Why do Vietnamese place such high value on academic exams?

An emphasis on the benefits of learning and on respect for teachers and talent has shaped the Vietnamese educational tradition for thousands of years. Through the centuries, even the poorest Vietnamese mothers dreamed of their children passing the royal examinations or graduating from university.

Although many Vietnamese are keen learners, the Vietnamese educational system had a rocky beginning. When the Chinese invaded in the late third century B.C., they introduced Chinese characters and Confucianism. However, during a thousand years of Chinese rule, the Chinese taught the Vietnamese only enough Chinese language for the Vietnamese to become good servants. Once the Vietnamese, led by Ngô Quyền, drove the Chinese out for good in 939 A.D., the nascent Đinh and Lê Dynasties still had to fight external and internal enemies; this left little time to promote learning.

The turning point in Vietnamese education occurred after Lý Thái Tổ acceded to the throne in 1009 as the first king of the Lý Dynasty and transferred the capital from Hoa Lư in Ninh Bình Province to Thăng Long, now Ha Noi, in 1010. In 1070, King Lý Thánh Tông constructed the Temple of Literature (Văn Miếu) to honour Confucius and his disciples. While continuing to maintain national independence, Đại Việt (Viet Nam) opened its door to other cultures, especially China and India. The Temple of Literature did not conflict with Buddhist pagodas.

Ly Thai To's monument

In 1076, Lý Nhân Tông established the National University (Quốc Tử Giám), the first university in Viet Nam to train senior officials for the civil service. He located it in the same compound as the Temple of Literature. The University initially recruited sons only from royal and senior mandarin families. Later, sons of common people could also enter the University if they had talent. The University continued to train doctoral laureates or tiến sĩ, until 1802, when Emperor Gia Long moved the capital to Phú Xuân (Huế).

The National University became the pinnacle of the Vietnamese educational system. Lower schools trained candidates for its examinations. Many villages had private schools apart from state-run public schools at the national, provincial, and district levels. Village teachers included unsuccessful candidates for the royal exams as well as some degree holders, who chose not to become mandarins or who did not want to be involved in politics.

The curriculum of both public and private schools included the Confucian classics, philosophy, literature, history, and politics. Successful students learned the Four Books of Confucianism by heart as well as Vietnamese and Chinese history. They also studied how to compose poetry and prepare documents such as royal edicts, speeches, mandarins' reports, analyses, and essays.

The Confucian educational system turned out brilliant politicians, military strategists, diplomats, writers, and historians. Among the most renowned Confucian scholars are General Trần Hưng Đạo (who led the army that defeated the Mongol invaders in the thirteenth century), the humanist Nguyễn Trãi, and the poet Nguyen Du. UNESCO has recognised the last two as great men of culture.

How many exams must a candidate pass to attain the title of "Doctoral Laureate?"

Education at the National University prepared students for the royal examinations, the gateway to becoming a mandarin at the court or in the provinces. Those who did not pass the exams became part of the nation's educated class and often returned to their villages as schoolmasters.

Both the examinations and the honours conferred evolved over the centuries. By the fifteenth century, the multi-stage examination process could take several months. The first step, called thi hương, was a regional examination held once every three years. Those who passed the regional exam went to Ha Noi with their sleeping mats, brushes, and ink-stones to sit for the four-part thi hội. The examination may have been held on the site of what is now the national library, as suggested by some historians and by the street name, Trang Thi, or Examination Street. With anywhere from 450 to 6,000 candidates, the exam area must have been a large one.

The exam area

The examination was held in four parts; a candidate had to pass each part in sequence in order to qualify for the following stage. The first stage, called Kinh nghia, was based directly on the Confucian classics. Examinees were given four subjects from the Confucian canon and told to choose one. In addition, candidates chose one out of three questions based on the five preConfucian classics. Finally, they were given two questions based on the Spring and Autumn Annals and told to synthesise them.

For the second part of the examination (chế, chiếu, biểu), a candidate wrote as if he were the king discussing matters of state. Candidates who passed the second test then wrote two different kinds of thơ and phú poems on given topics. The thơ is a poem of twenty-eight words divided into four lines of seven words each; the phú is a prose poem of eight seven-word lines.

The final part of the doctoral exam was văn sách, in which candidates commented on how to handle problems facing the country, drawing from their knowledge of the Confucian classics and the history of previous dynasties.

Those who passed all four sections received the title of Doctoral Laureate (tiến sĩ) and were invited to the palace for the thi dinh, or palace examination. During this examination, the king himself posed the questions and read the candidates' responses. He then ranked the tien si into three groups and conferred special distinction on the three most successful candidates of the highest-ranking group.

From 1076 until 1779, the date of the last royal examination held in Thang Long (Ha Noi), 2,313 examinees received the title of Doctoral Laureate. Today, 1,306 of their names remain on the eighty-two steles at the Temple of Literature. Each stele represents one examination year, starting from 1442, the first year individual names were recorded. The number of examinees awarded the tiến sĩ degree in any one year ranged from three to sixty-one, with the ages of the laureates ranging from sixteen to sixty-one. Over the centuries, thirty of the steles have disappeared.

