Van Lake: a Reading Room over the Water

The narrow water of Van Lake is separated by a street from the temple courtyards of the Temple of Literature, although it was once part of their scholarly world. Phuong Dinh Pavilion stands on Kim Chau Islet, with two stone stelae gathered beneath it; they have outlasted the buildings for which they were erected. Here, experts in classical texts read, debated interpretations, and prepared for examinations that opened the way to official service. When the water grew shallow and the shores were built over, it was not walls but stone and documents that preserved the memory of the lake.

A free reading room operates on the shore of Van Lake. Its collection holds around one thousand books: on the history of Hanoi, Confucian scholars, literature, and art. The books appeared here in August two thousand twenty-five, but the site for the reading room was chosen for its long-standing memory of reading and writing.

Van Lake means “Lake of Literature.” Kim Chau Islet lies in the middle of the water. In the seventeenth century, the scholar and state councilor Pham Cong Tru built Phan Thuy Pavilion on it and dedicated ten poems to the lake. Scholars gathered here to read poetry and discuss writings. For them, the ability to interpret a classical text and write one of their own was a profession: examinations opened the way to official service.

The pavilion fell into disrepair, and the lake became choked with silt. In eighteen sixty-three, the Confucian scholar and provincial official Le Huu Thanh, together with the official Dang Ta, ordered the overgrowth cleared, the narrowed shores widened, and the shallows deepened. Two years later, Dang Ta paid from his own funds for a new tiled pavilion on the islet. It was named Van Ho Dinh Pavilion—“Pavilion of the Lake of Literature.” Le Huu Thanh ordered a record of what had been done carved in stone. This stele survives, although the pavilion itself has disappeared.

Later, the lake was lost on paper as well. When administrative boundaries changed, the Temple of Literature complex was transferred to Hanoi, but Van Lake was not included in the documents. A newly laid street separated the water from the temple courtyards. The shores began to be taken over for houses, pigsties, and chicken coops, while duckweed was cultivated on the water.

In the summer of nineteen thirty-nine, thirty-two Confucian scholars from Hanoi signed a petition to the city mayor. They sought to have the lake returned to the Temple of Literature. They enclosed a group photograph of Van Lake, a photograph of the old stele, a copy of its text in Chinese characters, and two translations—into modern Vietnamese script and into French. The scholars demonstrated the arrangement of the place to officials by the same means through which they had once passed examinations: text, interpretation, and precise evidence.

On May thirtieth, nineteen forty, the city council granted the petition and transferred the lake to the council that managed the Temple of Literature. Two years later, Hoang Xuan Trung, a retired governor and graduate of the old examination system, composed a new inscription for the islet. The stele was called “The Return of the Lake of Literature.”

Then this stone disappeared as well. It was found on February twelfth, nineteen ninety-eight, when workers were deepening Van Lake again. Both stelae now stand on Kim Chau Islet. Phuong Dinh Pavilion above them was completed in two thousand twenty-two: it is a reconstructed structure, not Pham Cong Tru’s pavilion and not the building paid for by Dang Ta. The old reading rooms have disappeared; their purpose has returned to the shore in the form of shelves from which a book can once again be taken and read beside the water.