In Xích Đằng village, the first thing visitors meet is the Temple of Literature gate (Văn miếu môn), with two tiers of eight roofs, its curved roof corners rising above the trees. Beyond the gate are grounds of about six thousand square meters: a bell tower on one side, a chime tower on the other, the left and right cloisters, and then three buildings, the front hall for sacrifices, the middle hall and the rear sanctuary, set one behind another in the shape of the character 三 (three). The roof lines and carving recall the court architecture of Huế more than the communal houses of the northern countryside.
This was the Temple of Literature of the old Upper Sơn Nam garrison, the land that is now Hưng Yên and part of the former Thái Bình. What keeps visitors here longest are the nine stone steles carved with the names of the garrison's 161 doctoral laureates. To read all nine is to read the whole tradition of learning of a delta region beside the Red River.
IConfucius, the earlier worthies and Chu Văn An
The temple honors Confucius together with the earlier worthies of the Confucian way, and honors Chu Văn An (Department of Cultural Heritage). The distinctive feature noted by Nhân Dân and Tuổi Trẻ is that the statue of Chu Văn An stands right in the middle of the main worship area (khu đại bái), while the statues of Confucius and the Confucian worthies are in the rear sanctuary, unlike the arrangement at other temples of literature. The people of Hưng Yên raised the Trần dynasty teacher to a place of honor within the worship of Confucius itself.
The four Chinese characters at the top of the page are the name Xích Đằng văn miếu, written by the library in Sino-Vietnamese, not copied from a horizontal board at the temple.
Within the system of temples of literature, Xích Đằng is a garrison-level temple, the second tier after the Temple of Literature in the capital, on a level with Mao Điền Temple of Literature of the Hải Dương garrison. The two are of the same rank but worship differently. Mao Điền honors Confucius together with eight notable figures of the eastern region, with Chu Văn An at the head of the eight. Xích Đằng does not set up a row of local figures but brings Chu Văn An alone out to the middle of the main worship area. That arrangement shows that each garrison chose for itself whom to honor as its teacher.
For the temple dedicated to Chu Văn An himself, please see the page on the Chu Văn An Temple on Phượng Hoàng mountain.
The nine steles are the part of greatest textual value. According to Nhân Dân, eight were set up in 1888 under Emperor Đồng Khánh and one in 1943 under Emperor Bảo Đại, together recording the 161 doctoral laureates of the Upper Sơn Nam garrison. Of these, 138 were from Hưng Yên and 23 from the former Thái Bình (Nhân Dân, Tuổi Trẻ). As at Mao Điền, these are collective name steles set up later to record the laureates of a whole region, not steles erected right after each examination like the 82 steles at the Temple of Literature and Imperial Academy in Hanoi.
The figure of 138 out of 161 says a great deal about Hưng Yên as a land of learning. The Upper Sơn Nam garrison also included land now in the former Thái Bình, yet nearly six in seven of the doctoral laureates recorded on the steles were from Hưng Yên. In the old examination system, becoming a doctoral laureate meant passing the metropolitan examination and then sitting the palace examination, earning the degree of doctor or higher, the highest level a scholar could reach. When a riverside delta region produced so many men who reached that level, its temple of literature was not only a place of customary worship but a place where a region recorded itself.
IIFrom Nguyệt Đường Pagoda to a garrison temple of literature
The temple was built under the Lê dynasty, in the 17th century, on the site of the former Nguyệt Đường Pagoda in Xích Đằng village (Nhân Dân, Department of Cultural Heritage). Nhân Dân puts the temple's age at nearly four hundred years. Its present appearance took shape in the restoration of the 20th year of Minh Mạng, that is 1839. Behind the temple, two stone towers of the old pagoda, the Phương Trượng tower and the Tịnh Mãn tower, still stand (Tuổi Trẻ).
- 17th centuryThe temple is built on the site of Nguyệt Đường PagodaUnder the Lê dynasty, the Temple of Literature of the Upper Sơn Nam garrison was built in Xích Đằng village, on the site of the old Nguyệt Đường Pagoda.
- 1803 and 1804The chime and the bell are madeNhân Dân records that the stone chime was made in 1803 and the bronze bell cast in 1804, hung in the chime tower and the bell tower.
- 1839Restoration in the 20th year of Minh MạngThe major restoration recorded by the Department of Cultural Heritage, which fixed the layout in the shape of the character 三 and the architectural style showing the influence of the Huế court.