The new mandarins were offered a cap and gown, given a banquet at the palace, and sent home to their villages in triumphal processions. There, they in turn offered a feast to the village, sometimes to their financial ruin. The scholars differed greatly in their contributions to their country. Some were more virtuous than others; some were nothing more than bureaucrats. Yet many were brilliant: mathematicians and philosophers, statesmen and finance ministers, and officials renowned for fighting corruption.

The new mandarins were kowtowed at the Temple of Literature (1897)

Literature and public service were not distinct realms in traditional Viet Nam. Poets contributed to the economic life of their times by bringing high-yielding maize from China, improving techniques for silk weaving and reed mat weaving, and developing a system of irrigation canals. Many of the most brilliant statesmen and diplomats were also poets. An example is Nguyen Trai (1380¬1442), the architect of a victorious fifteenth-century insurrection against the Chinese. He is still honoured as one of Viet Nam's greatest statesmen.

How difficult were the royal exams?

The royal examinations were difficult by design. Only 185 examinations were held between 1076 and 1919, and only 2,906 candidates ever reached the goal of a doctorate. On average, 70,000-80,000 candidates entered the regional competitions, but only around fifteen became doctoral laureates after the final examination in the king's palace.

In the beginning, the examination system was not well established. The first national exam was held in Thang Long during the reign of King Ly Nhan Tong (1072-1127). During the Ly Dynasty, the intervals between exams ranged from eleven to forty-two years. Candidates who failed an exam might have to wait several decades before taking the next one. During the Tran Dynasty, in 1239, the king shortened the interval between exams to seven years. In 1434, exams began to be held every three years. This practice continued through the Nguyen Dynasty until the last central-level exam in 1919.

King Le Thanh Tong revised the rules for the regional and national exams, making them stricter and more detailed. To become eligible for the national exam, a candidate first had to pass a regional exam, which was organised at one school in each cluster of four or five neighbouring provinces. For instance, candidates from Bac Ninh, Bac Giang, Thai Nguyen, Lang Son, and Cao Bang Provinces took their regional exam at the Kinh Bac Examination School. Each regional exam lasted several months and consisted of four stages. After each stage, the candidates waited ten days for the results; only those who passed could continue on to the subsequent stage. Those who passed all the regional stages were conferred the title of cử nhân (Bachelor's Degree) or tú tài (Baccalaureate), depending on their level of success.

Winners of a Bachelor's Degree were entitled to attend the next national exam. But transport to the capital city was anything but easy. A candidate from central Nghe An Province, for example, had to walk 300 kilometres to Thang Long (or nearly the same distance to Hue, after 1802), carrying food, a tent, a small bamboo bed, and writing materials. Along the way, the traveller risked robbery, tiger attacks and snake bites. If they survived the trip, most candidates chose to stay for some years to study at the National University before sitting for the royal exam.

Similar to the regional exams, the national exam also included four stages. Those who passed all the four stages became tiến sĩ (Doctoral Laureate) and proceeded to take the đình, or palace exam. The đình exam was held in the king' s palace. The king himself, with the help of senior mandarins, set the questions and marked the papers. He entertained the laureates at his palace on the day the results were announced, awarding caps and gowns and then taking the laureates on a tour of the royal garden and streets in the capital. Afterwards, they returned to their home villages to pay respect to their ancestors and wait for assignments.

What was a royal exam like?

The following excerpt from Ngo Tat To's novel, The Tent and the Bamboo Bed, describes candidate Van Hac's experiences of a royal exam held in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century:

The wind blew again. The thunder rumbled, ầm ầm. Rainwater poured everywhere, seething and swirling. Even though Van Hac had tied his tent securely to the earth, the tent twisted and shook with each gust. From time to time, he had to grab the frame to secure it so the tent wouldn't burst open.

Near midday, the rain became formidable. The ditches in the walled examination quarter filled with churning white water. Bubbles bobbed on the water's surface. A moment later, the water overflowed the ditches into Van Hac's tent and spread, swirling around his narrow bamboo bed.

Van Hac sat on the bed, his head bowed over his wooden lap table, absorbed in writing his exam. He felt his bed gradually sink into the earth; muddy water rose between its bamboo slats.

What was happening?

A few months before, the examination area had been a rice field. The rice came ripe just as the exams were about to begin. After the farmers had harvested their crop, they brought in water buffaloes to plow the field and break the earth into large clods. Then the farmers divided the field into areas where the students could pitch their tents and sit for their exams. 

The early days of the exam were sunny. The students walked about on the coarse earth, which was hard on their feet but fairly clean. But now, with the heavy rain, the area had flooded and turned to mud that couldn't support the weight of a bed with someone sitting on it. And so, the bamboo bed sank until its four legs disappeared like submerged stakes into earth that was as soft as pulpy rice.

