VN-HN-Temple of literature-Turtle steles collage

Stone stele records of imperial examinations of the Lê and Mạc dynasties ( vi, Bia đá các khoa thi tiến sĩ triều Lê và Mạc) is a collection of 82 stone

stelae A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), whe ...

that contain the names and related information of doctoral laureates who passed the

imperial examination The imperial examination (; lit. "subject recommendation") refers to a civil-service examination system in Imperial China, administered for the purpose of selecting candidates for the state bureaucracy. The concept of choosing bureaucrats by ...

s during the reign of the

Lê Le is a romanization of several rare East Asian surnames and a common Vietnamese surname. It is a fairly common surname in the United States, ranked 975th during the 1990 census and 368th during the 2000 census. In 2000, it was the eighth-most-co ...

and Mạc dynasties from 1442 to 1779. Preserved in good condition in the Temple of Literature of

Hanoi Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi is ...

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

, the collection became an inscription of the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

Memory of the World Programme Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembered, ...

on March 9, 2010.

Description

The 82 stelae were made from stone in the form of tortoise-mounted tablet since tortoise was traditionally considered a symbol of longevity and everlastingness in

Vietnamese culture The culture of Vietnam (Vietnamese: Văn hoá Việt Nam) is highly multicultural. The early culture in Vietnam started with the Bronze Age Dong Son culture, Đông Sơn culture considered to be one of its most important progenitors for its Anc ...

. There are three principal types of stele corresponding with three different periods of the Lê and Mạc dynasties, besides each stele was decorated with diverse patterns from

Taoist Taoism (, ) or Daoism () refers to either a school of philosophical thought (道家; ''daojia'') or to a religion (道教; ''daojiao''), both of which share ideas and concepts of Chinese origin and emphasize living in harmony with the ''Tao'' ...

-influenced design to everyday images such as farmer or animals. According to the researcher Nguyễn Vinh Phúc, there is possibly an 83rd stele in the collection since people discovered a stone tortoise at the bottom of the lake in the Temple of Literature. After each examination, a new stele was erected with detailed information about the process of the examination, number of participants and profiles of all laureates. Besides, engraved in each stele is a statement describing the meaning of education and talent for the country and reflecting the

Confucian Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a Religious Confucianism, religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, ...

philosophy and tradition of Vietnam. This public recognition of the achievements of the laureates was meant to encourage other students to serve the society in similar manner. One of the most cited statements is the engraving of the first stele which was redacted by Thân Nhân Trung in 1484 for the 1442 imperial examination during the reign of

Lê Thái Tông Lê Thái Tông (黎太宗 22 December 1423 – 28 August 1442), birth name Lê Nguyên Long (黎元龍), was the second emperor of the Later Lê dynasty from 1433 until his early death nine years later. __TOC__ Biography Lê Thái Tông w ...

History

In total, there are 2,313 names of laureates that were carved in the stelae, they were recognized after passing

between 1484 and 1780 organized by the Lê, Mạc,

Trịnh Trịnh is a Vietnamese family name, which is also common in some countries such as Korea (Jung, Jeong). A considerable portion of families that bear the surname Trinh are ethnically Vietnamese. Notable people *Trịnh Như Khuê, First Cardina ...

and

Nguyễn Nguyễn () is the most common Vietnamese name, Vietnamese surname. Outside of Vietnam, the surname is commonly rendered without diacritics as Nguyen. wiktionary:nguyên, Nguyên (元）is a different word and surname. By some estimates 39 perc ...

dynasties. The first one was erected in 1484 during the reign of

Lê Thánh Tông Lê Thánh Tông (黎聖宗; 25 August 1442 – 3 March 1497), personal name Lê Hạo, temple name Thánh Tông, courtesy name Tư Thành, was an emperor of Đại Việt, reigning from 1460 to 1497, the fifth and the longest-reigning empe ...

with the record of the 1442 imperial examination while the last stele was made in 1780 for the 1779 examination. Among the names engraved in the collection are many well-known figures in the

history of Vietnam The history of Vietnam can be traced back to around 20,000 years ago, as the first modern humans arrived and settled on this land, known as the Hoabinhians, which can be traced to modern-day Negritos. Archaeological findings from 1965, which are ...

such as the historian

Ngô Sĩ Liên Ngô Sĩ Liên (吳士連) was a Vietnamese historian of the Lê dynasty. He was the principal compiler of the ''Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư'', a comprehensive chronicle of the history of Vietnam and the oldest official historical record of ...

