Trinh Trinh Nguyen Binh Khiem in the Consciousness of Vietnamese People

To his contemporaries, he was a great man standing above the secular world, with wise instructions, acting as a military advisor to the Trinh, Le, Mac, and Nguyen dynasties, so he was respected by them all. His friends and students at that time also praised his prophetic talent:

Alone master of logic

Two heroic countries without rivals

(Funeral Oration for Tuyet Giang Phu Tu) [13, p.83]

For the past 4-5 hundred years, many political and social events have been spread and explained through Trang's Prophecies. It is unclear which of Trang's Prophecies are original and which were added by later generations borrowing his reputation, but in fact they have become folklore. Omitting mystical and superstitious elements, respecting a great intelligence "Clear eyes and ears", "Broad heart and mind", "Learning talent is not inferior to Au, To", "Literary power is not inferior to Ly, Do" (Elegy for Tuyet Giang Phu Tu) has the ability to predict good things for the country, is also a profound cultural content, making us more excited and proud.

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1.3. STATE TRINH NGUYEN BINH KHIEM IN THE MIND OF THE VIETNAMESE PEOPLE

In the conclusion of the Nguyen Cong Van Dat genealogy compiled in the year Quy Hoi (1743), On Dinh Hau Vu Kham Lan wrote: “Oh! In the world there are many kings and wise men. Those people are glorious when they live, but when they die, they are gone. But he (Nguyen Binh Khiem) has been around for 7 or 8 generations, recently the scholars and common people admire him like Thai Son mountain, like the North Star; far away, in the Qing Dynasty, Chu Xan said that the character of Linh Nam, who was well-versed in philosophy, Trinh Tuyen, wrote in books that were passed down to China, and was considered a saint in the Southern country” [15, p.54]

First of all, let's learn and evaluate him. In the Bach Van Am poetry collection, there is a seven-word eight-line poem by Lai Bo Thuong Thu Giap Trung dedicated to Master Trinh, in which there is the line:

The famous Confucian school of thunder judges the earth. The power of the sun and the valley control the sky.

From the dynasty, the talented people have achieved great success, the nine elders have shone with the glory of the world's immortals.

Translation:

The outstanding reputation of the Nho village is like thunder rumbling on the ground. The efforts to support the king are as strong as pillars supporting the sky. The meritorious deeds span four generations of kings, making them outstanding in the world.

Ninety years old, radiant like a fairy on earth

We know that Giap Trung also passed the Royal Examination, his illustrious career was rewarded by King Mac with a flag embroidered with a parallel sentence:

The Prime Minister Dau Nam is a handsome man, the old emperor and teacher, the good and respected man.

(Passed the Royal Examination, became a prime minister, his reputation was as high as the North Star in the Southern sky: he was a national elder, the king's teacher, respected by the whole country) [15, p.55].

So, what must have been the talent, virtue, and prestige of Trang Trinh to be respected and admired by the scholars of his time to such an extent?

When the mandarin passed away, his students and scholars honored him as Tuyet Giang Phu Tu - an extremely noble title that only a few people in both China and Vietnam had. That is why, in the funeral oration for the mandarin, student Dinh Thoi Trung dared to write:

“...The sir's voice never fades, like the autumn sun shining forever, the Jianghan River flows...

The Taoist master will forever remain, like a great lush forest, like the steadfast Mount Tai.

After the death of Trang, La Son Phu Tu Nguyen Thiep, despite being sick and in turmoil, still went to Trung Am to visit the temple and Trung Tan inn in the year Dinh Dau (1777) and wrote the emotional poem "Qua Trinh Trang Nguyen Tu".

During the Nguyen Dynasty, the position of Trang Trinh continued to be elevated. The first was the author of Hai Duong phong vat khuc, composed in the year Gia Long Nham Than (1812). Assistant teacher of Hai Duong Tran Huy Phac ranked Nguyen Binh Khiem as a famous person.

The land of Trung Am, the water tilts and the light shines on the ancient Master Trạng, who sent the saints to return to the wise. The Thai At Sutra has not yet been transmitted.

The mysterious principles of creation of yin and yang are communicated by Phu Trung Tan, a Buddhist monk who teaches the world.

Van Am's poetry was copied to spread the word "Peaceful in the land of immortals"

Pine wine, chrysanthemum, and forest tradition for fun The Hoanh Son range once helped the country. The heavens revealed their opportunity to few people.

The prophecy is for the benefit of the outside world.

The voice of the supreme genius.

[15, p.56]

And it was also Tran Huy Phac who, together with the Hai Hoc Duong group, collected and engraved the Bach Van Thi Tap by Nguyen Binh Khiem, with the author's most abundant collection of poems.

