Story 10: Temple of Literature

Story 10: Temple of Literature - Imperial Academy

Like previous kings, King ThanhTong Ly worshiped Buddhism but he also interested in Confucianism, the system of philosophical and ethical was used as standards of living in China over one thousand years of history. According to Confucianism, an ideal model had to followed three rules or three Moral Bonds (there regulated about three relationships, people and king, father and his offspring, husband and wife) and five moral qualities or five constant virtues (these were benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, fidelity)

King Thanh Tong Ly seemed to predict the development of Confucianism and he also realized that had no way to build talented people but Confucianism. Therefore, he was the first person who went on the way, developing Confucianism in the country. Vietnamese history had written:

“In spring 1070, King Thanh Tong Le ordered builders to build Temple of Literature (Van Mieu), built statues which were Confucius (Khong Tu), Zhou Gong (Chu Cong), four greatest students of Confucius and 72 other students who were considered good students of Confucius and there was place people worship them. The place was also where crown prince came to study”. That meant:

Temple of Literature was place which used to worship people who were teachers, masters of Confucius. They were…

1) Confucius (Khong Tu) who was born in 551 and died in 479 before Christ. He was a person who lived in Lo (a small country that time, and now the country was a part of China). He was Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher. His theories were developed to be a philosophical system (Confucianism). He taught many students. Therefore, his philosophical system was spread widely and he was called “The Model Teacher for the Myriad Ages”.

2) Zhou Gong (Chu Cong), none know exactly when he was born and when he died. He was one of person who had built Zhou dynasty (1121 – 356 before Christ. He had built monarchy rule system and was person who had a great influence on ancient culture.

3) Four greatest students of Confucius (Nhan Hoi, Tang Sam, Tu Tu, Manh Tu).

4) And, 72 good students of Confucius.

They all were considered people who had built and spread widely Confucius in China.

Worshiping was performed every year, that proved the king respected and was grateful the people.

Confucius was attached with learning that explained why the king ordered crown prince to come and study there. Therefore, Temple of Literature and Imperial Academy were attached together. Imperial Academy was the first school which was established in Vietnam by by the government. Firstly, Imperial Academy was place crown Prince came and studied. Later which was place where royal offspring and powerful mandarin’s offspting studied in.

But Imperial Academy (Quoc Tu Giam) was built after that. In 1076, Royal ConcubineY Lan ordered builder to build Imperial Academy inside Temple of Literature. And the first student of Imperial Academy was King Nhan Tong Ly. He was only ten years old though he had been king for four years.

The school was the first formal training facility which people studied in. Though King Thanh Tong Ly had died before Imperial Academy was built, he was the first person who used Confucius as foundation of the rule of the country. Till Tran dynasty, Dai Viet had a great teacher his name was Van An Chu. When he died he also was worshiped in Temple of Literature.

One more thing you should know about King Thanh Tong Ly that he was a person he created Thao Duong Buddhism. His theories were combination Confucius and Buddhism. He brought Buddhism into community. He made kindness to be practical action as helping others, building country… The king explained Buddha was not any where but in your heart. People directed to the Buddha because they didn’t hate the life but wanted a better life which they only found in Buddhism.

Temple of Literature - Imperial Academy is the place all Vietnamese people proud. People say that is the oldest university in the world. Today, Temple of Literature - Imperial Academy is famous tourist destination, people can come and see its unique architecture or show their respect to great teachers who are worshiped in there. Every year, the place always holds a ceremony to honor people who have had great contribution to education. Especially, students usually come there before having a important examination, they think that will bring luck to them.

THE END

"Translated by Hung Nguyen"

Read more:

Historical stories

Story 8: King Thanh Tong Ly

Story 9: Royal Concubine Y Lan

Story 11: King Nhan Tong Ly

Story 12: General Thuong Kiet Ly

Story 13: Van Thinh Le

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Truyện cổ tích Việt Nam

Vietnamese fairy tales

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List of Vietnamese fairy tales

Vietnamese fairy tales includes many stories as Tam and Cam; So Dua; Hundred – knot- bamboo tree... which were spread in folk. Each stories has its own meaning. I think I can not translate exactly each word into english but I will try my best to convey its meaning to you. Hope you like them!

My Chau and Trong Thuy

Once upon a time, there had a king, named An Duong Vuong. After many years fighting, he get a large area. The king planed to build a castle but whenever it had been built as tall as a men’s height then it was ruined. The king was unhappy. Therefore, the king had made an altar to pray God for few days until an early morning, a old man from seaside went to talk him God Turtle was going come to help him. The king was very happy and forced soldiers to wait on the seaside. The next day, in the water appeared a big gold turles toward seaside. The soldiers invited God Turtle to set sat on a big gold platter and brought to the king. The God Turtle told the king that the castle couldn’t have finished because of demons. God Turtle helped the king to kill the demons so all demons was killed. Besides, the God Turtle help the king design a castle look like a seashell with many gate levels. Half a month later, the castle had been finished. The king was very pleased but a little worry. He a...