- 1888Eight steles are set upUnder Emperor Đồng Khánh, eight steles recording the garrison's doctoral laureates were set up.
- 1943The ninth stele is set upUnder Emperor Bảo Đại, one more stele was added, bringing the total to nine with 161 names.
- 1992Ranked as a national heritage siteXích Đằng Temple of Literature was ranked as a national historical and cultural heritage site (Nhân Dân).
- 2014Part of a special national heritage complexIt lies within the Phố Hiến heritage complex, ranked as a special national heritage site under Decision No. 2408/QĐ-TTg of 31 December 2014.
The sources disagree on the date of the bell and chime. Nhân Dân gives the stone chime as 1803 and the bronze bell as 1804, that is the early 19th century, under Emperor Gia Long. Tuổi Trẻ says the bell and chime date from the 18th century. The difference is small but falls in two different centuries, and the library has not been able to check the inscriptions on the bell, so it records both.
On the founding year, the reliable sources say only the Lê dynasty, 17th century, without a specific year. The library keeps that wording and does not fix a year on its own.
IIIThe 三 layout and the bell tower
The grounds of nearly 6,000 square meters include the Temple of Literature gate, a shrine to the earth god, a bell tower, a chime tower, the left and right cloisters, and then the three buildings of the front hall for sacrifices, the middle hall and the rear sanctuary, together with ancillary structures (Department of Cultural Heritage). The three main buildings stand parallel in the shape of the character 三 (three), a familiar arrangement for temples of literature and major temples of the Nguyễn period.
The main gate, with two tiers of eight roofs, the first layer visitors meet. The shape of the gate is what people remember most about this place.
Where Xích Đằng departs from custom: elsewhere there is usually a bell tower and a drum tower, here a bell tower and a chime tower (Tuổi Trẻ). According to Nhân Dân, the stone chime and the bronze bell both date from the early 19th century.
Two symmetrical buildings on either side of the courtyard, which by the custom of temples of literature are places of worship ranked below the main altar.
The outer building, where the incense table stands and the main part of the sacrifice is performed.
The middle building. Nhân Dân and Tuổi Trẻ record the statue of Chu Văn An as standing right in the middle of the main worship area, without saying whether that is the front hall or the middle hall.
The innermost building, holding the altar of Confucius and the earlier worthies.
Many people read the name Phố Hiến and think Xích Đằng was part of the trading port, built for merchants. It was not. Xích Đằng is the Temple of Literature of a whole garrison, founded by the state and worshipping according to Confucian custom, even though it stands on the land of old Phố Hiến. The page on the Phố Hiến heritage complex tells of the port and the whole complex, and this page covers only the temple of literature.
Because of that shared name, some people also merge the temple of literature with the nearby Mẫu Temple or Hiến Pagoda into a single place of worship. Each belongs to its own tradition: the temple of literature to Confucian learning, the Mẫu Temple to the worship of the Mother Goddess, the pagoda to the worship of the Buddha. They share only one ranking file.
The architectural style showing the influence of the Huế court has a reason in its timing. The major restoration of 1839 fell in the reign of Minh Mạng, when the Nguyễn court had had its capital at Huế for several decades and was standardizing many aspects of worship across the country. A garrison temple of literature repaired at that moment would easily take on the roof lines and carving of the capital. Looking at Xích Đằng is therefore seeing a temple of literature built under the Lê but dressed in the style of the Nguyễn, two layers of date laid one over the other on the same foundation.
IVThe lie of the land and the facing
This section is the library's reading through traditional feng shui, based on what the sources describe of the site. The heritage records give no reason for the choice of land, and visitors should read what follows as an interpretation, not as documentation.
Xích Đằng lies on the alluvial land beside the Red River, on flat plain, with no mountain to serve as the backrest (hậu chẩm). On land like this, the art of reading land sets aside the reading of mountains and turns to reading water and the slight height of the ground. A pagoda stood here before the temple of literature, which shows that this ground was already regarded as high, dry and clean, worthy of a place of worship.
In traditional thinking, ground worshipped on for a long time accumulates qi. Building the temple of literature on the site of Nguyệt Đường Pagoda meant taking over a piece of ground already cared for over many generations. The old pagoda's name contains the word Nguyệt, the moon, and the new place of worship honors learning, which takes light as its symbol. The two layers of meaning fit together by chance.
