Standing outside the three-entrance gate (tam quan) on Phan Bội Châu Street, you look across a half-moon pond with an arched stone bridge in the middle. Beyond the bridge stand a few wooden houses of three bays and two side wings, low-roofed, their ridges decorated with a pair of dragons facing a pearl, in the style of the nhà rường, the traditional timber house that anyone who has been to Hội An will recognize. On either side of the courtyard are a bell tower and a drum tower.
The name usually proclaimed is Văn Thánh, Khổng Miếu, two names joined by a comma, although according to Báo Đà Nẵng the heritage signboard reads only Khổng Miếu. That compound name is not a matter of presentation. It is the trace of two different temples, a district Văn Thánh dating from 1840 in Chiên Đàn village and a small Khổng Miếu, a Confucius temple, in Mỹ Thạch village, joined together into the heritage site where you are standing.
IOne heritage site bearing the names of two temples
The researcher Ngô Phú Thiện writes in Báo Đà Nẵng that this site combines two layers. The first is the Văn Thánh Chiên Đàn, the Văn Thánh of the old Hà Đông district, built in Chiên Đàn village. The second is a small Khổng Miếu built earlier in the Mỹ Thạch area by local scholars. When the materials of the Văn Thánh Chiên Đàn were brought to be rebuilt on the foundation of the Khổng Miếu, the literary association decided to call the building Khổng Miếu, and the compound name Văn Thánh Khổng Miếu later came into use to keep the mark of both layers. Another article in Báo Đà Nẵng, by Phú Bình, explains the name Khổng Miếu differently: the committee in charge of the building in 1963 was called the Khổng Miếu Construction Committee, after the way the Khổng Miếu of Hội An was named, and in July 1970 the building was named Khổng Miếu in place of the name Thánh miếu by which it had been known. Ngô Phú Thiện cites a proposal to call it Văn Thánh Hà Đông or Văn Thánh Tam Kỳ to be shorter and truer to its origin. This article keeps the official name in current use and lists the other names among the alternative names.
The four Chinese characters at the top of this article were put together by the library from the name, not copied from a hanging board at the site.
To understand why one place honoring Confucius has so many names, it helps to know that the Nguyễn period had a ladder of places honoring learning. In the capital stood the Văn Miếu, the Temple of Literature, tied to the Imperial Academy. In the garrisons and provinces stood the garrison or provincial văn miếu, such as the Mao Điền Temple of Literature of the Hải Dương garrison. Down at the prefecture and district level stood the văn thánh or văn từ. At the level of villages and communes stood the văn chỉ, often no more than a plot of ground with an open-air altar. Khổng Miếu, meanwhile, is a general name for a temple to Confucius, not tied to any level.
The Văn Thánh Chiên Đàn thus stood on the third rung, as the place of worship of a district. The rules at this level were lighter than for a provincial temple, and it was looked after by the literary association and the scholars of the district. On the question of funds, the sources differ. One article in Báo Đà Nẵng writes that under Minh Mạng local officials drew on public funds to build văn thánh for the districts. The steles at Chiên Đàn, on the other hand, record that the gentry and scholars of the district shared out timber and money among themselves, and the restoration of 1895 drew on both money from the district and money collected in seven cantons.
As for who is honored: the main hall holds a statue of Confucius in the pose of a teacher giving a lesson (Dân trí). The remaining bays of the main hall honor the earlier philosophers (tiên triết), the earlier worthies (tiền hiền) and the earlier Confucians (tiên Nho) (Việt Nam Hội nhập, Nguyễn Thị Vĩnh Linh), that is, the worthies of the Confucian tradition, those who first opened up the land, and the Confucian scholars of the region who came before. Báo Đà Nẵng, for its part, records that the rear hall honors the famous Confucians and doctoral laureates of the old Hà Đông land. Worship through a statue sets it apart from the Cao Lãnh Temple of Literature, where Confucius is honored through a spirit tablet.
Many travel pages write that the site's architecture is more than 300 years old. That figure does not match any date given by research sources. The Văn Thánh Chiên Đàn was begun in 1840 and the site at Mỹ Thạch was built from 1963 to 1970, so the worship here is close to two hundred years old and the buildings now standing are much younger. The figure of three hundred years may refer to the tradition of Quảng Nam timber houses in general, not to this place.