Van Hac, like all the others, sat on a bed, but it was as if nothing was there. The water lapped around the bottom of his trousers and the flap of his gown and smeared them with mud. At times the northern wind drove splashing water into the tents. Van Hac had to turn his back to the gale so that his body became like a screen blocking the water and preventing the spray from striking his examination paper. The rainwater penetrated his clothes, soaking Van Hac to the skin. He felt a chill enter his bones as if he'd been shot by poisoned arrows. He blew out his breath. His hand trembled so much that he could no longer hold his brush to write down the poem he had composed.

"I'd better give this up and be free of it," Van Hac said to himself. "Taking an exam this way is more humiliating than a dog's life. Becoming a mandarin isn't worth this."

Van Hac seized his examination papers, intending to tear them to shreds. But then suddenly he remembered: Even if he wasn't going to continue with the exam, he must still turn in his empty pages before he could leave. If he did not turn over his examination book, then guards at the gate would think he'd snuck in to help another student; they would arrest Van Hac. And so Van Hac thought again: If I present an exam with only a few lines of poetry, I will be considered one of the 'due bach' class. They'll add my name and age to the wooden placard of mediocrity. I'll be humiliated for who knows how long.

There remained no other choice. He must press on despite his excruciating plight.

How were the three top winners of national exams selected?

The three top winners of national examinations received the special honour of tam khôi (three laureates), which the king himself conferred. These three highest titles bore different names at different times, but for most of Vietnamese history they were called trạng nguyên, bảng nhãn and thám hoa.

The selection of the tam khôi varied from one examination to another: some examinations had four tam khôi laureates, some had three, some had two, and some did not have any, depending on the qualifications of the candidates. Throughout the Tran, Le, Mac, and Nguyen Dynasties, only 166 people became tam khôi laureates: forty-six were First Laureates; forty-six, Second Laureates; and seventy-four, Third Laureates. By policy, the Nguyen Dynasty did not select First Laureates; in the eight palace examinations it organised, it selected only two bảng nhãn and nine thám hoa laureates.

The photo of national exam

An analysis of the tam khôi records provides a valuable picture of dynastic-era Vietnamese society. Reflecting the predominantly rural character of Viet Nam, only six out of all the tam khoi laureates came from urban areas: Ha Noi (three winners), Thanh Hoa (two) and Son Tay (one). Most came from the Red River Delta of northern Viet Nam. The most successful provinces were Bac Ninh (thirty-nine laureates), Hai Duong (thirty), and Ha Tay (eighteen). It is interesting to note that the 1256 and 1266 examinations each selected two First Laureates, one for the north and one for the south.

The tam khôi laureates bore thirty-six different family names. As one would expect, the Nguyen clan had the largest number of laureates (fifty-three). They were followed by Tran (fourteen), Vu (thirteen), Le and Pham (nine each), Hoang (six) and Luu (five). Fifteen other family names were represented by only one tam khôi laureate.

The laureates were a surprisingly long-lived group, with an average life span of sixty-two. One Second Laureate, Nguyen Nhu Do (1424-1525), lived more than a century. Two other laureates reached the age of ninety-four.

The average age at which laureates were awarded a tam khôi title was thirty-two. At age sixty-one, Nguyen Nghi (1577-1664) was the oldest candidate to become a laureate. The three youngest tam khôi laureates were all selected in the 1247 examination during the reign of King Tran Thai Tong (1225-1258): First Laureate Nguyen Hien (aged thirteen), Second Laureate Le Van Huu (aged eighteen) and Third Laureate Dang Ma La (aged fourteen).

How was a new doctoral laureate's homecoming celebrated?

The royal examinations came once every three years. A court official posted a large notice outside the National University in the capital. It read: "The King looks for talent." Since very few candidates passed the exams, success was a great honour and considered the doorway to becoming a mandarin. A successful laureate received a hero's welcome when he returned to his native village, with the level of ceremony depending on the specific academic degree: village-wide for a Baccalaureate, sub-district level for a Bachelor's Degree, and district level for a Doctorate.

After the examination, the village leaders sent an emissary to fix the date of the new laureate's return. On the appointed day, a procession began with flags and banners, other ceremonial objects, the flag and certificate granted by the king (in the case of a doctoral degree), the palanquins of the laureate's teacher and parents, and finally the laureate himself.

Along the way, drums sounded to inform villagers of the laureate's arrival. People poured out to see the laureate, who had brought fame to his parents, his family name, and to his village as a "land of literature."

When he finally arrived at his house, the laureate prayed in front of the altar to his ancestors and to Confucius. Friends, relatives, and villagers hosted the ensuing banquet. After the ceremony, the laureate remained in his native village until his assignment to a mandarin post.

How has the Temple of Literature in Ha Noi survived the odds of history?

