Head from the center of Biên Hòa toward Bửu Long hill for about three kilometers and you reach a wide stretch of ground with a lake, a three-entrance gate under a tiled roof, and behind the gate a square two-storey pavilion with eight roof slopes. The outline is familiar: it repeats almost exactly the layout of the Temple of Literature in Thăng Long, today's Hanoi. But the paint is still fresh, the stone edges are still sharp, and the walls have not yet taken on the moss that a three-hundred-year-old building ought to have.
There is no contradiction in this, it only needs to be said plainly: the temple of literature was built in 1715, and the buildings standing now are a reconstruction from the end of the 20th century. What is old here is the date and the intention of the people of the past. What is new is the material. To understand this place, those two layers have to be separated, and most of the article below is that work of separating.
IConfucius and the meaning of a temple of literature
First, one point that many visitors get wrong: this is a building of Confucianism, not of Buddhism. In a temple of literature there are no Buddha statues, no resident monk and no chanting of sutras. The first figure honored here is Confucius, whom Confucianism reveres as the first teacher of learning, followed by the cultural figures of Vietnam.
The Chinese-character name of this place, 鎮邊文廟, was put together by the library from the name Trấn Biên and the two words văn miếu (temple of literature). It is not copied from any particular board hanging in the building. Readers are asked to understand it in that way.
A văn miếu, a temple of literature, is a temple to letters, that is, to learning, as distinct from a võ miếu, a temple to the military arts. The main figure honored is Confucius, together with the earlier teachers and earlier worthies (tiên sư tiên hiền), the masters and the virtuous people of former times.
The word miếu here should be told apart from đền and chùa. A chùa is a Buddhist pagoda. A đền is a temple to a deity or to a deified person honored by the people. A miếu in the Confucian sense is a place where a sacrifice (tế) is performed according to the ritual code, a ceremony with a set order, a written prayer and prescribed offerings, led by ritual officiants rather than by monks. The main rite of a temple of literature by old custom is the đinh sacrifice (tế Đinh), held on the first đinh day of the 2nd and the 8th lunar months.
The two words Trấn Biên reveal the setting of the building. Trấn Biên was the name the Nguyễn lords gave to the military district of the newly opened southern lands, and it means guarding the frontier. Placing a temple of literature in a distant frontier district had a meaning of its own. It shows that the government of Đàng Trong did not see this as temporary ground but as land to be settled for the long term, and so it needed a place to honor learning just like the regions settled earlier.
The records agree that this was the first temple of literature built in Đàng Trong, earlier than the temples of literature of Vĩnh Long and Gia Định. The sources do not agree on how it compares with the temple of literature in Huế, so the library records only the part that all sources state.
The first common misunderstanding: many people come here, light incense and pray to pass their examinations, as they would at a temple or a pagoda. By the Confucian ritual code, a temple of literature is not a place that grants blessings or fortune. Bowing here means honoring the teacher, showing respect to the masters and to learning itself. The library records this according to the old ritual code and criticizes no one, since praying for examination success at temples of literature is a custom formed long ago that exists alongside the code.
IIThree hundred years and a long gap
The history of this place breaks very clearly into two parts. The first runs from 1715 to 1861, the second begins in 1998. Between them lies a gap of more than one hundred and thirty years, when no building stood on the site.
- 1715The temple of literature is builtAccording to the Gia Định thành thông chí (Gazetteer of Gia Định) by Trịnh Hoài Đức, in the Ất Mùi year under Lord Nguyễn Phúc Chu, the garrison commander Nguyễn Phan Long and the record keeper Phạm Khánh Đức chose land to build the temple of literature in Tân Lại hamlet, Phước Dinh canton, Phước Chánh district.
- 18th centuryA center of learning for the whole regionThe temple of literature became the place where the sacrifices were held and where learning was honored for the whole Trấn Biên district, a land then still thinly settled and newly opened.
- 1794First restorationThe first major restoration recorded in the sources, in the Giáp Dần year.
- 1852Second restorationThe second major restoration, in the Nhâm Tý year, the fifth year of the Tự Đức reign. A few articles misprint this date as 1752. The Tự Đức reign only began in 1848, so the figure 1752 cannot stand.
- 1861The building is destroyedThe records say the temple of literature was destroyed in this year. From then on the site lay empty, and for more than a century no place of worship stood here.
- 1998Rebuilding beginsThe groundbreaking ceremony for the reconstruction was held on 9 December 1998, on the old site in Bửu Long ward. The new buildings follow the layout of the Temple of Literature in Thăng Long.
- 2002First phase inauguratedOn 14 February 2002 the first phase of the rebuilt complex was inaugurated. The remaining parts continued to be built in the following years.
- 2016National heritage siteThe Trấn Biên Temple of Literature was ranked as a national historical heritage site by Decision No. 2894 of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism.
Two points about the records need to be made clear.