IIFrom Chiên Đàn to Mỹ Thạch
The researcher Nguyễn Thị Vĩnh Linh has studied eight văn thánh and Khổng Miếu in the former Quảng Nam: Hội An, Minh Hương, Cẩm Phô, Đại Lộc, Duy Xuyên, Điện Bàn, Hà Lam and Hà Đông. The Văn Thánh Hà Đông at Chiên Đàn lies at the southern end of the group, and in her view most of these văn thánh had to be moved and restored several times. The one at Tam Kỳ is a case of moving from one village to another altogether and joining an existing temple.
- 1840Work begins on the Văn Thánh Chiên ĐànIn the 1st month of the 21st year of Minh Mạng, according to Nguyễn Thị Vĩnh Linh, the district elected a committee made up of the tú tài (bachelor) Nguyễn Quang Huy, the ritual officer Nguyễn Văn Liên and the đốc đồng Nguyễn Văn Nhã. The stele she quotes records that construction began in the 6th month of that year, and Việt Nam Hội nhập gives the 14th day of the 6th month of the Canh Tý year.
- 1842The main worship building is finishedBáo Đà Nẵng and Việt Nam Hội nhập record that the work lasted from 1840 to 1842.
- 1850An assembly hall is addedBáo Đà Nẵng records that the literary association added an assembly hall beside the shrine for students to meet and discuss literature. Nguyễn Thị Vĩnh Linh records that in this year of Tự Đức the shrine to the Former Sages (Tiên chính) was completed.
- 1895Restoration and a wooden steleThe 7th year of Thành Thái. A wooden stele records that the temple had fallen into ruin, with weeds hiding its columns, and lists the people and the hamlets and communes that gave money and goods for the restoration.
- Early 20th centuryThe rites ceaseThe Văn Thánh stopped holding its rites for a long period.
- 1963Rebuilt in Mỹ Thạch villageAs the Văn Thánh Chiên Đàn fell into decay, its materials were brought to Mỹ Thạch village, in the old Kỳ Hương commune, and rebuilt on the foundation of an existing small Khổng Miếu, on communal land of the village.
- 1970The new site is completedThe rebuilding took seven years and was finished in July 1970, according to Báo Đà Nẵng.
- 2006 and 2011Ranking and restorationIn 2006 it was ranked as a national heritage site (Dân trí, Báo Đà Nẵng). In August 2011, for the first time in more than half a century, the site was extensively restored and embellished, keeping the five old buildings as they were and adding two covered corridors and two old-style houses (Báo Đà Nẵng, Việt Nam Hội nhập).
The sources agree on the years but not on the days and months, and the library notes this for the reader.
On the start of work, the 1st month of the 21st year of Minh Mạng was when the district elected the committee, while the stele quoted by Nguyễn Thị Vĩnh Linh records that work began in the 6th month of that year, and Việt Nam Hội nhập gives the 14th day of the 6th month of the Canh Tý year. Việt Nam Hội nhập gives the inauguration as the 20th day of the 1st month of the Tân Sửu year and glosses it as 1842, but the Tân Sửu year corresponds to 1841, so the completion date still needs checking. For the new site, Việt Nam Hội nhập gives the start of building as May 1963, while Báo Đà Nẵng, quoting a local scholar in a special issue of 1970, gives June. For the area, Dân trí gives about 6,000 square meters and Việt Nam Hội nhập 6,200 square meters.
The most precious original record of this place is the wooden stele. According to Nguyễn Thị Vĩnh Linh, the stele lists the people and the hamlets and communes that gave money and goods. According to the translation published in Báo Đà Nẵng, the restoration of 1895 drew on three thousand strings of cash from the district and five thousand collected in seven cantons, which shows that a district văn thánh lived on both district funds and the contributions of scholars and villages.
IIIQuảng Nam timber houses within the plan of a văn thánh
At first the Văn Thánh Chiên Đàn consisted of two connected parts, the từ vũ, the shrine, and the hội đường, the assembly hall (Báo Đà Nẵng). The site at Mỹ Thạch keeps that idea but spreads it out in the manner of a full văn thánh. The thing most worth looking at is how the people of Quảng Nam took their familiar nhà rường, the timber house, and set it within a plan of worship rooted in Confucian learning.
The three-way gate opening onto Phan Bội Châu Street, the first layer separating the worship area from the street.
A pond shaped like a half moon, planted with lotus and crossed by an arched stone bridge (Dân trí), set between the gate and the worship area.
