Walk along Hàng Khoai Street, with dry goods and stacks of shoes spilling onto the pavement on one side and the arched roof of Đồng Xuân Market on the other. At number 54 the row of shops suddenly opens onto an old gate with characters molded in relief above it. Through the gate is a brick-paved courtyard, its walls on both sides lined with worn stone stelae, and at the back a two-story pavilion with curved roofs. The motorbikes in the street can still be heard, but they have fallen well behind.
The traders around the market call this place Chùa Huyền Thiên, the Huyền Thiên Pagoda. Its original name is Huyền Thiên cổ quán, the Ancient Temple of Huyền Thiên, that is, a Taoist temple (đạo quán) honoring Huyền Thiên Thượng Đế, a god of Taoism. It is also one of the four that books and newspapers call Thăng Long tứ quán, the four great Taoist temples of Thăng Long. This is the page the library devotes to explaining that group of four in detail, and the other pages in the group simply point here.
IHuyền Thiên Thượng Đế and the four Taoist temples
The master of the temple is Huyền Thiên Thượng Đế, the Supreme Emperor of the Dark Heaven. Người Hà Nội introduces him as the Taoist god who guards the north, corresponding to winter among the four directions and four seasons. Chốn Thiêng records that the temple was built to honor Huyền Thiên Trấn Vũ. The two names refer to the same god, the very one honored by the great bronze statue at Quán Thánh Temple. The teaching about the turtle, the snake and the black color of the north is covered in detail on the Quán Thánh page, where readers can find it.
What sets Huyền Thiên apart is how worship here developed later. From the Lê period onward the temple also came to honor the Buddha, and later added an altar to the Mother Goddess, so today the same grounds hold all three layers, Buddhist, Taoist and folk religion. Dân Việt records that the temple became a pagoda toward the end of the Later Lê period. The name Chùa Huyền Thiên used by people on the street is a trace of that change.
What are the four Taoist temples of Thăng Long
The word quán here means a Taoist temple, a place where Taoist priests practiced and worshipped, much as a chùa is the place of Buddhism. According to the website of the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese, Thăng Long had four great Taoist temples: Trấn Vũ quán, today Quán Thánh Temple, Huyền Thiên quán, today Chùa Huyền Thiên on Hàng Khoai Street, Đồng Thiên quán, today Chùa Kim Cổ on Đường Thành Street, and Đế Thích quán, today Chùa Vua on Thịnh Yên Street. Together they are called Thăng Long tứ quán.
The same source says these temples were built while Taoism was still flourishing in the country, and that temple building went on only until the Mạc dynasty. In the Restored Lê period Taoism gradually declined, and most of the temples turned into Buddhist pagodas. In other words, none of the four is a purely Taoist temple today, and each keeps the marks of Taoism to a different degree.
| Temple | Common name today | Location | Main object of worship | Own page |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trấn Vũ quán | Quán Thánh Temple | By West Lake, at the head of Quán Thánh Street | Huyền Thiên Trấn Vũ | Quán Thánh |
| Huyền Thiên quán | Chùa Huyền Thiên | 54 Hàng Khoai Street | Huyền Thiên Thượng Đế, with the Buddha and the Mother Goddess added | This page |
| Đồng Thiên quán | Chùa Kim Cổ | 73 Đường Thành Street | Now the Buddha and the Imperial Consort Ỷ Lan | Đồng Thiên |
| Đế Thích quán | Chùa Vua | Thịnh Yên Street | Đế Thích (Indra), with the Buddha added | Đế Thích |
Reading the table above, you will see that the four have had very different fates. Quán Thánh keeps Taoist ritual most clearly and still stands on its old site. Huyền Thiên has become Buddhist in practice but keeps the full layout of a Taoist temple and its collection of stelae. At Đồng Thiên the original Taoist temple was moved away early in the Tây Sơn period, and the old site is now a very small pagoda that also serves as a temple. Đế Thích lives more through its spring chess festival than through Taoist rites. Beyond these four, Hanoi has other Taoist temples outside the group, such as Bích Câu Đạo Quán, which honors immortals, on Cát Linh Street, or Quán Linh Tiên in the village of Cao Xá Thượng to the west of the city.
