Identifying the Influences of the Early Le Dynasty Education in the Current Context of Vietnamese Education

that the King is the Son of Heaven (the Son of Heaven) so he has the right to act by the hand of Heaven, the King tells his subjects to die, the subjects must die. Under the influence of education, the people also naturally accept the social model in which everyone in any position has corresponding rights, obligations, and responsibilities (the theory of legitimacy). For example, an official of a certain rank will dress, walk, receive what salary, and have what responsibilities . The Hong Duc Law clearly demonstrated the principles of protecting and strengthening the royal power and the bureaucratic monarchy. In the Ten Serious Crimes that lead to death, half of them are related to the safety of the king and the royal family. In the relationship between "loyalty" and "filial piety", "loyalty" is emphasized. For example, in article 504, it is stipulated that children are allowed to denounce if their parents commit the crime of "treason" that harms the king or the court. The promotion of Confucian culture in the historical context is also to affirm and consolidate the political position of the Le So dynasty. It must also be recalled that Confucianism was introduced to Vietnam from the beginning of the Christian era, but it was not until the Le So dynasty that it had a strong and profound impact on the social life of Vietnam from the royal court to the people, thanks to the Confucian education system that the Le So dynasties advocated and implemented.

Second, education contributes to reforming and building a strong government apparatus. When the uprising was successful, the long-term treatment of meritorious officials, mainly generals - those who participated and contributed during the period of repelling the Ming invaders, led to serious conflicts in the government apparatus between the officials - who had merit but were mostly illiterate - and the civil mandarins - Confucian scholars. Therefore, the inevitable thing to resolve this conflict and make the government apparatus strong was to reform the court apparatus. This reform was recognized right from the founding of the Le Thai To dynasty, so he himself, when Dong Quan was still under siege, opened an examination to select talented people, then issued an edict requiring regular examinations to select talented people to supplement human resources and improve the efficiency of the government apparatus of the court. However, the reform of the government apparatus was completed during the reign of Le Thanh Tong. Under the leadership of Le Thanh Tong, the education system had a standard model of output that needed to be trained and corresponding to it was a standard model with specific requirements for personnel working in the court apparatus. This model unified

The most important is the "output standards" of education, including the qualities or criteria of officials. Officials must be imbued with Confucianism, know how to apply Confucian theories to solve practical problems in life . Officials must be exemplary models of morality. Officials must be dedicated to their assigned work, loyal to the king and the court. The criteria of loyalty to the king and the court are the top criteria for scholars preparing to become officials. Officials must always be dedicated to their work and duties. Le Thanh Tong imposed heavy sentences on officials who did not fulfill their duties, the crimes of plotting treason and treason. Officials must understand the law and have a sense of law enforcement. Officials are the ones who represent the King to solve all matters of the court, the locality and the people, so Le Thanh Tong advocated building a team of officials who are proficient and have a deep understanding of the law.

In addition, the influences and impacts of the education system in the Early Le Dynasty on contemporary and later social life are clearly expressed in the following aspects: Forming a new class of cultural creators - Confucian scholars, forming a new system of values, new standards to regulate society, and influencing the renewal of the traditional customs and practices.

First of all, education in the Early Le Dynasty helped society form a new class of cultural creators: Confucian scholars. The products of Confucian education were, of course, Confucian scholars. Confucian scholars had essentially appeared in previous historical periods, such as the Ly - Tran - Ho dynasties, but the main class of scholarly cultural creators of those dynasties was still the clergy. Only when Confucianism was expanded from the central to the local levels and examinations were continuously held did Confucian scholars truly become the typical cultural creators of the country's culture. The Confucian scholars were armed with the knowledge of Confucianism, so they created cultural works bearing the strong influence of Confucianism on the foundation of indigenous traditional culture.

Second, the education system in the Early Le Dynasty changed the social structure and expanded the people's knowledge. Basically, the traditional Vietnamese social structure until the early 20th century still consisted mainly of 4 classes, namely scholars - farmers - workers - merchants. The Confucian education system in the Early Le Dynasty changed this structure in two aspects: First , instead of scholars being monks and Taoists,

Now, the Confucian scholars; secondly , on the basis of these four classes, society is divided into two distinct classes: bureaucrats and commoners. The upper class includes the royal family, meritorious officials and Confucian scholars who have passed the imperial examinations, the second class includes Confucian scholars who have not passed the imperial examinations and all the remaining classes. People send their children to school with the hope of passing the imperial examinations and becoming mandarins (transferring the class from commoners to bureaucrats). Along with the era of "Confucianism is the only one", Confucian scholars gradually occupied an important position in the court apparatus from the central to local levels. The team of officials in the Early Le Dynasty was mostly Confucian scholars who were carefully selected (mainly through the imperial examinations), trained and strictly controlled. It was also a class with many privileges and incentives in living standards, being granted land, fields, and salaries. Although in the early Le Dynasty, the meritorious officials holding important positions were mainly mandarins, later they gradually shifted to civil mandarins. With the expansion of the imperial examination system, Confucian scholars and intellectuals of the common people had the opportunity to participate in the government, creating equality and advancement, more open than in the Ly - Tran period. However, the mandarins at this time were also strictly controlled and bound by Confucian rituals and regulations, thus becoming more autocratic and bureaucratic. It can be said that Confucian scholars in the Early Le Dynasty were the bridge between the common people and the bureaucracy.