Next, the royal court's official documents such as "Historical Records of the Dynasties" compiled by Phan Huy Chu, classified Nguyen Binh Khiem into the category of virtuous Confucian scholars such as: Chu An of the Tran Dynasty, Ly Tu Tan... of the Le Dynasty, Nguyen Van Nghi, Nguyen Dang... of the Le Trung Hung Dynasty.

Among the 29 virtuous Confucian scholars according to Phan Huy Chu's assessment, probably only Chu Van An and Nguyen Binh Khiem were known to many people later. Of those two Confucian scholars, Nguyen Binh Khiem had the more profound influence.

The books of the Nguyen Dynasty: Dai Nam Nhat Thong Chi, Dong Khanh Dia Cu Chi Luoc... all recorded about Nguyen Binh Khiem and the relic of Quan Trung Tan, which were classified by the feudal state.

During the French colonial period, the textbooks: Summary of Vietnamese history for high school, Summary of Vietnamese literature history, and the weekly Nam Phong, the Bo Tung Thu Van Dan Bao Giam... all placed Nguyen Binh Khiem in a high position in the country's cultural and ideological history.

After the August Revolution in 1945, researcher Chu Thien published two books: Tuyet Giang Phu Tu and Sam Ky Trang Trinh (Dai La Publishing House - Hanoi, 1946). After that, due to the war, research on Nguyen Binh Khiem was not continuous. Since the restoration of peace, his poetry and literature have been included in the textbooks of secondary and university levels. In particular, at the Nguyen Binh Khiem Cultural Celebrity Conference jointly organized by the City Party Committee, Hai Phong City People's Committee and the Vietnam Social Sciences Commission in 1985, on the occasion of the 400th anniversary of the death of the celebrity, many issues regarding the historical context, life, career and great contributions of the celebrity in many fields were fundamentally clarified. The results of this scientific conference led to the State organizing the 500th anniversary of Nguyen Binh Khiem's birth at the Temple of Literature - Quoc Tu Giam in Hanoi with the ceremony

The national flag and his temple in Trung Am village were ranked as historical and cultural relics. On this occasion, the Institute of Social Sciences in Ho Chi Minh City also held a seminar, continuing to affirm the role of Nguyen Binh Khiem in the history of the development of national culture.

Above, we only briefly summarize the evaluation of the government and intellectuals of all times about Trang Trinh Nguyen Binh Khiem. Overall, the evaluation is consistent.

In the subconscious of the people, the influence of Trang Trinh is unmatched. To the people, Trang is a person of high morals and virtue, in harmony with the people, his poems and literature reflect the people's thoughts and aspirations, his poetic language is the language of the people, he uses many proverbs and idioms, conversely many of his poems also become proverbs and idioms. The beliefs and admiration for Trang are mainly the prophecies that have been widely circulated among the people for a long time and have been written into two volumes of Trang Trinh's Prophecies. After his death, every time the country encountered difficulties, the people waited, looked forward to, and found ways to exploit the so-called Trang Trinh Prophecies. When the Le Trinh feudal group fell, people remembered the saying "Le ton Trinh tai, Le bai Trinh Vong" and criticized Trinh Sam for forgetting the saying "Giu giap worshiping Buddha during the time of eating oan". When the Tay Son dynasty rose up, people said that Trang Trinh had known for a long time "When will you become king again; During the Northern period, the Southern people often had to flee. When this dynasty fell, the people spread the prophecy of Trang: "The father's head is the son's foot, after fourteen years, the number is complete, then it's over." Because the head of the word Quang in the Quang Trung era is similar to the foot of the word Canh in the Canh Thinh era. The Nguyen Dynasty initially relied on the Western forces when they came to power, but later they were tricked by them. The people related to Trang's prophecy:

The original source is authentic. The goat news falls into the goat bait.

To let the white demons invade the South

Making hundreds of families suffer and drift away. The throne meets the time of returning home. The family stays one, three go one by one.

People explain that the two Chinese characters “phu” and “nguyen” are strangely combined to mean Nguyen, “de” means yang, “bach quy” means white devil, these two words were used to refer to the French in the past. After Tu Duc died, only Dong Khanh remained on the throne, while the kings Ham Nghi, Thanh Thai, Duy Tan were successively exiled by the French...

According to textual research, some of the Prophecies of Trang Trinh were popular and it is definitely confirmed that these were widely circulated and written down before the event happened and were not fabricated by curious people.

Right after Trang passed away, the people of Thanh Am village, Gia Lam district worshiped him as Thanh Hoang. According to the 1938 declaration of Thanh Am commune, Le Mat village also worshiped Nguyen Binh Khiem.