Ha Noi's Temple of Literature (Van Mieu) was built in 1070 by the third Ly Dynasty king, Ly Thanh Tong, to worship Confucius and the Duke of Zhou (Chu Cong), who were regarded at the time as the twin founders of Confucianism. Confucian rituals took place at the Temple all year round. Once or twice a month, the prince came to study with his private tutor. In 1076, the fourth Lý king, Ly Nhan Tong, had the National University (Quoc Tu Giam) built at the back of the temple to teach the sons of mandarins.

The sixth Ly, king, Ly Anh Tong, renovated the Temple of Literature in 1156 and removed the Duke of Zhou from the altar, believing Confucius to be the sole founder of Confucianism. In 1475, King Le Thanh Tong built the first stone tablet, or stele, to record the names of the lien si or doctoral laureates. The steles in the Temple of Literature contain the names in Chinese characters of the winners of the lien st title since 1442.

Additional steles were erected after every examination until 1778, when continual turmoil forced leaders to discontinue building steles. Out of 116 national examinations that took place from 1442 to 1778, eighty-two steles remain on the temple grounds. They include such famous names as mathematician Vu Huu, historian Ngo Thi Si, scientists Phung Khac Khoan and Le Quy Don, and diplomat Ngo Thi Nham.

At the height of its development, the Temple included a dormitory quarter for students from the provinces, a lake, and several hectares of farmland in the front. The Temple management assigned neighbouring Van Huong Village (later renamed Van Chuong) to farm the land to raise money for rituals. After King Quang Trung defeated the Qing Chinese invaders in 1789, Van Chuong villagers petitioned the king to restore the steles. In order to raise money for the project, the villagers sold a small gold tortoise that the defeated Trinh Lord, who had sided with the Chinese, had thrown into the square well at the Temple during his retreat.

Over the years, the Temple has been heavily damaged by nature and man, especially during the years of French rule. The lake and surrounding land became an urban residential area.

One there was even a plan to move the Temple away from its current location. In 1903, a plague struck Ha Noi and spread quickly. Patients went to Phu Doan Hospital (now the Viet Nam-Germany Hospital) for treatment. The Hospital became so crowded that some patients moved to the Temple of Literature, which was surrounded by a protective wall. The plague stopped thanks to a vaccine provided by Dr. Alexandre Yersin (1863-1943) and the efforts of the medical staff. However, the Temple had become so contaminated that the French rulers wanted to build a hospital in its place! Mr. Pasquier, Chief of the French Governor General's office, asked local authorities to find a new location for the Temple.

Since Pasquier was aware of the Temple's importance in Vietnamese culture, he consulted the renowned scholar, Pham Van Thu. Thu replied, "Circumstances forced the Government to use the Temple as a hospital. Blood now stains the steles, disheartening the people. When the Nguyen Dynasty moved the capital to Hue at the beginning of the nineteenth century, it kept the Temple intact, since it is of national importance. If you move the Temple to another location, the entire population will be upset."

Pasquier listened carefully and reported the discussion to the French Governor General. Some days later, the colonial government announced that it would allocate 20,000 piastres to restore the Temple of Literature to its previous condition.

The Temple of Literature has withstood the odds of history. More reccent restoration of the Temple has further enhanced its image as a symbol of learning, creating a timeless atmosphere for intellectual inspiration.

What are the three decorative styles of the steles at the Temple of Literature in Ha Noi?

The three styles of decoration adorning the tops of the steles reflect the periods in which they were carved. In traditional Confucianism and Taoism, the dragon and moon represent the balance between the yin and yang of the universe and the balance between heaven and earth. Clouds often symbolise knowledge, while the phoenix represents the intellect.

The earliest steles, dating to the fifteenth century, contain a central small circular moon surrounded by a simple cloud and spray of flowers. Sixteenth-century steles contain a more stylised pattern, with a larger central moon out of which emanate clouds that look like flames of fire. A thin, delicately carved flower relief adorns the tops of these steles.

The seventeenth-and-eighteenth century steles contain more elaborately designed dragon and moon motifs. Two fiercely depicted dragons ready to pounce on their prey flank the moon. The dragons' tails merge with the clouds in some instances; in others, the whole body appears. Some steles also contain various stylisations of phoenixes and flowers amidst the clouds or above them in smaller ribbon friezes.

What are the differences between the Temple of Literature in Ha Noi and its Beijing counterpart?

China's first temple dedicated to Confucius was built in the Master's native village of Qufu, Shandong in 478 B.C., two years after he died. UNESCO recognised the temple and surrounding area as a World Cultural Heritage Site.

China temple dedicated to Confucius

While the plan of the Temple of Literature in Ha Noi is similar to that of the Confucian Temple in Qufu, the former has several unique features. The architecture of the Ha Noi Temple is distinctly Vietnamese in character. As its name indicates, the Temple of Literature honours other scholars in addition to Confucius. The Temple also houses steles of tiến sĩ or doctoral laureates. In China, similar doctoral steles are housed at the Temple to Confucius in Beijing, which was built in 1302, almost 130 years after the Temple of Literature in Ha Noi.