A house of three bays and two side wings, of carved jackfruit wood, with dragons on the columns, a ridge decorated with two dragons contending for a pearl and stylized clouds at the roof corners (Dân trí, Việt Nam Hội nhập). It holds the statue of Confucius.
Joined behind the main hall. Báo Đà Nẵng records that the rear hall honors the famous Confucians and doctoral laureates of the old Hà Đông land, and that two pairs of couplets inlaid with ceramic in front of the two altars of earlier Confucians were taken as they were from the old Văn Thánh Chiên Đàn.
Two towers facing each other on either side, used during the rites.
Two covered corridors roofed with yin-yang tiles and two old-style houses of three bays and two side wings beside the half-moon pond, built in 2011, with woodcarving by the carpenters of Kim Bồng in Hội An (Báo Đà Nẵng, Việt Nam Hội nhập). The old-style houses are used to prepare offerings and for cultural activities.
Báo Đà Nẵng describes the couplets here as finely inlaid with broken ceramic. Inlaying shards of ceramic into characters and patterns is a familiar craft of central Vietnam, seen often at the tombs and temples of Huế. Dân trí notes that the woodcarving follows the skill of Hội An craftsmen. Both details say the same thing: this is a văn thánh of the people of Quảng Nam, made with the materials and skills of Quảng Nam, not a copy of the Temple of Literature in the capital.
IVThe lie of the land and the facing
A word first: the box below is the library's own reading based on traditional feng shui. On the choice of land in 1963, two articles in Báo Đà Nẵng say different things. Ngô Phú Thiện writes that the materials were brought to be rebuilt on the foundation of an existing small Khổng Miếu. Phú Bình describes the place as a large plot of communal rice land belonging to Mỹ Thạch village, probably chosen because it was a good site in feng shui terms, and quotes two lines by the local scholar Phạm Dưỡng Chánh describing the lie of the land: facing Mount Trà Cai as the screen hill, with its back against the Quảng Phú River, a branch of today's Bàn Thạch River. No source gives the temple's facing in degrees.
This place differs from the other temples of literature in the library in one respect: the present ground was not chosen by its landforms but was chosen by an old foundation. When the materials of the Văn Thánh Chiên Đàn were moved, people did not look for a fine new mound but set them on a spot where a Khổng Miếu already stood. In the traditional way of thinking, that is a reasonable choice: ground that has already honored Confucius already carries the qi of that worship, and building on it continues a vein rather than opening a new one.
Second is the half-moon pond in front of the worship area. Set between the gate and the main hall, the pond sits exactly where feng shui places the bright hall (minh đường), the open space in front where water gathers. The half-moon shape is familiar in the communal houses and temples of central Vietnam. The arched stone bridge across the pond does one more thing: those who enter must step up and then step down, slowing their pace before reaching the place of worship. In the old reading, the water holds the qi outside and the bridge leads people in with due ceremony.
Third is the nhà rường of three bays and two side wings. The Quảng Nam timber house was originally a dwelling, low with steep roofs, suited to the harsh sun and the storms of this narrow strip of land. Using that kind of house as the main hall of a văn thánh lets the place honoring learning stand firm in the climate of the region, and in the eyes of one who reads the land, a building suited to the weather where it stands is a building that has found its right place at the most immediate level.
Finally, to be candid: the heritage site now lies in the middle of the city, with streets and houses on every side. This is an urban site. What can still be read in the old way lies within the grounds, in the pond, the bridge and the axis of approach, not in the mountains and rivers around it.
VSpring and autumn sacrifices and the spring festival
According to Nguyễn Thị Vĩnh Linh, each of the old văn thánh of Quảng Nam kept its own rites. The Văn Thánh of Cẩm Phô held spring and autumn sacrifices twice a year, on the 16th day of the 2nd and of the 8th lunar months, and the Văn Thánh of Hà Lam gathered its graduates in the 2nd month and sacrificed to the Sage in the 8th. For Tam Kỳ, the available sources describe only the spring festival in the 1st month and the award ceremony in the 7th month, and say nothing of spring and autumn sacrifices today, so the first two rows of the table follow only the general custom.
