Climbing Cháo hill in Vĩnh Yên, visitors pass a four-pillar gateway, cross the stone bridges and reach the Temple of Literature gate (Văn Miếu môn). Behind it lie a wide ceremonial courtyard that holds a few thousand people, two rows of stele houses running side by side, a bell tower and a drum tower facing each other, and at the end the House of Ceremonies (Bái đường) and the rear sanctuary under tiled roofs. The stone still has sharp edges, the wood is still fresh in color, and the courtyard has not yet had time to gather moss.
To say it at once: this is a newly built structure. Construction began on 16 June 2012, and the main buildings opened to visitors in January 2017. There is no old building here and no stele set up in the days of the examinations. What is old here is a line of worship, because the Vĩnh Phúc area had a temple of literature from the Lê dynasty, and this new temple was built to take up that line again.
IConfucius, Chu Văn An and the laureates of the Vĩnh region
According to the provincial tourism portal, the temple honors Confucius and Chu Văn An and celebrates the 86 civil doctoral laureates of the Vĩnh Phúc area from the Lý to the Nguyễn dynasty. The magazine Văn hóa và Phát triển adds 5 military doctors. Together that makes 91 people, matching the number the Giao blog counted on the 18 new stone steles in the two rows of stele houses. This page uses the figure of 86 civil laureates given by the official source, and notes that the steles also carry the military laureates.
The four Chinese characters at the top of the page are the name Vĩnh Phúc văn miếu, written by the library in Sino-Vietnamese, not copied from any horizontal board at the site.
Placing Chu Văn An beside Confucius is something many Vietnamese local temples of literature do, so that the altar holds both the master of the Confucian way and the master of the country's own learning. He was Director of Studies of the Imperial Academy under the Trần dynasty and has long been honored at the Temple of Literature and Imperial Academy in Hanoi. The library has a separate page on the Chu Văn An Temple on Phượng Hoàng mountain, where he taught in his last years.
The third layer of worship is the laureates of the province itself. That is what makes a provincial temple of literature different from the national one: the steles here record not people from the whole country but people from one region, so that the descendants of that region can find the names of their ancestors.
On the list carved on the steles, the Giao blog points out two notable names. One is Đào Sư Tích, first laureate (trạng nguyên) of the Giáp Dần examination of 1374 under the Trần. Many other writings give his home as the old Nam Định area, so his name on a Vĩnh Phúc stele may follow a different way of reckoning ancestral home, and the library has not been able to check this against the official list. The other is Phạm Công Bình, regarded as the man who began the examination tradition of the former Yên Lạc district.
Some people think this temple honors Confucius alone, others that the main altar honors only Chu Văn An. An article published in 2015, while the building was still under construction, wrote that the main altar on the upper floor held Chu Văn An together with eight doctoral laureates representing eight districts, and that no tablet of Confucius was to be seen there. The official provincial source says both Confucius and Chu Văn An are honored. The two accounts belong to two different moments of an unfinished building. An article in the magazine Văn hóa và Phát triển, written after the temple opened to visitors, describes it more precisely: the upper floor of the rear sanctuary has five altars with spirit tablets, the central one for Confucius and the teacher Chu Văn An, and four on either side for the 86 civil laureates, while the House of Ceremonies holds a communal altar (ban công đồng) to the earlier sages and worthies.
IIFrom the Tam Đái prefectural temple to Cháo hill
The history of this place has two parts that do not join. The first is the Tam Đái prefectural temple of literature in Cao Xá village, dating from the Lê dynasty, which later changed its name and its rank, moved, and then disappeared. The second is the new building on Cháo hill. Between the two lies a long gap.
- 15th centuryThe Tam Đái prefectural temple at Cao XáThe temple of literature of Tam Đái prefecture stood in Cao Xá village, in the former Bạch Hạc district, now part of the former Vĩnh Tường area. The Hương Canh blog dates it to the early Lê period, and Văn hóa và Phát triển suggests it was probably built during the Hồng Đức era, that is 1470 to 1497.
- 1667Rebuilt in the shape of the character 二Prefect Nguyễn Duy Chí had the temple repaired, which in fact meant building it anew in the shape of the character 二 (two), with a front hall ahead and a rear sanctuary behind.
- 1697 to 1702A six-year renovationEighteen literati associations (hội tư văn), together with more than two hundred officials and commoners, contributed to building a five-bay main hall and a three-bay front hall, making a bridge and modeling statues of the Ten Philosophers (Văn hóa và Phát triển).
- 1777 and 1800Restorations at the end of the Lê and under the Tây SơnA repair in 1777 under King Lê Hiển Tông, and in 1800 a bell and drums were added.