The library's page on Phố Hiến has read the whole area as a town arranged by function: the temple of literature at the upper end, corresponding to learning as the root, Vietnamese temples and pagodas scattered through the residential quarters, and the places of worship of the Chinese community near the wharves. Looking at Xích Đằng on its own shows one thing more: the 三 layout, with three parallel buildings and two symmetrical towers, creates an enclosed block that forms its own boundary of qi in the middle of the open plain. Tuổi Trẻ records that the main front of the temple faces south.
VSpring and autumn sacrifices and asking for calligraphy
Rites at the temple follow Confucian custom: the spring and autumn sacrifices each year. The library has not found a reliable source giving the exact lunar dates of the two sacrifices at Xích Đằng, so it does not give them. The most visible custom today is asking for calligraphy at the start of spring (Công Thương).
| Lunar time | Rite | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Early spring, 1st lunar month | Asking for calligraphy at the new year | People of Hưng Yên and visitors from elsewhere come to the temple to ask for calligraphy, according to Công Thương. The provincial Department of Culture has held a calligraphy event here every year since 2004, in 2026 on the 4th and 5th days of Tết. |
| Spring | Spring sacrifice | The spring sacrifice according to the custom of temples of literature. No sourced exact date has been found. |
| Autumn | Autumn sacrifice | The autumn sacrifice, in the same form as the spring one. No sourced exact date has been found. |
A visit to Xích Đằng usually goes together with other places in the complex. The Mẫu Temple, about 1.4 kilometers away, honors a Mother Goddess in the tradition of Mother Goddess worship, quite different from the Confucian tradition here. Lảnh Giang Temple, about 2.6 kilometers away, belongs to the worship of the Mother of the Water Realm (Mẫu Thoải). Going round in this way, visitors will see that within a radius of a few kilometers, the people of old Hưng Yên placed very different ways of worship side by side without mixing them.
VILocation And How To Get There
- Address
- Thôn Xích Đằng, phường Sơn Nam (phường Lam Sơn cũ, thành phố Hưng Yên cũ), tỉnh Hưng Yên
- Getting there
- In Xích Đằng hamlet, Sơn Nam ward, Hưng Yên province, in the area of the former Hưng Yên city, about 1.4 km from the Mẫu Temple and about 2.6 km from Lảnh Giang Temple, so it is usually visited together with the other sites of the Phố Hiến complex.
- Coordinates
- 20.6622, 106.0492
The temple of literature is a place of worship, and its custom is Confucian: visitors dress modestly, remove hats on entering the front hall for sacrifices, the middle hall and the rear sanctuary, do not bring meat offerings and do not burn votive paper before the altars of Confucius and Chu Văn An. The nine steles are treasures of the whole region, so visitors are asked not to sit or lean on them and not to rub the carved characters.
Nearby places in the library
VIIContribute To This Page
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?Quick Questions
Who is worshipped at Xích Đằng Temple of Literature
Confucius together with the earlier worthies of the Confucian way, and Chu Văn An, according to the Department of Cultural Heritage. The distinctive feature noted by Nhân Dân is that the statue of Chu Văn An stands right in the middle of the main worship area, while the statue of Confucius is in the rear sanctuary, unlike the arrangement at other temples of literature.
How many doctoral steles does Xích Đằng Temple of Literature have
Nine stone steles recording the 161 doctoral laureates of the Upper Sơn Nam garrison, 138 from Hưng Yên and 23 from the former Thái Bình. According to Nhân Dân, eight were set up in 1888 under Emperor Đồng Khánh and one in 1943 under Emperor Bảo Đại.
When was Xích Đằng Temple of Literature built
The temple was built under the Lê dynasty, in the 17th century, on the site of the old Nguyệt Đường Pagoda, according to Nhân Dân and the Department of Cultural Heritage. The major restoration took place in the 20th year of Minh Mạng, that is 1839. The reliable sources do not give a specific founding year.
How does Xích Đằng differ from other temples of literature
Two points stand out. First, the bell tower is paired with a chime tower instead of the usual drum tower. Second, the statue of Chu Văn An stands right in the middle of the main worship area, while many other temples of literature place him among the associates. The 三 layout and the roof style show the influence of the court architecture of Huế.
Is Xích Đằng Temple of Literature part of Phố Hiến
Yes. The temple was ranked as a national heritage site in 1992 and now lies within the Phố Hiến heritage complex, ranked as a special national heritage site under Decision No. 2408/QĐ-TTg of 31 December 2014. Even so, it is a garrison temple of literature founded by the state, not a building of the trading port.