The Temple of Literature in Hanoi

The Beijing temple contains 198 doctoral steles, similar in nature to those in Ha Noi. The steles were erected between 1313 and 1904, recording the identities of 51,624 laureates. Two of the names on the steles, interestingly enough, are Vietnamese: Le Dung from Thanh Oai District in Ha Tay Province and Nguyen Can from Quynh Phu District in Thai Binh Province. It is not clear why these two men travelled to China for their examinations in 1452, since Vietnamese examinations were a regularly organised at the time. Le Dung became a senior mandarin in the Ministry of Civil Engineering; Nguyen Can's subsequent career is unknown.

Is there a Temple of Literature in Hue?

Yes, there is.

Many people know about the Temple of Literature in Ha Noi, but few are aware that Hue has its own Temple of Literature. Visitors to Hue often miss the Temple, believing they have seen everything at the royal tombs, the Dai Noi Imperial Citadel, and Thien Mu Pagoda. To miss Hue's Temple of Literature in favour of more famous, accessible, and well-preserved sites is a mistake.

Hue is known as the City of Poets. Nothing catches this essence better than a visit to Van Thanh. Tucked into the lush hills and fronted by the eternal Perfume River, the temple complex appears to be inexorably pulled back to its natural state. Nearly 200 years of typhoons, tropical heat, war, and misuse have failed to erase the scholar's search for understanding and the artist's search for beauty. The decay that first strikes the visitor is merely the varnish of wisdom that time has applied to humanity's creative energy.

Hue's Temple of Literature

Van Thanh, is situated on the Huong (Perfume) River, just 500 metres from Thien Mu Pagoda. Emperor Gia Long (1802-1819) must have greatly appreciated the importance of having a Confucian temple in Hue since he built the Temple of Literature in 1805, only three years after he started building the Imperial Citadel of Hue. Successive Nguyen Dynasty kings spent time and money renovating the Temple and building more structures in the compound. The Temple now has over fifty large and small architectural and sculptural remnants located within its two concentric surrounding walls. The inner wall (96x79 metres) has a three-story gate facing south. The main chapel (32x25 meters) dedicated to Confucius is the largest building in the Temple grounds.

In 1947 retreating French troops used the Temple as barracks. Since then structures inside the Temple have been further damaged. Fortunately the stone steles recording the names of successful candidates between King Minh Mang's and King Khai Dinh's reigns have survived; however, some have fallen, and many inscriptions are weathered to illegibility. The steles, carried on the backs of stone tortoises, stand in two lines, each consisting of sixteen steles. Some doctoral laureates whose names are recorded on the steles have played significant roles in Viet Nam's history, including Nguyen Thuong Hien, Ngo Duc Ke, and Huynh Thuc Khang.

Because of its importance, the Centre for the Preservation of Hue's Vestiges has restored and renovated some works in the Temple. The most noteworthy effort has been the restoration of listing and fallen steles and the construction of two shelters for the thirty-two steles. Many things remain to be done to refurbish the Temple. Many other items in the Temple have yet to be restored, and translations of the Chinese-language texts on the steles would assist in making this monument to Viet Nam's culture more accessible to visitors.

Why was each stele built on the back of a tortoise?

How pitiful the plight of tortoises!

Up at the communal house, they pack cranes, Down at the pagoda, they shoulder steles.

This folk ballad illustrates the popularity of tortoises in Vietnamese life. In almost every village communal house (đình), a proud crane stands on the back of a tortoise on either side of the central altar. Steles, or stone tablets found in temples and at historic sites, are rarely placed directly on the ground but instead are built on the backs of tortoises. Eighty-two tortoises in Ha Noi's Temple of Literature (Van Mieu) have been patiently carrying steles of doctoral laureates for centuries.

In East Asian cosmology, the tortoise symbolizes the universe, with the tortoise shell representing the sky and its belly, the earth. The tortoise also has a very special place in Vietnamese history. According to legend, a divine tortoise helped King An Duong Vuong (258-179 B.C.) build the spiral-shaped citadel of Co Loa in Dong Anh (north of Ha Noi). The tortoise also gave the King a magic crossbow that could shoot a hundred arrows at a time. Centuries later, another sacred turtle lent King Le Loi (1385-1433) a magic sword to fight the Ming Chinese invaders.

Since tortoises and giant water turtles are considered to be holy beings, whenever a turtle surfaces in Ha Noi's central Hoan Kiem Lake, people interpret the event as a good omen. No one dares to harm turtles in the lake for fear of bad luck; many people pray to them instead.

Where did the majority of children receive education in ancient times?

Discussions of Viet Nam's educational system in imperial times often focus on Quoc Tu Giam, the National University in Thang Long (Ha Noi), or on the system of state-run provincial schools. But in fact, that formal educational system absorbed only a tiny fraction of learners, most of them from upper-class backgrounds. Spontaneous, informal village schools catered to the learning needs of the greater population. These schools had two types of teachers: those who held academic titles but liked a hermit's life and those with talent who had failed the public examinations.

