Turning in from the main road, you first meet an old silk-cotton tree standing off to the right, then a wide brick courtyard and a seven-bay house of ceremonies lying crosswise, its roof low, its ironwood columns as thick as a person can embrace. Behind the house of ceremonies is the rear sanctuary, on both sides of the courtyard are two long buildings, and at the corners of the courtyard a bell tower and a drum tower face each other.
What matters lies elsewhere. This place is not only a temple to Confucius. The place where you stand is closely bound to the regional examination school (trường thi Hương) of the Eastern Region, where thousands of candidates sat in their tents and on their bamboo beds for several hundred years. Only at the start of the 19th century was the temple of literature of the whole garrison moved here and joined with the examination school. From then on, worship and examinations shared one ground.
IConfucius and the eight who are honored
The rear sanctuary honors Confucius at the center. In the old arrangement, the four figures who share in his offerings, Yan Hui, Zisi, Mencius and Zengzi, stood on either side, following the common practice of temples of literature. But Mao Điền has a layer of worship of its own that the Temple of Literature in the capital does not have: since 2002, eight renowned figures connected with the Eastern Region have been honored alongside him, each representing a different calling, era and kind of learning.
The four Chinese characters beside the title are the library's way of writing the name of this place in Sino-Vietnamese. They are not copied from any board or stele in the site.
Under the Confucian system, each level of administration had its own place to honor Confucius. The capital had the Temple of Literature joined to the Imperial Academy, each garrison had a garrison temple of literature, and each prefecture or district had a văn chỉ or văn từ, a local shrine to learning. This was a vertical system, and Mao Điền stands on the second level, the highest a locality could have.
Honoring local figures as well also has a basis in old practice, called tòng tự, meaning associated worship. Those who receive associated worship must have served learning or the people of a region. At Mao Điền this rule is applied more broadly than usual: the eight include a physician, a mathematician and a woman. This shows that the people of the Eastern Region understood the word learning as something not confined to the examination system.
| Figure honored | Title commonly used | Contribution usually mentioned |
|---|---|---|
| Chu Văn An | Director of Studies of the Imperial Academy | The model teacher of Confucian learning in Đại Việt |
| Mạc Đĩnh Chi | First laureate of two countries (Lưỡng quốc Trạng nguyên) | First laureate under the Trần dynasty, from Long Động village |
| Nguyễn Trãi | Cultural figure | A thinker and major writer, closely linked to the Côn Sơn area |
| Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm | Duke of Trình (Trình Quốc công) | Poet and scholar of the Mạc period, from the Vĩnh Lại area |
| Tuệ Tĩnh | Great physician, Imperial Academy student | Founder of Vietnamese herbal medicine, from Nghĩa Phú village |
| Vũ Hữu | Vietnam's master of mathematics | Author of the earliest known Vietnamese book on mathematics |
| Phạm Sư Mạnh | Court minister (Nhập nội Hành khiển) | A student of Chu Văn An who left poetry and prose of the Trần period |
| Nguyễn Thị Duệ | Nghi Ái quan | The first woman to pass the highest examinations |
Why the Eastern Region. According to figures that the sources repeat again and again, over about nine centuries of examinations the Vietnamese monarchy held 185 examinations and passed 2,898 doctoral laureates, of whom the old Hải Dương region alone had 637, including 12 first laureates (trạng nguyên). Those figures explain the scale of this temple of literature. Many documents rank Mao Điền as the second largest temple of literature in the country, after the Temple of Literature in Hanoi. That is a comparison made by the material introducing the site, not an official ranking.
IIFrom Vĩnh Lại to Mao Điền
The history of this place has two separate streams that only joined into one at the start of the 19th century. The first is the regional examination school at Mao Điền. The second is the temple of literature of the Hải Dương garrison, which originally stood in another commune some distance away.
- Hồng Đức eraThe regional examination school is built at Mao ĐiềnThe regional examination school of the Hải Dương garrison was built during the Hồng Đức era, between 1470 and 1497. It was divided into three areas: the inner enclosure (nội liêm) for the examiners, the outer enclosure (ngoại biên) for the supervising officials, and an area where candidates pitched their tents. The ground was divided into four squares (vi), each with seven long buildings of seventeen bays each.