- 1822Becomes the Vĩnh Tường prefectural templeTam Đái prefecture was renamed Vĩnh Tường prefecture, and the temple took the new name. A bell cast in 1841 bears the name of the Vĩnh Tường prefectural temple of literature.
- 1925 or 1926Moved to Giác Lạc hillThe temple was moved to Giác Lạc hill, Yên Định hamlet, near the provincial seat of Vĩnh Yên, and from then on served as the provincial temple of literature. That temple was later lost. What remains is a four-sided cylindrical stone stele recording the restoration of 1702, found in 2010 at Trần Phú High School and now displayed on the ground floor of the rear sanctuary of the new temple (Văn hóa và Phát triển).
- 2012Construction of the new temple beginsOn 16 June 2012, the former Vĩnh Phúc province began building the new temple on Cháo hill, in the former Liên Bảo ward.
- 2017Open to visitorsThe main buildings were completed and opened to visitors in January 2017 (Văn hóa và Phát triển).
The sources disagree in three places. The repairs to the old temple. The Vĩnh Phúc tourism portal records only two restorations, in 1667 and 1702. The Hương Canh blog gives 1667, 1697 to 1701 and 1777. Văn hóa và Phát triển gives a second major campaign lasting six years until 1702, plus repairs in 1777 and 1800. The dates 1697 and 1702 are probably the start and end of the same campaign. The year of the move. The tourism portal gives 1925, Hương Canh gives the end of 1925 into early 1926. The area of the new site. The tourism portal gives 42.41 hectares, Văn hóa và Phát triển gives more than 4.2 hectares. The first figure is very likely a misplaced decimal point, and the library uses the second.
IIIThree areas on one axis
The temple grounds cover more than 4.2 hectares, divided into three areas set symmetrically along a central axis: the gate area, the ceremonial courtyard and the inner sanctuary. The materials are dressed stone, pointed roof tiles and fine timber, built in the traditional manner (Văn hóa và Phát triển). The names of the buildings borrow almost the whole set of names at the Temple of Literature and Imperial Academy in Hanoi, showing that the designers took the capital's temple as their model.
The outermost layer. Three small stone bridges over a water channel lead to the main gate, marking the passage from the road onto sacred ground.
A square pond on the axis, 20 meters on each side and about 3 meters deep, whose name means heavenly light, placed according to the custom of temples of literature (Văn hóa và Phát triển).
Eighteen new stone steles carved with the names of the doctoral laureates of the Vĩnh Phúc area, including the military laureates (Giao blog, Văn hóa và Phát triển).
Three gates leading into the ceremonial courtyard. The names Thành Đức and Đạt Tài are taken from two side gates at the Temple of Literature in Hanoi and mean becoming a person of virtue and reaching the level of a person of talent.
A courtyard of nearly 3,000 square meters, holding more than two thousand people according to Văn hóa và Phát triển, while the Vĩnh Phúc tourism portal gives about three thousand. The two towers face each other on either side.
The innermost layer. The two seven-bay cloisters on either side serve as resting places and exhibition rooms. The House of Ceremonies holds the communal altar, and the rear sanctuary has two floors, the lower one displaying objects and the upper one holding the spirit tablets of Confucius, Chu Văn An and the 86 laureates (Văn hóa và Phát triển).
Set beside the old temples of literature in the library, such as the Temple of Literature and Imperial Academy, Mao Điền Temple of Literature or Trấn Biên Temple of Literature, this place stands apart. Trấn Biên is an old temple rebuilt on its old site. Vĩnh Phúc did not build on the old site but chose another hill and built from scratch a structure that carries the name and the role of the lost temple. Its value lies in recording the list of a province's laureates in stone, not in the age of its bricks and tiles.
IVThe lie of the land and the facing
What follows is the library's interpretation, read according to the traditional art of reading land. No stele or record gives a feng shui reason for choosing Cháo hill. For a new building, what can be read here is how present-day designers rebuilt the pattern of people of old.
Vĩnh Yên lies where the Red River delta meets the foot of the Tam Đảo mountains. The land here rises and falls in low hills, and Cháo hill is one of them. Choosing a high hill for a temple of literature keeps to the old custom: a place honoring learning stands high, looking down over where people live. When the old temple was moved near the provincial seat in 1925 it also chose a hill, Giác Lạc hill, which shows the custom was kept both times.
As for the axis, the three areas of gate, ceremonial courtyard and inner sanctuary follow one another on a straight line, with the two sides in perfect symmetry. This arrangement leads people from the wide, bright space outside into the narrow, enclosed space within, which read in the old way leads the qi deeper and gathers it at the altar. Thiên Quang Pond on the axis plays the part of gathered water in the bright hall (minh đường), and the stone bridges at the gate mark the passage from the road onto sacred ground. The sources consulted do not record which way the buildings face, so the library does not guess the facing.
