The first day of the new year — Visit Temple of Literature — Hanoi

The first day of the new year is a brand new start, and in many cultures, it’s important to start it off on the right foot, that’s why many Vietnamese people in the capital city choose to visit the Temple of Literature to be their first destination.

Situated right in the heart of the city, the complex is not only a famous historical place but it has witnessed great changes of the city.

People often refer to this place as “Văn miếu - Quốc tử giám” — “Temple of Literature - Imperial Academy”, however, they are in fact two different landmarks.

Before entering the temple, you could see 下馬 Hạ Mã stele on bothsidese of the main gate. “Hạ Mã” can be literally translated as getting off the horses, this is the place that people get off their horses before entering the palace to pay respect to superiors or people of high royalty. However, you would see many students come here and pray for success or luck before a big exam such as the national exam for high school students, the reasons are probably because the name in Chinese characters and its architecture makes everyone think it is a shrine.

Van mieu — Temple of Literature.

The temple was built in 1070 under the reign of Ly Thanh Tong, it was a dedication to Confucius, sages and scholars, Confucius was a Chinese philosopher and teacher who was considered the father of Confucianism — an ideology that affected many countries in East Asia during feudalism.

Many people assume that there is only Van Mieu in Hanoi, but there are many other Van Mieu along the country.

Quoc Tu Giam — Imperial Academy.

Quoc Tu Giam - also known as “the first university of Vietnam” was built in 1076 by the emperor Ly Nhan Tong, it was a campus that was only available for the royals, scholars, nobles and the elites at the time, however, later it also accepted the common ones.

Quoc Tu Giam only lost its dominance when the Nguyen’s monarch settled the capital in Hue and built another Quoc Tu Giam there.

After going through great destruction of time and wars, most of the existing structures were built and renovated from the Nguyen dynasty.

Architecture.

Van Mieu gate.

The first part of the complex is Van Mieu gate which has “Tam Quan” architecture. “Tam Quan” means “three-entrance gate”, which is commonly seen in many temples and pagodas in Vietnam. In the past, the main gate was designated for the king, the left gate was for civil officers and the right one was for military officers.

Dai Trung gate.

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As we passed Van Mieu gate, we entered a garden that leads to the first courtyard with another gate called Dai Trung which is a combination of “Dai hoc” and “Trung dung”. They are two books that belong to four books and five classics which are believed to be handed down by Confucius and his followers.

Khue Van Cac - Khue Van Pavilion.

Though Khue Van Cac was built later in 1805, it remained one of the unique landmarks in the whole complex. In 2012, the Khue Van pavilion was chosen to be the symbol of Hanoi. This symbol also appears on the 100,000 Vietnamese dong bill.

Khue Van Cac was named after a star - Khue. “Khue” is considered the symbol of literature. It was the place where scholars and students discussed their work.

It is a two-story pavilion with eight tiled roofs. On each side of the top, there is a round window that symbolized the shining star.

Our group also had a challenge for everyone to resemble and take a photo with the same angle it is printed on the bill. And this was the best shot I got, LOL.

Doctorate stelae.

If Khue Van pavilion is popular thanks to media. The doctorate stelae in the third courtyard after entering the Khue Van pavilion play an important role in learning about Vietnamese history through the remaining collection of stone stelae. These stelae were made to honor the best student, the first one was constructed under the reign of Le Thanh Tong.

Each stone stele stands on a stone turtle with a different structure, we hardly found two of them that looked similar. The remainder of these stelae has not only helped us learn about the sculpture and language in different dynasties but filled the missing pieces throughout our history.

The rest of the complex are the halls that worshiped Confucius, his disciples and Chu Van An who was a respected Confucian.

A group of high school students had a graduation ceremony

The last area of the complex is quite interesting, they have an exhibition that shows the handwriting of some scholars and some interactive activities such as writing with the brush like the old time.

The calligraphists will write wishes in Chinese characters upon request, these could be wishes for the new year or poems.

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This was one destination in our visit last year to Hanoi. Check The old quarter if you want to learn more about our capital city — Hanoi.

That’s it for now! See ya!