Anyone visiting the Vietnamese capital Hanoi for the first time is advised to visit Van Myeu, the Temple of Literature. It has become a mandatory program item for heads of State and Government arriving in Vietnam on an official visit. American President B. Clinton, Chinese leader Jiang Zemin, King Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia, and our President Vladimir Putin have all visited here. During the visit of the Russian president in March 2001, the central path of Van Mieu was expanded by two bricks, and rightly so: no other official visit has attracted such a large number of people from the local leadership to accompany the distinguished guest.
P. TSVETOV, In-house Correspondent for Asia and Africa Today magazine in Vietnam
TEMPLE OF LITERATURE
Visiting Van Myeu is very useful for understanding the soul of the Vietnamese people, their past and present. The temple was founded in the XI century, when the Li Dynasty, which came to power, began to strengthen Confucianism as a state ideology. Over the centuries, people have walked the paths of the Temple through several carefully designed rectangular gardens with gates and gates to approach the Sanctuary of the great success.
Even during the campaign to criticize Confucius in Maoist China, the leader of the Vietnamese nation, Ho Chi Minh, visited the birthplace of the great Chinese thinker in 1965 and remarked: "Don't you think that Confucius, Jesus, Marx and Sun Yat-sen had something in common in their views? They were all thinking about the welfare of society. I am sure that if they were alive today and lived together, they would get along quite well with each other."
Today, in the Van Myeu House of Ceremonies, a portrait of the greatest Vietnamese thinker of the XIV century, Tu Van An, is installed on the main altar. Incense is lit in front of the philosopher's portrait, and students are asked to help pass exams.
Wang Mieu is called "our first academy" or "our first university". This is not entirely true. Almost no one was ...
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