The Temple of Literature

Village schools took different forms. A teacher with a large house used it as both residence and school. However, a poorer teacher might stay at a wealthy man's house and teach his landlord's children and others as well. Peasants treated teachers with respect, as these Vietnamese sayings reflect: "One word is a teacher; half a word is a teacher" and "Without a teacher, you will be nobody."

Parents and the teacher handled the student's enrollment. Parents would ask a teacher to accept a son when the boy was six or seven years old. The teacher then asked his landlord's permission to accept children from outside the landlord's family. Usually the landlord agreed since this honoured his family. The parents contributed a chicken, a plate of sticky rice, and a jar of rice wine to the ceremony to initiate the boy into the class. During the meal, the teacher, landlord, and the parents discussed the boy's character and future prospects.

The first few months of classes contained lessons on morality. Boys learned to behave politely towards their elders and did odd jobs such as sweeping the yard and classroom or rubbing ink for the teacher. The teacher beat boys who made mistakes. After the lessons on morality, the teacher began teaching the boys how to read and write Han (Chinese) script.

The teacher sat on a flower-patterned mat with a stationery box, pen brushes, an ink-rubbing plate, and a tobacco pipe nearby. The pupils faced the teacher, sitting on smaller mats, with the youngest boys in the front. Local schools had age differences ranging from small children to married men preparing for the regional examination. Teachers worked with each age group in turn. If the class was large, the teacher appointed two school monitors to help him, one dealing with internal administration and one with external affairs.

Students arrived at six in the morning to submit their homework to the teacher, then returned home for breakfast. At nine, students came back to school and stayed until three in the afternoon. They followed this schedule every day without weekends off but did have three long holidays to help their parents farm: the fifth lunar month, the tenth lunar month, and two months around the Lunar New Year (Tet).

Parents paid teachers once or twice a year; in addition, each year the landlord bought the teacher two pairs of trousers, two gowns, and three short-sleeved shirts. Sometimes, parents offered the teacher money to buy gifts before he went home on holiday. An adult student might even accompany the teacher back to his home village. During the reign of King Minh Mang (1820-1840), the Royal Court instructed provinces to use part of the revenue from public fields to support village teachers whenever crops failed or the people were poor.

Students collected "fellow-follower money "for a teacher whose close family member had died. The internal school monitor prepared a list of assigned contributions based on the family circumstances of all current and former students; he gave the list to the external monitor for the collection. Public opinion tolerated tax evasion but condemned evasion of moral duty to contribute "fellow-follower money" for one's teacher.

Village schools followed the Government curriculum, using Confucian classics in Chinese script and books of verses prepared by Vietnamese authors to help students memorise Han script. Village schools also prepared students for public examinations at regional and central levels. The best schools attracted students from outside the village.

After the last national examinations in 1919, schools teaching in Han script gradually disappeared from village life. Traditional learning methods also faded. Even though fountain pens and latter ballpoints replaced brushes and ink slabs, a respect for learning remains part of Viet Nam's foundation.

Who was Viet Nam's most famous Confucian teacher?

Chu Van An, born in 1292 in Thanh Liet near Ha Noi, is the most famous Confucian teacher to have lived in Viet Nam. After earning a doctoral title, Chu Van An refused to become a mandarin; instead he set up a school in his native village and attracted many students. Hearing of his talent, King Tran Minh Tong invited him back to the capital and appointed him vice director of the National University (Quoc Tu Giam). Chu Van An accepted the post, not daring to decline the king's request.

However, Chu Van An was not happy in the capital because of its corruption. He often went back to his village for a quiet walk. During the reign of Tran Du Tong (1341-1369), Chu Van An petitioned the king to behead seven corrupt mandarins. The king did not agree, so Chu Van An submitted his resignation and retired to Phuong Hoang Mountain, in Chi Linh District, Hai Duong Province. When the next king, Tran Nghe Tong, acceded to the throne, he invited Chu Van An to his coronation. The famous scholar came to congratulate the new king, but then returned to his retreat. Upon Chu Van An's death in 1370, Tran Nghe Tong sent mandarins to attend the funeral. He granted Chu Van An a high royal title and had him honoured as a sage in the Temple of Literature.

In present-day Ha Noi, one of the most elegant boulevards in the Embassy Quarter and one of the most prestigious national-level secondary schools are named for Chu Van An.

Did any women ever pass the royal exams?

Yes. Nguyen Thi Due

The nearly -thousand-year history of Confucian education in Viet Nam discriminated against women. The system forbade woman from taking part in the royal exams, even at the provincial level, and from holding a Baccalaureate or Bachelor's Degree. One woman, however, did achieve the title of Doctor under the Mac Dynasty (1527-1592). Nguyen Thi Due, a native of Chi Linh District in Hai Duong Province disguised herself as a boy to go to school and take part in the exams. She succeeded in the provincial examination and became a Bachelor and later achieving the title of Doctor.

