not a lesson on scenery.
Last is the brush tower. Its name is Kình Thiên, meaning holding up the sky, and its form is an upright brush. In the traditional reading, a tall mass standing straight on flat ground plays the part of the writing brush peak (văn bút phong), the brush of a land of letters, thought to make a region flourish in learning. Where there were mountains, the people of old simply borrowed a pointed peak. On the plain it had to be built. To repeat clearly: the present tower is a structure rebuilt in the Nguyễn period, so the layer of meaning is older than the masonry.
VThe rite of the eleventh month and the custom of asking for calligraphy
The rites here follow the custom of honoring an earlier worthy, not the custom of spirit temples and Mother Goddess shrines. The greatest rite of the year falls from the 27th to the 29th day of the 11th lunar month, with the 28th, the day of his death, as the main day. People of the area call it the festival of the Trạng's temple (lễ hội đền Trạng). The festival has been recognized as national intangible cultural heritage, and the decision was presented at the festival of 2019.
One point is worth noting: this festival does not fall in spring like most village festivals of northern Vietnam but at the end of the lunar year, because it follows the death anniversary rather than the slack season of farming.
| Lunar date | Rite | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Before the opening day | Announcement rite | A rite of reporting before the altar, asking permission to open the festival. |
| 27th day of the 11th lunar month | Opening and incense offering | The start of the festival, as the hamlets of the area and visitors from everywhere offer incense before the altar in turn. |
| 28th day of the 11th lunar month | Main rite, death anniversary | The most important day of the festival, with the reading of the sacrificial text and the main sacrifice before the altar of Trạng Trình. |
| 27th to 29th day of the 11th lunar month | Festivities | Folk games and arts of the Vĩnh Bảo area such as wrestling, boat racing, kite flying, tug of war, water puppetry and chèo singing, held in the grounds of the site. |
| 29th day of the 11th lunar month | Closing rite of thanks | Closes the festival with thanks before the altar once the rites and festivities are over. |
| Start of spring | Asking for calligraphy | People of the area keep the custom of coming to the temple to ask for calligraphy at the start of the year, in keeping with a place that honors learning. |
| Before examinations | Incense offering by students | Students of the area come to offer incense before their examinations, a custom that grew from the role of the man honored here as a teacher. |
The custom of asking for calligraphy here deserves one more sentence, because it is shared by the whole Confucianism group. At most places of worship, what people take home is a blessing in the form of rice cakes, fruit and offerings. At a place that honors learning, what they take home is the written character, because writing is exactly what that place honors. In the same spirit is the custom of offering incense before examinations.
It is also worth distinguishing two kinds of visitors. One comes in the line of Confucian learning, to ask for calligraphy and to remember a teacher. The other comes in the line of prophecy, hoping to ask about fortune. Both are real parts of the life of the site, and the library simply records them, ranking neither above the other. But if you want to read this place according to its root, that root is a teaching hermitage and a stele discussing the word trung.
VILocation And How To Get There
- Address
- Thôn Trung Am, xã Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm, thành phố Hải Phòng
- Getting there
- The site is in Trung Am hamlet, in the former Vĩnh Bảo area of Hải Phòng city, quite far southwest of the city center and close to the boundary with the former Thái Bình area. On the same route visitors can also stop at the Mao Điền Temple of Literature, where he is honored among the eight renowned figures of the Eastern Region.
- Coordinates
- 20.6609, 106.5313
This is an active place of worship, not a museum, so its own customs should be kept. Visitors are expected to dress modestly, remove hats on entering the front hall and the rear sanctuary, walk softly and speak quietly, not touch the stone steles, the horizontal boards and parallel sentences or the ritual objects, and place money in the donation box rather than on the altar. A custom particular to a Confucian place of worship is that meat offerings and votive paper are not placed or burned before the altar. The grave of his father lies within the grounds, and visitors are asked to keep quiet when passing it.
Nearby places in the library
VIIContribute To This Page
Contribute photos, information or video for Nguyen Binh Khiem Temple
Góp ảnh, thông tin hoặc video cho Đền thờ Nguyễn Bỉnh KhiêmEveryone is welcome to enrich this page: a photo you took, a detail the page misses, a short video. Every contribution is read and answered.
Thầy Ưng Khiêm mời cộng đồng cùng làm giàu trang này. Ảnh chụp tận nơi, một chi tiết lịch sử chưa được nhắc, một đoạn video ngắn: mọi đóng góp đều được đọc và trả lời.
No community contribution yet. You could be the first. Chưa có đóng góp nào từ cộng đồng. Bạn có thể là người đầu tiên.
?Quick Questions
Who is worshipped at the Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm Temple
Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm, known as Trạng Trình, born in 1491 in this very village of Trung Am. He took first place in the examination of 1535, resigned in 1542 and returned home to found the Bạch Vân hermitage as a school. He is honored as a great Confucian scholar and a teacher, not as a village tutelary god or as the founder of a lineage.
Why is this temple placed under Confucianism rather than ancestor veneration
Because he is honored as one who served learning, in the same line as the temples of literature. The clearest sign is that his name is on the list of eight figures given associated worship at the Mao Điền Temple of Literature, honored beside the altar of Confucius. When a person already stands within the altar of a temple of literature, his own place of worship belongs to the same group.
Are the Bạch Vân hermitage and the Trung Tân inn old buildings
No. He founded the Bạch Vân hermitage in 1542 as a school, and the present hermitage is a reconstruction of 2004. He built the Trung Tân inn by the landing in the same year 1542, and the present building is a reconstruction, dated 2000 in some documents and 2001 in others. The oldest structure still standing on the site is the main shrine, rebuilt in 1928.
Were the prophecies of Trạng Trình written by him
To this day scholars have not identified any original written by him. What are called the prophecies of Trạng Trình are a collection of many variant versions, mostly handwritten copies that appeared long after his lifetime, with wording that differs from copy to copy. What certainly belongs to him are the Bạch Vân am thi tập, the Bạch Vân quốc ngữ thi tập and the stele text of the Trung Tân inn.
When is the festival of the Trạng Trình temple
The greatest rite of the year is held from about the 27th to the 29th day of the 11th lunar month, with the 28th, the day of his death, as the main day. Besides this festival, the site keeps the custom of asking for calligraphy at the start of spring and the custom of students offering incense before examinations.