First, the area. Articles about the rebuilt complex give an enclosed site of about 5 hectares, of which about 2 hectares hold the main buildings and the rest is gardens, lakes and activity areas. The temple of literature also lies within the Bửu Long tourist area of about 30 hectares, so readers should take these figures as the size of the grounds, not the scale of the place of worship itself.
Second, the original architecture. The earliest description the library has found is in the Gia Định thành thông chí. Recording the restoration of 1794, it says that in the center stood the Hall of Great Accomplishment and the Gate of Great Accomplishment, with the Kim Thanh and Ngọc Chấn gates on either side, the Khuê Văn Pavilion with its bell and drum in the middle of the front courtyard, and the Văn Miếu gate at the front. But that is a description in words, not a drawing, and no part of the old building survives for comparison. So the reconstruction of today had to borrow the layout of the Temple of Literature in Hanoi as its model and could not restore the true form of the building of 1715.
IIIThe house of ceremonies and a layout borrowed from Thăng Long
The rebuilt complex is laid out along a single axis. From outside inward come the gate, the stele house, the Khuê Văn Pavilion, the pool, the Gate of Great Accomplishment, the Confucius stele house, and finally the main hall. Anyone who has visited the Temple of Literature in Hanoi will recognize the sequence at once. This is the standard layout of a temple of literature, and repeating it was a deliberate choice, so that those who enter understand at once what kind of building they are standing in.
The outermost gate, opening onto the main axis. The gate of a temple of literature is not the three-entrance gate of a Buddhist pagoda but the entrance to a temple run by the Confucian ritual code, so its decoration leans toward written words rather than sacred animals.
It holds the Trấn Biên Đồng Nai tradition stele, carved with a text summarizing the cultural and educational tradition of Biên Hòa past and present.
A square two-storey pavilion, with round windows on the upper floor. It is named after the Khuê star, which the people of old held to govern literature. This feature is borrowed directly from the Temple of Literature in Hanoi.
A square pool on the main axis. Its name means the well of heavenly light. The pool is both a mirror reflecting the buildings and a pause that divides the path into two stages.
The inner gate, leading to the main place of worship. Great Accomplishment (Đại Thành) is an honorific title of Confucius, so this gate marks where worship in the true sense begins.
Beyond the Gate of Great Accomplishment is the Confucius stele house, where Confucius is honored on the main axis. Last comes the main hall, the largest building of the complex, built with three bays and two side wings. Its left side honors cultural figures of the whole country, its right side figures of the southern lands. In front of the main hall, on either side, stand the Văn Vật khố (the house of traditional crafts) and the Thư khố (the library of old texts).
The words bái đường, house of ceremonies, are worth explaining, because this is the core feature of every temple of literature. Bái means to bow, đường means hall, so a bái đường is a hall for performing rites. In a complete temple of literature of the old type, the house of ceremonies is where those offering the sacrifice stand, while the altar of Confucius is placed further inside, and the officiants do not cross the line between the two parts. This arrangement is quite unlike a Buddhist pagoda, where worshippers may walk around the altar. In a temple of literature, the distance between the one who offers the sacrifice and the one who is honored is part of the rite itself.
The most serious misunderstanding about this place concerns the age of the buildings. Many articles describe the temple as more than three hundred years old, and readers easily take this to mean that the tiled roofs before them have stood since the time of the Nguyễn lords.
To say it plainly, in the voice of the historical record: not a single part of the present buildings belongs to the construction of 1715. The old building was destroyed in 1861, the site lay empty for more than one hundred and thirty years, and everything now standing was built from 1998 onward. The figure of three hundred years is the age of the worship, not the age of the wood and stone. Saying this clearly does not lessen the value of the place. It lets visitors see rightly what they are looking at.
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. It should be added that a temple of literature is built according to the ritual code of Confucianism, that is, the rules on its parts and layout, and that code is not the art of reading land.
The first thing worth reading is the land. The temple of literature stands in the Bửu Long area, raised ground with rocky hills on the edge of Biên Hòa, not far from the Đồng Nai River. In the reading of land this is a fairly complete pattern: there is high ground as a back pillow (hậu chẩm), a support behind, and a great river in front as the channel that brings in qi. The southern delta is mostly flat, so a place with both hills and a great river close by is rare.
Second is the axis and the bright hall. A temple of literature is always laid out along one straight axis, and in the middle of that axis there is always a square pool, here the Thiên Quang Well. Read in the traditional way, a pool in the middle of the entrance axis is a bright hall with gathered water (minh đường có thủy tụ), the open space before the door where water comes to rest. But this pool is first of all a feature of the ritual code of the temple of literature, meaning the light of learning. Its match with the feng shui idea is a match of form, not of intention.
Third is the facing. By old custom a temple of literature faces south, because in the Confucian classics the master sits facing south and looks out. South is also the facing favored by Vietnamese places of worship, because it receives light and kindly winds. The two reasons coincide, one belonging to the ritual code and one to the climate.