- Early Lê periodThe garrison temple of literature stands in Vĩnh Lại communeThe temple of literature of the Hải Dương garrison first stood in Vĩnh Lại commune, in the former Đường An district. At this stage, the place of worship and the place of examination were two separate sites.
- 18th centuryBuilding and repairs under the Lê and Tây SơnThe Department of Cultural Heritage records that the garrison temple of literature was founded between the 1740s and 1800 under the Lê and Tây Sơn dynasties, a date that conflicts with the sources placing the temple in the Early Lê period.
- 1800 or 1801The temple of literature moves to Mao ĐiềnThe temple of literature was moved from Vĩnh Lại to Mao Điền and joined with the regional examination school. From this point, the worship and the examinations of the whole garrison shared one enclosure. The Department of Cultural Heritage records the work as completed on the 26th day of the 7th month of the Tân Dậu year, 1801.
- 1801The silk-cotton tree is planted before the templeThe ancient silk-cotton tree still standing in front of the site is recorded as planted in this year, at the same time as the temple of literature was rebuilt on its new ground.
- 1919The last Confucian examinationThe system of examinations in classical Chinese came to an end across the country. The doctoral steles of the Hải Dương garrison cover the period from 1075 to 1919, the whole life span of the Confucian examinations.
- 1992Ranked a national heritage siteRanked as a national heritage site. Further major restorations followed in 1990, 1994, 1995, 1999 and 2001, and the longest from 2002 to 2004.
- 2017Special national heritage siteThe Prime Minister ranked the Mao Điền Temple of Literature as a special national heritage site by Decision No. 2082, signed on 25 December 2017.
This is the most common misunderstanding about this place, and the library states it in the voice of the historical record, criticizing no document.
A great many articles merge two dates into one, writing in effect that the Mao Điền Temple of Literature was built at Mao Điền in the 15th century. That way of writing loses a long stretch of the site's road, because according to the heritage records the two events happened in two places and at two different times.
First, what existed at Mao Điền from the 15th century was the regional examination school, not the temple of literature. Second, the temple of literature of the Hải Dương garrison began in Vĩnh Lại commune, in the former Đường An district, and only in 1800 or 1801 was it moved to Mao Điền and joined with the examination school.
In other words, the name Mao Điền Temple of Literature is correct only for the period from the start of the 19th century onward. Before that, Mao Điền was the place of examination, and Vĩnh Lại was the place of worship.
On three points the sources disagree, and the library records both sides rather than choosing at random.
The date the garrison temple was founded. The Department of Cultural Heritage records that the temple of literature of the Hải Dương garrison was founded between the 1740s and 1800, while the newspaper Nhân Dân and the national radio say the temple dates from the Early Lê period, that is the 15th century, in Vĩnh Lại commune. The difference is close to three hundred years, and the library has not yet found an original text that settles it.
The year of the move to Mao Điền. The Department of Cultural Heritage gives the completion date as the 26th day of the 7th month of the Tân Dậu year, 1801. Another newspaper article says the move took place in the Canh Thân year, 1800.
Whether the temple stands exactly on the ground of the examination school. Most articles say the temple was moved to join the regional examination school. The heritage file of the Department of Cultural Heritage, however, says the temple was placed on the ground of the old school of Thượng Hồng prefecture, while the newspaper Pháp luật Việt Nam says the site of the old examination school is now the Tràng field, in the former Phúc Điền commune. The library records both and has not concluded how far the two grounds overlap.
IIIA seven-bay house of ceremonies and the stele houses
The whole site covers nearly one hectare, laid out along the single axis familiar in the places of worship of northern Vietnam: gate, courtyard, house of ceremonies, rear sanctuary. On both sides of the courtyard are two matching buildings, and in front are a pool and the stele houses. This arrangement keeps both functions of the place, a temple of worship and a gathering point for a whole tradition of learning.
The main gate, opening to the front and leading into the wide brick courtyard. It is the dividing layer between the village road and the space of worship.
The main building, seven bays wide, about 22.5 meters long and about 18.6 meters wide. This is where the main part of the sacrifice is performed and where the horizontal boards and parallel sentences hang.