During nearly 100 years of reign, the Le So Dynasty, in addition to choosing a specific path, created the premise for the following stages. This choice also affected the ideological reform of the whole society in a fundamental and comprehensive direction, thus leading to synchronous operation and initiation, from the royal court to the local level, with many measures to be able to spread to all social classes. It must be said that the political consciousness factor played a very important role in this decision. After establishing an ideology for himself, the head of the court (during the Le So Dynasty) used it as a basis to make decisions, run the country and institutionalize it with a series of laws through laws, edicts, and regulations... to regulate all behaviors of each individual in society. The court synchronously implemented many solutions, focusing on improving people's knowledge and nurturing talents through the school system in the capital and localities. The training and organization of local officials during this period received great attention. That is why, right from the beginning, schools were opened, a system of curricula was built, and the

The expansion of the examination system was a synchronous concern of the Le So Dynasty. With the aim of training a team of intellectual mandarins to organize a state according to Confucian standards and to carry out their intention of Confucianizing society, from the beginning, the examination system was used by the Le Dynasty kings as an important tool. Especially under the reign of Le Thanh Tong, the examination system was actively improved, many policies and regimes on examinations were implemented, causing the study of Confucian classics to be expanded, at the same time the use and high treatment of mandarins was a great motivation for people to study. This had a great impact on people's awareness, when they understood that if they wanted to reach a better life, they could only go to school, so any family in the villages that could afford to send their children to school sent their children to school. And so, the number of literate people in the villages, especially in the capital Thang Long and surrounding areas increased rapidly. Exams always attract a large number of candidates, and to pass the exams one must go through a long process of studying classics and absorbing Confucianism.

The education system in the Early Le Dynasty helped society form a new system of values and new standards of conduct to manage and regulate society. The widespread, unified and persistent Confucianism for nearly a century turned contemporary Vietnamese society into a Confucian society. It was a society with discipline and order regulated by a system of Confucian values and standards of conduct. During the Ly - Tran Dynasty, Vietnamese society was most strongly influenced by the Buddhist value system. Under the influence of this value system, Vietnamese people had a humane and democratic lifestyle, the royal and aristocratic lifestyle was also close to the common lifestyle. People lived innocently, valued feelings, and were equal between men and women. In addition, the lifestyle of the small-scale peasant culture was quite casual and liberal, but was still respected and maintained. Confucian society had many differences. This society was regulated by a series of strict rules and standards. All behaviors in society were seriously ritualized. The royal lifestyle was completely different from the common lifestyle. Society was regulated by the theory of legitimacy, by the three bonds and five constants, by the three submissions and four virtues. People's social consciousness was raised. Gender inequality was considered natural according to Confucianism. Strict dogmas towards people's natural feelings and towards the status of women

When Confucianism began to penetrate behind the bamboo fences of the village, it encountered a lot of resistance from the popular culture. Many vivid examples are still recorded in the folk culture of Vietnam during this period. However, the continuous and unified education made those strict dogmas and regulations triumph.

The new system of values and standards of conduct of Confucianism made contemporary Vietnamese society disciplined and orderly. It had a profound impact on the system of traditional customs and practices, creating extremely profound changes. Under the influence of the system of values and standards of conduct of Confucianism, the royal court issued many laws to unify customs, practices, and communication rituals between people in society and between people and gods.

Confucian rituals deeply intervene in the rituals of the human life cycle, making the rituals of birth, adulthood, wedding, and funeral become unified. Confucianism also intervenes in the spiritual life of the community, through the re-establishment of the gods, and the granting of titles to the gods. Gods are divided into two types: righteous gods and evil gods. Righteous gods are gods with noble and clear origins, who have contributed to the people and the country, and are granted titles by the royal court and encouraged to continue worshiping them. Evil gods are gods with lowly origins, or who are lewd and vulgar according to the Confucian point of view, and are banned from time to time. The gods who are banned from worship are mostly gods related to fertility beliefs, a very popular folk belief in Dai Viet.

Folk festivals are also institutionalized in a unified manner according to Confucian rites, that is why most traditional folk festivals have a unified general organizational model including: Offering to open the festival, Bathing ceremony, Sacrificial ceremony, Procession ceremony, Thanksgiving ceremony. Fertility rituals are considered obscene and vulgar so they are prohibited from being performed. However, these rituals are not lost but they exist on the sidelines of festivals as "customs".

* Limitations of education in the Early Le Dynasty and some negative influences

Besides the positive values and influences discussed above, the education system in the Early Le Dynasty also revealed many limitations.