, the scholar

Lê Quý Đôn Lê Quý Đôn (; 1726–1784) was an 18th-century Vietnamese people, Vietnamese poet, encyclopedist, and government official. His pseudonym was Quế - Đường. He was a native of Duyen Ha village in present-day Thái Bình Province. He is cons ...

or the diplomat

Ngô Thì Nhậm Ngô Thì Nhậm ( vi-hantu, 吳時任, 1746–1803) was an important Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainla ...

. Some of those names during the period of Trịnh lords were afterwards crossed out by orders of the Nguyễn emperors since the laureates had participated in activities considered against the Nguyễn lords. Since the stelae were partly damaged during the war between the

Tây Sơn dynasty The Tây Sơn dynasty (, vi, Nhà Tây Sơn (Chữ Nôm: 茹西山); vi, Tây Sơn triều ( Hán tự: 西山朝) was a ruling dynasty of Vietnam, founded in the wake of a rebellion against both the Nguyễn lords and the Trịnh lords befor ...

and the troops of

Nguyễn Ánh Gia Long ( (''North''), (''South''); 8 February 1762 – 3 February 1820), born Nguyễn Phúc Ánh (阮福暎) or Nguyễn Ánh, was the founding emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty, the last dynasty of Vietnam. His dynasty would rule the unifie ...

, the emperor

Nguyễn Quang Toản Emperor Cảnh Thịnh ( vi-hantu, ), born Nguyễn Quang Toản ( vi-hantu, ; 1783–1802), was the third and last emperor of the Tây Sơn dynasty. He followed his father Quang Trung (Nguyễn Huệ ruled 1788–1792) at the age of 9, and reig ...

wanted to restore the collection but could not complete the work because of the collapse of the Tây Sơn dynasty in 1802. After the establishment of the Nguyễn dynasty, the emperor

Gia Long Gia Long ( (''North''), ('' South''); 8 February 1762 – 3 February 1820), born Nguyễn Phúc Ánh (阮福暎) or Nguyễn Ánh, was the founding emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty, the last dynasty of Vietnam. His dynasty would rule the unif ...

decided to transfer the capital from

Huế Huế () is the capital of Thừa Thiên Huế province in central Vietnam and was the capital of Đàng Trong from 1738 to 1775 and of Vietnam during the Nguyễn dynasty from 1802 to 1945. The city served as the old Imperial City and admi ...

, thus a new Temple of Literature was built in Huế where new stelae were placed. The total number of stelae in Huế is 32 with the last one dated in 1919. The collection is appreciated as a national treasure of Vietnam because it provides not only information about the education during 300 years of dynastic Vietnam but also the details about the system of imperial examinations of the past dynasties.

Memory of the World

Initially, the Vietnamese nominations in 2007 and 2008 for the Memory of the World Programme were the Woodblocks of the Nguyễn Dynasty and a collection of old photographs of

Indochina Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula or Indochina, is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west an ...

. While the former was quickly registered by UNESCO in 2009, the latter was finally replaced by the collection of stone stelae of the Lê and Mạc dynasties which was considered more original and intact. This nomination was ultimately accepted by UNESCO at its meeting in

Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...

on March 9, 2010 and thus the collection of stele records became the second entry of Vietnam in the list of the Memory of the World.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Stone stele records of imperial examinations of the Le and Mac dynasties Memory of the World Register Lê dynasty texts Mạc dynasty texts Education in Vietnam Vietnamese history texts National Treasures of Vietnam