The rear sanctuary is joined behind the house of ceremonies and holds the altar of Confucius and of the figures honored with him. The Khải Thánh shrine honors the father and mother of Confucius, Shuliang He (Thúc Lương Ngột) and Yan Zhengzai (Nhan Trưng Tại). It was built in the restoration of 1806 to 1807 and was rebuilt with five bays on the old foundations in 2009.
Two matching five-bay buildings on either side of the courtyard, built at the same time as the temple in 1801. According to the heritage file, this is where the civil and military officials gathered before entering the rite. In 2004 both were rebuilt as a heritage house and a place to receive visitors.
Two towers facing each other at the front of the courtyard, used to signal the stages of the sacrifice, one sounding first and the other after, following the order of the ritual.
The stele houses hold the steles naming the Confucian doctoral laureates of the Hải Dương garrison, the names covering the period from 1075 to 1919. These two stele houses were built in 2002. Thiên Quang Well, whose name means the well of heavenly light, was originally two ponds for watering the plants, dating from 1801. In 2002 they were remodeled on the pattern of the Temple of Literature in Hanoi, with a stone bridge in the middle.
One point is worth noting: the steles at Mao Điền are not of the same kind as the 82 doctoral steles at the Temple of Literature in Hanoi. The Hanoi steles were set up after individual palace examinations, each stele matching one examination. The Mao Điền steles are combined name lists, recording the holders of the highest degrees from the Hải Dương garrison alone over the whole span of the examination system, and they were set up much later. The two sets differ both in function and in their value as texts.
Last is the silk-cotton tree by the gate, recorded in the documents as planted in 1801, at the same time as the temple of literature was rebuilt on the ground of the examination school. For a site whose timber has been replaced many times, a living trunk unbroken for more than two hundred years is one of the rare continuous witnesses left.
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. The library marks it clearly so that readers can tell documented fact from interpretation.
The first thing to say is that this land was not chosen for worship. It was chosen for examinations. A regional examination school needed above all a flat stretch wide enough for thousands of tents, open enough to supervise, and close enough to the main road for candidates from every prefecture and district to come. When the temple of literature moved here at the start of the 19th century, it took on a lie of the land that had come into being for another purpose.
In terms of landform, this is the delta plain, land almost perfectly flat, with no natural mountain to serve as the back pillow (hậu chẩm) and no hill to serve as the screen hill (án). The people of old raised a mound of earth behind the rear sanctuary called Hậu Chẩm, following the view that a place honoring a sage must rest its head on a mountain and set its feet in water, and in 2007 that mound was raised a further 1.2 meters into three peaks (Tam Sơn). When the old art of reading land meets such terrain, it turns to reading water and buildings. At Mao Điền, the closed enclosure of nearly one hectare is what draws the boundary of the qi, while the Thiên Quang Well pool in front plays the part of the bright hall with gathered water (minh đường có thủy tụ), the open space in front where water comes to rest.
As for facing and axis, the site runs in a straight line from the gate to the rear sanctuary, balanced on both sides by the East and West Cloisters, with the bell and drum towers also facing each other. This strict symmetry is not a matter of taste but a statement of Confucian learning: Confucianism takes the word chính, uprightness, as its root, and what is upright must be straight, with above and below, left and right clearly set. A straight axis carries qi deep inside and gathers it at the end point, here the altar of Confucius.
Last is the meaning of joining two grounds. In traditional thinking, land used for a purpose carries the qi of that purpose. Placing the temple of literature on the ground of the examination school is choosing land by memory rather than by landform: the people of old wanted the place that honors learning to stand right where learning had been put to the test. On one side reverence, on the other examination, two acts once apart were brought into one enclosure. Read through feng shui, this is the pattern of essence and use made one (thể dụng hợp nhất), and it is the trait that sets Mao Điền apart from every other garrison temple of literature.