In his hometown, after Trang passed away, King Mac built a temple to worship him. King Mac personally wrote the temple sign: "Mac Dynasty Trang Nguyen Te Tuong Tu". In the year Vinh Huu 1 (1729), the local people gratefully restored the temple. The stone stele recording this event is now placed on the temple lake mound, only a few words can be read: Tu Vu Bi Ky - Year of stele creation: Vinh Huu Binh Thin and the names of some of the founders of the association. All four villages of Trung Am commune in the past worshiped Trang as the village's tutelary god.

And what is especially rare, unlike many other lucky gods, Trang Trinh is also honored by an indigenous religion - Cao Dai - as the First Saint of the Three Saints of this religion, with the motto:

The noble and supreme, the great path of peace and democracy, worshiped before the throne, the three periods resonate with freedom and rights

The Cao Dai religion's Anthology of Holy Words is a collection of the writings of Trang Trinh through spirit medium sessions. Even in Nam Dinh, the Vi Noi altar also has Trang Trinh's writings engraved on woodblocks with a preface by Bachelor Doan Trien - the Governor of Nam Dinh at that time. Through this, we can see the prestige and far-reaching influence of Nguyen Binh Khiem.

Since Vu Kham Lan made his comment in the introduction. Through the evidence summarized above, we have a basis to believe Dinh Thoi Trung's words: "Mr. Dao still exists forever" and Vu Kham Lan's prediction about Nguyen Binh Khiem's prestige and influence has been "confirmed".

In chapter 1, the author has outlined the background, career and life of Nguyen Binh Khiem. Through this, the author also wants to introduce a Nguyen Binh Khiem close to the people, an outstanding teacher, a great cultural figure, a poet, a great tree that shaded the entire 14th century. And his contributions to the history of the country in terms of a huge treasure of poetry and literature, prophecies that helped feudal forces avoid war and bloodshed. Therefore, the feudal dynasties of Mac, Le, Trinh, Nguyen or the scholars of the time all respected and admired him. As for the masses, he was always considered a god symbolizing the closest and best things.

Chapter 2

HISTORICAL RELIC AND FESTIVAL OF TRANG TRINH NGUYEN BINH KHIEM TEMPLE IN VINH BAO, HAI PHONG

2.1. HISTORICAL SITE OF TRANG TRINH NGUYEN BINH KHIEM TEMPLE

2.1.1. History of formation and development of the temple

In the year At Dau (1585), Nguyen Binh Khiem passed away at the age of 95. After his death, King Mac Hau Hop appointed King Ung Mac Don Nhuong, the regent of the court, as a royal envoy, along with all civil and military mandarins to attend the posthumous ceremony.

Mac gave the local government 3,000 quan of money to build a temple to worship. The temple was built in front of the Trang palace and King Mac himself put up a plaque "Mac dynasty Trang nguyen tu tuong tu" (Meaning: Temple to worship the Trang, prime minister of the Mac dynasty).

The temple was completed the following year, but after years of war, the temple was destroyed. Historical records also say that in 1592, when Trinh Tung led his troops to the North, he set fire to the palace and houses in Thang Long, the fire covered the sky. A few months later, Trinh's troops marched down to Hai Duong, and the houses and palaces of Ha Hong, Nam Sach, Kinh Mon were almost completely burned down. The temple of Nguyen Binh Khiem has a plaque written by King Mac, so it was certainly destroyed during this period.

In the first year of Vinh Huu (At Mao year 1735, Le Y Ton's reign), the villagers of Tong, remembering the great virtue of Trang, built a temple on the old lecture hall to worship him. Every spring and autumn, they came to offer sacrifices at the temple that year. It is not clear when it fell into ruin, but there is a stone stele recording the construction of the temple in Binh Thin year (1736). The stone stele has faded and can only be read in a few words: Tu vu bi ky Vinh Huu - Binh Thin... and the names of a few people who contributed to the construction of the temple.

The current temple was built during the Nguyen Dynasty. The patterns and decorations in the temple have confirmed that. In the year of Mau Thin (1927), the temple was restored. According to legend, the temple is located in the old Bach Van Am area, where Trang sat to teach. The temple was built in the shape of the letter Dinh (T), with 5 front rooms and 2 back rooms, with carvings, engravings, decorative patterns such as lemon flowers, diamond-shaped, the architectural work bears the art of the Nguyen Dynasty. After years of war, the worship objects, parallel sentences, horizontal lacquered boards, and royal decrees were mostly lost and damaged. Only since 1985, on the anniversary of the death of the famous Trang Trinh Nguyen Binh Khiem. The City Party Committee and People's Committee of Hai Phong City organized a celebration ceremony and together with the State Social Sciences Committee organized the Scientific Conference on Cultural Celebrities

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