What deserves most thought is new ground taking on the role of old ground. People of old believed that a place worshipped in for many years accumulates qi, so they usually rebuilt on the old foundation. In Vĩnh Phúc, the old sites at Cao Xá and on Giác Lạc hill could no longer be used, so people today chose another hill and brought with them the name, the pattern and the list of laureates. Read through traditional eyes, what has been moved here is the name, not the ground.
VĐinh day sacrifices in spring and autumn, and honoring ceremonies
The temple holds the spring and autumn sacrifices following the custom of the old temples of literature, together with ceremonies honoring the province's renowned laureates. The two sources give different dates for the sacrifices, and the table below records both.
| Lunar time | Rite | Source |
|---|---|---|
| The first đinh day of the 2nd lunar month | Spring sacrifice | Văn hóa và Phát triển, following the spring đinh day custom of the old temples of literature |
| The first đinh day of the 8th lunar month | Autumn sacrifice | Văn hóa và Phát triển |
| The 11th day of the 2nd lunar month | Annual ceremony | Vĩnh Phúc tourism portal |
| The 20th day of the 8th lunar month | Annual ceremony | Vĩnh Phúc tourism portal |
| Early spring | Asking for calligraphy at the new year | A general custom of temples of literature, not from any source specific to this place |
The đinh day is chosen for temple of literature rites because in the system of heavenly stems, đinh belongs to the Fire element, which corresponds to civilization and light. A new building that keeps its sacrifice dates by the sexagenary cycle has chosen to join the old way rather than only borrow its appearance. The library does not decide between the two accounts, it only records them so that visitors can ask further at the site.
VILocation And How To Get There
- Address
- Khu gò Cháo, phường Vĩnh Phúc (phường Liên Bảo cũ, thành phố Vĩnh Yên cũ, tỉnh Vĩnh Phúc cũ), tỉnh Phú Thọ
- Getting there
- In the Cháo hill area, Vĩnh Phúc ward, Phú Thọ province, in the former city of Vĩnh Yên, about fifty-five kilometers northwest of central Hanoi.
- Coordinates
- 21.3295, 105.6034
The temple of literature is a place of worship and not only a park, even though its grounds are wide and open. The custom of a place honoring Confucius is that visitors dress modestly, remove hats on entering the House of Ceremonies and the rear sanctuary, do not bring meat offerings and do not burn votive paper before the altars. The stele houses record the names of ancestors of many families in the province, so visitors are asked to keep quiet there and not to touch the carved characters.
Nearby places in the library
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?Quick Questions
Is the Vĩnh Phúc Temple of Literature an old heritage site
No. It is a new building, begun on 16 June 2012 and open to visitors since January 2017, and it has not been ranked as a heritage site. What is old is the line of worship: the Vĩnh Phúc area had the Tam Đái prefectural temple of literature in Cao Xá village from the Lê dynasty, moved to Giác Lạc hill in 1925 or 1926, of which only one stele now remains.
Who is worshipped at the Vĩnh Phúc Temple of Literature
According to the provincial tourism portal, the temple honors Confucius and Chu Văn An and celebrates the 86 civil doctoral laureates of the Vĩnh Phúc area from the Lý to the Nguyễn dynasty. The magazine Văn hóa và Phát triển adds 5 military doctors, so the steles carry 91 names in all.
How many doctoral steles does the Vĩnh Phúc Temple of Literature have
The two rows of stele houses hold 18 new stone steles carved with 91 names, 86 civil laureates and 5 military doctors, according to the Giao blog and the magazine Văn hóa và Phát triển. These are newly carved steles, not steles set up in the days of the examinations.
Where was the old temple of literature of Vĩnh Phúc
The Tam Đái prefectural temple of literature stood in Cao Xá village, in the former Bạch Hạc district, now part of the former Vĩnh Tường area. It dated from the Lê dynasty and was restored many times. In 1822 it was renamed the Vĩnh Tường prefectural temple of literature. In 1925 or 1926 it was moved to Giác Lạc hill, Yên Định hamlet, near the provincial seat of Vĩnh Yên.
On what dates are sacrifices held at the Vĩnh Phúc Temple of Literature
The two sources differ. The magazine Văn hóa và Phát triển gives the spring and autumn sacrifices as the first đinh day of the 2nd and of the 8th lunar month, following the custom of the old temples of literature. The Vĩnh Phúc tourism portal gives annual ceremonies on the 11th day of the 2nd lunar month and the 20th day of the 8th lunar month.