Firstly, this education system shows an extreme classist viewpoint, lacking tolerance in selecting students and candidates. This dynasty strictly limited the subjects who went to school and took exams. With the exclusive Confucian viewpoint of looking down on women, the Confucian education and examination system of the Le So dynasty excluded them from the training and examination process in order to contribute their talents to the country. This education and examination system only promoted the role of scholars, especially having one-sided and narrow views on some professions such as trading and singing, and on some social classes such as merchants and singers. This was a common situation in countries influenced by Han studies. Due to the inevitable limitations of the feudal era of the 15th century, the education and examination system of the Le So dynasty could only develop to a certain extent, because it was only developed in urban areas, mainly focusing on training the children of mandarins.

Second, this education system also shows extremism and one-sidedness in educational content. The Confucian education and examination system of the Early Le Dynasty only focused on equipping learners with knowledge of social sciences and humanities, and did not pay attention to knowledge of natural sciences and technical sciences in education. The educational program was too rigidly based on Confucian classics and Northern history. Documents on education and examinations did not seem to mention the role of Nom script in developing national thinking, as well as reducing dependence on the North. The use of Nom script in the Early Le Dynasty was mainly in literary and artistic creation. The study content and rigid examination format only revolved around a program with a certain amount of fixed and rigid knowledge, with the only way being to go to school, pass the exam to become an official. And inevitably led to the concept of valuing reputation over reality in social life. The psychology of valuing degrees and social status is also the negative side of the education system - Confucianism was born here and had the opportunity to develop in later stages, and that was also the seed of negativity in the examination system.

Third , the education system of this period contained dogmatic ideas based on empiricism and stereotypes that hindered social development. This is also considered the key cause of the shortcomings in the management of the country of the dynasties after King Le Thanh Tong and was expressed in many aspects, from the head of the court to the education system that has been and is being

operation. It is the circling around the Confucian doctrines, with the subjective guidance of the court, which mainly depends on the leader (the king), so when the country has a wise king, the people can rely on it, but when there is a bad king, the whole court quickly falls into decline and disintegrates. During the Le So period, when the kings were good and popular, "the country was peaceful, the people were at peace", but the same ideology with the kings who were debauched, addicted to alcohol, beautiful women, only interested in debauchery, plundering the people to build palaces... like King Le Uy Muc (called the Devil King) or King Le Tuong Duc (called the Pig King) will sooner or later lead the country to decline, losing the support of the people.

Fourth , the education system in the Early Le Dynasty focused too much on training officials. This was another inherent limitation of the education system in the Early Le Dynasty, which was that Confucian education could only produce Confucian scholars - officials who followed the pre-written teachings in the scriptures. This educational model did not focus on the creative class, the core that promoted social progress such as scientists, engineers, artists, etc. Because the nature of Confucianism was a type of integrated knowledge, typical of a very small part of society, Confucian scholars often took on the work of many types of "experts" in many different fields, even quite unfamiliar to each other. Society at this time considered "teachers" to be people who knew everything, from teachers, doctors, geomancers to fortune tellers, and fortune tellers (advising the participants). It was Confucianism's ideology that assumed that Confucian scholars would go all the way on their chosen path without daring to turn aside to do the work that they liked or were suitable for. The Confucian intellectual model was judged to be fragmented and specialized quite late, with no real experts in most fields of spiritual creativity. In artistic activities, only poetry had outstanding achievements, but no one became a "professional" poet, including the great poet Nguyen Du later. And once spiritual creative activities and intellectual labor have not been specialized and professionalized, all other labor activities associated with the professional knowledge system will only become manual and amateur labor [129, p. 191].

4.2. Identify the effects of the education system in the early Le Dynasty in the context of current Vietnamese education

4.2.1. Similarities between the education system in the Early Le Dynasty and the current education system in Vietnam

Through research on education in the Early Le Dynasty, we found that although this education system existed for about a hundred years and is more than five hundred years from the present time, it had certain influences, as well as some similarities with the current Vietnamese education system in the following aspects:

Regarding the starting point: The starting point of both the Early Le and modern education systems have similarities. Both started from a country devastated by war, affected by the cultural assimilation policy of foreign invaders, inheriting a weak education system, with the vast majority of the population illiterate, and scattered educational facilities, mainly concentrated in urban areas. The national science is backward and weak. Folk culture still dominates over scholarly culture (although in modern times scholarly culture has developed more), the public apparatus is seriously lacking in human resources, because both have to build a completely new government apparatus, not inherit the old one.

To complete the research topic, the author conducted interviews with 3 groups of educational administrators, lecturers and students about the current status of higher education in Vietnam in terms of educational goals, educational programs, educational methods, and the relationship between teachers and students in schools today. The results of this research also show the similarities between the current education system and the education system in the history of a feudal dynasty.

Table 4.2: Number of questionnaires distributed and response rate

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