VThe đinh day rites and the festival of the second month
The rites at a temple of literature follow Confucian practice, not the practice of spirit temples and Mother Goddess shrines. The two great sacrifices of the year fall on the first đinh day of the 2nd lunar month and the first đinh day of the 8th lunar month, commonly called Xuân Đinh (spring đinh) and Thu Đinh (autumn đinh). The đinh day is chosen because in the system of heavenly stems and earthly branches, đinh belongs to the Fire element, which corresponds to civilization and light.
| Lunar date | Rite | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| First đinh day of the 2nd lunar month | Spring đinh rite | The spring sacrifice by old custom, to Confucius, the earlier worthies and the eight figures honored here. |
| First đinh day of the 8th lunar month | Autumn đinh rite | The autumn sacrifice, keeping the full order of the spring rite on a smaller scale. |
| 15th day of the 2nd lunar month | Opening of the festival | The start of the present-day traditional festival, with a rite announcing the opening to the honored figures. |
| 15th to 18th day of the 2nd lunar month | Offering of characters to the Sage | A rite particular to Mao Điền, revived in 2010. Chinese characters with an educational meaning, such as Tôn Sư Trọng Đạo (honor the teacher, respect the Way), are carried into the courtyard and offered before the altar. |
| 15th to 18th day of the 2nd lunar month | Reading of the sacrificial text and incense offering | The sacrificial text is read before the altar, after which the villages of the area and visitors from everywhere offer incense. |
| 18th day of the 2nd lunar month | Main festival day | The most important day of the festival, with festivities including calligraphy displays, a handwriting contest, Vietnamese chess and folk games. |
The rite of offering characters to the Sage deserves one more sentence. At most places of worship, the offerings are incense and flowers, rice cakes and fruit, sticky rice and meat. At a temple of literature, the most valued offering is the written character, because writing is exactly what the place honors. In the same spirit are the custom of asking for calligraphy at the start of spring and the book festival held in the grounds of the site in recent years.
VILocation And How To Get There
- Address
- làng Mậu Tài, xã Mao Điền, thành phố Hải Phòng
- Getting there
- In Mậu Tài village, Mao Điền commune, Hải Phòng city, right beside the road linking Hanoi with the center of the former Hải Dương. On the same route it is worth stopping at the Côn Sơn and Kiếp Bạc sites, also in the old Eastern Region.
- Coordinates
- 20.9339, 106.1864
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 house of ceremonies 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 temple of literature is that meat offerings and votive paper are not placed or burned at the altar of Confucius. Many people of the area keep the custom of asking for calligraphy here at the start of spring.
Nearby places in the library
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?Quick Questions
Who is worshipped at the Mao Điền Temple of Literature
Confucius, following the common practice of every temple of literature, together with eight renowned figures of the Eastern Region honored through associated worship (tòng tự). The eight are Chu Văn An, Mạc Đĩnh Chi, Nguyễn Trãi, Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm, Tuệ Tĩnh, Vũ Hữu, Phạm Sư Mạnh and Nguyễn Thị Duệ, as listed by the Department of Cultural Heritage.
When does the Mao Điền Temple of Literature date from
The sources disagree, so the library gives both. The regional examination school at Mao Điền was built during the Hồng Đức era, around 1470 to 1497. As for the garrison temple of literature, one group of sources says it began in the Early Lê period in Vĩnh Lại commune, while the Department of Cultural Heritage says it was founded between 1740 and 1800. The temple of literature moved to Mao Điền in 1800 or 1801.
Why is it called the Temple of Literature of Hải Dương garrison or of the Eastern Region
Because it is a garrison-level temple of literature, the place where the whole of the old Hải Dương garrison honored Confucius, below the Temple of Literature in the capital and above the local shrines to learning of the prefectures and districts. The Eastern Region (xứ Đông) is the old name of this land, one of the four regions surrounding the capital Thăng Long.
Are the steles at Mao Điền like the 82 doctoral steles in Hanoi
No. The steles at the Temple of Literature in Hanoi were set up for individual palace examinations, each stele matching one examination. The steles at Mao Điền are combined name lists, recording the holders of the highest degrees from the Hải Dương garrison alone, with names covering the period from 1075 to 1919, and they were set up much later.
When is the festival of the Mao Điền Temple of Literature
By old custom, the two great sacrifices fall on the first đinh day of the 2nd lunar month and the first đinh day of the 8th lunar month, called Xuân Đinh and Thu Đinh. The present-day traditional festival is held in the 2nd lunar month, around the 15th to the 18th day, with a rite announcing the opening and the rite of offering characters to the Sage.