The most common confusion is between tứ quán, the four Taoist temples, and tứ trấn, the four guardian temples. Thăng Long tứ trấn are the four temples that guard the four quarters of the capital: Bạch Mã, Voi Phục, Kim Liên and Quán Thánh. Tứ quán are the four great Taoist temples, not divided by direction. Quán Thánh is the only one that belongs to both groups, as Dân Việt also makes clear. So Bạch Mã Temple, about 470 meters from here, is the guardian of the east honoring the spirit Long Đỗ and does not belong to tứ quán. And Chùa Hòe Nhai, about 440 meters away, is a Buddhist pagoda with no connection to this group of four either.
The second confusion is to imagine the four temples standing in a ring at four corners, like the guardian temples. They do not. Tuổi Trẻ describes the four as spread out from Thịnh Yên Street up to Quán Thánh Street, three of them clustered in the northern half of the central area and one far off to the south. Người Hà Nội notes that the books Thăng Long cổ tích khảo and Hà thành linh tích cổ lục mention these four famous temples, but the library has not found a source that identifies the first old text to use the exact phrase tứ quán, so it reads the phrase as a name that has become customary.
IIFrom a Trần dynasty poem to the Vĩnh Tộ stele
The year the temple was founded has not been established. Dân Việt and Vietkings, following tradition, say the temple dates from the Lý dynasty, and Dân Việt adds that at that time it was a major center of Taoist practice in the capital. Tuổi Trẻ is more cautious, saying the temple existed before the 14th century. The Lý date is tradition. A firm date has to wait for a written record.
The earliest text bearing the temple's name is a poem. Trần Nguyên Đán, a high official at the end of the Trần dynasty, left a five-character quatrain, Đề Huyền Thiên quán (Written at the Huyền Thiên Temple), preserved in the collection Thơ văn Lý Trần. In Sino-Vietnamese reading: Bạch nhật thăng thiên dị, Trí quân Nghiêu Thuấn nan. Trần ai lục thập tải, Hồi thủ quý hoàng quan. In meaning: to rise to heaven in broad daylight is easy, to help one's king become a Yao or a Shun is hard. Sixty years in the dust of the world, looking back I feel ashamed before the one in the yellow cap. The yellow cap is the cap of a Taoist priest. Chốn Thiêng treats the poem as the earliest record of the temple. The poem does not give a location, so the view that it refers to this very temple on Hàng Khoai is the reading of those who present the site, and the library records it as such.
Firmer is the stele Trùng sáng Huyền Thiên bi minh of the Vĩnh Tộ era under King Lê Thần Tông, in the early 17th century. According to Người Hà Nội, the stele already records that the temple belonged to Đồng Xuân ward and calls it Huyền Thiên cổ quán. The word cổ, ancient, deserves notice. Four hundred years ago, those who raised the stele already regarded the temple as old.
- 14th centuryThe poem Đề Huyền Thiên quánTrần Nguyên Đán writes of a Huyền Thiên temple with a Taoist priest in a yellow cap. Chốn Thiêng regards this as the earliest record.
- 1439Restoration in the Thiệu Bình eraUnder King Lê Thái Tông. According to Người Hà Nội, the Vĩnh Tộ stele records that the temple dates from the seventh year of the Thiệu Bình era, and the article reads this as the earliest known restoration. Chốn Thiêng also records this year as a restoration.
- Early 17th centuryThe Vĩnh Tộ steleUnder King Lê Thần Tông, the stele calls the place Huyền Thiên cổ quán, in Đồng Xuân ward.
- 1668Restoration in the Cảnh Trị eraUnder King Lê Huyền Tông, according to 36 Phố and Chốn Thiêng.
- 1793A bell is castThe bell in the loft, which 36 Phố records as about 1.6 meters tall and weighing about 500 kg.
- 1868Restoration under Tự ĐứcA major repair under the Nguyễn dynasty, according to Chốn Thiêng and 36 Phố.
- 1930 and 1948Two major restorationsThe 1930 work took place under Bảo Đại. The temple was badly damaged in the mid 20th century, and 1948 was the year it was rebuilt. Further restoration was carried out in the early 21st century, and 36 Phố gives the year 2014.
- 2007 or 2008Ranked as a national heritage siteNational historical, architectural and artistic heritage site. Người Hà Nội and Thế giới Di sản give 2007, Chốn Thiêng and 36 Phố give 2008.