Last is a remark on land that was lost and then rebuilt. In traditional thinking, a piece of land once chosen for worship carries the mark of that worship, and rebuilding on the old foundations is a way of mending a break, not of making a new place. The fact that the rebuilt complex was placed on the very ground of the old temple of literature shows that this principle is still kept. That is a reading weighted toward memory rather than toward landform.
VRites and customs through the year
The rites of a temple of literature follow the Confucian ritual code and are reckoned by the lunar calendar. Because the present building is a reconstruction from the end of the 20th century, the round of rites here is not yet as dense as at the old temples of literature in the north. The table below lists the traditional customs of this kind of building, together with the occasions mentioned in the records on Trấn Biên.
| Lunar date | Rite | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| First đinh day of the 2nd lunar month | Spring đinh sacrifice | The spring sacrifice to Confucius according to the old custom of temples of literature, held on the first đinh day of the middle month of spring. It is one of the two greatest sacrifices of the year. |
| First đinh day of the 8th lunar month | Autumn đinh sacrifice | The second sacrifice, the counterpart of the spring one, held on the first đinh day of the middle month of autumn. |
| 27th day of the 8th lunar month | Birthday of Confucius | The birthday of Confucius by traditional custom, marked by offering incense to the First Teacher. |
| 1st to 15th day of the 1st lunar month | New Year incense offering | The busiest time of year at the temple of literature. People from the area, especially students and families with children at school, come to offer incense at the start of the year. |
| The 1st and 15th day of every lunar month | Regular incense offering | The first and fifteenth days of the lunar month, following the common custom of offering incense at places of worship. |
Beyond the calendar of rites, the two sides of the main hall are also a place where visitors read and remember the names of those who came before. The left side honors cultural figures of the whole country, among them Chu Văn An, Nguyễn Trãi, Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm and Lê Quý Đôn. The right side honors figures of the southern lands, among them Võ Trường Toản, Trịnh Hoài Đức and Nguyễn Đình Chiểu. That division into two sides is how the place defines itself: a temple of literature of the new lands, yet joined to the common stream.
VILocation And How To Get There
- Address
- Khu phố Bửu Long, phường Trấn Biên, thành phố Đồng Nai
- Getting there
- The temple of literature is in Bửu Long quarter, Trấn Biên ward, Đồng Nai city, about three kilometers northwest of the center of Biên Hòa. On the same route visitors can stop at the rocky hills of Bửu Long and at Chùa Bửu Phong (Bửu Phong Pagoda) close by.
- Coordinates
- 10.9645, 106.8016
The customs of this place are its own. Visitors are expected to dress modestly, remove hats on entering the main hall, and walk softly and speak quietly in the area of worship. Meat offerings and votive paper are not brought or burned here, since this is a temple run by the Confucian ritual code, not a shrine of the Mother Goddess or a spirit temple. Visitors are asked not to touch the stone steles or the objects displayed in the two side buildings, the East and West Cloisters (tả vu, hữu vu). The gardens and the lake outside are open for walking freely, while along the main axis from the Gate of Great Accomplishment inward visitors are asked to keep the order of a place of worship.
Nearby places in the library
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?Quick Questions
Who is worshipped at the Trấn Biên Temple of Literature
It honors Confucius, the first teacher of learning in Confucianism, worshipped in the Confucius stele house on the main axis. The main hall behind honors notable figures: on the left, cultural figures of the whole country such as Chu Văn An, Nguyễn Trãi, Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm and Lê Quý Đôn, on the right, figures of the southern lands such as Võ Trường Toản and Nguyễn Đình Chiểu.
When was the Trấn Biên Temple of Literature built
It was built in 1715, under Lord Nguyễn Phúc Chu. The garrison commander Nguyễn Phan Long and the record keeper Phạm Khánh Đức chose the land, in Tân Lại hamlet in the Trấn Biên district. Trịnh Hoài Đức recorded this in the Gia Định thành thông chí. It was the first temple of literature built in Đàng Trong, earlier than those of Vĩnh Long and Gia Định.
Are the present buildings the original architecture
No. The old temple of literature was destroyed in 1861, and the site lay empty for more than one hundred and thirty years. The buildings standing now are a reconstruction, begun on 9 December 1998 with the first phase inaugurated on 14 February 2002, following the layout of the Temple of Literature in Hanoi. No part of them belongs to the construction of 1715.
Which religion does the Trấn Biên Temple of Literature belong to
Confucianism, not Buddhism. There are no Buddha statues and no resident monk. The main rite by old custom is the đinh sacrifice, held on the first đinh day of the 2nd and 8th lunar months and led by ritual officiants according to the code, not by monks. By the old custom, people visit a temple of literature to honor the teacher, not to ask for fortune.
When was the Trấn Biên Temple of Literature ranked as a heritage site
It was ranked as a national historical heritage site by Decision No. 2894 of the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in 2016. The site is in Bửu Long quarter, Trấn Biên ward, Đồng Nai city, near the rocky hills of Bửu Long.