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.
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| 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."