Idiot

Once upon a time, there was an idiot whose name was Ngoc. Ngoc had a wife who didn’t like him to stay home and do nothing. One day, when they were sitting by the other, his wife told: “Husband you can’t continue doing nothing. You must find a job to do if you want to live with me in long time” “Do what?” said Ngoc, “I don’t know write or read and besides, not smart as others so what can I do?” “Do business”, said his wife. “Business? What?” said Ngoc. “All things which bring to you benefit”, said his wife, “Firstly, you can buy and sell chickens and ducks. Later, you can buy and sell wood”. Few days later, Ngoc brought money and set off. He remembered his wife’s saying so that he found the way to trade ducks. He didn’t need long time to find what he need. He saw ducks they were about dozen of ducks swimming in the lake which was by his way but they were wild ducks and he didn’t know that so he walked to find the owner of the ducks. He saw some children near that....

The dangerous thing existing inside a person

A man was good-for-nothing but he was gentle and good-hearted. He had a wife but she dead so early. He lived alone from that and his life also became poorer. He had ever begged but he thought the job was too raffish and besides, it couldn’t help him to have enough money to live. Therefore, he changed into another job. He worked for another to get wages but he only worked a day to realize the job made him tired and ashamed because he was blamed by his owner. Therefore, he decided to stop working and planed to go fishing he thought the job would be more freely and easily. His owner gave him a little money for his-a-day-working and he used the money to buy a fishing rod. The next morning he went fishing but he could get nothing till noon. He wasted bait along passing time. Until afternoon when the float was pulled down into water he pulled up the rod immediately. Fortunately, he got something but it was only a snake which had no useful for him. He caught the snake then thre...

Truyện 189. Sự tích cái chổi

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Luu and Death god

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Tu Thuc and wonderland

A boy, named Tu Thuc, lived in Tran dynasty. He was offspring of a mandarin and was taught carefully. When he was 20 years old, he got passed all contests the king organized. So, he was appointed to be district mandarin. Not like other mandarins he liked freedom, hated rules. He also didn’t like to swarm others. He liked to drink, do poetry and go sightseeing. A large temple stood in the area he managed. Peonies were grown in temple’s garden and they bloomed in every January that was also the time the temple had a Buddhist festival. Many people from anywhere gathered at there as the festival started. Tu Thuc had heard about the festival and wanted to go to there one time. He put on normal clothes that helped him not to be realized by others. He went alone to the temple. That time, Buddhism was national religion of the country so monks were people who had high positions. Monks set a rule that anyone who picked up flowers or broke boughs would be paid for that and if they ha...

Story 12: General Thuong Kiet Ly

His birth name is Tuan Ngo, an offspring of Quyen Ngo. He was borned in 1019 at Thai Hoa ward, Thang Long (now Hanoi). When he was child, he early showed brave and martial spirit what were inherited from his family who had been generals, dedicating to Ly dynasty. His father, An Ngu Ngo was also one of them he was a great general. When he was 13 years old, he lost his father and was taken care by his aunt and her husband. Tuan Ngo was taught by Cong An Ly, a royal great teacher at that time. His teacher complimented that he had talent but he headed to be a general instead of a mandarin. Therefore, he studied literature in daytime and research art of warfare in night time. When he was enough 18 years old, he opened a martial class. People coming and studying were crowded. The news came to the recent king who summoned him to castle and conferred him to be a low martial mandarin. Two years later, he became the king’s guard staying by the king entire day. That time, the king realize...

Clever wife has idiot husband

Long time ago, that had a woman working as a weaver. She was clever woman but had an idiot husband. One day, she gave rolls of cloth to his husband and said: “Sell them only if people pay two hundreds and forty coins a roll.” vietnamesefairytales.blogspot.com The husband went to market to sell he spent much time staying at market, inviting people to take a look his cloth but he didn’t sell any roll. Till an old man came and bought two rolls but he didn’t bring money. Therefore, the old man said to him: “Come to my home to get your money after you finish. My home is also in this village.” “Where is your home?”, asked the husband. “I live in a place which has a crowded market without sellers, has flutes spread tunable noise by themselves and has one-knot bamboo tress.”, said the old man then he went. Late afternoon the husband pucked up his cloth and went to find the old man. He asked people about the place the old man had described but none knew the place ha...

Vietnamese fairy tales

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