Thai Hoc Courtyard

In the lower hall of Thai Hoc Courtyard sits a bronze statue of Chu Van An. Together with its chair, the statue weighs about three tons. In the fourteenth century, this man headed the Imperial Academy, the state academy that occupied this site. He was responsible for educating future officials and personally prepared the emperor's sons for the throne.

One of his students was Prince Tran Hao. He later ascended the throne under the name Tran Du Tong. A chronicle recounts that the emperor gave himself over to pleasures, neglected state affairs, and the courtiers he favored began breaking the laws. Chu Van An first tried to reason with his former student. The emperor did not listen.

The head of the academy then drew up the Petition for the Beheading of Seven. He demanded the execution of seven influential courtiers who enjoyed the emperor's favor. Chu Van An went far beyond the bounds of his office: educating heirs did not give him the right to decide the fate of people at court, while officially admonishing the monarch was the duty of special censor officials. He put his position and stipend at stake for a demand directed against the favorites of his own former student.

The text of the petition has been lost. The names of the seven and the accusations brought against them are unknown, so no specific list can be attributed to Chu Van An. One central fact is reliably known: the emperor left the petition unanswered. No order for executions followed.

Chu Van An did not wait for the next decision. He took off his official's cap, left the academy, and departed the capital for the Chi Linh Mountains. There he opened a school again, grew medicinal plants, and treated local residents. He never accepted court service again.

When a new emperor, Tran Nghe Tong, ascended the throne, he tried to bring the famous teacher back. Chu Van An, already nearing eighty, came with a staff to congratulate the new sovereign, but declined the post and returned. He died that same year. Tran Nghe Tong ordered that he be placed among the revered sages of the Temple of Literature—an honor previously bestowed primarily on Confucius and his disciples.

Thai Hoc was the name the academy received later, in the fifteenth century. The medieval teaching buildings are no longer here: the present ensemble was completed in two thousand on the land of the former Imperial Academy. Exhibitions, scholarly meetings, and commemorative ceremonies take place in the front hall. The bronze statue of Chu Van An was installed in the rear building in two thousand three. Not a single sheet of his petition or one of the seven names remains; on the site of the school, they preserved the name of the teacher whom his former student never listened to.