Nguyen Thi Due's temple

In 1592, the Mac Dynasty was defeated and had to leave the capital of Thang Long for Cao Bang, a mountainous northern province. The so-called "Restored Le Dynasty", which lasted until 1789, nominally ascended to the throne even though all effective power remained with the Trinh Lords. To win over the hearts of his subjects and to show his esteem for education, Lord Trinh Tac dispatched an envoy to Chi Linh to invite Doctor Nguyen Thi Due to teach children of noble families in Thang Long. After her death, Lord Trinh Tac ordered a statue of Nguyen Thi Due erected in her home village, built a stupa beside her tomb on Tri Ngu Mountain, and raised her to the position of a Goddess.

Recently, the Vietnamese Government has certified Doctor Due's home as a famous historical site to honour the courageous Vietnamese woman who became the first female doctoral laureate in the nation's history.

Which was the only family in Vietnamese history where both father and son achieved the title of Doctoral Laureate?

Only the sixteenth-century father and son, Giap Hai and his son Giap Lem, achieved the tiến sĩ title, with the father earning Trang nguyen or First Doctoral Laureate.

Giap Hai was adopted child of a rich family in Dinh Ke Village, Phuong Nhan District (now Dinh Tri Hamlet, Lang Giang District, Bac Giang Province) and a local prodigy. He passed the tiến sĩ examination in 1538 at the age of thirty-two; the palace selected him as First Doctoral Laureate.

After winning his degree, Giap Hai discovered that his adoptive parents had been dishonest. Suspecting he was not their real son, Giap Hai consulted an eighty-year-old villager named Phan about his origins. The old man told Giap Hai the following story: Thirty years before, his adoptive parents' boat was anchoring at Bat Trang Village when they saw him playing outside the home of a widow. The couple forced him on board and sailed away.

Giap Hai thanked the old man and went to Bat Trang to look for his real mother. He found her, but to make sure, he studied her face and then in private studied his own face in a mirror. Their faces were similar. Then he went back to see her.

"How many children do you have?" he asked. "How old are they?"

"I am sixty-eight years old," she answered. "My husband died when he was young. I was pregnant then and gave birth to a son. One day while I was out, merchants took my son away, and I don't know where he is now." "Do you remember any special marks on his body?" Giap Hai asked. "He had a round, coin-size, red mark on his back and two moles on either of his shoulders. A fortune-teller predicted he would be a great man." Giap Hai took off his shirt and showed the woman his birthmarks. Mother and son embraced and wept profusely. He then took his mother to his home and looked after her in her old age.

Giap Hai's son, Giap Le, followed in his father's footsteps, studying hard. He became locally known as a great scholar. In 1568, Giap Le passed the national-level examination and was granted the tiến sĩ title. He was later assigned to the post of teacher in a royal school.

Both father and son were respected as talented and honest mandarins.

Why is poet Doan Thi Diem called "Madam First Doctoral Laureate of Giua Village?"

Well known scholar and poet Doan Thi Diem (1705-1748) was a native of Giua Village (present-day Trung Phil Village) in Chau Giang District, Hai Duong Province. Her mother was the daughter of an earl of the Vu family in Ha Khau Ward (modern day Hang Buom Street, Ha Noi). During her life, Doan Thi Diem occasionally lived in Hai Duong, but primarily made Ha Noi her home. Today, a street there is named after her.

Doan Thi Diem's parents were very knowledgeable in Confucianism and taught her while she was very young. She and her elder brother, Doan Doan Luan, took part in literary entertainments, reciting poems and composing parallel sentences. Later, as an adult, she dared to compete with the country's first-ranked scholars, many of whom admired her talent.

In Tang thuong ngau luc (The Random Written Words of Changes), author Pham Dinh Ho (1768-1839) related the following story: Dang Tran Con, attracted by Madam Diem's fame, sent her some of his poems and asked to visit her. After reviewing the poems, she laughed and said, "It is unworthy to meet such a pupil!" Mr. Con angrily returned to his house and practised long and hard at his craft. Later, he became a renowned poet who composed the immortal Han script work Chinh phu ngam (The Laments of a Woman Whose Husband Went to the Battlefield). As with Madam Diem, Dang Tran Con has a street named after him in Ha Noi. Eventually, Doan Thi Diem translated Con's work into Nom script. Scholars praised both for their efforts.

At the age of thirty-seven, Doan Thi Diem married Doctor Nguyen Kieu (1694-1771) and became his literary peer. Nguyen Kieu had many students, whom Madam Diem taught whenever her husband left on an official mission. Since many of those students subsequently became Doctoral Laureates, Madam Diem was respectfully called "Madam First Doctoral Laureate of Girra Village."

Which famous scholar and poet always failed the triennial royal exams?

Tran Te Xuong (1870-1907).