| Timing | Event | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Spring | Spring sacrifice | A custom of some old văn thánh of Quảng Nam, for example at Cẩm Phô on the 16th day of the 2nd lunar month. No source has been found saying that Tam Kỳ still keeps this sacrifice. |
| Autumn | Autumn sacrifice | For example at Cẩm Phô on the 16th day of the 8th lunar month, and at Hà Lam with a sacrifice to the Sage in the 8th month. No source has been found saying that Tam Kỳ still keeps this sacrifice. |
| The 1st lunar month | Spring festival | A poetry evening for the Lantern Festival (Nguyên tiêu), bài chòi singing, folk songs, folk games and other cultural activities in the grounds. |
| The 7th lunar month | The Phan Châu Trinh Prize ceremony | Awards to outstanding local pupils and students, carrying on the tradition of honoring learning of the old Hà Đông land (Báo Đà Nẵng, Việt Nam Hội nhập). |
The spring festival here is gentle, leaning more toward poetry and games than toward grand ritual. That too is the way of a district văn thánh: a place where the scholars of the area met at the start of the year to read poems and discuss literature, more than a place where officials led the rites according to the court's statutes.
VILocation And How To Get There
- Address
- Đường Phan Bội Châu, phường Bàn Thạch (phường Tân Thạnh cũ, thành phố Tam Kỳ cũ, tỉnh Quảng Nam cũ), thành phố Đà Nẵng. Đất làng Mỹ Thạch, xã Kỳ Hương xưa
- Getting there
- On Phan Bội Châu Street, Bàn Thạch ward, Đà Nẵng city, on the land of the former Tân Thạnh ward of the former Tam Kỳ city, in the former Quảng Nam province, that is, the old village of Mỹ Thạch. Within walking distance of the center of the former Tam Kỳ city.
- Coordinates
- 15.5825, 108.4706
The customs here are those of a văn thánh. Visitors are expected to offer incense, flowers and tea before the statue of Confucius, not to place meat offerings and not to burn votive paper. Visitors are expected to walk slowly across the stone bridge and not to gather on it. Visitors are asked not to touch the ceramic-inlaid couplets or the carved woodwork, since these are the decorative layers of the site most easily damaged.
Nearby places in the library
VIIContribute To This Page
Contribute photos, information or video for Tam Ky Temple of Literature
Góp ảnh, thông tin hoặc video cho Văn Thánh Khổng Miếu Tam KỳEveryone is welcome to enrich this page: a photo you took, a detail the page misses, a short video. Every contribution is read and answered.
Thầy Ưng Khiêm mời cộng đồng cùng làm giàu trang này. Ảnh chụp tận nơi, một chi tiết lịch sử chưa được nhắc, một đoạn video ngắn: mọi đóng góp đều được đọc và trả lời.
No community contribution yet. You could be the first. Chưa có đóng góp nào từ cộng đồng. Bạn có thể là người đầu tiên.
?Quick Questions
Who is worshipped at the Tam Kỳ Văn Thánh Khổng Miếu
The main hall holds a statue of Confucius in the pose of a teacher giving a lesson. The remaining bays of the main hall honor the earlier philosophers, earlier worthies and earlier Confucians, that is, the worthies of the Confucian tradition, those who first opened up the land and the Confucian scholars who came before in the old Hà Đông region. Báo Đà Nẵng records that the rear hall honors the famous Confucians and doctoral laureates of the Hà Đông land.
Why is it called Văn Thánh Khổng Miếu
Because the site combines two temples. The Văn Thánh Chiên Đàn of Hà Đông district was built in 1840, and in 1963 its materials were brought to Mỹ Thạch village and rebuilt on the foundation of an existing small Khổng Miếu. The compound name keeps the mark of both. It has been proposed to call it Văn Thánh Hà Đông or Văn Thánh Tam Kỳ.
How old is the Tam Kỳ Văn Thánh Khổng Miếu
The Văn Thánh Chiên Đàn was begun in 1840, and the present site at Mỹ Thạch was built from 1963 to 1970. The figure of more than 300 years given by some travel pages does not match any date in the research sources.
How does a văn thánh differ from a văn miếu
A văn miếu is a place honoring Confucius in the capital and at the level of garrisons and provinces. A văn thánh is a place of worship at the level of prefectures and districts, looked after by the local literary association and scholars. A văn chỉ is a place of worship at the level of villages and communes. The Tam Kỳ Văn Thánh was originally the văn thánh of the old Hà Đông district.
When was the Tam Kỳ Văn Thánh Khổng Miếu ranked
The site is a national heritage site, and Dân trí says the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism recognized it in 2006. The library has not found the decision number. In August 2011, for the first time in more than half a century, the site was extensively restored.