The library sets out plainly where the sources disagree. On the year of ranking, two groups of sources give 2007 and 2008. Perhaps one uses the year the decision was signed and the other the year the certificate was received, but the library has not seen the decision itself to settle it. On the main statue, Chốn Thiêng says that the old statue of Huyền Thiên, carved from agarwood in the tenth year of Vĩnh Tộ (1628) and about 3.5 meters tall, was damaged in the mid 20th century and no longer exists. On the content of the stelae, Người Hà Nội cites a 17th-century stele recording that the temple then had thirteen bays, with a hall for the Buddha, a hall for the immortals and a statue of Huyền Thiên in agarwood, which means Buddhist worship was present here quite early, earlier than the end of the Later Lê period that Dân Việt gives.
IIIThe two-story pavilion and the wall of stelae
The temple is built in the nội công ngoại quốc manner, "Công inside, Quốc outside", with the inner buildings arranged in the shape of the character Công (工) and the outer corridors and walls closing them into a square. Người Hà Nội and 36 Phố both describe the order of entry as the gate, the bell loft, a central courtyard with old wells, two stele houses, and then the worship hall.
The main building still has all seven bays, according to Thế giới Di sản. Its central part rises into a two-story pavilion with eight roofs, in the style of a watchtower, where the statue of the god Huyền Thiên is placed.
Holds the bell cast in 1793. The bell loft at the gate and the two-story pavilion of the worship hall are the two highest points of the temple.
Vietkings records that the temple keeps more than forty stelae in classical Chinese and Nôm and a few in the modern Vietnamese script, set in the stele houses and along the walls. It is one of the large collections of inscriptions in the Old Quarter.
36 Phố records two wells within the grounds. Legend has it that the Great Emperor Huyền Thiên once bathed in the well and blessed the people, who then founded the temple, as Vietkings records. This is legend.
Today there are statues of the Buddha, of the Bodhisattvas Guanyin, Mahasthamaprapta, Manjushri and Samantabhadra, an altar to the Mother Goddess, and two guardian figures that 36 Phố records as about 3 meters tall, alongside the altar of Huyền Thiên.
Where are the marks of Taoism still clearest? Not in the statues, since most of today's statues are Buddhist or of the Mother Goddess. The marks lie first in the two-story pavilion that sets the god up high, a familiar arrangement in Taoist temples, where the god of heaven is placed on the upper floor rather than at ground level like the Buddha in the main hall of a pagoda. The second mark lies in the formal name on the stelae and boards, which still call this place a quán. The third lies in the ritual calendar, with two festivals in the 3rd and 9th lunar months matching the calendar of Quán Thánh Temple, the calendar of the same god.
The Chinese characters at the top of the page are the library's rendering of the name Huyền Thiên cổ quán as the sources copy it from the stele. The library has not yet checked them against the characters on the temple gate.
IVThe lie of the land and the facing
What follows is the library's reading based on the traditional feng shui view. No stele of the temple speaks of choosing the site or the facing, so readers should treat this as interpretation, not as record.
This is urban ground, and the library does not force a reading of a dragon vein (long mạch) onto it. The temple sits squeezed among merchants' houses right by Đồng Xuân Market. For a place like this, the feng shui question worth asking is not which mountain it leans on or which river pays court to it, but how to keep a pocket of stillness in the busiest spot of the capital.
The answer lies in the enclosed layout. The Công-inside, Quốc-outside plan, with walls closing all four sides, is a way of creating a man-made bright hall (minh đường). The central courtyard with its wells serves as the place where water gathers, and the pavilion at the back serves as the high support. In the traditional art of reading land, where mountains are lacking, tall buildings stand in for mountains, and where lakes are lacking, wells stand in for lakes. The two old wells in the courtyard are therefore not only a source of water but, in this reading, the reservoir that holds the qi of the whole compound.
There is one more point, about its position within the capital. The god who guards the north is honored here in the northern half of the old central area, close to the great body of water that is the Red River. The north belongs to the Water element, and to place a god of Water near water is to place him in his own element. The library does not yet have a measurement of the gate's facing, so it does not discuss the facing. For the fuller sense of the same god being in his rightful place (đắc vị) beside West Lake, readers can turn to the Quán Thánh page.