His real name was Tran Duy Uyen, better known as "Baccalaureate Xuong" (Tu Xuong). He was born in the village of Vi Xuyen (at present in the city of Nam Dinh), a centre of learning where the triennial regional examinations took place; he was one of the most renowned Vietnamese satirical poets.

Tran Te Xuong presented himself for the triennial examinations a number of times but always failed because he would not bend to the exceedingly strict formal rules. In spite of his vast knowledge, he never progressed beyond the title of Baccalaureate, which he received at the late age of twenty-four. Because he lacked money, he never became a mandarin. He nursed bitter resentment for his failures.

If I fail tomorrow's exam, I'll leave

They can take that day for my deathday anniversary

I studied: The boiling rice never finished cooking

I ate no chili peppers, but the taste burns

My children must teach themselves

Only their mother will support them

I'll say "Gongxi" and "Merci"

And leave for China or for the West.

Why did King Tu Duc consider Mo Trach Village to possess half the talent in the entire country?

Viet Nam's thousand-year history of royal examinations yielded fewer than 3,000 doctoral laureates, but Mo Trach Village in northern Hai Duong Province accounted for thirty-six of them. Of the eighty-two remaining steles in the Temple of Literature in Ha Noi, eighteen list names of laureates from Mo Trach.

Several laureates came from the same families; four families had both a father and a son who succeeded in the exams. In the Vu family, names of five members of different generations are inscribed in the Temple of Literature: Vu Huu (1463), Vu Luong (1643), Vu Dinh Lam (1670), Vu Trong Trinh (1685), and Vu Dinh An (1712).

This quiet village of farmers, weavers, and comb-makers is similar to thousands of other villages. Mo Trach's numerous academic successes can only be explained by its people's love for learning: the village men set study as their life course and academic success as their goal. However, even the laureates promoted to the highest mandarin level did not own big houses. After passing the examinations, many candidates retired to the village to teach students or practise medicine.

The gate of  Mo Trach viilage

Certain village practices promoted a tradition of learning, with the elder generation guiding the younger. Those who wanted to attend a public examination registered their names and first sat for a trial village examination. Those who held academic titles tested the candidates, coaching them for public examinations. The village then honoured highly successful candidates at the village temple.

The village had strict rules about examinations. For instance, if a father committed a crime, his sons and grandsons could not participate. If they secretly took part and were discovered, they were fined one buffalo and a jar of rice alcohol.

The village's academic success reached an exceptional level in 1656, when three of the six nationwide doctoral laureates came from Mo Trach. Nearly two centuries later, King Tu Duc (ruling from 1847-1883) commemorated this event, saying, "A single village equals half the country."

Who was Ngo Tat To?

Ngo Tat To, the author of the earlier excerpt on examinations, was born in 1894 in Loc Ha Commune, Tu Son District, Bac Ninh Province (now Mai Lam Commune, Dong Anh District, Ha Noi). Proficient in both Han script and French, he participated in one of the last royal examinations. Before the August Revolution in 1945, he was mainly a writer and a reporter and took part in his commune's Liberation Committee. With the beginning of the French War in 1946, he joined the National Association for Cultural Salvation and went to a military base in the Northern Resistance Zone (Viet Bac).

There, he headed the Viet Bac Branch of Literature and Arts, writing for Cuu Quoc (National Salvation) newspaper, and Van Nghe (Literature and Arts) magazine. He produced a number of excellent works including: The History of Wu and Yue Countries in the Spring and Autumn Period (Ngo Viet Xuan Thu, translated, 1929), De Tham (historical biography, 1935), When the Light Went Out (Tat Den, novel, 1927), The Tent and the Bamboo Bed (Leu chong, novel-reportage, 1937), The Tang Poetry (Duong thi, collected and translated in selection, 1940), The Book of Changes (Kinh Dich, annotated, 1953). Ngo Tat To died on April 20, 1954, in Bac Giang. Thanks to his significant contribution to Viet Nam's literature, he was posthumously awarded the Ho Chi Minh Prize of Literature and Arts in 1996. 

How is the schooling tradition kept alive in Viet Nam?

Effective as it was, the Confucian educational system failed to evolve over the centuries. By the nineteenth century, what had once been the premier system in the world lagged badly behind Western schools, particularly in technology and the natural sciences. As the Qing Dynasty neared its end, China abolished its Confucian curriculum in 1905 and adopted a more Western style of teaching and learning. Viet Nam followed suit in 1919, but the traditional respect for learning remained.

Start of the new school year

Ly Thai Tong, Ly Nhan Tong, and Le Thanh Tong, three kings who played a major role in establishing a Confucianism based educational system in Viet Nam, are now honoured in the Temple of Literature. Chu Van An, the renowned scholar who was once vice director of the university, is also honoured there.

In 2000, Viet Nam celebrated the 990th anniversary of Thang Long (Ha Noi). Craftsmen rebuilt the National University in the Temple of Literature and restored the Temple of Literature.