VTwo festivals in the third and ninth months
Người Hà Nội and Thế giới Di sản both record two major festival days at the temple, the 3rd day of the 3rd lunar month and the 9th day of the 9th lunar month, the same two days as the festivals at Quán Thánh Temple. This makes sense, since both places honor the same god. Chốn Thiêng adds that the great festival is held once every five years on those two days.
| Festival | Lunar date | Recorded by | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Festival of the 3rd month | 3rd day of the 3rd lunar month | Người Hà Nội, Thế giới Di sản | The same day as the main festival of Huyền Thiên Trấn Vũ at Quán Thánh |
| Festival of the 9th month | 9th day of the 9th lunar month | Người Hà Nội, Thế giới Di sản | The same day as the second festival at Quán Thánh |
| Cycle of the great festival | Once every five years | Chốn Thiêng | Chốn Thiêng records that the festival is held once every five years on the 3rd day of the 3rd lunar month and the 9th day of the 9th lunar month. The source does not describe the rites in other years |
Tuổi Trẻ describes chầu văn singing, the ritual songs of the Mother Goddess religion, at the temple on full-moon days and festival days.
VILocation And How To Get There
- Address
- Số 54 phố Hàng Khoai (không phải Hàng Khéo), phường Hoàn Kiếm (phường Đồng Xuân cũ, quận Hoàn Kiếm cũ), Hà Nội. Thế giới Di sản ghi nhầm quận Ba Đình
- Getting there
- 54 Hàng Khoai Street, Hoàn Kiếm ward (formerly Đồng Xuân ward, former Hoàn Kiếm district), Hanoi, facing the side of Đồng Xuân Market. Only a few minutes' walk from Bạch Mã Temple or Chùa Hòe Nhai.
- Coordinates
- 21.0388, 105.8491
The temple now honors the Buddha, the Taoist god and the Mother Goddess together, and visits follow the customs of a pagoda. Visitors are expected to dress modestly, remove hats on entering the worship hall, and walk softly and speak quietly before the altar of Huyền Thiên. The stelae set in the walls are worn, so visitors are asked not to touch them and not to take rubbings without permission from the temple keepers. The courtyard is narrow and worshippers are many, so those who stop to read the stelae should choose a spot that does not block the way into the worship hall.
Nearby places in the library
VIIContribute To This Page
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?Quick Questions
Who is worshipped at Chùa Huyền Thiên
It began as a Taoist temple to Huyền Thiên Thượng Đế, the Taoist god who guards the north, the same Huyền Thiên Trấn Vũ honored at Quán Thánh Temple. From the Lê period the temple also came to honor the Buddha and later the Mother Goddess, which is why people on the street call it a chùa, a pagoda. Today the grounds hold all three layers, Buddhist, Taoist and folk religion.
Which temples make up the four Taoist temples of Thăng Long
The four great Taoist temples of the old capital: Trấn Vũ quán, today Quán Thánh Temple, Huyền Thiên quán on Hàng Khoai Street, Đồng Thiên quán, today Chùa Kim Cổ on Đường Thành Street, and Đế Thích quán, today Chùa Vua on Thịnh Yên Street. From the Restored Lê period most of these temples turned into Buddhist pagodas.
How do the four Taoist temples differ from the four guardian temples of Thăng Long
The four guardian temples (tứ trấn) guard the four quarters of the capital: Bạch Mã, Voi Phục, Kim Liên and Quán Thánh. The four Taoist temples (tứ quán) are the four great Taoist temples, not divided by direction. Quán Thánh is the only one that belongs to both groups. Bạch Mã Temple, near Quán Huyền Thiên, is one of the guardian temples, not one of the Taoist temples.
How old is Quán Huyền Thiên
Its founding year has not been established. Tradition says it dates from the Lý dynasty, and Tuổi Trẻ says it existed before the 14th century. The earliest text naming the temple is the poem Đề Huyền Thiên quán by Trần Nguyên Đán at the end of the Trần dynasty. A stele of the Vĩnh Tộ era in the early 17th century already called the place Huyền Thiên cổ quán, the Ancient Temple of Huyền Thiên.
Which street is Chùa Huyền Thiên on, is it Hàng Khéo
The temple is at 54 Hàng Khoai Street, right by Đồng Xuân Market, not on Hàng Khéo Street. Under the new administrative boundaries it belongs to Hoàn Kiếm ward, formerly Đồng Xuân ward of the former Hoàn Kiếm district. One website wrongly places it in Ba Đình district, so take care when looking it up on a map.